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Her with Their words, perhaps reminding Her that while She was in hiding, and while Her powers of fertility were withdrawn, the crops of the world (and so the people of the world) were dying.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.

Comment Moderation Enabled

'Cause I'm sick to death of the ?? spammer comments.

To the asshole who keeps spamming my blog comments:

This means that no one but me will ever see your comments. You may as well not waste your time, correct?

Also, may you get what you deserve, thrice over.

Goddess of the Week

Idun, the Norse Goddess of springtime, renewal, and eternal youth, makes Her third appearance here as Goddess of the Week; though She is Goddess of spring, She keeps showing up in summertime, Her first appearance being June 29 of 2009, and Her second on August 24th of the same year. She is said to grow the apples that keep the Deities young, which She keeps safe, giving them out when needed.

Idun is the daughter of Ivald, one of the Dökkálfar ('dark elves') or Svartálfar ('black elves'); they were generally considered to be the same as, or generally confused with, the dwarves, though if you're a Tolkien fan that may seem incomprehensible; in Norse myth the Dökkálfar/Svartálfar/dwarves were said to have been born from the maggots that fed on the corpse of the primeval giant Ymir, out of Whom the world was created. They are called 'black' or 'dark' both because they did not like the light, and because they were thought spiritually unenlightened; in myth, daylight turned them to stone, so during the day they dwelled underground.

Idun is mentioned in stanzas six and seven of the Hrafnagaldr Óðins, or The Incantation of Odin's Ravens, a late Icelandic poem:

In the dales dwells
the prescient Dís,
from Yggdrasil’s
ash sunk down,
of alfen race,
Idun by name,
the youngest of Ivaldi’s
elder children.

She ill brooked
her descent,
under the hoar tree’s
trunk confined.
She wuld not happy be
with Nörvi’s daughter,
accustomed to a pleasanter
abode at home.

I could find no mention of Idun's mother, but She must not have shared Her father's (and brothers') intolerance of the sunlight, for not only is she said to have lived in the dales or valleys, but 'Nörvi's daughter' refers to Nott, the Goddess of Night.

She is called above a Dís, usually translated as 'lady' or 'Goddess'; the Dísir as a class are a bit difficult to pin down, but are female Deities or spirits Who may have roots in the dead, or in Goddesses of the earth; Freyja was called Vanadís, or 'Dís of the Vanir' in Her role as fertility Goddess.

The Hrafnagaldr Óðins tends to baffle scholars, who can't even agree on an approximate date; it may describe Ragnarok and the ending of the world. The stanzas about Idun above seem to refer to an unwilling descent into the earth at that time, one She had foreseen; as She is the Goddess of springtime and youth, this may refer both to the ending of the Deities' lives, and the coming of the Fimbulvetr, the three-year-long winter that will usher in Ragnarok.

Despite Her family's unenlightened origins, Idun was considered a major Goddess; She married the God Bragi, son of Odin and the giantess Gunnlod, and had a place at the feast table in Ásgarðr. She was well-loved by most of the other Gods (though Loki lit into Her once without cause), though one wonders how much that had to do with the fact that She held the apples that guaranteed Their eternal youth.

I wonder. Her name means 'the Ever-Young' or 'She Who Rejuvenates'; how much of Her is based in an Earth-Goddess (for want of a more precise term)? She is a daughter of the earth-dwelling Dökkálfar, She tends to and harvests the apples of youth Herself, and there is a story of Her descent into the earth at the root of Yggdrasil. The Earth of springtime might certainly be called She Who Rejuvenates; and spring itself, though young each year, is ever-ancient in its cycle.

So what does that mean for this week? Though it is summer (or winter in the south), look to a current cycle; something is in a springtime phase, now, one of renewal and rebirth. But a gentle kind, less a painful sloughing of skin like a snake, and more the refreshment of a good night's sleep. Look also to the echoes of past cycles in this one. For example, I was quite surprised to find, in comparing journal entries over a year or two, that the same very specific mood (down to a liking of moody black and white photos!) would come up at the same week from one year to another. Now is a good time to see the similarities across the years; see what you can find. It will help make sense of what is happening now.

What does She say?

Be renewed. I am the Goddess of stem cells, that heal, renew, repair. I am rejuvenation; I am hoarded health. You may call on it now, that which you have kept saved. You are stronger than you think. Tap into it now, if you need it.

All is well. The new grows from the old; the new destroys the old as it grows. Health destroys disease as it grows. All is well.

There is always the new. Never fear.

What do you think?


References:

An Introduction to Viking Mythology, by John Grant;

bit of Wikipedia, again, though it was significantly less helpful this time;

and the Benjamin Thorpe translation of the Hrafnagaldr Óðins accessed at Northvegr

Goddess of the Week

This is the first time the Germanic Sun Goddess Sunna has come up; appropriately enough up here in the north the summer is just getting started. The sun is high and what is usually the hottest month of the year has begun.

Sunna is the personified sun in Germanic myth, and Her name, as you may have guessed, means 'Sun'; She is said to be the sister of the Goddess Sinthgunt, about Whom not a whole lot is known, though She may be either a Moon or Star Goddess (the former being problematic as the Moon was generally thought to be male in the Germanic/Norse system). Both of them are mentioned in the Merseburg Incantations, medieval German magic spells from the ninth or tenth centuries; in them the sisters, with Frija, Volla, and Wodan (Freja, probably Fulla, and Odin) cure the horse of Phol (possibly Baldr), which had sprained its foot. So Sunna, then, was at least thought to be skilled in magic, and to have healing powers.

In closely related Norse mythology, the Sun Goddess is called Sól, which also means 'Sun'. Here is Her tale:

At the very beginning of things was Ginnungagap, the Abyss; it held at once everything and nothing. Out of the void came Yggdrasil, the World Tree; self-created, it would run through the center of all the nine worlds.

At Yggdrasil's southernmost root was Múspellheimr, a land of heat and fire, from which embers constantly drifted; these embers in turn melted the ice of Ginnungagap, and the quickened steam and water became the first of the frost giants, Ymir. At the same time a cow, Audhumla, was created; She fed Ymir with Her milk, and licked at the salty blocks of ice, within which was another creature, Buri, the ancestor of the Gods. After three days licking Buri was wholly freed of ice; but in this time the sleeping Ymir had created both the first humans (in this version, anyway) and a six-headed son named Þrúðgelmir, Who then 'gave birth' to Bergelmir, the ancestor of the frost giants.

Buri also had been busy, and had had a son, Börr; the two lines, then, frost giants and proto-Gods set themselves at war, as is perhaps inevitable in Norse mythology. The war lasted for the usual mythical aeons, but then a giantess named Bestla married Börr and by Him had three sons: Odin, Vili, and Ve. With Their help Ymir was killed; and from Ymir's body Odin, Vili, and Ve created our world, Midgard, the world of mortals. And, and this is where this all becomes relevant, from the brightest of the embers of Múspellheimr, They created Máni, the Moon, and Sól, the Sun.

Máni and Sól were then charged with driving the Moon and Sun across the heavens in chariots. Sól's chariot is drawn by two horses called Árvakr ('Early Awake') and Alsviðr ('Very Quick'), but like Her brother She is pursued by a wolf; at times he nearly catches up with Her, which is said to cause eclipses. It is foretold (or has already come to pass) that at Ragnarok the wolves will catch up with Them and destroy the Moon and the Sun.

I will note that as is annoyingly usual in some patriarchal creation myths, the female element has in large part been disappeared. Þrúðgelmir, after all, cannot 'give birth' alone, can He? And if 'He' did then by definition He's a She, isn't S/He? I know, pesky logic. The Norse myths were written down for the most part fairly late, at least a couple centuries after the lands had already been Christianized; like Welsh myth, it can be hard to discern the underlying layers (and I am no expert in Norse myth, trust me). So I don't know if there is something more under there. It is, certainly, a heavily Indo-European tradition, which makes it especially remarkable that the Sun is coded as female and the Moon male. At any rate.

I very much want to interpret this card as a positive sign, of rising fortunes and brighter times this week; but I keep coming back to the fact that this is Norse myth, where the warmth never lasts and all the world begins and ends in ice. However, I suppose, though the summer in the high north is not as warm as it is further south, the Sun is out for far longer in the summer days; this year on the solstice in Stockholm, Sweden, the sun rose at 3:31am and set at 10:09pm, making the day more than eighteen and a half hours long. Perhaps then, this is more about light than heat. What is being illuminated now? What can you get a good, long, look at now?

What does She say?

I draw the darkness after me. This is not frightening, or terrible; it is just night, and night is normal and natural. You need not fear if the light does not last. For though it may not seem it I always come again. Sure as sunrise, don't they say?

Enjoy me while you can. This also, is not terrible, nor a threat; simply a reminder to appreciate what you have while you have it. Your day in the sun is now. Live it, enjoy it, bask in it. Let yourself be warmed.

What do you think?


References:

An Introduction to Viking Mythology, by John Grant;

and surprisingly enough, Wikipedia is pretty thorough on Norse myth.

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Goddess Stuff

Yeah yeah, Goddess blah blah Serious Scholarship blah blah Deep Thinky Mystery Religion Stuff blah blah blah and et cetera.

So (ha!) this isn't Pagan (probably. Maybe it is; I don't know). But I am speechless and simply must share. I absolutely cannot keep this in.

See, I know the band below (well not personally), and have been listening to the pre-1976 stuff for years; yet somehow I never actually thought to look up a live performance on YouTube. And so I'm just stunned, though really I shouldn't be.

I went to high school in the 1980s. So (ha again!) I first knew this singer from that time period, and that is the image of him I'll probably always hold in my head. I mean, sure, I had heard the guy used to have a predilection for red cocktail dresses and fox masks, but still. Damn.

Because the mad March merry hare scrawny adorable long-haired pixie in the glam makeup is fucking Peter Gabriel. With that angel's voice of his mature and unmistakable though he is only twenty-three years old. Unbelievable.



P.S. I don't want to hear anyone say, Peter Who??? and then whine about being born in the 1990s or something. Oh, and get off my lawn!! Damned kids.

Goddess of the Week

Kore is the cult name of Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld in Greek myth, in Her aspect as the Goddess of springtime and daughter of Demeter, the Goddess of the Earth and agriculture. She last came up in the early spring, which I thought at the time a fairly literal sign of the changing seasons; this time, as it's just after Midsummer's, I'm more inclined to interpret it a little more abstractly.

Kore, Whose name simply means 'Maiden,' was just a girl when She was abducted and raped by Haides, the King of the Underworld. Demeter, in Her grief, rage, and worry for Her daughter, dropped all Her usual duties to find Kore, which meant that while She searched, the Earth and its crops, and the people dependent on them, suffered. As did the Gods, in time, when humans could no longer manage to make sacrifices to Them (what with the starving and all). This, incidentally, was the reason Zeus eventually relented and ordered Haides to return Kore—not so much that the humans of the Earth were suffering greatly, but because He wasn't getting his special snowflake honors. Dick.

When Kore was finally returned it would not be wholly, for She had eaten several pomegranate seeds while in the Underworld, and Divine Law decreed that whoever had eaten there was compelled to remain. But Demeter would not hear of it, and threatened the Earth with permanent barrenness, so a compromise was reached: Kore would spent part of every year in the Underworld, and the rest on the Earth.

This was given as the explanation for why the different seasons exist—for while Kore is in the Underworld, Demeter, still outraged by Her daughter's abduction (as well as, one suspects, the subsequent 'compromise') withholds Her gifts and it is winter; but When Kore is released back to the upper world, Demeter welcomes Her with the luxuriant growth of spring.

Of course, Persephone was most likely the Queen of the Underworld first, not second; but myths can be like that and get things inside-out. Her tale of abduction and release of course also formed the thealogical basis for the Eleusinian Mysteries, which promised its initiates a life after death, based on (probably) the idea that Persephone, Goddess of the Dead, goes on to give birth in the Underworld. There is Life even within Death.

At the final point in the Mysteries, initiates were shown a cut ear of wheat as epiphany. The symbolism of the cut grain is very complex, of course; part of it in this story is that it represents the point in the cycle that is both beginning and end, where the grain is ripe, cut, harvested, and can now serve as food; but at the same time it is a seed, the beginning of the next generation and the key to continuity though it is now dead and cut. Which is why Mother and Daughter in this tale are so close, and depicted in art both as adults, the Mother and Her grown Daughter; They are in many ways the same figure, just at different points in the eternal cycle.

There are so many layers to this, so many spiraling cycles, of course; another one is that even while Persephone is underground, buried, She represents the Seed biding its time, that little thing, that germ, which contains within it the entire pattern of the full living thing, and which though it may appear to be inert or dead, is quite definitely alive.

Sometimes I think that all religion boils down to that one little idea, the Seed.

This card this week means a corner has been turned. Though it is (officially) modern summer up here in the north, the theme is yet that of springtime, of emerging from a dark place into the light to a place of growth and thriving. Especially, I think, as far as health and the body are concerned, our own little personal pieces of Earth. Things are improving, and healing, and getting better all the time. If this does not feel true for you, nevertheless know that it is, and that after a space you will almost certainly be able to look back on this time and trace back to the one little thing that changed it all, though it may seem insignificant now. Trust, I think, is a large part of this.

As ever, I ask, What does the Goddess have to say?

Put your feet on the earth, get your feet good and grounded; you must be grounded first for growth to occur. Preferably at the proper planting depth for you. Work on this, this grounding. Connect. Feel the Earth, your home, my home, our home. You need a strong foundation to simply stand up straight, which you must do before you can expect to build upon it. Feel it; it is yours, your birthright. You belong here.

Once you can do that, then you can unfurl into the light, the rain, and the air. So many get the order incorrectly, then wonder why things collapse around them. You must start with the basics; they form the base, after all. Air, Light, Water, Food: seek these and the balance of them now.

What do you think?

Goddess of the Week

Well now that makes sense. The faeries are legendarily quite active around Midsummer, especially on the Eve. The veil between the worlds is said to be quite thin now, as well. I've always thought that it's because in the northern lands (and even here in New England, which isn't all that far north really) at Midsummer the sky never quite gets entirely dark, and keeps a bit of that luminous twilight glow to it even in the wee hours. And if there's one thing the faeries love it's the twilight and the in-between places.

I'm not sure there's much more to add to that. Get out this week into nature, and find that twilight liminal realm for yourself. Spend some time with the magical, the wild, the overgrown and the in-between, whether in the outer world in its green tangle, or the inner world of dreams and visions. Seek the memories of magical times, or the luminous dreams you once had; it will be restorative to the soul.

What do They, for They are always plural, say?

Leave some garden for the groundhogs.

Well I suppose we can't expect 'serious' of the faeries, can we? Still, that's in line with leaving the last apple on the tree for the apple-tree man, isn't it?

Goddess of the Week

This is the first time Vesta, the Roman Goddess of fire and the hearth, has come up. She held a central place in Roman religion: Her round tholos temple was set in the heart of the Roman Forum, and a perpetual flame was kept burning there. She has Her equivalent in the Greek Hestia, and unlike many of the other Roman Deities Who were equated to Greek ones, the two do seem to stem from the same root, and have some similarities in worship as well as name. As the hearth is the primeval altar, both Vesta and Hestia held places of honor in rituals involving more than one Deity, if at opposite ends of the rite: for while the Greeks invoked Her first in ritual, the Romans invoked Her last.

As Goddess of the hearth and the hearth-fire Vesta represents the heart and the center of the community, whether the home and family or the state. She also symbolizes the communal meal, as the hearth is where bread was baked; and in time She became somewhat of a patroness of bakers. On Her holiday on June 9th (just last week!) millstones were decorated with garlands, and loaves were hung about necks of the asses responsible for turning them.

She was one of the few Roman Deities to have no image; the naked flame was taken to represent Her.

I think this week is about being grounded in fire, though that may sound an odd thing to say. Vesta is about the center and the hearth and the flame that burns there. One normally grounds in relation to the earth; but remember that at the center of this planet deep fire burns. Tap into your own fire this week; it will be more centering and more stabilizing than you might think.

Vesta's rites were overseen by women: the famous college of Vestal Virgins. It was women's work to hold the center of Rome sacred and true. Remember that also this week.

What does She say?

Burn hot, burn warm, burn fierce, burn gently. All of these things are Me. I hold to the center; it all turns around Me. I am first and I am last if you are to do anything well and truly. Honor Me by honoring the sacred fire at your own center, your heart, the fire in your belly, that infinitesimal yet infinite Star at the center of the Soul. I live in each of you. Honor Me by honoring yourself.

Reference:

Dumézil, Archaic Roman Religion

Goddess of the Week

The Greek Goddess Hera comes up here for the first time. In myth Hera is the sister and wife of Zeus, the great Olympian king of the Gods, and so Queen Herself. But Zeus has a wandering eye, and Hera takes the role of the scorned, jealous wife Who savagely punishes Her husband's paramours; She has the reputation of a shrewish, jealous woman. A passive-aggressive conniving bitch driven to behind-the-scenes power plays, actually.

Well, that's the classical version of it anyway. But I think we know better by now, don't we?

The truth is that Hera pre-dates Zeus. She was the principal Deity of either sex of the area around Argos, Her Archaic temple at Olympia is earlier than the one Zeus had there, and Zeus is called posis Hêrês, or 'spouse of Hera' in Homer. The likely explanation for the structure of the later myths is that when Zeus came along, Hera, as the main Deity of the region, was joined to Him as His wife, an obvious Queen to His King. The same process may account for many of Zeus's 'lovers' (in quotes since some of Them were clearly raped): the local Goddess was joined to the new King, as expression of Her status, or by way of absorbing the indigenous religion. That the other local Goddesses kept some of Their original importance is played out in myth as the conflict between Hera as the 'official' wife and the rest as mistresses. Though Hera and Zeus are associated from fairly early times, Zeus's earliest wife may well have been the prophetic Titaness Dione.

We don't really know what Her name means, though an early form, Era is mentioned on Mycenaean Linear B tablets. It may be connected to springtime, or to a word for 'Protectress'; She is very much associated with heroes, which word is related to Her name.

She was probably originally a fertility Goddess, as much as that term is a vague one. She is associated from earliest times with cows (one of Her epithets is Boôpis, 'Cow-eyed') the seasons, especially springtime and its flowers, and to trees: She had several xoana, rough wooden statues, planks, or pillars, either aniconic or barely iconic, generally considered (by the Greeks of the time) as indicative of ancient worship.

Her story is one of uncomfortable adaptation into a new system, with Her fighting it the whole way. I am not sure what to make of it, as far as interpretation for card for the week goes; and I am inclined, as ever, to make more of origins than later interpretation. Especially since Her story is not a happy one, and She becomes locked into a losing battle through circumstance and the brutality of the culture and Her husband, Who was plainly abusive at times. So I'm not sure. Survival, perhaps, and doing what it takes to live in a gamed system may be the theme this week. But remember, if you can, that the system is unjust, even if you have to play along to survive. And that if the rules are immoral, there is no moral reason to follow them.

On the other hand, there is great value in uncovering that which is lost, or buried. Dig down to those origins if you can; what you find promises to be surprising, and healing. Find those roots, whether of the problem you are trying to work through or out, or of your own innocence or authentic self. Remember who you were, and who you are, and find the thread that connects the two.

What does She say?

I am wronged, very wronged. We, I, are all wronged, We this Earth, We the Goddess, I the Goddess, I all of Woman; We are wronged. And though it is not the responsibility of the wronged to make it right, that is the only way it will happen. Those wronging us are not about to stop of their own accord. They have made that quite clear.

So we must take what is ours. Earth will right Herself, at whatever cost; though She uses a broad brush, and will take the innocent with the guilty. It cannot be helped. Survival, after all, is first. And She may not be judged.

References:

The Transformation of Hera: A Study of Ritual, Hero, and the Goddess in the Iliad, by Joan O'Brien, through Google Books. Oddly enough I can't find a copy for sale through the usual places. Which is really weird as it's neither too old nor too new, being published in 1993. Really, not one used copy available anywhere?

And Theoi, as usual.

Goddess of the Week

We haven't seen Her in nearly a year, but Amaterasu, the Japanese Goddess of the Sun, is making Her third appearance here. (Her other two: in July of 2009, and early November, 2008.) She is the principal Deity of Shinto, considered the foremother of the Imperial line, and said to have invented weaving, agriculture, and therefore civilization. Her name, given in full as Amaterasu-Omikami, means "The Great Goddess Who Shines in the Heavens."

Amaterasu is the daughter of the first couple, Izanami ("She Who Invites") and Izanagi ("He Who Invites"). After creating the islands of Japan, Izanami and Izanagi then desired to have a child Who would rule over all; and so Amaterasu was born. It is important to remember that Amaterasu is not just an important Goddess, but the supreme Shinto Deity of either sex; in my reprint of Myths and Legends of Japan, which was originally from 1913, the primeval couple ask Themselves "Why should we not produce someone who will be the Lord [sic] of the Universe?" since of course the Deity at the tippy-top of things must be male, from the western author's point of view.

Now, it's true, Japanese myth is not my strong suit, but my feminist nose is smelling some revisioning of the myth. In the story of Amaterasu's parents, Izanami (Her mother) and Izanagi (Her father), came together to an island. Having decided to marry, They set up a ritual pillar, which They walked around in opposite directions (it would be interesting to know Who walked sunwise, and Who walked widdershins, wouldn't it?). When They met, Izanami exclaimed, "How wonderful! I have met a beautiful young man!" This angered Izanagi, however, since He felt He was entitled to the first move, and the first speech, since He was male (and that is specifically the reason given); He insisted They do it over, and when They met the second time, He said, "How wonderful! I have met a beautiful young woman!" And this, according to the legend, made everything right with the Universe.

Yeah, well. That's a pretty literal account of men being rewarded for taking credit for something women have done first, down to the words from our mouths being stolen; and also it strikes me as a pathetically transparent justification for building a society on a sexist foundation. So transparent, that I wonder what is there to prove? It if really is just as it always has been, is there a need to justify it like that? So I wonder if this is a remnant, a remembering in myth, of a time when Japan was not patriarchal. From what I understand of history, Japan does have a matriarchal (or whichever word you choose to describe it) past; the Chinese are said to have been surprised when they first encountered the Japanese tribes, as the leaders of those tribes were often women.

Now Izanami and Izanagi's next child was the Moon-God, Tsukuyomi; and though They thought He and Amaterasu a perfect pair, They argued almost from the first sight of each other. And so Amaterasu rules without a consort. Which She doesn't need anyway, being brilliant, canny, inventive, hard-working, and an excellent archer to boot; and She always uses Her gifts to further civilization.

This week I think it will be about sunshine; specifically, the kind of sunshine that illuminates the dark places. Perhaps it will involve taking credit where it is due, or shining the light on someone else's misappropriation; it may also involve bringing dark areas of your past to light in the name of healing. It may be somewhat painful to look, I fear, but it is a good time, if you choose. Stand in the sun; be aware, and warmed, and visible. The light will prove a great source of strength.

Take credit for the good discarded or buried things that are yours, but also recognize what isn't yours--perhaps shame, guilt, or the like which you have been carrying around with you. This week will provide a very good opportunity to see things with remarkable accuracy and clarity.

She is brilliance, and warmth, and growth. She draws the flower to Her; the plants grow towards Her, longing to reach Her.

What does She say?

Reach for me, unfold yourself, unfurl yourself in my warmth. It is safe here. I am the Truth that stands in the Light, and I will not be denied. I am strong, and intelligent, and prepared to defend myself and you; and I cannot be fooled. Grow towards me; use my warmth and light to grow strong. Remember I am always here, even in the winter; and even if my light is low, I always return. Come out into the light!

What do you think?


References: Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology

Goddess of the Week

This is the first appearance of the Welsh Goddess Cerridwen, Who keeps the cauldron of inspiration. The meaning of Her name is a little obscure, but it may be related to words for 'poetry' or 'cauldron' and the -(g)wen on the end, which usually means 'white', may, since it is used of a Goddess, mean 'blessed' or 'holy'. She is said to live at the bottom of Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake) in Wales. Her story:

Cerridwen was the mother of a girl and a boy; the girl, named Creirwy, grew up to be the most beautiful woman on earth, but the boy, Morfran, ('Great Crow') was conversely relentlessly ugly. To make up for Her son's hideous looks Cerridwen decided to brew a magical potion that would confer upon Him divine poetic inspiration and the gift of prophecy; this potion, however, was a large undertaking, requiring a year and a day to brew. To help Her in this She enlisted a blind man and a servant boy, Gwion Bach, to attend to the fire and stir the cauldron.

At the appointed hour She set Morfran by the cauldron, and exhausted, went to sleep; but something went awry, and the three magical drops intended for Morfran fell instead on Gwion Bach.

And so the first thing Gwion Bach understood with his newly acquired gifts of prophecy and inspiration was that Cerridwen was going to kill him. So he quite wisely fled, taking the form of a hare.

Cerridwen awoke in a rage and pursued him in the shape of a greyhound. He changed into a fish, and She became an otter; then he became a bird, She a hawk. Finally he fled to a granary, where he took the form of a single grain of wheat. Cerridwen, not to be thwarted, became a hen, Who without much trouble located him and ate him.

But of course this is myth; and so soon enough Cerridwen found Herself pregnant with the boy. When He was born He was so beautiful She could not kill Him, as She had intended; still, wanting nothing to do with Him She set Him adrift in a coracle, a small boat. Three days later, on Calan Mai (the first of May, or Beltaine) He was found, caught in a fish-weir; and in time He grew up to be the divine poet Taliesin.

Though Cerridwen is quite clearly a mother She also has crone or hag like elements, perhaps because of Her reputation as a sorceress, or because She is a negative or devouring mother. Which is perhaps a little unfair; after all She was quite determined to help Her elder son Morfran. And perhaps it can't be broken down that simply anyway. She is probably more properly thought of as a Goddess of transformation--of the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Though Her cauldron is specifically a source of awen, poetic or prophetic insight, in other tales from Celtic lands cauldrons are a means of regeneration and rebirth. The tale of Branwen from The Mabinogion features a wondrous cauldron: if a man slain that day is placed within it, the next day he will be alive again and his strength at its peak; the only caveat being that he will lose the power of speech. Death, after all, is silencing, and one does not come through a transformation without change.

So this week is about transformation and inspiration both; but there is a very strong element of unpredictability. The best laid plans, well, they will go awry, and all your hard work may seem dashed. If you can see it through, however, things will loop around to something really quite wonderful, perhaps more wonderful than you could have imagined. Trust this process, if you can; at the least patience will help.

Or it could be that you do get what you want, and things go off without a hitch; but you come to the realization that what you thought you wanted wasn't. Because you have changed. Perhaps those plans have not yet come to fruition; this may be a good time to reevaluate things in light of where you are now. Do those plans still serve you? How have you changed?

In the story above, do you identify with Cerridwen or Taliesin? Your answer will offer insight as to where you are in your transformation. And yes, we are all in the middle of that process, always.

Me, I always felt more for Cerridwen than for the boy. In fact I felt compelled to write Her story, the first one I wrote for the Goddess deck book, because I had read Ari Berk's version of Taliesin's tale for his and Brian Froud's The Runes of Elfland book; I wasn't intending at all to write stories (or rather, I wasn't intending to channel stories, 'cause really, I swear I'm not writing them myself) at all. But She demanded I take down Her side of the story.

So what does She say?

Would you be divinely inspired? It will cost you. Of course. That is how it is.

Throw it all in the pot. ALL. Your life's work, your life's blood, your life. Boil it down to its essence. Boil off the distractions, the extraneous, the unnecessary. Be transformed. It is the only way.

But you know this already.

Goddess of the Week

For the first time we get Medusa. She is one of the Gorgones, three monstrous sisters with snaky hair, fangs, and great wings of bronze Who live out in the furthest West; and Medusa is commonly said to be the only mortal of the three sisters. In the classical myth, Medusa was once a beautiful maiden famed for Her glorious hair Who incurred the wrath of Athena by having sex with Poseidon in one of Athena's temples. Or She incurred the wrath of Athena by being raped by Poseidon in one of Athena's temples. Ancient patriarchies of course (and modern ones, alas) don't really distinguish between the two. And so in the story Athena punished Her, Medusa, not Him, Poseidon, quite savagely, by transforming Medusa into a monster so ugly Her merest glance turned men into stone.

Now, I like Athena. A lot. But I'll have no truck with this blaming the victim crap. None at all.

I suppose you could rationalize it by theorizing about why Athena wouldn't want to go after Poseidon--He is too powerful, it could start a very big war, it wasn't going to end well, whatever--and so, eminently practical Goddess that She is, Athena took out Her anger on the next nearest target, His victim.

Or we could just say it's the fucking patriarchy putting words in Athena's mouth and assume it's all been twisted out of recognition. I lean towards this interpretation myself, but then, I really like Athena. So I am not unbiased.

The thing is, though, Medusa as a transformed maiden doesn't really make much sense. Now, okay, it's mythology, and so it is no more linear and logical than a dream; and ordinary reason does not apply. But Medusa has those two sisters, Who are always spoken of as monstrous, snaky-locked, bronze-winged and fangéd. That is just how they are, and always have been. Why should Medusa be any different? I suspect part of it is the Perseus myth, where the hero cuts off Her head (while She is asleep!) on a dare, helped along by the typical heroish accoutrements of winged sandals, a helmet of invisibility, a mirrored shield. For him to be able to do this Medusa has to be different than Her sisters: She has to be mortal.

She also has to be 'guilty', I think. When Perseus cut off Her head, two beings leapt out from Her severed neck: Pegasos, the magical winged horse, and the hero Khrysaor, about Whom one hears very little except that He was the father of the three-bodied Geryon. Poseidon is said to be their father.

Think about all that a minute. It is usually glossed over, or made invisible, but that means Medusa was pregnant when Perseus killed Her. She was also, as far as I've ever heard, just minding Her own (albeit monstery) business. It's not like She was harassing the locals and threatening to eat a princess or something (i.e. Andromeda).

Something here has been re-cast, the story changed. I'm not sure how though and am truthfully just going on instinct, on the fact that something smells off to me; but Hesiod (one of the earliest sources), though he does call the Gorgones monsters, also makes no mention of rape, or of Athena's temple; instead, he says that 'Poseidon, he of the dark hair, lay with [Medusa] in a soft meadow and among spring flowers.' From what I can tell, the story of Medusa's rape in the temple comes from Ovid. While it's true he may have been repeating something said earlier, still he is not only late (the first centuries BCE and CE), he is in fact also Roman.

There is also the matter of Medusa's name. It means 'Mistress,' 'Guardian,' or 'Queen.' Those are not usually negative words. Her sisters, incidentally, are Sthenno ('Strength', Whom I have painted), and Euryale (either 'Wide-Stepping' or 'the Wide Salt Sea'). They are daughters of the Sea-Deities Keto (Who gives Her name to the order of whales, cetaceans) and Phorkys.

They are certainly elemental, primeval creatures, as are Their siblings, Skylla, the Graiai, and the dragon Ekhidna. And civilization does tend to demonise the primeval, to make monsters out of the natural world which can be so unthinking of the needs of us humans.

But there is something else about Medusa.

When Perseus cut off Her head, Athena caught up some of Her blood. That from the left side of Medusa's body killed instantly, but that from the right had such healing powers it could bring the dead back to life.

So. She is primeval, and powerful, and not entirely monstrous. Perhaps that is why in the later legends She is said to once have been beautiful. The story of Her blood is part of the reason I painted Her as beautiful, and why Her snakes are that deep red color.

So for this week then? I think last week's theme, anger and the primeval power of the natural world will continue to play out; also the Gorgones' connection with the Sea make me think of the gushing oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Although of this writing I hear it has been capped somewhat, the effects of the spill are going to be with us a long time. There are consequences to be dealt with, Work to be done on that.

On an individual level, keep paying attention to your anger. What does it ask of you? Keep an eye towards fairness and justice, never forgetting to turn it towards your own self. And blood, too, however you interpret that, though it need not be dire. Myself I tend to see menstrual issues in this card, if only a warning that you may be in for a crampalicious week.

Whatever it is it's pretty primal or basic. Be aware (or as aware as you can manage) of the forces, emotional and physical, that are moving about under the surface. Don't assume your conscious mind has the full picture right now.

What does She say?

I am blood. I am old, old as blood, old as seawater; I move within each of us, in tidal rhythm. I am slow, and powerful, and ancient. I inhabit the furthest west, that place where night meets the Sea; a liminal realm, threshold to another. I guard that border. You cross only in accordance with my will.

Sisters, remember me. I am also that which is made monstrous by fear. And I am truth. Seek out the truth of me. Unbury me from your stories. I am not what you might think. But you will have to find your own truth of me.

To read Her story, go here.

References: Theoi's Medusa and Gorgons page.

Goddess of the Week

Pele comes up again as our Goddess of the Week; She showed up just over a year ago, on March 14th and April 5th of 2009. She is the Hawaiian Goddess of volcanoes and their power, said to live within the crater of Kilauea on Hawaii, perhaps the most active volcano on the planet. The Pu'u 'O'o cone, part of the Kilauea system but not located within the main crater, is currently erupting, and has been since January 1983; just this morning as a matter of fact it ate a webcam.

Here's an aerial view of Pu'u 'O'o:

(Picture from Google Maps)

In legend Pele quarreled with Her elder sister Na-maka-o-kaha'i, the Sea-Goddess; an angry Na-maka-o-kaha'i pursued Her through each of the Hawaiian islands in turn, destroying Pele's efforts to set up homes there. But when Pele came to the Big Island She took refuge in the crater of Kilauea; this proved to be too high for the Sea-Goddess to reach, and Pele was finally able to make Her home there.

Pele is capable of immense swaths of destruction, and is accorded much respect, as is proper; but Her acts of destruction are at the same time acts of creation. There is no land in Hawaii that is not born of a volcano.

As for this week: Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland is causing problems again, or, rather, our dependence on air travel is causing us problems; the volcano is really just doing what volcanoes do. I think that may be part of the lesson here--distinguishing what is in our control and what is not, and then accepting the situation. Seriously, would you argue with a volcano?

Also I can't help but think that it has gotten to a point where the Earth has begun to push back. Well, not push back, per se. Really it's all a natural and normal reaction to the crap She puts up with from us humans--the pollution causing rising temperatures, the oil pouring into the Gulf due to our own greed and insistence on using everything up--and we should not be surprised. That we are is testament to our hubris.

On a personal level, what are your volcanoes? I once had a nightmare in which a new volcano formed a street over from my house; it was quite terrifying. When I woke it seemed to be warning me of anger I held within myself. What do you hold inside? What threatens to erupt? Kilauea rarely explodes catastrophically, since it is constantly spewing lava; I won't call it a 'gentle' eruption, as it is after all a volcano. Still, there is a lesson there, about being open to expressing our anger regularly so that it does not build up to explosive levels.

What does She say?

I rumble from within. Lava is my blood and it boils. I destroy, all the time, constantly; I create, all the time, constantly. I am partial to neither. It is simply what I do.

Learn that you are small. Very small. Keep this in mind. You must learn some respect. Well, you will or you will not; it will not matter, really. You are just so small.

There are some things that are beyond your control.

What do you think?

Goddess of the Week

Vivian is the Lady of the Lake in the Arthurian legends. This is the first time She has come up as Goddess of the Week.

Her name is variously spelled as Vivian, Viviene, Niniane, Nimianae, Niviene, Nimue, &c. She was said to live at the bottom of a lake and to have been Lancelot's foster-mother, (which is why he was called 'du Lac') and to have given the magical sword Excalibur to Arthur. She was also the pupil and lover of the great magician Merlin; in time She became more powerful and learned than he, and imprisoned him in a tree or a cave, depending on the version of the story.

Now. I'm primarily concerned with Goddesses; and when I did the art for these, some dozen years ago now, well, first, I was operating with a fairly loose definition of 'Goddess', and, second, I was going more by intuition than anything else, which in this case, told me that Vivian, Nimue, &c., had Her origins in some sort of Celtic Goddess.

Which is probably true. However, tracking it down is nearly impossible. The Arthurian legends are extraordinarily dense and tangled, having both been transmitted orally back and forth between quite a few cultures, Irish, French, and Welsh to name a few, and copied and recopied in writing (frequently badly, with many misspellings and misreadings, which may account in large part for the myriad variations on Vivian's name, especially when you consider medieval styles of calligraphy, in which U, V, N, and M look very similar).

So in researching this, frankly, I'm over my head, and just about cross-eyed from trying to sort it out in a succinct manner. Still, I'll take a stab at it.

She is quite likely related to Morgan le Fay, at the very least as far as the elements to Her tale(s) goes; Morgan in turn may (or may not) have some affinity, or may derive from, the Irish Goddess Macha and/or the Mórrígan, and/or the Irish Modron ('the Mother'), famous as the mother of Mabon, Who derives (this one at least is certain, or as certain as these things get) from the Gaulish Matrona, Who gives Her name to the Marne River in France; Matrona in turn is related to the triple Matres of Gaul in the time of the Romans. That, at least, is (some of) the Morgan side of things.

She has also been linked to the Irish Bébinn, sometimes anglicized to Vivionn (though my Dictionary of Celtic Mythology by James McKillop says the Irish and French names are not related, others disagree); this name is one born by several women of Irish legend, one of Whom is an early Irish Goddess of childbirth.

None of this is clear cut, though. There are elements and influences from stories that reminded the tellers of others they had heard, and so were partly incorporated into their tales; and I'm sure the general idea of a sea, river, or lake Goddess or fairy got stuck in there somewhere.

Perhaps this doesn't matter that much, and I should just concentrate on Her role in Arthuriana; but I like origins, and digging. It is tangled, and perhaps cannot be separated. And maybe that is the message this week. At the river's mouth, who can say what part of the water originated in which stream?

I would expect this week to be rather tangled then, but rich. The search is nourishing, even if you don't get to the bottom of things. A big part of the Arthurian appeal is the longing for an older, more magical time, one that is (supposedly) long past. I do not know to what extent this is actually an illusion; but enjoy the pleasant melancholy anyway, if you can.

Though keep in mind, also, that it may be a distraction from the real heart of the matter. It is the week after Beltaine after all, and the faeries are said to be out and about; and they are tricksy types. Try to keep a clear head.

What does She say?

Of course I'm a Goddess.

Trace back and back yet there is no real source is there? All the water on this earth has been around and around the globe many many times. All waters are one water. This is the key part you must remember.

There are no clear boundaries, either, with water. It all flows into itself and a line may not be drawn. By nature it is always in-between.

Remember, also, that a good deal of your body is water. This is your nature too.

What do you think?




References:

Dictionary of Celtic Mythology by James MacKillop.

"Morgain La Fee and the Celtic Goddesses," by Roger S. Loomis. Speculum, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Apr., 1945)

Happy Beltaine Anyway

Well I spent most of Beltaine in bed. Which sounds quite lovely in a nudge-nudge, wink-wink sort of way until you factor in the chicken soup, orange juice, tissues, cough drops, and enormous quantities of snot.

I hear it was a nice day, though.

Unnnnngggh.