Goddess of the Week

Melaina is a dark, angry aspect of the ancient Greek Earth Mother Demeter, which She took upon Herself in response to a time of great pain. She has come up once before, in November of 2008, the beginning of the dark time of year here in the north.

One of the most well-known myths of Demeter involves Her beloved daughter Kore, Who was abducted and raped by the Underworld God Haides when just a girl, vanishing without a trace into His realm under the Earth.

When Demeter found Her daughter suddenly gone, She dropped all Her duties as Earth Mother and began the long search for Her, wandering the earth in frantic grief. But She received little help; for Kore had been abducted with the tacit approval of Zeus, and few wanted to cross Him.

In the midst of this dark time, the Sea-God Poseidon conceived a lust for Demeter. When, unsurprisingly, She was in no mood, He pursued Her; and though She tried to escape from Him by taking the form of a mare and running with the wild horses of Arkadia, Poseidon soon enough found Her, and in the form of a stallion He raped Her.

This was simply too much for Demeter, on top of everything else She was going through, so She clothed Herself in black and shut Herself up in a cave in Mount Eliaos, near to the town of Philagia. From the rape She bore two children: the immortal horse Areion or Arion, Who could speak like a human, and a daughter, Whose name has not come down to us. Not, for once, because She was unimportant, but because She was considered a most holy maiden, and Her name was secret, given only to initiates into Her mysteries. They have kept that secret, and Her true name is not known. Her title, however, has survived: Despoena, the Mistress.

Demeter was eventually coaxed out of the cave by the Moirai, the Fates; They are said to have persuaded Her with Their words, perhaps reminding Her that while She was in hiding, and while Her powers of fertility were withdrawn, the crops of the world (and so the people of the world) were dying. That is the usual story, anyway; I am more inclined to think the Moirai did not persuade Demeter with talking, but by listening to Her.

This is a very dark and violent tale; and I suspect it has been quite twisted in a particularly patriarchal way. But this time the casualty is not just the Goddess, but the God as well, Poseidon. There is evidence that He and Demeter may have formed a cult pair in early times; Their names are mentioned together in Mycenaean Linear B tablets from Pylos, Their names written in that syllabic script as Da-ma-te and Po-se-da-wo-ne. Poseidon's name means 'Husband of Earth' or 'Consort of Earth', and even in classical times He was remembered for His connection with the Earth, as the 'Earth-shaker', Ennosigaios, the God Who brings earthquakes. I suspect Their relationship was in earlier times rather less antagonistic.

The Phigalians accounted that cave sacred to Her, calling Her Demeter Melaina, 'the Black', supposedly after the black clothes She wore; and they set up a wooden statue, described by Pausanias in the 2nd century CE thus:

The image, they say, was made after this fashion. It was seated on a rock, like to a woman in all respects save the head. She had the head and hair of a horse, and there grew out of her head images of serpents and other beasts. Her tunic reached right to her feet; on one of her hands was a dolphin, on the other a dove.

Melaina is Demeter in Her chthonic aspect, literally meaning of the Earth. She appears dark and monstrous, but it should be remembered that the serpents and horses may simply be symbolic of the earth.

Go into the dark a little this week. It may be that it is time to bring a traumatic or difficult aspect of your past to the light, where it may be healed; conversely, it may instead be a time to shut yourself off from the world. It is hard to tell, and can go either way; be gentle and compassionate with yourself, and do not do anything if you are unwilling, or if you are not truly ready. You will know. If you are unsure, don't.

The dark is, as it ever is, not nearly as frightening as your fears make it out to be; keep that in mind, also. Also keep in mind that acknowledging something is as good as accepting it in a lot of ways. It needn't be that difficult. You might be surprised.

As ever, I ask Her what She would like to say.

Darkness, it is all darkness. But of your own choosing; your anger, your pain, your hiding, your hibernation away from the light, your rest, your time of healing. Sometimes shutting yourself away from the world is necessary. Sometimes, even, stewing in your own anger is necessary. Do not be afraid of the dark, in all its manifestations. It is an aspect of Me, always.

Goddess of the Week

This was not by request, I swear, though Debra and Hecate mentioned Her as favorites in comments to the last post. It was random, really! Well, for what 'random' is worth, ha.

Sheila-na-Gig is the anglicized version of the Irish Síle na gCíoch, and is the name given in modern times to the medieval figures of woman prominently displaying their vulvas. They are carved into stone, mostly in churches, though occasionally in castles, too; for the most part they are found in the British Isles, with the greatest number in Ireland.

Theories abound as to what the figures mean, some thinking they represent an allegory of lust to warn pious churchgoers; others place them in the catch-all category of fertility figures. In Pagan circles She is usually taken to be some sort of survival of the Earth Mother Who holds open the gate to life and death both, and She is often allied with the Crone.

The meaning of Her name (or title) is disputed, too: the Dictionary of Celtic Mythology (by James MacKillop) gives the meaning as 'Sheila (Caecilia) of the breasts' (I am assuming he means 'Sheila' is an Irish version of the name Caecilia); others point out that 'gig' (pronounced approximately 'ghee') is a slang term for women's genitalia.

I am more inclined to think of Her as a mother figure, or an apotropaic one, Who wards off evil by presenting the reality check of the source of life (and death), much like Baubo, Who relieved Demeter's sorrow when Kore was lost by lifting Her skirts and making dirty jokes (in Demeter's case the reminder was that the gate of death--Kore's abduction to the Underworld--is the same as that of life, and that Kore will give birth to a child in the Underworld. Yes, I've been reading Kerényi's Eleusis). I don't know, though; it is a rare Sheila figure that is depicted with hair, and on many of them the ribs are quite prominent. At the time, however, I drew Sheila-na-Gig as a young Mother, with abundant hair to represent fertility and power. I don't know if I would depict Her the same way now.

At any rate, the Crone, through Her experience, contains all stages of a woman's life within Her; She has been Maiden and Mother also, in the proper times. So I think for this week, which will be the first full week of blessed blessed spring in the north, we are to keep in mind the whole cycle, even as the daffodils begin to come out and the weather warms. Remember that last year's growth and decay have made this new beginning possible. If you are in the south, remember that this year's decay, the things that are beginning to die now, will make possible next year's spring; and also keep in mind that the dying is itself beautiful.

Celebrate your position in the cycle, not only nature's seasons but within the cycles of your life; appreciate where you are right now, but also take time this week to look at the whole. There is a lesson there, something valuable to be learned by stepping back for a moment to look at things from a larger perspective.

Let's see what She says:

Open wide! Ha!

You want everything to be pretty, don't you? Well it's not. I am a crone, surely as the sun sets and as winter comes. You don't know what to do with me, do you? You will follow me in time. Let's hope you figure it out by then.

For now? Rejoice in your health, in your youth, in your warding-off of the end times; admire the crocuses in the yard, the warm earth as you weed the garden. It will be cold soon enough.

That is not meant as warning, or to scare you; it is simply all one, and the distinctions do not, in the end, matter that much. It is like the difference between pink and light red. You may drive yourself crazy for now trying to differentiate the two, but it is in the end silly. Remember that.

It is all one. Everything contains its opposite. All coins have two sides that cannot be separated. The gate to life is the gate to death. It is only the direction traveled that is different, if it is. You forget now, but you have done it many times. So many times. You will remember. It is your birthright. Your deathright.

The Maiden is the Crone is the Mother. This is the truest thing there is.

What do you think of that?

Goddess of the Week

This is the first time Kore has come up, as Goddess of the Week; She is the springtime aspect of Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld in Greek myth.

The usual legend says that Kore was abducted and raped by Haides, the King of the Underworld, taken by force to be His wife, with the express permission of Zeus, Kore's father. Demeter, Her mother and Goddess of the Earth and crops, of course would have agreed to no such thing; and when Demeter found out that Her daughter was gone, She was so outraged by Zeus's complicity She struck the earth with famine, forcing Zeus to make Haides release Kore. It would have been a joyous reunion save for the fact that Kore had been persuaded to eat several seeds of the pomegranate while in the Underworld; anyone who had eaten of Underworld food was bound by Divine law to remain there. With the future of the fertility of the world at stake, however, as Demeter was righteously stubborn in holding out for justice, a 'compromise' was reached: Kore would spend one third of the year in the Underworld, and the remaining two-thirds with Her mother on the Earth.

Her disappearance below ground was said to be the reason for Winter, for during that time Her mother Demeter, still angry, withheld Her gifts to the Earth; but when Kore returned the Earth burst forth in blossom to welcome Her, creating Spring.

None of that, of course, is told from Kore's point of view, is it? She is simply an object to be fought over, among the Gods--it is usually phrased as Zeus 'giving' Her to Haides.

Kore means 'Maiden' or 'Girl'; Her story of death and rebirth formed the thealogical foundation for the Eleusinian Mysteries, which promised those initiated into them a blessed afterlife. What has always struck me about the Eleusinian Mysteries is that though they are at the heart properly women's mysteries, they were taken to apply to all of humankind. It is so often the other way around; men's stories are taken to be representative of all.

The Mysteries proved very popular, which is probably why the story of Kore's abduction is the best known tale of Her; in other tales, however, She is simply the Queen of the Underworld. I have always suspected that aspect came first.

Which I why I painted Her with that looming black background, to represent the Underworld and the cold dark Earth.

Aaron at Theoi tentatively translates the name Persephone as 'Destructive-Slayer'; a translation I've often seen is 'Destroyer of Light.'

She is the force that waits beneath the earth in Winter, slowly growing stronger within that darkness, to come out into the light at last in Springtime. She is the dreams and the visions nurtured over Winter which are manifested in Spring. Make no mistake, though, darkness is Her root; in some tales Styx, the Goddess of the Underworld river, Whose name means 'Hatred,' was considered Persephone's mother, not Demeter. The Underworld is Her first home.

Her appearance this week is hardly surprising, especially following last week's Gaea; or at least up here in New England it's about right, in this the second week of March, as late winter turns its way towards Spring. My front lawn, today, was a mass of pale violet crocuses; but the cold weather is not over yet, and, having lived here all my life, I know better than to declare Winter over prematurely.

So: there are signs of spring all around you at this time. Things are finally coming out into the light, both the literal flowers and the things you create and manifest. It is all beginning to emerge and unfold. But do not take too much for granted; you are not quite out of the woods yet, and there may be a setback or two. Though nothing can really stop the forward progress now.

In the southern hemisphere, though the Earth is only approaching the harvest of the autumnal equinox, and is not fully into autumn yet, there are still already signs of things slowing down. Look for them around you and within yourself; what are you getting ready to let go, or lay to sleep within you? How are things progressing towards the coming journey into the dark?

She has thick hair the color of ash, with a heavy woolen robe trailing behind Her; She is swaddled, cocooned within it, deep in the dark. Her heavy-lidded eyes are of black. What does She say?

This is my home. I emerge only reluctantly into the light. I do not like light.

I am the Destroyer of Light, after all. It is defensive, almost. Some things cannot have light if they are to grow. Or decay. They are nearly the same thing.

Be careful; do not force yourself into the light if you are not ready. There is still time to rest.

To read Her tale, go here.

References:
The very excellent Theoi, as usual.