Woman authorized to perform the sacred rites.
Woman regarded as a leader.
A female leader who resists oppression.
The wyrd, having the power to control fate. "weird Sisters" Norse.
Seeress.
Staff Woman.
One who sits out on the land.
Preordains by decree of fate.
Female Fates or Fay. Connected to the Spirits of the Mound, Celtic, Chaelich
Ability to amplify or empower.
Supernatural or portentous, weird and wonderful.
Helps process things to come to pass.
Beyond law.
Political rebel.
To defy logic, seeing beyond what is viewed or considered "normal."
A woman who worships the earth and the stars and cries to the water.
A female who seeks the ancestors help.
"Women Who Go by Night with the Goddess"
Wyrd, weaver of destiny, "mystery-singers," ancestor veneration, herb-chanters -- and sexual politics/
âwitchâ signify wise-woman, prophetess, diviner, healer, and dreamer.
Scandinavian völur ("staff-women") held oracular ceremonies with incantations, and "sitting-out" on the land for wisdom.
Goddess veneration and female spiritual leadership.
Swa wiccan taeca∂° ::: "as the witches teach" ... So an Old English scribe let us know that witches counseled the people to "bring their offerings to earth-fast stone, and also to trees and to wellsprings."
Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a 4,400-year-old tomb near Cairo that contains rare wall paintings and is believed to belong to a high-ranking Egyptian priestess.
The tattered remains of an ancient priestess in a 2,500-year-old Egyptian coffin that was long thought to be empty.
Spanish: sacerdotisa - feminine
Modern definitions:
A Priestess is a beautiful woman.
A Priestess is a female, beautiful, but true priestesses are kind, true and clever and honest to the bone.
Priestesses are often tall, mature and wise.
Priestesses are brave and go to places men fear to tread, often safe places that are natural or modestly beautiful.
The history of priestesses is full of stories about women defying artificial limits and hierarchies.
Sacramental dance, drumming, and other ways of entering altered states of consciousness often play an important role in these rites that bypass and subvert socially decreed hierarchies.
In Europe, women were known to be healers, fairy doctors and seers.
The wu (female shamans) in southern China.
Spanish colonizers were stunned to see that "old women" led most ceremonies in the Philippines.
Priestesses, diviners and medicine women stand out as leaders of aboriginal liberation movements against conquest, empire, and cultural colonization.
Spiritual spheres of power have been a crucial staging area for women’s political leadership and for challenging systems of domination on many levels, including the battleground of culture.
Priestesses in History throughout the world:
Veleda of the Bructerii (Netherlands)
Dahia al-Kahina (Tunisia)
the Kumari of Taleju (Nepal)
Jeanne d'Arc (France)
Tang Saier (China)
Juana Icha (Peru)
Kimba Vita (Congo)
Maria Candelaria (Chiapas)
Queen Nanny of the Maroons (Jamaica)
Cécile Fatiman (Haiti)
Antonia Luzia (Brazil)
Toypurina (Tongva Nation, California)
the Prophetess of Chupu (Chumash Nation)
Wanankhucha (Somalia)
Lozen (Apache Nation)
Teresa de Cabora (Mayo, Sonora)
Nehanda Nyakasikana (Zimbabwe)
Muhumusa (Uganda)
Nomtetha Nkwenkwe (!Xhosa, South Africa)
Alinesitoué Diatta (Senegal)
Teresa Urrea, la Santa de Cabora (political organizer) - "the most dangerous girl in Mexico."