Goddess and the Garden at Autumn

Lughnasadh has come and gone, and with it being some three weeks out from the Autumn Equinox, the weather seems to be heating up.  On a whole, the Summer has been rather mild, however, as temperatures steadily climb skyward, it is as if we are given a timely reminder that Summer has not finished with us yet.

When it comes to the Wheel of the Year, Mother Earth seems to rebel against being told when her seasonal wheel will turn - it is not a mere six months difference between hemispheres, nor will she produce "appropriate" weather just because we are planning something allegedly in honour of her (with our mined crystals and parafin candles).  One of the best ways I have found in honouring Mother Earth is attempting to return some life to my long neglected garden, and in doing so, ensuring that at least some of the plants I add provide food and shelted to the native species, as well as for myself.

The Eleusinian Mysteries

As the hours of daylight are slowly getting less as the sun pulls itself away from the earth, I am reminded of the Greek myth of the descent of Kore (maiden) into the Underworld and the wandering of Demeter, her mother, which caused the land to go barren.  This myth was enacted in what was referred to as the Eleusinian Mysteries, that took place in a town of a similar name about 24 kms from Athens, in what was believed to be in the heart of the wheat and barley growing region.  It is little wonder therefore that Demeter was the Goddess associated with grain and fertility, as well as her name meaning "spelt mother" (spelt is a hardy variety of wheat).

Autumn and the Goddess

The weather here in South Australia is really doing its own thing.  February is usually our hottest month of the year, heralding in temperatures in the high 30Cs and even 40Cs (that is around 100F for those more familiar with the fahrenheit temperatures), yet so far this month, the average temperature being only in the low to mid 20Cs.  Whilst I am not one who enjoys the heat, I cannot help to be somewhat suspicious as to whether our hot weather is not in fact "lurking" somewhere, ready to appear when we least expect it.

The harvest festival of Lughnasadh (which occurs around 1 February in the Souther Hemisphere) is usually the time when whatever has not already been gathered, is basically annihilated by the hot weather, often leaving little if anything in the garden to offer up as a libation unless it is bought.  This year, with only a handful of extremely hot days, the libation altar was overflowing with various offerings including corn cobs from my own garden.

Sacred Painting

I do not consider myself an "artist" -- in fact my "training" (for want of a better word) is limited to a couple of sketching classes as an elective when I was at school. But every now and then I feel inspired to pick up the brush and paint.

For the Temple of the Dark Moon's annual Hekate Supper, I painted a rather rustic looking strophalos, or "Hekate's Wheel" that is an emblem of the initiatory lunar Goddess Hekate in her aspect of Diana Lucifera.  The 2nd centtury Alexandrian text, the Chaldean Oracle, described the emblem as a labyrinthine serpent (emblematic of rebirth) surrounding a spiral, symbolic of the Ignges - "Whirlings" or emanations of Divine thought.