I love the Gods. It doesn’t matter the pantheon, I love all of them. As a witch, I also revere them all. Of course, I have my favorites but I find them all worthy of awe. I first found Greek/Roman and Egyptian gods in school. When learning about world history we had a whole section of those gods and I knew I found home.
In my journey through life, I have learned about the Norse, Celtic, Chinese, Japanese gods, and more. Every society has had a belief in deities of some sort. My book reading leans heavily to myth, magick, and fantasy. I am thrilled when I meet gods in books. It’s fun to see how they have been reimagined. It goes without saying I have read quite a few books with deities and I have some favorites. I kept all of these with gods and goddesses from this world’s mythology though I have read books with gods that are completely of the author’s imagination and my hat is off to those writers. I would imagine dreaming up a deity is a tall order. But I digress. Let’s get into the ones I want to tell you about.
My first one is Hades and Persephone from Goddess of Spring by PC Cast. I covered it here on TGON. The book is about Lina who owns a bakery and it’s in a bit of trouble, she casts a spell meant to help her bakery. Demeter, wanting to teach her daughter to grow up and take responsibility, answers Lina’s spell. Lina must take Persephone’s place and go to the Underworld and visit Hades for six months. In that time, Persephone will make the bakery a success.
Persephone plays a small part in this book but Demeter is there as well as Hades and Apollo makes an appearance. I love Hades in this. He is cold and aloof having had bad experiences with gods and goddesses of the Greek pantheon. Beneath that coldness is a man who wants to love and be loved. The Underworld is described beautifully and I was pleasantly surprised when I read this. Demeter is stern but motherly which fits her perfectly in this role.
Next, we have the Merry Gentry series by Laurell K. Hamilton. Danu is the mother goddess in this one. I have covered this series too. Merry Gentry is the only American-born fairie princess ever. She is in hiding from her aunt, Queen Andias of the Unseelie Sidhe. Merry is dragged back to court because her aunt is infertile and that is a death sentence for the side to have a ruler that can’t reproduce, it causes the court to have the same problem. She must race her psychotic cousin Cel, the queen’s son, to become pregnant and win the crown. Queen Andias, who required the celibacy of her Raven (her guards), opened it up for Merry. She could have anyone she wanted but they could only have her. If they were caught having sex with anyone else, there would be dire consequences. Going back to court meant she would have to dodge murder attempts again.
Many of the Sidhe have been revered as gods and some of the myths support it, while others don’t but we are here for Danu. For those who don’t know, Danu is the mother aspect of the triple goddess the Morrigan. Anu is the maiden, Danu is the mother, and Badb is the crone. Having Danu being the goddess in this one fits perfectly, the Sidhe are her children after all. Danu has drawn away from the Sidhe for centuries, hoping they would reach back out to her but gave Merry her favor, much to the dismay of both the Unseelie and Seelie courts. There is no concrete description of Danu in this. She continuously changes looks because she is every mother and three goddesses all at once. She is kind though. I love this depiction of her.
On to the Circle Trilogy by Nora Roberts. Nora writes magick well. So well in fact, that I wonder if she is a witch herself. This is yet another set of books I have/am currently reviewing. In this, six people must work together to defeat a vampire queen that has lived for eons. The goddess Morrigan starts Hoyt, one of the six, on his quest to find the others and bring them together. There will be a wizard, a witch, a vampire, one of many forms, a warrior, and a scholar.
As I said earlier, the Morrigan is a triple goddess. However, in some mysterious way, I am not a goddess by any stretch of the imagination so I don’t know how that magick works, all three together make up a singular goddess, also known as the Morrigan or the Morrigu. Morrigan is a warrior goddess who is fantastic at warfare and decides fate. Very fitting for this book. Morrigan is demanding but comforting at the same time. Because Hoyt was having a hard time leaving his family because they would be vulnerable to the queen, she made Celtic crosses for his family to wear as protection from the vampires to ease his mind. Plus she continues to guide. She doesn’t just give Hoyt the quest and say good luck.
Next, we are on to another by PC Cast, the House of Night series Ms. Cast wrote this series with her daughter Kristen. I didn’t read the series House of Night as a young adult, which is who it was meant for, but it was still a wonderful series. Unfortunately, I haven’t covered it here on TGON. It has one of the saddest funeral scenes in it but it was equally beautiful. I was devastated when Jack died and my husband was laughing at me for crying over a fictional character from a book. He has since stopped doing that since I have no problem crying over books. In any case, the characters in this are vampires. They live in a world where humans are marked by Nyx as her special children. The books follow high school student Zoey Redbird and her navigating the new to her, world of vampires. Now she must learn all she can about being a vampire and figure out the mystery of the red vampires as the opposite of her being a blue vampire. The color of their skin doesn’t change, it’s their markings that appear.
If you don’t know who Nyx is, she is a Greek goddess, the personification of night itself. In this series, she is cast as a loving mother to her children of the night. She isn’t so involved in the story in the way that others on this list are, but I like the way she is portrayed. She is the ultimate mother even being as hands-off as she is. She still provides guidance. In the novella Kalona’s Fall she is a more involved person in that story.
Finally, we have American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I covered this book and show for TGON. I can honestly say I liked the show better than the book. The story follows Shadow Moon. He just got out of prison after finding out that his wife Laura, died and met Mr. Wednesday on his way back home to bury his wife. Mr. Wednesday wants to hire him to be his “man.” Not his boyfriend, get your mind out of the gutter, but his driver, partner in crime, and whatever else he needs.
Mr. Wednesday is Odin and he takes Shadow along to speak to the other gods to bring them to his side to fight against the New Gods. We meet a bunch of them. It is explained they are not the original Old Gods but the pieces of them that were brought to the New World by their believers. Even still, the gods are impressive. Each of them is very different in more than just looks or points of origin. All were strong and impressive as gods should be. Wednesday, the god we saw the most embodied what I can picture Odin being in today’s world. He was gritty, mischievous, and wandered everywhere across the country. We got to meet Eostre and Kali, Chernobog and Loki, and more. I think my favorite god was Mr. Ibis, who is Thoth, though.
As you can see, even though the Greeks and Egyptians started my love affair with the gods, I have expanded who I know about and who captures my heart. If you want to learn more about some of the gods and goddesses in mythology, check out both of my series The Gods of Smite and The Heroes of Smite. As I said, I have read a lot of books with deities in them but these are my favorites. I hope the links help you to see if you want to read the books I mentioned in this article.
Do you have a favorite goddess or god? Do you have a favorite pantheon? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time, have fun storming the castle, and blessed be!
