Earth Day, b.c., part 2

The tarot card  of part 1 suits even better the Feria Palila on 21 April, a Roman feast for the sylvan and pastoral goddess Pales (Pales may be several gods, goddesses or nature spirits).  This ancient festival is considered the most direct antecedent to Earth Day.   For the ritual offering, 

...let a basket of millet accompany cakes of millet

The rural goddess particularly delights in food such as that

And viands and pails of milk, such as she loves...

face east, asperge your hands and pray:

"If the nymphs and half goat god

have been put to flight at the sight of me,

If my pruning knife has robbed a holy copse of shady bough...

Appease for us the springs and their divinities,

The deities dispersed through every grove appease..."

--Ovid, Fasti IV, also attributed to Virgil

Pales is (are) guardian(s) of cattle and sheep; at twilight, shepherds purified their sheep and cattle were driven between bonfires to smoke out insects lurking in their coats.  After leaping the bonfire themselves three times, herdsmen would enjoy a feast, with wine and merriment for all.

Warm soya - milk mixed with wine - is today's libation.  Honey is added too, in blessing that the region be the proverbial "land of milk and honey".  Mixing milk with mead would probably work the same.

The foundation of Rome is associated with the Palilia (aka Parilia), commemorating the day Romulus built his city.  After the 2nd century, Parilia celebrated the birthday of Dea Roma (Goddess of Rome). 

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All of Europe joins in on the open country revelry that is St. George's Day (April 23), a Christian equivalent of the Parilia. Patron saint of England, soldiers and the Boy Scouts, St. George has associations with Mars (in both his military and georgic aspect, the name George means "farmer") and with the Green Man of Beltane.

When I was a young girl, my neighbor, a retired farmer, used to call everybody, male and female, "George".  And of course I must mention that April 23 is both the birthday and the name day of my lovely lynx-y Maine coon cat - Buon Onomastico, Giorgio! 

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This is a Grande Feria throughout Europe.  My ancestors in the Bohemian lands would choose a boy to represent the "tree spirit," who, bedecked with birch and willow, traversed the cornfields on this day.  In the evening, "Green George" is a leafy clad puppet thrown into a running stream (here you go, Pinocchio!) St. George: Christian Dragon Slayer or Pagan Green Man? 

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The 23rd day of Aprilis in Rome is the Feria Vinalia, a wine festival (vinum means wine) for Venus and Jupiter.  Before Venus was domesticated as goddess of vinyards and gardens, this feria featured  the Heterae, the dancing girls, professionals who often worked in troupes.  They provided music and dancing during dinners...and were well compensated for their skillful services. 

Shakespeare was born on April 23, and is it any coincidence that April 22, Earth Day, is also the birthday of  St. Francis of Assisi.  From ancient days, April 22 marked a festival of Ishtar, aka Inanna, Asherah, Ashtoreth, middle eastern earth mother goddesses of sexual fecundity.

Sun in earth sign Taurus marks the season of spring fullness; the soil is rich now and prime for planting.  It is said that Taurus gives form to Aries potential.

Taurus the Bull is linked to La Festa di Santo Marco on April 24-25.  There is a legend that a wild bull becomes very mild and obedient when called "Marco".  Such bull is adorned with floral garlands, bread loaves trussed on the horns, and then paraded and fawned upon through the streets.  Reminds me of Spencer's Faerie Queen poem, where "April rides in on a bull". (pictured above)

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St. Mark whose holy day is April 24/25  is patron of Venice and is feasted with rise bise, risotto with new spring peas.  In Genzano, near Nemi, (two of the hill towns just outside of Rome) his church is situated on a previous site of worship to Venus.   When I was in Genzano, there was a street festival going on.  We walked up the hill to the church, and there I received a gift and found some lovely mosaic on terra cotta tiles.

From the "Our Lady of Good Counsel" chapter in Our Lady of the Lost and Found by Diane Schoemperlen:

...in the tiny village of Genazzano, Italy, situated on a hilltop thirty miles southeast of Rome....this church...in pagan times, the site of a temple dedicated to Venus, the Roman goddess of love. When early Christians denounced her as a harlot, the temple was razed...Ironically enough, Venus eventually became a Christian saint called Venerina or Venere...It was Venus who was first known as Stella Maris, Star of the Sea.  But now...the title belongs to Mary...

On April 25...with or without a thought to Venus, the citizens of Genazzano are honoring St Mark...

more info here.  Scroll down to "The miraculous picture arrives in Genazzano" (there's even a reference to Our Lady's servant Giorgio ;)

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I have a slightly different interpretation of "A lesson for our times" than the average Catholic; to me, the "Reign of Mary"  means a Return of the Goddess - i.e. Nature, the supreme being of Pantheism , and her children - all of us - all species (and Fatima was once a shrine to the Goddess).

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Call me crazy if you must, but I credit the miracle.  I know from experience that in Genzano and Nemi extraordinary things occur!

Last week I drew the 8 Swords; looking at it I hear the Police sing "...and when their eloquence escapes me, their logic ties me up and..."

It's all too easy to get wrapped up in damned - if - I - do - damned - if - I - don't situations.  It's push me pull you and someone gets hurt either way.  Do you ever feel like a caged lion?  Each sword is an obstacle to freedom.  An obstacle made up entirely of words and thoughts and gossip and lies and truth and indecision.  Since I also got this card last winter, it shows I have yet to determine how and why I'm imprisoning myself, which swords are impediments and which are my allies, who to believe and who to trust. 

But not you "Valdemort"  so don't waste your breath.   Even if some of what you say is true.  This card used to come up for me when I knew you before and now you're back and it's coming up again.  To quote Mary Oliver in her Sweet Grass  poem, 

I mean the ones that thought to rule my heart. 

I cast them out; I put them on the mush pile. 

They will be nourishment somehow 

(everything is nourishment somehow or another).

No longer mentioned.  No longer even thought about.  Mulch in peace.

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Open to messages of good council, we can break free of these bonds.  Let's keep the 8 but return to the Wands.

Let's bind the polluters and free the earth -

Happy Earth Day! 

 

Universal Waite 8 Swords & Golden Tarot 8 Wands

Earth Day b.c.

Although the modern Earth Day was first celebrated 30 years ago, it has ancient roots in multitudinous spring feriae dedicated to the earth.  Just a few of the major European feasts:

xo

Three days before and four after the Ides Aprilis, Romans celebrated the Cerealia, offering to the earth goddess spelt, salt and grains of incense, nothing more, for "Good Ceres is content with little, if that little be but pure" (Ovid).    Farmers walked around their fields with torches, and "leap(ed) the stag leap in merry ballate"  in the newly planted grain, the height of their leaping showing the crops how high they wanted them to grow.  Wearing white, Ceres' proper colour, people prayed for peace, good government, and an abundant harvest. 

xo

This feria commenced a week of Ludi (games) held in her honour.  These were also cognate the Ludi Pomona, games and picnics in honour of the goddess of blossoming fruit trees.

xo

According to Virgil, Ceres' name comes from creare, "to create".  Obviously our modern breakfast grains were named for her.  Although she demanded very little, the Romans had a common expression "fit for Ceres," which meant splendid.

xo

Tellus Mater (Mother Earth), goddess of fertility, pregnancy and motherhood, was also celebrated at this month's Ides as Feria Fordicia, under the management of the pontifices and the Vestal Virgins, and its purpose was to ensure prosperity during the year.  Tellus Mater is depicted with a tympani to symbolize the orb of the earth. Her images are also said to resemble the tarot card Strength. Here she is standing beside an unbound and docile lion, surely she is Empress of wild nature.

to be continued...

Tarot of the week: 8 wands (shown above from Ciro Marchetti"s Gilded Tarot), shows a love of the countryside, archery and other outdoor sports.  Such lovely weather for it too, I am greatly enjoying the outings. This card indicates that the pace of life will pick up, possible travel by air.  Maybe it's telling me that, despite the impracticality of it at this time,  I should return to Italy after all ;)  Whether physically or in astral travel or in reverie of imagination, I will surely go.

xo

This card has a modern significance that a computer upgrade is advisable.  Mine is so slow and does such weird things sometimes, no doubt it has a virus. Got another strange email yesterday from "myself" that I didn't send, and it's probably time to change my email address. But I can still blog and email and listen to the radio while surfing, so unless I suddenly get in the mood to computer shop, I'll probably keep this one until it goes completely kaput.

xo

Ciro's wands look like pens.  Sometimes snail mail gets me better results than email, as counterintuitive as this may sound.  I'm all for reviving the lost art of writing to a friend.  Grazie e ti scritto tosto.

xo

Anyway, the 8 wands is an awesome card to come up for Earth Day!

To Begin With, the Sweet Grass

(for National Poetry Month)

                                1.

Will the hungry ox stand in the field and not eat

     of the sweet grass? 

Will the owl bite off its own wings? 

Will the lark forget to lift its body into the air or

    forget to sing? 

Will the rivers run upstream?

                              ~

Behold, I say--behold 

the reliability and the finery and the teachings

   of this gritty earth gift.

                               ~

                               2. 

Eat bread and understand comfort. 

Drink water and understand delight. 

Visit the garden where the scarlet trumpets

    are opening their bodies for the hummingbirds 

who are drinking the sweetness, who are 

    thrillingly gluttonous.

                               ~

For one thing leads to another. 

Soon you will notice how stones shine underfoot. 

Eventually tides will be the only calendar you believe in.

                                            ~

And someone's face, whom you love, will be as a star 

both intimate and ultimate, 

and you will be both heart-shaken and respectful.

                                       ~

And you will hear the air itself, like a beloved, whisper: 

oh, let me, for a while longer, enter the two

beautiful bodies of your lungs.

                                ~

                                3. 

The witchery of living 

is my whole conversation 

with you, my darlings. 

All I can tell you is what I know.

                               ~

Look, and look again. 

This world is not just a little thrill for the eyes. 

                              ~

It's more than bones. 

It's more than the delicate wrist with its personal pulse. 

It's more than the beating of a single heart. 

It's praising. 

It's giving until the giving feels like receiving. 

You have a life--just imagine that! 

You have this day, and maybe another, and maybe

  still another.

                               ~

                               4.

Someday I am going to ask my friend Paulus, 

the dancer, the potter, 

to make me a begging bowl 

which I believe 

my soul needs.

                      ~

And if I come to you, 

to the door of your comfortable house 

with unwashed clothes and unclean fingernails, 

will you put something into it?

                          ~

I would like to take this chance. 

I would like to give you this chance.

                               ~

                               5.

We do one thing or another; we stay the same, or we

  change. 

Congratulations, if

  you have changed.

                               ~

                               6.

Let me ask you this. 

Do you also think that beauty exists for some

  fabulous reason?

                               ~

And, if you have not been enchanted by this adventure--

  your life-- 

what would do for you?

                               ~

                               7.

What I loved in the beginning, I think, was mostly myself. 

Never mind that I had to, since somebody had to. 

That was many years ago. 

Since then I have gone out from my confinements,

  though with difficulty. 

                               ~ 

I mean the ones that thought to rule my heart. 

I cast them out; I put them on the mush pile. 

They will be nourishment somehow (everything is nourishment

  somehow or another).

                                ~~

And I have become the child of the clouds, and of hope. 

I have become the friend of the enemy, whoever that is. 

I have become older and, cherishing what I have learned, 

I have become younger.

                                      ~

And what do I risk to tell you this, which is all I know? 

Love yourself.  Then forget it.  Then, love the world.

                                            ~

by Mary Oliver


Tarot of the week: I drew two cards, since the first was reversed: 3 Pentacles.  As mentioned in a previous post, this card stands for my occupation, at least in part, standing on a step stool, setting up a yet another window display.  Reversed indicates that with the budget cuts coming up in the new fiscal year (July), I might possibly be downsized from my position.  Since what I do feels custom made for me, that would be an unfortunate thing indeed.
So I also drew an upright card, I- The Magician, a more promising card, telling me that whatever happens, creative power is still on hand.   There are at least 5-6 people I know who could embody the archetype of the Magician, but this week it was my pup who surprised me with a most magical gift.  She was digging in the yard, and unearthed what looked like a simple tin band, but turned out to be an exquisitely sculpted pinky ring, set with a blue topaze or aquamarine.  I used to have a similar ring, but lost the stone, so I discarded the band.  Now I have it back again, an even more beautiful ring - Brava, Sophia!
In the 3 Pentacles, people are often shown working in a group, although some decks (s/a Ciro Marchetti's) show the artist working alone.  The Magician, true to my own modus, works independently.  Using hir resources well, the mage creates and manifests both the useful and the beautiful.  All of us have this power within us, each an every one of us has an inspirational muse to guide us in ways that help each other and enhance each others' lives.  Most people when they see this card maybe think of a stage magician, a wiccan priest or a sorcerer.  Or, like the Temperance card shown earlier, an Alchemist.  Given some of the songs that are popping into my head right now, it  (and Temperance as well) can also represent council to live in a way called Hozho by the Navajo:  

Walk in Beauty.

May it ever be so.

Aprile sta Venire!

Aperire in Rome means "to open" and it is commonly supposed that April was thus so named, for it is the month when buds begin to open, and the earth opens to receive the fructifying seed.  In the words of Ovid:

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April was named for the open season,

Because Spring opens all things...

Venus lays claim to the month...

-Ovid, Fasti IV 

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April is also related to the Greek Aphrilis, another name for Aphrodite.

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The Kalends, first day, opens the month to the powers of the fertility goddess, with the Feria Festum Veneris et Fortunae Virilis, a celebration of the virility of nature.  Also known as the Veneralia, these annual rites beckoning us to "make love not war" close the imperative of March, which, since imperial times, was a month dictating a time for returning to battle.  Veneralia celebrates the victory of Love over war.
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Amor Vincit Omnia.

In Botticelli's painting, Venus lulls Mars into peaceful repose

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During the Feria Veneralia, Roman women bathed in men's baths, wreaths of myrtle entwined in their hair. Likewise, statues of Venus would be divested of jewelry, ritually washed and bedecked with floral offerings.

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One of Her epithets is "Queen of Laughter".  And (coincidence?) today is April Fools Day!  Love makes fools of everyone, from the common villager to the most lordly king.  In France and Italy the April Fool is sometimes called an April Fish, which happens to be one of the animals sacred to Aphrodite.  People send joke notes signed with the symbol of a fish and try secretly to pin fishes to each other's backsides. 

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The Tarot card of the Year 2010 is III The Empress (2+0+1+0=3), and her realm is one of Great Abundance.  2010 is also the International Year of Biodiversity, worth mentioning because diversity is essential to the fruitfulness of the Earth.  The American obsession with singular manicured lawns is ridiculous.  You water your garden to make the grass grow, then you cut the grass.  Over and over again...and let's not even talk about the methods of weed removal here.  

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The Empress in tarot is most often linked to the goddesses Juno, Ceres and Venus.  Her Greek counterpart Aphrodite is notorious for her many affairs with gods and men, and yet is a most loyal and loving consort and mother.  A prime example of Divine Paradox:

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...For I am the first and the last.

I am the honored one and the scorned one.

I am the whore and the holy one.

I am the wife and the virgin....

I am the barren one

and many are her sons....

You who deny me, confess me,

and you who confess me, deny me...

For I am knowledge and ignorance.

I am shame and boldness...

I am strength and I am fear...

Give heed to me.

I am the one who is disgraced and the great one.

Give heed to my poverty and my wealth...

I am she who is weak,

and I am well in a pleasant place.

I am senseless and I am wise....

I am peace,

and war has come because of me.

And I am an alien and a citizen.

I am the substance and the one who has no substance....

- excerpt of "Perfect Thunder, Perfect Mind", from the Nag Hammadi 

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Although I found no documentation, someone told me that this was written for the fertility goddesses (Aphrodite, et.al.), recited by her temple heterai and quadesha. I wonder if Morissette's tunes "I'm a Bitch I'm a Lover" and "Hand in My Pocket" are modern renditions of this poem? 

(Go ask Alanis.)

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Sources say, however, that the poem is written for Sophia, and the paradox of Wisdom.