Chaxiraxi is a

goddess A goddess is a female deity. In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism (one of the three major Hinduism, Hindu sects), holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all re ...

, known as the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

Mother, in the religion of the aboriginal

Guanche Guanche may refer to: *Guanches, the indigenous people of the Canary Islands *Guanche language, an extinct language, spoken by the Guanches until the 16th or 17th century *''Conus guanche ''Conus guanche'' is a species of sea snail, a marine ga ...

inhabitants of the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

. Chaxiraxi was one of the principal goddesses of the Guanche pantheon. She was associated with the star

Canopus Canopus is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Carina (constellation), Carina and the list of brightest stars, second-brightest star in the night sky. It is also Bayer designation, designated α Carinae, which is Rom ...

. Some scholars interpret Chaxiraxi as a symbol of maternal power, while others emphasize her connection to the moon and fertility. She has also been compared to prominent goddesses from Mediterranean and North African traditions, such as Juno. As natives of the Canary Islands are believed to have originally been pre-civilization

Berbers Berbers, or the Berber peoples, also known as Amazigh or Imazighen, are a diverse grouping of distinct ethnic groups indigenous to North Africa who predate the arrival of Arab migrations to the Maghreb, Arabs in the Maghreb. Their main connec ...

, it is conjectured that Chaxiraxi may have been adapted from the

Punic The Punic people, usually known as the Carthaginians (and sometimes as Western Phoenicians), were a Semitic people who migrated from Phoenicia to the Western Mediterranean during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' ...

-Berber goddess

Tanit Tanit or Tinnit (Punic language, Punic: 𐤕𐤍𐤕 ''Tīnnīt'' (JStor)) was a chief deity of Ancient Carthage; she derives from a local Berber deity and the consort of Baal Hammon. As Ammon is a local Libyan deity, so is Tannit, who represents ...

, and given a different name and set of attributes. She is also associated by some with the alleged appearance , 1400 or 1401 of the

Virgin of Candelaria The Virgin of Candelaria or Our Lady of Candelaria ( or ''Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria'') (), popularly called ''La Morenita'', celebrates the Virgin Mary on the island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands (Spain). The center of worship is l ...

on Güímar, on the island of

Tenerife Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...

, carrying her infant, Chijoraji. Over time, her worship was syncretized with that of the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

through the influence of

Christian missionaries A Christian mission is an organized effort to carry on evangelism, in the name of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries. Sometimes individuals are sent and ...

Etymology

The term ''Chaxiraxi'' — also found in documentation with the variants ''Chaciraxi'', ''Chijoragi'', ''Chijoraji'', and ''Chirijoraji'' — is of Guanche origin, possibly derived from a primitive

Tamazight The Berber languages, also known as the Amazigh languages or Tamazight, are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They comprise a group of closely related but mostly mutually unintelligible languages spoken by Berber communities, who ar ...

form ''ta-ahghər-ahəghi''. She was also referred to as ''Achmayex Guayaxerax'' (in Insular Tamazight: ''Ach mayes Wayyaghiragh'', meaning "behold the mother of him, the Spirit who sustains the universe").

Present-day worship

Chaxiraxi is considered the main goddess of the

neo-pagan Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, spans a range of new religious movements variously influenced by the beliefs of pre-modern peoples across Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. Despite some common simila ...

religion the Church of the Guanche People.

References

External links

Guanche Religion

Mundo Guanche: Chaxiraxi
Canopus Guanche goddesses African mythology Berber goddesses Mother goddesses Tanit {{Africa-myth-stub