Ostara, Helen, Persephone, and the Labyrinth
I posted this on Facebook but felt that I should post it here as well.
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Some of you already know this; I like complexity and layers of meaning. When I do a big ritual, you KNOW it's a big one because of the multiple steps and activities that are done. There's a method to this madness, as it were. What I've found over time is that a full-on ritual and festival tends to reveal multiple aspects of deity and divine that may not be immediately obvious. I find that the complexity reveals just a bit more about the Divine than we might otherwise sense with our five senses, and helps to unravel the mysteries of our lives and our interactions. Sometimes I plan something that literally takes years to do. At other times I throw something together fairly quickly, but still with complexity. Such was today.
I struck me months ago that I should walk the labyrinth at the dawn today. Making this realization in January is sort of a wing and a prayer moment. Who knows what the weather will be like? Odds are the weather will be crappy, but you can hope and see what happens. As it was today, it was cloudy, but very warm and a bit moist, so conditions were very good.
This is a day that I consider Persephone to return from the Underworld, leaving her beloved husband behind to rejoin her rejoicing mother Demeter. Demeter has been eagerly anticipating the return this year, bathing us in warmth throughout Winter and putting on a grand show of flowers and buds for the return. The celebration of Her return will be more tonight. This morning was a bit different, with the morning dedicated to the Daughter of the Sun, walking in the lair of the Mistress of the Labyrinth. In the Greek, these are (to me) Helen and Ariadne. The morning was dedicated mostly to Helen.
This is where the complexity begins. Why today, you might ask, should I be honoring the Daughter of the Sun? I often quote M.L. West's book "Indo-European Poetry and Myth" for a variety of reasons, and will do so here. At page 225 of the book, West is discussing "the Dawn goddess and the spring festival" and notes that many of the various Indo-European branches had festivals to celebrate Spring. On page 226 he says "We have seen that the practice of swinging was characteristic of these solar festivals, and that it was a feature of the Greek springtime festival known as the Aiorai, 'Swings.' According to the aetiological myth, girls swung from trees because one Erigone had hanged herself from a tree. We have testimony that from Aristotle (fr. 515) that women sang a traditional song about her at the Aiorai. Her hanging became attached to the story of Ikarios, the man who brought viticulture to Attica, and she was made his daughter. But her name is simply a variant of Erigeneia 'Early-born,' the familiar title of the Dawn goddess. Her hanging was probably invented as the mythical counterpart of a custom of hanging images in trees, and it was then used to explain the swinging as well."
I'll note here that the Aiorai festival has been attached to Anthesteria, THE major festival for Dionysos. The wife of Dionysos is Ariadne, from Theseus and the Minotaur fame, and almost certainly the Mistress of the Labyrinth.
West, somewhat famously, equates Helen as the Daughter of the Sun, the goddess of the Dawn. In this book he does so starting on page 230 and goes on for some time describing her many attributes and how they relate to the Dawn or to solar attributes in general. One thing that he notes is that she was born from an egg.
So what of the ritual aspects? West notes on page 235 that, in the Baltic tradition (specifically Latvian), the wedding of the Daughter of the Sun is celebrated by the Sons of God (the Divine Twins) who decorate the trees with green cloth, gold rings, and other ornaments. West goes on to say "This reflects the practice, widely attested across northern and eastern Europe, of decorating the May-tree with coloured ribbons, garlands, eggshells, and trinkets at the beginning of Summer - just when, as we have seen, the wedding of the Daughter of the Sun was supposed to take place." West goes on to describe a hypothetical dancing between young men and women, which would indicate a rite of passage and preparation for marriage, evidence of which I've seen in Dorian Greek festivals as well. As West notes, Helen's wedding was celebrated at Sparta, with a company of girls dancing and singing before dawn, hanging garlands on Helen's holy plane-tree, and pouring olive oil on the ground at the foot of the tree. West also notes the story in Rhodes of Helen being seized by a group of women and being hanged from a tree, and that the inhabitants created a shrine of Helena Dendritis, or Helen of the Tree. Finally, West notes (page 236) that another common decoration of the May-tree was of eggs or painted eggshells. He also stated that eggs "make an obvious symbol of rebirth or of the reborn sun."
I could write a lot more, but this should be sufficient. Essentially, from the Vernal equinox (Ostara, the start of Spring) through to the Summer Solstice (Litha) and including the May festival (Beltaine), there are celebrations of the Sun's return, and the celebrations seem to include honoring the Daughter of the Sun. In some ways this marriage motif seems to be similar to, if not the same as, the God and Goddess marriage that we see in modern neo-paganism, celebrated on Beltaine. Most of us are familiar with the egg associations of Easter; this may be a deeper explanation as to why we have these. Anthesteria (which occurs either in February or March), to me, is the starting point for all of this activity, and it will go until Midsummer.
So, what would be good activities to do today? It seemed to me that hanging eggs from a plane tree (which is a Sycamore tree) would be good, and that these should be red if possible (as this is one of the colors of the Dawn, and also of the Dioskouroi). A libation of olive oil is in order, as are prayers. A walk in the labyrinth at the Dawn, before the rising of the Sun, also seemed to be a good idea.
So I did all of these. I prepared the plastic eggs last night, and hung them on one of my Sycamore trees this morning in the darkness. I did not pour the libation, but I will later tonight. I then took honey and another egg with me to the labyrinth. It was cloudy, but there was a break in the clouds on the far eastern horizon, and the red and gold shone through. I knew She would greet me. I made my honey offering and began my walk. When I reached the center I placed the egg there and made prayers. After circling the center three times clockwise, three times counterclockwise, I then left. Interestingly, the walk itself didn't seem to hold as much for me until I was on the way out. About 1/4 of the way out, it seemed that a burden was lifted from my shoulders. By the time I left I was smiling more. Nothing dramatic, no huge messages this time, just a lighter feeling. Good stuff.
Tonight will bring prayers before the four altars (Dioskouroi, Helen, Ariadne, and Dionysos) and offerings before the plane tree, before I make new offerings and prayers to Persephone to celebrate Her return. There is a connection here as well but I won't delve into that here. Suffice it to say that the Maidens of Spring are here, and the madness of Springtime Love is upon us. May it bless you all in the coming year.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Some of you already know this; I like complexity and layers of meaning. When I do a big ritual, you KNOW it's a big one because of the multiple steps and activities that are done. There's a method to this madness, as it were. What I've found over time is that a full-on ritual and festival tends to reveal multiple aspects of deity and divine that may not be immediately obvious. I find that the complexity reveals just a bit more about the Divine than we might otherwise sense with our five senses, and helps to unravel the mysteries of our lives and our interactions. Sometimes I plan something that literally takes years to do. At other times I throw something together fairly quickly, but still with complexity. Such was today.
I struck me months ago that I should walk the labyrinth at the dawn today. Making this realization in January is sort of a wing and a prayer moment. Who knows what the weather will be like? Odds are the weather will be crappy, but you can hope and see what happens. As it was today, it was cloudy, but very warm and a bit moist, so conditions were very good.
This is a day that I consider Persephone to return from the Underworld, leaving her beloved husband behind to rejoin her rejoicing mother Demeter. Demeter has been eagerly anticipating the return this year, bathing us in warmth throughout Winter and putting on a grand show of flowers and buds for the return. The celebration of Her return will be more tonight. This morning was a bit different, with the morning dedicated to the Daughter of the Sun, walking in the lair of the Mistress of the Labyrinth. In the Greek, these are (to me) Helen and Ariadne. The morning was dedicated mostly to Helen.
This is where the complexity begins. Why today, you might ask, should I be honoring the Daughter of the Sun? I often quote M.L. West's book "Indo-European Poetry and Myth" for a variety of reasons, and will do so here. At page 225 of the book, West is discussing "the Dawn goddess and the spring festival" and notes that many of the various Indo-European branches had festivals to celebrate Spring. On page 226 he says "We have seen that the practice of swinging was characteristic of these solar festivals, and that it was a feature of the Greek springtime festival known as the Aiorai, 'Swings.' According to the aetiological myth, girls swung from trees because one Erigone had hanged herself from a tree. We have testimony that from Aristotle (fr. 515) that women sang a traditional song about her at the Aiorai. Her hanging became attached to the story of Ikarios, the man who brought viticulture to Attica, and she was made his daughter. But her name is simply a variant of Erigeneia 'Early-born,' the familiar title of the Dawn goddess. Her hanging was probably invented as the mythical counterpart of a custom of hanging images in trees, and it was then used to explain the swinging as well."
I'll note here that the Aiorai festival has been attached to Anthesteria, THE major festival for Dionysos. The wife of Dionysos is Ariadne, from Theseus and the Minotaur fame, and almost certainly the Mistress of the Labyrinth.
West, somewhat famously, equates Helen as the Daughter of the Sun, the goddess of the Dawn. In this book he does so starting on page 230 and goes on for some time describing her many attributes and how they relate to the Dawn or to solar attributes in general. One thing that he notes is that she was born from an egg.
So what of the ritual aspects? West notes on page 235 that, in the Baltic tradition (specifically Latvian), the wedding of the Daughter of the Sun is celebrated by the Sons of God (the Divine Twins) who decorate the trees with green cloth, gold rings, and other ornaments. West goes on to say "This reflects the practice, widely attested across northern and eastern Europe, of decorating the May-tree with coloured ribbons, garlands, eggshells, and trinkets at the beginning of Summer - just when, as we have seen, the wedding of the Daughter of the Sun was supposed to take place." West goes on to describe a hypothetical dancing between young men and women, which would indicate a rite of passage and preparation for marriage, evidence of which I've seen in Dorian Greek festivals as well. As West notes, Helen's wedding was celebrated at Sparta, with a company of girls dancing and singing before dawn, hanging garlands on Helen's holy plane-tree, and pouring olive oil on the ground at the foot of the tree. West also notes the story in Rhodes of Helen being seized by a group of women and being hanged from a tree, and that the inhabitants created a shrine of Helena Dendritis, or Helen of the Tree. Finally, West notes (page 236) that another common decoration of the May-tree was of eggs or painted eggshells. He also stated that eggs "make an obvious symbol of rebirth or of the reborn sun."
I could write a lot more, but this should be sufficient. Essentially, from the Vernal equinox (Ostara, the start of Spring) through to the Summer Solstice (Litha) and including the May festival (Beltaine), there are celebrations of the Sun's return, and the celebrations seem to include honoring the Daughter of the Sun. In some ways this marriage motif seems to be similar to, if not the same as, the God and Goddess marriage that we see in modern neo-paganism, celebrated on Beltaine. Most of us are familiar with the egg associations of Easter; this may be a deeper explanation as to why we have these. Anthesteria (which occurs either in February or March), to me, is the starting point for all of this activity, and it will go until Midsummer.
So, what would be good activities to do today? It seemed to me that hanging eggs from a plane tree (which is a Sycamore tree) would be good, and that these should be red if possible (as this is one of the colors of the Dawn, and also of the Dioskouroi). A libation of olive oil is in order, as are prayers. A walk in the labyrinth at the Dawn, before the rising of the Sun, also seemed to be a good idea.
So I did all of these. I prepared the plastic eggs last night, and hung them on one of my Sycamore trees this morning in the darkness. I did not pour the libation, but I will later tonight. I then took honey and another egg with me to the labyrinth. It was cloudy, but there was a break in the clouds on the far eastern horizon, and the red and gold shone through. I knew She would greet me. I made my honey offering and began my walk. When I reached the center I placed the egg there and made prayers. After circling the center three times clockwise, three times counterclockwise, I then left. Interestingly, the walk itself didn't seem to hold as much for me until I was on the way out. About 1/4 of the way out, it seemed that a burden was lifted from my shoulders. By the time I left I was smiling more. Nothing dramatic, no huge messages this time, just a lighter feeling. Good stuff.
Tonight will bring prayers before the four altars (Dioskouroi, Helen, Ariadne, and Dionysos) and offerings before the plane tree, before I make new offerings and prayers to Persephone to celebrate Her return. There is a connection here as well but I won't delve into that here. Suffice it to say that the Maidens of Spring are here, and the madness of Springtime Love is upon us. May it bless you all in the coming year.