Category: Goddess

Approaching the Celtic Gods 2024

4/20/2024

Approaching the Celtic Gods 2024

Approaching the Celtic Gods 2024
with Inner Circle Sanctuary
Saturday, June 29, 2024 at 6pm
at UUCLV, 3616 East Lake Mead Boulevard, Las Vegas, NV 89115

"The Romans knew the Celts as living in present-day France as Gauls. The history of the Celts span centuries (possibly as far back as the Bronze Age or before: 3000 BCE) and as far and wide as the Iberian Peninsula (modern Day Spain & Portugal), up into Scotland, Ireland, and as far west as the Black Sea and perhaps beyond.

The Gods of ALL the different Celtic Nations throughout history is wide and varied. "Some scholars believe 'Celt' is primarily a linguistic label ('Celtic from the Centre' theory)." "The mainstream view during most of the twentieth century is that the Celts and the proto-Celtic language arose out of the Urnfield culture of central Europe around 1000 BC, spreading westward and southward over the following few hundred years." (Urnfield-Hallstatt theory)

"By the time Celts are first mentioned in written records around 400 BC, they were already split into several language groups, and spread over much of western mainland Europe, the Iberian Peninsula, Ireland and Britain." "Today, the term 'Celtic' generally refers to the languages and cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and Brittany; also called the Celtic nations. These are the regions where Celtic languages are still spoken to some extent. " -en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celts

Join us as we journey through the varied Gods of the Celts and how to approach the worship of them.

We ask for a non-compulsory $10 donation or whatever you can afford. 100% of donations will be given to a local charity. Please join us even if you can’t donate.

Please consider one of these Southern Nevada charities that we love. Or, choose your own. Please message us a picture of the receipt so that we can keep track of the donations for posterity.

Three Square
https://www.threesquare.org/how-to-help/give

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Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Las Vegas
https://www.uuclv.org/donate.html

The Las Vegas Natural History Museum
https://www.lvnhm.org/

As always, our events are family friendly and potluck.
Please feel free to bring a dish to share.

Our event will be at the
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Las Vegas
3616 East Lake Mead Boulevard
Las Vegas NV 89115
www.uuclv.org

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A Very Pagan Thanksgiving

9/16/2019

We walked into my Gram's house early in the morning. I had promised to come over and help her cook. Knowing her though, it would be mostly done. Every year Gram hosts our family Thanksgiving. She puts on a full spread, Turkey, Roast Beef, Mashed Potatoes and Cauliflower, Green Bean Casserole, Sweet Potato Casserole, Rolls, Apple bread, and Pies. OH! The pies! Every pie you can imagine; Apple, Berry, Cherry, Pumpkin. Grams knew how to bake a pie!

Goddess of Fertility Day - March 18

3/18/2018

For those who like to search out "obscure" holidays, today would be considered one. Unless you're a Wiccan, of course. March is the beginning of the fertility season; it makes sense! So even though we cannot find the "origin": of who made March 18th the day of the Goddess of Fertility, we are glad we found it.

Fertility Goddesses

Click on any photo for a larger version.
Click on the description for the link to the source.

Venus von Willendorf, photo by Oke from the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, 6 March 2005 - CC BY-SA 3.0

Isis suckling Horus, 664-32 BCE from an exhibit in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, USA by Daderot (public domain)

Artemis of Ephesus Photo by Dennis Jarvis, 2010 (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Birth of Venus, 1879 painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau. (public domain)

The Goddess Ceres and the Symbols of Fertility by Abraham Janssens - Public Domain

Ostara (1901) by Johannes Gehrts (public domain)

Freja Seeking her Husband, 1852 by Nils Jakob Olsson Blommér (1816–1853) (public domain)

Mayan Fertility Jaguar goddess Ixchel with rabbit, fertility symbol - CC BY-SA 4.0

A 1977 sculpture by Eugenie Gershoy, Russian-American painter and sculptor, was titled "Homage to Audrey McMahon (Goddess of Fertility)," in recognition of the over 50,000 works of art produced in New York City during the first few years of the Federal Arts Project. - CC BY-3.0

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please start with our questionnaire here.

Demeter

9/20/2017

Demeter-Ceres, Greco-Roman marble statue, State Hermitage Museum

Demeter is the daughter of the titans Kronos and Rhea, and sister to the Olympian deities. The name Demeter comes from de, which is a derivative of the Cretan word dêai, meaning barley, and the word meter which means mother. De could also come from the Greek word da which means earth. Whichever etymology you choose to believe, it means the same thing. Demeter is the earth mother. In the Roman pantheon, she is called Ceres, which gives us the word cereal. She is the goddess of grain and barley. Demeter’s influence was not limited to just grain, but extended to vegetation and fruits in general, and thus fertility. Women, especially, revere Demeter for her attributes of health, birth, and marriage. Demeter taught mankind about agriculture. Through agriculture, cities were created. With cities came law and order. Because of this, she was also thought to be a goddess of justice.

Demeter in Neustrelitz by Ruchhöft-Plau

As a mother goddess, Demeter is usually depicted as a mature woman with a chaplet of corn bearing a cornucopia and a torch. Her festivals take place during the harvest season and the first corn was always given to her as an offering. Her symbol is the bright red poppy, which commonly grows among the wheat fields. To ensure the fertility of the crops, pigs were often sacrificed to the goddess. Animals that are sacred to Demeter are pigs, serpents or geckos, and bees.

Frederic Leighton - The Return of Perspephone (1891)

Perhaps the most well-known story surrounding Demeter is the abduction of Persephone by Hades. In short, Hades, the God of the Underworld, fell in love with Persephone, Demeter’s daughter. Demeter was so heartbroken with grief that she would not allow the earth to bear fruit until she was reunited with her daughter. Fearing that mankind would starve to death, Zeus intervened and told Hades to return Persephone to her mother. However, while in the Underworld, Persephone ate some pomegranate seeds and was bound to spend a third of the year below the earth as Queen of the Underworld and wife to Hades. This myth corresponds to the cycle of the seasons and helps to explain why the earth is barren during the winter months while Persephone resides in the underworld. When Persephone returns to the world and to her mother, she brings the spring and fruitfulness of the earth with her.

Persephone and Demeter are often referred to as one in the same goddess. Persephone would be the maiden form of the earth goddess, Demeter herself would be the mother aspect, and often, Hecate is considered to be the crone aspect of this triple goddess form. This idea of the goddess undergoing a change in herself to correlate with the seasons is one of the Eleusinian Mysteries so often associated with Demeter. The Eleusinian Mysteries are some of the oldest and most famous of the secret rites of ancient Greece. Initiates into the Mysteries would reenact the loss of Persephone to the Underworld, Demeter’s search for her daughter, and finally the ascent of Persephone back to the world. Through this reenactment of symbolic death and rebirth, the initiates would learn that all life springs forth from the generations that came before.

Fryne i Eleusis, maleri av Henryk Siemiradzki (1889)

During these modern times, we certainly aren’t going to sacrifice a pig to honor the goddess. Most of us probably don’t have a corn harvest either. If you would like to make an offering to Demeter during her harvest season, you could make corn muffins and share them with the goddess. You could also bake cookies in the shape of any of her sacred animals and share them with friends and family, and of course, the goddess. You could gather some of the best looking fall vegetables you can find and make a nice barley and vegetable stew. Have some friends over and share your stew with the goddess. Leave a seat at the head of the table for her to enjoy the stew with you. The best ways to commune with the gods and to make offerings is just to share your time and effort with them. After all, Demeter is the mother goddess. Don’t you want to spend time with your mother?

by Lady Anwyn
for our Autumn Equinox 2017 newsletter

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Sources: The Witches’ Goddess by Janet and Stewart Farrar
The New Book of Goddesses and Heroines by Patricia Monaghan
http://www.hellenicgods.org
http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Demeter.html
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Demeter
https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/goddesses/demeter/

News, Updates, & Information

Approaching the Celtic Gods 2024

Approaching the Celtic Gods 2024

Approaching the Celtic Gods 2024
with Inner Circle Sanctuary
Saturday, June 29, 2024 at 6pm
at UUCLV, 3616 East Lake Mead Boulevard, Las Vegas, NV 89115

A Very Pagan Thanksgiving

Goddess of Fertility Day - March 18

Fertility Goddesses

Demeter

Inner Circle Sanctuary

Categories

Archives

News, Updates, & Information

Approaching the Celtic Gods 2024

​Approaching the Celtic Gods 2024

​Approaching the Celtic Gods 2024with Inner Circle SanctuarySaturday, June 29, 2024 at 6pmat UUCLV, 3616 East Lake Mead Boulevard, Las Vegas, NV 89115

A Very Pagan Thanksgiving

Goddess of Fertility Day - March 18

Fertility Goddesses

Demeter

Inner Circle Sanctuary

Categories

Archives

Subscribe to our mailing list

Approaching the Celtic Gods 2024

Approaching the Celtic Gods 2024
with Inner Circle Sanctuary
Saturday, June 29, 2024 at 6pm
at UUCLV, 3616 East Lake Mead Boulevard, Las Vegas, NV 89115