Little Diana

Another in the apparent series of little Roman Goddesses in pen and ink with watercolor. They're all very small, only an inch and a half square. She's the Roman Goddess of women and the Moon; Her sanctuary on the shores of Lake Nemi inside a volcanic crater not too far from Rome was quite famous. She was renowned there as a healer.

I've put Her up on cards through Zazzle. I've got pretty much all my art up on cards there, which these days is well over a hundred designs of Goddesses and (some) Gods.

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?

Goddess of the Week

This is the first time Diana has come up as the Goddess of the Week.

I am not particularly surprised, given last week's focus on matters of health. I have Her here as Diana of the Witches, Moon-Goddess and healer, holding a frog, which represents both healing and transformation, or, more succinctly, healing through transformation.

Diana is originally a Latin Goddess, meaning a Goddess of the Latin people, who were to form a good percentage of the later Roman people. She is a Goddess of women, the hunt, wild places, and the Moon; from fairly early times She was associated with the Greek Artemis, and it is a little tricky now to make out the differences between the two.

The name Diana simply means 'Goddess'; it is related to words like 'deity,' 'divinity,' 'deus,' 'Zeus,' and 'diva,' and has at its root the idea of light and shining.

She had a famous shrine on the shores of Lake Nemi in Italy, a lake rather dramatically located in the crater of an extinct volcano; the lake was called in ancient times the speculum Dianae, or 'mirror of Diana.' Votive offerings in the form of terracotta models of body parts, given in the hopes that the Goddess would heal the afflicted part, start showing up at Her shrine in the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C.E.; this was probably part of a larger trend in Roman religion, but does indicate that Diana was thought of as a healer. And like Her Greek counterpart Artemis, Diana was prayed to for an easy childbirth.

So: health, specifically women's health, as Diana is a women's Goddess; also prayers for an easy childbirth.

I will admit I am having a tricky time separating this out, as I am myself currently trying to sort out health issues of my own, and I fear I am looking at all this much too personally. And now, interestingly enough, that is the second time the idea that it is tricky separating things out has come up. So I'm going to take that as part of the message.

So then, this week will still probably see health issues, and digging out the roots of them, as a major theme. Especially women's health issues (not all that surprising as I believe most of my readers here are women). It promises to be on the complex side, and be aware that there may be two strands to it when you had assumed there was only one, and/or that you are more sensitive to something than you were counting on. It is likely leading up to a rebirth of some sort, or a transformation; or, this rebirth or transformation may alternately be the root of it. Dig, investigate, look at it. This is powerful work.

The harvest is still ongoing, and though I don't particularly see it in this card, I feel I should mention it. Something in this is coming to fruition. I suppose, birth is the harvest of pregnancy, as well as the beginning of a new state of affairs.

She says:

Daughter. Daughters. Look to the moon, read by that light. Shine that light on things. Not the sun. He is too bright, and you will not see the subtlety of things by His light. But the moon.

The old wild ways, the dark in balance with the light, the light of the full moon shining alone at night; this is the kind of balance to achieve right now, a womanly balance, the balance of the divine woman, female, goddess. Not man's black and white, but the subtle shadows that yet hold a little reflected light within them. The moon is a reflection itself, is it not? My true mirror.

It is more complicated than you think, yes. Also more mine. And more yours, as women. Do not take the easy answers as truth in this case. Daughters, your healing is a little different. It must be whole.

I wish you all (and myself) good grace in untangling these strands.

Moving On

Okay, I am totally sick of looking at Benzaiten's boob. She has proved to be a far more complicated Goddess than I would have thought, having a long and convoluted history as She originates in the Hindu Sarasvati (a river Goddess so old even in ancient times Her river was lost) Who then was adopted into Buddhism which then made its way into China which is how She came to be known to the Japanese Who took Her as their own even assimilating Her into a couple of the native Shinto Goddesses.

I mean I think I've got that straight.

Anyway, I'm not sure now that my portrait of Her is quite appropriate, and the whole shebang of Her will need some Musing; but while I give that time I've decided I shouldn't let that hold up the writing of The Book. So I'm going to put Her aside even though I haven't finished Her entry, and even though I am usually quite loathe to do so, as I have this problem with finishing things as it is. But I think in this case I will have to move on if I am to move at all.

So, then, it's back to the Roman Goddesses. Which makes Diana next.

Another Book Update

Well I officially finished Ceres; and though I probably ought to move ahead with the next Roman Goddess, Diana, I think I will allow myself to be distracted by the Japanese Goddesses. There are only three of them in my deck, Amaterasu, Benzaiten, and Sengen, and I'm in the mood.