When I mention "Minoan," most people think of the famous Snake Goddess figurines. And many people think those figurines represent "the Minoan goddess," as if there were only one of them. But there are many Minoan goddesses, not just one.

In fact, there's a whole pantheon. Like everyone else in the Bronze Age Mediterranean, the Minoans were polytheists.

But Sir Arthur Evans, who completed most of the early excavations of Knossos and brought the Minoans onto the world stage in the early 20th century, wanted them to be monotheists. He had discovered an ancient "high civilization" and he was just certain it had all the hallmarks of his own beloved British Empire: military, monarch, monotheism.

It turns out, he was wrong on all three counts, though he went to his grave insisting otherwise. Despite the fact that the majority of archaeologists have long since discarded Evans' misguided ideas about Minoan culture, his outdated theories continue to circulate online. Which means that we get people showing up in our discussion group looking for a monotheistic goddess tradition.

How many Minoan goddesses are there? A lot, though some of them may be twins, faces, or reflections of each other.

I encourage you to explore our family of deities, which is headed by a trio of mother goddesses and contains both gods and goddesses as well as deities who don't fit well into a gender binary.

Together we are joy!