As I worked on my earlier post about American spirituality, I found myself growing insatiably curious to look up details about our goddess-figure, Lady Liberty, as rendered in the Statue of Liberty (or more correctly, "Liberty Enlightens the World" as the statue is actually titled). So read on, if you're in the mood for geeky quasi-scholarly ramblings about our *real* first lady. (Similar stuff about her consort, Uncle Sam, hopefully soon to come...)

Description and history

"Liberty Enlightens the World" was given to the US as a gift from France in honor of the centennial of the Declaration of Independence; however it was not finished and dedicated until October 28, 1886-- ten years late! (That makes our Lady Liberty a Scorpio...hmmm...what a star chart THAT would be to compute!) Part of the delay was that the US and France had agreed that the US would build the pedestal for the statue and the French would build the statue itself, and both sides ran into difficulties raising funds for the projects. Interestingly, it was largely arts performances and lotteries that raised most of the money. In America, Joseph Pulitzer (yes, of the Prize) used his editorial pages to berate and shame the American people into contributing to the project. A considerable amount of money was raised among African Americans, who liked the idea of a symbol of freedom from slavery.

The National Park Service's Statue of Liberty site gives many details of the statue's history, measurements, etc.

The statue was built by French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi (later named a Master Mason) with the interior iron pylon and skeletal framework was built by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, of Eiffel Tower fame. It was erected on Liberty Island (then Bedloe Island) in the New York Harbor on the site of an existing star-shaped fort, Fort Wood, built as an 11-point star. Its exterior is shaped from 31 tons of copper.

The statue depicts a woman in robes and a diadem with seven rays and 25 "gems" (windows), standing on chains, holding aloft a lit torch in her right hand while in her left arm she cradles a tablet upon which July 4, 1776 is inscribed in Roman numerals-- not, as some people think, the famous lines from the 1883 Emma Lazarus sonnet, which actually appear on a plaque inside the pedestal as a memorial to Lazarus' contributions to the completion of the pedestal. The sonnet, titled "The New Colossus", reads:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame,
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"


Symbols of the Goddess

Lady Liberty's great icon features a number of symbols that have an intriguing resonance with esoteric and goddess symbology. First, her exterior is entirely copper. Copper is, besides being a powerful conductor of both electrical and esoteric energy, a metal precious to a number of goddesses-- for example Venus/Aphrodite, who is not only a love goddess but also a sea-goddess (hold that thought). Over time she has therefore turned green-- green being associated not only with life and fertility, but compassionate love and the heart chakra, and a color often sacred to love, sea, and mother goddesses. (Of course, she first would have darkened to black-- an interesting parallel to the Black Madonna!)

There are seven rays on her crown, said to represent the seven seas and seven continents. Besides the appropriateness of a national goddess whose thoughts extend to the entire world (and by the way, how appropriate is it that our goddess statue is herself an immigrant??), seven in numerology is a sacred number, the number of the mystic and the scientist alike, a number of philosophy and higher thought. The crown also marks her as a celestial queen, a radiant one, enlightened and pure of spirit.

The chains at her feet symbolize the broken chains of oppression overcome, of tyranny defeated, but they also call to mind depictions of Madonnas or goddesses standing on serpents, indicating alternately the defeat of evil or the mastery of serpentine wisdom and kundalini energy.

The twenty-five windows in her crown are supposed to represent either the 25 gemstones found in earth (I haven't yet located a source to describe what those gemstones are) or the emanation of heavenly rays of light. 25 in numerology resonates as another 7 and specifically it denotes someone of refined intuition and active mind, someone who is a spiritual crusader. The first definition of the symbol seems to indicate an earth mother, a queen who rules over the material realm; the second one indicates a woman of wisdom and philosophy whose enlightened ideas shine forth from her generous mind to all who would learn from them.

The tablet and torch both indicate wisdom, learning, and enlightenment. I find that they also curiously evoke the archetype of The Hermit in the tarot deck-- the sage who holds aloft the light of knowledge. The Hermit, contrary to the popular connotation of someone who chooses to live in misanthropic isolation, is a figure representing mastery and leadership, one who has traveled far to plumb the mysteries of the world and now lights the way for others to follow. (Apparently, the torch is also a popular Illuminati symbol, which given some of the esoteric history of the country, seems pretty appropriate as well.)

The eleven-pointed star is formed by the combination of the pentagram and the hexagram and is a Crowleyan/Quabalistic/Hermetic/Thelemic symbol of the highest goal of magic, the Great Work complete. It is the sign of the macrocosm or god-energy (hexagram) united with the microcosm or self-energy(pentagram). I also read a brief mention of an 11-rayed star as a Templar glyph, which would be intriguing considering the historical links between the Templars and masonry, but I have not been able to find anything further about it.

Speaking of the masons, apparently as the masons who constructed the pedestal were completing it, they gathered around to throw a shower of silver coins into the structure. I'm not sure what that gesture means from a masonic viewpoint, but it seems significant. If nothing else, the silver coins seem to pay tribute to the lunar/celestial aspects of our lady.

Additionally, the idea of Lady Liberty being elevated upon a star suggests further a celestial, star goddess (hold that thought too). Simply viewing the aerial photographs, the image also calls to mind Venus lifted from the waters on a shell, or Lakshmi born out of the ocean upon a lotus. (Indeed, many eastern goddesses are depicted on a lotus seat.) Permanently residing upon Liberty Island, our lady also calls to mind Kwan Yin, the Chinese goddess of compassion, dwelling in her island paradise of P'u T'o Shan-- exceptionally appropriate for the "Mother of Exiles" who calls all the poor and persecuted to her bountiful shelter.

That she is located in a harbor makes her something of a sea-goddess, protectress over sailors, and kin to any number of goddesses whose attributes linked them both to the sea and to the stars.


A Divine Lineage

Where did the inspiration for "Liberty Enlightens the World" come from?

Lady Liberty has a close relation-- a mother, or older sister perhaps-- in the French icon known as "Marianne". Bartholdi's inspiration came from this beloved figure; he and his patrons intended Liberty as a bit of propaganda advocating the overthrow of oppressive monarchies, rather than as a symbol of welcome for refugees and exiles. In any case, a study of Marianne and her origins reveals Lady Liberty's nearly-unbroken spiritual heritage, showing her to be a modern daughter of ancient goddesses.

Marianne evolved as a popular symbol amongst French revolutionaries, immortalized in art and legend. She is usually depicted in two distinct guises: as the grain mother, wise and serious, with sacks of food or nursing children; or as the warrior maiden, distinctly Athena-like, bare-breasted, spear-wielding, and either wearing or hoisting on her spear the Phrygian cap. (The Phrygian cap was worn in Roman Empire times by slaves who had been freed by their masters; it was adopted by both American and French revolutionaries as a symbol of liberty from oppression. Is anyone else weirded out by the fact that Smurfs wear Phrygian caps...?) Since the French Revolution, she has come to be regarded as one of the chief symbols of France, although she was not officially recognized as such. (However, a new logo for the Republic of France shows a white silhouette bust of Marianne flanked by blue and red fields.)

Marianne's actual origins, and the choice of her name, are a subject of great debate and many apocryphal stories. It seems likely that her image grew from a combination of an older image of Democracy depicted as female, combined with a legend amongst French revolutionary soldiers of a pretty young woman from the countryside called Marianne who would appear to care for wounded and dying soldiers and who served as an inspirational symbol to rally the rebels. "Marianne" was also apparently the name of a secret society functioning at the time of the revolution.

As for her name, despite the debates, in recent times French historians have discovered the earliest recorded mention of the name Marianne in connection with this figure: A 1792 article mentions the popularity amongst the common people of a Provencal song by poet Guillaume Lavabre, "La garisou de Marianno" or "Marianne's recovery".

It is on this discovery that I postulate a connection to France's spiritual history and to much earlier goddess figures. The song originates in Provence, an area of France that remains to this day deeply devoted to Marian images-- not only Virgin Mary madonnas, but also St. Marie-Madeleine iconography. It is also a region soaked in the history of Cathar gnosticism and, in many places, still bearing the ancient stamps of foreign deities brought to its soil during the Roman Empire.

Much of southern France's infatuation with the Marys dates to a legend that gained strength around the 4th century CE and inextricably encompasses associations with celestial and sea goddesses. In the Camargue region, at the mouth of the Rhone, is a small area which was held sacred to a Celtic tripartite goddess and later adopted the worship of Mithras and Ra (incidentally, Mithras is also sometimes depicted wearing the Phrygian cap). During the Roman empire it was known as Oppidum Ra and had a fair amount of contact with the outside world. A spring was located here, which had been held sacred to the Celtic goddesses but had been rededicated and called Oppidum Priscum Ra. Additionally, it seems that there was some interest in the goddess Astarte or possibly Asherat, to whom they conducted rituals including carrying the goddess's statue down to the shore and into the water. (If it was the former, it would make sense as she was a warrior/love goddess who was associated with the bull, since this area is known for its breed of black bulls; if it is the latter, it would make sense as she was more distinctly a sea goddess. I've read some resources that say the two were closely associated with each other, but I'm not certain enough of it to go out on that limb.) Because of their exposure to other cultures, they may also have been aware of the Canaan mother/sea goddess Mari-Anna.

As the legend goes, during a festival of Astarte/Asherat in about 40 CE, as the faithful carried the statue of the goddess into the waves, a boat was spotted drifting towards shore. In it was Mary Jacobe, Mary Salome, Mary Magdalen, Martha and Lazarus of Bethany, Joseph of Arimathea, the blind Sidonius, Maximus, and possibly a servant girl named Sara (or some combination of these-- but always the three Marys!), fleeing persecution in the Holy Land. In some versions the party has traveled to France after some time spent in Egypt; in others, they have come from the Holy Land in a boat without oars or sail, set afloat by Roman soldiers. Some versions of the story depict Sara as a member of a wealthy family in the Rhone area rather than a refugee, who miraculously uses her cloak as a raft to float out across the water and rescue the Marys' boat. (Regardless of her origins, Sara is now regarded in the area as a de facto saint and the patron of gypsies; venerated as Sara-la-Kali or "Sara the Black", her festival each year involves the gypsies carrying her statue down to the shore and into the waves. Hmmm...)

The three Marys seem to be seen as something like the incarnation of goddesses; they and their companions begin evangelizing, and it is commonly accepted that they baptized Sara in the sacred fountain which thenceforth became holy to Sara and the Marys. The town was eventually named Les-Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, and its iconography includes statues of the Marys in the famous boat. The whole area became a veritable hotbed of Magdalen cults, particularly with the rise of Catharism; even after the Roman Catholic pope ordered the genocide of the "heretics" in the Albigensian Crusade, Magdalen worship simply went underground or melded into worship of the Virgin Mother Mary, and was never truly extinguished.

(As an interesting aside, the Phoenician god Baal to whom Astarte was consort was a sea-god depicted with bull horns, linking him to the "Quinotaur" said to have fathered the French Merovingian line, the kings of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail, Holy Shit!" fame; likewise various sea-goddesses were described as fish-women [mermaids?] who "gave birth to gods", including Mari-Anna, an association later applied to Mary Magdalen.)

So here is a region of France in which there is a generalized goddess idea known-- whether as virgin mother or sacred bride-- as Marie, with distinct associations to water and to the heavens (the Virgin Mary is sometimes called "Stella Maris" or "Star of the Sea" as is Isis, Astarte, Venus, Mari-Anna, and other goddesses). Because of the history of the Languedoc/Provence area, the brutal suppression of its "heretical" beliefs, and the persistence of its people's faith in Mary the Magdalen, the image of Marie also takes on associations of rebellion and defiance and adds to the idea of her as a woman freed from oppression (having fled the Romans to start anew in France). Is it then surprising that the collective ideal of a young woman rallying the revolutionaries and mysteriously appearing to treat and heal wounded soldiers should come to be called Marianne, for Marie or Mari-Anna?

(Another side note: Considering Mary Magdalen's companions, it seems quite appropriate that Lady Liberty's famous poem was written by Emma *Lazarus*...)

And so there is a heritage we can theoretically trace back, from Lady Liberty to Marianne to Mary Magdalen or "the Marys", to Mari-Anna and Astarte and Asherat, and less directly but through association Isis, Aphrodite, Hathor, and others. We, too, have our "Stella Maris", our compassionate, proud, and rebellious mother goddess of sea and star, of freedom and wisdom.


In Conclusion

Did Bartholdi have any of this in mind when he designed our Lady Liberty? I think it's pretty unlikely; he probably just modeled something aesthetically appealing based on ideas inspired by Marianne. It verges on tinfoil-hatville to suggest that all the symbolic meaning that can be derived from a study of our statue was deliberate. However, it is my experience that when artists create, frequently there are higher forces at work guiding their hands, imbuing their works with layers of meaning that the artists never realized they were adding, and incurring synchronicity that just happens to guide the works in a more meaningful direction.

In this case, perhaps our own "Maria" wanted to make her face known to us, to reassure us that there is a benevolent mother watching over us and protecting us.

In his dedication speech at the unveiling of the statue, then-President Grover Cleveland said, "We will not forget that Liberty has made here her home, nor shall her chosen altar be neglected."

Hear, hear!