Guestblog: Saturday Goddess Blogging

So I'm sitting here on Hecate's screen porch, having just fed Miss Thing, enjoying my second cup of coffee, listening to the acorns bounce off the roof, and thinking that I really need to Goddess blog Hestia, since I seem to have offended her mightily. Which is why I'm sitting here on Hecate's screen porch drinking my coffee rather than sitting at my kitchen table with the WaPo.

This past week, in the middle of the night, a gasket in my second floor bathroom decided that it didn't want to be a gasket any more, resulting in a flood of truly epic proportions chez E. Hecate generously offered to let me stay with her, and, after I realized, on Thursday morning, that my walk-in closet floor had also gotten wet and I was going to have to move all my clothes to the last remaining available horizontal storage surface, MY BED, leaving me no place to sleep, I gladly accepted.

Anyway, Hestia, this one's for you.

Hestia, according to Wikipedia (which Science magazine tested and found to be as reliable as the venerable Encyclopedia Britanica), "is the goddess of the hearth, of the right ordering of domesticity and the family, who received the first offering at every sacrifice in the household." It continues to note, "At a very deep level her name means 'home and hearth': the household and its inhabitants." Hestia is the original home fire that was kept burning. Homer called her the chief among all the Goddesses. To quote Homer:

Hestia, you who tend the holy house of the lord Apollo, the Far-shooter at goodly Pytho, with soft oil dripping ever from your locks, come now into this house, come, having one mind with Zeus the all-wise: draw near, and withal bestow grace upon my song.

All hail Hestia! And, Lady, please smile on me once again.

Saturday Goddess Blogging

Here's an entirely fictional harvest Goddess, Jeyriall of Santharia. Santhria's apparently a Tolkein-like gamers' world. In the fantasy world creation of Santharia you'll find tons of fantasy art, magic, fantasy pictures, maps (continent maps, town maps, village maps), a RPG bestiary, a herbarium, free online RPG games, RPG material - and everything else a fan can dream of... Let the magic come true again! Let's heed the legacy of JRR Tolkien and his world creation... Feel the magic, enjoy free role playing and dream the dream!


I love the idea of entire new pantheons being created on-line. You just know that, somehow, hundreds of years from now, at least of few of these deities will have their own actual worshipers.

Hail, Jeyriall!

Saturday Goddess Blogging

Lakshmi isn't traditionally considered a harvest Goddess. But she is associated with abundance and this time of year is all about abundance. More tomatoes than you know what to do with. Neighbors trying to give away their seckle pears. Queen Anne's Lace and Black Eyed Susans growing everywhere, in spite of the heat and the drought.

Amy Sophia Marashinsky wrote this poem about Lakshmi:

I am the ever-flowing outpouring of plenty
the inexhaustible
the never ending.
From the fullness of my being
I give richly and opulently
generously and copiously
luxuriously and liberally.
I am limitless
for I cannot be contained.
I am everywhere
and will never cease to be.

Saturday Goddess Blogging

Toci

Continuing our look at Goddesses associatd with the harvest, today's Goddess is Toci. Wiki describes Toci as:"Our grandmother" in Nahuatl, [] a deity figuring prominently in the religion and mythology of the pre-Columbian Aztec civilization of Mesoamerica. In Aztec mythology she is attributed as the "Mother of the Gods" (Teteo Innan or Teteoinnan), and associated as a goddess of the Earth (also called Tlalli Iyollo, "Heart of the Earth").

Although considered to be an aged deity, Toci is not always shown with specific markers of great age. Toci is frequently depicted with black markings around the mouth and nose, wearing a headdress with cotton spools (Miller and Taube 1993, p.170). These are also characteristic motifs for Tlazolteotl, a central Mesoamerican goddess of both purification and filth (tlazolli in Nahuatl), and the two deities are closely identified with one another.

Toci was also associated with healing, and venerated by curers of ailments and midwifes. In the 16th century Florentine Codex compiled by Bernardino de Sahagún Toci is identified with temazcalli or sweatbaths, in which aspect she is sometimes termed Temazcalteci, or "Grandmother of sweatbaths". Tlazolteotl also has an association with temazcalli as the "eater of filth", and such bathhouses are likely to have been dedicated to either Tlazolteotl or Toci/Temazcalteci.
Toci also had an identification with war, and had also the epithet "Woman of Discord".

By one Mexica-Aztec legendary tradition, at some point during their long peregrinations after leaving the mythical homeland Aztlan, the Mexica served as mercenaries to the Culhua at their capital of Culhuacan. The Culhua ruler bestowed his daughter upon the Mexica for an intended marriage with one of the Mexica nobility; however the Mexica's guiding and chief deity Huitzilopochtli intervened and ordered that she be flayed and sacrificed, instead. When this was done she transformed into Toci. The Mexica were expelled from Culhuacan by the Culhua ruler for the act, and the Mexica were pressed on towards Lake Texcoco. It was here that shortly thereafter they founded their capital Tenochtitlan, from which base they would later grow in power to form the Aztec Empire and exert their dominion over the Valley of Mexico (Miller and Taube 1993).

During the veintena of Ochpaniztli in the Aztec calendar, harvest-time festival rites were held to honor Toci, in her aspect as "Heart of the Earth" (Miller and Taube 1993) were held, associated with the time of harvest.

Here's a description of her rites, which may have involved a sacrificial re-enactment of her murder.

Art available on Google.

Saturday Goddess Blogging

Ceres


Ceres gets less attention than her older sister, Demeter, but she's long been a favorite Goddess of mine.

Ceres was the Roman goddess of agriculture, grain, and the love a mother bears for her child. She was the daughter of Saturn and Ops, the sister of Jupiter, and the mother of Proserpine. Ceres was a kind and benevolent goddess to the Romans and they had a common expression, "fit for Ceres," which meant splendid.

She was beloved for her service to mankind in giving them the gift of the harvest, the reward for cultivation of the soil. . . . Ceres was the goddess of the harvest and was credited with teaching humans how to grow, preserve, and prepare grain and corn. She was thought to be responsible for the fertility of the land.

Ceres was the only one of the gods who was involved on a day-to-day basis in the lives of the common folk. While others occasionally "dabbled" in human affairs when it suited their personal interests, or came to the aid of "special" mortals they favored, the goddess Ceres was truly the nurturer of mankind.

Ceres was worshipped at her temple on the Aventine Hill, one of the Seven Hills of ancient Rome.

. . .

The Romans explained the turning of the seasons with the following story: Ceres was the sister of Jupiter, and Proserpine was their daughter. Proserpine was kidnapped by Pluto, god of the underworld, to be his bride. By the time Ceres followed her daughter, she was gone into the earth. Making matters worse, Ceres learned that Pluto had been given Jupiter's approval to be the husband of his daughter. Ceres was so angry that she went to live in the world of men, disguised as an old woman, and stopped all the plants and crops from growing, causing a famine. Jupiter and the other gods tried to get her to change her mind but she was adamant. Jupiter eventually realized that he had to get Proserpine back from the underworld, and sent for her. Unfortunately, Pluto secretly gave her food before she left, and once one had eaten in the underworld one could not forever leave. Proserpine was therefore forced to return to the underworld for four months every year. She comes out in spring and spends the time until autumn with Ceres, but has to go back to the underworld in the winter. Her parting from Ceres every fall is why plants lose their leaves, seeds lie dormant under the ground, and nothing grows until spring when Proserpine is reunited with her mother.

Additionally, Ceres had twelve minor gods who assisted her, and were in charge of specific aspects of farming: "Vervactor who turns fallow land, Reparator who prepares fallow land, Imporcitor who plows with wide furrows" (whose name comes from the Latin imporcare, to put into furrows), "Insitor who sowed, Obarator who plowed the surface, Occator who harrowed, Sarritor who weeded, Subruncinator who thinned out, Messor who harvested, Conuector who carted, Conditor who stored, and Promitor who distributed".

Lammastide seems a good time to remember this agricultural Goddess who, although a benefactor of humankind, was willing to revoke her benificence when her daughter was mistreated.

Saturday Goddess Blogging

Eris and Discordia

These are the Goddesses who've been ruling my life this week, so I thought that I ought to blog about them.

The Discordians were the ones who first taught me to honor these Goddesses.

Hail Eris! Hail Discordia!

In all seriousness, I do honor these Goddesses. In the middle of chaos and discord is where new things happen. Ceridwen's cauldron, where she stirs all things and creates everything anew, is fulll of chaos and discord. Shit goes in, gets broken down, bubbles up to the top, gets stirred next to something else, is transformed by heat. Pop! Three drops splatter out onto a bard's tongue! Poetry ensues. Chaos and discord are liminal states; Hecate is a Goddess of liminal spaces, including, especially crossroads. Thus, I honor Eris and Discordia.

You've got to have them. You've got to have those spaces in which all the possibilities are present, chaos mixes everything up, so that new ingredients can come in contact, within Cerridwen's cauldron, with old ingredients, re-combine and make something new: proteins that make life, music, fusion cooking, new religions, new political movements, new ways to view your own life that suddenly let you move foreward.

And, when you've had all the Eris and Discordia that you can absorb, you can always wish their blessings and attention upon, um, your co-counsel. Who's obviously one of their most intent devotees, anyway, if actions are any sign. Not that I'm bitter.

Saturday Goddess Blogging

Hestia, known to the Romas as Vesta, is the Goddess of the hearth, the home, the well-cooked meal.


"Hestia, in the high dwellings of all, both deathless gods and men who walk on earth, you ahve gained an everlasting abode and highest honour: glorious is your portion and your right. For without you mortals hold no banquet, - where one does not duly pour sweet wine in offering to Hestia both first and last. And you, Argeiphontes [Hermes], son of Zeus and Maia, .. be favourable and help us, you and Hestia, the worshipful and dear. Come and dwell in this glorious house in friendship together; for you two, well knowing the noble actions of men, aid on their wisdom and their strength. Hail, Daughter of Kronos, and you also, Hermes." - Homeric Hymn 24 to Hestia


"Hestia, you who tend the holy house of the lord Apollon, the Far-shooter at goodly Pytho, with soft oil dripping ever from your locks, come now into this house, come, having one mind with Zeus the all-wise - draw near, and withal bestow grace upon my song." - Homeric Hymn XXIV to Hestia


"To Hestia, Fumigation from Aromatics. Daughter of Kronos, venerable dame, who dwellest amidst great fire’s eternal flame; in sacred rites these ministers are thine, mystics much blessed, holy and divine. In thee the Gods have fixed their dwelling place, strong, stable basis of the mortal race. Eternal, much formed, ever florid queen, laughing and blessed, and of lovely mien; accept these rites, accord each just desire, and gentle health and needful good inspire." - Orphic Hymn 84 to Hestia

Art found here, here, and here.

Saturday Goddess Blogging

Wow. It's hot. And dry. Mercury's STILL retrograde and tempers are short, patience all used up. This evil junta has another 500+ days left to screw the world up even worse than it already has (if you can imagine such a thing) and the wingnuts won't go gently into their good night. Meanwhile, the Dems in Congress are keeping their very precious dry powder very nice and very dry, my Precious.

I think we could all use a good laugh. The kind of laugh that releases endorphins, relaxes all your muscles, floods your immune system with antibodies. The kind of laugh that makes you feel comradly and warm towards everyone laughing along with you. Sacred laughter. Healing laughter. A good long belly laugh.

We could invoke Uzume, Goddess of Laughter.

Amy Sophia Marashinsky writes:



Before the Rock Cave of Heaven
where Amaterasu Omi Kami, the Sun Goddess
had hidden her radiant face
where all the assembled Gods and Goddesses had tried
and failed
to lure her out
I stepped up to the Cave
with utmost seriousness
with grave determination
with proper decorum and a lofty mien
and with a bump and a bump and a bump bump bump bump
lifted my kimono and revealed myself in ways
that caused the mouths of the exaulted ones
to water and fall open.
Then I played puppet with my labia
and paid myself a little lip service.
I heaved my breast over one shoulder
then the other over the other
and landed on my ass
with a bump and a bump and a bump bump bump bump
amidst the explosions of laughter and merriment
of the esteemed crowd.
With breasts tied in a knot
my legs spread like a welcome mat
I called in the Spirits
and offered them my body . . .
but they refused to take it.
The crowd howled and laughed as I continued my dance
till Amaterasu Omi Kami couldn't stand it any longer
and rushed out to see what was what.
And thus did laughter
win the Sun Goddess from her dark cave
and bring light and warmth back into the world.

Art found here, here, and here.

Saturday Goddess Blogging

Still musing upon Lilith


SOFT MOON SHINING

My beloved Divine Mother
Dance with me
under the soft moon shining
in the wide open fields
far beyond the toil and trouble
of my busy mind

Dance with me
before the night grows old
while the winds of love
still bow the grasses
and the coyotes howl for you
to step their way

Dance with me my beloved
while the Mystery's Edge
still flirts in the shadow
of your radiant light

From the book Soft Moon Shining by
Ethan Walker III

Art found here.

Saturday Goddess Blogging

Last year, my circle of amazing women worked with the Goddess Hygeia. Although once worshiped in temples with a set of rituals that were written down and well-known, today, there is little known about Hygeia and her worship. For my circle, she was the Goddess of Healthy Growth, causing some of us to focus on our physical health (~raises hand~) and helping our circle itself to grow. Some of us (~raises hand~) will continue to work with her at our individual altars and in our daily practice. Yet we were stymied by the lack of information about Hygeia.

This year, my circle is going to be working with Lilith and there's simply an embarassment of riches concerning information about this Goddess. Lilith may have first been associated with the wind in ancient Mesopotamia. It's a serious thing for American witches to invoke an Iraqi Goddess in these times. But we did lots of divination, both before and during our annual retreat and Lilith and her owls kept coming up. She's new to me, and I may focus on her for several sessions of Saturday Goddess Blogging.

According to Wiki: It is said that every mirror is a passage into the Otherworld and leads to Lilith's cave. The cave that Lilith went to after she had abandoned Adam and Eden for all time and the same cave that Lilith took up demon lovers in. From these unholy unions, Lilith birthed multitudes of demons, who flocked from that cave and infested the world. When these demons want to return they simply enter the nearest mirror, that is why Lilith makes her home in every mirror.

I'm going to try this week to remember to acknowledge Lilith every time that I look into a mirror, to honor her feminine energy, her spirit that would not be submissive to Adam. This old folk-practice of the Jews holds within itself, of course, a large message: anytime that a woman looks into a mirror, it's another opportunity for her to see that she is Lilith, that a large part of her being has been forced to flee underground and that there is safety for her from the patriarchy in hiding, especially in hiding her loves and her productions.

Here's a Hymn to Lilith:

I call unto the Lady of the Night
The Succubus, the Queen of Hell's Delight
Night-Mare of Eden, Lamia, First Eve
Lilith, in whom I trust and believe.
Oh, Wise Woman of the Wilderness

Oh, Maiden who disobeys to redress,
Witch-Queen of Midnight in sensual dress,
Who rules over man and his carnal flesh.
She who deserted the Garden of Light,

Who ran into Darkness and found her own Sight
Her power to become more than she was made,
To become a Nightspirited Nymph of the Shade.
Great Lover of men in the full moon light,

Who conceals herself gently within the night
Who inspires the daughters of Eve to rebel
To overcome obstacles, and to excel.
She who found love in the Fallen Angel,

Azazel the Prince, the Commander of Hell
She who revolts against all convention
And whose wisdom is beyond mortal mention.
Oh Lilith, to Thee I give solemn praise

Great Goddess who kills and destroys my malaise
My life and my blood for the Demoness
Whose soul is a night-cloaked, loving caress!

Copyright © 2006 Geifodd.

Art found here, and here.

Saturday Goddess Blogging

Wow.

So today was the day when my wonderful, amazing, incredible circle of women got together for our annual retreat (aka, the day when we kick our own magical asses). It was wonderful, amazing, incredible. I can't imagine that I ever, in all the reincarnations that I may have had, have, ever, done anything to deserve to be in a circle with such amazing women. So, it's not deserved. It's a gift. It's, in the truest sense of the word, grace. It's a blessing from the Goddess, from the ancestors, from the Universe.

Each year, we choose a Goddess to work with. Today, we bid farewell to Hygeia (although I, along with some others, will continue to work with her individually) and welcomed in Lilith.

It's going to be a v. interesting year.

Saturday Goddess Blogging

Austėja was a Lithuanian household goddess of bees. Later hypothetical reconstructions say that people were sanctifying grasslands for her. Austėja sometimes goes with Žemyna. They both are goddesses of fecundity, brides, and growing families.

In The Living Goddess, Marija Gimbutas and Mirian Robbins say that Austeja "mentioned in the sixteenth century, is both woman and bee; she promotes fertility in humans and bees. Her name is connected with the verb austi, [meaning]"to weave," and also "to dart" and "to fly." Offerings were made to her by jumping while tossing the oblations upward to the ceiling or air.

Austeja appears as the idealized bee mother, a responsible homemaker figure. She ensures that the families (as every beehive community is commonly called) under her guardianship multiply and increase. Apiculture can be understood in these beliefs as a metaphor for the human family where the mother/housekeeper has the most prominent role.

H/T to my brilliant friend, E, for piquing my interest in bee Goddesses with her amazing ritual last night.

Saturday Goddess Blogging

Blodeuwedd.


The Celts, historically, were matrilineal; you were born to your mother’s line, not your father’s. Kingship, therefore, landed upon the son of the king’s sister and not upon the offspring of the king and the queen. Very often, too, the queens were the actual power, with her spouse being a Duke of War, rather than a true king. In order to be a king, one had to marry the land in order to demonstrate his devotion to the sovereignty. Often, this marriage was symbolic and accomplished by the practice of the Great Rite between the proposed king and a priestess of the Goddess. The commission of this act would ensure the king’s love for the land and a lifelong desire to defend her as he would his wife. It is also important to note that there is no Goddess of Love, such as Ishtar, Aphrodite and Venus in other cultures, but there were, throughout the legends, Maiden Goddesses made of flowers or fruit. The most important aspect of the Goddess is triune in nature - the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone - and most legends involve three Goddesses representing these three aspects.


The Legend of Blodeuwedd is also the story of Llew’s struggle for his kingship which was averted and made more difficult by the Goddess Arianrhod who tried Her best to prevent Llew, Her son, his birth-right due to the shame brought upon Her by his companions. (Another story which will be told later.) In short, Arianrhod stated that he would not receive a name, unless it be from Her; he would not receive his arms, unless it be from Her; and, he could never marry a mortal woman. Thus, he could not become king unless it be through Her auspices. In order to assure that Llew would survive long enough to attain his kingship, some magick was given to him in the form of the circumstances of his death. As has been typical of the Celts, his death could only be accomplished through a set of very unlikely and almost preposterous circumstances. He could not be killed indoors or out, on horse or on foot, and the spearhead capable of killing him had to be cast during a sacred period of time. Arianrhod was tricked into giving Llew his name and his arms but the larger problem of having a wife, which would assert his right to the land, was accomplished through the magick of his cousins, Math and Gwydion, who created Blodeuwedd from the flowers of the Oak, Broom and Meadowsweet. Due to the nature of Her Birth, Blodeuwedd - whose name means either ‘Flower Face’ or the ancient name for the Owl - and represents the Earth in full bloom. Through their marriage, Llew’s requirement of marrying the land and thus, his Sovereignty is completed. One day, Llew goes hunting, leaving Blodeuwedd alone with Her ladies in the castle. A young huntsman, Gronw, later seeks shelter and he and Blodeuwedd experience love at first sight. Wanting nothing more than to be together, Gronw persuades Blodeuwedd to discover the improbable circumstances surrounding Llew’s death, an act he would help to accomplish. The plan made, Gronw departs from Blodeuwedd and they remain separate for a long period of time, during which Blodeuwedd feigns anxiety concerning Llew’s death. Eventually, Her pleading persuades Llew to demonstrate these very circumstances in order to allay Her fears by showing Her his death could not be easily accomplished. They prepare a bath on a riverbank, covering it with a thatched roof, being neither indoors nor out. As Llew stands with one foot upon the edge of the tub and the other upon the back of a goat, Gronw throws the specially-made spear, hitting Llew in the side. Llew immediately turns into an eagle and flies off, later discovered and nursed back to health by his cousins, Math and Gwydion. When the two lovers are found, Gronw is killed and Blodeuwedd turned into an owl.


Due to the very circumstances of Her Birth, the actions of Blodeuwedd may be seen in a more sympathetic light. She was created from the flowers of a very powerful Tree - the Oak - and from flowers of an explicitly healing nature,in order to give power to Llew and to be able to continually heal and renew him. She is never asked whether She loves him or desires to marry him. She was created for his purposes, solely to assure his right to rule the land. Her Own desires are impossible to achieve while Llew lives and She is often seen as the epitome of non-assertive femininity, fickleness and the faithless wife, using the passion of two men for Her to seal the doom of both. In truth, Her supposed treachery creates the very conditions to enable Llew to experience the ritual death and rebirth commonly required of the Druidic priesthood, thus ensuring his kingship. Blodeuwedd is seen as a part of his hard and difficult destiny. Throughout Celtic legend, otherworldly women are created and utilized to represent the Land, which is definitely feminine in nature. Owl, the totemic representation of Blodeuwedd, signifies the complete transformation of the initiate as represented by Llew‚s virtual death and subsequent healing. She is signified by the Empress card of the Tarot. She is a Goddess of emotions, representing the matrix that reforms transpersonal and universal energies into well-defined life force. She is also the Maiden Goddess of initiation ceremonies and is known as the Ninefold Goddess of the Western Isles of Paradise. Flowers, the wisdom of innocence, Lunar Mysteries and initiation are Her provinces.

Winter Cymraes
©1994

In the end, there was a tie on the poll between Athena and Blodeuwedd. I'll Goddessblog Athena next Saturday. Thanks to all who participated!

Art found here, here, and here.