Parvati

Parvati is the Goddess of love, devotion, and fertility, sister of the Ganges River, daughter of the king of mountain snow and granddaughter of Mount Meru itself. In her hands she carries the growing things of the earth, the crown, the bell, and no armament more fearsome than a mere elephant-goad. Hers is the strength of the ox pulling the plow and the peace in the cow’s eye. Her dedication and compassion know no bounds, permitting her to stand up to Lord Shiva the Destroyer’s extremes of temper or self-denial.

Kalidasa’s celebrated epic Kumarasambhavam chronicles Parvati’s courtship of Shiva. After his first wife, Queen Sati, burned herself, a grieving Shiva retired to the mountain to lose himself in austerities, unwilling to entertain Sati’s reincarnation Parvati’s advances. The God of Love shot Shiva with his arrow, even though he knew Shiva’s third eye would immolate him in response. Then, Parvati undertook punishing austerities herself, her boundless devotion winning Shiva over. Their marriage founded Lord Ganesha and Karttikeya, ensuring the Devá’s military primacy over any asura threat.

Find Parvati’s avatar high in the mountains of India, New Mexico, or Switzerland. Hail her as queen of growing things and food. Seek refuge in her motherhood from war, starvation, extremism, and strife. Thank her for her and her Scions’ immeasurable, oft-uncompensated emotional labor. She exhorts her Scions to form the band’s emotional center, promoting mercy and temperance even as the Scion of Hachiman says to shoot first and ask questions never, or the Scion of Dionysus insists there’s nothing wrong with doing Jell-O shots at 11 in the morning. Their love counterbalances the extreme with the moderate rather than the opposite, forming the radical center, nourishing body and heart in equal measure.