Willow-Blossom Mother Goddess

Spirit-class deity (a deified immortal) treated here as deity per schema. English word leads name.primary; native term Liễu Hạnh (柳杏, 'willow-apricot/blossom') given in alt and transliterations. Her two attendant fairies are Quế Nương and Thị Nương (or Quỳnh Hoa and Quế Hoa).

Domains

• motherhood fertility
• heaven celestial realm
• spirit mediumship possession

Powers

• Descends from heaven to be reborn among mortals
• Rewards the pious and chastises the disrespectful

Epithets

• 柳杏公主 chinese · Liễu Hạnh công chúa'Princess Willow-Apricot' — the celestial Mother GoddessVân Cát thần nữ (Đoàn Thị Điểm); Đạo Mẫu tradition (secondary)
• 母上天 chinese · Mẫu Thượng Thiên'Mother of the Upper Heaven' — her rank in the Mother-Goddess pantheonĐạo Mẫu (Mother Goddess) liturgical tradition (secondary)
• 瓊花柳杏公主 Sino-Vietnamese · Quỳnh Hoa Liễu Hạnh công chúa · cultPrincess Quỳnh Hoa Liễu HạnhScripture of the Four Palaces (Tứ Phủ) (secondary)

Sources

• Liễu Hạnh is the principal Mother Goddess of Đạo Mẫu and one of the Four Immortals (Tứ bất tử) of Vietnamese folk religion.: Olga Dror, Cult, Culture, and Authority: Princess Liễu Hạnh in Vietnamese History, University of Hawai'i Press, 2007 (secondary); Ngô Đức Thịnh, Đạo Mẫu Việt Nam, Hanoi, 1996 (secondary)
• Her literary biography was set down by the poet Đoàn Thị Điểm as Vân Cát thần nữ truyện (c. 1730).: Đoàn Thị Điểm, Vân Cát thần nữ truyện, in Truyền kỳ tân phả, c. 1730 (primary)