Freya is the unapologetic goddess of love and sexuality in Norse mythology. We celebrate her on May 1, Beltaine, a cross-quarter day between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice.

As described in Elizabeth Cunningham’s first book of the Maeve Chronicles, Magdalen Rising, in which Mary Magdalen is brilliantly transmogrified into a Celtic goddess, “the eve of May was a socially sanctioned orgy. Running off into the woods with someone who wasn’t your spouse was practically your civic duty. You were obeying the oldest law. You were multiplying the orgasms of the sexy, fecund earth. Hey, it could only help the crops–and hence the tribes. So just this once, go ahead. Surrender. Let go and let god/dess. That was the mood of Beltaine.”

Freya is perfect for the season. She is a sassy, bawdy and bold goddess archetype who, like Aphrodite, has many lovers — pretty much whomever she chooses — and her legions are legend.

Her story is one of love and lust for life, men, and beautiful objects like the necklace of amber tears she obtains after bedding the four dwarves who made it. (Makes you wonder about Snow White and what she was doing in the beds of the 7 dwarves, doesn’t it?)

It turns out these four dwarves represent the four directions in Norse mythology, and through these acts of consummation, Freya embodies the energy of these directions as well as the elements of earth, air, water, and fire. The necklace came to symbolize her life-giving power, and though many tried to steal it, including the trickster, Loki, Freya held onto it with fierce determination and supernatural authority.

For she is a goddess with magical powers and knowledge of Seidr, a form of Nordic shamanism that allows her to shapeshift into various animals from falcon, to sow/boar, to goat. She rides in a chariot drawn by two cats and is sometimes described wearing a white catskin cloak, gloves, and shoes, and at other times wearing a cape made of falcon feathers.

Freya shares some qualities with the Greek triple goddess, Persephone, Demeter and Hecate. She has the ability to resurrect after being killed in initiatory rites much like the Eleusinian mysteries allude to, and has the role of leader of the Valkyries, who bring half of the dead warriors from every battle to her (the other half going to Odin, who may or may not be her husband referred to as Od). She is adept in the magical arts like Hecate, a seer and spinner of the Great Wheel of life and death with all of its lustiness, messiness, and juiciness.

So enjoy, this frisky time of the waxing moon, Sisters and Brothers (Oh, did I mention that one of Freya’s lovers was her twin brother, Freyr, similar to Isis and Osiris, the holy rulers of the land who ensure fertility and abundance through their divine union?). These gods and goddesses remind us of our primal nature and connection to Mother Earth whose bounty we enjoy but often take for granted. Beltaine is a day to jump over the fire, have a picnic, “go-a Maying,” (or roll in the haying), and remember who our mother is.

We Have a Beautiful Mother

By Alice Walker

We have a beautiful

mother

Her hills

are buffaloes

Her buffaloes

hills.

We have a beautiful

mother

Her oceans

are wombs

Her wombs

oceans.

We have a beautiful

mother

Her teeth

the white stones

at the edge

of the water

the summer

grasses

her plentiful

hair.

We have a beautiful

mother

Her green lap

immense

Her brown embrace

eternal

Her blue body

everything we know.

HAPPY EARTH DAY. Every day we can… Give thanks. Pick up trash. Reuse. Recycle. Consume less. Use less plastic. Plant a tree. Grow a garden. Use less water. Give back.

Nasa image

Eoster, Celtic goddess of spring, known as Ostara in the Germanic tradition and Frigga in Norse mythology, Persephone and Eos in Greek mythology, was celebrated at this time for all of the riches she brought: Light, growth, green, fertility, abundance, renewal, the chance to start again.

Her totem is the hare, who performs courting rituals of dancing, boxing and springing in the air to attract a mate. In olden times it was believed that this strange dance of the hares helped Mother Earth wake up from her long winter’s sleep. They thought hares laid eggs because their lairs looked like bird’s nests and were similar to those of the lapwing, who did lay eggs. Thus the idea that the magical March hare brought eggs for spring was hatched.

Eoster, where the name Easter derives, comes from the Latin root, estrus, the time when animals are in heat, and oestrus, a time when sexual desire is heightened, the sap rises, and fertility reigns. Under a full moon, such as the pink moon, playful passion is unleashed. Did you know that Easter is always celebrated the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox? A time for frolicking!

Eoster’s message is simply this: Enjoy the abundance that is yours. Look around. It is everywhere. You have everything you need. Rejoice!

Happy Easter!

Aphrodite

Virtually no other goddess brings to mind the feminine qualities of love and beauty like Aphrodite. She is a Greek goddess who is actually a later incarnation of the Great Mother, goddess of fertility, and all that is. She is an archetype harkening back to Neolithic times and beyond.

All of the little rounded mother goddess figures that are dug up in Europe and Asia are called Venuses, such as the Venus of Willendorf, the Venus of Lespugue, Venus of Dolni, etc. That is because they all represent this most ancient form of the sacred feminine, the Great Goddess. Venus is her more modern Roman counterpart, but does not hold the deep connection to love for earth and all its creatures, the association with the full moon and fertility, that the Great Mother does.

The word “Aphrodite” means born from the sea foam, the ocean, or womb of the Great Mother. She is said to have come ashore near the island of Cyprus. Some say Aphrodite came from the stars, but her myth always describes her as rising out of the ocean or stepping foot onto land from the sea. And in this way we can see how she might be seen to give birth to herself, just as we can give birth to ourselves by seeing ourselves in a new way.

There are several artist images showing her looking into the mirror. This underlines the theme of the goddess reflecting ourselves. As we see the goddess of love and beauty in the form of Aphrodite, we see our own love and beauty and all its possibilities reflected back to us.

Perhaps by seeing ourselves in this way, through the lens of the divine feminine, with new eyes, so to speak, we are reborn in beautiful, feminine form in our own eyes, loving every part of ourselves. Where we once saw flaws and imperfections, we now see we are just right.  There is a quote by the actress, Alfrie Woodard, that speaks to this. She said, “ Everybody has a part of their body that she doesn’t like, but I’ve stopped complaining about mine because I don’t want to critique nature’s handiwork…My job is simply to allow the light to shine out of the masterpiece.”

We must learn to love ourselves. We must learn to accept our messy lives, our mistakes, our bumps and lumps, our doubts and fears, so that we can transform them with love. Aphrodite is said to be an alchemical goddess, due to her abilities to change us from the inside out. When we can love our own imperfections, we can love another’s, bringing about more tolerance and acceptance, important ingredients in the alchemy of love. When we stop judging ourselves, we will stop judging others. When we no longer feel the need to criticize ourselves, we will no longer feel the need to criticize others.

Aphrodite shows us the way by allowing us to see that every form of beauty has its flaws and that perfection is an illusion, a soul-killing exercise in futility. If we accept, even love our flaws, our quirks, our “perfect imperfections,” we redefine beauty by including ourselves, our humanness, in the definition.

So we must learn radical self-care. We must learn to love ourselves first for only then are we able to love another wholly and completely. That doesn’t mean we become selfish narcissists. It means we start with us. When we fill ourselves with love, it overflows onto others. Too many of us as women walk around empty, depleted, always giving, giving, giving to others, and forgetting to give to ourselves. We’ve forgotten to fill the well. And we must start with feeling deserving. That’s where Aphrodite comes in.

While there are many ways to look at Aphrodite as an archetype, I choose to see her as a Great Mother goddess, who can help us learn to love ourselves, to see our own beauty, and to take better care of ourselves. Every good mother believes her child deserves love. Aphrodite sure believed she deserved to have love and pleasure and she saw to it that others did, too. We need to make a practice of this. That is why I created a new chapter on Aphrodite: to provide suggestions and ideas for bringing out more of our sensual nature, to find ourselves through creativity, to learn to engage with life more, and ultimately to love and care for ourselves.

My revised Soulwork book, In the Lap of the Goddess, Connecting With the Divine Feminine, sporting a new cover and with a new chapter on “Aphrodite: Lessons in Self-Love and Self-Care,” will be available on March 1, 2012. You can pre-order it now at the old price of $24, plus shipping. After March 1, it will sell for $26.

There’s still time to register for the 4-week Goddess Temple e-course on the Triple Goddess, starting March 4. You will get to know and explore your inner maiden, mother and crone:  The Goddess Temple

In Celtic tradition, February 2, Imbolc or Candlemas is celebrated. This is the time when Brigid or Bride, makes her presence known. She is goddess of the fire; Imbas was the word that described inspiration that came from her creative and transformational fire. Imbolc refers to the time when the ewes are lactating in preparation to give birth to their lambs in spring, just six weeks away. it is a time for the maiden Brigid to bring in the light so as to usher the old crone of winter out and let the sunshine in.

Brigid’s triple aspect is as goddess of poetry, smithing, and healing. The fire is important to each of these crafts. The poet receives enlightenment and passion from the fire, and the stories and poems told by the bards were like fire themselves, unable to be harnessed, touched or held. They could only be passed from mouth to ear in a sacred way by those who were skilled in the art of storytelling. Both the white-hot fire of the blacksmith that shapes lumps of metal into useful objects, as well as the healing fire of the hearth that boils the herbs and potions, bring about transmutation. And so it is with each of us as we honor Brigid’s fiery presence. She has the power to enlighten us.

When Christianity usurped the worship of the goddess, St. Brigid was born in the fifth century CE, with many of the same attributes as the beloved goddess of yore. St. Brigid was born at sunrise just as her mother crossed the threshold of her home, associating her with the idea of liminality–existing between worlds. There were many legends about St. Brigid’s connection to fire, like the goddess of her namesake. One such is that when she was an infant, she was left in the house while her mother tended the animals. Neighbors saw great flames of fire engulfing the roof of her house and rushed to her. But when they reached her, there were no flames or burnt remains. She was said to perform miracles, like the magical goddess herself, healing the afflicted, bringing stillborn babes to life, and having a never-depleted cauldron of food for those who were hungry.

St. Brigid’s fire is still tended by 19 nuns in Kildare, Ireland and never allowed to go out. Tonight I gather with a group of women who celebrate these sabbats as the Great Wheel turns, and we will all light candles from one that was lit from Brigid’s sacred flame in Kildare. I invite you to light a candle in honor of the returning sun, the bright goddess, and the passions that stir within each of us.

Happy New Moon and Chinese New Year! It is my birthday today, on the cusp of the New Moon in Aquarius on January 22 and the Chinese New Year on January 23, when the Year of the Dragon commences.

I have this very picture of Kuan-Yin, goddess of compassion, mercy, magic, and fertility on my wall. Her name means “one who perceives sounds,” which means she can hear the cries and prayers of the people, particularly the children of the world.

She is often depicted riding a dragon over the sea. The dragon is an ancient symbol of power, wisdom and transformation. As we enter the year of the dragon, which occurs every 12 years, we can be sure that this will be a year of getting things done on both the spiritual and physical plane.

Whatever you set your mind to this year, you have the strength and power of the dragon to propel you forward. In Chinese astrology, each animal of the year is paired with one of the five elements, and this is the year of the water dragon, also bringing Kwan Yin to mind.

So this is the time to find compassion for ourselves and others, a year to transform on a feeling (water) level, and to complete whatever needs to be healed or transmuted. Water calms the fiery dragon, so there may not be as much upheaval and anger both on an inner and outer level with this tranquil influence.

How auspicious as we enter this new moon in Aquarius, the water bearer, we also welcome the water dragon. We can call in the great bodhisattva (near-Buddha), Kuan-Yin, who vowed never to forsake us as long as there was one human being who had not yet seen the light of truth. She is with us, another form of the Great Mother protector, whenever we need her. We’re in good hands.

If I were adrift upon the ocean

with demons and dragons all around.

I would think of sweet Kuan-Yin

and the hungry waters would subside.

If I were trapped within a furnace

as hot as hell’s own blazes,

I would think of Kuan-Yin’s power,

and the flames would turn to water.

If enemies pursued me, if I were thrown

from a high mountain peak, if knives

were raised against me, if I were imprisoned

or beset by beasts, I would call on her.

Her pity shields me from the lightning.

Her compassion is like a cloud around me,

which rains down sweetness and

puts out the fires of my sorrow.

- Chinese prayer to Kuan-Yin

Ready to plunge into the New Year, Sisters?

Yemaya, Yoruba goddess of the ocean, is one of my favorite goddesses. She is Mama Wata, Star of the Sea, Stella Maris, a Mother Creator goddess who gives birth to us in the New Year as we give birth to ourselves, with new skin, fresh eyes, and an open heart.

She grants wishes, midwifes our dreams into reality, buoys us to dance in the creative waters, helps us flow through life and swim in the liquid pools of our being. She encourages us to dive deep and find the essence of our soul’s yearnings and bring them up to the surface. She invites us to play like little seals and otters, allowing our creative juices to spill out and over the canvas of our lives.

There is no right or wrong, she says, when it comes to creating. Follow your intuition, let it flow! It doesn’t matter whether you step in and slowly find your footing, wading further and further out, or jump in feet first. She opens her arms to you. The water’s fine.

I accidentally brought this goddess into being three years ago before I knew much about her and before I started working with her intentionally. When I was creating my SoulCollage® card for my sacral chakra, center of creativity and emotions, sensuality and sexuality, I journeyed to meet my animal ally of this place.

There I was met by a manatee, a great, soft, gentle creature, which can be found in both salt and fresh waters. Manatees were once mistaken for mermaids because of their feminine, cowlike form. In the image I created, I included a mermaid queen who fed the manatee of my creative chakra. Behind her danced the goddess, Thetis, a Greek sea nymph, who like Yemaya, represents fertility, as well as pleasures found in dancing and singing. Only later, as I actively explored the mythology of the mermaid goddess Yemaya, did I realize that I had already met her and cast her in the important role of feeding my creative soul.

I started actively working with her in 2010 and got to know her well, calling upon her by literally sending a message in a bottle to her by dropping it into the ocean. She heard my call and helped me give birth to my SoulWork book, In the Lap of the Goddess: Connecting With the Divine Feminine in 2011. I kept the SoulCollage® card I made of her archetype (below) next to my computer as I worked. I thought sometimes of my creative work as the steady drip, drip, drip of water until it forms a pool. At times I imagined myself swimming around in the murky depths until I found clarity. I saw myself opening shells and finding pearls. I honored her with a chapter in the book about working with this creator goddess. With Yemaya’s help, I persistently kept moving through, diving deep and resurfacing, again and again.

And I call upon her now as I take another leap in 2012. My dreams include:

• adding another chapter to my book on Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty. This chapter will be on self-love and self-care.
• launching Goddess Temple, where I will offer 2 e-courses based on my book, the first of which will run from March 4 – 31, and will explore The Triple Goddess, the maiden, mother and crone within each of us.
• sending my workbook to publishers to secure a book deal, which I envision in an expanded form with more goddess goodness to work and play with
• traveling to Greece to visit the sacred goddess sites, temples and caves, and soak in the Mediterranean beauty

Remember, Sisters, Dream Big. Size Matters.

What are your wishes and dreams for the New Year? Yemaya is waiting to hear your call.

Go here to register for the Goddess Temple e-course, a 4-week exploration of The Triple Goddess, Persephone, the maiden, Demeter, the Mother, and Hecate, the crone using my SoulWork book, In the Lap of the Goddess (discount available if you’ve already purchased the book):  Goddess Temple

I am Cerridwyn, daughter of Wales. I live alone on an island in the middle of Llyn Tegid (now Bala Lake). Some call me a hag witch, which I consider a compliment for they are only acknowledging my powers as a holy woman, a fierce healer. I have two children, a daughter, Creidwy, and a son, Morfran, who I would fight to the death to protect from harm’s way. And that is what I do for you, my children, protect and guide you through the dark nights of winter.

For this is a time to be brewing new potions in your cauldron for the coming year. It is time now to sit by the hearth fire and stir the thick soup, letting it simmer over the long dark nights to come. Don’t be afraid to add new ingredients, to play with the recipe. I encourage you to add generous dollops of Courage, magnums of Inspiration, and heaping cupfuls of Trust. Circle the cauldron throughout the winter months, remembering its power, touching the container of life, death and rebirth, the never ending cycle, the beginning and the end.

Seek the light in the pregnant darkness. Gestate. Care for yourself. Renew. Restore. Release. And do it now my children, on December 22, the longest night of the year, when the sun appears to stand still in the sky. It is the time to release all that has been accumulating and weighing you down so that you can make way for the new.

I invite you to follow the lead of my sister, Pixie Campbell, as she guides you in the Mother of All Releasings Ceremony: Winter Solstice, 2012.

Happy Solstice!

Winter Solstice Blessing by Stacy Anne Murphy

Shed away your tired old coats my darlings.
Shed the tears
that tear you from within.
Like a snake
who has outgrown her skin,
writhe and scrape
until the dull old scales
fall away.

Slough off the remnants
of your worn-out self.
Peel away the layers
that no longer suit you,
that constrict you,
so a shiny,
smooth,
lissome you
emerges.

Glide effortlessly
into the new year
adaptable,
flexible,
amenable,
joyful.

Enter your new beginning
with grace,
warm, bright, glistening,
grace.

Diego took her message to the local Catholic bishop, who refused to believe his story without proof. Diego went back to the site where the woman told him to gather roses to bring back in her honor, which he thought would be impossible to find in the desert in December. But when he turned around, much to his surprise, he found a bush of roses in full bloom and gathered as many as he could in his cloak and returned to the bishop. As he opened his cloak, the roses fell out in a profusion of color, and an image of the lady appeared on the fabric of his cloak, convincing the church father that she was an apparition of the Virgin Mary.

There were some in the indigenous tribes and villages of Mexico who believed she was, in fact, the goddess Tonan, who had returned to help her people after being conquered by the Spanish, whose mission was to convert them all to Catholicism. But many came to see her as the blessed Mary of the Americas, who, no matter what name you give her, watches over her people. But as we know, Mary has her roots in the ancient mother goddesses that exist in all cultures. I like to think that she is powerful enough to live on through the patriarchal structure that has prevailed even today. You can see her as a Catholic religious figure and the mother of Jesus, or you can see her as an ancient mother goddess who represents fertility, and the bounty of the earth. It doesn’t matter for her meaning is deeply embedded in her image, and in our collective unconscious, in our very DNA.

She is also known as “Mother of Maguey,” as she stands in the middle of a maguey, or agave plant, which appears to be rays of light or spiny leaves. The plant has medicinal and healing properties and its juice is known as “virgin milk.” Her blue-green mantle of stars is symbolic of the divine Aztec couple, Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl and her place amongst the stars. Her belt is said to indicate her pregnancy with the divine child. She stands upon a crescent moon, reminding us of her origins as an ancient lunar goddess.

Even her appellation of Our Lady of Guadalupe harkens back to her indigenous origins. It is said that the name Guadalupe came from one of two similar sounding words in the Nahuatl language, which did not contain the letters “g” and “d,” so could not have been Guadalupe originally. One similar-sounding Nahuatl word meant, “She whose origins were in the rocky summit,” alluding to the ancient goddess, Tonan, and the other from a similar-sounding word that meant, “She who banishes those who devour us,” again referring to the return of Tonan as protector of her newly-conquered people. To the Spanish conquerors, she was a useful icon to gain converts from the native people who once revered Tonan and had a system of understanding the world through the Aztec iconography and mythos. While the Christian churches were built on the very ruins of the Aztec temples, the pagan beliefs and practices were not so easily demolished, and the goddess triumphed.

So when we look at the beautiful black Madonna of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we can see her through time as an enduring image of the divine feminine. It is ironic that even as she stands as a national symbol of Mexico, where pilgrimages to Tepeyac hill occur every year, women are banned from approaching the sacred relic on display behind the altar at the cathedral of Guadalupe. The patriarchy endures for now, but the goddess lives on. Light a candle for Her on December 12 as we bring in the return of the light that the Winter Solstice promises on December 22.

In honor of Our Lady, I am again including information about how to order your own goddess rosary from Jennifer Mantle, who is happy to put together a custom order for you with the goddess and beads of your choice.

There are many more styles of rosaries and pendants available than are shown in her Etsy store, so just let her know what you have in mind and she will work with you. Jennifer wrote her master’s thesis on “Reclaiming the Rosary in Her Name,” in which she maintains that “The mythology of the rosary is decidedly Marian,” that indicates a “recovery of the goddess” and a way to connect to our own divine feminine. This is reflected in the beauty of the feminine form of the goddess pendant and the roundness of the beads. These rosaries can be used like prayer beads or worn as necklaces or both! Here is the link to Adore Her Designs:
http://www.AdoreHerDesigns.etsy.com/

Friday was the first day of the new moon (truly a black Friday), generally a good time for new beginnings. However, on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, Mercury went into Retrograde (maybe that’s why I couldn’t get myself to the computer). It does seem like a Coyote-like predicament to start something on the new moon only to find that Mercury in Retrograde may throw it in reverse, much like one step forward, two steps back. Therefore, a good time to stand still: Do less, Be more.

That brings me to Hestia, goddess of the hearth and home. There is an old Greek saying, “Start with Hestia,” which means “Begin at the Beginning,” from the original fire, or first spark, and perhaps because she was the first of the Olympian goddesses to be born. In ancient Greece, when a woman moved into a new home, she lit the first fire in the hearth with fire from her mother’s hearth. No mistake that heart and hearth are almost the same word.

Hestia is what we mean when we refer to ourselves or another as a “homebody.” I think I have a lot of Hestia myself. I love nesting and sticking close to the fire, be it in the kitchen or near the hearth. A working fireplace is a must for me in any home I’ve lived in. Hestia women get their energy from their home and family. They take that fire with them out into the world when they venture forth and need to return and revive themselves before they’re ready to set out again.

Hestia is not a lively one. She’s as steady as they come. She tends to stay close to home, tending the fire, which could be the creative fire of the writer, artist, gardener or cook, as well as housewife and stay-at-home mom.

In the ancient Greek temples, Hestia’s flame, considered the heart of the temple, was always lit. The priestesses tended and guarded it, making sure it never went out. There are very few images or statues of Hestia as she was thought to be faceless, and exist in the fire. We provide the face of Hestia by how we live our lives, stoke the flames, and keep the home fires burning.

As we approach the Christmas season, I wanted to share with you a wonderful gift idea for the goddesses in your life  and that is a goddess rosary made by the luminous Jennifer Mantle. Jennifer’s rosaries are one-of-a-kind and she loves to do custom orders. That means you can work with her to choose the goddess pendant as well as the gems and beads that adorn it, depending on what kind of energy you are wishing to draw in. There are many more styles of rosaries and pendants available than are shown in her Etsy store, so just let her know what you have in mind and she will work with you.

Jennifer wrote her master’s thesis on “Reclaiming the Rosary in Her Name,” in which she maintains that “The mythology of the rosary is decidedly Marian,” that indicates a “recovery of the goddess” and a way to connect to our own divine feminine. This is reflected in the beauty of the feminine form of the goddess pendant and the roundness of the beads. These rosaries can be used like prayer beads or worn as necklaces or both! Here is the link to Adore Her Designs: http://www.AdoreHerDesigns.etsy.com/

snake goddess rosary with bloodstones