The Goddess STYX – Passage to the Underworld

The Goddess Styx in Greek mythology is both a deity and a river.  Her river is the threshold between the earth and the underworld.  Charon the ferryman carries the deceased across the river Styx threshold so they could enter the underworld. All oaths were taken by the deities in the presence of Styx.

The river Styx is just one of 5 rivers in the Stygian landscape of the Greek underworld. Their names were meant to reflect the emotions associated with death.

• The LETHE is the river of  oblivion, time, memory and forgiveness
• The PHLEGETHON was the turbulent river of  fire, change, truth,and light
  
• The COCYTUS is the river of wailing , heartbreak, distress and lamentation.
• The ACHERON is the river of pain, woe and sorrow.
  
• The STYX is the most prominent river of the underworld  It’s known as the river of hatred, immortality and  unbreakable promises .

“When death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?”...Mary Oliver ( continued below)

STX – PASSAGE TO THE UNDERWORLD
I AM THRESHOLD

When Death Comes By Mary Oliver

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don’t want to end up having simply visited this world.

 

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GAIA and our beautiful Earth…….

In Greek mythology GAIA  is the primordial Goddess of the EARTH, the personification of our planet. She was borne from Chaos. Gaia and Uranus (the sky) bore the Titans, the giants and the sea. Gaia was the original deity at the Delphi Oracle and mother of Python, the serpent at the center  of the earth. The ancient Greeks represented the center of the earth with a large stone, the omphalos which was situated at the centre of the Delphi temple guarded by Python. In later years Apollo murdered Python and took the power for himself.

In 1970 James Lovelock proposed that the earth is a living being, self-regulating the elements to sustain life on it….and called it the GAIA THEORY explaining an aware universe protecting and sustaining life on our planet.

“The divine oneness of life is within and all around us. Sometimes walking alone in nature we can feel its heartbeat and its wonder, and our steps become steps of remembrance. The simple practice of “walking in a sacred manner”—in which with every step we take we feel the connection with the sacred Earth—is one way to reconnect with the living spirit of the Earth. There are so many ways to reconnect with the sacred within creation, to listen within and include the Earth in our spiritual practice and daily life. When we hear the morning chorus of birds, we may sense that deeper joy of life and awake to its divine nature; at night the stars can remind us of what is infinite and eternal within us and within the world. Watching the simple wonder of a dawn or a sunset can be an offering in itself. Whatever way we are drawn to wonder, to recognize the sacred, what matters is always the attitude we bring to this intimate exchange. It is through the heart that a real connection is made, even if we first make it in our feet or hands. Do we really feel our self as a part of this beautiful and suffering planet, do we sense its need? Then this connection comes alive, a living stream that flows from our heart as it embraces all of life. Then every step, every touch, will be a prayer for the Earth, a remembrance of what is sacred.”….Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

            GAIA  is the personification of the consciousness  of our planet.  

              She is a living being. She is the SOUL of the Earth.

I AM EARTH #theredseedsoracle

GAIA – The Beautiful PLANET
I AM EARTH

The Contemplation of Baba Yaga

BABA YAGA – The Great Mother in Russian folklore is a  large supernatural crone. She is wilder and older and odder than we can imagine. Like Sheela-na-gig or Kali she is a dark Goddess expressing life and death, birth and destruction. Baba Yaga draws our attention to the fact that she can be the very good mother or the very terrible mother. Her tale tells of her living far away from civilization in a hut in the woods full of birch trees. If people approached she would either joyfully eat them up and  grind their bones or she might offer aid and compassion to those who have found themselves lost in their darkness.

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, a Jungian psychoanalyst says in her book Women Who Run With the Wolves, that Baba Yaga is a kind of prototype of primal womanhood, a being of enormous wild power. “Baba Yaga,” she writes, “is the very essence of an instinctive and complete soul. She knows everything that was before. She is a keeper of heavenly and earthly secrets. She inspires fear because she simultaneously personifies a destructive power and the power of creation and life.” Clarissa Pinola Estes describes Baba Yaga as, “…a representation of a great woman who sees clearly, is decisive and knows the patterns of the universe.” 

The Contemplation of BABA YAGA

THEIA under the GASLIGHT

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THEIA is the Greek Goddess of Light . Here she stands under a gaslight which is a metaphor for Gaslighting , a form of insidious emotional abuse where the perpetrator ‘shuts someone down’ by causing them to doubt their truth. The term gaslighting was taken from the play ‘Gas light’ by Patrick Hamilton which was also turned into a film. The story is centered around a husband who manipulates his wife by questioning her sanity and her perception of reality. The husband distorts their home, mainly by dimming the gas light, and then denies any change in their environment has occurred at all. The wife is left disoriented and confused, as she questions her mental health as she now  believes that she can no longer trust what she believes to be true.

Gaslighting is a form of control and manipulation … if affected we can become blinded and confused and lose confidence in our sense of self and sanity. Women through the centuries have often been open to such abuse by being called hysterical and over emotional thereby reducing their worth. Gaslighting is a matrix of denial, contradictions and lies…..all conscious attempts to disempower the other person/s. Being in a relationship with someone who gaslights will leave us feeling worthless and  crazy  for the suggested problems in the relationship. It is a trap to ensure a persons reality and identity is broken and tested. Self-loathing and self-distrust soon follows. It is easy to fall blind to such behaviour. We are all susceptible to gaslighters as their behaviour tends to be an insidous and  gradual technique of manipulation……………..I AM BLINDED

THEIA under the GASLIGHT
I am BLINDED

 

 

 

HEKATE and the Blood Moon

International Women’s Day March 8th  2019

HEKATE is Goddess of the crossroads and holds the keys to the Underworld. She is associated with the dark moon and holds the energy of the ‘blood mysteries’ which are ; the first menstruation, menstruation, pregnancy, peri-menopause and menopause, all times of feminine power.

Menstruation stigma is still widespread in our world. Some societies see menstruation as unclean and  shameful . Many traditional religions still consider the monthly bleed as being ritually unacceptable. Often women when bleeding are forbidden to enter temples, touch food, have sex and interact with men. Menstrual exclusion in some societies exiles  bleeding women to menstruation huts. Menstruation segregation and stigma is a human rights issue.

Our moon cycles is a time for honouring the Feminine . The blood mysteries arise and align with the moon cycles encouraging us to listen and look beyond what we can see.

I AM BLOOD   #theredseedsoracle

HEKATE and the Blood Mysteries
I AM MOONBLOOD

 

 

SHEELA-na-GIG in the FOGOU

SHEELA-NA-GIG is an ancient powerful goddess who was often portrayed over the entrances of religious buildings. She can still be found in situ in Ireland and all over Europe. Her image is as a grinning crone hag woman who is pulling open her exaggerated vulva for all to see inside, often seen as an obscene gesture.

Images of vulvas are represented in Palaeolithic art in ancient ritual structures such as Passage graves and fogous which had a vaginal entrance leading to a womb-like chamber.

Sheela-na-gig calls us to stand before the void from which we all come from and where we will all return. She guides us and opens us up to her gateway that reveals the continuous cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Her vulva is very similar to the sacred Hindu Yoni seen as a representation of the Goddess Shakti symbolising the divine eternal process of creation and regeneration.

“Dance me through to the stillness
to the point where the motion begins.
Dance me through to the silence
to the edge where the world begins.”
―Kathryn Price NicDhana

SHEELA-na-GIG in the FOGOU
I AM OPENING

ATHENA with her Owl in the Parthenon…

ATHENA was the Greek virgin goddess of wisdom, reason, crafts, strategy and war. Her temple was the Parthenon in Athens. She was often shown wearing amour but here I place the emphasis on her strong connection with the wise owl who represents and accompanies Athena.
Archetypally Athena models the strong Feminine endowed with great objectivity, insight and reason. Her left brained male energy acquires great knowledge which can be used in academia and business, and in all other areas  once seen as ‘a man’s world.
She is fiercely independent and doesn’t suffer fools lightly and has no time for dreamers. Perhaps at this time the Athena archetype is encouraging the Feminine to rise up and claim a voice of wisdom and reason, regardless of our gender. The feminine is a quality that lives in both men and women. We live in transition as the gender gap is closing and today men and women have to some extent interchangeable lives.

ATHENA and her OWL at the Parthenon
I AM REASON

The Athenian “owl” silver tetradrachm is unquestionably one of the most influential coins of all time. During the fifth century BC, when Athens emerged as the greatest of all Greek cities, owls were the most widely used international coin and helped to spread Greek culture throughout the Mediterranean world.