Invocation to the Gods of Theatre!

Tech week has started. How will that translate to the blog? This week I will be pondering the Gods of theatre! I had been planning to keep it on the light side tonight, but my meditations and research took me in a much deeper direction.

I've been reading more about Dionysus, patron deity of theatre, who is associated with Ariadne.  Clement of Alexandria, believed that certain rites of Dionysian mystery cults recreated the conception of Dionysus, particularly as the result of the union of Zeus and Persephone. This would be the first incarnation of thrice-born Dionysus, and a bull faced god, at that. Clement was a Christian and born around 150 ce, so his interpretation of the rites needs to be taken with a tequila bottle worth of salt. And maybe the tequila too.

Has anyone really explored the relationship between Ariadne, the Minotaur (bull head male body!), the labyrinth and Dionysus? I've explored the idea of Ariadne as an epithet and Persephone but have never really meditated on the part of the lore where Ariadne is connected to the Minotaur, to Dionysus a bull god and to Persephone.

This blog entry is brief, but it is just the seed of a deeper meditation I'm off to ponder. I hope you do as well and will add your thoughts in comments!

Sweet sorrow

Today I was drawn to wear my Apollo ring. It's not one I specifically procured in His name or in His honor. It's one which was gifted to me many years ago and over the years I've only worn it on occasion. At the beginning of this summer I felt a powerful call to wear it. It was around the same time that Apollo was becoming more of a presence in my life. I've written before about how He surprised me with His involvement in my labyrinth consecration! He is also the one who gave me my name. It is not one I share outside of mia famiglia, tho I do believe that will soon change.


I have been complaining about the earlier sunsets and now, we've almost reached the balance point. After that, I think I will miss Him in a way I haven't experienced before, hence the title of this post. I've always been very Goddess centered because there is too much male = God energy in the world. However, I need to balance that energy within myself first. This transition into the next cycle of the year has been a strange one for me. I have gone over some of my posts from the summer and there was a definite theme running through it.


Many Pagan groups, especially the ones who celebrate "Mabon" appear to be very focused on the male journey. The King is sacrificed for the land, he goes away, he is conceived once again, the Goddess is pregnant, and then she gives birth. He grows up, faces challenges, is proven worthy of the Goddess, they mate, the King is sacrificed, and around again we go. The amount of focus on it seems incredibly Christian. Every Sunday they celebrate this sacrifice. Maybe that's why I'm tired of it when it comes to this time of the year. Maybe it's because I don't see it as the King being sacrificed for the people. It's really about Mother Earth. The wheat grows from Her body. And why is the wheat a he? The tree flowers, the flower turns to fruit, the fruit falls, is buried, sprouts and a new tree is born from the death of the fruit. The Sun, or Father Sky assists, but all of this takes place in and on Mother Earth.

In my tradition, the cycle of the Goddess is the focus and it's not only a mimic of a life cycle, it's a shift in focus, or power. We are transitioning into Her aspect as the Dark Mother. This is the time of the Greater Mysteries, of the transformation of Proserpine from maiden of flowers to Queen of the Underworld. I've posted before about this time of year and how we're supposed to be "going within" and using this allegedly not busy season to focus on spiritual improvement and exploration.


I'm going to leave off here about the cycle of the year and pick that up again another time, when I have proper examples and pictures to add! Part 1!

Nemoralia!

Today we walked the labyrinth, learned some basic tarantella, invoked the land, called the guardians, invoked our Patrons and had a wonderful Feast of Diana. She appeared as well. We tarantella'd as a group, went into our own spinning dance, I went towards the North where I hailed Mercury, and the next thing I knew I was looking up at the sky over in the south and wondering what happened to my thumb.

Apparently I tranced, fell back into the altar (which was a vortex of energy the entire time), did some work on everyone there, walked off towards the south and came to with someone spraying Florida Water over me. I shook it off with some help, we toasted, gave thanks and everyone had a part in dismissing the circle (as well as had a part in creating and cleansing it at the top). There was no script. There was just a general plan. Everyone who attended was wonderful, they rolled with it and brought serious energy to bear. Sometimes too serious! I tried to remind everyone of what Diana has told me time and again: Find the JOY in the work! It's not all serious and severe! Don't just come crying when you're in need, also share the love and the joy and the celebration. I laughed, I played and others followed suit. I had a great time.

Dusio is here right now (I just waved at him across the room). He invoked Diana today and when he did... woosh! There she was! I saw her face and she was wearing her diadem. <3 <3 <3 Now? We're plotting. And conjuring the forces. >;) Signing off!

Honoring The Sea Goddess

I attended a concert tonight where Alessandra Belloni and company honored Aphrodite/Yemanja/Anahita/Black Madonna as The Sea Goddess. They sang songs from Italy, Brazil, and new compositions inspired by those places as well as Hawaii. The performance was dedicated to honoring Her and healing the waters of the world. We got up to dance too :) I was mesmerized as she played various frame drums. Her hand was like a hummingbird! I'm inspired to pick up mine again and get back to practicing!

Tomorrow afternoon I'll be dedicating the labyrinth and spent this afternoon cleansing and consecrating the crystals and stones which will become a part of it. I'm pretty tired after my funtastic adventure so I will leave you with a different performance of one of the songs from tonight

Summery Spells

I've been jawing a lot lately about philosophical blahblah. Tonight, let's talk some practical work. What's the occasion? My labyrinth is done! Well, all of the bricks are planted. Yeehah! I had planned to plant a few every day, figuring I'd be on my own with the project, but hubby came to the rescue and he and I along with our kiddo dug up a ton of dirt and planted nearly 300 bricks. In two days. Funny, I felt that Hubby was necessary to the project, and not just for the hard labor part of it (tho that was pretty awesome lol). The Man of the house had a role to play too. I was very happy when he started without me today. We both agreed that he has as much "authority" over the labyrinth that I did. We even went out together to search for the centerpiece. It started to drizzle lightly as we finished the last 10 bricks. Then the sky opened up and it rained! I wanted the rain today, actually. to water the labyrinth and make it grow! More like the land needed the water to settle the dirt and bricks into place. It really looks like the labyrinth has always been there. Now to mow... But I digress! you came for some information.

Here's a fun divination/talisman working;

What you need: Bowl of water, Candle, lighter.

What to do: Light the candle, concentrate on your question then quickly spill the melted wax into the water. You'll be able to discern the answer to your question by the form the wax takes. If you like what it "says" you can save the wax as an amulet. Just take it out of the water and either hang it on a string or put it on your altar or carry it in a pouch, wrapped in something to keep it safe. If you don't like the looks of it and feel it's a bad omen, you can bind it with string, you can melt it away, or you can toss it behind you into a running body of water and walk away. The modern version  if you're not near a running stream: flush it and close the lid.

Firefly incantation for luck:

"Lucciola! Lucciola.
Viene a gara!
Mette la briglia
A la cavalla,
Mette la briglia
Al figluolo del re,
Che la fortuna
Venga con me,
Lucciola mia
Viene da me!"

I've added this one because it's almost summer and time for the fireflies to come out and play! It's about chasing the fireflies to get and keep luck. It's a fun incantation. I'm sure Leland included this one in either Aradia or Etruscan. Mine is a bit different, I think. It's a fun poem and it's adorable to hear the kids chasing after them calling "Lucciola!"



To Add Some Glam:

I use California Baby Calming Powder as the base of the mix. It already includes chamomile along with sage and lavender. To that I add: powdered red rose petals. Make sure your roses are organic. Even better: grow your own! You can also add a pinch of rosemary, not powdered. It will give a more subtle scent while still adding its energies. 


I mix the ingredients under the light of the full moon and put a garnet or rose quartz stone into the powder, letting it sit half in and half out. Leave it in the moonlight and remove it before sunrise. Put the powder, including the gemstone, back into the shaker or into a powder holder- the 1940's kind with the big puff. If you have one of those to store the mix, even better. There's something just plain glamorous about them! It needs to be opaque, not just plain glass.


To use: While showering, turn counter-clockwise 3 times (slowly, don't fall in the shower!). Let any negativity or unwanted energy wash down the drain. After drying off powder yourself with the mixture while repeating 9 times:

Desiderari è la mia arma,
di incantare è la mia meta.
Fate togliere i miei difetti,
fare la mia biddizza grazia.

(Desire is my weapon,
enchanting is my goal.
Fairies take away my flaws,
make my beauty glow)

You can substitute "di incantare " (to enchant) for a specific intention. A lover (un amante), power (potenza), wealth (avere i soldi, ricchezza) and so on. I find the original works best because "enchanting" covers most things. 

Darth Strega

Tonight we watched Return of the Jedi. In having to explain to a child what was going on between Darth Vader, Luke and The Emperor, I realized something:

The Jedi are stupid.

Seriously. Don't use your hate or fear or anger? What kind of hippie crap is that? There couldn't be Italian Jedi. We embrace our dark side, we use whatever emotion we need to use to get the job done, or the situation taken care of.

If Luke had been Italian? That Emperor would have been toast AND Luke would have saved his father. Dude is about to kill everyone you love and destroy the rebel alliance, sealing the fate of the universe? Toast. Luke killed a lot of bad guys who were threatening his friends, like Jabba the Hut. I bet there were plenty of innocent creatures in Jabba's place when Luke blew it up. Why didn't that make Luke turn to the dark side? Pft.


Yeah, I know: Vader had to have the opportunity to come back to the good side. I think if Luke had taken on the Emperor and stayed "good" that Vader would have joined him anyway. Then there could be sequels. They could have started a new, more powerful line of those who used The Force, a combination of Jedi and Sith. One that integrated the "good" and "bad."

Why is it an either-or proposition? Why can't you use your "dark" emotions to do what needs to get done without it consuming you? Is it because this movie is a simplistic parable wherein the bad guys are wholly bad and the good guys are wholly good and you can't be a bit of both? Feh.

I will say this: Never underestimate what a parent will do for their child. The Emperor was so overconfident in Vader being completely in his dark side pocket, that he didn't realize that instinct can still take over.

This is a silly rant about a silly movie, but it does lead to a more pertinent topic: Embracing what many have come to think of as "dark" in regards to witchcraft. There's a huge difference in the Strega and Wiccan mindsets, and I've talked a bit about it here before: The Wiccan Reede is just some advice. If you do something and think it will come back, you still do what you have to do. The difference is that you own it.
When you don't know how to swim, it's more dangerous to be near a pool. My evil twin pointed out that if Anakin had been taught to use his dark side, he wouldn't have gotten sucked in by the Emperor in the first place.


In other news, half of the labyrinth has been planted and I hope to have the second half done tomorrow! I have a headache, I think from using neck muscles that haven't been used that way in some time! I'm calling it a night and hope to post a proper post tomorrow! Perhaps some psychopomp and circumstance! I'll leave you with more philosophical debate about the trilogy:

This next one is really funny and really disturbing all at the same time. Too soon? I can't embed it, so you'll have to surf over to college humor yourself!

Thanks! And a random roundup

The response to last night's blog was unexpected. I suppose the best entries are the heartfelt ones- those that come to you naturally, the ones that are inspired as opposed to the ones I post because I have made a vow to put something out there daily. Since I can't possibly top that one right now, and because I did 5 hours of driving today, here's a round up of randomness:

• Today I went to a basic tarot class. It was an exercise in beginner's mind and honestly, a nice refresher. I finally noticed while looking through the cards that, in the Smith Waite deck, while the Page of Cups has a sneaky fish popping out of his cup, the King of Cups is wearing a fish pendant on a chain around his neck. Look who grew up n showed that fish!

• I've had a setback with the labyrinth. I didn't screw up the labyrinth, I screwed up the placement: My top brick was well over the property line and onto my neighbor's lawn. Oops!!! I've had to move everything down. Well, not everything entirely. Thankfully I've only had to pop 3 bricks out of the ground. The rest are fine where they are. But instead of planting bricks tomorrow, I have to finish the brick layout. After that, I have to plant 11 bricks every day to have it ready in time. Hopefully I'll do more bricks than that in a day!

• My Grandfather, the one I spoke about in the previous post, fought in WWII. He was a member of the VFW, worked at the VFW hospital in Brooklyn, and after he retired, he volunteered there every week. Throughout his life, he was a blood donor. He had a rare type of blood so he donated as often as he was allowed (aprox every 2 months). I remember going to a ceremony where he received an award for donating an incredible amount of blood over his donating career. Have you ever been a donor? If you can, please do. If you can't, please raise awareness and rally your friends and family to donate. I'm posting this tonight on the off chance you'll read it on Memorial Day instead of after the fact. Tomorrow, I might just take a look at ancient soldiering since we're supposed to be remembering fallen soldiers of all wars.

• Don't forget to vote for all of the awesome Pagan Moms with blogs! That pink button up there on the right will take you to the Circle of Moms site where you can vote daily for your favorite faith based blogs by Moms. There are over a dozen Pagan blogs in the running with a Pagan in first place! Yay for community banding together :)

Bits and Bobs

Today I added about 70 bricks to the labyrinth and tomorrow I will add about 125 more. The layout should be completely finished tomorrow, but then comes the task of digging each into the ground! With the 90 degree weather I've been working in the morning- not something fun for this night-owl. I know the parents out there get it: You stay up late just to have that extra time to yourself. I'm trying to flip that into having time to myself in the early morning. Thankfully, my kiddo has been helping me to gather the bricks, to place them, and to move any "wiggly worms" we might come across.

This project, which has been in the works for well over a year, took on a sense of urgency in recent days. I'm not sure where that came from, but I do know that many people have come to me in the past week, inspired to get moving on a personal project that has been lingering. Was it the move from Taurus to Gemini? We're in a Mercury ruled house at the moment, so did this give us the inspirational boost we've needed?

I think we might be into a Neptune storm. It goes retrograde next week! It just moved into the first degree of Pisces, and now it's moving back into Aquarius.

From Astrology Insights:

Neptune turns retrograde on June 3 on the first degree of the water sign Pisces. Throughout the last several weeks our planet has been inundated by water. Rivers have swollen and escaped their boundaries, lives have been flooded, and emotions have run freely. Change is never easy and particularly not so when the forms we rely on are disappearing before our eyes. Neptune reminds us that nothing is as it seems - reality is fluid and ever-changing. Throughout the month of Gemini the influence of Neptune remains strong. We are invited to leave behind our perception of reality and open to the unknown realms. 

Take a gander at your chart and see which house is being affected: Neptune Transits to the Houses.


I hope everyone has a funtastic Memorial Day Weekend! I'll still be blogging, perhaps a bit of the fluff, or a bit of the pretty. We'll see what the day brings!

Happy Irish Heritage Day

Argh, I want to post 10 other things right now, but instead I'm going to say what I've said every year for the past 2 decades:

Unless you're going to pitch as much of a fit over this day as the one in October, please STFU and let us Italians have a day of Pride in our heritage too. At least we don't get shit-faced at our parades. And the food is better. Rename them "Irish Heritage Day" and in October "Italian Heritage Day" and everyone can be happy. There, my rant is done.

Speaking of getting shit-faced, here is another entry in my ongoing series of saintly veneers put over Pagan celebrations: This week is the Bacchinalia, the festival of Bacchus! Time to drink and dance. No wonder it's a tradition to get drunk at this time of year! After this long-ass Winter I'm ready to tie one on for the start of Spring too!

The Bacchanalia were wild and mystic festivals of the Roman god Bacchus. Introduced into Rome from lower Italy by way of Etruria (c. 200 BC), the bacchanalia were originally held in secret and attended by women only. The festivals occurred on three days of the year in the grove of Simila near the Aventine Hill, on March 16 and March 17.

Wiki has a lengthy article on this which is actually worth reading. It touches on Crete as a wine source, and a center of the mysteries. Here is where Ariadne enters the picture. Funny, I just started following another blog that discusses Crete, Ariadne and the labyrinth (I found it while looking for Minoan labyrinth and Ariadne resources). So thanks to Debra for sharing more of Ariadne's story. I happen to agree that much of Greek mythology is the patriarchalization of earlier mysteries. Did I just make up a word? Awesome!

What was involved in a Bacchinalia? Did True Blood get it right? Wine and drugs and sex (and shape shifter sacrifice and a gigantic egg)? Sounds like a rave. Bacchinalias were the first raves! \o/ lol I don't drink, so I don't know why this appeals to me. Perhaps because my name is of Thracian origin and so are these mysteries? There is also a record of trance dancing and possession by Deity.

Dionysus/Bacchus absorbed many other deities including Liber and Zagreus. Absorbed or are they different aspects thereof? Anyway, a bit about Ariadne: Her name means "Most Holy" in both Greek and Latin. Quoth Wiki: Ariadne (Etruscan Areatha) is paired with Dionysus (Etruscan Fufluns) on engraved bronze Etruscan bronze mirrorbacks, where the Athenian culture-hero Theseus is absent, and Semele (Etruscan Semla), as mother of Dionysus, may accompany the pair, lending a particularly Etruscan air of family authority.

An inscription from Knossos (home of Ariadne, the infamous labyrinth and Minotaur) says: "to all the gods, honey... to the mistress of the labyrinth honey" Ariadne as Priestess of Knossos? Mistress of the Labyrinth? There are stories associating Dionysus and Proserpina. Is Ariadne another name for her? Certainly, if the labyrinth is the decent into and return from the Underworld, the labyrinth is her domain. Are the two Goddesses the same? Different names from different lands? Is Ariadne the Minoan Snake Goddess Herself? There are also myths involving Dionysus descending into the Underworld to retrieve Ariadne as well as his mother, Semele (Proserpina and Ceres?) It was spoofed in ancient times, by Aristophanes in his comedy, The Frogs. Instead of going to the underworld to get the women back, he complains about a lack of good writers and goes to bring back the best one. There is a contest where he decides. Stephen Sondheim updated the concept in a musical.

Note the last picture from the Villa of the Mysteries. Is this the Bacchic Cult Rites? Is it the Eleusinian Mysteries? Were they combined in Greece? Are Proserpina and Ariadne alternate names for the same Goddess? Mmmm food for thought, tastes great, less filling.

Note the Leopards in this Waterhouse painting. They are associated with Dionysus

Dionysus with Semele or Ariadne?