The main theme of Goddess symbolism is the mystery of birth and death and the renewal of life, not only human but all life on earth and, indeed, in the whole cosmos. She was the single source of all life who took her energy from the springs and wells, from the sun, moon and moist earth. This symbolic system represents cyclical, not linear, mythical time.
Celebration of life is the leading motif in Old European ideology and art.
Life columns, upward winding snakes, leafy trees, bees, and butterflies rising from tombs, caves, crevices, or the Goddess's powerful uterus. One form dissolves into another. The transformation of human to animal, snake to tree, uterus to fish, frog, hedgehog, bucranium to butterfly, was a perception of the re-emergence of life energy in another form. This is not to say that death was neglected. There was no simple death, only death and regeneration.