RCG-I Seasonal Salon Fall Equinox 2007

Lesser-Known Goddesses and Heroines: Sélu

The Cherokee vegetation goddess Sélu lived alone, an old woman full of wisdom but set in her ways. One day, as she walked along a familiar path, she saw blood on the ground. She covered it with a jar. Then, a few days later, she picked up the jar and found an infant boy, whom she raised to be a hunter, teaching him what animals to seek and how to kill them. But Sélu taught him nothing of plants, for she provided all the maize and beans they could eat. And she gave him one caution: that he should never pass a certain blue mountain, visible from her home.

As he grew, the boy became curious. One day, peering into Sélu’s window, he saw her disrobe and scratch herself over a pot. As she did so, cornmeal and beans ran down her legs and into the pot, for she herself was food and she was creating meal for her child.

When he entered and refused his dinner, Sélu knew instantly that he had spied upon her. She sent him away with instruc¬tions that, as he left, he should set fire to her house. Sadly, he did so, and followed her dying instructions by seeking a wife from a distant tribe. When at last he brought his bride back to Sélu’s land, he found all the food plants of the world growing, enough to feed all their descendants.

Sélu’s means "corn" in the feminine, thus she is often called "Corn Woman," but the goddess’s other names are also revelatory: Agawela ("Grandmother" or "Old Woman") and Ohoyo Osh Chishba, "Unknown Woman."

For more information, consult Awaikta, Marilou. Selu: Seeking the Corn-Mother’s Wisdom. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 1993; Mooney, James. "Myths of the Cherokees." The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 1, No. 2, Jul. - Sep., 1888, pp. 97-108.