We just got back from our trip to South Africa that I had mentioned before. I can't even begin to articulate some of the things that happened. If you want a general recap, go to our tiny house blog.
But I wanted to offer the followings Homeric hymns to Athena, for her Wisdom and Justice and to Artemis, protector of children.
I begin to sing of Pallas Athena, the dread Protectress of the city,who with Ares looks after matters of war, the plundering of cities, the battle-cry and the fray.It is She who protects the people, wherever they might come or go.Hail, Goddess, and give us good spirits and blessed favor!
Athena, may you grant us wisdom in the decision we'll have to make and allow those decisions to be just and fair.
Muse, sing of Artemis, sister of the Far-shooter, the virgin who delights in arrows, who was fostered with Apollo. She waters her horses from Meles deep in reeds, and swiftly drives her all-golden chariot through Smyrna to vine-clad Claros where Apollo, god of the silver bow, sits waiting for the far-shooting goddess who delights in arrows.
Artemis, may you please watch over our project and protect the children above all other things.
If ever I have poured libations in your honor, hear my prayers.
Yesterday, I held a very subdued Samhain celebration. I set up my altar for Persephone and Hades as the king and queen of the underworld and for the ancestors, as represented by a photograph of my Great Aunt and Grandmother taken in 1921. I also had a dried pomegranate on the altar as well as a coin for the underworld and a small figure of Hecate as the maid that leads the way. I also placed two small glasses on the altar. One for the Gods and one for the ancestors. Then I cracked open a bottle of the Pomegranate Wheat beer I recently brewed and poured it in the two glasses and then a small serving for myself and my partner. We sipped the beer in silence as were privately honored those who have gone before us. I hope everyone had a blessed Samhain.
As you all know, I brew beer. I brew beer because it is awesome. I brew it because I like to drink it, but also because I enjoy the art and science behind a good brew. It has a certain magic.
Recently, I brewed a specific recipe. It turned out to be delicious, which is exactly what a brewer hopes for. It was crisp and clean and just a little bit of the fruit flavors came through. But I didn't just brew it to have a tasty beer beverage to enjoy. I brewed it as an act of love and devotion to Persephone and her mother. This is why I chose a wheat beer base, for Demeter, and added pomegranate for Persephone. In one sense, it is an offering to bring about a long term goal of mine. I want to be a brewer. Not just a homebrewer, but I want to start my own beer company or brewpub. And not in the whimsical "one day I'll do this" sense, but in the "I have a plan I will execute" sense. I want the Pomegranate Wheat to be one of my staple beers and so I thought I might want to get to practicing. There are a lot of modifications I will make the next time I give it a try. After tasting it, I thought of several different ways to get a more complex flavor out of the brew. But even still, it was a delicious beer bringing together the symbols of two goddesses.
So here is to Persephone and to Demeter. May they bless my path. And may I always be able to offer them a Pomegranate Wheat Beer to thank them.
I was up in Asheville this weekend working on our tiny house. Since I was there just a day after the Equinox, I wanted to pour libations and present offerings to Persephone at her Glade.
I offered her some local Asheville beer, the Highland Brewery Octoberfest, Clawhammer. Since craft beer is one of my favorite things, it seems very appropriate for me to offer it to the Goddess. The autumn seasonal beer was perfect. I poured most of it out for, her but I certainly had a few sips myself. I also picked her a small bouquet of purple wildflowers. I placed the offerings at the base of her statue in the glade.
A really cool black pointy spider had set up shop on the statue as well. I considered removing her, but somehow she seemed to belong and Persephone didn't seem to mind the company. I did find out that this kind of spider is called a Spined Micrathena and apparently their are really common. And I just love their name. Apparently, only the females make webs and all of the ones I seem to walk into with my face are Micrathena webs.
And to to honor Persephone and the changing season, I wanted to repost this poem.
Little girl running
Blonde to her autumn mother
Dancing among the daffodils
Embracing butterflies
Little girl laughing
Springtime laughing
Womanhood come little girl
Blossoming to fullness
Breasts and hips and legs
All full, beautiful
Little girl grown
Summer laughing
Then He come up
Man, misunderstood
Not the mother love
Daughter love
And with him is wed
Autumn laughing
The underworld reached
Little girl becomes queen
Queen of darkness
Last face of sweetness
Little girl is the wise one
Winter laughing
Even here in Atlanta, I am starting to feel the pull of the seasons. I didn't intend to be away from this blog for so long, but there are just so many other things going on. We have been making a push to finish the Tumbleweed House so it is 100% inhabitable by next Spring.We are also getting ready for our trip to South Africa, which is feel is being looked after by a very different Goddess. But I still can't deny the beauty of the Autumn Equinox as the time where Persephone descends once again into the Underworld to be with her husband.
I thought, to honor the turning of the season I would provide a "Greatest Hits" of the past posts on this topic.
And, last year I also posted this photo I took of Persephone up at the land in Asheville.
And not to mention, the Autumn Equinox marks the two year anniversary of this blog.
So, Praise Persephone and this changing season. Rejoice in her descent. I leave you with this poem, my favorite by John Keats; To Autumn.
TO AUTUMN. 1.
SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells. 2.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours. 3.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
On one hand I like this because it was made in Detroit, which is where I am from and still have a Stockholm Syndrome-esque draw too. On the other hand, it is titled Persephone and seems to be some level of retelling of the story. On either hand, it is freaking awesome.
Not too long ago I was having a conversation with a friend over coffee and I mentioned that I have never seen Persephone the same way twice. I figured, as a goddess, she doesn't have to have a corporeal form so why not change it up a bit. My friend said that sounded like Persephone, since she is very "Changey". Each time I do see her, I know precisely who she is but the constant reinvention in my mind means I can never accurately describe her. I write stories and poems about her and all of them feature very different physical attributes.
I just ran across this video. While the story is extremely simplified and not entirely accurate (the myth had no baring on the names of the seasons, after all), I think the Photoshop work on the statue is lovely and kind of play into my image of Persephone as an ever changing Goddess.
