Golden and Opulent

All hail to the Feria Saturnalia, old Roman feast of abundance, carnival, wild revelry, a time when the Fool, the Lord of Misrule, gets to be King, and all is topsy turvy, social order inverted, master serves the slave.  A year has come full circle and it's time to begin again the Fool's Journey along the Royal Road once again*

Do astrologers feel consternation that "old dour" Saturn has such a raucous festival of joy named after him? Maybe there are secrets about this god of the goat Capricorn (the sign the sun enters during this celebration) that they don't know? For it is he, and not "jovial Jupiter" that rules over the Golden Age of happiness, free of toil, a time of no private property but communal sharing by all. Janus, for whom the month of January is named, instituted the Saturnalia as a yearly tribute to his old friend Saturn.

Saturn's assigned metal in astrology is lead, one of the basest of elements. And yet he rules over the age of gold.  What a paradox! Could this indicate that it is actually the current age, with it's uneven distribution of earth's resources, that is topsy turvy and that we need a return to the Golden Age to set things right on again? It is fitting that Ops, from whom comes the word opulent, is the wife of Saturn.  Her opulence is reflected in the earth's riches, yes, the bejeweled hills but even more worthy for us humans, her opulent fruit hanging like jewels from the Tree, for, after all, we can't eat gold.

Imagine a "gold rush" not to acquire some gleaming metal, but to perpetuate the golden joys of love and goodwill to all!  Imagine living in the Golden Age, so eloquently described by Ovid in his Metamorphoses (Book I:89-112):

This was the Golden Age that, without coercion, without laws, spontaneously nurtured the good and the true. There was no fear or punishment: there were no threatening words to be read, fixed in bronze, no crowd of suppliants fearing the judge’s face: they lived safely without protection. No pine tree felled in the mountains had yet reached the flowing waves to travel to other lands...no steep ditches surrounding towns, no straight war-trumpets...no swords and helmets. Without the use of armies, people passed their lives in gentle peace and security. The earth herself [Ops] also, freely, without the scars of ploughs, untouched by hoes, produced everything from herself. Contented with food that grew without cultivation, they collected mountain strawberries and the fruit of the strawberry tree, wild cherries, blackberries clinging to the tough brambles, and acorns fallen from Jupiter’s spreading oak-tree...Then the untilled earth gave of its produce and, without needing renewal, the fields whitened with heavy ears of corn. Sometimes rivers of milk flowed, sometimes streams of nectar, and golden honey trickled from the green holm oak.

There are some fabulous parties going on this weekend (how fitting - it's the Saturnalia!) and it's hard to decide which to attend. I wish I could be at all three simultaneously... But wherever I go, I will raise a glass of (golden) Strega Liquore, with a toast to all my relations. IO, Saturnalia!

*as symbolized by the Tarot, Tar (Egyptian, "road") and Ro ("royal, king"), and yes, the Kings Road is a Fools Journey. 

And that's a good thing.

Tarot cards: 0-Fool, III-Empress, 3 and 9 of Cups, Ace of Pentacles

Coatlaxopeuh

Light a candle for the Virgin of Guadalupe. To She who appeared to an Indian farmer, heralded by whistles and flutes, singing birds and heartbeat wings. The man to whom she chose to grant this vision was an Aztec descendant named Cuauhtlatoatzi (Talking Eagle), and renamed Juan Diego upon his conversion to Catholicism. She appeared to him as a beautiful woman with light brown skin, robed as an Aztec princess.  On the hill of the shrine of Tonanztin she appeared, instructing that a chapel to the Virgin be built upon this site. She asked to be called The Virgin of Guadalupe. When a bishop demanded proof of the miracle, she instructed Juan to gather an armful of Castilian roses. Juan filled his cloak and returned to the bishop.  But when he opened his cloak, instead of roses, the luminous image of Our Lady, surrounded by stars, was imprinted on the fabric, and the bishop fell to his knees in awe.

Why the name Guadalupe? Tonanztin's hill on which she appeared was called Tepeyac. Some interpret this as Mother Mary's sign of divine blessing upon Christian conquest, that she is the same as "Our Lady of Guadalupe" in Estremadura, Spain.  But the indigenous people of Mexico City know that hundreds of years before the Spanish invasion, offerings were made on that same hill to the Earth Mother Tonantzin. That another name for her is Coatlaxopeuh, pronounced quatlasupe.  Coa (serpent), tla (the), xopeuh (crush, stamp out), or She Who Crushes the Serpent, which Christian's will say symbolizes the Aztec, Toltec and Maya and their practice of human sacrifice, but can also represent the forked tongued conquistadors.

The mestizo will tell you that her appearance inspires hope in a people who were being oppressed by the Spanish. The Zapatista in Mexico carry her image on banners to raise awareness of the plight of farm workers, women and indigenous peoples.

Throughout the land December 12 is a special day to honour Our Lady. A plethora of novena candles declare her to be one of the Lux Mundi, Light(s) of the World. Ribbons of fragrant copal rise amid sounds of conch and drum and coyolli seed pod rattles, jingling on the dancers' ankles like abundant rain. The copilli headdress they wear, an impressive feathered fan, draws down the energy of the cosmos into Mother Earth Tonantzin, healing her, and quetzal feathers dance their aerial dance, falling gently down upon her. A salute to the Four Winds and the circle of life honours the ancestors and helps keep the sacred traditions alive.

Inside the church, Mayan copal blends with European frankincense, and two diverse cultures reconcile, at least for the moment, in their common devotion to Our Lady, a bridge of Light who, at least for a day, brings forth a peaceful fusion of disparate cultures and religions.  Reminding us once again that we are all connected.

Tarot card: II - High Priestess, XIV - Temperance

Luce, Lucente, Lucia

Santa Lucia, la tua luce sta lucchio

Con la notte d'inverno piu scura, 

dona di conforto.

Galleggiante di sogni sui sogni stasera,

Viene allora la luce di mattina,

Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia

Santa Lucia, thy light is glowing 

Through darkest winter night, 

comfort bestowing. 

Dreams float on dreams tonight, 

Comes then the morning light, 

Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia.

Lucia, Lucina, Lucy, lucchio, luce, lucente come from the Latin root lux, meaning "light". In the darkness of deep winter, it's no wonder that our ancestors, without electricity, worshipped the sun and, feeling anxious in the diminishing daylight, eagerly sought the return of solar blessings, luring it back with festivity, music and dance. Yultide festivals of light surviving into modern times include Hanukkah, Christmas, a Shinto rite honouring sun goddess Amaterasu and a similar Cherokee festival in honour of a goddess who, like Amaterasu, withdrew into the shadows until charmed back out by the magic of song and dance. The Roman festival Lux Mundi ("light of the world") on December 10, came to be represented by Libertas, Lady Liberty, whose torch lights the way through the darkness.

And then there's the feast day of St. Lucy, named for light itself, on December 13, considered by some to be the 1st of the 12 days of Christmas. According to others, they span either Winter Solstice through New Years, or Christmas through Epiphany, take your pick.  In the case of this feast on December 13, celebrants are more likely to call it the "13 nights of Christmas" and in Slovakia, a most wickedly bewitching time it is.* Radio Prague proclaims that "witches come out to play on St. Lucy's Day" and their power is at it's height during the two weeks preceding Christmas. And I'm not talking good witches here. On the evening of her feast day, fires are lit, and incense thrown into the flames. To protect them from witchcraft, disease, and danger, people smudge themselves in the smoke. Slovakians were (are?) most frightened of the "witch Lucy", and according to ethnologist Katarina Nadaska, "They locked their stables unlike for the rest of the year...and used to hang a garlic wreath on the door of the stable...It was dangerous to leave the door unlocked. The witches could simply come to take straw or some bits and pieces out of the stable and use them for black magic."

On a lighter note, the period of 12 days gives rise to love magic too. If you can't decide between 12 lovers, and assuming you only want one, put their names on separate pieces of paper and tape them, face down, tearing one off each day. The name that is left on Christmas Eve will be the One. Folklore hints at strange occurrences happening at midnight on St. Lucy's Eve. You may wake to the sound of cattle speaking and/or see running water. In Norway, Lucy is considered a wanton woman (Loose Lucy?), maybe even a goblin, and is one of the many leaders of the Wild Hunt.

Elsewhere in Europe, Lucy is venerated and celebrated, especially in Scandinavia and Italy.  The young Lucia was herself Sicilian, living in the city of Syracuse, of which she became the patron saint.  She lived during a time when the Christians were persecuted for being "pagan," i.e. in conflict with the official state religion (in other words, before Constantine), and the story goes that she carried food to the Christians hiding in dark underground tunnels, lighting the way she wore a wreath of candles on her head. Like most virgin saints, she shunned marriage, I mean Shunned with a capital S, to the point that when a suitor admired her beautiful eyes, she cut them out and sent them to him! Other sources say that he had her eyes put out.  Because of this, she is the patron saint of eyesight and blindness, and is depicted in art carrying her eyes on a dish.

Similar to the icons of St. Lucy and Liberty-Lux Mundi, the Sabine goddess Lucina was often pictured holding a lamp and a plate of cakes that resembles eyeballs. She was absorbed into Juno Lucina, goddess of childbirth, and her epithet is "she who brings children into light".   It is she who opens new babies eyes to see the light for the very first time, and, by extension, is invoked when one is feeling jaded, helping us to see the world with "new eyes".  The Roman feria Juno Lucina is March 1, but because of the similarity of names, merged later with the old Swedish feast of Lucia into what is now the Christian feast of St. Lucy, still celebrated throughout Europe (except perhaps Slovakia), but especially in Scandinavia and Italy.

In Italy, torchlight processions and bonfires celebrate the light bringer, and sweets called "St. Lucy's eyes" are eaten.  This is often the day my family and I make confections of peanut butter spheres dipped partially in chocolate, called buckeys or chestnuts in recipe files, but a friend who tasted them some years ago called them "eyeballs" and the name stuck.  Italians also eat bowls of cooked wheat porridge called Cuccia** in remembrance the time the people of Syracuse invoked the saint's deliverance from a famine, and immediately a ship loaded with grain sailed into the harbour.

Nowhere is the celebration of Lucy so fervant than in the Nordic lands where the shortness of daylight hours is most drastic. The oldest daughter in the family will wake up before dawn on St. Lucy's day and dress in a white gown with a red sash, on her head a wreath of greens and candles.  She fixes a breakfast of x and/or s-shaped Lussekatter cookies ("Lucy cats")**, saffron buns, and glogg, to serve this to the rest of the family as breakfast in bed. If she has younger brothers, they dress as "star boys" in white gowns with star spangled cone hats, and carry star tipped wands; if younger sisters, they wear white and put glitter in their hair.  Later on in the day, Lucy and her siblings process in their festive gear around town, sometimes led by "St. Stephen" on horseback (the feast of Stephen is Dec 26).

* School of the Seasons has an interesting take on the 12 Days, see Time Out of Time  She also has more about St. Lucy’s Day

** www.fisheaters.com/customsadvent6a.html has recipes for Cuccia and Lussekatter

The image art is Domenico Beccafumi, Saint Lucy, 1521, a High Renaissance oil on wood recasting of a Gothic icon

Tarot cards: IX Hermit (holding a lamp), 6 wands

At the midnight of the year, the night riders fly...

Riding through the night skies w/a horde of caribou, arriving at midnight accepting food offerings, living in the darkness of the far north, ingesting hallucinogenic mushrooms...typical behaviour of a Christian saint? The "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" is yet another leader of the Wild Hunt, which commenced at Hallows and peaks at Yule. 


The Teutonic god Hold Nickar (Old St. Nick?) galloped through the sky during the winter solstice, granting favours to his worshippers below. The original Nordic leader of the hunt was Odin, known in Germanic myth as Wodan. Odin rode his eight-legged horse, Sleipnir. Today it is Santa who rides, with his eight reindeer.

Flying Reindeer! You bet they fly.  Reindeer are sacred to nomadic tribal shamans of northern Europe and Asia, providing food, shelter and clothing. They themselves feed on grass and lichens, and are simply wild about the mushroom Amanita muscaria, aka "fly agaric". They will seek them out, then prance about euphorically while under their influence, effects of which can include sensations of flying. And so go the legends of flying reindeer.  Reindeer games indeed!

Can humans play too? Yep, if they're willing to drink deer urine. The active ingredients of the mushroom are not metabolized by the body, but remain active in the urine. It's actually safer to drink the urine of a deer who consumed the mushroom than to eat the mushroom itself, as many of the toxic compounds are processed and eliminated on the first pass through the body, but the potent effects remain active even after six passes.  The phrase "to get pissed," in Europe means to get drunk (but not necessarily "pissed off" as the American use would indicate) and was likely coined directly from this ancient practice, which preceded alcohol by thousands of years. [Am I recommending that you go out and drink "deer beer"? Absolutely not!]

One of the side effects of eating amanita mushrooms is that the face takes on a flushed, ruddy glow. Well, "ho, ho, ho!" - remind you of anyone you know? Let's take a look at this jolly red elf; why does he dress that way? When the time came round for the midwinter "Annual Renewal" festival, the ancient Siberian shaman would don special attire, specifically, a red and white fur-trimmed coat and long black boots. He would then go into evergreen woods to seek and gather the red and white spotted magical mushroom in an act of sympathetic magic whereby, if one dresses like their quarry while hunting, be it an antlered deer or a red and white fungus, you will find it.  

One can imagine the awe felt by our distant ancestors upon discovering for the first time these colourful caps growing among the roots of the trees,  this "virgin birth" magically springing from the earth without any visible seed. Looking for the sire, so to speak, they supposed it was a result of the morning dew, the "divine semen" echoed in modern representations as silver tinsel decoration. Amanita muscaria grow in pine and birch woods of western North America, northern Europe, but these days are more commonly found in fairy tale books and some vintage Christmas ornaments. They are also in Europe an emblem of chimney sweeps. This may be why:

Carrying his sackful of "toys" (the fly agaric), the shaman would then enter his reindeer skin yurt through the smoke hole "chimney" at the top, descending the birch pole "fireplace" to the floor. Once inside, he holds ceremony, guiding the group in stringing the "popcorn and cranberries" i.e., the mushrooms, and hanging them out to dry, which is another way to reduce the mushroom's toxicity while increasing its potency. The gifts distributed and shared, he leaves back up the pole and out the smoke hole.

Where does he go? Does he follow the migratory paths of the reindeer? Does he follow Elen (Bulgarian, deer) the antlered goddess of ley lines, "…whose trackways lead us through the frozen forest of our winter dreams"?  Reindeer guide him on a magical journey in his sleigh of dreams, traversing the entire planet on a single night, and like other Wild Hunters that precede and follow him (La Befana, Hold Nickar, even the sea god Poseidon on his horse...) "Old St Nick" gallops through the sky at Yule, showering gifts upon his worshippers below. The shamanic flight paths spiral on upward around to the top of the sacred evergreen World Tree and on toward the highest star. We can see his sleigh chariot when we look up into winter's dazzling night sky of bright stars. There we find what we now call the big dipper, circling around the North Star, topping the central axis of the cosmic Tree, around which hang all the other star lights and planet "ornaments".  And so the spirit of the shaman climbs the sacred tree, and passes into the realm of the gods. Something to think about while decorating for the holidays. 

Santa lives directly under this star at the North Pole. Exhausted (and exhilarated!) from his turn at the helm of the Wild Hunt, Old St. Nick is going home.

Tarot: King of Cups, especially in the Greenwood Tarot where it is called Reindeer; VII Chariot, XVII Star


* * * * * *

Elen of the ways I am named. I keep the paths between the many worlds and wind the strands of time and place around the souls of those who travel on these ancient tracks. Those who seek the wisdom of the spirit, who are drawn thither by their dreams, must first encounter me at the gates of Solstice. Then, if they pass the tests I set before them, they may proceed, deeper and yet deeper into the mystery of the Winter harvest. 
-from the "Sun in the Greenwood" ritual by John and Caitlin Matthews 


***This article also appears in  the Winter 2009 issue of Gaea's Own newsletter, which can be accessed here

Eve of St. Nicholas

When I was a little girl, my sisters and I would wake up on December 6 to the happy surprise of small gifts left to us by St. Nicholas, set upon the table by our places at breakfast. Not on the grand scale of Christmas, just a small gift and some candy, but that was enough to set a start the day off on a happy note.  I recall the time we each got a 45 rpm record; mine was Led Zepplin's "Immigrant Song" much to the subsequent dismay to my parents when they heard it. This tradition was a carry over from the Old Country; most of our classmates didn't know what St. Nicholas Day was. As a parent, I've continued to carry on the custom, placing candy and small gifts in some wooden shoes I bought in the Netherlands. It's a charming tradition.

St. Nicholas, a 4th century bishop of Myra, is the patron saint of children. His father left him a fortune which he used to help poor children, and he often threw gifts anonymously into the windows of their homes.  Legends tell of ways he rescued the young from dire fates and even death, bringing them back to life!  No wonder he's a very popular saint, and countries that claim his patronage include Russia, Greece, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sicily, and Switzerland. 

Some religious historians and folklorists claim there is no valid evidence to indicate that St. Nicholas ever actually existed, but that, like many saints, his life story was based on those of pagan gods.  He has associations with the Greek sea god Poseidon, to whom in the Athenian calendar this entire month is dedicated to. When the church created the persona of St. Nicholas, they adopted Poseidon's title "the Sailor" and various sea port temples of the sea god became shrines to St. Nicholas. Legends tell us that the saint halted a storm at sea in order to save three drowning sailors, and during a famine he procured some grain from a ship passing through Myra. Thus he became patron saint of sailors. He kept some of the grain and baked the rest in the shape of a man (and so became a patron saint of bakers). Gingerbread men, especially the Speculatius, are baked for his feast day December 6, and throughout the Yule season. A speculatius ("image") is a gingerbread figure, originally of a bishop, a "mirror image" (in Latin, speculum means mirror) pressed into a wooden mold and then turned to bake in the oven.  These I think are available for purchase at the SCA's Kris Kinder markets, also commercially throughout the year, in the shape of a windmill. Be sure to leave some cookies out for Santa and the other night riding Yuletide gift bringers!

Tarot cards: King of Cups, and in the Tarot of the Saints, the Magician

Samuel L. Clemens

aka Mark Twain, born November 30, 1835.  

Some Twain quotations, food for thought:    

                      

Thanksgiving Day, a function which originated in New England two or three centuries ago when those people recognized that they really had something to be thankful for -- annually, not oftener -- if they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, during the previous twelve months instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians. Thanksgiving Day became a habit, for the reason that in the course of time, as the years drifted on, it was perceived that the exterminating had ceased to be mutual and was all on the white man's side, consequently on the Lord's side; hence it was proper to thank the Lord for it and extend the usual annual compliments. - Mark Twain's Autobiography

The peoples furthest from civilization are the ones where equality between man and woman are furthest apart--and we consider this one of the signs of savagery. - Notebook, 1895

...nothing so liberalizes a man and expands the kindly instincts that nature put in him as travel and contact with many kinds of people. - Letter to San Francisco Alta California, dated May 18th, 1867; published June 23, 1867

Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it.

- response to the banning of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:

So I was full of trouble, full as I could be; and didn't know what to do. At last I had an idea; and I says, I'll go and write the letter...So I got a piece of paper and a pencil, all glad and excited, and set down and wrote: Miss Watson, your runaway nigger Jim is down here two mile below Pikesville, and Mr. Phelps has got him and he will give him up for the reward if you send. Huck Finn.

I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now. But I didn't do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking - thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell. And went on thinking. And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me all the time: in the day and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a-floating along, talking and singing and laughing. But somehow I couldn't seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind...and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had smallpox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he's got now; and then I happened to look around and see that paper.

It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself:

"All right, then, I'll go to hell" - and tore it up.

If Christ were here there is one thing he would not be--a Christian. - Mark Twain's Notebook

St. Andrew's eve, the Roman Brumalia, a tree and cross wheel

Romanian strigoli vampires come out tonight, you can see them at the crossroads, fading into the mist at cockcrow.  Yet Andrew, whose feast day is tomorrow, is also patron saint of lovers.  The saint's name comes from Andros, a Greek word for "man," and the Greek diety Dionysus, who personified male virility, is associated with certain male saints, including Andrew.

Brumalia was an ancient Greek solstice festival honouring Dionysos, the name deriving from the Greek word bruma, "shortest day".  The Byzantine Church condemned it but it continued to be celebrated until the 12th century or later.

The Roman Feria Brumalia (Latin bruma, "frost") was a feast of Bacchus (Roman equivalent of Dionysus), celebrated over the span of a month, beginning November 24.  It was instituted very early on by Romulus.  Amidst the feasting and merrymaking, prophecies were sought to determine the course of the winter.

On St Andrew's eve in Hungary, young people pour melted lead into a glass of cold water through the handle of a key, the form it takes foretelling the occupation of the future spouse. We did this once at a New Year's eve party, but as a general fortune telling not specifically about a spouse.  Mine took the shape of a flag. 

Lace makers, on both St. Andrew's and St. Catherine's days (see Nov 25),  celebrate with feasts and sports, and the drinking of elderberry wine.  In the Celtic tree calendar, the month of the Elder commenced on November 25.  The Elder, aka elle (elfin) tree, is related to the Honeysuckle, and considered a tree of wisdom.  It's worth mentioning that syrup from Sambucus (Elderberry) is widely credited with staving off the H1N1 and other flu viruses. 

From "Brighid's Place" at technoharp.com:

Celtic shamanism uses the elder tree to form the sacred hoop on which the shield of the shaman is strung, and fires of elderwood afforded dreams wherein the shaman could walk between the worlds and retrieve the wisdom of the ancestors...The Mighty Dead, wise ones of the ancient clans, were thought to take up residence in elder trees, whose branches then sighed their names when the wind blew. An Elder tree growing where no tree had been before, alone and separate from other trees, was probably a Witch enchanted, and such wood was never gathered....

The 'True Cross' of Jesus Christ was said by some in England to have been made of elder-wood. St. Andrew was also crucified, but on a "cross saltire", which, as Waverly Fitzgerald tells us in School of the Seasons, "is also a sun symbol...similar to a Catherine wheel or the rune of Gefjon, the Giver, which is associated with Freya, the great Scandinavian goddess who is much honored at wintertide." Wilson's Almanac associates St. Andrew's "Ixion wheel" type cross with Leonardo Davinci's Vitruvian Man, which brings us back to man/andros/St. Andrew. 

 leonardo_man_sm.jpg 

The Advent Wheel

The 4-point solar cross is a very potent symbol of both the sun and the earth, the medicine wheel, the magic circle and the calling of the quarters that is an essential rite of magick for many.

And so too the Advent wreath, which neo-pagans have adapted from christians who have adapted it from older pagan rituals.  Advent means "waiting" and so the rite of the advent wreath is done to call back the Light. This can be done on four levels, one for each arm of the cross:

• Physical: the return of the sun's warming rays to heal illness and fructify the earth
• Mental: enlightenment and clarity of the mind
• Emotional: a return of love and happiness in our lives
• Spiritual: the Light of the World, a reawakening of Christ consciousness and/or the light within us all (which is essentially the same thing) to bring forth world harmony

For history, lore and ways to celebrate a pan-theistic Advent, see here  and here.

Wheel of Fortune and St. Catherine's Day

At this time of year people start putting wreaths on their doors. Scandinavians began this tradition to commemorate their New Year at Yule (the word means "wheel"), symbolizing the Wheel of the Year, a circle illustrating that time revolves back to its point of origin and that every ending is a new beginning in the cycle of life.

The Tarot card Wheel of Fortune depicts this concept, that "what comes up, must come down, spinnin' wheel got to go 'round" (as the song goes), so this is a good day to contemplate the symbolism and meaning of that card. Pictured here is the Wheel of Fortune card from the Tarot of the Saints by Robert M. Place, published by Llewellyn (from the Tarot of the Sevenfold Mystery, copyright Robert M. Place, used with permission. See more @  Alchemical Egg). It depicts St. Catherine, whose feast day is November 25.   

Her legend is pretty gruesome, as are many stories about martyred saints. For refusing to marry an emperor, she was condemned to be placed on a contraption of wheels designed to tear her apart and because of this, Catherine is matron saint of all who use a wheel, spinners (and spinsters!), potters and so forth. She is considered to be the christian version of many goddesses of the wheel, including:

• Arianrhod (Celtic) starr goddess whose name means 'silver wheel'
• Fortuna (Roman) goddess associated with the Wheel of Fortune in most tarot decks
• Kali (Hindu), whose emblem is, like St. Catherine's, the fiery wheel
• Nemesis (Italian) goddess of the Wheel of Fortune and divine retribution
• Persephone (Greek) goddess of the underworld, not specifically the wheel, but shares the feast day November 23, which is aka "Womens Merrymaking Day"
• also the Roman fire goddess Feronia, whose feast day is November 13, a time when the Stregherian season of Shadowfest is ending and the tide of the Winter Solstice begins
• and even another saint, St. Lucia, or St Lucy, who wears a fiery crown of candles at Yuletide

Waverly Fitzgerald* writes that in England, women went about during the day, often dressed in men's clothes, singing working songs and visiting their neighbors who offered them wiggs [spicy ginger muffins that look like wigs] and a drink made of warm beer, beaten eggs and rum. After dark, they set off fireworks, particularly Catherine wheels.

The Catherine wheel is a giant spoked wheel with an effigy of a person bound to it, covered with tar, set aflame, and rolled down a hill.  This was done at this time of year in medieval rural Germany, but more often this occurred at Lammas, another time of year when St. Catherine has a feast day. The wheel was set aflame as both a symbol of sacrifice and a petition to bring some warmth into the cold winter.

* I love Waverly's blog Living in Season, which can be accessed via my Lynx (at left). She also has much more info about St. Catherine's feast day at http://schooloftheseasons.com/novdays2.html#cath

Zero Year

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. 

Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. 

Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. 

Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. 

Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. 

Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. 

Show respect to all people and grovel to none. 

When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the 

joy of living. 

If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. 

Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. 

When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. 

Sing your death song and die like a hero going home. 

- Chief Tecumseh, Shawnee Nation

November 24, 1812 marks the death of Tecumseh's nephew Spenicalawba, who scouted for the Americans during the War of 1812, having been captured as a young boy by a general who raised him. "Captain Logan", as he was also known, tried to temper Tecumseh's hostility toward the Euro-Americans.

Wasn't gonna happen. Tecumseh (Tekoomsē: "Shooting Star" or "Panther Across The Sky") allied with the British in Canada, hoping by this effort to drive the Americans away for good, giving up his life in the effort.

A year earlier while he was away traveling, his forces were defeated in the Battle of Tippecanoe.  His brother Tenskwatawa was there.  Tenskwatawa was a religious leader who also advocated a return to the ancestral lifestyle of the tribes.  He put a curse on governor William Henry Harrison that he would never be President but instead die.

True. Harrison's presidency lasted one month.  He died of pneumonia.  This began a long series of what became known as "Tecumseh's Curse" whereby Presidents elected in a year ending in zero would die is office. 

Here is the "Zero Year" list of fated Presidents:

1840 – William Henry Harrison (pneumonia)

1860 – Abraham Lincoln (shot in head)

1880 – James A. Garfield (shot in back)

1900 – William McKinley (shot while shaking hands with well-wishers after making speech)

1920 – Warren G. Harding (stroke – may also have been poisoned by wife)

1940 – Franklin D. Roosevelt (massive cerebral hemorrhage in fourth term while on vacation with mistress)

1960 – John F. Kennedy (shot in head)

While some claim Ronald Reagan, elected in 1980, "broke the chain of zero-year voodoo", others say the curse is only sleeping.  

"W" also managed to escape, does this mean the spell was indeed broken?

Or does it mean that the Presidency itself "died in office" in 1980, replaced by corporate rule?

Catterning and Clementing

"Clemany! Clemany! Clemany mine!

A good red apple and a pint of wine..."

This is the song Staffordshire ironworkers would sing as they went door to door, and  in many pre-Reformation English counties, they would do likewise, singing their own versions of the song, bearing an effigy of St. Clement, or "Old Clem", tricked out in wig beard and pipe.  They would thus beg contributions to a meal, or at least at drink; hence this day was marked with a pot on old ‘clog almanacs’. (pictured) Originally made of a "clog", or log of wood, these were calendars of four faces, each divided by notches into three months, containing saints' days, festivals, moon phases, etc in Runic characters and so it is also called a Runic staff.

In Asatru and among the Saxons, Weyland the Smith is a metalworker whose feast day on November 23 is the same as St. Clement's Day.  Clement is credited with being the first man to refine iron from ore, and to shoe a horse, and the present day English custom of blacksmiths firing their anvils by exploding gunpowder on them  in honour of Old Clem may have its roots in an earlier tradition. In some areas, today marks the beginning of winter.

Children also would go 'clementing and cattering' for fruit and pennies, singing a somewhat surprising song both on St. Clement's Day and St. Catherine's day on November 25:

‘Cattern and Clemen, be here be here! Some of your apples and some of your beer!’  

I guess in this case "beer" means pennies.

The symbol of St. Clement is an anchor, because one of his legends says he was thrown into the sea tied to an anchor. Besides metalworkers, he is also patron of boatmen, marble workers, mariners, sailors, sick children, stonecutters and watermen.

And hatters. Another legend says while fleeing his persecutors his feet blistered and he put wool in his sandals; the constant wear while running turned the wool into felt, which he is also credited with inventing.

Other customs associated with the late November saints days included men and women exchanging clothes with each other and inviting friends in for elderberry wine.  A local winery even credits this wine with staving off the flu.  Cheers!

Tarot cards of the day: 8 Pentacles, also 5 and 6 Pentlacles (because of the begging door to door); in the Romany deck, also trump #5 and the 9 Chivs (swords)

The Huntress is a Muse

The month of the Archer, Sagittarius, begins tomorrow. Our local hunting season started earlier on in October and the infamous Wild Hunt commenced at Hallows. By now harvest is in and hunting's in full swing, and the dropping temperature inclines some of us to become more carnivorous, replacing fresh fruits and salads with chili, soup and stews. I don't think of the American Thanksgiving that falls during this season as a harvest festival but more of a "predators' feast" (more about that later...maybe)

The Leonid meteor showers that peaked last Tuesday can be imaged as multitudinous brilliant arrows shot from the crescent moon bow of the Huntress Diana - Artemis.  In the Roman calendar the entire month November is dedicated to Diana, and this Greco-Roman goddess along with Chiron the centaur are mythological archetypes for the zodiac sign Sagittarius.

November 22 is the feast day of St. Cecilia, one of the "canonized deities". Christians adapted the legends of venerable pagan gods and goddesses into those of saints; the ones they disliked became devils and demons. I see it going the other way now, where the god of the old testament is demonized among some modern pagans, but I digress.

St. Cecilia is therefore considered to be an aspect of Artemis Calliste (Gr. Kalliste, "most beautiful"), likely because Pope Paschal I discovered her bones in a Roman catacomb bearing the name Calliste. Artemis in her guise as  the "Lily of Heaven" Calliste (not to be confused with her beloved nymph Callisto) is, like Euterpe, a muse of music.

So it comes as no surprise that Cecilia is the patron saint of musicians and is still celebrated by music lovers with concerts and recitals. In art she is usually portrayed with a stringed instrument, but sometimes with an organ, which she is credited with inventing.

Some local musical events happening on St. Cecilia's Day this year:

• CrossCurrents Culture presents "Notorious"  39th & Harrison
• UMKC Conservatory opera "Handsel & Gretel"
• "Wicked" at the Music Hall
• Briarcliff Village lighting ceremony w/fireworks, a street organ grinder and other musical entertainment
• KC Rep "A Christmas Story: the Musical" on the Plaza

Night of Hecate

Goddess of Crossroads, Goddess of the Moon, Most Lovely One, Most Distant One, Queen of Spirits, Keeper of the Keys to the Universe, Hecate - the quintessential Goddess of Witchcraft. All the Secret powers of Nature are at her command. To Romans she is Ecate, Diana Lucifera and the Black Madonna, goddess of light and darkness. One of her birthplaces is Mt Cynthos in Delos, hence she is called Cynthia. Her title Trivia has nothing to do with triviality, but is tri - via, "three ways", referring to crossroads and the triple aspects of Lady Moon - Maiden, Mother and Crone.  Hecate embodies all 3, but it is in her Crone aspect that her power is strongest. Therefore she manifests most potently at the dark of the moon, and offerings are made to her at a spot where three roads intersect. In Wicca, November 16 is the Night of Hecate, to Italian Streghe, it is the 13th day of the moon in August, and traditionally, it is the dark of the moon every month.  This year November 16 happens to fall at the dark of the moon.  So we have the "falling" season, aka the dark tide of the year at the dark of the moon on a designated Night of Hecate. What better time could there possibly be to call upon the Dark Goddess? Here is an invocation adapted from a poem.  I wish I could find and credit the source...

So the moon is dark and the path obscured

    before you

So the bodies sway and the incense curls

    to the sky

Draw the veil aside as She graces us with

    Her presence

Draw the star of flame blue points

    upon Her.

Old and knarled is She like the ancient tree

    of the Earth

Old and wise is She like a snowy owl

    from the Sky

Gently flow Her words like a deepcut    

    brook from afar

Gently see Her eyes like the bonfire embers

    burning low

She is white and black, she is tender and hard,

    She is Wisdom

She is light as a feather, She is heavy with knowledge,

    She is Hecate

Come to Her altar and pour out your pain

    like wine

Come into Her arms and heed well Her words

    of wisdom

Let the anguish drain like the welcome rains

    in the desert

So the sky is full and the paths open up

    before you...

Tarot card of the day: The Moon, Death (Spiral deck)

Fragrance: vetivert, patchouli, cypress, musk