Mother Nature

Week 25

Just wow! Raw, savage, scary as hell but so beautiful

MOTHER NATURE

Everyone's mum. I wonder when our natural world around us, was given this name. There is a story about mother nature in pretty much every culture throughout the world.  In the UK, we were a pagan nation, as in 'of the land'.  After we settled and farmed the land, our gods and goddesses reflected the harvest and the time of the year related to growth, harvest, death and rebirth.  This is apparent the world over by the many gods and goddesses that do the same job but are known by different names. It's wrong to say that Ares and Mars are the same god of war, they are not. They are two separate entities, from two different cultures and time that represent war etc.  Pigeon holing gods/goddesses is not wise, they don't have a sense of humour lol.

The mother grows, bares and nurtures.  Our sabbats and festivals reflect the turning of the year, the seasons, when things die, grow, harvested and are reborn.  It is a cycle of all things. This is true in paganism and many other religions, it's the one denominator, I think, that unites the many cultures.

Demeter - The Empress

I have been doing the mythic tarot for 20 years, it's based on Greek mythology. It's not that I have any leanings towards their deities but I like the cards and the mythology.  The story of Demeter and Persephone is as good a story as any, to explain our seasons.  Demeter is the Empress, Persephone is the High Priestess in the major arcana.  Demeter was considered the goddess of the harvest, Persephone is the goddess of spring.

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In Demeter, Greek mythology had its caretaker and mother figure. This was a very important role that other goddesses sometimes played a part of, but none as fully as Demeter. Her grandmother, Gaia, was said to be the living Earth, though Demeter's name literally translates as "mother earth". This is probably because she was so actively involved in the growth and harvest of the food grown from the earth. Though vital, it was easy for some to take the harvest goddess's role for granted. It wasn't until she stopped doing her job that both the gods and humanity realized how important to human life Demeter really was.

Hades stole Persephone and took her to the underworld (it was Zesus' fault, he's a bit of a git). Demeter, not knowing where her daughter was, turned away from nurturing the earth. Crops failed and people starved whilst Demeter searched for her daughter.  Persephone was told that if she ate anything in the underworld she would have to stay there forever, she had only eaten three seeds of the pomegranate the whole time she was there. A compromise was made and she was allowed to return to the earth but had to return to the underworld three months of the year to be Hades' queen. When Persephone walked above, spring returned, life was renewed and the world was reborn. The crops grew to harvest and then she had to return to the underworld. The world dies during this time as the nurturing mother becomes the mourning mother, dark and destructive until her child is reborn in the spring. Everything has a dark and light side. Ignore that at your peril, this has been discussed in previous blogs.

Lightning can form in ANY weather. Tornado and lightning, mother nature reminding us how small we really are.

You've heard people say about the power of mother nature, it's destructive forces at play - earthquakes, storms, floods, some call them acts of God.  You've seen the beautiful sunsets, the stunning scenery, the awe inspiring sights of our world - that is mother nature too.  Gaia may be the earth but Demeter IS mother nature.. well in Greek mythology she is.  EVERY culture has a name for her. Romans called her Tellus; then there's Hertha, Erda, Jord, Fjorgyn and Hiodyn - all worshiped as goddesses. In Iroquois folklore, she is known as Etenoha.  The Lakota indians worshiped her as Ina Maka. There's loads of info out there.. here's a good link. 

This could be a statue of me. In ancient times, I would have been a super model

Note to all you people who called our earth Gaia: that's the Greek pantheon. Why pick one name out of the air and use it to name our living world, yet give no consideration to the rest of the Greek deities?  You aren't Greek, you aren't in ancient times, you don't follow those gods and goddesses, so why? New agers, pfft! It's all very well having a varied path, finding pieces of many threads to weave your own path but come on! If you're going to make things up, why not call Her Sheila or another name lol?  Or how about just Mum?

Whatever you call her, there is some stunning imagery created in her honour. May your creative juices flow, don't become stagnant and destructive in your mourning, nurture and yield many good harvests, whatever they may be.

Living garden sculptures

Solstice at Castlerigg - dragons breath rising