Dowsing

While out and about tonight I had to procure a bottle of water. The choice was limited, but let's say the brand I grabbed inspired the title of this post as well as the post itself. The label had some promo stuff about water dowsing in ancient Egypt and Rome and implied that their company used such classic methods to source the water in the bottle I was holding. I don't really believe they had someone out there water dowsing, but it was nice to see ancient methods being portrayed in a positive way.


As I'm short on time tonight I'm going to punt and start off with a few interesting links then revisit this topic as soon as possible!

Wiki is a nifty springboard to other sources on this vast topic.

A history of dowsing (with many links of interest!)

Archaeological Dowsing

The US Department of the Interior has an article on water dowsing. This link takes you tot he download of the pdf!

 

 

 

"Some Sorcerers do boast they have a Rod,

Gather'd with Vowes and Sacrifice,

And (borne about) will strangely nod

To hidden Treasure where it lies;

Mankind is (sure) that Rod divine,

For to the Wealthiest (ever) they incline." -by Samuel Sheppard

 

Libya

Tonight's blog isn't a political rant or treatise on the astrological implications behind the protests there and the occupy wall street movement here. Libya has just plain been calling to me.

Tanit has been on my mind. So has Jupiter. So has Alexander the Great. I've been pondering an in-depth post on each of these, but the research has been taking a while. Some things are just in-depth. Seeking the connection between the three has been of interest to me as well. My family lineage traces back to Carthage and Leptis Magna, as well as from other areas in Libya. I don't write this blog just to present research papers or book reports, the point is to sit and do the work. Recent posts have been very light lately because I haven't wanted to post about the aforementioned topics because I didn't have enough under my proverbial belt to do it. Some of it is just private. I do, however, want to share what's been on my mind:

Alexander the Great's mother claimed that his real father was Zeus and came to her as a snake. While he was heading around and about conquering the world, he paused at Siwa Oasis, a spot in ancient Libya (now modern Egypt) where there happened to be an oracle dedicated to Ammon. Ammon was nearly identical to Jupiter and Zeus and syncretized nicely. When Alexander asked the oracle if Zeus was his dad, he got what he took as a yes and allegedly considered himself divine thereafter. I'm working my way through two books about Alexander the Great and the founding of Alexandria in Egypt. I'll get back to you as further developments warrant!

Over the years, my relationship with Jupiter has been... well, it hasn't really been. I don't work with him and I know that's because I was burned out on that as a catholic. The Ponifex Maximus, the most important religious position in the religion of ancient Rome, was eventually subsumed by the emperor. The title is still used today for the pope. So is the political side of the title. Vatican City is its own country. But I digress! I was burned out on dealing with a father-figure. I tip a nod during general libations, but that has been the extent of our relationship for a long time... until recently. It's been interesting and when I understand it a bit better I hope to fill you in.

I found a few well put together articles about Tanit on line, but searching books hasn't yielded much. Much of what I have is my family lore.

Tanit, or Tanith, is the Great Goddess of Carthage, worshipped there as its chief Deity. She is a Sky Goddess who ruled over the Sun, Stars, and Moon; and as a Mother Goddess She was invoked for fertility. The palm tree is Hers, as the desert version of the Tree of Life; and as symbolic of the life-force of the Earth the serpent is Hers as well—in fact Her name means "Serpent Lady". She is identified with both Ashtart (Astarte) and Athirat and Her other symbols include the dove, grapes and the pomegranate (both symbolic of fruitfulness and fertility), the crescent moon, and, like Ashtart, the lion.

She was the "Lady of Carthage" and her consort is Ba'al and syncretizes nicely with so many different Goddesses:

She was identified with Aphrodite, Demeter, and Artemis by the Greeks and with Juno by the Romans, especially their Juno Lucina, Goddess of Light and Childbirth. The Romans also associated Her with the Magna Mater, the Great Mother, Rhea or Kybele.

Her symbol looks like the Isian knot!

Ancient Ghost Town

One of the reasons behind my daily blogging is to set aside time to investigate and research and to contemplate what I know and what I only think I know. There is so very much on this topic- it's a huge body of water with a great number of tributaries. There's no way I'm going to parse all of this tonight, so come take a trip on my train of thought...

When I made my offerings eariler, I found myself in a prayer pose which I recall my Aunts using, even the ones who went to Church (tho not as exaggerated). Almost no one else in the church did this, certainly not anyone who wasn't Italian (It was a mostly Italian parish anyway!). From there, it was a quick leap to the Minoan figures of worshipers. I remember how striking they were when I saw them in person:

I took this picture in the Heraklion museum.

I meditated tonight before blogging and was reminded of my dance with Ereshkigal. I didn't really understand why until, when searching for pictures of the figures of worshipers, I came across pictures of the Minoan Snake Goddess.

I wound up looking at these pictures side by side for the first time. I've known about Ninhursag, but somehow I've never connected these two pictures before.



Ninhursag, meaning "Lady of the Mountain," is the Sumerian Earth Goddess/Mother Goddess. Her attributes were later subsumed into Inanna/Ishtar. If you are unfamiliar with this Goddess I highly suggest this article. "In art, Ninhursag is often depicted with a tiered skirt, often with a horned head-dress. She sometimes carries bow cases at her shoulders, and/or a mace or staff with an omega motif at its top."

What really has me in a tizzy tonight is this article I've found on the links between Egypt and Crete. I would love to just post the entire article here on the blog. Instead I'll summarize it and add a few excerpts of interest, tho I have to say the entirely article is fascinating and makes a lot of sense. I would love to hear from those who work with the Egyptian pantheons weight in on this. Happily, I know a few and will ask them to comment.

Points to ponder from the article:
Was Crete an Egyptian colony, with care for the dead their primary occupation?
Were the "palaces" of Crete actually temples?
These were made of gypsum, when limestone was available.
No artifacts of daily living or waste have been found in the complexes
The stairs showed little sign of travel
There are identical processional paintings, of the same age, found in both Crete and Egypt; They speak of an island, identified in Egyptian sources as “Keftiu” – Crete.
The Phaistos Disc, found in Crete, might be a version of the Egyptian the snake game, Senet, which became an important funerary object and a metaphor for ascending to Heaven.

An excerpt:

The bull was important both in Crete and Egypt. In Egypt, the animal is linked with the deceased king, whereas the bull is depicted on all Minoan monuments, though its specification function is unclear, because of the absence of any knowledge on the Minoan religion. The palaces depict lilies and lotus flowers, plants that had an important, religious function in Egypt.

The Minoan palaces have a depiction of what is known as “bull leaping”: people performing acrobatics on a leaping bull. Experts have identified that this form of acrobatics is physically impossible – humans and bulls cannot interact in such a manner. The question is therefore whether these scenes depict “imaginary” scenes, i.e. scenes that might occur in the Afterlife?

The name of king Minos is identical to the first king of the Egyptian First Dynasty, Menes. But in the Homeric legends, Minos is not so much king, as a judge, “wielding a golden sceptre while dispensing laws among the dead.” If Minos ruled Crete, Crete was therefore an island of the dead.                  

YES! It makes such perfect sense to me.

Talking to hubby about our time in Knossos and about the rest of our experience in Greece in general, we both agreed that the "palace" felt very different than the other sites we visited. It was quieter in a way. I don't mean lack of tourist quieter, I mean energy of life quieter. We explored out of the way places like Eleusis and popular places like the Parthenon and Delphi- It wasn't a matter of how many tourists were around, it was the quality of the energy. There was a palpable difference. Despite the presence of people and a booming tourism industry, Knossos felt like a ghost town. According to this article? Literally.

And this isn't even getting into the Labyrinth, or Ariadne, or the Goddess cult on the island before it was colonized by Egypt or claimed by Greece! Another time!

Thanks for following my train tonight. Here are a few more pictures from that trip:

"Horns of Consecration"

The Prince of Lilies doesn't look Egyptian at all...

I thought this was just darn cool.

Fear itself

I think fear, more than anything is what holds people back from achieving and increasing their own power. We get in our own way: The doubts, the voices of the past, the naysayers... they're all in our heads. It's up to us to ignore those things and to shout them down.

It can be especially hard to embrace "the hook-up" when that means you see more of what's coming- when your empathic abilities turn up a few notches. It's always been disconcerting to me to have bits and pieces of seemingly unrelated information coming to me in dreams or card readings or visions or "on the wind"  and not know what to do about it. It was so bad for a while that I was afraid of these instances. I call it PRE-Traumatic Stress Disorder: The idea of having a vision was so frightening to me that I tried to turn down the volume on the ability. That wasn't the answer either! I was afraid of not knowing, and afraid of knowing. So what to do?

If it's just as bad to not know as it is to know a fraction, then isn't it time to turn the volume up, to embrace that ability and nurture it so things come in loud and clear? I don't want my psychic abilities to be a cup and string, they need to be an IPhone. Not the first gen ones either, the slick new ones that have video.


Quoth Empedocles:

"And there was among them a man knowing an immense amount, who had acquired a great treasure of thoughts, master especially of all kinds of wise works; for whenever he reached out with all his thoughts, easily he saw each of the things that there are, in ten and even twenty human generations."

I'd be happy with a 4G, I duno that I need a 10G ;)

Have you ever done the exercise where you step into your power? Wrapped yourself not only in protection, but in projection? Changed your aura to suit your needs? Focused on your power center outside of ritual? Do you work magic in otherwise mundane settings? If not, why not?  If so, what's your favorite technique to use?

That's all for tonight's pep rally, but something came across my virtual desk today that I wanted to share. Looks like co-opting other religions has been popular for a very long time:

Strange hieroglyphs and representations of Egyptian gods and goddesses have been found in the middle of the Po valley in northern Italy, revealing a unique example of Egyptomania.
Found in Casalbuttano ed Uniti, a village some 10 miles north of Cremona, the Egyptian-inspired motifs materialized as restorers removed the tapestry in a room of Palazzo Turina, an 18th century building which now houses the town hall.
A blue starry ceiling emerged, while walls decorated with pink and cream colored bands revealed a wealth of hieroglyphs.

You can read the full article here. Interesting at how the iconography was changed and combined with others.

The Great Pyramids of.... Sicily!

Before I get into tonight's topic, I wanted to dish a bit about Atlantis. I'm sort of half watching the NatGeo special on Atlantis being discovered. Again. This time, off the coast of Spain. I'm not really impressed. It feels like they've taken a similar city and decided that since it was a port city and was sunk, it must be Atlantis. It's really cool that they've found this site, but the "evidence" is underwhelming. Do I believe Atlantis existed? Yep. Do I believe it still exists/can be reached/contacted? Yep. I'd like to talk more about Avalon and Atlantis being the same place. Why not? There are similar stories of underworld, afterlife, and alternate realms in the various traditions around the world. There are Fairy realms described in many different cultures. There are in-between places. How about Avalon and Atlantis, both dealing with water and islands and magic.... why not? I don't really care right now, I'm just wondering out loud again. I'm already involved with learning about a magickal island: Sicily!


Here is a nifty site which talk about the origins of the Sicilians. It includes the Pyramids of Sicily - a ring of at least 27 pyramids around Mount Etna, makes mention of the language origins (there are Sanskrit words in the language? srsly?), the possible migrations of different peoples to the island, and the connection between ancient Sicily and ancient Egypt. It's a fascinating read and I am about to go read it again and try to dream the answers to all of the questions I have about them.

If you're not in the mood to click over there, I'll leave you with this: Below is an old map of Sicily. There is a snake drawn around Mount Etna. That is the circle of pyramids. :-o There's also evidence of ancient temples in the area and places of worship. Italian Stonehenge? Did the Egyptians copy the Italians? man-made pyramids surround a natural pyramid. I don't know of any volcanoes in Egypt or natural mountains shaped like that. Do you? Makes sense to me that early people would copy a Natural design they see every day.





I've come back to edit this almost immediately because I just realized that one thing I had mentioned earlier, "There are also aligned pyramids and  a "pierced stone" which lines up with the sunlight at a certain time of year" turns out to be by Lake Enna, which I have posted about previously as the original site of the Mysteries of Proserpina (and later of Eleusis). In the past 3 years researchers have finally started to take note of them and investigate them. My first reaction was sadness. They're only interested in things that are lost that they can find. I've always believed the lack of major research into Italy's, specifically Sicily's ancient history and practices is because the ways are still alive enough that folks don't want these things to be noticed. Now that they're noticing them, does it mean they're lost? Mussolini discovered Caligula's ships from Lake Nemi and the retreating German army destroyed it. Do we really want to make our history known and have it destroyed? Hmph! However, my sadness (and irritation) was fleeting. It's time. More and more Italians are coming out. And not as Pagans or Wiccans, but as Italians, as keepers of The Old Ways. We are claiming what is ours, taking long overdue credit. Wicca would not exist without La Vecchia. There would be no Charge of the Goddess. There would be no spiral dancing, there wouldn't be so many things that Pagans today take for granted as part of "their" tradition. I'm also very tired of people poo-pooing the idea of unbroken lines of heritage. We might not have it all, but we have a living, ancient tradition. Yes it has changed, but what tradition hasn't? Ours might have been genetically modified, but it has never stopped, most have just gone with the flow and dealt with the name changes. I want to dream about this tonight, but I don't know that I'll be able to sleep. I might be awake with my various divination tools. You want to help too? Great! Thanks!

Egyptian Revolution

I'm happy that the people of Egypt are standing up for themselves. The revolution is inspiring. What is especially upsetting, besides innocent people losing their lives for protesting injustice, is that there are looters taking advantage of the distraction and raiding museums. Egyptology News is a blog which has updates from around the country.

Isn't this off topic? Hardly. Egypt's influence spread far and wide. They influenced Greece which colonized many areas of Italy, and pre-Roman Italic peoples with whom they traded. Once Rome stepped in, well, I don't want to get into the whole Cleopatra/Egypt/Rome thing. Not today, at least.

Isis worship spread far and wide, including to Italy. There was a Temple of Isis located in Pompeii, right along with the ones to Apollo, Diana, Jupiter, etc.

From ancientvine.com:  The Temple of Isis in Pompeii was small but ornate. It was destroyed in an earthquake in A.D. 62 but was rebuilt shortly after that. The renovation was financed by a freed slave in the name of his young son. There may have been political motivations for this since freed slaves were not allowed to hold public office, and the son who was appointed as a member of the city council was only six years old. The Temple has a mixture of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman architectural features. This is not surprising since Roman architecture of this period was very ornate, often used bright colors, and borrowed and mixed styles from many eras. There were many statues in the Temple of Isis and the portico walls were covered with elaborate murals. To the left of the temple was a small roofless structure containing a tank that may have held the sacred water from the Nile, which was very important in many Isis ceremonies. In the rear of the sanctuary was a room containing a marble table where sacred meals were probably served.

The Temple of Isis is the best preserved temple of Pompeii. It dates from the pre-Roman age and was almost entirely rebuilt after the earthquake of 62 A.D. at the expense of Popidius Celsinus. An inscription above the door mentions that Popidius Celsinus was only six years old when he was elected decurion. The sacred water of the Nile was kept in an underground passage. A large room that was used as a meeting room for the initiates of Isis is behind the temple.

Here is a fresco removed from the inside of the Temple, now in the national museum of archaeology in Naples.



 

May Isis bless us all.