Goddess of the Week

Diana comes up for the second time since I've been pulling these; the last time was just over six months ago in the middle of September.

Diana is originally a Latin Goddess, Who was taken up in time into Roman beliefs; Her cult was centered in a lake in the Alban Hills in Aricia, not far southeast of Rome itself. There She had a shrine on the shores of the near-circular lake, located dramatically in the crater of an extinct volcano; the lake itself called the speculum Dianae, or the Mirror of Diana.

Since Diana was equated with the Greek Artemis from very early times, it is hard to separate out the original Diana; but, like Artemis, She is a Goddess of women, the moon, the wild, and healing. Many many votive deposits, given to petition for healing and health, were found at Her shrine on the lake.

I have shown Her here as Diana of the Witches, a (more or less) medieval concept of Diana, but the frog She holds is understood to be symbolic of healing and of transformation. Through water, I am tempted to say, but I may just have water on the mind; through something witchy and dark and female, at any rate.

So then this week is about healing and transformation, through channels of a 'feminine' sort, for example through the unconscious mind, say via dreams or night visions. The Moon wanes down to nothing this week, down to the dark and the still point. It is a good time for visions.

I'll tell you this past week I have become much more aware of the paths of the rivers and brooks in my town, and how they are far more enduring and powerful than the paths we humans have laid down. It is a humbling perspective, and a profound shift in thinking, to see the network of water as primary. How can you shift your own perspective in a similar way? (Without, of course, a minor natural disaster to help things along!)

Rereading this post I am struck by the words 'center' and 'circular'; take that as advice to be especially mindful of centering and grounding at this time. Go within for a time this week and find your center in the quiet and the dark.

What does She say?

Heal yourself. Put your power forth and direct the light to your own hurts. Do this first or you will do nothing else. Right now. It is a very good time for self-healing.

Find that undercurrent, that hidden strand. It knows what you need to be healed. Find it and listen to it, then act. Draw down the Moon, the light, My light, into yourself; focus it within.

And above all trust yourself. Trust that you cannot hurt yourself in healing yourself. Trust that you will take exactly what you want and need. Trust that you know how to heal, and what to do to be healed. This is the perfect time. Right now.

What do you think?