Orphic Hymn to Night [Nyx]

Night [Nyx], parent goddess, source of sweet repose,

from whom at first both Gods and men arose,
Hear, blessed Venus [Kypris],

deck'd with starry light, in sleep's deep silence dwelling Ebon night!
Dreams and soft case attend thy dusky train,

pleas'd with the length'ned gloom and feaftful strain.
Dissolving anxious care, the friend of Mirth,

with darkling coursers riding round the earth.

New Book: In Her Sacred Name

For a period of 10 years (from 2002 until 2012) I had a regular column in an Australian "spiritual life style" magazine, Insight, which sadly folded in August 2012.  Being a monthly magazine, often I found that I was writing about two favourite topics of mine - mythology and the Goddess.  This resulted in a number of articles being written over the years and subsequent requests (especially when the magzine folded) to collate them together into a book.  For the last 12 months, this is what I have been doing (amongst other things) with the end result being In Her Sacred Name: Writings on the Divine Feminine.

 

Hymn to the Divine Mother

Here in Australia is it the day that we honour our Mothers Day.  As such, I thought I would share the following poem entitled "Hymn to the Divine Mother" (author is unknown):

Hymn to the Divine Mother

O thou the giver of all blessings,
O thou the doer of all good,
O thou the fulfiller of all desires,
O thou the giver of refuge -
Our salutations to thee, O Mother Divine.

Homer's Hymn to the Mother Earth

O Universal Mother, who dost keep
From everlasting thy foundations deep,
Eldest of things, Great Earth, I sing of thee!
All shapes that have their dwelling in the sea,
All things that fly, or on the ground divine
Live, move, and there are nourished... these are thine;
These from thy wealth thou dost sustain; from thee
Fair babes are born, and fruits on every tree
Hang ripe and large, revered Divinity!

The Independent Goddesses

This year has been a rather productive year for me with respect to my writing.  Not only am I in the final stages of completing the manuscript of my first book for printing, but I have also had a number of essays appear in various anthologies.

 

The first of these anthologies is Unto Herself: A Devotional Anthology for Independent Goddesses, edited by from Ashley Horn and Bibliotheca Alexandrina, which is now available.

 

This volume consists a collection of prayers, poems, rituals, essays, and short stories written about various independent Goddesses including Artemis, Athena, Columbia, Coventina, Freyja, Hekate, Hestia, Isis, Kuan Yin, Lilith, Mary, Minerva, the Morrigan, Nehalennia, Neith, Skadhi, Tabiti, and Vesta.   Amongst the contributions is my own essay on Neith, who was an extremely early Egyptian Goddess.

Dark Night, Dark Fears

With the Mid Winter Solstice almost upon us as well as the dark of the Moon, I thought I would share the following poem written by Beth Clare Johnson.

DARK NIGHT, DARK FEARS

It was a dark night, and cold.
I found myself in a strange landscape
Light gray clouds floating in the sky,
Barely lit by the moon.

Prayer to the Goddess

Oh Goddess,
You Yourself are the Creator. Everything that happens is by Your Doing.
There is no one except You.

You created the creation; You behold it and understand it.
Amongst all is the Light--You are that Light.
By this Illumination, that Light is radiant within all.
The Goddess is the Greatest of the Great. No one calls Her any less.
No one can estimate Her Worth. By speaking of Her, Her Greatness is not increased.
You are the One True Mistress of all the other beings, of so many worlds.
Come, my dear sisters and spiritual companions; hug me close in your embrace.

Early Spring by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Once more the Heavenly Power
Makes all things new,
And domes the red-plowed hills
With loving blue;
The blackbirds have their wills,
The throstles too.

Opens a door in Heaven;

From skies of glass
A Jacob's ladder falls
On greening grass,
And o'er the mountain-walls
Young angels pass.

Please Call me by my True Names

From: Peace is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life by Thich Nhat Hanh

In Plum Village, where I live in France, we receive many letters from the refugee camps in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, hundreds each week. It is very painful to read them, but we have to do it, we have to be in contact. We try our best to help, but the suffering is enormous, and sometimes we are discouraged. It is said that half the boat people die in the ocean. Only half arrive at the shores in Southeast Asia, and even then they may not be safe.

Invocation to the Goddess

Invocation to the Goddess

(Shekhinah Mountainwater)

I am one with thee, Goddess, and thou art one with me.

Thy power is my power.

Thy gifts course through me in poetry and beauty.

Thy breath is my breath.

My thoughts are of thee.

My ears hear thee.

My voice speaks and sings of thee.

My arms reach out to embrace thee.

My hands do thy work.

My heart loves through thee.

My stomach partakes of thee.

My womb and sex reveal thine inmost mystery.

My bowels know thee through death and rebirth.

My legs bend to kneel beside thee.

My feet walk and dance thy path.

Let me be ever filled

With thy glorious, divine life.

Wild Grief

Author Unknown

Your wild grief scares  me
It flows from you like
so many liquids
and pours hard and fast.
I intrude on it,
like stepping in milk that isn’t mine and
treading it into your carpet.
Back and forth I trudge.
Like a great beast
in the final throws of death.
That great gold spear that
pierces your lungs and
up it comes.
All that bile and froth that was hidden.
You are no longer who you were.
And I, unable to reach out with my hands
and take your shoulders and calm you
with all that mass of hair
so tangled and forlorn,
slink away to nurse my own.
It is quiet and faint and
will always dwell
deep in my heart.

Source: Agitation of Hands