Ancient Calendar & Pagan Holidays: June 30th: A Goddess is born

 

Ceres, the Roman Goddess of Agriculture, will hold June’s hand so that the warm month will not have to go alone.

Rome made today sacred to her, BUT, not before the Greeks did, because Ceres was just another version of Demeter. Ceres being born of Rome around the year 496 BCE after  a horrible famine hit. The Sibylline Oracles assured the Fathers of Rome that they needed to adopt the Goddess in order to save them. It must have worked, because Ceres stayed, even though she was mostly worshiped by Women and the mysteries of her rites and rituals were kept between those women and NOT spoken to historians.

Working with Stories

One of the things that myths give us, are stories that we can use to measure and make sense of our own lives. Relating personal experience to mythic archetypes it can be possible to find ways through hard times, answers to challenging questions, and ways of being. We can take the myths as role models, or as ‘what not to do’. Most of us will find times in our lives when we are out of inspiration, hope, or a sense of direction. In seeking mythic parallels, we can find answers to that, or at least the sense that others have faced challenges before and survived.

This is a notion I’ve been contemplating for a while, thinking about how pagan writers use myths to explore contemporary life – Emma Restall Orr uses the theme of Gawain and the Loathly Lady extensively to explore ideas of femininity in Kissing the Hag while Kevan Manwaring uses the Taliesin myth to explore his own bardic path in The Way of Awen. This is something any of us can do, at any time, for any reason. What prompted me to think of it was a suggestion from Ness on facebook (thanks Ness!) that I put my trials into the hands of a goddess for a while.

Crashed out for an hour this afternoon, I contemplated the stories of goddesses, and waited for inspiration. I remembered the story of Rhiannon- falsely accused of killing her child, and then made to bear people on her back like a horse, and tell her story to them. It would be fair to say that there are no close parallels between that and my own life, but it is story about endurance, staying true to yourself, and justice being done in the end.

Rhiannon endures with good grace. Her circumstances make me think of modern women accused of infanticide because their children have died from cot death. There were some high profile cases in the UK a few years ago. It’s the worst thing that could happen to a mother – to lose your child and then be blamed for it. Rhiannon is blamed. She has no way of defending herself and does not even know what has happened. She has no way of resolving things. All she can do, is endure with good grace, which she does, and tell her story.

There is a power in telling stories. In the end, the stolen child is recovered, Rhiannon’s good name is restored to her, and the real villain is punished. This is only possible because she has endured, she has survived and lived long enough to see things righted.

Normally I tend to favour active solutions to problems, rather than characters who wait for a rescuer, or for fate to return the balance. I don’t have a very trusting nature, and I feel safer when I’m doing something. But Rhiannon’s is a tale in which there is no scope for doing anything at all. There are no clues, nothing to go on. She’s not like Demeter, who is able to go and seek information about the missing Persephone. The child has gone, and there is no one who can tell Rhiannon how, aside from the mysterious thief. Rhiannon’s is a tale of powerlessness, and if any character had justification to despair, she would be the one. And yet, she gets through, somehow.

This is a story about not giving up, even when there is no visible reason for hope. That’s a very powerful message to turn to when there seems to be no way forward. It is also a tale about grace and a certain kind of quiet courage. Rhiannon does not dishonour herself in any way, despite what she is made to endure. She shoulders her burdens, literally, and she gets through. So may we all.

Goddesses for Children

As the theme for the month is Pagan Parenting, here is a list of Goddesses who protect and help children. They are all wonderful focuses for ritual and activities with your little munchkins!

Bast – Egyptian goddess of annoiting. She is the creator of perfumes and oils, as well as the Mother of cats and the magickal power they contain. Considered the mirror to Sekhmet, Bast is the protector of women and children and brings health, joy, and prosperity to Her worshippers. She teaches children (including the inner child) to play without fear and enjoy life.

Demeter – Greek Goddess of the Harvest.  Mother of agriculture and the seasonal year, Demeter is the Goddess of the grains and parenthood.  Sympathetic to suffering and grief, those who call out to Her for aid are always answered.  She is the Mother aspect of the Triple Goddess, forming the triad with Persephone and Hecate.  Demeter’s endurance and ferocity in the struggle to rescue Her daughter Persephone from the Underworld expresses a mother’s protective love for child.  She keeps children safe from harm.

Eostre – also Ostara. Goddess of Spring to the Saxon and Germanic tribes.  Eostre is usually depicted as an adolescent girl or as a buxom young woman, representing the beginning of the spring season, and the ripeness found within.  Her name is derived from eastre, an ancient word for Spring, and She is the ultimate representation of the Maiden.  The Christian holiday Easter is actually named for Eostre’s festival, where she was honored as a fertility Goddess with painted eggs and sweet foods.

Lady of Beasts – Animal Goddess of the Middle East.  The title Lady of Beasts is used to describe a variety of Goddesses in many cultures.  She is best known in the Middle East, stretching into Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley.  She is the life giving force of the universe, ruling wild forests, jungles, and the animals within them.  A birth and fertility goddess, Her presence is said to reproductively bless all women and animals. She protects animals domestic and wild, and teaches children to respect the animal kingdom. Lady of Beasts is generally depicted as a pregnant woman and surrounded by untamed animals.

Shasti – Hindu Goddess of Children.  Shasti protects mothers in labor and children until they reach puberty.  She is a favorite of midwives and nurses, and is pictured as a matronly figure riding a cat.

Pagan Holiday for November 17th, 2009

Pagan Days for Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Tuesday belongs to Mars, Ares, Tiwaz, Tiw (named after), Tuisco & Tyr

 

As Tuesday belongs not only to the God Mars, but also to the Planet of Mars, we can toss the Element of Fire into the mix ,and have the makings of a very heated and passionate day!

So if you don’t have anyone to vent those wild emotions out on, don’t fret because you can point them into the direction of matters or magical rituals and spells concerning:

anything having to do with marriage, money or wealth, loyalty, enemies, protection, confidence for yourself or another, and of course, courage!

 

The moon phase for today is:

~Waxing Crescent~

What do you know, the Waxing Crescent is for magic concerning love, wealth, success, friendship, luck or health.

 

Now, Rie McGaha has agreed to pull a Kate & Leopold with us so we can go back in time to see what the Holidays were today. Yep, she will shove us off the Brooklyn Bridge so we can get enough speed and force to slip through a tear in time…ready?

 

November 17th belongs to…

The Roman Ceres

& the Greek Demeter

 

Artist Soa Lee

 

 

Ceres and Demeter were the same Goddess. One belonged to the Romans and the other belonged to the Greeks. On this day, the Romans are throwing an informal Observance for Ceres: Goddess of Agriculture.

Ceres was not always a part of Rome.

Back during 496 BCE, Rome was facing an awful drought. Having enough before all of Rome starved, the Sibylline Oracles demanded that they bring Ceres into their culture to spare them.

Rome did so, but Ceres did not belong to everyone. She became a mysterious Goddess worshipped by women—women having the power to invoke her. That meant only women knew and practiced the sacred rites and rituals of Ceres and only women passed them down…to other women.

Of course sooner or later, women stopped passing those secrets probably when Rome was handed over to Christianity and Paganism became feared. That meant the rites and secrets of Ceres were forgotten and not one historian was able to record them for us Pagans of the future.

 

So today as you light your candles and give a whisper of honor to Ceres…

think about the women who kept her secrets sacred and alive. And possibly let them know, wherever they are, that Paganism did indeed survive, after all.

 

Like to add a little science to your Paganism?

Well Ceres is also the name of a dwarf star—the only one in our asteroid belt.

Them Ancients were so dang smart!

 

 

 

 

 

Links for further reading

 

Want to know what November represents?

Check out my past post called:

Paganism: The Month of November

 

Want more written by someone else?

Check out…

Ceres (dwarf planet) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ceres – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ceres (mythology) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Demeter, Greek Goddess of The Bountiful Harvest