First, The Goddess Month of Rosea begins today. Her time runs from June 13th to July 10th. I could find very little on the Goddess Rosea. So little, it made me a little insane. One Pagan book mentioned her briefly as a Flower Maiden. I am assuming this is because June often reflects the Great Mother in her Maiden form. If you have any information concerning Rosea, please comment or email me.
Not only did the Welsh hold a feast for Epona on this day (which started at sundown, the following) but present day Pagans may be paying homage to the Horse Goddess also.
The Roman Goddess Minerva was said to be an aspect of Athena. Both are being honored on this day as well as the in Greece, who will be feasting in honor of their Goddess of war and wit.
Athena resulted in a bad result of a parental meltdown between Zeus and Metis (also believed to be Medusa). As Zeus swallowed Metis up, resulting in the worst of all headaches, Athena was born after her father’s head was cracked open.
Athena, being shown with a snake-haired mask that was a gift from her mother, had the power to turn men into stone. Funerary statues and phallus pillars were believed to be the men Athena used her mask on.
Interestingly enough, sometime during the 5th or possibly, 6th Century AD, Christians took possession of Athena’s Parthenon of pillars. Instead of destroying them, though, they converted the Temple into a sacred place of the Virgin Mary.
Since Athene was believed to be a Mother-Goddess who was worshiped as a Holy Virgin, perhaps the transfer of name and ownership was only fitting. Or perhaps it was the Goddess’s way of surviving an unfortunate change.
In Egypt, the Beloved Hathor would have her very own ceremony today. An interesting fact concerning this Queen of Heaven, she was worshiped all the way into the 11th century and her followers were not restricted to the borders of Egypt. In Isreal, she had very very own city of holiness called, Hazor. The bible verse, Joshua 11:13, 21, explains Joshua destroyed the city. However, written within’ the Sinai Tablets, it is said that the Hebrews working for the Egyptians in their mines located inside Mount Sinai, around 1500 BC, loved and adored Hathor. She was also connected to the names, Astarte and Lady Byblos.
Hathor was not only the name of a Goddess but it also , a title. Some say it included seven Goddesses who were known as the Holy Midwives. Each had dominion or protected seven heavenly spheres. When an Egyptian was born, these Seven divine ladies gave the person their seven souls. The Seven Souls were named: ren, knat, ka, ba, ab, aakhu, and khailbut. The Seven Hathors became something like Fairy Godmothers ,who came to the child at birth granting him or her these precious soul-gifts. In fact, some sources claim that this is where Fairy Godmothers– those of the Middle Ages– came from.
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