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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in goddess of the witches

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

 

Ænes in mónað, and betra hwonne full sé móna...

 

The Gidden’s Banns

 

Whenever ye have need of anything,

once in the month, and better it be when the moon is full,

then shall ye gather in some dernly stead

to give good worship to me, who am Queen of all Witcheries.

There foregather, ye who are fain to dwimmery,

yet have not won its deepest derns:

to these shall I teach such things as are yet unknown.

Ye shall be free from thralldom;

and in token that ye be truly free,

ye shall be naked in your yieldings.

And ye shall dance, sing, feast, make glee, and love,

all in my worthing. For mine is the drunkenness of the soul;

mine also is earthly mirth, for my law

is love unto all beings.

Mine is the dernly door that opens upon Elfhame;

and mine is the vat of the ale of life,

the well of Wyrd, which is the kettle of all fruitfulness.

On earth I give knowledge of life everlasting,

and beyond death: frith, freedom, and friendship

with those who have gone before. Nor do I ask

aught in offering, for behold:

I am the Mother of All Living,

and my love is poured out upon the earth.

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs

 Holly Winter Care | Plant Addicts

 A 16th-Century Witch-Song

 

Because of its imagery, we sing Green Grow'th the Holly at Yule, but the love of which it speaks is evergreen.

 

Green grow'th the Holly; so doth the Ivy.

Though Winter blasts blow ne'er so high,

green grow'th the Holly.

 

As the Holly groweth green,

and changeth not its hue:

so I am, ever have been,

unto my Lady true.

 

 As the Holly is ever green, the lover declares, so his (or—why not?—her) love for this Lady is forever true.

 

Green grow'th the Holly; so doth the Ivy.

Though Winter blasts blow ne'er so high,

green grow'th the Holly.

 

As the Holly groweth green,

with Ivy all alone:

when flowers may not be seen,

and greenwood leaves be gone.

 

The song is more than 500 years old. Some attribute it—ironically, surely—to that most notoriously fickle lover, King Henry VIII. (Written, perhaps, for the six-fingered Anne Boleyn, reputed in her day to be a witch?) Though Henry was indeed a skilled musician and composer of music, I myself remember a time (if you'll pardon the comparison) when all pagan chants were variously ascribed to Starhawk, and remain dubious.

 

Green grow'th the Holly; so doth the Ivy.

Though Winter blasts blow ne'er so high,

green grow'th the Holly.

 

Now unto my Lady

promise to her I make

from all others, only

to her I me partake.

 

But we sing it as a Witch song: a song of faithfulness, not only to a mortal lover, but to the Craft itself, and to the Craft's Lady.

Remember that Green—as in the song Greensleeves, also attributed to Henry VIII—has ever been the fairy color. Bear in mind that the Goddess of Witches is known also as the Queen of Elfhame, of whom it is said: She hath a grip of all the Craft.

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 Parthenogenetrix

n. one (f.) who brings forth without benefit of intercourse

 

I coined the word parthenogenetrix while still in high school. (Yes, I was a pagan egghead back then. I suppose I still am.) My long-term intent was to see it in the OED.

The word has potential biological applications (ask any domestic pigeon or California condor), but I intended it theologically at the time. (This was, after all, during the Silver Age of Matriarchy.) Poetic it's not, but parthenogenetrix has at least the advantage of transparency—to the hyper-literate, anyway—readily construing as a portmanteau of parthenogenesis (“virgin” birth—or, at least, conception) and genetrix (the grammatically feminine form of genitor—one who begets or creates).

Parthenogenetrix tells a story, an origin story. This is no creation ex nihilo, but rather ex ipsa, from herself. That's how the Lady does things. With Her, it's all personal.

Goddess bless him, my best friend at the time (and fellow egghead) Doug Julius used to make a point of using the word regularly in conversation—which, as you can well imagine, required some pretty impressive intellectual gymnastics. He also, to my delight, made jokes about “parthenogenetricks.” When the punning starts, you know it's the real thing.

These days, a quick web-search turns up a handful of parthenogenetrices, virtually all in religious or mythological contexts. The Virgin Mary, Sophia, the Goddess of Witches: parthenogenetrices all. Each occurrence, surely, constitutes an independent coinage. Given context, the word virtually suggests itself.

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs

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Surely thine hour has come, thy great wind blows,

Far-off, most secret, and inviolate Rose.


(William Butler Yeats, "The Secret Rose")

 

In order to understand what I'm about to tell you, you need to know that the Witches' Goddess is known among witches, somewhat cryptically, as “the Rose.”

(If you can't see why that would be, then what kind of a witch are you?)

Hence the phrase sub rosa, “under the rose,” meaning confidentially.

When someone tells you something “under the rose,” it's not to be shared with outsiders. When told this, by listening, you thereby accede, as if you had sworn an oath.

The Craft is hedged about with roses. (I mean here, of course, the original rose, the rose of five petals.) The pentagram, of course, is known as the “witch's rose.”

Some things are of the Rose, not meant for others' ears. You may be told “This is under the Rose.” In season, a rose in bloom may be held up silently, and laid upon the table. A rose may be drawn with the finger in the air, or over the lips. All these forms are binding.

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Swipe Left for Love: Pendulum Spell

We all know many people find romance on dating websites and apps. Use your witchy tools of a pendulumand a whispered spell for swift and accurate swiping! If you don’t already have a pendulum they are easily gotten at any metaphysical shop or mind, body spirit bookstore. You can also make your own with a footling strip of string or leather cord with a small rose quartz with a pointy end. Knot the quartz onto your cord and test it to show you which is “yes” and which is “no.” That is easily done by putting your elbow on a table and holding the pendant in your raised hand, Still the pendant and hold it over the photo on the app for people of interest to you. and then ask it to indicate yes and no. When you feel sure, swipe away!  When you have found a person of interest, craft your note and speak this spell.

God of  love, fly my  letter hence at the speed of light.

...
Last modified on

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Blessed Be the Moon

What follows is a witches' back-and-forth song to be sung at New Moon, Full Moon, or whenever. Everyone sings the first, second, and fourth lines, while a single voice improvises a new third line each time through. I've given thirteen examples here, but obviously the possibilities are endless.

The tunes, of course, are many. (Witches!) Feel free to come up with your own.

 

Blessed Be the Moon

 

Blessed be the Moon

blessed be She

Lady of Heaven

so mote it be

 

Blessed be the Moon

blessed be She

Queen of the Stars

so mote it be

 

...Mother of Witches...

 

...Flier by Night...

 

...Three-in-One...

 

...One-in-Three...

 

...Lamp of the Poor...

 

...Silver Maiden...

 

...Sun of the Night...

 

...Lady of the Lake...

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs
The Goddess Abides

I stand on the stage in the Roman theater of the ancient city of Ephesus, thinking of how different history might have been.

Here, if the anonymous story in Acts 19 is to be believed, the enraged citizenry of Ephesus nearly lynched Saul of Tarsus, known later to the church as “saint” Paul. Angered by his blasphemies against their patron goddess Artemis—known to the Romans as Diana—for two solid hours they chanted “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!”

Alas, Saul's life was saved by a conscientious city magistrate who talked down the crowd by reminding them that extrajudicial killings are morally wrong.

Such conscientiousness in a public official is surely to be praised. Still, one can only wonder.

According to Acts, the crowd's anger was fomented by a souvenir manufacturer worried about potential loss of trade. One need only think about this to see how unlikely such a scenario really is. Why do non-pagans find it so difficult to believe that pagans, too, might actually love our gods?

Walking the streets of the city earlier that day, I had been struck by the frequency with which one found little bas-reliefs of the Ephesian Goddess, with her distinctive polymastate (many-breasted) shape, carved into the gateposts of doorways, watching maternally over the comings and goings of her people.

Me, I know a mezuza when I see one. You can't tell me that the ancients didn't touch these little goddesses and then kiss their hands, coming and going. In fact, I did so myself.

Thanks to this episode, historical or not, Artemis/Diana is the only goddess to have been mentioned by name in the New Testament. If Craft historian Ron Hutton is correct, for this reason through the Christian centuries She became the paradigmatic example of the pagan goddess—think of all those medieval accounts of wicked women flying by night with the goddess Diana, dea paganorum—and thus, eventually, the patronal Lady of Revival Witchery, She Who Shines by Night.

If that's so, then I'm standing in the place where the New Paganisms were seeded, nearly 2000 years ago.

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