It was late 2015 and I was struggling to come up with a name for my business. I knew I wanted something different, something away from the far too predictable “Helen Grice – Virtual Assistant”. So I thought about what I liked – cake, trainers, vintage coats…and decided that none of them would really work as a grown-up, responsible name for a business. Then I got thinking about places I liked – dark little pubs with open fires, breakfast in bed, Heals furniture store…nope still not on the right track.
OK so what about my favourite places? IBIZA! Hmmm OK we can work with this. After going through various names of Ibicencan villages, beaches and clubs, I was reminded of the story of Tanit, the Phoenician goddess of creation and destruction whom the ancient Ibicencos worshipped, and I knew then I’d found the perfect name for my business.
Here’s a more detailed introduction to the famous lady herself:- Rewind to a few hundred years before Christ, the original settlers of Ibiza, the peaceful, prosperous and pagan Phoenicians worshipped the sun. The male sun god was Baal and his female partner, associated with the moon was Tanit, a warrior goddess of dance, fertility, creation and destruction. She’s the protector goddess of Ibiza and there was once a temple dedicated to her on the same site the cathedral now stands.
Rather apt too, don’t you think, is that an island presided over by the goddess of dance should be home to the World’s biggest and most influential electronic dance music scene. Coincidence?
There is a story that tells of a time a few decades ago, before Ibiza was ‘discovered’ by the hippies and Vietnam war deserters in the 1960’s, and the island’s economy was based on fishing, salt and agriculture.
Local tradition dictated that all the most valuable land was passed down to the male children. At the time, this meant that the boys got all the best farmland, located generally in the middle of the island. The coastal lands, considered to be useless for growing crops and thus of very little value would be passed to the females.
Word has it that a whole bunch of island women got together, one historic full-moon, to dance for Tanit and ask for her assistance with what they saw as the unfair distribution of family wealth that effectively forced them into either poverty or marriage.
It wasn’t long afterwards that the hippies began to arrive, tourism followed quickly afterwards and hey presto, there was a real estate boom and guess what? Suddenly coastal lands belonging to the females were the most sought after and leapt in value. Whereas the agricultural land in the centre of island owned by the males dropped in value as the economy shifted to focus onto tourism. Another coincidence?
Source: Ibiza Spotlight
Fast forward 4 years and I didn’t realise how apt the Goddess Tanit would be, as my business transitioned from one that needed to make money and would work with ANYONE, to one that now works from a more intuitive perspective and prefers to work with businesses who feel the same. Tanit Virtual has grown into a heart centred business, giving back when I can and only working with clients who share some or all of my values.
If you’d like to work with me, then lets talk. Head on over to the Contact page and hit me up with an email!
Helen x