Tag: Hestia

The Goddess Calendar, The Month Hestia from December 26 – January 22

Dragons eye
The Goddess Calendar

Hestia
December 26 – January 22

26– First Day of Yuletide, Frau Sonne, Igaehindvo, The Star Faery, Sunne, Yemaya
27– Birth of Freyja(Norse Goddess of Fertility, Love and Beauty)
28– Half Month of Eoh(yew tree) Begins
29– Day of Nymphs, Andromeda, Ariadne, Artemis
30
31– New Year’s Eve, Hogmanay (Scottish New Year), Hogmagog(Scottish God of the Sun)
1– Fortuna, Jupiter, Juno, Janus, The Three Fates, Bertha(German Goddess), The Morrigan, The Parcae, Japanese Household Gods, New Year’s Day
2– Advent of Isis (Phoenecia), Inanna(Sumerian Queen of Heaven), Perihelion of the Earth
3– Dionysus, The Deer Mothers(Native American Spirit-Goddesses), Lenaia Festival (Greek), Pueblo Deer Dances, Kalends of January (French)
4– Sacrifice to the Seven Stars (Korea)
5– Feast of Befana (Roman)
6– Twelfth Night (England), Day of the Triple Goddess (Celtic), Kore, Persephone
7– Sekhmet
8– Babo, Freya, Justicia(Roman Goddess of Justice), Old Druid New Year, Midwife’s Day (Greek)
9
10– Day of Freyja (Norse), Iroquois Feast of Dreams, Geraint(Welsh Bard)
11– Carmentalia (Roman Nymphs of Prophecy), Juturno
12– The Lares(Roman Household Gods), Frigg(Chief Goddess of Old England), Festival of Saravasti (India), Compatlia (Roman)
13– Runic Half Month of Peorth(womb, dice cup) Begins, Tiu(Ancient Teutonic Chief God, Ruler of the Year), Feast of Brewing Midwinter’s Offering (Norse), Tiugunde Day
14– Surya(Indian God of the Sun)
15– Carmentalia(second festival), Feast of the Ass (Roman)
16– Concordia, Betoro Bromo(Indonesian God of Fire)
17– Felicitas(Roman Goddess of Good Fortune), Wassailing the Apple Trees (Celtic Britain)
18– Zao Jun(Chinese Kitchen-God), Theogamia of Hera (Greek)
19– Thor(Norse God of Thunder and Lightning), Thorrablottar/Husband’s Day (Iceland)
20– Grandmother’s Day (Bulgaria)
21– Celtic Tree Month of Luis(rowan) Begins, Yngona(Danish Goddess)
22– Festival of the Muses

The Witches Correspondences for Friday, December 25th

Christmas with animals ::: Weihnachten mit Tieren
FRIDAY CORRESPONDENCES

Venus/Water/East/West/South/Dawn/Female/Libra/Taurus

 

Magickal Intentions: Love, Romance, Marriage, Sexual Matters, Physical Beauty, Friendship and Partnerships, Strangers, Heart

Color: aqua, blue, light blue, brown, green, pale green, magenta, peach, pink, rose, white, all pastels

Number: 5, 6

Metal: copper

Charm: green or white garments, scepter

Stone: alexandrite, amethyst, coral, diamond, emerald, jade, jet, black moonstone, peridot, smoky quartz, tiger’s-eye, pink tourmaline

Animal: camel, dove, elephant, goat, horse, pigeon, sparrow

Plant: apple, birch, cherry, clematis, clove, coriander, heather, hemlock, hibiscus, ivy, lotus, moss, myrtle, oats, pepperwort, peppermint, pinecone, quince, raspberry, rose, pink rose, red rose, rose hips, saffron, sage, savin, stephanotis, strawberry, thyme, vanilla, verbena, violet, water lily, yarrow, and all flowers

Incense: ambergris, camphor, mace, musk, myrrh, rose, saffron, sage, sandalwood, sweetgrass, vanilla, violet, all floral scents

Goddess: Aphrodite, Asherah, Baalith, Brigid, Erzulie, Freya (Passionate Queen), Frigg, Gefion, Harbor (Beautiful One), Hestia, Inanna, Ishtar (Lady of Passion and Desire), Lakshmi, Lilith, Mokosh, Nehalennia, Nerthus, Ostara, Pombagira, Sarasvati, Shakti, Shekinah, Sirtur, Al Uzza, Venus (Queen of Pleasure), Vesta

God: Allah, Bacchus, Bes, Cupid, the Dagda, Dionysus, El, Eros (God of Love), Freyr, Frit Ailek, Shukra

Evocation: Agrat Bat Mahalat, Anael, Hagiel, Mokosba, Rasbid, Sachiel, Uriel, Velas

Courtesy of Moonlight Musings

Calendar of the Sun for Tuesday, January 27th

Calendar of the Sun

28 Wolfmonath

Day of Rules: Eunomia’s Day

Color: Black
Element: Air
Altar: Upon a black cloth light a single white candle, and lay upon it a copy of the Principles, a book of the House rules, and various implements of measuring.
Offering: Discuss the Rules.
Daily Meal: Any food that is wholly correct.

Invocation to Eunomia

Hail, Eunomia, Keeper of Rules,
Hora of the Upraised Hand!
We gather here to praise you,
Even though you seem most stern and forbidding,
For without Rules there are no boundaries,
No accountability, no way to stop the ravages
Of another’s passions. Though we value those passions,
We must also value their limits,
For all things must be kept in balance.
These Rules are not merely the chains that bind us,
They are the ropes that hold us up,
Keeping us from falling into confusion.
We honor your gifts, Lady of Rules,
You who are not afraid to stop
What is not honorable behavior,
You who will not stand by
In the face of deeds of shame.

Call: Hail Eunomia, Keeper of Rules!
Response: Hail Eunomia, Keeper of Rules!

Call: Speak the Rule of Iduna, Lady of the Nectar of Immortality!
Response: I will maintain purity of body.
Call: For the body is the sacred temple given to us that we may experience life,
And to harm it is to disrespect the Will
Of those who bestowed it upon you.

Call: Speak the Rule of Hestia, Keeper of the Hearth!
Response: I will maintain simplicity in my possessions.
Call: For waste leaves empty mouths and empty hands,
And greed has a cold heart and no soul.

Call: Speak the Rule of Agni, Fire and Truth!
Response: I will strive for clarity of words.
Call: For words are weapons of great power,
And should not be used in ways that deliberately confuse,
Or add to the blindness in the world;
Rather they should open eyes and minds.

Call: Speak the Rule of Gaea, the Earth beneath our feet!
Response: I will strive to live sustainably on the Earth.
Call: For She is our Mother, and She gives us all that we need,
And to harm her is to destroy our own future.

Call: Speak the Rule of Artemis, Virgin Huntress implacable, of the purest intent!
Response: I will place no commitment of the heart above my commitment to my path.
Call: For we are placed here in this world to learn and to do what we must,
And a promise once made must be kept.

Call: Speak the Rule of Ogoun, hunter and smith, leopard-god without mercy!
Response: I will commit only to honorable work.
Call: For work that aids what is wrong
Is tainted with wrongness in itself,
And we will not be part of that wrongness.

Call: Speak the Rule of Athena, clear-eyed virgin warrior, Lady of Strategy!
Response: I will maintain clarity in all relationships.
Call: For Love too must have its rules, and honesty,
And there must be distance between each,
That the Spirit may lay between us and join us.

Call: Speak now the Rule of Parvati, Dancer and Mother, Sacred Whore!
Response: I will strive for purity in my sexuality.
Call: For the power of the Root Chakra is not to be defiled
By the soul’s shame and the heart’s despair;
The tides of the body are sacred, and are the libation of that Temple.

Call: Speak now the Rule of Odhinn, All-Father and Magician, who speaks to his own!
Response: I will sustain clarity of faith.
Call: For faith is what bears us up when all else falls,
And before the altars of the Gods we are all mortal.

Call: Speak now the rule of Prometheus, Titan who defies the King’s corruption!
Response: I will submit humbly to honorable authority.
Call: For although there must be leaders, lest we lose our way,
Leadership is not given, but is earned by right behavior,
And must be held to a higher standard.

Call: Speak now the Rule of Brigid, Eternal Flame of the Abbey!
Response: I will maintain loyalty to the endurance of my Order.
Call: For we will not survive unless we survive together,
And though we are all lights, only a great flame will warm us.

Call: Speak now the Rule of Shiva, Lord of the Cremation Ground, Destroyer of Illusions!
Response: I will strive always for mindfulness and clarity of soul.
Call: For this discipline is great above all others.

Call: Hail Eunomia, Keeper of Rules,
Hora of the Upraised Hand!
Response: Hail Eunomia!

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Enhanced by Zemanta

Calendar of the Moon for Thursday, February 7th

Calendar of the Moon

 

7 Luis/Gamelion

Hearth Blessing

Color: Red
Element: Fire
Altar: On this day the altar is built in the kitchen, spread before the hearth with a red cloth and a single red candle on which is carved the Rune of Fire.
Offerings: Ashes smeared on the forehead. Kitchen cleaning and duty.
Daily Meal: Cooked all together as a group.

Invocation to the Hearth Goddess

Hertha of the warm hearthstone
Hestia of the naked flame
Vesta of the rising smoke
Lady who warms us
As you warmed our ancestors,
Lady whose touch cooks our food,
Lady around whom we gather
On the coldest nights,
Fire that draws us in,
Fire tamed, fire who is our friend,
Never let us forget your care
Lest you become wild and strike back.
Stay here in your hearth
And protect our home from your anger.
Speak truth to us
And let us bear your truth on our tongues.
Never leave us for long
Lest we forget to whom we owe
The next winter’s comfort
And salvation.

Chant: Ken Ken Ken

(As everyone chants, each steps forward and draws the rune of Fire, Ken, on the hearth with their finger. Then the hearth is ceremonially relit with the candle and dinner-making commences.)

 

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Sun for January 15th

Calendar of the Sun

15 Wolfmonath

Hestia’s Day

Color: Red
Element: Fire
Altar: Today’s ritual should be done in the kitchen and not the altar room. The hearth and the stove are the altar today, and a flame should be burning, and bread and milk and salt set out on the table. No other altar is required. After the ritual, all shall feast.
Offerings: Do kitchen work, or preserving of food, or cleaning.
Daily Meal: Any wholesome, extremely correct food.

Hestia Invocation

Flame of the Hearth
Keeper of the Inner Circle
Faceless One
Eldest of the Olympians
Lady of the Pantry
Whose open hands dispense hospitality
Chimney and cooking fire
Lady of routine and dailiness
To miss your quiet strength
In the rush of our sudden lives
Would be as great a disservice
As forgetting the air we breathe.
You who are the comforting hearth where we began
And the inner warmth that we will come home to,
Make this place a home for all of us.
Make this hearth a home of the every day,
The ordinary morning and noon,
The expected evening and the consoling night.
Teach us to take our time, Lady.
Teach us of the holiness of step after step
Chore after chore, moving in small circles
Around the hearth of our own beings.

Chant:
Circle round the hearthfire
Join our hands as one
Remember the Virgin Flame burns
Ageless as the Wheel turns
The place for which the heart yearns
Since this tribe has begun.

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Sun for November 8th

Calendar of the Sun

8 Blutmonath

Feast of the Kitchen God/dess

Colors: Red and blue
Element: Fire
Altar: On this day the altar is built in the kitchen, on the center of the main table. All activity of the day centers around the kitchen. Crowning the pile should be the paper portrait of the Kitchen Goddess. Decorate the altar with dishes of food, glasses of drink, and copper pots. Use the best china. The portrait of the next kitchen goddess should be hidden under someone’s clothing, rolled up and waiting.
Offerings: The entire kitchen should be cleaned thoroughly. Afterwards, the kitchen should be cleaned again. A pot of honey should be placed nearby.
Daily Meal: Enough food should be made and laid out to feed the entire community for the lunch and dinner period, and outsiders should be invited in to share it if possible. The food should be lavish and elaborate and aesthetically prepared.

Invocation to the Kitchen Goddess

Lady who watches over
The heart of our home,
Lady who fills our bellies
And who observes all our faults,
Today we send you to heaven
On a curl of smoke from your hearth.
We ask you, be generous,
And speak well of our efforts.
When you speak of our faults,
Have compassion on our humanity
Lady who guides our hands,
Send us pots that do not burn,
And enough love and peace
To infuse every morsel
Of nourishment that we here consume.

(Each person present should step forward, dip their finger in the honey, and touch it to her picture, asking her aloud or silently to forgive them for whatever pettiness occurred in the kitchen that year, be it actions or thoughts. Then she is taken to the hearth and burned in the flame, while everyone present claps and chants rhythmically. After that, lunch is eaten, and then a new Kitchen Goddess is installed in her place.)

Chant: Fire of the hearth, Fire of the wine,
Fire of the heart, Fire of the mind,
Fire of the Art, Fire out of time.

 

[Pagan Book of Hours]

HECATE BINDING SPELL

HECATE BINDING SPELL

In Hecate’s name we bind ____ to the flame
May she bring nightmares, depression, and pain
We cast ____ to the wind, that all know ____ shame
May Hecate envelope ____ in the threefold law May all forget ____’s shame, their harm, their call
May their ability to raise magic fall on deaf walls
We join our energies fellow friends in the Craft
May Hecate stop ___’s harm in the future, present and past
Only when their deeds are reversed will this binding be uncast
So Mote It Be!

Calendar of the Sun for September 29

Calendar of the Sun

29 Halegmonath

Day of Hestia Tamia

Color: Brown
Element: Fire
Altar: Like all rituals to Hestia, this ritual takes place in the kitchen and not the altar room. A fire should be lit at the main hearth, and fresh-baked bread spread upon the table. The tables should be laid with the preserved jars and cans and bottles of the harvest.
Offerings: Have in visitors, and feed them. Feed the hungry.
Daily Meal: Any correct food, eaten with outsiders.

Invocation to Hestia Tamia

Call: Hail, Hestia Tamia, Lady of the Pantry!
Response: Hail, Keeper of the Storehouse!
Call: Hail, Lady who counts each grain
That each of your charges may eat,
That there be no waste and no greed,
That there be no inequality in hunger.
Response: We must sacrifice to Hestia!
Call: This is the saying of our ancestors,
But they did not mean food thrown
Into flames, or rivers; this is not the way
Of the Lady of the Storehouse.
To sacrifice to Hestia is to put that food
In the bellies of others than yourselves.
To sacrifice to Hestia is to bring in strangers
From the cold and the wet, and offer them food
And drink, no matter how little you have.
To sacrifice to Hestia is to remember the Law
Of Hospitality, and how the Gods all love that Law,
And that the stranger most soiled and tattered
May be a vessel of the Gods in disguise.
Response: We must sacrifice to Hestia!
Call: For the counting of one’s resources
Is a holy act, sacred to Hestia Tamia
And her never-emptying pantry.
May our own pantry be as generous, Lady
Whose face is never shown
As she would rather be known by her deeds
And her gentle presence. Hail Hestia Tamia!
Response: Hail Hestia Tamia!
(The rest of the afternoon until Hesperis is spent tallying the stores in honor of Hestia.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

IN PRAISE OF THE GREAT MOTHER

IN PRAISE OF THE GREAT MOTHER

by H. Jeremiah Lewis

I know why they call you the Great Mother – Rhea, Cybele, Idaia or whatsoever thy name may be. You are the Mother of All Nations, the Queen whose Name is glorified everywhere and at every time.

You, Mother were the first, before you there were no gods. You brought all things into being and from your holy womb came the multitudes – stars, gods, men and all creatures that populate the world. We all share the same birth, the same flesh, the same Mother. It is to you that we return, when the measure of our days has been poured out. You are the comforter, and you welcome us back to you with wide-open arms. Mother, you are the end, and yet you promise us a new beginning as well – for in you all is made new.

Men know you by many names and  by  many  faces.  Sometimes  they  call  you “One”, sometimes “Many”. You are the fulfillment of the gods – you  are  the power by which they rule. This is why men  call  you  “Great”,  for  in  the world and among the gods you are indeed the Greatest.  Like  Zeus  you  have authority and power. Your words are commandments, and the  whole  of  nature hearkens to you. If you say  “Mountain,  be  lifted  up,”  the  earth  shall tremble and the great Parnassus shall be torn from its foundations and  hang in the air before you. If you say, “River, roll against  your  course,”  the water will leap at your word and rise like a salmon against the current.

And yet you are the one who set down Themis, who laid out  the  eternal  law by which even gods are bound to obey. With Pallas  you  are  the  keeper  of peace, and the protector of cities. You defend us from the wild  beast,  and the arrows of our enemies. You also assure that neighbors treat  each  other with civility, and that our appointed leaders govern us  according  to  your precepts.

The home is your primary concern, as it is with Hestia, and you watch  after women with a careful eye. You make sure  that  there  is  a  good  home  for children to be raised in; A clean place, with much  laughter  and  joy,  and always enough food for  their  bellies.  In  a  house  where  you  are  well honored, there is peace between  the  husband  and  wife  and  love  is  the foundation of the family.

But you watch over even the unhappy  family.  When  the  man  stumbles  home after too much time with Bacchus, you make sure that he  passes  out  before he can set into the woman, or you stop his angry hands from doing  too  much harm. Anyway, men like this usually die  early  and  leave  happy  widows  – which I think you have something to do with.

You are the Mother that Hera should be, for you do not make distinctions  in your love. All men and all gods are your children. You do not  pay  overmuch attention to our sins,  and  even  when  we  fall  short  of  our  goal  and disappoint you, your love is evident in  the  chastening  hand.  Men  should recognize that we share a common Mother and stop this endless bickering.  Do we think that it will make you love us any more?

Men and gods are not your only children. The animals share in your love,  as they share in Artemis’. You delight in the wild creatures, in the  lion  and the hound and the stag in the forest. You join them in  the  hunt,  in  wild dances through moonlit trees, and in the  tearing  of  raw  flesh.  You  are honored in the spilling of warm blood and in the glory of life continued.  I have seen you appear, goddess, in a swarm of bees and in  a  squirrel  in  a tree. You are the kitten’s warm underbelly, and the wise  old  crow  that  I share my lunch with.

That bread – I recognize as a gift from you, even as I give  it  to  you  as the crow. For you, goddess, as Demeter discovered and bestowed  to  man  the gift of grain, that we might put aside uncivilized fare, and eat  that  holy and nurturing food, bread. You have ordained that we should eat  other  food as well. Life-giving grains and fresh salads and grapes from  the  vine  and so much more. And all this bounty comes from you Mother,  for  you  are  the earth itself.

You are broad bosomed and firm of foundation, for  it  is  on  you  that  we build our homes and live out our lives. You rise  up  in  the  mighty  snowtopped  peaks, and you slope down into the gentle  valleys  rich  with  corn. The forest is one of your faces, and so  is  the  desert  valley.  A  single blossom reveals your presence in a barren field, and your hand  is  felt  in my garden. What extraordinary beauty you show to us  goddess,  it  fills  me with excitement just to think about it.

How like Aphrodite you are in this, for  love  of  the  general  can  easily shift to love of the specific. For instance, I hold in my heart  a  love  of all mankind, but when that pretty girl with the big brown eyes  comes  along it’s not her noble spirit that I am thinking about!  O  goddess,  thank  you for lust! When I am with my love, how  great  it  is  to  feel  your  warmth throughout my body, and to feel my flesh rise  under  your  gentle  coaxing. The smell of her hair, the taste of her  lips,  the  softness  of  the  skin beneath her knee, the breath she releases as I explore her body – these  all are sacraments and together we worship you, goddess, for  you  are  the  one who delights in life and all of its expression.

Though you share Poseidon’s realm, there is no animosity between you and Athena. Indeed, Mother, you are both wisdom and the inspiration of wisdom. All knowledge comes from you, especially the inspired and impassioned sort. You bring thoughtful men to greatness, and those that govern themselves according to your precepts are called “Wise”. You, Mother, are a Mystery. Only those who approach you with humbleness in their heart will gain an understanding of you, and even then, it will be a partial understanding – for you are too great to know in full. The fool approaches you boldly and proclaims that he knows all of your mysteries, but when questioned, he replies with nonsense. He knows nothing. (Although I know I’m right, I wonder if you give a special revelation to the fool. Is he more knowledgeable in your ways than I?  Would you tell me if it were so?)

Like the Muses you delight in music and in song, and you share these things with men. It was you who taught us to stretch skins across the drum, and to bring out its wonderful rhythms. You taught us to play on the pipes as well, and to chant hymns to you and your honor. This was the first music, and is still the best to my mind.

I shall come to you, Mother, whenever I am trying to craft a poem, and you will help me discover the right words and the right shape for the thing. This is how it has always been, even with this poem. It shall remain so forever.

The moon and the sun govern time, and you are revealed in both. Like the moon, you delight in torches, drums, and rituals at night. You, Mother, are many-formed like the moon, passing through one shape into another, embracing a multitude of meanings. You also govern magic, and bestow on your followers the utmost power. Your servants are only limited in what they can do by their imaginations, for you have taught them the secrets of the universe, and put into their hands the power to change their world.

Like the sun you are strong and all-powerful. You reach down and comfort us, pushing back the shadows that we might grow in the light. One may know that you are near by the attendant warmth and glow that can be found in only one other place – the sun. One of the greatest joys that I have had is to spend a day in the fields with a good book, lying out in the sun. This is another pleasure from you.

We come to you from diverse paths. War brings many, and disease. Old age is a great man-harvester, and so too the passions of youth which are frequently attended by folly and haste. You embrace all who come to you, Mother, and in your arms we find comfort and the pain that we felt in dying is gone. You wipe aside our tears, and sing to us comforting songs, for we are your children. All of the miseries that we felt in life, the pains and sorrows that continually assailed us are washed away in your embrace, and all that is left is joy. Death is not forever, and soon we are returned to the living, to struggle once more and to find joy in the moment.

In your many facets, you do not abandon those who are among the dead and those who are dying. No, you are with them ’till the end, and beyond. The soldiers laid out with their wounds too great, they call upon you, each one. “Mother,” they whisper and shout, as you walk among the line, offering what comfort you can. You stroke the cheek of this one, wiping the sweat from his brow, while the next man’s pain is too great, and all that you can do is close his eyes and help ease his way into Hades’ land.

You were with these brave young men when they were in  the  field,  and  you helped steady their spear and shield and urged them on  against  the  enemy. You made them noble, Mother, you filled their hearts with bravery  and  gave them strength to do what they must in this terrible situation. And if  their bravery began to wane, you were close at  hand,  riding  with  them  in  the chariot, marching with them through the mud.

To offer one’s life for the defense of another is the noblest thing  that  a man can do, and all who do so receive honors from you as well as from  Ares, for you, Mother, are the Queen of Hosts, and the defender of  the  innocent. You share with Hades the world below, and to you come all the multitudes  to be reborn. For the grave is your womb, and in its shadowed depths  men  find rebirth.

Another deep place that you rule is the sea. All waters belong to you, and their flow is governed by your hand. The mysteries of the ocean are your mysteries, and you know all that is hidden within them. You protect the ships on the surface, and many are your companions below the waves. The dolphin and octopus are most sacred to you, but you delight in all the creatures of the sea. It is fitting that this is one of your elements, for water sustains life. Without water nothing in the world could live. It is the same with you, Mother. No man could draw breath but for you.

This, then, is why they call you the Great Mother – for in all the world there is not another who possesses so much power and beauty, and unifies so many within herself. Blessed is the Mother, and blessed all who call upon her!

Calendar of the Moon for Tuesday, February 7th

Calendar of the Moon
7 Luis/Gamelion

Hearth Blessing

Color: Red
Element: Fire
Altar: On this day the altar is built in the kitchen, spread before the hearth with a red cloth and a single red candle on which is carved the Rune of Fire.
Offerings: Ashes smeared on the forehead. Kitchen cleaning and duty.
Daily Meal: Cooked all together as a group.

Invocation to the Hearth Goddess

Hertha of the warm hearthstone
Hestia of the naked flame
Vesta of the rising smoke
Lady who warms us
As you warmed our ancestors,
Lady whose touch cooks our food,
Lady around whom we gather
On the coldest nights,
Fire that draws us in,
Fire tamed, fire who is our friend,
Never let us forget your care
Lest you become wild and strike back.
Stay here in your hearth
And protect our home from your anger.
Speak truth to us
And let us bear your truth on our tongues.
Never leave us for long
Lest we forget to whom we owe
The next winter’s comfort
And salvation.

Chant: Ken Ken Ken

(As everyone chants, each steps forward and draws the rune of Fire, Ken, on the hearth with their finger. Then the hearth is ceremonially relit with the candle and dinner-making commences.)

Calendar of the Sun for Jan. 28th

Calendar of the Sun
28 Wolfmonath

Day of Rules: Eunomia’s Day

Color: Black
Element: Air
Altar: Upon a black cloth light a single white candle, and lay upon it a copy of the Principles, a book of the House rules, and various implements of measuring.
Offering: Discuss the Rules.
Daily Meal: Any food that is wholly correct.

Invocation to Eunomia

Hail, Eunomia, Keeper of Rules,
Hora of the Upraised Hand!
We gather here to praise you,
Even though you seem most stern and forbidding,
For without Rules there are no boundaries,
No accountability, no way to stop the ravages
Of another’s passions. Though we value those passions,
We must also value their limits,
For all things must be kept in balance.
These Rules are not merely the chains that bind us,
They are the ropes that hold us up,
Keeping us from falling into confusion.
We honor your gifts, Lady of Rules,
You who are not afraid to stop
What is not honorable behavior,
You who will not stand by
In the face of deeds of shame.

Call: Hail Eunomia, Keeper of Rules!
Response: Hail Eunomia, Keeper of Rules!

Call: Speak the Rule of Iduna, Lady of the Nectar of Immortality!
Response: I will maintain purity of body.
Call: For the body is the sacred temple given to us that we may experience life,
And to harm it is to disrespect the Will
Of those who bestowed it upon you.

Call: Speak the Rule of Hestia, Keeper of the Hearth!
Response: I will maintain simplicity in my possessions.
Call: For waste leaves empty mouths and empty hands,
And greed has a cold heart and no soul.

Call: Speak the Rule of Agni, Fire and Truth!
Response: I will strive for clarity of words.
Call: For words are weapons of great power,
And should not be used in ways that deliberately confuse,
Or add to the blindness in the world;
Rather they should open eyes and minds.

Call: Speak the Rule of Gaea, the Earth beneath our feet!
Response: I will strive to live sustainably on the Earth.
Call: For She is our Mother, and She gives us all that we need,
And to harm her is to destroy our own future.

Call: Speak the Rule of Artemis, Virgin Huntress implacable, of the purest intent!
Response: I will place no commitment of the heart above my commitment to my path.
Call: For we are placed here in this world to learn and to do what we must,
And a promise once made must be kept.

Call: Speak the Rule of Ogoun, hunter and smith, leopard-god without mercy!
Response: I will commit only to honorable work.
Call: For work that aids what is wrong
Is tainted with wrongness in itself,
And we will not be part of that wrongness.

Call: Speak the Rule of Athena, clear-eyed virgin warrior, Lady of Strategy!
Response: I will maintain clarity in all relationships.
Call: For Love too must have its rules, and honesty,
And there must be distance between each,
That the Spirit may lay between us and join us.

Call: Speak now the Rule of Parvati, Dancer and Mother, Sacred Whore!
Response: I will strive for purity in my sexuality.
Call: For the power of the Root Chakra is not to be defiled
By the soul’s shame and the heart’s despair;
The tides of the body are sacred, and are the libation of that Temple.

Call: Speak now the Rule of Odhinn, All-Father and Magician, who speaks to his own!
Response: I will sustain clarity of faith.
Call: For faith is what bears us up when all else falls,
And before the altars of the Gods we are all mortal.

Call: Speak now the rule of Prometheus, Titan who defies the King’s corruption!
Response: I will submit humbly to honorable authority.
Call: For although there must be leaders, lest we lose our way,
Leadership is not given, but is earned by right behavior,
And must be held to a higher standard.

Call: Speak now the Rule of Brigid, Eternal Flame of the Abbey!
Response: I will maintain loyalty to the endurance of my Order.
Call: For we will not survive unless we survive together,
And though we are all lights, only a great flame will warm us.

Call: Speak now the Rule of Shiva, Lord of the Cremation Ground, Destroyer of Illusions!
Response: I will strive always for mindfulness and clarity of soul.
Call: For this discipline is great above all others.

Call: Hail Eunomia, Keeper of Rules,
Hora of the Upraised Hand!
Response: Hail Eunomia!

Today We Honor The Goddess Hestia

The Goddess Hestia

Hestia is one of the three great goddesses of the first Olympian generation, along with Demeter and Hera. She was described as both the oldest and youngest of the three daughters of Rhea and Cronus, sister to three brothers Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, in that she was the first to be swallowed by Cronus and the last to be disgorged. Originally listed as one of the Twelve Olympians, Hestia gave up her seat in favor of newcomer Dionysus to tend to the sacred fire on Mount Olympus. However, there is no ancient source for this claim. As Karl Kerenyi observes,”there is no story of Hestia’s ever having taken a husband or ever having been removed from her fixed abode.” Every family hearth was her altar. Of the Olympian gods, Hestia has the fewest exploits “since the hearth is immovable, Hestia is unable to take part even in the procession of the gods, let alone the other antics of the Olympians,” Burkert remarks. Sometimes this is assumed to be due to her passive, non-confrontational nature. This nature is illustrated by her giving up her seat in the Olympian twelve to prevent conflict. She is considered to be the first-born of Rhea and Cronus; this is evidenced by the fact that in Greek (and later Roman) culture ritual offerings to all gods began with a small offering to Hestia; the phrase “Hestia comes first” from ancient Greek culture denotes this.

Immediately after their birth, Cronus swallowed Hestia and her siblings except for the last and youngest, Zeus, who later rescued them and led them in a war against Cronus and the other Titans. Hestia, the eldest daughter “became their youngest child, since she was the first to be devoured by their father and the last to be yielded up again”—the clearest possible example of mythic inversion, a paradox that is noted in the Homeric hymn to Aphrodite (ca 700 BC): “She was the first-born child of wily Cronus—and youngest too.”

Poseidon, and Apollo of the younger generation, each aspired to court Hestia, but the goddess was unmoved by Aphrodite’s works and swore on the head of Zeus to retain her virginity. The Homeric hymns, like all early Greek literature, reinforce the supremacy of Zeus, and Hestia’s oath taken upon the head of Zeus is an example of surety. A measure of the goddess’s ancient primacy—”queenly maid…among all mortal men she is chief of the goddesses”, in the words of the Homeric hymn—is that she was owed the first as well as the last sacrifice at every ceremonial assembly of Hellenes, a pious duty related by the mythographers as the gift of Zeus, as if it had been his to bestow: another mythic inversion if, as is likely, the ritual was too deep-seated and essential for the Olympian reordering to overturn. There are theories (by modern neopagans among others) that Hestia, as goddess of “home and hearth”, was one of the most ancient of all gods later worshiped as Olympians; as a maternal goddess of humans finding safety and homes in caves around a fire, worship of Hestia, by other names, may literally be hundreds of thousands of years old and has continued through classical Greek times to the present day.

“The power worshipped in the hearth never fully developed into a person,” Walter Burkert has observed. Hestia evolved into a lesser goddess in the same ranks of Pan and Dionysus, who was incorporated into the Olympian order in Hestia’s place. At Athens “in Plato’s time,” notes Kenneth Dorter “there was a discrepancy in the list of the twelve chief gods, as to whether Hestia or Dionysus was included with the other eleven. The altar to them at the agora, for example, included Hestia, but the east frieze of the Parthenon had Dionysus instead.

VESTA / HESTIA

 

VESTA / HESTIA
..
Vesta was the Roman Goddess of the hearth and home (Hestia was her Greek counterpart). Her six Vestal Virgins (virgin in the sense that they belonged to no man – they were “one within”) tended her sacred fire in a round temple in Rome and the Romans offered a prayer to her every day at their own hearths. On March 1st, every year, her priestesses extinguished the fire and relit it. Her worship was connected with fertility and to let her light go out would mean that civilization would also end. On June 9th, the Vestalia was held when her priestesses baked salt cakes and sacrificed them on Vesta’s fire for 8 days, after which the temple was closed, cleaned out and then reopened the next day. She holds an oil lamp from 1st century Pompeii and wears a Roman earring from the 3rd-4th centuries. The statues of Senior Vestal Virgins in the background are from the House of the Vestal Virgins in the Roman Forum (heads and hands restored ). On the wall is a Roman frieze from the College of Vestal Virgins.
.
http://www.goddessmyths.com/Vesta.JPG

Calendar of the Sun For January 15th

Calendar of the Sun
15 Wolfmonath

Hestia’s Day

Color: Red
Element: Fire
Altar: Today’s ritual should be done in the kitchen and not the altar room. The hearth and the stove are the altar today, and a flame should be burning, and bread and milk and salt set out on the table. No other altar is required. After the ritual, all shall feast.
Offerings: Do kitchen work, or preserving of food, or cleaning.
Daily Meal: Any wholesome, extremely correct food.

Hestia Invocation

Flame of the Hearth
Keeper of the Inner Circle
Faceless One
Eldest of the Olympians
Lady of the Pantry
Whose open hands dispense hospitality
Chimney and cooking fire
Lady of routine and dailiness
To miss your quiet strength
In the rush of our sudden lives
Would be as great a disservice
As forgetting the air we breathe.
You who are the comforting hearth where we began
And the inner warmth that we will come home to,
Make this place a home for all of us.
Make this hearth a home of the every day,
The ordinary morning and noon,
The expected evening and the consoling night.
Teach us to take our time, Lady.
Teach us of the holiness of step after step
Chore after chore, moving in small circles
Around the hearth of our own beings.

Chant:
Circle round the hearthfire
Join our hands as one
Remember the Virgin Flame burns
Ageless as the Wheel turns
The place for which the heart yearns
Since this tribe has begun.

A Hearth Goddess Charm

A Hearth Goddess Charm 

To invoke the benevolence of the hearth Goddesses and invite these deities into your home, try this candle charm. Even if you don’t have a fireplace, you can still re-create a miniature hearth. Find a safe, flat surface to set up on and make your own magickal hearth area. Feel free to work this charm at any time throughout the year: at sunrise, the full moon, a new crscent moon,or at one of the major Sabbats. When you light this candle and say these words, you are calling in the Goddesses to protect and watch over you. Basically you are welcoming these ladies into your life. See what sort of stability, warmth, and enchantment they bring to your days.
 
Gather these supplies:
 
One red pillar candle
A candleholder or small plate
Nine white, small, smooth stones
A pinch of salt
A lighter or matches
 
Arrange the nine white stones around a red pillar candle and its holder. Dust the stones with a pinch of salt to consecrate them. Take a moment to visualize your miniature hearth. See it glowing with warmth, magick and hospitality. Light the candle and repeat the following charm three times:
 
Goddesses of the home and the sacred hearth flame.
Brigid, Hestia and Vesta, I call your names.
A candle for fire, a ring of stones becomes your hearth,
Bless us with warmth and security from this Witch’s art.
 
Close the spell:
 
By all the powers of the earth and fire.
This spell is sealed by my will and desire.
 
Allow the candle to burn for a few hours. When you are finished, snuff out the candle and relight it whenever you feel the need to reconnect to the Goddesses of the heart and home.