Blodeuwedd is the white Goddess of Death and Life in Her May-aspect, and part of a triad consisting of Arianrhod, Blodeuwedd and Cerridwen.

She represents temporary beauty and the bright blooming that must come full circle through death: She is the promise of autumn visible in spring.

Blodeuwedd was the Flower Maiden, made by men, for a man, in the image of their own desires. She became the perfect wife for Llew but made a choice to be with Gronw. By doing this she took her power back.

She was pursued and, as a punishment, turned into an owl.

Owls are associated with wisdom, and Blodeuwedd has become wise. She accepted herself and turned against that which others wanted her to be.

NanLT, wife, mother, healer, witch, has a personal experience with Blodeuwedd.

I was very much out of touch with my feminine side, having focused so much attention on the masculine. Through Her I was able to discover that there could be strength in femininity. That I could embrace and show myself as a woman without sacrificing my independence.

For Nan’s insight, see Blodeuwydd, Flower Face

Homage to You, the Cow of Gold,
The Beautiful, with numerous colours,
The Only One in the sky,

Hathor is among the most ancient of the Egyptian deities. She is found in the pre-dynastic times, and in many guises and aspects.

Hathor is a sky-goddess, a sun-goddess, a moon-goddess, a goddess of the east, a goddess of the west, a goddess of music, goddess of intoxication, of moisture, of flooding, and of fertility. She is a fertility goddess, an agricultural goddess, and goddess of the underworld.

So in the beginning every goddess was Hathor

The ancient women of Egypt, from highest to lowest, loved Hathor as the patron of all women. As the goddess of music and dancing her symbol was the sistrum and, as a fertility goddess and goddess of moisture, she was associated with the regular life-giving flooding of the Nile.

The story of the ‘Destruction of Men’, engraved into a shrine of Tutankhamen’s tomb, tells us how Hathor becomes the Eye of Ra, the lion goddess Sekhmet.

It is said that as the sun god Ra grew older, he became fearful of his enemies and asked Hathor to help him. She took on the job thoroughly indeed. As Sekhmet, she began to systematically slaughter the people, laughing and and enjoying the killing.

Ra then worried that she would wipe out the entire human race, so he had red dye mixed in beer and spread about the land. Hathor, thinking it was blood, drank it and became so intoxicated that she forgot her assignment and humanity was saved. Pacified by the beer, she resumed her persona as the beautiful Hathor and returned to Ra. No wonder Hathor is also the goddess of intoxication

As time went on, her role changed. She welcomed the arrival of the dead, dispensing water to them from the branches of a sycamore and offering them food. She was often represented as a cow suckling the dead to give them sustenance during their mummification, their journey to the judgement hall, and the ultimate weighing of their soul.
Her depiction

Her Depiction

Hathor is usually depicted as a beautiful woman with cow horns, or a cow wearing the sun disk, or a lion-headed woman in her destructive aspect. It was only later that she was shown as a woman with the head of a cow. A frequent motif seen in the Book of the Dead and tomb reliefs is Hathor emerging from the papyrus swamps in Her bovine form. Her depiction as a cow is seen on a 1st Dynasty stone vase and these two essential elements of hers appear throughout Egyptian history.

The divine cows of Egyptian mythology included the four sacred cows that accompanied Hathor representing the four regions of the sky.

Her Names

Some of her titles are still remembered, she was invoked as Lady to the Limit, Mistress of Heaven, Divine Cow, Lady of Sycamore and Lady of Malachite. She was the Vengeful Eye of Ra, the Lady of Drunkenness, and, when she presided over the dead, as Lady of the West. Many are her names, as befits an ancient goddess.

The Greeks recognised Hathor as Aphrodite and by that name she is universally known, but her essence can be found in Isis. After 2000 years of worship, the Divine Cow, sistrum and all, was absorbed into Isis.

She is Breo-saighead the Arrow of Fire.

As a direct granddaughter of Dánu herself, Brighid is ranked high among the Divine Daughters. Her power was the feminine force, and no man was allowed to pass beyond the hedge surrounding her sanctuary.

As a triple goddess she has aspects appealing to all and reigns over myriad aspects of life. However, her aspects are not of the maiden, mother, crone – she has three different aspects which are all parts of the same ageless goddess.

• One aspect of Brighid is of poetess and muse, goddess of inspiration, learning, poetry, divination, witchcraft, occult knowledge.
• A second aspect is goddess of smithcraft, and she carries a cauldron for this purpose.
• Her third aspect is that of healer and goddess of medicine. These three aspects were united through the symbol of fire.

She rules over healing, protection and midwifery, and as the patroness of poetry maintains the filidhecht, bardic lore and all culture and learning. Brighid also represents skill in metal-work and the craft of the smith. She offers protection in battle and valour to the warrior.

Justice, too, is in her hands. One of her most ancient names is Breo-saighead meaning fiery arrow, and within that name is the attribute of punishment and divine justice.

Brighid controls the sacred fire of the smith, for she possesses an unusual status as a Sun Goddess ” Who hangs Her Cloak upon the rays of the Sun and Whose dwelling-place radiates light as if on fire.” As a solar deity her attributes are all skills associated with fire, the benefactress of inner healing and vital energy.

… did Brighid give us whistling? …

The Irish say that Brighid gave us whistling, that she invented this one night when she wanted to call her friends. And that she taught us how to keen the mournful song of the bereaved woman. This links Brighid to the great mother goddesses of the eastern Mediterranean, and like them, she was identified with fertility of the soil, and with the earth itself.

Some rituals and legends suggest that Brighid may date back even beyond the era of the Celts – that she may very well be a more ancient seasonal goddess of the pre-Celtic inhabitants of Britain. In Scotland, legend tells us how the Cailleach kept a maiden named Bride imprisoned in the high mountains of Ben Nevis. But her own son fell in love with the girl and, at winter’s end, he eloped with her. The hag chased them across the landscape, causing fierce storms as she went, but finally she turned to stone and Bride was freed. In such stories, which may date back as much as 3000 years, Brighid becomes a spring/summer goddess whose rule over the land alternated with that of an autumn/winter hag.

In modern Britain today, as the warrior-maiden, Brigantia, she is a symbol of justice and authority, and portrayed as the personification of Britain on the coin of the realm.

She is honoured at any time, at all times, and remembered on the Cross Quarter Day of Imbolc, as the Maiden.

Brighid is the most powerful religious figure in all of Irish history. She has moved through the ages with scarcely a change and traveled effortlessly down the centuries. Over hundreds of generations Brighid moves with grace and power, fulfilling different roles in different times

The Triple Goddesses were replaced by a Trinity, but the Old Ways lingered in worship and Brighid’s role as Mother Goddess was never completely eradicated.

As a Catholic Saint, sunlight radiates from her head, traditionally the portrayal of a Goddess. Themes of milk, fire, Sun and serpents follow her.

After the Christian conversions of many of the Irish people, Brighid was the Goddess they could never be forced to give up. They simply made her Mother of all the new saints of the new religion and she continued to reign as “Queen of Heaven.“

This is the day of Bride
the Queen will come from the mound……

Imbolc! It’s time for one of the Cross Quarter Days which make up the Wheel of the Year.

For the Northern hemisphere this begins at sunset on February 1st and goes through to sunset on February 2nd.

In Medusa’s cave by Lake Tritonis you can scarcely notice the difference between the snows of winter and the first, faint warming of the earth. The mortals who live close by her neighbourhood also notice it little, but so many in Greece have forgotten the Old Ways.

In Ireland there are many who still remember. There will be celebrations galore for the ancient Celtic Festival of Imbolc and, regardless of how many learned academics may tell you the word is derived from Ol-melc (ewe’s milk) because the ewes are lactating at this time, pay no heed. For this is Im-bolg (around the belly) a festival in honour of the swelling belly of the Goddess.

And she is called upon at this time by her name of Brighid. The Arrow of Fire.

It is a harsh and bitter month, February. The Wolf-month, the Faoilleach, the a’ marbh mhiòs. But small signs are appearing of the life which is to come, the swelling of Brighids’s belly heralds the promise of the new born lambs, the soft rains, and the birds begin to build their nests. On this day, the lark will sing more clearly over Kildare.

Celebrate Imbolc as the middle of the season of long nights which will give way to the upcoming season of light.

Warm and quickening Light
awaken and bring forth beauty

Like the frozen earth, the Crone, who is barren and produces no growing things, gives up her place to the fertile young maiden.

When the Christians came , the joyous day of Imbolc was replaced by Candlemas. Call it what you will, the tasks you must undertake are the same.

Clean your hearth and then light a new fire. For this is a Feast of Fire. A time of illumination, reflection, and purification.

Her festival was the Floralia, and it symbolised the ancient renewal of the cycle of life. She was honoured as the Bringer of Spring Flowers and to this day we use her name to denote all plant life on earth.

When Julius Caesar reconfigured the Roman Calendar he set the date of her celebrations as running from 28 April to 3 May. Games, merriment, theatre and parades marked this time of year, and much drinking and dancing was enjoyed by the common people. And, of course, lots of flowers. These events were collectively known as the Ludi Florales.

Flora may have been a relatively minor figure in the mythology of Ancient Rome but she was originally much more important. To the indigenous people she was a Fertility Goddess but she lost much of her status when the influence of Greece spread over the land. Alas! This has happened time and time again, I saw it in my own day and it’s worse now.

At least she is content in her domestic life for her consort is Favonius, the West Wind, the sweetest and most gentle of all the winds, the fructifying wind.

His very name means ‘Favourable’ and his breath (all the way from Thrace) is the Messenger of Spring. Favonius, as is befitting, is the protector of flowers and plants.

She stands at the crossroads, at the bridge between death and rebirth.

She makes herself known in the horrifying aspects of our deepest fears, the fears we have yet to face and the mysteries that we have yet to know.

She is often portrayed as Kali, holding a sword and a freshly severed head dripping blood. As the story goes, this represents a great battle in which she destroyed the demon Raktabija.

We shudder at the thought of Kali with her bloodlust, but we cannot deny the presence of the Crone.

We dread to look into the eyes of the Crone but, if we could learn to truly face her and in doing so face our own dark natures, we would see the wisdom of the Ancients.

From death comes rebirth.

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