Angels (and therefore also devils) can definitely effect the material world. So I, too, think that's the biggest plausible explanation, ESPECIALLY since it's related or attributed to a false "deity" ("goddess"). Well, we know there are no deities but the One, True God. But we also know (throughout human history, and especially from the priests who deal with them) that devils can and have worked great wonders or apparently miraculous things. We also know that the devil has a history of working these signs as false deities to keep his supporters.
I once read a book on a former Yakuza (Japanese mob) member. He was in it at around the very early 1900s. At that time, one of the few ways to make a living was the lumber business, and for a while he, as a younger man, lived on a boat and worked the lumber business. But the wife of the man who owned the boat was a devotee of a fox "deity", and exhibited some very unnatural signs because of it. For instance, though she never left the boat, she could tell her husband where he had been all day. One incident the man recalled that really shocked and stayed with him, was that on one occasion, the woman had been "praying" to this fox "deity" all day, and when her husband came home, she came out of the cabin or whatever and started ranting at him, about where he'd been... and the man writing remarked that on this occasion, even her appearance seemed to change, so that she even "looked like a fox" (probably her features were weirdly contorted or something that reminded him of one), and I forget what she did, but finally her husband got so upset that he picked up a kettle, and smashed her in the face with it, knocking her over or unconscious. His wife had not a scratch on her, but the kettle didn't fare so well. But when she came to or recovered, she was normal again.
The devil can appear as an angel of light. He can also do signs and wonders. This is why we must be careful about what we believe, when we hear of apparitions, even backed by supposed miracles, or "miracles" in other religions or denominations. Not every wonder is from God, even if there is some reality to them (eg, even if they are real in the sense that they are really effecting the material world, and not just imagined by someone).