Lmst

For #AutumnEquinox a short video of me gathering foliage on the farm, then showing the finished #altar for the season, honouring primordial #BirdGoddess + #GreatMother #Māra + #Ragana the Wild One + the Twin Gods + remembering my Mom and Aunt (The Penguin was carved by my brother for my Mom's collection; the Owl was my Aunt's, and they double as Bird Goddess avatars!)
#fall #Alberta #Canada #GoddessCulture #animist #pagan #SolaceInNature
YouTube link, Spectra to follow
https://youtube.com/shorts/4xaqEt4Es2U?feature=share

A rustic wooden bench stands in front of a green Linden tree. Most of the view is in early evening shadow except for part of the top of the bench which is catching golden sunlight. The bench serves as an altar to the season, covered in small potted plants- pink + green trailing Sedum, hair fine green Carex, small Spruce saplings, chocolate Ajuga etc. Between and around the pots are a few small earthenware vases stuffed with pink Dianthus flowers, pearly everlastings, a Carlina thistle flower head etc. There are also many branches and leaves of wild and garden plants in autumn colour some springs of various wild and garden berries and some crab-apples. Near the centre, immersed in the foliage, fruit and flowers are a carved wooden penguin in stained black and blond wood and a small ceramic whitish owl wings outspread as though it has just landed on the ground.

4-jeepers, you'd think I'd never done this before...lol I think I have all right links and replies where they should be now...lol
this is the #Spectra #Peertube link for the longer video-- a nice sunny early afternoon for collecting #flowers and laying the #altar- clouds started to arrive just as I finished, #RainMother was kind to me!
#Latvian #pagan #animist #spring #MothersDay #MayDay #GreatMother
https://spectra.video/w/jMY1vP8fYdZT1H4Q63iefh

1- As a youth I picked simple bouquets mostly of the 2 earliest #wildflowers for Mom's birthday + #MothersDay When I moved back and grew spring flowers, the bouquets grew more elaborate; after Mom's passing, they became #spring celebrations of #Life #rebirth the start of the ancient #Latvian season #TimeOfFlowers + the #Baltic #PreIndoEuropean #GreatMother #Goddess It all blends seamlessly, at least in my mind...lol
vids to follow
#pagan #animist #nature #BloomScrolling #Florespondence #Alberta

Spring altar laid on weathered wooden bench with at least 16 kinds of flowers and a half dozen kinds of foliage. Flowers are in various improvised vases- coloured votive candle holders, clear glass, earthenware pots etc. Lots of yellow including Marsh Marigold, Dandelions, Draba, Tulip and Corydalis; some blue/violet- Squill, Hepatica and Violet; white- Sweet Coltsfoot, Anemone, Violet and barely pink Cherry. Foliage- leaves and/or buds, catkins of Aspen and Balsam Poplar, Willow, Saskatoon, Dogwood, Honeysuckle etc. In the centre are the bird figurines: a shiny porcelain penguin in featureless white, and a smaller translucent glass owl with feather shapes molded in the glass and light blue eyes. The sun is shining and the ground around is littered with last year's leaves. Behind the altar, a Tilia/Linden spreads its still leafless branches.

Snowshoe #Hares can be common here, though I think we've been in a low point in their population cycle the last couple of years. Even when abundant they are elusive, so it's always a treat to see one + get pictures/video.
This one popped out when I was in a willow thicket photographing catkins. Special visitor sent by #GreatMother for #MayDay ? pics + YouTube link, #Spectra to follow
https://youtube.com/shorts/l3XcAN6s92o?feature=share
#nature #photography #Alberta #Canada #BorealForest #wildlife #pagan #Goddess #animist

Looking through some blurred dry grass and thin willow stems, we have a partial view of a snowshoe hare. It is standing in an alert ready to flee pose which means more or less erect on all fours, body stretched full length horizontally. We see it side on, head facing right, its ears- smaller than those of some hares are straight up, and from this angle its eye looks black and shiny. It is mostly but not fully changed from white winter fur to summer grey-brown. Its back is a reddish brown, with some white showing underneath and I think the face may yet get a bit darker. White inside ears and on feet may remain. Under and behind is more grass, mostly winter dry, partly grazed partly flattened, then we see the bottom of one weathered grey fence post and shadows of a wooded area farther back.

Same view nearly, but less obstructed, we can see most of the hare now, which is now sitting, facing away toward the fence, maybe only 1/8 turn of one eye toward the viewer but ears definitely angled back It is mostly but not fully changed from white winter fur to summer grey-brown. Its back is a reddish brown, with some white showing underneath and I think the face may yet get a bit darker. White inside ears and on feet may remain. Under and behind is more grass, mostly winter dry, partly grazed partly flattened, then we see the bottom half of one weathered grey fence post and shadows of a wooded area farther back.

Hospitals are always places where life and death cross paths and even sometimes walk together. This is one reason hospitals send chills crawling up our spines and through our nervous systems like a fast-growing poison ivy vine.

https://wildhunt.org/2025/05/the-bear-the-great-mother-and-the-weary-determination-of-my-heart.html

#pagan #politics #witchcraft #goddess #greatmother #healing #liminalspaces #trump

Between Two Worlds: Gender Non-Conforming Deities

March 27, 2019 by Brianne Raven Wolf

"As a transwoman, I have often wondered if there were others like me in Ancient Mythology. Were there ancient deities who were trans, non-binary, or gender non-conforming? Turns out there were. Ancient Greece had a prominent culture of gender fluidity, as did many other ancient societies.

"#Aphroditus was sometimes referred to as the male form of Aphrodite. Statues of him showed him with a female figure, breasts, narrow waist, long hair, women’s clothing, but also with a penis and testes. He is said to have originated on the island of Cyprus, and arrived in Athens in the 4th century BCE. He was sometimes celebrated there in #transvestite rites. It is said the festivals allowed 'women to act the part of men, and men to put on woman’s clothing and play the part of women' (from Wikipedia). He was definitely gender #NonConforming.

"Hermaphroditus was the son of Hermes, messenger of the gods, and Aphrodite, Goddess of love. His name is a combination of both of his parents. From Wikipedia: 'According to Ovid, he was born a remarkably handsome boy with whom the water nymph Salmacis fell in love with and prayed to be united forever. The gods granted the request, so that he and the nymph became united in such a manner that the two could not be called a man or a woman, but were both' (Metamorphoses IV, pp. 274-388 , 8 AD). Hermaphroditus is the god of hermaphrodites and effeminates. I believe in today’s society, Hermaphroditus would be a modern day pre-operative transwoman.

"#Loki, a Norse god, also called the trickster god, would many times disguise himself as a woman. Some myths said that Loki was bisexual. Loki was an accomplished shape-shifter and according to legend has also appeared as a salmon, a mare, a fly, and of course a woman.

"Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Met. 9, pp. 666-797) mentions #Iphis and #Ianthe. Iphis was born a girl, but her mother passed her off as a boy so that she wouldn’t be killed. The name was fitting for a boy and a girl, so that wasn’t too much of a problem. According to the myth, Iphis as a 15 year old boy, fell in love with another girl, Ianthe. Iphis’s mother appealed to the Goddess Isis for help. Isis transformed Iphis into a male before Iphis and Ianthe got married. I believe this may have been the first sex change. At least they ended up happily ever after according to the myth.

"#Ikapati was a #GreatMother Goddess of the Tagalog society in the #Philippines. She was a protector of crops, animals that were domesticated and, according to myth, gave mankind agriculture. It was said that she appeared many times dressed in male clothes. This would have made sense as she was frequently seen in the fields. In many indigenous cultures, including in the Americas, it was accepted that more than two genders were socially and spiritually accepted. These gender non-conforming individuals were seen as people who were very spiritual, and many became leaders and healers in their societies. In Native American culture, many who were called #TwoSpirit became shamans.

"#Ometeotl was an Aztec God of duality. He was considered both male and female, using the names Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl. He had an equivalent god in Mayan mythology, #Itzamna, who identified with #HunabKu, an invisible god. Both gods could be considered self-created gods according to myth. Ometeotl was to the Aztecs the idea that their Universe consisted of dark and light, night and day, order and war, and things like that.

"I’m of the opinion that if more people would understand that there are more than binary people in this world, it would be a better and safer place for all. I think the ancients got it right in their beliefs. People were just human beings, and not judged only on their biological sex. A good book to consider reading is this excellent book by Gerald N. Callahan, PhD., Between XX and XY: Intersexuality and the Myth of Two Sexes. From the book: 'On October 10, 1970, the day she was born, she was named Dorothy Maree Alaniz–a baby girl. Curiously, though, no one filled out a birth certificate that day. When the certificate was finally filed on November 5, the name on it was Rudolph Andrew Alaniz. Within less than one month after her birth, this girl became a boy.' The book is available from Amazon and other book sources."

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/2019/03/between-two-worlds-gender-non-conforming-deities/
#WorldHistory #Histodon #WeExist #Fascism #GenderFascists #GenderFluid #TwoSpirit #NonBinary #TransRightsAreHumanRights #TransPeople #AncientHistory #TransAndNonBinaryRightsAreHumanRights

#ArtAdventCalendar Day 10 Latvian tradition recognises numerous #LittleMothers minor goddesses or aspects of #GreatMother #Goddess who are concerned with every aspect of the human/natural world #LeafMother #SnowMother + #WindMother have been #decorating for the #WinterSolstice ❄️📷🌿 #Alberta #pagan #animist #nature

A single fairly large dry balsam poplar leaf spear tip shaped with its stem to the left, angling down to lower right and seen not quite straight on is wedged between numerous thin branches and trunks of poplar suckers/saplings. The leaf is backlit by sun and is a rich gold leaning to brown, with numerous dark specks plus veins showing. Some of the twigs behind also cast dark shadows. The ground blurrily visible behind the branches is snowy with golden grass here and there, and a shadowed area of woods farther back. A slight filter intensifies the colours a bit and gives a hint of violet. A white vignette effect has also been applied top and bottom

I'm not that excited about mainstream holidays, but Thanksgiving
is not a bad concept- daily gratitude
has been shown to be very beneficial. This altar( https://cohanmagazine.blogspot.com/2024/09/autumn-equinox-apjumibas-altar-to.html ) was prepared for the Equinox but works now too! Giving thanks for all the bounty of #Nature #GreatMother
A Beautiful Season to All!
#Thanksgiving #pagan #gratitude #SeasonalRhythms

A weathered wooden bench sits on mowed grass in front of a Linden tree with heart shaped leaves, still green. The bench is generously covered with potted plants, ceramic vessels holding cut flowers and leaves, and leaves and branches tucked between those and among rocks and pieces of wood.There are small flowers in several colours, but above all mounds of foliage from green to gold and red, stems and bunches of several kinds of berries and stems with seeds ripe or nearly so. More potted plants sit on the ground and the background is blurred mixed woods. Two small blue ceramic bird planters perch in the midst of the altar, each holding a single flowering thistle stem.
The border is a deep rusty red, with white frame. the text Happy Thanksgiving! in dull red across a semi-opaque whitish banner crosses the bottom of the image.

4- "In honour of the Summer Solstice, the big day for Saule/Sun, we celebrate her collaboration with Great Mother/Mara whose body/Earth and living Waters bring forth Life in such abundance, imbued with Saule's energy.

I wash the wooden outdoor altar bench in preparation and lay an altar with plants, flowers, leaves, pieces of wood and stones, blessing it again once finished, with Water."
#pagan #animist #GoddessCulture #GreatMother #Saule
https://youtu.be/jlbxuxbE_8Q
https://spectra.video/w/feNcNi29SGiDktShex98YA

Video thumbnail, framed in light pink.
text over image:
Summer Solstice (large bold bright light green)
laying an altar
In celebration of (smaller script meium light blue)
Sun and Earth (large bold bright light green)
image is a wooden bench generously covered with a number of potted plants- some in flower, some with varying textures, sizes and colours of foliage, bits of weathered branch and root as well as stones are placed between the pots, along with cut leafy branches and stems of many sorts and a few flowering stems. A couple of pots with foliage have also been placed on the ground beside the bench.

Festival Review: Hammerdown 2024, Concorde2 Brighton – Day 2

After another nice stroll along the Brighton seafront in the blazing sunshine (and ice cream number two of the weekend), I leant on the metal railings to enjoy some mor

https://www.moshville.co.uk/reviews/gig-review/2024/08/festival-review-hammerdown-2024-concorde2-brighton-day-2/

#GigReviews #10Plagues #Arimea #BleedAgain #GreatMother #Hammerdown #INME #LitLikeVegas #Netherhall #SeethingAkira #SouthOfSalem #Torchbearer

#ArtAdventCalendar Day 11 #LeafMother has left some colour from Autumn (months ago!) hanging bright against the #snow with a drop of frozen #rain and inscribed with cryptic insect prayers to the #GreatMother #Goddess! and Day 12 #Saule #Sun is nearly at the maximum of her turn to the south, yet her rays still brighten #Winter days, even if the warmth is mostly in our hearts! #Alberta #December #BorealForest #WinterPictures #CountryLiving #animist #Latvian

One leaf stem of a wild rose hangs down, with 3 leaflets clinging, in bright autumn colours of cranberry and pale coral. The end leaflet also has a drop of frozen water at the tip, and at that same end has squiggles left from insect activity, that look kind of like writing. Behind a blurred background of dusky snow, several upright stems behind the leaves, and one thorny rose stem visible in upper right.

View of the base of a large balsam poplar trunk with dark furrowed bark, nearly smooth snow immediately around it, dry leaves and twigs showing through the shallow snow farther away. It is in mature mixed woods-- a shady place but with trees not too close together, and not a lot of growth on the ground in many places. A couple of shafts of weak, golden, afternoon sun shine in from mid left, just reaching the trunk and the snow around it.

#ArtAdventCalendar see previous for preamble. Here are days 5 and 6 on the #farm #Saule / #Sun is low in sky as #Solstice approaches and #GreatMother #Mara showing some of her cloak of #green as a reminder of other seasons! #animist #pagan #Latvian #Alberta #Mosstodon #WinterPictures #nature #GetOutside

Day 5 afternoon sun glows low through a dark winter afternoon mixed spruce and poplar wood, diffused into brightly coloured rays by the branches and the camera lens. Foreground is snowy wetland with clumps of dry grass showing through, sky is a soft light mass like down or instant mashed potatoes!! with bits of blue showing through. White vignetting

An uneven lumpy bumpy rolling spread of green moss over old logs and stumps, surrounded with reddish brown and grey fallen leaves giving way to snow farther away, punctuated with numerous thin stems of saplings and shrubs, larger tree bases visible farther back. Black vignetting.

1/ Felt a little under the weather the last couple of days, so this morning before getting up I was briefly thinking/ #meditating on Earth Power/ #LifeForce / #GreatMother/ #BirdGoddess (all the same thing, more or less)- as a calming /focussing /affirming/ #balancing practise. In the middle of that I had a momentary #vision of an #owl flying away. So after rising I did a little searching on owl symbolism, particularly in the #Baltic #pagan tradition. #Latvian #mystic

View of wooded wetland with more mesic woods to the right and farther back. Front is an area of dry clumps of grass and shrubs protruding from snow. Behind is a tangle of large shrub multi-stemmed willows, mostly reddish, with some light barked slightly taller birch, then farther back poplars, birch and bare tamarack reach higher yet, catching afternoon sun against a grey sky.
Ragana is associated with forests and has a particular association with birch trees-- see a couple in left of this image.

This year, I added another element to the altar- in traditional manner, I adapted an existing religious icon, in this case a Barro Negro figure of the Virgin of Guadalupe that I bought in Mexico, she stands in for #Mara #GreatMother the Latvian primal #EarthGoddess, bringer of life, keeper of dead, black like the earth, the womb, the night.
She is crowned with Bunchberries for fruitfulness and abundance, Maianthemum berries to remind us that spring will come again, and seeds of sacred Linden.

We see the top of a black clay statue of a figure gazing downward, she wears a crown which has been topped with two clusters of berries, one orange-red the other deep cranberry and translucent, plus a whorl of green leaves and a stem with a few small green seed capsules. She is surrounded by a blurred background of multi-coloured foliage.

1/ When I mentioned rehoming the kitty who moved in here this summer, I talked about his safety- cats outdoors here don't live very long.
Another serious concern was for all the other little people- he was a very keen/ very effective hunter!
After he left (see posts from couple of days ago) it seemed like #GreatMother #Mara #EarthGoddess #BirdGoddess (all synonyms/facets of the same #nature principle) was sending me messages: remember all the other lives and : life is still here. more-replies-

A small/young snowshoe hare, in summer coloration-greyish brown with some dark hairs and white around rims of ears and nose is crouched in the grass in front of an area of taller plants, shrubs and trees. It is looking slightly sideways towards the camera.

Two small dark birds, one grey brown and one charcoal, both lighter underneath, are foraging for food in a mowed area of grass, dandelions etc. Shot taken from some distance and cropped, it is not super crisp, birds are small in the frame.

One of a small handful of songs I've written and finished to the point where I don't mind sharing. Don't expect any vocal prowess here 😅

Also, sharing my stuff where people are going to see it is HARD! I have to console myself with the reminder that most will scroll by without listening. Otherwise I could never! 😩

"Bring Me Low", by S.M. Leanne Johnson, aka Laurel-Olympias Columbine.

#Polytheism #OriginalSong #Devotional #Rhea #Kybele #GreatMother

#GreatMother

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