Earth, Sky, Women, and Immortality

From pre-historic bird goddesses through the winged goddesses of the ancient world, the changing form of such female divinities is explored through the human understanding of and relationship with birds, the longing for magical flight, and the worship of the sky. Later religious ideas developed out of these early beliefs into human ascensions, assumptions and the longing for apotheosis—the transformation of a human into a divinity. Many beliefs about aerial women were formulated in dreams of flying, or dreams of being visited by succubi—women who had sex with men while they slept.