A Goddess Appears

I have had this statue for yonks, and had been meaning to give it a lick of paint for some time now. You might think it strange that I have a statue of the Virgin Mary, but in my opinion, this portrayal is based on Roman goddess statues, and the Virgin Mary was given many attributes of Isis, who was worshipped across the Roman Empire, including Britain. The title "Queen of Heaven" was given to many celestial goddesses, and to me this represents the great Cosmic Mother who births all of creation. Lucius Apuleius adressed the Queen of Heaven by many names, recognising her presence among all cultures. He describes how she appeared to him in a vision:

"Then by little and little I seemed to see the whole figure of her body, mounting out of the sea and standing before mee, wherefore I purpose to describe her divine semblance, if the poverty of my humane speech will suffer me, or her divine power give me eloquence thereto. First shee had a great abundance of haire, dispersed and scattered about her neck, on the crowne of her head she bare many garlands enterlaced with floures, in the middle of her forehead was a compasse in fashion of a glasse, or resembling the light of the Moone, in one of her hands she bare serpents, in the other, blades of corne, her vestiment was of fine silke yeelding divers colours, sometime yellow, sometime rosie, sometime flamy, and sometime (which troubled my spirit sore) darke and obscure, covered with a blacke robe in manner of a shield, and pleated in most subtill fashion at the skirts of her garments, the welts appeared comely, whereas here and there the starres glimpsed, and in the middle of them was placed the Moone, which shone like a flame of fire, round about the robe was a coronet or garland made with flowers and fruits. In her right hand shee had a timbrell of brasse, which gave a pleasant sound, in her left hand shee bare a cup of gold, out of the mouth whereof the serpent Aspis lifted up his head, with a swelling throat, her odoriferous feete were covered with shoes interlaced and wrought with victorious palme." The Metamorphoses of Apulius, Book 11: Chapter 47.

A goddess who wears a golden-rosy-flame coloured dress and a dark robe covered in stars. Our Lady, Star of the Sea, the Star Goddess. The Egyptians depicted Lady Sky as a star-covered nude woman arching over the earth, called Nut, Neuth, or Nuit. She is the inifinite one, called Mistress of All and She Who Holds a Thousand Souls. She is the unmeasurable cosmos within which all life is recycled and reborn. Aleister Crowley gave her the words: "I give unimaginable joys on earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice." She is the one to whom we are ecstatically united when we realise the essential oneness of all that exists.

Here is how my statue is looking now that I have painted her, according to Apulius's description of the goddess. Her cloak is a very dark blue, covered in tiny golden stars. I might make her skin a bit darker, and her hair a bit lighter. I'm not sure what finishing touches I might add, so let me know what you think!