Tag: Liberalia

Calendar of the Sun for March 17th

Calendar of the Sun
17 Hrethemonath

Liberalia

Color: Purple
Elements: Fire and Water
Altar: On a purple cloth set a vase of many flags, a plate of offering cakes, and a great chalice of wine for the libation.
Offerings: Offering cakes made with honey and olive oil. Aid in the freedom of another being.
Daily Meal: Anything the community wants.

Liberalia Invocation

Papa Liber
Mama Libera
We honor you!
You who are liberty and freedom,
Yet whose priestesses are elder women
Because in order to know
What it is to be truly free,
One must have had experience
And understood the many prisons
In which life will try to trap us.
You who are in the spirit
Of the great phallus borne into
The marketplace for all to see and touch
Yet whose wreath is laid upon it
By a virtuous matron whose body
Has not strayed from her wedding vows,
Because in order to know
What it is to be truly free,
One must have had the choice of many chains
And freely chosen those bonds
In which one wishes to spend one’s days.
Liberty in all its contradictions,
Freedom in all its ambiguities,
The state which we can never quite define
Your country which we can never find on a map
Yet we always know
When we have touched its shores.

(The libation is passed around, and blessed, and then poured out. Each member of the community may choose what work they will do that evening, and none is to be given orders, yet they must explain the following day why they did choose in that way.)

Pagan Book of Hours

The Breviary of the Asphodel Tradition

The Wicca Book Of Days for March 17th – A Liberal Festival

The Wicca Book of Days for March 17th

A Liberal Festival

The Liberalia was celebrated in ancient Rome on March 17, this being a festival dedicated to the God Liber or Liber Pater (“Liber, the Father”) – a deity who was said to make seeds fertile, and who was also associated with Bacchus (the Greek Dionysus) – and to the Goddess Libera, who was identified with the maiden Goddesses Proserpine (the Greek Persephone) and Ariadne. That the Latin word liber can also mean “free” may give you some indication of the riotous nature of the Liberalia, which took place at the time of year when seeds were being sown in the hope that they would grow vigorously, and that the harvest would be rich.

Cherish Your Chalice

Wine was offered during the Liberalia, and you may wish to do the same. A chalice is an essential tool for Wiccans/Witches, making this a good time to invest in a new one, or cherish your existing one. It also represents the Piscean element of water and the feminine principle.