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zarya-zaryanitsa · 2 years

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Old Lammas blessings

The Prologue

It’s a fairly well known fact that early Christians gradually replaced many major goddess cults with Mariolatry, with shrines and temples of Mary being built on their old worship sites. As a result you can find quite a few Slavic pagans speculating that the incredible popularity of Mary in Poland has it’s roots in the earlier cult of a pagan goddess.

The principle candidate named is Marzanna (Morana), for which the main explanation I’ve seen are two quotes by Aleksander Bruckner and Maciej Stryjkowski. Aleksander Bruckner, pointed out in his etymological dictionary of Polish language that Poles used the name „Marza” instead of „Maria” untill XVIth century and only stopped due to pressure from the Church, leaving us with merely a few remnants of the old form present in the toponyms such as Świętomarza (eng. Holy Marza) and possibly names of herbs such as marzymięta, marzana barwierska and marzana/maruna (respectively elsholtzia, rubia tinctorum and chrysanthemum parthenium). The second quote is from Maciej Stryjowski’s 1582 Kronika Polska, Litewska, Żmudzka i wszystkiej Rusi (Chronicle of Poland, Lithuania, Samogitia and all of Ruthenia) where he writes that according to another Polish chronicler Wincenty Kadłubek, there was once a great and expensive temple to Marzana in Gniezno, to which people in time of harvest brought in a tithe of various grain in exchange asking for abundance in the coming year. Unfortunately Wincenty Kadłubek never wrote anything like this so we have no idea where Stryjkowski got that from.

While we can probably come up with some other possible connections to inspect (association with apples, Our Lady of the Opening of Fields on 25th of March vaguely corresponding to the drowning of Marzana, who according to folk songs sung on this occasion also opens the fields etc etc.) the truth is that the foundations for the theory in question are at best very shaky.

Still, being familiar with some of those hypotheses, for the longest time I thought it might be fun to celebrate Marzanna in her harvest aspect during Our Lady of Herbs holiday, and take the time to read up on and explore the possible syncretism between the two as a sort of devotional project. So that’s what I’m doing this year.

Honey Feast of the Savior

The three spas days aren’t celebrated in Poland, however having been invited to participate in the blessing of honey by the one and only @graveyarddirt I decided to give it a shot. Suddenly I remembered two jars of fancy flavored honey (mint and cinnamon), that were gifted to me some months ago by my dear mother, and that were currently standing forgotten in the darkest corner of the pantry.

Having already established that Monday will be devoted to Marzanna I decided to devote my Sunday to getting to know Jarowit/Jaryło, her rumoured partner and another deity connected with agricultural cycle and fertility of nature.

“Hear what I say. I am your god. I am he who covers the fields with grain and the forests with leaves; the fruit of the fields and the trees, the offspring of the livestock, and everything that is enjoyed by men are in my power. I give them to my worshipers and take them from those who scorn me.”

- Dialog on the Life of Saint Otto of Bamberg by Herbord translation from Sources of pre-Christian Slavic religion red. J.A. Álvarez-Pedrosa

Our Lady of Herbs

I spend most of the day trying to read up on Mariolatry and connections between pre-Christian Slavic figures and popular Saints. Then, in accordance with a long standing Polish tradition I gathered the herbs that are of greatest importance to our homestead (ie. tea) and blessed them. Unfortunately my grandfather’s dried black currant leaves did not get to me on time, exactly as predicted. Nonetheless it ended up being one of the most beautiful rituals I ever performed.

The epilogue - honey tasting

I wasn’t sure what to expect of mint honey. I certainly was imagining it a lot stronger and more mentholy than it actually turned out - no doubt because most of the minty snacks I try these days are pretty heavy handed with the menthol. However it immediately became obvious to me that this baby relies solely on the actual dried mint in it and not on any additional artificial flavoring. The result tastes like a very sweet mint tisane - oddly warming rather than cooling. Unfortunately the texture is unpleasantly grainy, a necessary consequence of including significant amount of crushed herb. It’s very dark and very thick, remaining perfectly solid even though it’s been extremely hot in my apartment lately. The scent is rather medicinal and I probably would not be able to guess that it’s honey I’m smelling. This jar is in all likeliness going to end up used as tea sweetener, for which it’s perfect, adding hints of both sweetness and freshness. We might at some point gather the courage to experiment with a honeyed-herbal marinade. I’m giving it 6/10 for now because the texture is killing me and I am simply never putting it on a sandwich, ever.

The cinnamon honey is less thick and solid, but also quite dark. Maybe I’d mind the tiny cinnamon particles more if I haven’t tried the mint flavored one first. It’s still a little grainy but much more pleasant. It smells rich and sumptuous, with easily discernable, almost waxy, honey notes. It tastes pretty much like a cinnamon roll with icing and to be perfectly honest I could probably just eat it straight out of the pot like the rat that I am, if I didn’t expect it to be even better with butter on some chałka. Definitely perfect for cakes and desserts. I imagine it would do wonderfully in masala chai. 10/10

UPDATE: The cinnamon honey is STELLAR with my morning coffee.

#Old Lammas Weekend

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hare-beneath-pine · 2 years

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Made bread with basil and lemon thyme from the garden <3

#old lammas weekend

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henbane-and-honeysuckle · 2 years

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Lammas farmers market haul

#summer 2022 #seasons #Old Lammas Weekend

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thegodthief · 2 years

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Old Lammas 2022: Keri Has A Jar

Having seen all of y'all Old Lammas 2022 posts, I feel like Netherworld Post's teeny bat holding up a tiny skull in offering to the grand and enormous moon. "I hope this is enough. I hope I am enough."

So the call went out and the theme was honey, local preferred. How serendipitous then, than I received an offer for quality honey drawn from bee colonies local to my state and even some from my area! A bit pricey, but the company has proven their quality time and time again, and hey, it's for something special, so why not?

I figured I was going to be in for a ride when the honey shipped with a target date of 10 business days for arrival but it arrived on Day 3.

Yay! I have honey! Now what?

Hmm. No. Really. Now what? This is a Christian holiday after all, and I'm still working through some baggage from my experiences. Is this even a holiday I can jump into?

It's no secret that I've been siting with Christian elements again. Heh, that's a polite way to say I've been pushing my luck with certain folks from the Christian pantheon. (I'mma blame Saint Cyprian cuz he's smug af about it.) But I always worry about taking things too far.

(The fact that I exist is a step too far, but this is not the venue for that villain origin story monologue.)

So I did as some Christians are wont to do, and laid it at the feet of the Virgin Mary [VM]. I know how easy it is for me to get caught up in having the Perfect™ preparations which means having the Perfect™ material which means doing everything Perfectly Right And Good™ which we all know is impossible is this universe if not all possible others.

It was VM's prodding that made me pay attention to graveyarddirt's Lammas posts in the first place. And VM's (warm and generous) approval of the honey as acceptable even though it was purchased and jacque shitte was gathered by me. And VM's (soft and merciful) patience pointing out that there was a seat at that metaphorical table for abused and feral creatures like me. So... okay.

I have honey.

That honey was not cheap.

I am not spending another dime on this, [Mother]. If this is so important that I am compelled to participate one way or another, then reveal to me how I'm supposed to join in without wrecking my budget yet again.

That was Monday prior to Old Lammas weekend.

Tuesday, a coworker showed me flyers from a local craft fair with wheat woven corn dollies. "Isn't this neat! They're having a workshop where you can make your own! I'm sure you could do better like the over achiever you are!" I declined.

Wednesday, the restaurant near where I work ran out of honey for a special later in the week and lamented that there wasn't any at hand good enough to use. "All I need is just one cup of good artisan honey! I can stretch that flavor across the entire batch but there's nothing in the stores here and I can't justify the cost of shipping! Hey, you're good at finding last second things! You wouldn't happen to have some artisan honey at home that I can buy off you, would you?" Sorry, no, everything I have is spoken for, but have you considered a run to [specific store 60 min drive away] that I know stocks artisan varieties in pint bottles? (They immediately went out to that store and came back with a dozen bottles for less than the cost of two plus shipping.)

Thursday, I started to despair. I needed to have something ready by Friday evening, and all I have is a pint of precious honey. For whatever reason that still escapes me, I felt that I needed three things for Old Lammas weekend. Honey, plus two others. I had a pint mason jar in my cabinet already clean and set aside. But I had no idea what to do next. I made peace with the idea that I was chasing someone else's ideals again and declared that if Old Lammas arrived with nothing for me to do for it, that I would sell off the honey and never bother with the Virgin Mary again.

Thursday night, I couldn't sleep. I went to the kitchen and took stock of everything in the cabinets. By this time, I had seen so many Old Lammas preparation posts and I was very disheartened to see so many pretty tables and clothes and arrangements and I know better than to compare myself with them, but... fuck.

I am an insignificant bat in the middle of a shadow-smothered night. A scarred mongrel at the back gate. There is nothing here of worth to see, or to show.

Eventually, I did fall asleep. And because I was so exhausted, I dreamt of sleeping deeper still! I remember I was lying on an old cloak that had been softened by time and wear. It was comfortable to rest against. No bedding of thousand-thread cotton sheets would ever be as comfortable as this old cloth that smelled of soothing comfort. The scent even had a color to it: Blue.

Wait.

I opened my eyes and looked at the cloth I was lying on. Marian Blue.

Behind me, half covered by the cloth I was lying on, was a thick shrub in full bloom. Now that I was "awake", I realized the exposed flowers were covered by bees going to and fro. Half of the shade on me was from the shrub and half was from the cloud of bees busy at work. Their hum reminded me of the absent-minded humming of a mother rocking her child.

The wind shifted and instead of blowing away my discomfort, it now drew the scent of the shrub over me. Rosemary. I was snuggled up against a hedge of rosemary.

There was no one to be seen. Blowing dust raced around the sheltering hedge obscuring any sight of what lay beyond. But here, in this pocket of calm, I was safe under the rosemary and the bees. I resolved to untangle the symbolism when I fully woke up, and placed myself in the care of the old cloak, falling into a deeper sleep.

Friday morning, Old Lammas Eve, I'm driving to work and pondering the symbolism that I had literally slept through. That the bees were a reference to honey was blatant. The cloak was her cloak, but why was it snuggled under a hedge of rosemary? Oh, duh, what is it called again? The Rose of Mary! That's her herb! And I do have dried rosemary in the kitchen... but what else? I need three things and I only have two.

"Medicine."

I heard the word between my ears but no voice spoke it. I demanded an explanation but none was given. I continued the commute to work in silence, pondering what the hell could be in my pantry that could fit the category of medicine?

Honey is a carrier and a preservative (of sorts, don't sic any agencies on me, this is not medical advice you pedantic nerds) while rosemary is a blessing and a curative. My stock of individual spices is as thin as the time I have available for cooking.

At work, just as the despair begins to set in again, a conversation with a foodie coworker turns to flavoring honey jars. I express my concern about "an experimental jar" using dried herbs steeped in honey and how to balance flavors in it.

"Oh! Are you making a Medicine Jar?" I could hear the capitals as they asked. "My grandma made one every summer so it would be ready in the winter for flu season! She would take raw honey, and put dried ginger and rosemary and mint in it to steep for months! And come winter, all the dried stuff would be soft enough to chew on if you had to, though the honey would have all the flavor, and she would put a spoon of honey in a cup of hot water or tea. And let me tell you, that ginger taste! If the taste alone didn't cure you then the honey would at least make your throat feel better! She didn't always have dried mint, but she always had ginger one way or the other."

Ginger.

I have that.

I have a BIG bag of dried ginger. Probably a lifetime supply as potent as those pieces are.

The rest of the work day came and went as I considered how I use ginger already. I have a big bag of candied ginger that I use for general upset stomach and to chew on because it's yummy. I snap off pieces of dried ginger to put in my tea in the winter as a general cold medicine and because I like the taste of it. It's something that has been in plain sight all this time and was overlooked because of how common it is to me.

Okay. I have three things to put into the jar: Honey, rosemary, and ginger.

Don't ask me why I waited for sunset before beginning the actual work of putting everything together. It just felt right to wait for darkness to catch up outside. That's what happens when you're so used to being alone, I suppose. But wait I did.

Nothing fancy about what happened next, to be honest. I took pictures each step of the way, but now that I'm sitting here (two weeks later) and looking over them choosing what to post and what to leave out, I don't have anything to show off.

But, here, have some progress pics anyway. Such as this one of a pint mason jar with a whole bunch of shredded (as best as one can shred dried ginger anyway) dried ginger pieces inside and one piece that I was compelled to set aside and not break up.

I didn't measure shitte. It was all a matter of feelings, fears, compulsions, and restraints. I tore apart dried ginger for the jar until it felt right to stop.

And then I started shaking out the dried rosemary on top of that.

Again, I didn't measure anything. I just kept going until it felt right to stop.

And then, the honey. Twelve ounces of it, to answer a question that no one asked.

Throughout all of this, I was praying. I had started the endeavor with Pater Noster, Ave Maria, and Gloria Patri after assembling the containers but before opening any jars for actual use. From then to this point, it was a continual muttering stream of appeals to the Virgin Mary that I was actually doing something useful and not just religious theater. That this Medicinal Jar would be a salve not only to my throat later in the year, but to my spirit that was feeling everything except spiritual.

Feeling inadequate is a bitch, ya know, and seeing so many people having their shit put together enough that they didn't have to wait to receive their blessing chapped my ass. It seems I'm always playing catch-up, I'm always last to know and last to do. I'm always one foot at the back gate, ready to run away before I'm thrown out.

And all these feelings came out in assembling this jar. But with it, came a soothing solace. That some wounds take time to heal, and some medicines take time to create, and while that I don't have a house or a nación or a community to belong to, I am still Myself foremost and always.

And I am loved.

Even when I don't understand it.

Especially when I don't understand it.

It look longer to get the pictures together than it did to assemble everything. The only thing left to do that Friday night, was to offer a prayer from José Leitão's translation of the Precious Apothecary. Specifically, the blessing of new fruit (pg 311) because of the honey and how it was collected.

And so I did.

The jar immediately went to sit at a certain spot where it was prayed over and tumbled each night until Sunday. That Sunday, it was opened and stirred while praying the Rosary. The rosemary had already softened but the ginger was being very resistant to any change. The honey had hints of rosemary and ginger in the taste, but it was clear to me that this jar had a long way to go before being ready for anything other than show.

I suppose there is a life lesson there, but I'll be damned if I see it. (Pun possibly intended.)

There will be no new pictures of the jar. Once the jar was seated in its spot, it became Precious™.

I have the feeling that while I may open the jar to give it a good stirring from time to time, it is not ready as Medicine™ until some point in December. As I know almost nothing of Catholic Holidays and/or Liturgy (I'm one of those depraved magicians, remember), I'm just going to have to keep an eye on the calendars of others and note which ones ring a bell for me.

I apologize that for all my words that I have so little to show. I know some that would say that the fact that I showed up is important in itself, and on the one hand, I would agree with them. But on the other hand, the night is so large and dark and I am so small and pitiful.

I hope it is enough.

I hope I am enough.

#Old Lammas 2022 #Hagging Out #Hagging Out 2022

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hillbillyoracle · 2 years

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Old Lammas Honey

With the bees doing better, I was hoping the honey stand would be restocked and planned to buy some for possible ritual use on Sunday in Sun hour while the sun is in Leo. This aligned nicely with @graveyarddirt 's Old Lammas Weekend suggestions. While I'd originally planned to get it during the second sun hour as I normally sleep in, I crashed around midnight and couldn't get more sleep after 4am. So when the sun was up, so was I.

I anointed my hands with a solar perfume from Sphere + Sundry named Good Health and, as often happens for me with magical workings, spilled some extra as I was applying it. I scooped it up and used it to anoint my feet as well - why not?

Pulled the money to pay for the honey out of a ritual prosperity box I have, hoping it would bless the bee keeper and hopefully help him keep his bees.

It's a gorgeous morning here. Cloudy but the sun still piercing through. I was spacing out a little when I heard a loud crunch and was greeted by one of my parents' donkeys trying to debark an overturned log. Not mentioning because it's magical, just real cute.

Said hello to the bees who were already up and working hard at the bee food station. It'd been dragged closer to the driveway since I last saw it so I think the bee keeper had been by to refill it on his way to work.

I figured on my walk over that just attempting to get some honey could suffice as solar devotion even if there was none to buy. But as I got closer I saw it had been fully restocked! I grabbed their biggest size - a pint Mason jar. It was slightly lighter than the others in thr box so I'm interested to see how it tastes.

I paid for it and very excitedly walked it home for a photoshoot with the hops vines.

I anointed it and the candle with the solar perfume and set it up to burn down in consecration with my rosary (bought Mercury day, Mercury hour; for magical workings like these) and my grandmother's Mary statue. I found it in her old room when we were hiding out there from not one, but two simultaneously tornados that struck the county the day after we moved in. It brings me a lot of comfort. It's also sitting on the ledge under my grandparents giant sun mirror which I didn't realize until I stepped back to take a picture. I've loved that thing ever since I was little and it feels nice it's watching over the little honey jar now.

My hope it to use it mostly for general workings for good health but I also want to try making a solar scrub with it to use for purification around solar eclipses. I don't have a bathtub in the house (not sure what my family's beef wiyh bathtubs is lol) so I can't do the baths I was doing. Thought a scrub would be a good addition I could still rinse off in a shower.

Also plan to use it through the winter in teas and treats when I feel like I might be coming down with something or seasonal depression sets in a little too strong.

But we will see. I'll try to report back on it if I manage to use it for things.

But just getting it was a lovely experience. I don't do much solar work but it's always a treat when I get the chance.

ETA: we don't drink any more but I had some spiced rum I'd been keeping tucked away for an offering. Saw it as I was taking the dog out, realized it was narrowly still sun hour, so I poured it out by the lemonbalm patch and thanked the Sun. Didn't want to be a mooch you know?

Probably won't be buying any more alcohol for ritual use but I'm glad the last bit finally found a use after 2 years of sobriety.

#solar magic #witchblr #honey #suney #witch #magic #old lammas #old lammas honey

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woolandcoffee · 2 years

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Honey has been blessed, and the first sacrifice of the harvest season has been made (both in the company of my orange cat, Hazel). The honey will be kept on the shrine to Lugh until Samhain, at which point it will be used throughout the winter season in baked goods and other treats to give the household a taste of summer's blessings.

Not pictured (because it smelled so good we forgot all about photos) is our harvest feast of lemon rosemary roast chicken, and garlic potatoes. I also put together a pitcher of lemonade from Proter's Seasonal Celebrations. My partner had one sip of it, and said that people had gotten married for less. So if you're getting impatient waiting on a proposal, that Porter's lemonade might just do the trick.

A big thanks to @msgraveyarddirt for hosting this lovely Old Lammas weekend!

#woolly rambles #lammastide #Old Lammas

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sparrowhearted · 2 years

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Strongly considering doing psilocybin for Old Lammas this weekend ...

#Except I have to be functional in the evening...#Hm.

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graveyarddirt · 2 years

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First Fruits is a religious offering of the first agricultural produce of the harvest. In classical Greek, Roman, and Hebrew religions, the first fruits were given to priests as an offering to deity. In Christian faiths, the tithe is similarly given as a donation or offering serving as a primary source of income to maintain the religious leaders and facilities. -- Wiki, 'First Fruits'

Who says your First Fruits offering has to be a platter of raw produce?

Throughout July I freeze our native berries - blackcurrants, redcurrants, strawberries, cherries, raspberries, & gooseberries - as they ripen and come into season, then at Lammas I bake these muffins using a mix of our frozen "first fruits".

* This recipe can easily be altered to be made gluten-free and/or dairy-free!

#recipes #muffin recipes #old lammas weekend #first fruits

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pagan-stitches · 2 years

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Preparing to marinade “Harvest Beef” from Porter’s Seasonal Celebrations Cookbook.

@msgraveyarddirt

#old Lammas weekend

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annoyedbug · 5 months

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A MIDSUMMER CELEBRATION

by Mike Nichols (a.k.a. Gwydion)

In additionto the four greatfestivals of the PaganCeltic year, there are four lesser holidays as well: the two solstices, and the two equinoxes. In folklore, these are referred to as the four 'quarter-days' of the year, and modern Witches call them the four 'Lesser Sabbats', or the four 'Low Holidays'. The Summer Solstice is one of them.

Technically,a solstice is an astronomicalpoint and, due to the precession to the equinox, the date may vary by a few days depending on the year. The summer solstice occurs when the sun reaches the Tropic of Cancer, and we experience the longest day and the shortest night of the year. Astrologers know this as the date on which the sun enters the sign of Cancer. This year it will occur at 10:57 pm CDT on June 21st.

However, since most European peasants were not accomplished at reading an ephemeris or did not live close enough to Salisbury Plain to trot over to Stonehenge and sight down it's main avenue, they celebrated the event on a fixed calendar date, June 24th. The slight forward displacement of the traditional date is the result of multitudinous calendrical changes down through the ages. It is analogous to the winter solstice celebration, which is astronomically on or about December 21st, but is celebrated on the traditional date of December 25th, Yule, later adopted by the Christians.

Again, it mustbe remembered that the Celts reckoned their days from sundown to sundown, so the June 24th festivities actually begin on the previous sundown (our June 23rd). This was Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Eve. Which brings up another point: our modern calendars are quite misguided in suggesting that 'summer begins' on the solstice. According to the old folk calendar, summer BEGINS on May Day and ends on Lammas (August 1st), with the summer solstice, midway between the two, marking MID-summer. This makes more logical sense than suggesting that summer begins on the day when the sun's power begins to wane and the days grow shorter.

Although our Pagan ancestors probably preferred June 24th (and indeed most European folk festivals today use this date), the sensibility of modern Witches seems to prefer the actual solstice point, beginning the celebration at sunset. Again, it gives modern Pagans a range of dates to choose from with, hopefully, a weekend embedded in it. (And this year, the moon is waxing throughout.)

As the Pagan mid-winter celebration of Yule was adopted by Christians as Christmas (December 25th), so too the Pagan mid-summer celebration was adopted by them as the feast of John the Baptist (June 24th). Occurring 180 degrees apart on the wheel of the year, the mid-winter celebration commemorates the birth of Jesus, while the mid-summer celebration commemorates the birth of John, the prophet who was born six months before Jesus in order to announce his arrival.

This last tidbit is extremely conspicuous, in that John is the ONLY saint in the entire Catholic hagiography whose feast day is a commemoration of his birth, rather than his death. A generation ago, Catholic nuns were fond of explaining that a saint is commemorated on the anniversary of his or her death because it was really a 'birth' into the Kingdom of Heaven. But John the Baptist, the sole exception, is emphatically commemorated on the anniversary of his birth into THIS world. Although this makes no sense viewed from a Christian perspective, it makes perfect poetic sense from the viewpoint of Pagan symbolism.

Inmost Pagan cultures, the sun godis seen as split between two rival personalities: the god of light and his twin, his 'weird', his 'other self', the god of darkness. They are Gawain and the Green Knight, Gwyn and Gwythyr, Llew and Goronwy, Lugh and Balor, Balan and Balin, the Holly King and the Oak King, etc. Often they are depicted as fighting seasonal battles for the favor of their goddess/lover, such as Creiddylad or Blodeuwedd, who represents Nature.

The godof light is always born at the winter solstice, and his strength waxes with the lengthening days, until the moment of his greatest power, the summer solstice, the longest day. And, like a look in a mirror, his 'shadow self', the lord of darkness, is born at the summer solstice, and his strength waxes with the lengthening nights until the moment of his greatest power, the winter solstice, the longest night.

Indirect evidence supporting this mirror-birth pattern is strongest in the Christianized form of the Pagan myth. Many writers, from Robert Graves to Stewart Farrar, have repeatedly pointed out that Jesus was identified with the Holly King, while John the Baptist was the Oak King. That is why, 'of all the trees that are in the wood, the Holly tree bears the crown.' If the birth of Jesus, the 'light of the world', is celebrated at mid-winter, Christian folk tradition insists that John the Oak King was born (rather than died) at mid-summer. 47

It isat this pointthat I mustdiverge from the opinionof Robert Graves and other writers who have followed him. Graves believes that at midsummer, the Sun King is slain by his rival, the God of Darkness; just as the God of Darkness is, in turn, slain by the God of Light at midwinter. And yet, in Christian folk tradition (derived from the older Pagan strain), it is births, not deaths, that are associated with the solstices. For the feast of John the Baptist, this is all the more conspicuous, as it breaks the rules regarding all other saints.

So if births are associated with the solstices, when do the symbolic deaths occur? When does Goronwy slay Llew and when does Llew, in his turn, slay Goronwy? When does darkness conquer light or light conquer darkness? Obviously (to me, at least), it must be at the two equinoxes. At the autumnal equinox, the hours of light in the day are eclipsed by the hours of darkness. At the vernal equinox, the process is reversed. Also, the autumnal equinox, called 'Harvest Home', is already associated with sacrifice, principally that of the spirit of grain or vegetation. In this case, the god of light would be identical.

In Welshmythology inparticular, thereis astartling vindication of the seasonal placement of the sun god's death, the significance of which occurred to me in a recent dream, and which I haven't seen elsewhere. Llew is the Welsh god of light, and his name means 'lion'. (The lion is often the symbol of a sun god.) He is betrayed by his 'virgin' wife Blodeuwedd, into standing with one foot on the rim of a cauldron and the other on the back of a goat. It is only in this way that Llew can be killed, and Blodeuwedd's lover, Goronwy, Llew's dark self, is hiding nearby with a spear at the ready. But as Llew is struck with it, he is not killed. He is instead transformed into an eagle.

Puttingthis in theform of aBardic riddle, itwould go something like this: Who can tell in what season the Lion (Llew), betrayed by the Virgin (Blodeuwedd), poised on the Balance, is transformed into an Eagle? My readers who are astrologers are probably already gasping in recognition. The sequence is astrological and in proper order: Leo (lion), Virgo (virgin), Libra (balance), and Scorpio (for which the eagle is a well-known alternative symbol). Also, the remaining icons, cauldron and goat, could arguably symbolize Cancer and Capricorn, representing summer and winter, the signs beginning with the two solstice points. So Llew is balanced between cauldron and goat, between summer and winter, on the balance (Libra) point of the autumnal equinox. 48

This, of course, is the answer to a related Bardic riddle. Repeatedly, the 'Mabinogion' tells us that Llew must be standing with one foot on the cauldron and one foot on the goat's back in order to be killed. But nowhere does it tell us why. Why is this particular situation the ONLY one in which Llew can be overcome? Because it represents the equinox point. And the equinox is the only time of the entire year when light (Llew) can be overcome by darkness (Goronwy).

It should now come as nosurprise that, when it is time forLlew to kill Goronwy in his turn, Llew insists that Goronwy stands where he once stood while he (Llew) casts the spear. This is no mere vindictiveness on Llew's part. For, although the 'Mabinogion' does not say so, it should by now be obvious that this is the only time when Goronwy can be overcome. Light can overcome darkness only at the equinox -- this time the vernal equinox.

So Midsummer (to me,at least) is acelebration of the sun godat his zenith, a crowned king on his throne. He is at the height of his strength and still 1/4 of a year away from his ritual death at the hands of his rival. The spear and the cauldron have often been used as symbols for this holiday and it should now be easy to see why. Sun gods are virtually always associated with spears (even Jesus is pierced by one), and the midsummer cauldron of Cancer is a symbol of the Goddess in her fullness. It is an especially beautiful time of the year for an outdoor celebration. May yours be magical!

#MidSummer #paganblr #witches #witchy shit #witchblr

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magicandman · 5 years

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A humorous ABC's of Neopagandom ABC's of Neopagandom

Just to confuse you all:

Altar- To change, deform, or rearrange.

Black Magic- Magic used by those with much pigmentation in their skin.

Centering- In the case of public rituals, this practice in done to alter the alignment of text on flyers.

Circle- A term used by techno-Pagans when refering to circle-dot mode, the storage of binary units using a code of plane figures with a bounding edge equidistant from a fixed point where some of these figures have dots, and some do not.

The Craft- A movie made in 1996 by Sony Pictures which stars Robin Tunney.

Cove- A small sheltered bay, creek, or inlet of the sea.

Coven- Referring to or being cove-like.

Discord- The appropriate musical notes to be played at dis time in the ritual.

Esbat- Spanish for "it is a flying mammal."

Flying- Something which witches do. Recent surveys show that TWA is the most favored method, though some traditionalists stick with smaller single-engined airplanes.

Glossary- A place where they add gloss to ceramics.

Grounding- When all young children who have misbehaved during the ritual are sent to their rooms for the weekend.

Hain- Sam Hain, founder of a successful company which makes underwear.

Handfasting- During protests, this is done to ensure the difficulty of ones removal by use of handcuffs.

Incense- When capable of reasonable judgement, when acting sensible.

Jack-o-lantern- In the Pagan playing cards, it is the card of the suit of lights (traje de luces) higher than a ten but lower than a queen.

Karma- An old Star Trek term from the original series which stands for Klingon and Romulan Military Alliance.

Lammas- Animals of south America of the family Camelidae.

Magick- An art made popular by David Copperfield and Harry Houdini.

Nine- The most Pagans you can fit in a standard phone booth in Iowa City. (Trust me on this one)

Orgy- The ending often used by technopagans at the end of their URL.

Pentagram- A five sided cracker.

Quest- What deities send you on when they are bored and have nothing better to do.

Rowan- A term used on slave ships when the slaves have rested long enough and need to continue rowing.

Sabbat- Of or relating to hydrogenated organic compounds. The term comes from the French chemist Paul Sabatier.

Skyclad- A material similar to nickel-clad, though with ozone instead of nickel.

Spell- A turn at work, a shift.

Talisman- Opposite of Shortisman.

Underwear- See Hain.

Virginity- Sorry, no Pagan I've talked to seems to know what this is.

White Witch- A Caucasian member of the Wiccan religion.

Witch- Pronoun, what one or ones of several things pointed out. Used as a relative in a subordinate clause representing a noun or noun phrase in the principal sentence.

Xerox- The easiest and quickest way to go from a monotheistic religion to a polytheistic one. Though it may cost you ten cents.

Yorkshire- A place where they make a type of bread, perfect for rituals, though they call it pudding.

Zygurmist- The one who devotes his or her life to studying, in order to make rituals more fun.

Geoff Johnson

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