G is also for ... Ritual to Gaia

This ritual was written for the September Esbat last year.  I have also felt a strong connection to Gaia as the Mother Goddess, (not necessarily through her aspect as the mother of the Titans in Greek mythology) for many years.  Feel free to modify this ritual for your own use.  For example, you may choose to light a red candle for the elemental direction of South/Fire; I chose brown at the time this ritual was to be performed because I live in Texas, which was experiencing somewhat severe drought and fighting wildfires - I didn't want to accidentally add fuel to those fires!  Being that this is southern TX, and when it is dry the landscape is dusty and brown, it worked.

Ritual to Honor Gaia as Earth Mother / Mother Goddess

Items needed:
1 Green candle - North; All Life
1 White candle - East; the Air we breathe
1 Brown candle - South; Fire, which brings renewal
1 Blue candle - West; for the Water which sustains us
Mother Candle (white) - Center
Tealight oil warmer (t.o.w.)
Tealight candle
Rose essential oil
Water
Lighter
Incense (optional)
Flowers - as an offering to Gaia
*Materials for activity
**Cakes and Ale

Altar Set-up:

                   Green Candle
          t.o.w (lit)
Blue Candle   Mother Candle                  White Candle
          *flowers scattered around*
                   Brown Candle
 
To begin the ritual, light the candles starting in the North.  As each candle is lit, say the
following:

North: "We light this green candle to represent the direction of North, Element of Earth, and all life in and on the Earth."

East:   "We light this white candle to represent the direction of East, Element of Air, for the wind and the Air which we breathe."

South: "We light this brown candle to represent the direction of South, Element of Fire, and the warmth of Fire's gift of Renewal."

West:  "We light this blue candle to represent the direction of West, Element of Water, Water which sustains all life."

Center:  "As we light our Mother Candle, we dedicate our ritual to Gaia, the Great Earth Mother Goddess.  Gaia, please accept these flowers we have placed on our altar as our offering to you.  Be with us as we learn your story, so that we will better understand you.  Bless our ritual, and receive our thanks."

Reading:

Our ritual tonight honors Gaia, as the Great Earth Mother.  As the Great Goddess, Gaia is the Earth, Mother to all life.  Though she also brings destruction, with death comes rebirth; new life.

While the name Gaia is derived from Ancient Greek myths, in which Gaia played an active role, today the name more often refers to Her as the Great Earth Mother Goddess.

In the Greek myths, Gaia was born of Chaos.  She proceeded to give birth to various children, some of whom she later mated with.  From the Greek Goddess Gaia, came the Titans, followed by the Olympian gods.

However, the concept of a Great Mother dates back to prehistoric times.  This is evidenced by drawings on cave walls that tell of what is believed to be spiritual rites and ceremonies.  Additional proof of an Ancient Mother Goddess is found in the many female statuettes, the most famous may be the Venus of Willendorf.  These figures depict motherly women, though the limbs are only suggested, and none have defined facial features.  The fact that these figures are found spread across multiple continents indicates that most, if not all, prehistoric peoples shared the same basic tenets of a belief system.

The Great Goddess has experienced several incarnations through the ages.  We can trace the roots of many goddesses back to the Earth Mother. Gaia, of course, but also the Greek goddesses Artemis and Demeter; the Sumerian Mother Goddess, Ninhursag; Maimata, from the Hindu Rigveda; and Hathor was the Supreme Egyptian Goddess.

The modern "Gaia Hypothesis", as presented by scientist James Lovelock, brings forth his opinion that Gaia is the Earth, literally.  He theorized that the Earth is, in fact, a kind of self-regulating, super-organism, in which all the life-forms, plants, animals, humans, etc., all the waters, everything, function in a way similar to the way any life-form's systems and organs function.

Today, Gaia is simply the name that resonates with many, and conveys the feeling of the Great Goddess.  She is the Earth, She is our Mother.  All goddesses may be an aspect of Her; some goddesses are an incarnation of Her.  All women may count themselves as Daughters of Gaia; all men are Her sons.

Because all life and everything of the Earth is sacred to Her, She has very few specific associations.  All plants, insects and animals are Her creatures.  Stones and rocks are Her bones.  The Earth is Her body; the Wind is Her breath.  Fire is Her creative, and destructive, force.  The Seas are Her birth waters.

She is worshipped in open places, and deep in caves.  She is all around us, and within us.

She is our Great Mother, in whichever incarnation we are called to serve her.

Activity:  Offering Cups to the Goddess
Materials:
Ceramic pots
Paint
Paint brushes
Plastic cups (for water)
Newspaper or paper towels to line under project
 
Each participant can paint her/his cup in any way that represents the Goddess to her.

Activity to be followed by a brief meditation; quietly watching the flames of the Mother Candle, listening for any personal messages from the Goddess.

Final words:

          "We have been blessed in our ritual.  We have learned about a Goddess who is as complex as she is simple.  Tonight, we have taken a first step toward developing a deeper connection with Gaia. From here, we will each choose whether to pursue this relationship at this time.

Put out the candles in reverse order, beginning with West, and leaving the Mother Candle for last.  As each candle's flame is extinguished say the following:

West:  "We offer thanks for life sustaining water."

South: "We offer thanks for the renewal of the land and spirit that comes after the fire has raged."

East:   "We offer thanks for the Air that fills our lungs, and the wind that carries us."

North: "We offer thanks for the Earth that provides nourishment and is our home."

Center: "The Great Mother Goddess has been with us.  May she remain always."

Cakes and Ale

References:
I didn't keep track of all the references, but the primary ones are as follows (though not necessarily in this order):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis
http://www.ools.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=195:gaia&catid=32&Itemid=2
http://goddessschool.com/projects/wavewalker/2fpgaia.html
http://www.greekmedicine.net/mythology/mythology.html
http://www.paleothea.com/SortaSingles/Gaia.html (don't ask- I don't know what the SortaSingles part is all about)http://www.pantheon.org/articles/g/gaia.html
http://www.earthwitchery.com/gaia.html
http://www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/earthmother.htm

"A" is also for ... Artemis

"Artemis was the image of a woman moving through her life and assuming different roles at different times; she was a veritable encyclopedia of feminine possibility."

-from The New Book of Goddesses and Heroines by Patricia Monaghan

Artemis was, and is again today, a very prominent Goddess.  She was widely worshipped, by a variety of peoples in various locales.

Though popular myth dictates Artemis was a daughter of Leto and Zeus, in actuality, Her roots date back to Neolithic times.  Artemis has ties with the Ancient Earth Mother Goddess.

It is generally known that Artemis is a Greek goddess, and a relatively minor one, at that.  However, it has been noted that today's version of the Goddess is based on the "scholarly" reports of Her, and does not quite match the view of the majority of Ancient Greeks in their folklore.  She is thought to be a Virgin Goddess, Huntress, and also the Goddess of girls and women in childbirth.

   *It is important to note here, that the term "virgin" as it is applied to Artemis is often misunderstood.  Today, this word means that a woman is physically a virgin, that she has not been sexually involved with a man.  However, in older times, the word had an entirely different meaning.  When a woman was referred to as a virgin, it meant that she was whole in herself.  Independent; not reliant on any man to support her, or to dictate to her.  It did not mean that she avoided all sexual encounters.  When Patriarchal societies began taking over Matriarchal culture, this misinterpretation was intentionally perpetuated in order to detract from the Goddesses' importance, making way for male deity figures to take over.

Artemis' priestesses and followers include the Amazons, Alani, Arktoi and Melissae, to name a few.

·         Amazons: The Amazons were strong, independent, Goddess-identified women.  Like other women (namely the mythologized Maenads, Nymphs, Oreads and Dryads), the Amazons chose to leave Patriarchal societies, to live free and independent of men.

With the Amazons, it was common for a woman to dedicate herself to Artemis for a time, serve with the Amazons as a warrior and Priestess, then return to her home to have a family.  Some women did, of course, dedicate their entire lives to the service of Artemis.

They understood, on a deeper level, that Artemis is just one facet of the Great Goddess; one that was reserved exclusively for female worshippers.

"But heed now this charge I give you.  Speak of me to all your sisters who yet know me not.  For though I have come first to you, I come also to all your sisters who dwell with men.  For all are equal in my sight all love is equal in my sight.  So go now and tell your sisters of me that they might also tell their brothers… that all may know me.  For I am all love and all life."

-from She Lives! by Judith Laura

"The Amazons were proud, capable women who firmly worshipped the Goddess.  They bowed to no man for any reason.  If history has recorded them as war-like and man-haters, consider that men of strictly patriarchal cultures persecuted and killed them for their beliefs, then wrote the histories.  The Amazons refused to submit to the loss of their freedom and rights, therefore they were considered to be dangerous and unnatural.  Their extinction was brought about by the Greeks and other patriarchal societies because of the Amazons' fierce defense of the matriarchy and the rights of women."

-D.J. Conway (exact source unknown, taken from my Coven's website The Sisterhood of the Silver Bow; also found on the website Artemis Potnia Theron the Soul of Wild Things)

·         Alani: "'Hunting dogs'.  Greek name for the Scythian tribes who worshipped Artemis as the Divine Huntress. […] Artemis was often called the Great Bitch, and her hunting priestesses were the 'sacred bitches' who chased, killed and consumed boar-gods and star-gods like Phorus or Actaeon.  Thus, to Christians, 'Son of a bitch' meant a devil worshipper- that is, a pagan devotee of the Goddess.' (Artemis Divine Huntress, by B. Walker; www.amazonation.com/DivineArtemis.html)

·         Arktoi: In Attica at Brauron (also spelled Vrauron, depending on the source) there was a Bear Cult of the Goddess Artemis.  In this cult, young girls served as the "Bears of Artemis", or Arktoi.  They participated in a ritual called Arkteia, in which they imitated she-bears, and ended by throwing off their saffron-colored robes, to stand naked before the Goddess.

There are two primary myths surrounding this practice.  The first is that Agammemnon killed a stag which angered Artemis.  She demanded that Iphigeneia be sacrificed in retribution.  At the last minute Iphigeneia threw off her robes, which Artemis accepted as the sacrifice, and rescued her.  Iphigeneia spent the remainder of her life in service to Artemis.

The other story is much simpler.  In it, two men, one of whom had a young sister serving in the Temple of Artemis, killed a bear that was sacred to Artemis.  In order to save the people from destruction, the Atenians were required to consecrate their daughters to Her.  Thus, the young girls served as Arktoi.

·         Melissae: Literally, "the bees".  The Great Mother was also known as Melissa, or "the Queen Bee".  In Ancient Greece, the priestesses of many goddesses were called Melissae.

Artemis is given the title Melissa in this passage by Porphyry: "The ancients gave the name of Melissae (bees) to the priestesses of Demeter who were initiates of the chthonian goddess; the name Melitodes to Kore herself: the moon (Artemis) too, whose province it was to bring to the birth, they called Melissa, because the moon being a bull and its ascension the bull, bees are begotten of bulls.  And soulds that pass to the earth are bull-begotten."

Marija Gimbutas explains his statements as follows: "…we learn that Artemis is a bee, Melissa, and that both she and the bull belong to the moon.  Hence both are connected with the idea of a periodic regeneration.  We also learn that souls are bees and that Melissa draws souls down to be born.  The idea of a 'life in death' in this singularly interesting concept is expressed by the belief that the life of the bull passed into that of the bees."  (Priestesses of the Bee: The Melissae, by Linda Iles)

Though the title of Melissae was not unique to priestesses of Artemis, in Her association with the Bee we can see Her link back into ancient history as the original Great Earth Mother.

The worship of the Goddess did not arise from Her myths, rather the other way around.  Many people, in many places, revered Artemis in some aspect.  They had many names, but their love and devotion to Artemis was the same.