Deity of the Day

Ceres

Goddess of Agriculture

 

Areas of Influence: Ceres was the Roman Goddess of agriculture and grain. The word cereal is derived from her name. She is accredited with the discovery of spelt, an ancient strain of wheat and the knowledge of how to grow, fertilize and harvest cereal crops.

After a terrible famine in 496 B.C. the Sibylline books were consulted and a recommendation made that Rome adopt of the Greek Deities Demeter, Dionyisus and Persephone. Their identities were changed to Ceres, Liber and Libera. Together they formed the Avertine triad.

This Goddess also adopted Demeter’s mythology as she also lost her daughter to the God of the underworld, for six months of the year.

Her early Italian cult was similar to that of Tellus the Earth Goddess. She was aided in her agricultural duties by twelve minor Gods and Goddesses.

Ceres was also Goddess of law and order. At first this may appear a strange area of influence for this grain goddess however, she was accredited with the founding of agriculture and a move away from a nomadic hunter gatherer society. This necessitated a need for new laws to divide the land and protect property ownership as settlements grew into villages, towns and cities.

This Goddess was also Goddess of transitions, protecting woman at the vulnerable points in their lives: between girlhood and womanhood and the time of change between unmarried life, marriage and motherhood.

Her main temple is situated on Aventine Hill, one of seven hill tops that surrounded ancient Rome.

Origins and Genealogy: In Roman mythology she was the daughter of Saturn and Ops. She had several brothers and sisters: Juno, Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto and Vesta. She married her brother Jupiter and together they had a daughter named Proserpina.

Strengths: Fertility, abundance and endurance.

Weaknesses: Lived her life through her daughter.

Greek Equivalent: Demeter, other Harvest Goddesses

 Symbolism

Pictured carrying a scepter or a farming tool in one hand and a basket of fruit or grain in the other.

Sacred Animal: Pigs. Ants were used in her temples to predict the weather and the future.

Sacred Plants: The chaste trees, corn and pumpkins. She was also offered the first fruits of the harvest. Poppies were her emblem as the grow in cornfields. All other flowers were banned as she had lost her daughter to the underworld when she was out picking flowers.

Festivals: Her festivals marked the different stages of the agricultural calendar. At the Paganalia festival when the seeds were sown,  a pregnant sow was sacrificed to her and the earth goddess Tellus to ensure an abundant crop yield. Her main festival, the Cerealia was celebrated over seven days in late April. This encouraged the ripening of the crops and prevented pests and diseases. This Goddess was also celebrated both by communities and households in the Ambarvalia which was held each May.

Ceres Archetypes

The Mother:

The Mother Archetype is a life-giver and the source of nurturing, devotion, patience and unconditional love. The ability to forgive and provide for her children and put them before herself is the essence of a good mother.

In its shadow aspect the Mother can be devouring, abusive and abandoning. The shadow Mother can also make her children feel guilty about becoming independent and leaving her.

Ceres is a grain Goddess who teaches people how to nurture and harvest her crops. Later she also takes on the Mother role of her Greek counterpart Demeter.

Rescuer:

The Rescuer provides strength and support to others in crisis. They act out of love with no expectation of a reward.

The shadow Rescuer expects the rescued party to be grateful and will often try to keep that person needy.

Ceres is distraught when her daughter goes missing and does not rest until she has found her. She is frustrated as she is unable to save her daughter and is forced to compromise.

 

How To Work With These Archetypes

The Mother:

It is not necessary to be a biological mother to have this Archetype. It can refer to anyone who has a lifelong pattern of nurturing and devotion to living things.

You are exhibiting the features of the shadow Mother if you smother your children and are over protective. Encourage independence and allow children to make mistakes but be available to give care and advice when it’s needed.

The other shadow Mother is the one that abandons her children, or is so busy that she has no time for nurturing her young.

Rescuer:

The Rescuer is one of your Archetypes if you are always trying to save and help people.

What you need to ask yourself is what motivates you to act this way? Are you expecting a reward for your trouble or do you love helping others?

 

Source:

Goddess-Guide.com

Deity of the Day

Bellona

Bellona was an Ancient Roman goddess of war. Her main attribute is the military helmet worn on her head; she often holds a sword, spear or shield, and brandishes a torch or whip as she rides into battle in a four-horse chariot. Her iconography was further extended by painters and sculptors following the Renaissance.

Originally named Duellona in the Italic languages, Bellona was an ancient Sabine goddess of war, identified with Nerio, the consort of the war god Mars, and later with her Greek equivalent Enyo. Her first temple in Rome was dedicated in 296 BCE, where her festival was celebrated on June 3. Her priests were known as Bellonarii and used to wound their own arms or legs as a blood sacrifice to her. These rites took place on the 24 March, called the day of blood (dies sanguinis) after the ceremony. In consequence of this practice, which approximated to the rites dedicated to Cybele in Asia Minor, both Enyo and Bellona became identified with her Cappadocian aspect,Ma.

The Roman Campus Martius area in which Bellona’s temple was sited had extraterritorial status. Ambassadors from foreign states, who were not allowed to enter the city proper, stayed in this complex. The area around the temple of Bellona was considered to symbolize foreign soil, and there the Senate met with ambassadors and received victorious generals prior to their Triumphs. And it was here too that Roman Senate meetings relating to foreign war were conducted. Beside the temple was the war column (columna bellica), which represented the boundary of Rome. To declare war on a distant state, a javelin was thrown over the column by one of the priests concerned with friends. (fetiales) from Roman territory towards the direction of the enemy land and this symbolical attack was considered the opening of war.

In the military cult of Bellona, she was associated with Virtus, the personification of valour. She then travelled outside Rome with the imperial legions and her temples have been recorded in France, Germany, Britain and North Africa.

Bellona is commonly portrayed wearing a plumed helmet and dressed in armour, or at least a breastplate with a skirt beneath. In her hand she carries a spear, shield, or other weapons, and occasionally sounds a trumpet for the attack. Anciently she was associated with the winged Victory holding a laurel crown in her hand, a statue of whom she sometimes carries; when she appears on war memorials she may hold that attribute herself.

Examples of such an armoured figure appear in the 1633 painting attributed to Rembrandt in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the statues by Johann Baptist Straub(1770) and Johann Wilhelm Beyer (1773–80). In the latter she appears with the god Janus, since both were associated with the Roman ceremonies of declaring war. In the case of Janus, the doors to his temple were left open during the whole period of hostilities.

Straub’s statue has a gorgon’s head on her shield to instil terror in her enemies, as does the Rembrandt painting, although this was added later, probably as a response to other examples of this new iconographical departure. In the bust by Bertram Mackennal she wears a gorgon mounted on her helmet, while in other depictions it is on the breastplate. Another common innovation was Bellona’s association with cannons, as in the drawing by Hans Krieg (1590–1645)  and the 1700 ceiling fresco at Hammerschloss Schmidmühlen by Hans Georg Asam (1649–1711). An early Dutch engraving in a series of prints depicting Personifications of Industrial and Professional Life suggests that it is this goddess who inspires the invention of war material, showing her seated in a factory workshop with all manner of arms at her feet. In the fresco by Constantino Brumidi in the U.S. Capitol (1855–60) her image is updated. There she is shown standing next to an artillery piece and has the stars and stripes on her shield.

Not all representations of Bellona wear armour. The statues by Alvise Tagliapietra at St Petersburg (c.1710) and the J. Paul Getty Museum’s by Augustin Pajou (1775/85)are largely naked, although otherwise wearing or carrying some of the goddess’ other attributes. There are Classical references that sanction this, however. In Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica, for example, appears the description “Bellona with bare flank, her brazen weapons clanging as she moved” (3. 60). A further poetic reference taken up by a painter occurs in Louis Jean François Lagrenée’s “Bellona Presenting the Reins of his Horses to Mars” (1766). This illustrates a speech from Claudian’s In Ruffinumwhere Mars requests “Let Bellona bring my helmet and Terror guide the reins” (Fer galleam Bellona mihi, nexusque rotarum tende Pavor).^[19] Jan van Mieris’ allegorical painting of “Wisdom restraining Bellona” (1685) is also poetic. There the seated figure of Wisdom clasps the right hand of the helmeted goddess, who is turning to leave, her cloak fluttering behind her and her shield held high in her outstretched left hand.

 

Source

Wikipedia

Deity of the Day

Juno

Areas of Influence: Juno was the Goddess of marriage, pregnancy and childbirth.

She was the Queen of the Gods and part of the Capitoline triad that also included Minerva and Jupiter.

This Deity was an embodiment of the traditional female roles of wife and mother.

One of her titles was Lucino (meaning light) as she helped to bring children into the light of this world at birth. She was also said to set and strengthen a child’s bones.

She was also Goddess of conception, a Goddess to be called upon in labour and one who helped settle disagreements between spouses.

Juno protected the finances of the Roman people. In this role she was the patron Goddess of the royal mint.

Before she absorbed many of Hera’s characteristics several scholars suggest that she was a Maiden Goddess.

The Month of June was named after her and it was considered the most favorable month to get married in.

Her other claim to fame is that as an archetypal figure she appears in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest.

Each Roman woman was said to have her own Juno which represented her female spirit.

Origins and Genealogy: According to later Roman myths she was the sister and consort of Jupiter and the mother of Mars, Hebe and Vulcan.

Mars was conceived when the Goddess was impregnated by a flower.

Strengths: Leadership and a loyal wife.

Weaknesses: Jealousy and vindictiveness.

Juno’s Symbolism

This Roman Goddess had a more warlike nature than Hera and was often depicted in a goat skin coat that was favoured among Roman soldiers.

She was also able to throw lightning bolts like her husband Jupiter.

Sacred Birds: Geese and peacocks.

Sacred Plants: The wild fig tree.

Festivals: A special ceremony was dedicated to her in the home to celebrate the beginning of each lunar month.

Her main festival, the Matronalia was held on 1st March. On this day married woman asked their husbands to give them money to make offerings to the Goddess.

A smaller celebration known as the Nonae Caprotinae took place on 7th July.

Greek and Etruscan Equivalents: The Goddess Hera was the Greek equivalent to Juno.

Uni was the Etruscan Goddess who shared many similarities with this Deity.

 

Source:

Goddess-Guide.com