Mother V

140 x 220 cm

Acrylic and Charcoal on Canvas

A Tale of The Two Headed Goddess and a Broken-Hearted Man

Once upon a time there lived a two headed Goddess with no name. They lived inside a sleeping volcano with a serpent and a one-eyed hound as company. Both heads were blind deaf and mute with long tangled locks that encompassed the night sky and rooted down to the earths core. One head knew when death would come while the other of Life’s pre-destined arrival. When they kissed they foresaw all the past present and future joy and tragedies of mankind.

One day a broken-hearted man journeyed up the mountain. With a ladder fashioned out of fishbones he spent years climbing. He reached the very top and using a sharp blade severed the head of Deaths best friend while the Goddess lay asleep.

The Goddess with one severed head awoke furious. She slayed the man and fed his body to her beast. Cursing the fate of humanity to an eternal state of content, she created a shrine (on it his severed head, eyes open facing the sun). The sun stopped setting and hearts were never broken. Death grew lonely and bitter and walked the earth a shadow disguised as life.

Centuries passed and decades of un-feeling sorrow flooded the earth. Life, refusing to end decided to take a final stand.

‘Dear Goddess, I will trade you my life-giving powers for your cursed head of Man’

The Goddess agreed, closed the eyes of Man and gave him to Life. With her new powers, she created souls. Each soul possessed traces of her long-lost severed head. Birthing creatures big and small that are imprinted with memories of old prophecies and stories of life and death

– Naomi Samara

2021