Society of Saturn

Don't worry, we're not changing our blog focus or Patron! Tonight I've been musing on the company Saturn keeps, especially festival-wise.

All within the same week we have: Consualia, Saturnalia, Eponalia, Opalia, Divalia, and Larentalia.

Consus was the deity charged with the storage and protecting of the grain, particularly underground. Beasts of burden were given the day off. Actually, they were given the weekend off: a few days later was the Eponalia. here is an allegedly Gaulish Goddess of horses who was "transferred" into the Roman cult. The name might have been, but Demeter was worshiped as a horse Goddess in antiquity, especially in reference to Her relationship with Neptune with whom she had children. Demeter is also the Goddess of the grain, oft syncretized with Ceres. She was a daughter of Saturn and Ops and in addition to teaching humanity how to grow the stuff, She was also in charge of teaching humanity how to preserve and prepare it. 

Looks like we have a theme!

Opis  was the wife of Saturn, a cthonic Goddess- THE cthonic Goddess!

Quoth the holy wiki:

The Latin word ops means "riches, goods, abundance, gifts, munificence, plenty". The word is also related to opus, which means "work", particularly in the sense of "working the earth, ploughing, sowing". This activity was deemed sacred, and was often attended by religious rituals intended to obtain the good will of chthonic deities such as Ops and Consus. Ops is also related to the Sanskrit word ápnas ("goods, property").

I've seen her referred to as a Sabine Goddess but haven't yet found the source material. Wiki goes on to report that King Titus Tatius, a Sabine monarch, instituted Her cult.

I'm going to pause here and save the other festivals for a subsequent post and focus on the theme at play:

• Father who provides the seed and, as Time itself, makes it grow

• Mother who hosts the seed from whom abundance and riches spring

• Daughter who brings the grain to humanity and teaches its arts

• Son(?) who stores and protects it

Aside from the frantic frolicking of Saturnalia proper, this week is about surviving the Winter and having something to plant in the Spring, something to look forward to. Makes you wonder at the Saturnalia traditions; The frolicking fun was allegedly started to lift spirits after Rome was beaten by Carthage. Sounds similar to Lincoln instituting the Thanksgiving celebration we know today during the Civil War.


There are many references to Saturnalia on the internet, many quoting Macrobius' Saturnalia. I'm currently working my way through it in both Latin and the on line English translations. So far it's driving me crazy! There's an interesting passage on Janus, the Janiculum, and Saturn! I can't wait to delve into the relationship between these two!

If you'd like to check it out with me, take a gander starting right above p51. I've included the google translate link.

Io Saturnalia!

The Source

Know the source!

I don't mean "The Source Of All Things." Just the source of information you cite. Today on facebook, a friend posted something about a festival of Venus being celebrated tonight and tomorrow, August 9th. He didn't cite his source. He usually doesn't, but most often I recognize the information's source, like a Gardnerian calendar or Dunwich's Wiccan Book of Days. For this post? No clue. I asked for the source of the information, haven't gotten a reply. Will update in comments if/when I do. (I think I found it. I only scanned through a few of the listings on the page, but I noticed at least 5 mistakes.)

The only Venus celebrations I know of in August is on the 19th, the Vinalia Rustica, which celebrates the founding of Her oldest known temple in Rome. She was also honored at a festival of Jupiter in late August. The only Roman celebration I know of tomorrow is the Opalia, in honor of Ops, and even that date is questioned. Let's remember that what is now August used to be sextillus, the sixth month. The ancient calendar was screwed six ways till nones and has been rectified over and over and over again through the ages. We still tinker with the calendar- 2012 is leap year!

"A lie can travel halfway round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." --Mark Twain

Posting misinformation about an ancient festival date isn't immediately or terribly damaging to our society, but in the long run, it undermines who we are and ultimately what we do. There was a huge outcry years ago about how Pagans should "own" that Wicca is made up. Sure it is. But it's made up of pieces of indigenous, pre-christian traditions. Some of the methods are new, but the ideas are the same, ie: We drive cars now instead of use wagons to get around. Several authors and teachers felt the need to make up a lineage and grand claims, so much so that I sometimes get eye rolls when I tell people I practice my family tradition. Because people have made up information in the past, I currently get shit for it, and so do many Strega. It's one of the reasons why I started this blog. So I get sensitive about misinformation. Especially on my home turf.

If there is new information to be had, something I didn't know before, I want to learn it! So please give me the source of your information because if it is true, then I have a new source and reference and I am the better for it. This is why I respect Nova Roma: They do their work and their research and eek out new sources in the ancient record and in current archaeology finds. If it's about Venus and the Nova Roma folks don't know about it and your source isn't new, it's probably not true. This isn't to say I object to people posting information on topics when they aren't experts, just cite your sources, even if it's Personal Gnosis (especially when it's personal gnosis!)

If we are to be taken seriously, and by "we" I mean Pagans, then we have to know from whence we came: including what we celebrate and why we celebrate it, or why we choose to not celebrate something anymore. If you, as a teacher, or initiate, or general disseminator of information are to be taken seriously, you should cite your sources, or at least make them available to others. If you, as a student, take yourself seriously, don't believe everything people say without investigating the sources for yourself.

Just because it's in print doesn't mean it's true! This goes for me too! Call me on my bs if you see any, ask me to cite missing sources if you find any lacking. This just makes me a better blogger, a better expert and a better person.