Beltane

Beltane is a fertility Sabbat that celebrates life above all, honoring the life-force energy that emerges as spring reaches its mid-point. The fertile earth is abundant with her gifts and our senses are awakened with the joy of being alive.

The name Beltane means "Bright Fire" or "Sacred Fire" and great "balefires" were lit on May Eve
in the countrysides. Driving the livestock between two lit balefires as the blazes waned was a ritual for moving the cattle from their winter pastures to feast on the new green growth in the spring fields. These great bonfires would also mark a time of purification and transition, heralding in the season in the hope of a good harvest later in the year, and were accompanied with ritual acts to protect the people from any harm. Ashes from these Balefires were scattered over the fields to bless and protect them and infertile women would put some ashes in a bag and wear it around their necks.

Not only was Beltane observed in all of the Celtic Lands, but also in Europe, Scandinavia and even Russia. Beltane is celebrated on the first of May.

May is the month to celebrate womanhood, motherhood and the Goddesses. In Rome the followers of Flora, the Goddess of flowers focused heavily on the symbolic meaning of flowers. This knowledge spread across Europe and was nearly lost until it was revived by the Victorians who were very conscious of flower symbolism.

Flora

The Roman Goddess of spring and blossoming flowers whose name means flourishing one.

She rules over the flowering plants and fruits and protects vegetation from disease and rot.

She is considered to be a handmaiden to Ceres and also rules the blossoming of girls into womanhood. The Roman festival, Floralia, was a festival of theatric performances and games

to celebrate the return of spring.

Maia

Maia is the Greek Goddess of Spring. The Queen of the flowers. She embodies the forces of growth and brings the seasonal warming of the earth. She gave her name to the month of May.

She is the eldest of the Pleiades and the Mother of Hermes.

Happy Beltane to all!

Jai Mata Di

A weepy kind of day

Sunday morning blues

Happy tears and sad tears

Tears of what has been and tears of what is yet to be

Triumphs and injustices

The wonders of life and the frailties of life

A song that invokes a memory

A memory that paints a picture

A bird singing, the rays of the sun, a puffy cloud 

Each moment a precious gift

Yet we linger in the past

The future is uncertain

All we have for certain is NOW

This moment in time

On a weepy kind of day. 

                                                             

                                                 J. Ravenmoon

Om Kali Ma

The love between the Divine Mother and her human children is a unique relationship. Kali, the Dark Mother is one such deity with whom devotees have a very loving and intimate bond, in spite of her fearful appearance. In this relationship, the worshipper becomes a child and Kali assumes the form of the ever-caring mother.

O Kali, my mother full of bliss! Enchantress of the almighty Shiva!
In Thy delirious joy Thou dancest, clapping Thy hands together!
Thou art the Mover of all that move, and we are but Thy helpless toys.

-- Ramakrishna Paramahansa



Kali is one of the most well known and worshipped Hindu Goddesses. The name Kali is derived from the Hindu word that means "time", and that also means "black". Kali in Hinduism, is a manifestation of the Divine Mother, which represents the female principle. Frequently, those not comprehending her many roles in life call Kali the goddess of destruction. She destroys only to recreate, and what she destroys is sin, ignorance and decay. She is equated with the eternal night, is the transcendent power of time, and is the consort of the god Shiva. It is believed that its Shiva who destroys the world, and Kali is the power or energy with which Shiva acts. Therefore, Kali is Shiva's shakti, without which Shiva could not act. Kali receives her name because she devours kala (Time) and then resumes her own dark formlessness. This transformative effect can be metaphorically illustrated in the West as a black hole in space. Kali as such is pure and primary reality (the "enfolded order" in modern physics); formless void yet full of potential.

The Matsyapurana states that Kali began as a tribal Goddess of the high mountain region of Mount Kalanjara, which is in north-central India and east of the Indus Valley. However, because of the relatively recent origin of the Matsyapurana we cannot be certain when or where the worship of Kali actually began. We do know however, that she was mentioned in the Upanishads, which were written a thousand years before the Matsyapurana.

            

Mystic Hymn to the Goddess Kali

O Mother of this vast Universe,

all action is accomplished only

through Your unpredictable Will.

You take counsel with no one.

No one other than You knows why

You manifest every phenomenom,

every living being, every event.

Your manifestation, O Mother,

awakens, purifies, sanctifies,

and deifies the human soul.

You accomplish Your own Goals

through this inscrutable Play.

Men foolishly claim responsibility.

 

Jai Mata Di

A Shining Star

How lucky we were as children to have a grandmother who loved us unconditionally -
    who always had time
        for a hug
            to sing songs
                 to tell stories
                      to listen to our triumphs and our defeats
    who provided nourishment
          to our bodies
               to our minds
                    to our spirits
                         and gave us safe haven
She had wisdom and wit and a wonderful way of looking at life.
    She gave of herself totally
        never complaining
             always giving
                  and we who received her love are the fortunate ones.

She left us with beautiful memories and an everlasting love.

Today marks the anniversity of her birth, April 25, 1902.
110 years ago, the youngest child of 12.

She is now, as she was while living in this physical realm, a shining star.
Our shining star.
We just have to look up to the heavens and know she will always be shining down on us.

Happy Birthday Nany!
We Love you.

   
Jai Mata Di

Treasures

Today I went to a used furniture store to see about arranging a pickup for a desk I no longer need. Of course I had to do some browsing and of course I found myself in the back corner of the store where there were quite a few bookcases of books. It first appeared that the books they had were novels and the usual selection of cookbooks etc., but then I found the case with the books on religion, spirituality and self-help topics. In one of my earlier posts I wrote about my love of books, so it is no secret that I get a feeling of great satisfaction when I find some new ones to add to my collection. I feel like a hunter that has made a new conquest.

Today's treasures were four books: Ardath by Marie Corelli, Pagan Pride - Honoring the Craft and Culture of Earth and the Goddess by M. Macha NightMare, Great Swan - Meetings with Ramakrishna by Lex Hixon, and Sisters of the Earth a compilation of poetry and prose about nature written by ninety wonderful accomplished women writers.

I decided to choose a page at random from Sisters of the Earth and share it with you. I hope you like it as much as I do.

My Help is in the Mountain

by Nancy Wood

My help is in the mountain

Where I take myself to heal

The earthly wounds

That people give to me.

I find a rock with sun on it

And a stream where the water runs gentle

And the trees which one by one give me company.

So must I stay for a long time

Until I have grown from the rock

And the stream is running through me

And I cannot tell myself from one tall tree.

Then I know that nothing touches me

Nor makes me run away.

My help is in the mountain

That I take away with me.

Jai Mata Di

Anjea

ANJEA is an Australian Aboriginal fertility Goddess. She is an animistic spirit known to the tribesman of the Pennefather River, Queensland Australia. It is said that Souls reside within her between incarnations and when the time is right she places mud babies in the wombs of future Mothers.

When a child is born it is believed that a piece of a newborn baby's spirit remains in the afterbirth, so it is the custom for the Grandmother or Godmother to take the afterbirth and bury it as soon as the child was born and the cord severed. The placenta was gathered for a special burial because it was considered very sacred. It was buried in a very pristine place in Mother Earth so that the energy of Mother Earth could keep the purity. It was believed that the mother and child remained connected to the placenta. This placenta would never be destroyed or discarded by indigenous peoples.

The burial place was usually near running water, in the sand on the banks of a river.
The Grandmother or Godmother built a structure of twigs and sticks, arranged in a circle and tied together at the top to form a cone, like a small teepee, to mark the spot. When Anjea sees the marker she takes the spirit and carries it to away and safely places it in hollow tree.
It is left for some time, rumored to be left there until the person whose essence it was originally dies, and then it is time for the new child to be created. This she does by mixing the spirit with mud forming a baby, then this clay infant is put into another expecting mother.

The mixture of water and earth to form the clay that forms the baby is significant because of the
life-giving role of water to the Earth and to the people.

Anjea is not only a fertility Goddess but she is also an Earth Goddess. We honor her for her creative and giving spirit.



Jai Mata Di

Earth Day

Mother Earth

It is 42 years since the first celebration of this important event and it is now observed in 175 countries around the world. We all are aware that doing our part in conserving energy will ultimately help save our planet as well as save each of us - the citizens of Earth. Our natural resources are being compromised by the global elite - all in the name of greed, and for profits for the rich. We the people must stand up to the polluters, the pillagers and to those that have neglected to be responsible caretakers of our beautiful planet.

Clean air, clean water, free energy are our rights.

~Here's a reminder of our treasure ~

Jai Mata Di

The Great Goddess

In prehistoric and even earlier historic periods of human development, religions existed in which people revered their supreme creator as female. The Great Goddess, the Divine Ancestress, had been worshiped from the Upper Paleolithic Age of about 25,000 BC until the closing of the last Goddess Temples, at about 500 AD. The rise of Judaism, Christianity and Islam was the undoing of the Sacred Goddess Worship. The destruction of sacred icons and literature, the obliteration of historic records of the "pagans" or "heathens", as the Goddess worshipers were called, was major but not total. As more archaeological evidence is discovered and properly identified and deciphered, we can now see a much different picture of the veneration of the female Deity as creator and lawmaker of the universe, prophetess, provider of human destinies, inventor, hunter and valiant leader.
I can't help but wonder how errors in translations of ancient texts due to a bias in favor of the patriarchal beliefs and other unjust misinterpretations have helped to form this modern world of greed, wars, social inequities as well as the gross destruction of this planet we call home.



The Tao Te Ching was written by Lao Tzu 2500 (or more) years ago. There are many translations and my favorite is the translation by Jonathan Star,Tao Te Ching: The Definitive Edition. Here Is a Verse that explains The Goddess as The Creator.

Verse 6

Endlessly creating

Endlessly pulsating

The Spirit of the Valley never dies

She is called the Hidden Creator

Although She becomes the whole universe

Her immaculate purity is never lost

Although She assumes countless forms

Her true identity remains intact

Whatever we see or don't see

Whatever exists or doesn't exist

Is nothing but the creation of this Supreme Power

Tao is limitless, unborn, eternal -

It can only be reached through the Hidden Creator

She is the very face of the Absolute

The gate to the source of all things eternal

Listen to Her voice

Hear it echo through creation

Without fail, She reveals Her presence

Without fail, She brings us to our own perfection

       Jai Mata Di

Living in the maya

I haven't written for a while. I was caught up in the maya, the illusion of this earthly existence.
Thankfully though, not completely - every now and then I'd see and feel the Bliss, I'd be at the threshhold of a grand epiphany and then I would get distracted and I'd get pulled back into this
3-D world of ours, only to get stuck in the mundane for a while longer.


In Hinduism, maya is the veil that is to be seen through, like an epiphany, in order to achieve
liberation of the soul from the cycle of births, deaths and rebirths to which all beings are subject.
Ego-consciousness and karma are seen as part of the binding forces of maya.


Maya may be understood as the limited, purely physical and mental reality in which our everyday
consciousness has become entangled. Maya is held to be an illusion, a veiling of the true, unitary
Self—the Cosmic Spirit. The veil of maya may be pierced, and, with diligence and grace,
may be permanently dissolved.


Consider maya as the vehicle that we are given by the Divine Mother to reach our final spiritual
destination. All the twists and turns, all the detours and bumps in the road are all the experiences
and lessons learned, if we follow our divine paths, the veil will be lifted and we will all arrive
"Home".

                                                  Angels of Light Beyond theVeils

Goddess Blessings!