Meeting with a God and Two Goddesses

[Ambiguous Mystic]

I believe this might by the best forum for this. I was torn between meditation and here. Anyway...

I've been meditating for a while now. I have some extreme emotional/anxiety issues and despise medication so this has been a really good way for me to center myself. I've never really meditated with a "purpose" so to day until in the recent months when I've been very seriously exploring Paganism as a whole. Yesterday, I laid down(as I've found is the best when I meditate even though it leads to the inevitable sleepy-times)and started to drift off. I found myself in a forest, which again isn't so un-common, but today something else was with me.

I heard rustling around me and kept seeing flashes of an elephant head. This confused me for a moment until suddenly a man appeared before me....with an elephant head. I was overjoyed, however, to see him. He was laughing at me and smiling. I've never quite experienced anything like this before. I also remember at some point dancing with him and hugging him once. There was a LOT of dancing though.

After a moment of staring at him, I turned to my left to see a woman step out of the trees. She was tall, at least taller than me, with honey wheat colored hair and semi-pale skin. I couldn't really identify what color her eyes were. My instant thought was "Artemis" as she's the goddess that I've been hesitantly working with in my journey. As soon as I thought that, she laughed at me and hugged me like we were old friends who hadn't seen each other in a long time. I'm not sure if she really was Artemis, or if she was merely letting me believe that's who she was for the time.

The Goddess and I sat under a tree, close together when I looked into the darkened area of the forest. I was surprised to see another woman. She was older, probably around her forties or fifties with dark brown, almost black hair and she was wearing a black dress. It was an older, I suppose "Medieval" dress of sorts. Plain without any frills or anything of the sort. I believe it may have been long sleeve too if memory serves. I stood to greet her and she smiled at me. Once I was close to her, she took my hand. I remember asking her who she was and all I heard was "The Crone".


What I've gathered from my research: The man could be no other than Ganesh. I think this is interesting considering I didn't know anything of the Hindu pantheon beyond that of Shiva(which, admittedly, comes from my hours of playing "Final Fantasy" and looking up the commonly used names of the summons :x). As soon as I read up on him, everything became more real.

The first Goddess still has me a bit confused. I still believe that she was Artemis, but there's a chance she might have been Athena as well. Identifying her as either doesn't really feel "wrong" if that makes any sense at all. I just remembered her laughter and how utterly overjoyed I was to see her.

The second Goddess, like Ganesh, is a surprise to me. It seems kind of obvious she may have been Hekate, just from her identifying herself as "The Crone". However, again like Ganesh, I never really read up much on Hekate. At least, not to my knowledge. My study into Paganism has kind of shied away from "Wicca" as a whole for no particular reason other than my own insecurities about fitting in and "doing it right" if that makes any sense. So mentions of Hekate were kind of skimmed over. I have recently read about Cerridwen, which I understand can be considered close if not the same as Hekate(please correct me if I'm wrong) and identifying her, like with Artemis/Athena, as either doesn't feel wrong.

I guess really my question is, am I on the right track with the Goddesses? I'm completely alone in this, as I do not personally know anyone I can talk to about my exploration of Paganism. If anyone has had dealings with Athena or Artemis, does the first Goddess sound familiar to how either have appeared to anyone else? And what about Hekate/Cerridwen. I think I'm still in kind of awe that one, let alone three deities appeared to me. Speaking of, is it strange at all to have three completely different deities appear to you in such a manner, especially of Pantheons you don't even have a base knowledge of? I'm honored, either way, I'm just wanting to see if anyone else has experienced anything that resembles this meeting....

Thanks ahead everyone. Still a bit embarrassed that I'm saying or doing something wrong, so if I mixed up any facts it wasn't intentionally and was based off of what I've understood in my research.

[waterbear]

While reading your post the first God that came to mind for me was also Ganesh. As for the two Goddesses Hekate could be the Crone you saw but then again each pantheon has it's own Crone Goddesses so she could have been just a combination of all. I would say instead of trying to find out which Goddess she was do research on the
Crone aspect of the Goddess and see if anything rings a bell. The only reason I'm a bit hesitant to fully say that it is Hekate is because she is also the Goddess of the crossroads and usually if she appears in meditation this is where it would happen. The middle Goddess I honestly have no idea. One thing you have to remember is that the Gods and Goddesses show themselves differently to everyone. If you believe that she was Artemis then she probably was. Artemis is the goddess of the hunt and you were in a forest so that makes sense. One way to know even better is if she appears to you in moonlight. She also the Goddess of the moon as well as the hunt. Listen to your instincts they won't lead you astray. Just keep meditating and if they show up again continue talking to them and asking questions. They have let themselves be known to you for a reason. I once had an encounter similar to this though not nearly as long unfortunately. I meditate in the shower. I let the water flow down till it covers my ears and all I hear is the sound of the rushing water. One night I was really distraught and just emotionally tired. When I went to meditate a woman appeared before me. She had long dark hair, a blue line across her eyes, a feather in her hair, her skin is still a mystery to me simply because I feel it was both dark and pale at the same time. She smiled at me then touched my cheek. I came out of the meditation quite suddenly because I felt a shift of energy within myself. You see I had felt this block of energy in what I now know was my sacral chakra. When she touched me I felt a piece of that block lift and start to flow correctly.

I hope that some of this helped and it wasn't just rambling I am quite new to this as well. I have only been a studying for about two years and I am still discovering new things along this amazing path everyday. I identify as Pagan as well so I understand what you mean when you said you don't want to deal with the pressure of making sure all is right. Keep up the meditation and try to learn more from your God and Goddesses.