What's in a Name?

People often ask why I named my Shoppe Pandora's Box...

...suggesting that perhaps, it's somewhat negative to choose a name like that, based on what they know. And I'm actually glad when they do ask me, because it gives me the opportunity to share some not so well known information and facts concerning Pandora.

The Goddess Pandora in quite ancient; in fact, She predates the very popular and well-known Hesiodic myths. But, unfortunately, very few people are aware of this. Most only know of the humiliating interpretation of Hesiod's, in which She is depicted as the first human female, created and brought to Earth by Zeus.

After She arrives, She is blamed for releasing all the woes and evils of humanity into the world. As Hesiod's story became more well-known, it influenced Jewish and Christian theologians, continuing on into the Renaissance and then later bleeding into the works of poets, artists, and dramatists. All of this helped to spread inaccurate myths about Her.

In Her earliest forms, Pandora is much like the Goddess Gaia. Both Gaia and Pandora are Earth Goddesses. Pandora's name means "all giving," signifying that She is the giver of all things in life. There is artistic evidence that shows her being a mother Goddess who is the Earth itself, and bestower of all things.

Some historians believe that the eventual domination of the Hesiod myth provides evidence of the original shift in Greek society from a matriarchal culture to a patriarchal one. By transforming Pandora from the beloved Mother Earth Goddess that She originally was, into the naive human female who was blamed for the woes of man, displays a clear and unfortunate change in the way the world was beginning to view the Divine Feminine.

When I learned of this truth, I was instantly struck by Her story and Her warm and powerful energy. Pandora became one of the first Goddesses that spoke to me internally, and on a profoundly deep level. So, when I decided to open my Shoppe, the name for it came to me immediately ~ Pandora's Box! After all, its a place of hope, and portal to all things Magical, where the Olde mysteries of the Goddess are taught and honored 🌛💜🌜