(continued from The Power of Two Part 1)
During the Neolithic and Copper Age, many two-headed figures or “mother-daughter” figures were created. These figures may represent the Bird Goddess in her major and minor aspects, or a mother-daughter pair, or two sisters. In such figures the power of two may intensify the essence of the goddess.
Summer/winter (cycle of nature) duality is evident in an ancient shrine (c. 4000-3600 B.C.) discovered in northeastern Romania in 1970, near the village of Ghelaesti. The arrangement of figures and vases may have been instrumental in seasonal fertility rites. The figures had parallel line patterns over the bodies. Vases were decorated with snake spirals symbolic of double fruits/seeds. Other vases were painted with snakes flanked by egg and seed symbols. The vases are all decorated with the power of two theme of repetition to invoke and express fertility. The concept of summer/winter duality is also represented by the cardinal placement of the figures within the shrine.
Figure from shrine at Nedeia with black painted head and feet, the body is decorated with chevrons and parallel lines, NE Romania (Gimbutas, 1989)
Ceramic paintings of double eggs crossed or joined by a snake, symbol of becoming, painted black on red, W. Ukraine; c. 3500 B.C. (Gimbutas, 1989)
The power of two in the above examples also meant multiplication, growing, and flourishing. Two lines, two images, two figures; all represented intensification, increase, and abundance.
Gimbutas, Marija, The Language of The Goddess, Harper & Row, San Francisco, 1989