✖ ✖ The Rites of January
Holidays from the Pagano Calendar
January 1. Feast of Janus.
January 6. Feast of Isis. Festival of Holla, Frigg and Fulla. Feast of Berchta. Baptism of Osiris. Feast of miracles.
January 7. Feast of Skmet
January 9. Feast of Selene.
January 17. Odin's Day.
January 21. Day Sorbo
January 29 Days of Merla
January 31. Great Sand Brigit. Feast of Brigid
January: Month of Janus, the God of new beginnings.
There are no special rites for this month, at least I have not known. But since the beginning of the year, I would advise if deep cleaning if you have not done so before the end of December, which would have been better, because it is customary not to leave anything pending from one year to another.
You forgot you were there in case, be sure to clean your room with special attention to the place where he practiced "your temple." A simple blend of herbs from burning or purifying water should be enough to rearrange your space for the coming year. Do not forget your cleaning staff. Not only physical but also mental.
The new year started, why not double check the intentions written in Yule and perhaps add new ones?
In order to be here in 30 days a new holiday is approaching, so be prepared mentally for this upcoming transition.
rite of spiritual purification for the home 1 cup baking soda 1 teaspoon salt
refined powder 1 teaspoon dried basil
5 drops of essential oil
lemon 10 drops lavender essential oil
Mix in a bowl and crush any lumps formed by essential oils then pour in a spray bottle or a bowl of spring water. Walk around your house by spraying a light coat on all your carpets and stairs and the carpet. Not only will clean the carpet magically, but you also eliminate odors Let stand for 10 minutes and then clean well.
New Year January 1 to wish a sweet and happy new year presents a jar of honey and dried flowers beneath a sprig of laurel. In the Roman period
queso were exchanging these gifts were called "Stranae" and on occasion consisted of a coin with the face of the God Janus in one hand and a ship in the other.
Festival dedicated to the Goddess Strenia (Sabine) goddess of the new year which was sacred laurel.
The night before, as usual you make good wishes to friends and family by offering a drink made of spiced cider or beer called "Wassail", perfect health and good fortune for the new year.
Another tradition regards the couple at midnight ... that as a good omen alternating drink this drink is a glass that has only two who will share with every sip.
addition, the cup used for drinking Wassail must be decorated with colorful ribbons and be retained in the middle of a circle of apples on the table already prepared.
In Scotland there is a popular tradition of the wind ... or ... South Wind will Hot and fertility, milk and fish of the West Wind, cold north wind and storm east wind fruit trees.
Feast of Janus. January 1 "Janus, though you begin each year renewals fleeting and the long ages when you appear, in spite of votes and incense will be offered piously and consuls begin each year leaving offerings at your feet" Martial, 8.8. 1-5
Theodosia-The divine gift. January 5 Day dedicated to Dionysus as the giver of happiness and wealth. In ancient temple dedicated
Dionysus on the island of Andros in Greece, the sacred source of water dedicated to him took the taste of wine.
Feast of the return of the sun. January 7 On this day as Norwegian custom is to celebrate the return of the sun.
The landlady drank a sip of beer sitting in front of the focolaredopodichè BIn poured a little fire, saying "that my focus is such that even hell is so high or more hot ... followed the toast with the family.
Feast of Sekhmet January 7 One of the attendants and protective goddesses breastfeeding, the lady of Medicine and the battles, native of the city 'of Memphis, often depicted with a woman's body and head of a lioness.
Sekmet means "Powerful", and in his name the same root of the royal scepter Sekhem. Another Egyptian title for Sekhmet is Nesert the flame.
Sekhmet belongs to the triad of Memphis: Ptah / Sekhmet / Nefertum, where Ptah is the creator of good things (the formation and composition), Sekhmet is the destroyer of bad things (the dissociation and breakdown), is a reaffirmation Nefertum , the reconstruction of what is good (reintegration, the rebuilding, the restoration).
Sekhmet is the destruction of that which can not last, which has no stability. In this sense it is Time, that devours everything belongs to him.
According to myth, Ra, the sun god, disappointed with the behavior of mankind, sent Sekhmet, his divine eye, give a punishment to the humans but the Goddess, once started, continued to destroy men and no one could stop it. Then Ra, moved with compassion, he floods the fields of beer mixed with a red substance that gave the appearance of blood, Sekhmet, blood thirsty, drank, slept and ceased to destroy mankind ...
In Egypt, Sekhmet was honored as goddess war, coupled with the destructive power of the Sun, solar eye burning and judges. Opposing ruthless on the battlefield, Sekhmet embodied the strength and courage of the lioness.
However, it was not only seen as an icon of war and vindictive eye of the god of the Sun, the priests used to practice in his name a kind of sympathetic magic to heal the infection and disease. In this role, Sekhmet was known as "The Lady of Life", the goddess of medicine, with authority to relieve or prevent diseases, and many of its priests were doctors.
To stem the plague were carried out, invoking, rituals on a grand scale throughout the country. During the reign of Amenhotep III, have been carved hundreds of large statues of Sekhmet, perhaps at the defeat of a particularly virulent plague.
a goddess Sekhmet seems to have been very complex for the pharaohs was a symbol of their success in battle, their prowess, but he was also worshiped as the mother's delicate protective goddess of breastfeeding (known association Hathor-Sekhmet ). In the Book of the Dead
Sekhmet has an important role during the trial of the probity of the soul in question.
Sekhmet was associated with the solar power that crosses the spine, Djed brings enlightenment.
Nowadays, many women consider Sekhmet as a source of strength, independence and so, when they need to raise or give these attributes in himself. In many ways
Sekhmet became the symbol of modern woman: it is still very important as a goddess of medicine, the bringer of justice and as a guardian or protector, but the emphasis has shifted to its most current.
Devotion to the lioness goddess of anger and self-assertion
burn and smoke and throwing knives from my eyes and roared
(though tiriate my tail),
my aspects are sharp and I scratched depth,
my energy is strong and fierce, and my discomfort has
need to be given.
Although at times delicate, I can be very intense. Once awakened
are difficult to exclude:
are always appropriate, always necessary.
not try to kill me, I
be heard ... recognized:
are Lioness.
The Lioness jump into our lives to free our primal instincts in a positive way and that being so, to help us deal with anger, ours and others.
Anger, you or someone else makes your life difficult?
Despise your anger because you are taught that it is unseemly? Or
express the anger that is excessive, too out of control?
Conversely, you have so much repressed anger and there are so detached that now you are no longer able to express it?
Maybe you feel "forced" in the social roles assigned to women?
Someone uses or respects you?
You are in a situation of "cage", real or inside?
Are you tired of the responsibility?
Do you have a partner who is - or make - the lion?
Do you have a bunch of "puppy people" in the cave? The lioness
Nyavirezi tells us that our aggression is part of our structure of women. He asks us not to reject it but to learn how to express it in effective and measured way, communicating it so that it can not be ignored, but without it becoming devastating.
learn to channel our inner anger signals in communication and expression, conveys to others the explanation of our malaise, we have made of the posts daily aggressions, the lack of respect or exploitation.
Our life journey will be more peaceful when we will not "step on its tail," using the anger we feel as our ally.
Every day we rebuild our reserves of life energy that we need to nourish and sustain the herd. It 's a great effort and responsibility and, when the gang takes advantage of or we are tired, we have the right to roar and signal that we are not inexhaustible!
And anyway, we should have more often than the right to run free and roar of the bush under the stars, expressing the sun, warm, powerful, supple, attentive, responsible and proud lioness that is in us
The rite of Lioness tribal sound of drums. Warm night, stars, moon, or, conversely, blazing sun and scorching heat.
Try to be absolutely open air, there must be space: a good lawn, a field. If you can not find a place outdoors, folded up and clear a room large enough to be able to move. Choose
with by music, African rhythm, crescendo and animated, the better when played live. Choose your song carefully. It is good to light a fire or at least a candle.
Invoke Nyavirezi, calling from the south of the Fire.
We start with the position of the cat sleeping, lie on the ground on one side and begins when the music started with stretching, rubbing against a tree, a rock (the corner of the sofa), yawn ... the tail is already checked it ... moving plan, supple. With smooth movements raised there face down, hands and knees on the floor and stretched his front paws, one by one, then rear back. Kneeling down to four feet, the rhythm of the drum and bend your back arched, one, two, one two ... as long as the rhythm enters the skin.
Standing Time: recover your true woman's legs but keep the tail and front legs and the head of a lion.
The drum is pressing, let go, move your hips, scratched, roar. The eyes are feline and magnetic, the body is strong and proud, the mind quickly.
If you're alone it's time to go hunting.
Shape your desires and your needs, See them as prey scattered in the bush. Floor, in silence, approach downwind. The prey is there for you, it's right, you're the queen: you may take this that you really need. Take speed, long distance run gathering and stretching their legs, jumped with precision, tightly grab the win ... enjoy!
If there is a companion with you who wants to do the lion (perhaps better in this case to be closed!), Started the dance of love, bite, back, jumped from the side, discarded, and treat yourself to negative ... is the lioness who leads the subtle game.
she decides how it will end ...
can continue the game in many situations: with friends to form a joint flock hunting and dancing in joy with your children-puppies rolling around with them on the beach or in Latvian, Instant wearing a lion's skin when your boss is humiliating you (no need to answer, if you are associated with the Goddess, just send a feline look of warning), or when there is a loud mouth to "mavaffàn ..." and instead turned roar in a real warning, when you get bored doing the shopping and commercial Megacentre in the pot for the washing machine at the best price becomes the prey of a ferret.
It is important to "feel" in the skin of the lioness, to appeal to his majesty, to their determination, their own inner power. After
will not be difficult, with or without words, they should be considered Lioness by those who love you.
with respect.
Agonia-Feast of Janus and January Jana.9 Janus, the God who opens the gates of heaven at dawn and closes them at sunset ... it is believed that he and his wife Jana were the pair of deities prikma Sun / Moon until they were replaced by other gods ...
It 's the god of gates and revenue and must be invoked before another pgni to facilitate the start of enterprises of all kinds.
In his honor we offer cakes (called iannuali) made with cheese, flour, milk and oil (burn with fire ritual), together with grains of farro and salt. These offers
were for a good harvest, but not only .. can also be made to propitiate various situations and for a fruitful year.
Festival in honor of Juno. January 18 "Come, especially chaste Queen of Heaven, appeared in royal robes, and expresses your consent with a nod to the wine which is poured out and fresh, high pile, waiting for you.
with you port each herb to put an end to the pain and placanti songs to sing. " Tibullus, IV.6.1 ss.
Paganalia. From January 24 to 26 are offered to Ceres and Tellus pies to barley, milk.
Days of January Merla.29 .. and seeing the chase,
took joy in all other odd
so I turned up the bold face
crying out to God: "Now no more I'm afraid!"
how little faith the blackbird for calm ...
Sapia Siena
in Dante, Purgatorio, xiii, 119 to 123
Legend has it that once the blackbirds were all white: so begins the legend of Merlo, in its various versions, one of the signals of the Day brand, brand-name of days, days, indicating the position of the rural community within the Wheel of the Year.
particularly widespread in the Po Valley, along the Po, the legend of the blackbird appears in a quotation from Dante in reference to the moral of the legend that sees the bird fooled by cold weather in January.
The blackbird, Turdus merula, is a bird that tends not to migrate in Italy remained on site throughout the winter.
anticipating the first signs of spring, the song of the blackbird can be ingannatorio: not always in fact indicates that the heat is really close. A proverb reminds
Romagna fact: Merlo, in March not to sing, that you could freeze the beak. Let Tordella the songs, which she did not fear no one (Merali, 'd merz no' hand ', which' b and c ut 's' bit agiazê. Lessa he 's chénta and' reason that the un'ha pavura of inciôn). In Bologna
sings to say when Merel, St dl'invéren fora (When the blackbird sings, we're out of winter).
The days of the blackbird are, according to tradition, the last three days of January: 29, 30 and 31 (although some are 30 and 31 January and 1 February).
are considered the coldest days of winter, but in the event that would indicate they were not just cold on this occasion that Spring will arrive late.
In this way very reminiscent of the use phase of the moon and the exit from the lair of the bear as a method to predict the climate prediction that is made just days after the days of the blackbird, or the Candlemas.
THE LEGENDS OF THE MERLO BEFFE
during any month of January, when he still had lasted 28 days, a Merlo survived the harsh winter cold and arriving unscathed at the end of the month I've exceeded the roughness of January: then came out boldly from the nest by singing: "No longer will I take care Domine, which are released by the Government." January
resented so much, it was touchy, which reached out to borrow three days in February and unleashing snowstorms. The
Merlo then took refuge in a chimney where he stayed away for those three days. When he came out he was black was black and so were all the battlements and turrets of the world.
THE WHITE MERLO
the days when he had 28 days in January and the battlements were white, one with his young Merla was continuously Strapazzata from the cold that the month was sending him sadistically every time she tried to leave the nest to procure food . Tired of this treatment a winter Merla had enough supplies to reach the end of the month. Just on that last day, thinking he had misled the frost came out of the bird from its nest to claim victory.
January touchy for revenge borrowed three days in February and whipped ice and snow so that Merla and her children had to flee for their lives in a warm chimney. When he came out blacks were black, but for the gratitude of blacks were to be saved for every future generation.
MERLO and Merle
A pair of blackbirds were suffering from hunger due to the cold in January, a boy seeing his wife come every ounce of energy he decided to uscirre from the nest in search of food.
Research in the cold of the month was so hard that he returned after three days but Merla, to keep warm, had taken refuge in the barrel of a fireplace. When the blackbird met her he saw only one black bird black and did not recognize it: it drove off to find her. She died of exhaustion and hunger.
MERLO and Merle: bride
Merlo and Merlo are a young couple who married in the country as the tradition of the bride that was beyond the Po, are forced to cross the river to get back in their home.
After waiting three days with relatives while waiting for the weather conditions improve and saw that there was no sign of improvement, decided to walk across the river, as the great cold, it was frozen. Unfortunately
Merlo when crossing the river, died because the ice sheet could not withstand its weight. Merla cried so much pain that his complaint can still be heard today along the river Po in the nights of the end of January.
Even today, in memory of this sad episode, the young women of marriageable age come on the banks of the river in three days of Merla to dance and sing a song whose refrain propitiatory says: "And the evening and morning his Merla Merlo crying poor and cry. "
MERLO MERLO AND THE DANCE
Merlo and Merlo were two bright young people who loved to go dancing in the winter evenings. In one of these to save time, they decided to cross the River. But the ice sheet that covered the Po could not withstand the weight and broke.
thus fell into the icy waters where he died. The only witness of their death was a blackbird that for three days, the last of January, chirped on passers-by for help.
the third day, the sun melted the ice and the river returned the bodies of two boys and beautiful flowers bloomed on that place.
MERLO: THE GIRL careless
Merla was a beautiful and simple girl with a passion for dance. So during the long winter nights loved to go dancing in the farms where they played to pass the long winter season.
One of these evenings to go to a dance, Merla ran across a sheet of ice that covered the Po ice could not withstand the weight and the young girl fell into the water disappearing. The
his friends tried for three days, the last of January, without ever finding it.
THE DUKE OF GONZAGA or Napoleon? One of the Gonzaga dukes
(but that in some versions is Napoleon) was to cross the Po
Wanting to take a nap warned his servant, to drive the wagon, to warn when the river would come.
The servant, who arrived on the banks of the Po, he saw that the cold weather of recent days had the iced water. Thinking to appease the duke urged his mare, called the Merla, to go with the wagon on the frozen lake.
Since the crossing on the ice would have been easy, not found it necessary to wake his master. Gonzaga
When he woke the servant told him triumphantly that "the blackbird he goes to Po "(La Merla has passed the Po).
Duke flew into a rage because the servant had not obeyed his orders and had him hanged arrived at its destination.
As you can see the myth went to change over time and we could well be argued that the oldest version is the first, that of the blackbird that mocks in January, as is shown by Dante in Purgatorio (see initial quote).
In fact, in the Roman calendar month of January was really only 28 or 29 days (depending on the adjustments) since the time of Numa Pompilius and the reform of 713 BC when Rome became the calendar from a lunar to luni-solar (and were inserted in the months of January and February).
was then in 46 a. C. taken in January that "borrow" the three days in February, thanks to the introduction of the Julian calendar, which makes the task much of the day and definitely solar.
This information points out how the fairy tale myth continues to hand down a passage, culturally significant, which marked the change between two cultures: a lunar (or matrilineal and matrifocal late Palaeolithic - Neolithic) and the other solar (and patrilineal patriarchal).
A second clue comes from the history that brings us to the moral of the blackbird in the popular culture to mean to someone considering a fool and a simpleton, naive enough to claim victory ahead of time.
But the tale of the Merlo or Merla seems to be closely linked to the peasant culture of the Po: girls or boys, as naive blackbirds, lose their lives in their attempt to cross the icy river.
Fairy tales, like myths, served to pass the oral knowledge of the people, to know closely tied to the place where the community lived.
Unfortunately the people of the Po has disappeared, devoured by the industrialization of the last half century, and the river has lost its fairies and the spirits of beautiful girls that, as narrated by the elderly, or store water.
Losing the river life was not an unusual event: the flowers that spring up alongside the victims, even if only in a symbolic sense, remain to indicate that continuity, the chain life - death - life that all traditional cultures have always considered the key to interpreting the fundamental meaning of life.
of rural culture and the historic past that remains is the memory of a saying that has no meaning unless we decide to look outside our windows and see if the blackbird sings, if the day is dark and if Po is frozen.
certainly remains ironic that in January, to date, has not yet returned to those three days!
Festival Hecate.31 January Let the milk, flour and in my shards of pottery at intersections to Hecate "Hecate Night, which is relied on cross-roads of all cities, and say and avenging goddess of the ellipse of the dying, hear our prayers; Listen to us and direct your tremendous powers CONRO those that they deserve, "Virgil, Aeneid IV.609
Feast of Brigid. January 31 Brigit, Goddess of Poetry, daughter of the Great God Dagda and Celtic counterpart Athena-Minerva, and the preservation of tradition because, for the ancient Celts, poetry was a sacred art that transcended the mere composition of poetry and became magic, ritual, personification memory of ancestral populations.
The ability to work metals, also a profession was considered magical and manufacture of semi-divine figures stand out in the mythologies not only European but also non-European, medieval alchemy was the ultimate expression of this traditional conception of sacred metallurgy.
Under the aegis of Brigit were also the Druidic mysteries of healing, and this is witnessed by the numerous "sources of Brigit." Spread a little 'anywhere in the British Isles, some of them have preserved to this day many traditions about their healing qualities.
Even today, the branches of trees that stand near them, the peasants hang strips of cloth or tape to indicate diseases from which they want to be healed.
sacred to Brigit was the spinning wheel, the cup and the mirror. The mirror is an instrument of divination and symbolizes the image of the Other World heroes and they have access to the initiated. The spinning wheel is the rotating center of the cosmos, the turning of the Wheel of the Year and also the wheel that spins the threads of our lives. The cup is the womb of the Goddess from whom all things are born.
Christianized as St Bridget or Bride, as it is familiarly called in Gaelic, it was considered a miraculous midwife or adoptive mother of Jesus Christ and his feast is celebrated precisely the Feb. 1, the feast of St. Bridget o Fhéile Brfd.
On this holy, which is as dubious as the historical existence to be due to some pagan, was said to have the power to multiply food and drink to feed the poor, they can turn beer into water even when washed!
was consecrated at St. Bridget of Kildare Irish monastery, where a fire in his honor was kept perpetually lit by nineteen nuns.
Each sister in turn kept watch on the fire for a full day of a cycle of twenty days, when came the turn of the nineteenth nun she had to utter the ritual formula "Bridget protect your fire. This is your night. "
The twentieth day he said Bridget was the same miracle to keep the fire burning. The number nineteen calls the Metonic lunar cycle is repeated identically every nineteen solar years.
worth noting how this custom remembered the College of the Vestal Virgins who kept always on the sacred fire of Vesta in ancient Rome, but more likely the devotion of the nuns of Kildare is related to Galliceniae, a legendary sisterhood of Druidesses jealously guarding their sacred precinct by the intrusion of men and whose rites were maintained through many generations.
Similarly, in the monastery of Kildare, only women were allowed to enter the compound where the fire was burning, which was held on with bellows, remember how to Geraldo Cambria in 120 centuries.
The fire burned continuously since the time of the legendary founding of the shrine, in the sixth century until the reign of Henry VIII, when the Protestant Reformation put an end to this most pagan and Catholic devotion.
rites celebrated at Imbolc, Brigit have been handed down by the Scottish and Irish folklore.
in the Hebrides (which may have their own name to Brigit or Bride) village women gather together in some home and produce an 'image of the ancient Goddess, dressed in white and put a crystal on the location of the heart . In Scotland, the eve of St. Bridget women dressed a sheaf of wheat and oats with women's clothing lay him in a basket, the bed of Brid, "with a stick on the side of a phallic shape. Then they shouted three times "Brid is come, Brid is welcome!", Leave it burning torches and candles next to "read" all night. If
the next morning found the imprint of the stick in the ashes of the hearth, they draw an omen of prosperity for the coming year. The significance of this practice is clear: the women prepare a place to welcome the Goddess and inviting at the same time the power fertile male to join her.
Isle of Man was also made a similar ceremony, called Laa'l Breesley. In England the
North, land of the ancient Brigantes, the celebration was called "Day of Midwives.
in Ireland are made with reeds and twigs so-called Brigit's crosses with four equal arms enclosed in a circle, that is the figure of the sun gear (which is fitting symbol for a deity of fire and light), the same day are prepared the crosses burned the year before and kept up to allora.La manufacture of Brigit crosses perhaps derives from an ancient pre-Christian custom related to the preparation of wheat seed for planting.
These symbolic objects, made from plant material, among other things that remind us of the light and heat are essential to the vegetation that is renewed continuously, year after year.
The ears of oats (or wheat, barley, etc..) Used to make dolls of Brigit, come from the last sheaf of the harvest last year. This last sheaf, in many European traditions is called the Mother of the Wheat (or barley, oats, etc.). Propitiatory packaged and the doll with her ears and the Maiden of the Wheat (or barley, oats , etc.)..
It was believed that the spirit of the cereal or the same goddess resided in the last sheaf of grain harvested: the ears as the old crop is the seed of the next, so the old gods of autumn and winter turned to the young goddess of spring, the endless chain of immortality that is the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. And Brigit is precisely the young goddess of spring. An ancient Irish
code, the Book of Lismore, reported a strange legend. It is said that in Rome the boys used to play a board game in which an old hag freeing a dragon on the other side a young girl left open a lamb that defeated the dragon. The hag then hurled a lion against the girl, which, however, caused in turn a hail that knocked down the lion.
Pope Boniface, after questioning boys and learning that the game had been taught by Sybil, forbade it.
The hag is none other than Old Winter defeated by the Young Goddess Goddess of Spring. As this legend was collected in a Celtic cultural, we can assume that the Old was none other than the Cailleach who opposed Brigit. The reference to the lamb is another symbol of the period of Imbolc, although the medieval commentators saw it as the emblem of Jesus Christ.
In reality it is the Old Goddess that is renewed becoming Young Goddess, as well as the old becomes the new wheat crop. The Carmina Gadel, a collection of myths, Scottish Gaelic proverbs and poems, collected and transcribed by the end of the 800 Scottish folklorist Alexander Carmichael reported the following rhyme:
the morning of Day Bride
The snake will come out of the hole
not molest the serpent Nor
the serpent molest me
The serpent appears as an animal-totem of Brigit. In many cultures, the serpent or dragon is a symbol of the spirit of the earth and natural forces of growth, decay and renewal.
the day of the Serpent Bride awakens from its winter sleep and the farmers enjoyed by the bad omen of the imminent end of the season. The snake is one of many aspects of the ancient goddess of the earth: the outline of his skin symbolizes the renewal of nature and also its duality in fact, Gaelic "neamh" (sky) is similar to "naimh" (poison), coming both from the root "nem".
The Old and the Young Goddess Goddess are the same person! (In fairy tales, the hero who bravely kisses an old hag finds himself in front of a beautiful girl ...)
Brigid is the patron saint of Candlemas, the Feast of Solar Fire, also celebrated under the name of Imbolc.
The Goddess - which was once the patron of smiths, poets and healers - is: •
the fire of inspiration as a patron of poetry
• fire hearth, as patroness of healing and fertility '
• the fire of the forge, as the patron saint of blacksmiths and martial arts.
lilithcry Source and Thanks for the January holiday with pagan magic, elves editions
pagan festivals, Roberto factor for the Feast of Brigid
www.ilcalderonemagico.it for Feast Days of diSemek
Merla © 2009 Text and search for Micaela Balice www.strie.it
