Category: water

Arethusa, Spirit of the Rivers and Springs of Surákousai

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Phoenix of Elder Mountain – Each new and full moon, I receive my signs and synchronicity just like you, and its how those of us, who take them much more seriously, guide a lot of our moon and dreaming path, in order to sharpen our focus and our intuitive nature as the years go buy. The second half of this Solar Eclipse (August 21, 2107) cycle, is this full moon, the more internal eclipsing and reflection to release what has surfaced. Eclipses always set off a cycle of seasons and half yearly seasons.

Water is a language of the emotional body and our many souls, regardless of how many souls are re-attained. These are the empaths, the feelers, the seers, the intuitive (not the psychic) because its the gifts of the emotional body and soul bodies, not the mental body like channelers, psychics and mediums experience. The water women are atoned to body and soul, not mind body.

Sicily SYRACUSE Onkia Nymph Arethusa & Octopus Rare Ancient Greek CoinThere are water women who range from simple to the most complex and to the highest spiritual levels of simplicity. Not everyone will go pass the half way journey because the sacrifices are too demanding in loss and isolation. The mermaid and water sprites are the simplest of all water women, they are maiden regardless of age, and more group oriented. The nymph and rusalka are much more complex and fall into the adult or mother stages as water women who nurture and bring forth life.

The celestial water spirits, like Arethusa or the Goddesses of the Oceans are the grandmother stages, and can be attained as a water journey, if both their maiden and mother years were lived, experienced self destruction, healed the self through it all and then became free and forgiving to all. The journey of a water grandmother as a water being is the most difficult of earth, air and fire, for it encompasses almost all of the earth (the water) and its fluid yet destruction for purification purposes.

I had come upon the Lydian kingdom the past two weeks, which was an ancient culture in Troy (modern day Anatolia or Turkey) and Anatolia had appeared three times since the Solar Eclipse as a synchronicity. The third is always a charm for me when something appears. Its said that the Lydians of ancient Turkey were the first to actually invent money in the form of official coins. Running across Arethusa a few days later, I felt a strong pull with her essence and I know that somehow, there is a connection to do some weaving magic in my dreams at night, my waking life and the passion of ancient wisdom.

The city of Syracuse is located on the east coast of Sicily and was originally a Greek colony founded by Corinth in 734 bce. The city enjoyed a period of expansion and prosperity under the tyrant Gelon in the 5th century BCE, survived a two year siege by Athenian forces from 415 to 413 bce, and again prospered under the tyrant Dionysus in the 4th century BCE when the city controlled much of Sicily and large portions of southern Italy. Dionysus was the first ancient Greek to figure out exactly how to destroy the prehistory circle of woman, by luring the maidens with dark sex and drug/alcohol rituals.

Once maiden became unstable, she left the eternal goddess spiritual circles of mothers and grandmothers and the elder male stepped in to teach her the new ways of serving men as women and elder women. The seeds are so corrupt at the beginning that when women try to heal today, they must go back so far into their past lives to free their soul. That takes lifetimes of healing as the water women suffered the greatest and their gifts were then under siege and used against them, call magic or the mysteries of woman’s path.

Under Dionysus rulership into the temples along with the political cult of Apollo, and his teachings spread life wild fire all over the world. We call that paganism today at its root beginnings or its foundation from the past.

Arethusa of Siracusa (asteroid #95) has been one of my synchronicity that has arrive, and there is not much written about her. I find that interesting because there are so many coins with her portrait (a symbol of value), for such a random Nereid (nymph). I looked up both where Arethusa falls in my own natal chart and where she is for all of us this full moon.

Lets begin with the rising of the tides, of that powerful water and fire within us to move deeper into what holds us back and make our personal spiritual journey more ‘personal’. That takes courage to crash against the shore over and over to find the medicine or gems we need to feel at peace, to heal our self, to speak our truth and practicing healing or letting go of relationships that are abusive to us or tear our self esteem down.

Alois Delug - Die NornenSyracuse Arethusa
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)

ARETHUSA arose from her couch of
snows in the Acroceraunian mountains;
From cloud and from crag with many
a jag, Shepherding her bright fountains.
She leapt down the rocks with her rainbow
locks streaming among the streams;

Her steps paved with green
the downward ravine which slopes
to the western gleams; and gliding
and springing, she went, ever singing,
In murmurs as soft as sleep.

The earth seemed to love her, and heaven
smiled above her, As she lingered towards
the deep. Then Alpheus bold, on his glacier cold
with his trident the mountains strook;
And opened a chasm In the rocks; with
the spasm, as all Erymanthus shook.
and the black south-wind.

It concealed behind the urns of the silent snow
and earthquake and thunder did rend in sunder
the bars of the springs below; The beard and
the hair of the river-god were seen through
the torrent’s sweep, As he followed the light
of the fleet nymph’s flight, to the brink of
the Dorian deep.

“O, save me! O, guide me, and bid the deep hide me,
for he grasps me now by the hair!” The loud Ocean
heard, to its blue depth stirred, and divided
at her prayer; and under the water, the Earth’s
white daughter fled like a sunny beam.

Behind her descended her billows, unblended
with the brackish Dorian stream; like a gloomy
stain on the emerald main, Alpheus rushed behind
as an eagle pursuing a dove to its ruin.
Down the streams of the cloudy wind.
Under the bowers where the ocean
powers sit on their pearled thrones.

Through the coral woods of the
weltering floods, Over heaps of
unvalued stones; through the dim beams
which amid the streams weave a network
of colored light; And under the caves,
where the shadowy waves are as green
as the forest’s night.

Outspeeding the shark, and the sword-fish dark,
under the ocean foam, and up through the
rifts of the mountain cliffs, they passed to
their Dorian home. And now from their
fountains in Enna’s mountains, down one vale
where the morning basks, like friends once parted,
grown single-hearted, they ply their watery tasks.

At sunrise they leap from their cradles steep
in the cave of the shelving hill; at noontide they
flow through the woods below and the meadows
of asphodel; And at night they sleep in the rocking
deep beneath the Ortygian shore; Like spirits that
lie In the azure sky, when they love but live no more.

Sarah Young image Arethusa Bathing

“The Syracusans seemed to have a special pride in their Arethusa. After all, her fountain and pool was in their city. Unlike the great pan-Hellenic gods and goddesses (Zeus, Athena, etc.) that could be claimed by all of the Greek people, Arethusa was viewed as Syracuse’s own unique Deity and most likely was the Patron Goddess before invasions. Furthermore, Arethusa was portrayed as noble, beautiful, charming, graceful and even stunning. Perhaps these attitudes motivated the Syracusan die-engravers to create numismatic art of the highest order.” 

Goddess Nymphs (spirits of the earth, air, water and fire)…

There are two Arethusas, one who was the Nymph of Syracuse, Sicily and the other, a Hesperide nymph who live in the beautiful garden, situated in the Arcadian Mountains (Greece) and at the western extreme of the Mediterranean, near Mt. Atlas. In this garden grows the trees with the golden apples of Immortality. The Hesperides are Aegle, Arethusa, Erytheia and Hesperia. They are also called The African Sisters.

The Hesperides were the most famous Greek Goddess-Nymphs of evening and the golden light of sunsets. They were the daughters of Nyx (Night) and were entrusted with the care of the tree of the golden apples, which was had been presented to the goddess Hera by Gaia or Mother Earth. They were assisted by a hundred-headed guardian, a Dragon named Ladon, who would ensure that safety of the golden apples, even if they had gotten into the hands of darkness, would take vengeance if compromised, when that time came in the future.

This is because the Hesperides were also the keepers of the balance of Heaven. The nymphs and their glowing, golden apples were regarded as the source of the golden light of the humans who had reached immortality, and the symbol of that was the golden light of sunsets – a phenomena of heaven. Because the demonic forces of the underworld also must pay for their imbalances and destruction by tearing down the earth making it hell on earth, so too does heaven tear down the great forces of evil. This happens every 25,000 year cycle at its end of time into no time or dreamtime.

Hesperides and the golden apple tree, Athenian red-figure hydria C5th B.C.
Hesperides and the golden apple tree, Athenian red-figure hydria 500 bce.

The etymology of the word Syracuse seems to have derived from “Sirokos” which means the Sirocco Wind, or from “Sirakousai” which means the “Salt Water” and some scholars, however, argue that the name is in reality of Phoenician origin, signifying The “Rock of Sea-gulls”.

Areth means “Waterer” and usa means “Essence” and together, she bears the great title of the Nereid who is the “Essence of Water.” Like fire, water is the great purifier and the great renewal of life. Arethusa is the original water bearer of the dreaming cultures, long before any Greek every stepped foot on earth. In her mere mortal goddess life, she was the daughter of Nereus and the Goddess Doris and it seemed that power was part of the essence of the earlier nymphs.

According to Greek tradition, Crete was also a Nymph, who gave her name to the island. The name Crete could have probably some connection with the words krato, -ein, “reign,” and kratis, -o, “strong, powerful.” Crete’s father was said to be the Sun God Helios and the tales about her origin and about her relations had to demonstrate the glory of the island Crete, showing it as powerful.

Nymphs were associated with the Spirit  of water or land in a more celestial light. The Roman writer Ovid called Arethusa by the name “Alpheias”, because her streams are believed to have a subterranean communication with the River Alpheius, in Peloponnesus. Arethusa was a daughter of Siracusa (Syracuse), the ancient Mediterranean cultural place, which has vast archaeological sites, on the edge of their modern city today. Rare treasures of temples, amphitheaters and an ancient castles, on the Island of Ortygia which was a center of Greek, Byzantine and Judaic civilizations. Physical evidence of these three cultures can still be seen today and finds items that date back to 1500 bce. Prehistory Siracusa (Sicily) had lasted for a thousand years until Rome conquered it in 212 bce.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century, it was destroyed and taken over again by Vandals and Goths, and the Byzantine Greeks of the Eastern Roman Empire took it in 535 ce. For a few years in the middle of the seventh century, the Emperor Constans made it his capital and then the Arabs arrived in the ninth century, converting the large cathedral into a mosque, which earlier was converted from a large Greek temple to Athena.

All of these destruction’s eclipsed Syracuse in population and affluence. Arethusa as the spirit of the sacred waters, sacred springs, lakes and rivers connects her more to the indigenous tribes of those thousand years. In her beginning story, she had to flee her home in Arcadia beneath the Sea and came up as a fresh water fountain on the island of Ortygia in Syracuse, Sicily. This makes her an actual “element” spirit or goddess, like the winds of Zepher, or the Spirit of Water and Fire, not a human nymph. Needless to say, Arcadia was important to her story and why she fled. Why do women ever flee, women know why afterwards, but not during their great flight.

The Arcadians were an ancient tribe situated in the mountainous Peloponnese (what is now southern Greece and later famous because of Hercules). It was considered one of the oldest tribes which settled the area, and were proto-Greeks, mentioned by the ancient authors as Pelasgians. It is clear that the Arcadians were considered as the original inhabitants of the region and Arcadia seems to have been a cultural refuge.

When the Greek Dark Age descended (1200 bce – 800 bce), certain gods and goddess became more in demand, and as patrons of Arcadia who are: Hermes, Psychopomp, Magic and Thievery; Pan (Dionysus), Destroyer of the circle of maiden, mother and grandmother through dark sex magic, intoxication and alcohol into rituals; and Atalanta, Daughter of the King of Arcadia. Why did Arethusa leave Arcadia? Most likely war and the destruction of the old goddess.

Tetradrachm of Syracuse Arethusa, 405-400 BC-syracuse-sicily-classical-periodAfter her arrival to Syracuse, she who was the River and Springs Goddess, were given to the god Alpheus and she was demoted to Nereid. In Arcadia, in her clear stream and was bathing in the form of a human, not water, not knowing the river god Alpheus was watching her, he flowed down through Elis to the sea. He fell in love with her during their encounter, but she fled after discovering  his intentions. She wished to remain independent and the attendant of Artemis who was the newly founded political goddess.

After a long chase, she prayed to her goddess to ask for protection, and Artemis hid her in a cloud, adding the element of cloud goddess of rain, moisture, storms to her story. But Alpheus was persistent, and she began to perspire from fear, and soon transformed herself into her stream form. Artemis then broke the ground allowing Arethusa another attempt to flee. Her stream traveled under the sea to the island of Ortygia, but Alpheus flowed through the sea to reach her and mingled with her waters. This short story of Arethusa says so much, not only on a goddess level, but also a shamanic culture level of the soul and its ability to shape shift. Since the Greeks chose to share nothing of woman’s powers, their gifts of the actual souls ability, small pieces of very small stories say so much.

Arethusa is on the coins of Syracuse, Sicily, which were minted between 415-400 bce, during Demeter’s search for her daughter Persephone. In symbolism, coins and money mean value or values, and combining that with her soul water element, it is the value of the soul that she had stood for before Greek conquests. For the soul is eternal, but needs the moisture of nature, love, stability and peace in order to heal or retain gifts of the soul, or to return them.

In one of her stories, Arethusa entreated Demeter to discontinue her punishment of Sicily for her daughter Persephone’s disappearance. She told the goddess that while traveling in her streams, she saw her daughter looking weak and sick as the queen of Hades. Arethusa’s most popular version of the legend as daughter of Nereus and Doris who passed her time in the retinue of Artemis the Romans’ Diana, Huntress and Goddess of the woods.

Herself a huntress, Arethusa vowed never to marry and be a priestess of Artemis. But these were newer stories, as the long-lived, beautiful nymphs maidens were usually associated with natural locations, such as streams, mountains or forests. But not the stream itself. Arethusa was a river nymph and her myth originates geographically with the River Alpheius in the city state of Elis in the northwestern region of Peloponnese.

Syracuse Arethusa-classical-periodCertain parts of this river, which empties into the Ionian Sea, passes underground. The message of the story, if one can be said to exist, involves more than lust, love or desire. It seems to say something about some woman’s need to be free and escaping judgment and repression emotionally.

The Arethusan Spring on Ortygia was a sacred place to the cult of Artemis. The Greek flowers that grew there were said to come directly from Greece, and it was said that a cup tossed into the Greek river would emerge in Arethusa’s Syracusan spring, which today is a freshwater pool. The classical names Aretha and Areta are based on the name of this eternal nymph, the ancient Sicilians’ protectresses of Syracuse. It has been suggested that the Arethusa’s underground spring feeds the mikvah of Syracuse in Ortygia’s Jewish Quarter.

For eight centuries the legend of Arethusa survived as part of the fabric of Syracusan life, just as Persephone’s cult endured at Enna in central Sicily. Their stories bear a striking similarity which may not be entirely coincidental. The cult of Arethusa remained strong throughout the Roman rule of Syracuse.

The statue of Arethusa laying at the feet of Artemis…

Syracuse Arethusa-classical-period

The coinage of Syracuse began around 515 BC and, unlike the coinage of other city-states, tetradrachms were among the first coins minted. The availability of silver to the Syracusan coiners was the most likely reason for the prompt development of this large denomination.

The silver coinage of Syracuse is interesting in terms of both its artistry and diversity. Arethusa was the water nymph associated with Syracuse. She was pursued by the river god Alpheos from Peloponnese to the small island of Ortegia, which is a part of Syracuse. When she re-emerged in the freshwater spring at Syracuse, she became the patron of this city-state which was dependent upon the water that surrounded it.

 

arethusa - hair dolphins coinOver the next several decades, her head was enlarged to take up most of the coin while the four corners of the squares metamorphosed into four dolphins, re-affirming Arethusa’s status as a water-nymph. By the fifth century, the artists of Syracuse were experimenting with a multitude of different styles and images for the water nymph. Through varied hairstyles and different types of ornamentation, the artists achieved the greatest elaboration when they signed their work.

A usage of simple design and low relief mark the first issues of the fifth century. Arethusa has an archaic eye, a fleshy nose, parted and slightly upturned lips, as well as simply-punched hair that invites comparison to the immensely popular Athenian trade coins of the same time. Several years later, the artists developed a more naturalistic Arethusa with more realistic hair formed by lines rather than punched dots, a beaded diadem or laurel wreath instead of the modest linear diadem, and eye features that fill the voids prevalent in the earlier issues.

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Astrological chart for the Full Moon in Pisces, within the Solar Eclipse cycle (Aug 21 2017) and awakens the great renewal and karmic purification.
 

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Phoenix is a dreamer (shaman); folk healer; emotional body healer, wise elder, astrologer, energy healer, seer reader, and much more. If you would like to work with her, please write Eldermountaindreaming@gmail.com. Sources: Steven Roach was a PCGS intern in 1999. About the Author: Palermo native Vincenzo Salerno has written biographies of several famous Sicilians, including Archimedes, Frederick II and Giuseppe di Lampedusa; Tetradrachm of Syracuse Arethusa, 400 BC-classical-period coins; www.bestofsicily.com; Sarah Young’s Illustration of Arethusa. Hesperides and the golden apple tree, Athenian red-figure hydria 500 bce.

Stingray Totem

Brandi and the Smalleye Stingray on the Northern California coast.

By Phoenix of Elder Mountain –  As a dreamer (shaman, no drugs, no plants), I only teach about Totems that I have had long-term relationships with, being taught by them from an in-depth relationship of experiences that have proved their messages correct. Then there are those totems who appear on my path when a “new cycle” begins, and stingray was one who had appeared for my new 13 year cycle starting at the Solar Eclipse of Aug. 2017).

The Enchanting Stingray had graced me with its touch (literally), its so very auspicious as to what I have been healing personal, the poisons in my own body (shamans must attain a lifelong sickness, soul sicknesses, diseases and pain) to attain what they do. The enchantment of the stingray is two fold on my path, one as a personal healing when I touched its body and thanked it, and the other for my collective work, what would arise after the next solar eclipse (2017 Aug).

My half-student Brandi and I went on an adventure out to the ocean in Northern California at the border of Oregon, for a few days and were given a greatest gift. It was the arrival and presence of a Smalleye Stingray which was a bit out of its waters to come see me. I also had an experience the day before at the beach at night, that I will share as part of this wholeness of the story/teaching.

Wiki says the smalleye stingray is a large species of stingray in the family Dasyatidae, measuring up to 2.2 m or 7.2 ft across. They are rare but widely distributed, and found in the Indo-Pacific area which starts on the east side of Africa, from Mozambique over to India to northern Australia.

This species may be semi-pelagic in nature, inhabiting both deep waters and shallow coastal reefs and estuaries. It is characterized by a diamond-shaped pectoral fin disc much wider than long, a tail that is broad and flattened in front of the spine but whip-like behind, and large white spots over its back. The very wide shape of the smalleye stingray differs from that of most other members of its family, and may reflect a mode of swimming similar to the manta rays. This species is aplacental viviparous, with litter sizes perhaps as small as one pup.

When I work with totems, I define them as either helpers, messengers or shape-shifting animism souls of light or shadowed humans. All totems have to connect with us directly, in order to be an actual totem. A totem must make either direct eye contact with us, be in our personal space or even smash into our car if you have missed the totems attempts to connect. In other words, what makes them a viable totem is they are connected specifically to you for a short period time or even many years or decades and its that personal connect that defines their importance.

Helper totems tend to work with us for a long time, even decades, but messenger totems make one or two visits in a lifetime. Messengers are more rare because the messages are bigger and generally have a great impact. Just seeing an animal, bird, oceanid doesn’t mean they have a soul connection as messenger or helper, as its wise to be very discerning about totems to get the fullness of the message or help. Some animals and bird or oceanids are warnings and some mean new levels of your spiritual journey are going to start, and others mean a message is coming.

Stingrays as totems are commonly found in the shallow coastal waters of temperate seas in many places around the world but the smalleye stingray is located specifically in larger areas. The one that came to visit us had swam out of its natural home to make its visit be known. Rays spend the majority of their time inactive, partially buried in sand, and often moving only with the sway of the tides lowering and rising. Smalleye rays are not limited to this as they are deep ocean swimmers and shallow swimmers equally. This means pushing beyond your limits of your emotional or soul gifts will be required in order to enter even deeper layers of the mystical soul.

Breaking down totem symbolism – Environment of the Rays: Water.

Stingrays live in the water and this represents the living environment and the root symbolism of water itself. Water is the root symbol of our emotional life and our mysterious soul, which has a hidden soul life (wholeness of the chakra/astral body) all of its own.  The levels of watery environments are:

A natural spring, symbol for purity or needing to become pure or the birthing of something emotional, a lake and pond represents containing your emotion, a river is a symbol for fluid emotion that sometimes touches or makes contact with the soul, and lastly, the ocean which represents our collective soul.

These water environment symbols are both for our waking life, actually seeing and experiencing a stingray or a stingray in your dreams at night and the symbolism can be applied to both realms. If a stingray is in our physical space or dreamers space, the message of the totem pertains to our emotional life, its nourishment and healing and specifically the ocean animals, like the stingray, it has to do with our collective soul and brings his or her message to us.

Protection Totem of the Collective Soul

When Rays are inclined to move, they swim by undulating their bodies like a wave; others flap their sides like wings. They truly are like Soul Birds of the Water. The tail may also be used to maneuver in the water, but its primary purpose is protection. Barb and Venom The stingray’s spine, or barb, can be ominously fashioned with serrated edges and a sharp point. The underside may produce venom, which can be fatal to humans, and which can remain deadly even after the stingray’s death.

StingrayThe Stingray’s colors commonly reflects the seafloor’s shading, camouflaging it from predators. This next layer or second symbol of the Stingray then, is about protection of our Soul (the whole or unified chakra body which is the astral body system). Protection in the vastness of the realms of the soul is mostly unknown to people and its hidden. Soul work is nothing like mind-body work or that symbolism, although we apply only at the level of awareness we know. But awareness can be worked on for lifetimes.

Protection symbolism transferred to our life as spiritual beings and mundane humans, we usually connect with many people in our ordinary life, but connecting with one person with a defined shadow that is hidden, and we are unable to see from the surface physical, connects us to a thousand shadows through that person dream realms. Many times this occurs when we challenge a person with our truth or standing up for our health (either instinctively, with sass or anger that arises as emotional people, or with reasonable actions of our feelings that are more spiritually trained).

Camouflaging of a Ray means not to reveal all your gifts as a spiritual being but protecting it by accepting the more mundane quality of spiritual connections with others. This way your unseen soul which a part of it, lives within you, but the majority of it does not.

The Stingray’s eyes are on its dorsal side, the mouth, nostrils, and gill slits are situated on its underbelly. Its eyes are therefore doesn’t play a considerable role in its hunting (for nourishment). So it’s not a symbol of physical protection of our soul, an emotional protection. The stingray has electrical sensors called “Ampullae” which are located around the stingray’s mouth (communication and self-communication). These organs sense the natural electrical charges of potential nourishment or potential predators. 

Electromagnetic Fields of our mental, emotional, soul energy (astral) body

The third layer of this symbol then, is the “electromagnetic” field that we have as human beings to sense the dangers and nourishment within our  “souls larger environments.” Some people have deep gifts around this as very feeling or empathic people, be it in our dreams or our waking life. This symbolism covers both our mental body, which rules the electrical system and nervous system sensitivities of our mental body, and our mental astral body. It also covers our emotional sensitivity connected to our soul body.

In astrology we would call this symbiotic energy relationship or combination Uranus (electrical) and Neptune (the soul). The last Uranus Neptune conjunction belong to the people born from 1990 – 1996 and they have this major planetary aspect in their chart within a 5° orb of influence. Those who have this conjunction of Uranus/Neptune and should learn from elders like myself on how to control the imbalances of such powerful energies.

The spiritual and moral responsibilities around keeping the self safe in the future and the shadowy nature of spiritual groups is so important for the empathic and truth sayers. Misusing powerful energies from ego or co-dependency or even narcissistic behaviors, can cause great harm to the self. Slow and steady development of such gifts can seem like a curse but are required for long-term practices and healing, to master them eventually.

Whatever you do, if you are in this birth group, stay away from drugs, shamanic plant/drugs, medications and pot, so it doesn’t destroy and deplete and fragment your soul astral body, you may need it in the future.

When we were camping along the ocean in our tent, the day before we were gifted the Stingray, their were three late teen, early twenty something kids also at the beach all night camping. They were quiet but it was easy for me to tell they were doing hallucinogen drugs.

Around 3 am, one of them walked up to our tent and said hello, I was in a state of waking and sleep at the same time and Brandi woke from her sleep and reached over to unzip the tent. I sat up and said it ok and she laid back down and the tent stayed zipped.


I could see that his astral body of this young man (pure white astral body) was talking and walking in-between the dream world and this physical world. The drugs pushed him fully out of his physical body and if Brandi would have unzipped the tent, she would have seen nothing because he would have not been visible to the physical eyes.

As a seer and shaman, I could see his astral body standing there. Because he talked, his mental astral body was also out-of-body with his soul body. Then he was gone as quick as he came.

Right before dawn, still in my state of waking and dreaming, I began to remote view and saw the three kids who were camping, walking towards us in the waking state. I saw the one young man who visited us earlier. As I woke up fully and sat up in the tent, both Brandi and I were watching them walk towards us out the tent window. The one who was out-of-body, his white astral body still was not back in his body, it was walking about 10 feet behind him and his friends as they all headed home.

The drugs had pushed his soul out, the small part of the soul we get at incarnation (not the greater souls or animism souls). The drugs have fragmented this young persons soul self and leaves him very vulnerable to not only his own past life karmic shadow (astral body) as he enters his late 30s or 40s, but is now vulnerable to other people’s dark shadow (astral bodies). There is no natural protection other than his physical body and that doesn’t do much good with shadows who roam. This is how partial and semi-demonic possessions happen when the soul ends up “out of the body” even after drugs have worn off.

Very sad to see for me as a shaman, because I can see and know how the whole three body system works together and separately. He would have to commit to total sobriety for about ten years and do lots of healing work to even be able return that fragmented part of himself created this lifetime by his own drug use.

These two experiences of both the light (the stingrays visit) and the young mans addictions to hallucinogen plants or drugs, were the steps in life to become overtaken or be influenced by shadows. Stingray and the experience I witnessed with this young man have a connection.

Ampullae of the stingray as a symbol then, says it is very important, for us to take care of our physical health and its purity because it’s how we protect our soul at the base and most simple level. Ray has a network of electroreceptors (receiving qualities), and through the sensory organs that detects electric fields in water (detecting vibration that are fight or flight of our emotional and soul life). The Ampullae is found in sharks, rays, and chimaera and they conduct electrical impulses so small, that Chondrichthyes are likely to be more sensitive to electric fields than any other group of animals.

Because all muscle contractions produce a weak electrical field, these electroreceptors make sharks, rays, and chimaeras highly capable of detecting other organisms, such as prey, in nearby in water. 

The stingray symbolizes the watery collective soul, how we in the mundane life must learn spiritually as a sense of restraint in our behaviors that hurt us or others, the protection and maneuverability that is required to keep clear and safe in this world for our souls sake. Having a heightened sense of touch and often shows up around empathic people or “feeling” beings, that pick up on the energy and emotions of others.

Rays can feel us and if we are clear or not. Since Brandi and I are both pure (sober) and committed to a devout healing and spiritual path, it wasn’t a surprise that Ray showed up and for specific reasons for each of us, her on a dedicated journey now, and me completed as elder of the dedicated healing and spiritual journey.

Stingrays blend into their surroundings on the ocean floor and are not aggressive unless provoked. That symbol is very important as a lesson for all of us who are attacked, even by spiritual masters. When Rays feel threatened; they use their poisonous barb to defend themselves that can be lethal. For me as a shaman, I do the same thing. For newbie spiritual people, they have a hard time learning this lesson of not being so innocent in their dealings with people, even people who are charismatic and have huge shadows unseen.

Stingrays go to great lengths to camouflage and avoid conflict, but will defend themselves when necessary and they maneuver themselves quite well despite their size and shape and they tell us to also carefully maneuver the complex emotional waters of the greater world (because the ocean creatures represent our collective soul). Balance and restraint are strong themes of this totem animal as a practice in our mundane human life.

The Moire are the only ones of New Zealand who have many myths and stories of the Stingray and this Stingray had traveled from those lands to come to great this shore in Northern California. Though not aggressive, the common stingray can inflict an excruciating wound with its serrated and venomous tail. The ancient Greeks and Romans greatly feared its venom, with authors such as Aelian (175–235 ce) stating that stingray wounds were absolutely incurable.

Piney the Elder, Roman (23-79 ce) asserted that its spine was capable of killing trees, piercing armor like an arrow and corroding iron. The Greek poet Oppian (172-210 ce) claimed that the touch of stingray venom could even dissolve stone. In Greek mythology, Hercules was said to have lost a finger and Circe was said to have armed her son Telegonus with a spear dipped with the stingray spine with which he killed his own father Odysseus accidentally. We know there are no accidents in life.

Also in Greek mythology, Odysseus, the great king of Ithaca, was killed when his son, Telegonus, struck him using a spear tipped with the spine of a stingray.

Here is what Ted Andrews in his Animal-Wise book says …

Stingrays are relatives of the sharks. They have flattened, flounder-like shapes with long whiplike tails that have a stinger or poisonous spine attached. Stingrays have electroreceptors on their snout by which they accurately detect buried food. Some generate and emit low-level electrical pulses that help them to guide and recognize food and danger. Often, when stingrays are totems or messengers, people get tingling sensations to alert them to the presence of danger, and treasures, etc.

A network of nerves informs the stingray of the position of each part of its body wherever it is swimming. For those to whom the stingray is a totem, there is a natural gracefulness, a sense of never being lost. This individual is usually confident in maneuvering and operating in whatever environment in which he or she is found. For those to whom stingray is just appearing, the ability to maneuver gracefully in new environments will need to be developed.

When the stingray appears, trust in your own inner guidance. Trust in your own ability to find what is beneath the surface. Do not be afraid to whip that tail around to protect your own dance in life. It will be much smoother and more graceful than you imagine.

Ask if you are hesitating to make the moves that are necessary?

Some species reach a large size, and some, especially on the American Pacific coast, are very destructive to oysters. *Mine: this would indicate that oysters are to be studied as prey, or what will feed the influence of stingray in your life and strengthen you. Sorry, that’s all I have on this topic.

 

The Women of Water

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Doris of Greek mythology is an Oceanid, her name represents the bounty of the sea as she is a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. Doris was mother to the fifty ‘Nereids’ including Thetis, who is was mother of Achilles and Amphitrite. The ‘Sea Nymphs’ are the three thousand daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, and each are a spirit guardian of a particular Spring, Pond, Lake, River, Sea, Rain and Clouds.

Nymphs and Nereids are not human, they are spirit guardians of nature. Through the journey of humankind over thousands of years, they have been portrait by artists as young maidens. But its wise to remember that they are spirit guardians of water, especially if you are fond of doing ceremony with water. Doris when not associated with a god, is considered the fertility of the ocean, of the rich fishing-grounds found at the mouths of any rivers where fresh water mingled with the brine of the ocean.

Being an Oceanid meant she is the Spirit Guardian where the Ocean and River meet.

Her name is derived from two words:
Dôron meaning the “gift” or “abundance”
Zôros meaning the “pure” and “unmixed”

Zôros was often used to describe fresh water in terms of the pure soul of a woman (enlightened in todays terms), and from this derived words such as zôrua “the transference of flowing water” or the purification processes of the living source (within) and zôrux “water conduit” which meant the connection to the source.

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The Sea Nymph Okyrhoe
“swift running and fast flowing”

Okyrhoe’s father was Chiron, wisest of the Horse clan (Centaurs) and her mother was the water nymph Chariklo. Okyrhoe main gift of healing and prophecy, both waking and dreaming. In one of the myths, Chiron was entrusted by Apollo to care for a baby named Aesculapiu and so he brought the child to his cave. Okyrhoe came out to greet him, and upon seeing the child burst forth into his prophecy:

“Grow strong, dear boy, healer of all the world. Often to you, Men shall owe health and life, and yours shall be the rites of the departed souls. And, though you dare this once in heaven’s despite, Jove’s bolt will thwart that gift a second time. You, now divine, shall be a lifeless corpse, and from a corpse become divine again, and twice born, you shall renew your destiny and fate.”

In this, she predicted that the baby would grow up to be one of the greatest healers able to bring the dead back to life (the dead karmic soul aspects) or what is termed transformational healing today, death and rebirth medicines. But in doing this, he would eventually anger the gods, who would strike him down and yet even within that, the Fates who were stronger than any God, would bring him back to life, and thus he would be reborn.

Emanuela Comito.jpgOkyrhoe was a Prophet, but the ruling men of the day had used maidens gifts for their own advancement in the building of their kingdoms and were punished if it didn’t serve these ruling classes. If she broke the rules, she suffered for it. One day, she predicted that her father, would be granted death by the other gods because the pain of a serpent’s venom would torment his soul (in order to heal it). But she only was able to speak part of the prophecy:

“And from her deepest heart sighed, and tears ran down her cheeks; she said: “The Fates halted my speech. I am allowed to say no more. What good was there in having learned this art, if now it only draws the wrath of men against me? Would I not be better off without the power to predict the course of days to come? I can already sense that they are stripping all my human semblance.” (Ovid’s Metamorphoses of woman’s story of their corruption by the new clans of pagan and religious men). She was a maiden, she was not an adult woman nor a grandmother, so she could not protect nor defend herself from the abuse.

Its wise to remember when working with mythology of the Goddess, that these ancient goddess names were born forth from the elements like fire, water, wind… they were not “human” they were the spirit of the elemental. Its also wise to remember that the Greeks (or any writers that were men in any tradition on earth around the 2nd bce to 2nd ce centuries), made symbolism of the real soul and its emotional experiences non-existent when equating it to emotional sensitivities and their deeper meanings of real human beings, especially women.

Ancient Theater back then like today, did bring forth the actions of emotional embodiment into a living process but it was during the destruction of the feminine, the female in cultures, and the soul which was then eventually overtaken by mind-body cultures. The dreaming tree died.  But, it has been the artists, the philosophers, actors and women scholars over the ages who have not only brought back the symbolic meaning into the actions of our real soul and our emotional meaningful past (that was deemed either hysterical or over sterile) throughout history, but it was not.

by Branislav JovanovićOriginal mythologies spoken through oral traditions, folk stories and folk legends of women are centered around Symbolism, Dreaming and the Creative Art processes giving a real life communications to our soul’s life.  The real living ‘waters’ or actions to the soul to our human story outside of pain and suffering and outside the perimeters of war, kingdoms and conquering which caused that suffering.

Source: Water Maiden (Nymph) painting by Yuriy Ivanovich Starodubov; Water Lantern on the Coast by Branislav Jovanović; http://www.zanestein.com (Ocyrhoe myths); Emanuela Comito

Water Charms

The Healing Waters and it’s uses for Spaces, Cleansing and Intentions by Phoenix of Elder Mountain –  As artists, healers, dreamers, magicians, pagans, witches, druids and moon children, we deserve a spiritually clear and clean space. In our busy lives, many do mind-body practices like yoga or meditation to balance, but there is something missing and that is our emotional and soul care. Rituals and counsel which assists us in feeling calm in a non-physical and non-thought way. And to help us reconnect back to ancient times when ‘water’ rites were very important. The spiritual tradition of our emotional and soul bodied health.

water paper cut

Intense energy from within the self or others or life itself, leads to soul loss, inability to ground emotionally, inside the self or from life itself, which can energetically allow chaos into our personal lives or our living area which can make our home, place of work all statically charged effecting our emotions. Too much electricity and lights and florescent lights will do the same thing. Even extra feelings of stress when there is not the flow of liquids occurring within, will effect us. For those who live on a river, near an ocean or a creek, it can cut down on stress, but living in a rushed or busy life, we can add water rites into our home or living area in very small but effective ways.

Here are some helpful things I have learned and used along the way and this one is very simple to keep your spaces “emotionally clear” – I have never used crystals because as a dreamer and magnetic (empathic) person, the energy of crystals charges and always disperses energy like electricity (which its suppose to). But my composition as an artist, dreamer and healer is that I need the energy to soften, not only me but my space. About 15 years ago, I began to use large a sacred bowl and fill it with water with my intent of whispering to the water element asking it to be receptive for me and take any emotional releases when I held goddess and then moon  circles. I started then to use it more, a few years later because I was doing a lot of healing work and meditation every week with other healers and my own healing practice. What was just my two once a month circles with the water bowl, became several times a week in my healing practice and I began to feel the presence of intentional water right away in my living space. It then became a permanent sacred water bowl in my living room from then on.
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For those who love water in general, or like to swim in a pool, hot tub, creek, river or ocean or you feel all watery and emotional or empathic in general, you will find this type of clearing and cleansing makes you feel lighter of burden in small ways. I began adding a large bowl of water to my main living area and I whisper specific things into the water, asking it to receive any and all emotional releases from me, my children, family or clients and apprentices that visited my home and around my home in general. I moved a lot in the last twenty years, so I was always having to set up new altars, new spaces where many people had lived before me, so before I even moved anything I would do a water and fire cleansing. I even use it for any shadowy souls who roamed before I was strong enough to push them out as a shaman. Many shadows attached to my clients who came over for healing work, and because they had issues with healthy boundaries, more difficult and intense things happening to them and the bowl of water in my healing room helped both them and me weekly.

On each new moon, put a large “bowl of water” and let it sit the entire moon cycle (month) in the living room or in the room which is most active or your healing room. Change the bowl of water on the next New Moon and whisper again, adding in fresh water and repeat the process until the space feels lighter (or you notice it being light). I started off this way but about ten years ago, I keep it out year round.

water healing pool

You can add some seasonal herbs to sit in the bowl of water like St. Johns’ Wort (fresh) or Rosemary from the garden. In Winter I add a little Pine with dried Mugwort that was dried in the Autumn and I do that for my dreaming to remain clearer in my cottage when I awake in the morning from a night of dream travel. Try your own favorite herbs and keep note if it feels lighter in the room or space, if it doesn’t – go back to pure water or try a different combination of herbs. Generally I only add the herbs if its a challenging moon cycle (we generally will get 3 moons a year) and I will know this from the previous years of moon work for the past 22 years what will repeat on a given moon cycle, since this is what I teach.

I also brush myself off and throw the energy into the water when I am feeling that sticky feel after being in town. As a healer, I also do this with clients with chord cutting work, its mandatory so they release all of the residue of emotional energy from their astral body. When I go to a healer, I ask them to set a bowl of water out during the session just in case they enjoy an occasional wine or something like that and I don’t want to absorb it from their emotional body.

Danaide J

I learned in my 40s when I went to a lot of healers, that after a session they felt great and I felt drained even though I worked with many disciplines and healers as things arose. It wasn’t them pers sat, its just I was giving them a healing at the same time, and taking in their energy that was toxic, when they didn’t go to healers to work on their issues in life. I found out during this period, many, many healers do not go to other healers nor do they do trades, they are not getting work done and when a ‘receptive’ enters their healing practice, they get a healing also. Once I realized this, I became very discerning about who I worked with, if they did healing work with other healers, and if they were sober (no pot or drink) and this made a huge difference. I stopped feeling drained after that from the healers I went to, from then on. I chose never to go to free energy circles either, too many energy vampires.

I learned just how “receptive” or magnetic (empathic) I was in my early 40s and used the knowledge for change, and did something about it. The “intentional” water bowl, made a huge difference for me during those years and I still use it in my space, and all around me, and the ‘feel’ of a room stays clear.

Water always keeps things flowing and it is the greatest purifier of emotional energy, dream energy, even much stronger than sage. Sweat Lodges are also good because it too is water based with the fire and stones. Sage is great for both the mental body’s energy clearing and makes the physical body feel relaxed and by adding sage (earth/air elements) to the water ritual and bowl of intentional water, it doubles the clearing and cleansing.

pondEmptying your Water Bowl
When you are finished with the whole moon cycle, just take the water bowl outside and pour it on the ground asking Mother Earth to cleanse it and give her thanks. This is very important, because the moon is magnetic and pulls energy up and forth to the surface, so make sure you empty your bowl on the either the full moon or the new moon. Consistency is what keeps the flow of the moon phase that your working with.

Water Charms
Water Charms are talisman and amulets that help you when you are out and about at work, play or especially for those who live in more arid or desert environments. I recommend making them yourself and making sure that you can refill the water periodically so its not stagnant. Wearing them whenever you are in large crowds, baseball or football stadiums, etc. They will help absorb just like the home water bowl I described above.

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Magic Vial by Izile on Deviant

I have suggested that some bring a plastic or glass water bottle and fill it with water for the specific intention when they go to town or the hustle of a big city and whispering in the water to take any negative emotional energy that is around them. Make sure this water is given to mother earth to cleanse, so no one drinks from it or else they will get sick, especially children, it can be quite toxic.

Plus Water Charms, Talisman and Amulets are very creative and wonderful to make, be exploratory with images of water, mermaids, rusalkas, dolphins, whales or sea shells. Sea shells make great protection talisman for all things emotional and has been used by ancient cultures and indigenous cultures for millenniums.

The Feng Shui Chinese water element practices:
( from http://feng-shui.lovetoknow.com )

Feng shui means literally “wind” and “water” and is the ancient Chinese practice of positioning objects to achieve harmony. This involves assessing various factors including flows of Qi (energy) and the patterns of yin and yang (opposing forces) or masculine and feminine energies. Things that block the flow of Qi cause problems; things that allow it to flow freely are good. The popularity of fish tanks are due to feng shui; that both fish and water is lucky and auspicious.

Before adding any symbols for elements in your home, make sure you know in which direction your home is set and where each element is located. For example, you don’t want to add a water element in your fire sector unless there is an issue of too much fire and you need to weaken it. If you think in terms of how the real elements function in nature, it’ll help you in determine what corresponding and helpful elements to add to each sector of your home. Adding elements that fortify the energy in certain areas of your home will attract more of that element.

Water Fountains
A water fountain, small or large is an excellent symbol you can use inside or outside your home. Moving water symbolizes wealth and emotional health flowing to you. If you choose to use a water fountain there are four very important feng shui rules you need to follow when placing this feature.

  • Never place a fountain or any water feature in a bedroom. The energy is too disruptive and will result in loss;
  • Be careful when placing a fountain in your home. The mistake often made in placing a water fountain is locating it in the wrong sector. The best place for a water fountain is outside your home or in a known water sector of your home. In the Black Hat sect of feng shui, north is considered the water direction. In Form and Compass Feng Shui you’ll want to utilize the Eight House Theory and Flying Star principles to determine the sectors of your home for each element.
  • Outside fountains should flow toward your home. If you place a water feature outside your home and the water flows away from your home, you will quickly see your money flowing away from you either in mounting bills or even the loss of your job. By the same token, inside fountains should not flow out of the room or out a door or window.
  • Only use one water symbol in each appropriate room. Placing more than one water element in your room won’t create greater wealth. This will overload the energy and backfire on you by creating great loss. Remember, it’s all about balancing the chi energies in your home.

Art, Paintings and Photographs of Water
Using paintings and photos of rivers, waterfalls, oceans, and other bodies of flowing water is an easy way to introduce a water symbol into your home. Again, you want to be certain that you are placing the painting or photo in the correct sector of your home.

Chinese Character for Water
A popular way to introduce the water element into a room is by using a scroll that has the Chinese character written on it. If you’re an artist or know calligraphy, you may wish to create your own version for a frameable work of art.

Colors for the Water Elements
In Black Hat Sect of feng shiu, color is used to activate elements. If you practice this school of feng shui, you’ll want to use the colors assigned to the water direction, north. Black and blue are the first choices for water element activation in Black Hat Sect feng shui. You can also use northwest colors of white and gray.

Aquariums
You may have noticed an aquarium inside many Chinese restaurants. This is an ancient feng shui practice, taken from the use of koi ponds throughout China. The correct placement of this water feature ensures wealth and a successful business. The practice is to place seven red fish, usually goldfish, and one black fish in the tank or vice versa to activate the elements that bring prosperity. Never place an aquarium tank in a bedroom.

polish well
Decorated Polish Well

Objects to Activate Water Elements
You can also use an object for a water symbol in your feng shui design. The Chinese use some some very specific water symbol objects.

  • Sculptures and drawings of fish, especially koi make a wonderful symbol.
  • Brass or other metal frog, especially Good Luck Frogs that sit on top a pile of ingots. This popular Chinese depiction shows the frog with its third foot firmly planted on the gold and has a Chinese coin in its mouth. This frog serves two purposes. As a water dweller, it represent water and comes bearing an actual coin to help stimulate the flow of money.
  • White cranes are a long-time favorite symbol for water. All kinds of boats and ships can be used. You aren’t limited to just Chinese symbols, you can also use American symbols of the ocean such as anchors, sea gulls, crabs, seashells, and many other symbols. Be creative in your choices for your décor. 

 

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Spring Folk Waters

I love the Spring, equal to all the seasons and the older I get, I find it funny that Spring folklore can sometimes be filled with shadow things equal to autumn or winter. I personally always try to see the corruptions in folktales from my shaman and dreaming perspectives, and to encourage a love of nature, not a place of fear & fright. In basic demonology study and folklore, large groups of creatures were called water daemons residing near rivers, lakes, swamps, oceans and rain. Any water interactions with humans, sometimes had a negative consequence, and equally a sense of fertility with emotion. It does make much sense that spring would have the positive-negative forces such as forceful winds and storms in that context.

Water is both a symbol for the fertility of the earth and the feminine, or the female souls within all of us, and was once a great blessed spirit daemon, a blessing for humanity and a blessing from earth (the goddess herself). Slowly the darker and more sinister souls which began to rise around the eleventh century, there was a shadows caste and daemon went into the powerful demon, appearing as the unsettled dead souls of the earlier wars of the rising kingdoms misuses of power. This eventually lead to a great fear of the night, and a guilt of guarding the treasures of mother earth from greed and lastly the superstitions and rejection of nature and the moon tales unless they were supporting the shadows.

A good example is the Valkyrie Maidens, who take those who kill to heaven. Just not true and more of a powerful wishful thinking. And characters of the beautiful maidens who danced, not to dance for pleasure or for sacredness women’s rituals which were real, but to enticed unwary young and old men alike and hurt them… seems a bit far fetched as folk. The elemental symbol of the core of the feminine is water.. once a most honorable ritual of all women.

Slavic and Balkan water folklore

In daemonology, Bolotnitsa (omutnitsa, lopatnitsa) are the maids of water and depending on where they live, they get the appropriate titles of “Spring Maiden” if the water is pure. Water maidens also can live in the swamps, called Bolotnitsa. A lover of whirlpools – omutnitsey and have behaviors and characteristics which resemble mermaids. Brodnica – are Bereginya guarding the fords as the water maidens prefer to settle in the quiet backwaters. According to legend, they coexist with beavers. Brodnica built of sticks fords and keep them in order. If the enemy pochuyut imperceptibly destroys a ford, they confuse, zavedut and begin a maelstrom. “… And the water Brodnica, floating quietly unworried in blue waters can enter the deep bowels of Charu, called navoe or dark graves”(AM Remizov. “By the Sea-Ocean”).

Kostroma is an East Slavic Goddess that is the embodiment of spring and fertility. In ceremonies of spring, Kostroma are young woman who are wrapped in white cloth, with an oak branch in their hands, accompanied by a round dance. Slavs also made an effigy of Kostroma of straw and arranged the death ritual ceremonial winter goddess just like Marzanna. Her name is derived from костёр (kosteor), Russian word for bonfire. Both these rituals symbolize nature’s death and rebirth or revival. In the oldest goddess rituals, the year was cut in half, winter (night) ruled one half and summer (fire) ruled the other half. These were one goddess who transformed between the two halves of the year. 

Swan Maidens long ago represented death, the souls flight to the other side at death, but in modern times she turns into the water maidens, and can be found on the edges of water. Swan maidens initial values are the personification of Spring, rain and clouds; together with bringing down legends about celestial sources on the ground, swan-maids are the daughters of the Ocean Sea Goddess. Swan Mothers give prophecy of wisdom; and are a supernatural task force to subdue the very nature. Swans are one of the oldest impersonation of the white summer clouds, as the adult women and grandmothers expressed the swan nature in their prophecy and prophetic cloud seership. Foresight given to them as the gift of the immortal wellspring water drink, which they possess; dance, music and singing (metaphors swirling eddies and howling storms). Spring of joy and fun of the water spirits; excitement and eddies as a consequence of their dances. All these features: are the vescheyu power are a tendency to dance, sing, create music and songs as they approach to aerial beings of violent thunderstorms to sooth them.

Bolotnitsa (the swamp maiden) is the drowned maiden living on a bog. She has long black hair and is cleaned by a sedge and forget-me-nots. The swamp maiden is pale and green-eyed, always naked and ready to entice people without any special fault to tickle them to death and to sink them in bog. Bolotnitsas can send shattering storms, torrential rains, destructive hailstones; steal canvases, cloth and threads from the women who have fallen asleep without a prayer. In the older traditions of the shamanic past, she was a weather shaman and kept the village and towns clear of shadows and visitors or groups with bad intention.

mermaid

Brodnitsas (the ford maidens) are spirits the protectresses of fords. Legends of the brodnitsas live together with beavers in the peaceful creeks. They protect the fords made of brushwood, repair and guard them. When the enemy secretly steals up, Brodnitsas hides the fords and directs the enemy to a bog or in a whirlpool.

Chislobog (goddess of the moon). She holds the moon in her hand, calmness, regularity, dispassionate struggles. Her time is from early twilight to dawn, but despite this, she is indifferent to evil powers. Beholding the validity, she imperturbably counts seconds and centuries.

Dana (goddess of water), a pale goddess. She gives water to the tired travelers, and cleans a wound of those who are hurt. She also rises into the sky, falls a fertile rain to fields. She was considered as the kind goddess giving a life to all living.

Karna (Karina) (goddess of emotional grief) the goddess-mourner, sister of Zhelia. If a person was lost far from home, Karna is the first who mourns.

Kupala (goddess of water), Herbs, and Magic. Her festival takes place on the day of the summer solstice. Her worshipers bathed themselves in rivers and springs on this day to purify themselves. They also brought offerings of flowers, which they set adrift on the rivers. Another means of purification was jumping through bonfires built in Kupala’s name. Her name means “to bathe”.

Morjana (sea maiden) a maiden of sea waters, daughter of the sea. Swims in depths of the sea and can turn into a fish and shifts into her dolphin form. She appears on the coast in peaceful evenings.

Pharaonkas (fish maidens). The name faraonka is connected with secondary interpretation of the traditional image of the mermaid. She is a shape shifter who can be both a woman and a fish, where mermaids are dolphins who remain so.

Rusalka  (maiden of water) is one of the most popular legends, wife of the nix. She is the tall, beautiful girl living at the bottom of a pond. The rusalka has no fish tail. At night she laps on a water surface. The maiden of water has the power of death or can lead one away from death.

Vodjanitsa (the water woman) is the wife of the nix, but the drowned woman from christened that is why does not belong to undeads. Vodjanitsas prefer forest and mill whirlpools and like deeps under mills where the rapid mixes the water and washes away holes. Under mill wheels usually sleep with nixes.

To read more of the older article on Elder Mountain, visit:

https://eldermountain.wordpress.com/2015/10/30/slavic-folklore-boskie-vs-antiboskie-daemonlogy-vs-demonology/

Fire & Water Dreaming

Video by Baba Phoenix –

I made this video based on the power and message of this particular song, which is about the great losses that women suffer from men’s wars. With such destruction, to both woman and her family, her husband, brother or even her own rape from the darkest sexual misuses of soldiers of war. How she must look to her sisters, her mothers, grandmothers and women friends to rebuild herself, her life, through her community, and even her own soul.

She must include the ancient rituals like Kupala and Kupala Night of the summer solstice, which has a much deeper root of emotional renewal in it’s original roots of women’s circles before paganism. Kupala (Belarusian Купала, Russian Купала, Купало, Polish Kupała, Ukrainian Купала, Купало/Купайло) is a traditional goddess in Slavic mythology. All of the variants of the name in the Slavic languages are pronounced in the same or almost exactly the same manner regardless of the language and alphabet. In his book Deutsche Mythologie (1835), Jacob Grimm noted that Russians used the word kupala to describe the bonfires they light at the summer solstice and explained that the name Kupulo, was a harvest god.

Although the word kupala (or kupalo) is usually explained as “bather” (from kupat(i) ‘to bathe’), some scholars claim that it is not an epithet of John the Baptist, but a name of a pre-Christian Slavic deity, derived from some other root. The cult of Kupala, the god of fertility and sexuality is a direct link to the pagan god Dionysus which spread like wildfire through Europe and Eastern Europe from ancient times around 1000 bce, but later in the slavic pagan traditions into Christian was presumably replaced by worship of John the Baptist.

Many of the rites related to this holiday are from the ancient Kupala rites connected with the role of water of women’s rites (fertility) for direct ritual purification of emotional issues, distress, hardships or the hardships of raising children and families. Modern Kupala day, young people jump over bonfires ritual test of bravery and faith. The failure of a couple in love to complete the jump while holding hands is a sign of their destined separation.

Girls may float wreaths of flowers (often lit with candles) on rivers, and would attempt to gain foresight into their relationship fortunes from the flow patterns of the flowers on the river. Men may attempt to capture the wreaths, in the hope of capturing the interest of the woman who floated the wreath. There is an ancient Kupala belief that the eve is the only time of the year when the sacred Vesta fern bloom. Prosperity, luck, discernment and power would befall on whoever finds it and this is linked with the Firebird, but was lost written traditions from the oral traditions.

Therefore, on that night, village folk would roam through the forests in search of magical herbs and especially the elusive fern flower. Traditionally, unmarried women, signified by the garlands on their hair, are the first to enter the forest. They are followed by young men. Therefore, the quest to find herbs and the fern flower may lead to the blooming of relationships between pairs of men and women within the forest.

My video is the other 80% of a woman’s life, the sorrows, heartbreaks, divorces, or war and how she must use these very powerful rituals long before pagan or Christians took them over and made them about only the maiden (young girl and young woman) who starts out her life. I made this video for what happens when women grow up and the folktales that were forgotten about birth, death, transformation and rebirth of her ‘whole’ journey.