Marine ware is one of the more striking styles of ceramics created by the Minoans of ancient Crete. Vessels such as the one above (image CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons) evoke the motion and beauty of the many fascinating creatures that live in the Mediterranean Sea. Minoan potters made marine ware vessels in a variety of different shapes and sizes, featuring a handful of fascinating sea creatures.
The jug above shows argonauts, a.k.a. paper nautiluses, along with the coral-and-seaweed background that appears on most marin eware. The females of this fascinating type of deep-sea octopus secrete a papery egg case that looks very much like a nautilus shell. Interestingly, the better-known nautilus mollusk was named after the paper nautilus and not the other way around. Minoan sailors and traders must have encountered these fascinating creatures on their voyages around the Mediterranean.
Goddess of the untamed shore smooth my edges into gratitude, tumble me into letting go, teach me what it means to let my longings ebb and flow. Roll me until my to-do list becomes rubble and my bindings become loosened by the touch of salt and time. Carve me back to my most essential self, erode my need to know until it is replaced by space around my heart to grow. Sweep over me and leave me expansive and free, help me to remember to wait for nothing while somehow also being as patient as the moon. Encourage me to chart my own course and steer my own craft, trusting the transformations wrought by truth and trust and tide.
The majority of sea snakes live in the warm seas of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Most of the species are found in the Coral Triangle region of Southeast Asia, with Australia a close second. Built for marine life, sea snakes have rounded bodies and flat tails. Furthermore as they swim, small flaps cover their noses to keep the sea water out.
The families of sea snakes differ in their need for land and fresh water. The Hydrophiinae like the yellow-bellied sea snake spend their entire lives at sea. They have glands under their tongues to discharge salt. Also, the powerful lung of these snakes allows them to dive deeply, and stay underwater for a long time. Great numbers of these sea snakes can be found floating out in the open ocean in a giant raft (“slick”).
If you live on an island, even a big one like Crete, the ocean is a constant presence. And if you spend a lot of time in boats and ships, like the Minoans did when they went fishing or traveled across the waves to trade, the ocean becomes a powerful focus for your safety and livelihood. So it's no surprise that the Minoans had a goddess of the sea, the sacred embodiment of the womb-ocean that their island rises up out of. Her name is Posidaeja.
Posidaeja's name shows up in the Linear B tablets, which record the Mycenaean Greek language. We don't know for sure that Posidaeja is what the Minoans called her, but when we use the name, she answers, so at the very least she's agreeable to it. Many of us who practice Modern Minoan Paganism simply call her Grandmother Ocean.
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