"My father gave me the heavens, gave me the earth, I am Inanna! Kingship he gave me, queenship he gave me, waging of battle and attack he gave me, the floodstorm he gave me, the hurricane he gave me! The heavens he set as a crown upon my head, the earth he set as sandals on my feet, a holy robe he wrapped around my body, a holy scepter he placed in my hand. The gods are sparrows, I am a falcon."
Inanna is among the most important deities and the most important goddess in the Mesopotamian pantheon. She is primarily known as the goddess of sexual love but is equally prominent as the goddess of warfare. In her celestial aspect, Inanna is the planet Venus, the morning and the evening star.
Ishtar is the East Semitic, Akkadian, Assyrian, and Babylonian goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex. She is the counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna, and is the cognate for the goddess Astarte.
The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon. It was constructed in about 575 BC by order of King Nebuchadnezzar. The roof and doors of the gate were of cedar, according to the dedication plaque.
Through the gate ran the Processional Way, which was lined with walls covered in lions (about 120 of them) on blue glazed bricks. She was associated with, and often shown in the company of, a lion.
Inanna figures in various myths and epics, including The Epic of Gilgamesh. She got Enki drunk and tricked him into bestowing many attributes and powers upon her. In the myth The Elevation of Inanna, Enki, An and Enlil all give their powers to Inanna, making her the Queen of the Universe.
Inanna is a femme fatale whose lovers always seem to come to grief. She is impatient, impetuous, and demanding. Gilgamesh risked death when he spurned her advances, comparing her to a back door that would let cold air into the house.
The original Dance of the Seven Veils was Inannaís descent into the Underworld, her sister Ereshkigalís realm, where she was gradually stripped naked as she passed through the seven gates. First went her crown, next earrings, then necklace, breast pins, belt of birthstones, then bracelets and finally her gown.
No acts of procreation took place on earth while Inanna was in the Underworld.
When she discovered that her only way out was in exchange for someone else, she betrayed Damuzi into taking her place. Inanna's time in the Underworld is a myth of the lunar cycle, Damuzi's a myth of the seasons.
Ancient Mesopotamia was a vast region in Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system which has become known as the ‘cradle of civilization’ due to the huge number of feats the culture achieved. Agriculture, animal herding, and domestication had developed there by 8000 years ago.
Magick and religion for Ancient Mesopotamians were inseparable parts of the same whole, because both were seen as the link between the physical reality and the subtle spheres of existence.
It can be difficult to grasp Mesopotamian magic as a cultural concept. Steeped in the philosophical traditions of Western dualism, we often view magic in a binary relation to religion, yet no such distinction existed in Mesopotamia. For people living in ancient Iraq and the imperial peripheries in Syria, Anatolia, and Iran during the first millennium B.C., magic was a part of everyday life. Far from being considered irrational, it was the guiding principle by which Mesopotamians understood various natural phenomena and their positive and negative consequences. For example, celestial omens could reveal a king to be in imminent danger, or portend fortuitous circumstances in war.
Magic could also be used to combat the negative actions of ghosts, demons, and human sorcerers, as well as protect against the curse that resulted from unknowingly committing a sin, and thus losing the favor of one’s personal god or goddess. The responsibilities of a Mesopotamian magician could come under the umbrella of a number of specialties that we might refer to as magical, scientific, medical, literary, and religious.
A deep insight into the Mesopotamian civilization has been gained from the hundreds of thousands of clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform, one of the earliest forms of writing, that they left.
Maqlú, which means ‘burning’, is a work composed around 700 BC spanning nine tablets.
It details a ceremony which was supposed to thwart and drive away evil magic, protect the intended target from the bad magic, and weaken the person who was responsible for casting the malevolent spell or curse. The first eight tablets feature almost 100 incantations, and the ninth gives directions for the ritual. It is a work intended to aide an exorcist and his patient.
Maqlú, along with several other Mesopotamian texts, paint a picture of a society where magic was practiced both legitimately and openly, and illegitimately and maliciously.
It is implied that evil magic worked as the practitioners tricked the Gods into believing they were assisting a genuine need. The ritual in Maqlú was supposed to work by revealing the deception to the Gods so they would reverse what they had done to help the evil doer. But we can also build up a picture of a society in which ‘good’ magic was an everyday part of life for many people.
Although many people believed in or even practiced rudimentary magic, there were also professional magicians in ancient Mesopotamia. These professional magicians would have been specialists in a particular field of magic. Some would have been specialists in divination, while others would have been professional exorcists. As with some other ancient societies, many of those who worked in a field that was not fully understood were considered to be magicians; so scientists, doctors, and astronomers were placed alongside mystics and exorcists.
It was also possible to specialize within these fields. One set of mystics who specialized in a particular form of divination were the bārû, performed divination by consulting the livers of animals and also by observation of the flight of birds.
The liver was considered the source of the blood and hence the basis of life itself. The liver was divided into sections, with each section representing a particular deity.
(Picture: Divinatory livers, clay models for the training of soothsayers, in the Louvre).
Mesopotamian divination was not just divination, and not limited in development to a type of superstition, but was developed to the extent to which it was in fact a science.
One magical tradition which was quite widespread in Mesopotamia is that of the herbalist. Herbalists had access to long lists of plants which gave the names of plants, how they were to be prepared and what ailments they were to be used for and in what way.
The herbalists did not only have to know his herbs but also when best to harvest them and had to observe the correct rituals when doing so. Also, there was a correct time when to administer the medicine to the patient. This timing was usually connected to celestial phenomena.
Ritual prescriptions included time and mode of harvesting, for example:
Look for a gourd which grows alone in the plain;
when the sun has gone down,
cover your head with a kerchief,
cover the gourd too,
draw a magic circle with flour around it,
and in the morning, before the sun comes out,
pull it up from its location,
take its root.
Often, the plant or its root may not be exposed to the sun or daylight at any time. The plant may also be addressed in speaking, asking it to give up its life or part of its substance for benign purposes.
Plants were seen to come in two varieties: male and female. This is not connected to any actual sex, but rather refers to potency, with 'male' usually referring to greater potency.
Plants growing in remote places such as on mountains may be seen as more potent than easily collectable plants. In addition, plants on mountains are nearer to the stars and thus more potent.
The role of stones in Babylonian magic is comparable to the role of herbs. Stones can have magical properties which are also collected on long lists.
In the Metropolitan Museum of Art there is a cuneiform tablet with a list of 303 magical stones dating to mid- to late 1st millennium B.C. (picture left).
This multi-columned tablet contains a list of stones with their magical associations and medical purposes.
Stone, precious or not, could be used for figurines and statues who then had magical properties (e. g. guarding a place). Various metals such as gold and silver were also considered imbued with such properties. More often, however, stones were used for amulets on a piece of string or tendon (which in itself might be part of a charm) or could be tied onto the body with a strip of cloth, usually in the area which was supposed to benefit from the influence of the stone. Thus, a stone supposed to remedy stomach cramps might be worn in a bandage around the hips. Stones could be used as remedies and as prophylactic means.
Magnetite is known as a stone evoking the truth; he who carries it is obliged to speak nothing but the truth. Stones may be male and female just as herbs; this applies especially to the tone of colour, paler colours being female.
The power of the stones is supposed to be derived from the stars. Amulet stones are exposed to starlight over night to be 'charged'.
Two concepts are inseparable from all kinds of magic in Mesopotamian culture: the gods and the stars. All magic is connected to one, the other or both.
Magic rituals were often connected to the invocation of the gods who were likened to star constellations observed in the night sky, the planets, or the sun and moon.
Anu, Enlil and Ea are represented by the whole sky, having their three regions staked out on the night sky the so-called Paths of Anu, Enlil and Ea respectively; Venus is Inanna / Ishtar in her female aspect as morning star and goddess of love, Mercury is the same god(dess) in her male aspect as evening star and god of war; Mars is the destroyer and god of pestilence Nergal; the Moon is Sin / Nanna, the sun is Shamash, and both are male gods; Marduk was Jupiter. The names for gods and planets can be used interchangeably.
I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. ~ John Burroughs
There’s a German word, “waldeinsamkeit ," that roughly translates to “the feeling of being alone in the woods.”
From Wald (“forest”) + Einsamkeit (“loneliness”).
It’s meant to describe a singular type of loneliness that is at once isolating, peaceful, and reflective.
Waldeinsamkeit is a strange name for a beautiful idea.
The concept of Waldeinsamkeit might seem scary or unsettling (the idea of being alone in the woods), but it is definitely a positive thing; it suggests a calm, contemplative atmosphere amidst a beautiful setting. If you’ve ever taken a solitary stroll through a forest and felt better for it, then you’ll understand.
Waldeinsamkeit refers to having a connection with nature, and enjoying time alone amongst it. It is no surprise, then, that the Germans have this word, if their forests are anything to go by.
Perhaps the best known German forest is the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) in Baden-Württemberg, which was also the setting for many Brothers Grimm fairy tales. When you think about it, a lot of fairy tales are set in forests – Hansel und Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), Rumpelstilzchen (Rumpelstiltskin), Schneewittchen (Snow White), and Rotkäppchen (Little Red Riding Hood), to name a few! If anyone has experienced Waldeinsamkeit, it’s surely the characters in those fairy tales (at least, before things started to go wrong for them…).
There are even some real-life fairytale castles that exist in the heart of the German forests. The best-known of these is probably King Ludwig II’s Schloss Neuschwanstein, located in Hohenschwangau, Bavaria. This castle is often nicknamed “The fairytale castle”, and for good reason.
Yes, the woods and forests of Germany are certainly magical, mysterious, special places. It is easy to feel alone in them, and to get lost in your own thoughts as you stroll through them. Perhaps that is why the Germans have the word Waldeinsamkeit; they know, more than anyone, what it is to be alone in the woods – and how rejuvenating it can be.
Goethe frequented the Thuringian Forest, taking inspiration from the feeling among the spruce and spas around Ilmenau; Mozart found it in the springs in Carlsbad; successive Kaisers made it part of public health policy, and even Hitler insisted on it to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
And having a spot where you can go and indulge in a little waldeinsamkeit of your own can be a rewarding experience for everyone.
One study from Japan noticed that hiking alone in forests helps reduce stress by lowering blood pressure and cortisol levels.
Shinrin-yoku is a term that means "taking in the forest atmosphere" or "forest bathing." It was developed in Japan during the 1980s and has become a cornerstone of preventive health care and healing in Japanese medicine.
While waldeinsamkeit traditionally implies a dense, quiet wood, the emotional experience can happen just about anywhere. Maybe it’s a meaningful hideaway in your city or town that you like to keep all to yourself, or maybe it’s a bustling public square where you allow yourself to be alone in a crowd.
Tell us about your favorite place to be blissfully alone, and why that place is so perfect for your peaceful solitude, in the comments below.
A mantra is a meditation technique that helps you to take your mind to quieter, calmer levels of thinking. Mantras are often referred to as vehiclesfor the mind because with focus on the repetition of a mantra, other thoughts swimming in the mind dissipate and the mind shifts toward mental clarity and stillness.
The So Hum is the greatest of all Mantras. It is a simple but powerful technique that uses the breath and the repetition of a mantra to quiet the mind and relax the body. It is one of the most important mantras in tantrism and Kriya yoga. This Mantra comes in the Isavasya Upanishad: "Sohamasmi."
So Hum has a special meaning in Vedic philosophy, It is a phrase comprised of two Sanskrit words. The literal translations are:
So: “That”
Hum: “I”
Therefore, the translation of So Hum is “I Am That.”
Here, "that" refers to all of creation, the one breathing us all. This contemplation meditation is an opportunity to focus "thinking mind" on the mystery of being and to reflect upon the interdependent nature of all phenomenon revealed by the sages and confirmed by contemporary physics.
How To Practice "So Hum" Meditation
Choose a place where you won’t be disturbed.
Find a comfortable posture for meditation (seated on a cushion or blanket, in a chair or against a wall).
Close down your eyes, relaxing the muscles around them, as well as the crown of your head, your forehead and your jaw. Feel your shoulder blades melt down your back. The more the body is relaxed, the more the mind is able to relax into deep meditation.
Now take a slow, deep breath through your nose, while thinking or silently repeating the word So.
Then slowly exhale through your nose while silently repeating the word Hum.
Continue to allow your breath to flow easily, silently repeating So . . . Hum . . . with each inflow and outflow of the breath.
Whenever your attention drifts to thoughts in your mind, sounds in your environment, or sensations in your body, gently return to your breath, silently repeating So . . . Hum.
Keep repeating the mantra for 5-10 minutes.
When you are ready, gently stop repeating the mantra and take a couple of minutes to relax, keeping your eyes closed.
Open your eyes.
Do this process for a few minutes when you’re first getting started, gradually building up to half an hour.
Benefits of Meditation
The popularity of meditation is increasing as more people discover its benefits.
You can use it to increase awareness of yourself and your surroundings. Many people think of it as a way to reduce stress and develop concentration. People also use the practice to develop other beneficial habits and feelings, such as a positive mood and outlook, self-discipline, healthy sleep patterns and even increased pain tolerance.
Reduces stress
Stress reduction is one of the most common reasons people try meditation.
Controls anxiety
Less stress translates to less anxiety.
Habitual meditation helps reduce anxiety and anxiety-related mental health issues like social anxiety, phobias and obsessive-compulsive behaviors.
Promotes emotional health
Inflammatory chemicals called cytokines, which are released in response to stress, can affect mood, leading to depression. A review of several studies suggests meditation may reduce depression by decreasing these inflammatory chemicals
Research shows that maintaining an ongoing habit of meditation may help you maintain these benefits long term.
Enhances self-awareness
Meditation can help you "know yourself." This can be a starting point for making other positive changes.
It teaches you to recognize thoughts that may be harmful or self-defeating. The idea is that as you gain greater awareness of your thought habits, you can steer them toward more constructive patterns
Lengthens attention span
Focused-attention meditation is like weight lifting for your attention span. It helps increase the strength and endurance of your attention.
Meditation may even reverse patterns in the brain that contribute to mind-wandering, worrying and poor attention
May reduce age-related memory loss
Improvements in attention and clarity of thinking may help keep your mind young.
The improved focus you can gain through regular meditation may increase memory and mental clarity. These benefits can help fight age-related memory loss and dementia.
Can decrease blood pressure
Meditation can also improve physical health by reducing strain on the heart.
Blood pressure decreases not only during meditation, but also over time in individuals who meditate regularly. This can reduce strain on the heart and arteries, helping prevent heart disease.
May help fight addictions
The mental discipline you can develop through meditation may help you break dependencies by increasing your self-control and awareness of triggers for addictive behaviors
Research has shown that meditation may help people learn to redirect their attention, increase their willpower, control their emotions and impulses and increase their understanding of the causes behind their addictive behaviors.
This can help you recover from addiction, lose weight and redirect other unwanted habits.
Helps control pain
Your perception of pain is connected to your state of mind, and it can be elevated in stressful conditions.
For example, one study used functional MRI techniques to observe brain activity as participants experienced a painful stimulus. Some participants had gone through four days of mindfulness meditation training, while others had not.
The meditating patients showed increased activity in the brain centers known to control pain. They also reported less sensitivity to pain (40).
Improves sleep
Nearly half the population will struggle with insomnia at some point.
Becoming skilled in meditation may help you control or redirect the racing or "runaway" thoughts that often lead to insomnia.
Additionally, it can help relax your body, releasing tension and placing you in a peaceful state in which you're more likely to fall asleep.
Boosts sex life
Stress, confidence, over-thinking and fatigue can impact on your love life.
Stress kills desire. In women, levels of the stress hormone cortisol can rise so high that it makes orgasm physically impossible to achieve.
Regular meditation quiets the overactive mind, which is one of the major causes of anxiety and stress.
And it not only decreases levels of cortisol, it increases levels of dopamine and serotonin, ’happiness’ chemicals that improve the frequency and intensity of orgasm.
The physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits of meditation have been well documented for thousands of years. Many studies have proven its countless benefits.
Meditation improves overall brain function, helps you to achieve intense focus increases your ability to relax and lower stress. It can give you a sense of calm, peace and balance that can benefit both your emotional well-being and your overall health.
And these benefits don't end when your meditation session ends. Meditation can help carry you more calmly through your day and may help you manage symptoms of certain medical conditions. It is a simple practice available to all. Learning how to meditate is straightforward, and the benefits can come quickly.
Meditation is an umbrella term for the many ways to a relaxed state of being. There are many types of meditation and relaxation techniques that have meditation components. All share the same goal of achieving inner peace.
But there’s a type of meditation that’s gaining traction with both medical professionals and wellness practitioners. It’s called binaural beat brainwave technology, and with this style of meditation, there’s no silence allowed.
The Chicago SunTimes published an article on the benefits of binaural beats:
“Binaural means two frequencies coming in through the ears, one in each side,” said Dr. Trupti Gokani, a board-certified neurologist and founder of the Zira Mind and Body Center in Glenview. “How it works, is each side of the brain gets stimulated with a certain sound or beat. The difference between the frequencies creates an imaginary beat that takes the brain into the theta range, which is where you are calm and coherent.”
Like most meditations, you can do the binaural beats anywhere, anytime. There are apps and Youtube videos that specialize in just this type of sound therapy. But you do need a set of headphones to get the full effect of the treatment, said Gokani, because otherwise the sounds won’t alternate from ear to ear, which is the trick to getting the binaural benefits. Activating each side of the brain can also release unhealthy belief systems and patterns, Gokani said.
“The brain can get dominant on one side so when the programs that are negative, such as the sabotaging ‘The world is out to get me,’ start to run, that’s usually the left, more logical, analytical, fact-based side of the brain. When the brain gets more in alignment, it can stop the pattern of negative thinking, which is a beautiful thing,” Gokani said. “We need to stimulate the right side, which is the creative, more spiritual and connected side, and these modalities can start that process.”
Gokani said the brain connectivity process can even make things “more harmonious” for the physical body. “When the brain is connected, our physical body feels better. If the brain is having symptoms like anxiety, fear, depression, anger, it’s because the brain is operating in kind of an incoherent, non-synchronistic way. I’m actually trying these different rhythms with my migraine patients right now. Hemi-Sync is another one I’m trying.”
Hemi-Sync is a process using binaural beats and audio guidance technology that was created by Robert Monroe after decades of studying sound patterns on human consciousness. While Monroe died in 1995, his research lives on through courses and audio meditations through The Monroe Institute in Virginia.
“You can hook someone up to an EEG and actually see that there’s a physical response happening in the brain because it takes your consciousness and focuses it like a laser beam,” said Garrett Stevens, chairman and president of Hemi-Sync. “Some of the people who have come to the Monroe Institute over the years have been Buddhist monks, and lots of them say ‘I wish I’d known about this earlier’ because to achieve states of consciousness that might take years of sitting on cushions some people can achieve in eight minutes.”
Binaural beat and Hemi-Sync meditations vary in length (a few minutes to an hour) and type (guided with speaking, un-guided with no speaking.) Stevens’ Hemi-Sync site has even catalogued the meditations by category.
“Bob Monroe created these recipes some time ago through hundreds and thousands of trials,” Stevens said. “The general recipes are sleep, relaxation, wellness, creativity, manifestation and meditation.”
Binaural beat technology has also been proven to help with soldiers suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“There was actually a study that was done in 2017 that was funded by Walter Reed National Military Medical Center that focused on treating vets with PTSD using binaural beat technology and it produced statistically significant positive results on all four factors that were measured,” Stevens said.
Patty Avalon, who has been a teacher at the Monroe Institute since 2000, said participants have also reported an increase in their intuitive and creative abilities after using the meditations.
“The left [brain] hemisphere and the right [brain] hemisphere basically offer very different gifts,” Avalon said. “In our culture we don’t use the right hemisphere in our everyday lives because we live in a culture that has us get up at six in the morning and we go to work and it’s very regulated. So if you can get a technology like this that helps to activate both sides of the brain simultaneously — you have access to your more creative and intuitive self.”
You can find Robert Monroe's Audio CD 'Eternal Now with Hemi-Sync' on the right bar of our site. Also read:
1. The mere stupid man. (Often he is very clever, as Bolingbroke, Bradlaugh and Foote were clever). He has found out one of the minor arcana, and hugs it and despises those who see more than himself, or who regard things from a different standpoint. Hence he is usually a bigot, intolerant even of tolerance.
2. The despairing wretch, who, having sought God everywhere, and failed to find Him, thinks everyone else is as blind as he is, and that if he has failed—he, the seeker after truth!—it is because there is no goal. In his cry there is pain, as with the stupid kind of atheist there is smugness and self-satisfaction. Both are diseased Egos.
3. The philosophical adept, who, knowing God, says “There is No God,” meaning, “God is Zero,” as qabalistically He is. He holds atheism as a philosophical speculation as good as any other, and perhaps less likely to mislead mankind and do other practical damage as any other. Him you may know by his equanimity, enthusiasm, and devotion. I again refer to Liber 418 for an explanation of this mystery. The nine religions are crowned by the ring of adepts whose password is “There is No God,” so inflected that even the Magister when received among them had not wisdom to interpret it.
1. Mr Daw, K.C.: M’lud, I respectfully submit that there is no such creature as a peacock
2. Oedipus at Colonus: Alas! there is no sun! I, even I, have looked and found it not.
3. Dixit Stultus in corde suo: “Ain Elohim.”
There is a fourth kind of atheist, not really an atheist at all. He is but a traveller in the Land of No God, and knows that it is but a stage on his journey—and a stage, moreover, not far from the goal. Daath is not on the Tree of Life; and in Daath there is no God as there is in the Sephiroth, for Daath cannot understand unity at all. If he thinks of it, it is only to hate it, as the one thing which he is most certainly not (see Liber 418, 10th Æthyr. I may remark in passing that this book is the best known to me on Advanced Qabalah, and of course it is only intelligibile to Advanced Students).
This atheist, not in-being but in-passing, is a very apt subject for initiation. He has done with the illusions of dogma. From a Knight of the Royal Mystery he has risen to understand with the members of the Sovereign Sanctuary that all is symbolic; all, if you will, the Jugglery of the Magician. He is tired of theories and systems of theology and all such toys; and being weary and anhungered and athirst seeks a seat at the Table of Adepts, and a portion of the Bread of Spiritual Experience, and a draught of the wine of Ecstasy.
Excerpt from the book 777 and Other Qabalistic Writings.
February 1st is one of the great cross-quarter days which make up the Wheel of the Year. It falls midway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox and, in many traditions, including Celtic, is considered the beginning of Spring.
Imbolc means “in the belly”. This refers to the pregnant ewes who are about to birth their lambs, but can also refer to the Goddess, as in “in the belly of the Mother”, for in the womb of Mother Earth, even though it may to be apparent to us yet, there are stirrings. The seeds are just beneath the surface, ready to sprout; this is a time of quickening and new growth. Imbolc does not bring dramatic change from the apparent death of Winter-the trees do not burst into blossom overnight, leaves do not immediately sprout from the branches, plants and flowers do not instantly carpet the earth. This is a very mysterious time-growth is gradual and seeds lie hidden in the earth, slowly pushing the first shoots up through the soil and yet all still appears lifeless.
In Western Europe, this was the time for preparing the fields for the first planting.
The other name for this festival is “Oimelc” meaning “ewe’s milk” in reference to the lactating ewes. For our ancestors, the lambing season was another sign that Winter was combing to an end. The gamboling lambs seemed to herald the warmer days to come.
Imbolc is a celebration of newness-the promise of fertility new life and new hope. Imbolc is the festival that celebrates the transformation of the Goddess from the dark Crone of Winter to the radiant Virgin of Spring. The ground is awakening and the seed is placed in the belly of the earth. The promises of the return of the light and the renewal of life, which were made at the Winter Solstice, are now becoming manifest. It’s the dawn of the year. It is time to creep out of Winter hibernation; it’s the time of germination. This is also a traditional time for new beginnings, a time of initiations and taking a new name.
In the Christian calendar the day after Imbolc, February 2nd, is designated the Feast of Purification, when Mary went to the temple to be ritually cleansed after giving birth. According to Hebrew tradition, all new mothers had to be “purified” forty days after the birth of a male child (eighty days after the birth of a female child). When Mary attended the temple and presented her new baby, she met the aged holy man, Simeon, who prophesied that the infant would become “a light for revelation”. In memory of this prophecy, candles are blessed in church on this day. There is a candlelit procession and candlelit services are held, giving rise to the feast name of Candlemas.
This, of course, has a Pagan origin, like many Christian celebrations. In ancient Rome, a similar rite at this time of year honored the Goddess Juno Februata. It was Juno who generated the ‘febris’ (Latin for fever and the origin of this month’s name) of love and on this day her worshippers carried burning candles.
February 1st is the feast day of Brigid, who began her life as a Pagan Goddess and ended up a Christian saint. Her name originates from the Gaelic words Breo-Saighit, which means fiery or flaming arrow. The Church of Rome could not hope to extinguish her flame, so they attempted to control and contain it by creating a saint in her image, changing the name to Bridget. Some church scholars say there never really was a Saint Bridget, but because the Catholic Church couldn’t very easily call the Great Goddess of Ireland a demon, they canonized her instead. In her temple at Kildare, nineteen priestesses tended an eternal fire-an inextinguishable flame. It is said that on the twentieth day, the flame was left to burn by itself, though some say Brigid attended it herself.
On her feast day, beginning at sunset on February 1st and ending at sunset on February 2nd, her statue was washed in the sea-for purification-and then carried in a cart through the fields surrounded by candles. Sacred fires were lit, since she symbolized the fire of birth and healing, the fire of the forge and the fire of poetic inspiration. Brigid is the protector and preserver of all memory and knowledge-she is also called Brigit, Brid or Bride. Her role is that of teacher and magical instructor and she empowers her students with wisdom and knowledge to nurture the land, keeping it safe and productive and for the good of all.
Brigid is a Goddess of Fire, Creativity and Fertility. She is known as the Goddess of poetry, smithcraft and healing. She is patroness of inspiration and midwifery.
In Britain, there are many sacred wells and many of them are dedicated to Brigid. The water in these wells contain healing minerals and people tie ribbons to nearby bushes and trees so that they flutter in the wind like prayer flags. As the cloth is torn to rags by the wind, sun and rain, illness falls away too.
One of the nicest folk customs still practiced in many countries is to place a lit candle in every window of the house, beginning at sunset on February 1st, allowing them to burn until sunrise on February 2nd.
Other customs include weaving “Brigid’s crosses” from straw or wheat to hang around the house for protection, performing rites of spiritual cleansing and purification, making “Bride’s beds” to ensure fertility of mind and spirit (and body if desired), and making Crowns of Light to wear.
Since this is a time of new beginnings, this is a good day to ritually celebrate all things new. Plan a ceremony to name a new baby, officially welcome a new person into your family or home, take on a new name or make a commitment to a goal.
Many Pagans have an annual ritual of voluntarily surrendering something they are fond of between Imbolc and the Spring Equinox. Perhaps this is the origin of Lent? You can give up something frivolous or serious, but it should be something you will notice and miss.
