LIGHT DRIPs FROM CHAOS

Do what ye will. As it (may) HARM NONE 🔥🔥

[equallyliquidheretic]

🗝️🌿 10+ years at the crossroads.

Devotee of Hekate—Keeper of Keys, Torch-Bearer, Guide through shadows.

Devotee of Gaia—Deep-rooted Mother, Breath in the soil, Pulse of every green thing.

Some walk one path. I walk two that have always been one:

The dark, wise below. The living, breathing above.

Death and compost. Bones and blossoms. Keys and roots.

[waterbee0]

Doing my offerings to Apollo today and pulling a few oracle cards and my Greek Alphabet Rune set as well. I need to get more altar stuff for him but later and when money and time allows it.

[nirusky]

Eo  from  Red Rising  by   @pierce-brown                                                                                                        

[goth-queen]

[my-dailydreams]

[goth-queen]

[whimsycrafts]

lady aphrodite moodboard 🤍

i think we forget too much abt her sea aspect it is so gorgeous….i luv

[catchymemes]

[mournfulroses]

Tove Ditlevsen, from a poem featured in There Lives a Young Girl in Me Who Will Not Die: Selected Poems

[goth-queen]

[gothredy]

[andieburky]

Feyre painting in the Rose Garden ✨ from A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas

Illustration by @andieburky on IG

[gothredy]

[pmamtraveller]

by Ungfio

[waterbee0]

Leto (Λητω) part 1

Leto is a second generation Titaness and primarily considered the Goddess of Motherhood and Modesty. Leto is also viewed as a symbol of endurance and maternal strength from the strife birth of her children.

She is the daughter of Titans Coeus, the Titan of the rational mind and axis of heaven, and Phoebe, the original holder of the oracle at Delphi. And because she did not take part in the Titanomachy, she was allowed to retain her freedom.

After an affair with Zeus, she became pregnant with twins and in jealousy, Hera drove her from land-to-land, for nine days and nine nights, preventing Leto from giving birth. Where she found refuge in the floating, shrouded island of Delos, she finally gave birth to Artemis, who in turn, aided her mother in the birth of her twin brother, Apollo.

THE BIRTH OF APOLLO.

Homeric Hymn 3 to Delian Apollo 89 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th - 4th B.C.) :

“Leto was racked nine days and nine nights with pangs beyond wont. And there were with her all the chiefest of the goddesses, Dione and Rheia and Ikhnaia (Ichnaea) and Themis and loud-moaning Amphitrite and the other deathless goddesses save white-armed Hera, who sat in the halls of cloud-gathering Zeus. Only Eileithyia, goddess of sore travail, had not heard of Leto's trouble, for she sat on the top of Olympos (Olympus) beneath golden clouds by white-armed Hera's contriving, who kept her close through envy, because Leto with the lovely tresses was soon to bear a son faultless and strong.

But the goddesses sent out Iris from the well-set isle to bring Eileithyia, promising her a great necklace strung with golden threads, nine cubits long. And they bade Iris call her aside from white-armed Hera, lest she might afterwards turn her from coming with her words. When swift Iris, fleet of foot as the wind, had heard all this, she set to run; and quickly finishing all the distance she came to the home of the gods, sheer Olympos, and forthwith called Eileithyia out from the hall to the door and spoke winged words to her, telling her all as the goddesses who dwell on Olympos had bidden her. So she moved the heart of Eileithyia in her dear breast; and they went their way, like why wild-doves in their going. And as soon as Eileithyia the goddess of sore travail set foot on Delos, the pains of birth seized Leto, and she longed to bring forth; so she cast her arms about a palm tree and kneeled on the soft meadow while the earth of Delos laughed for joy beneath. Then the child leaped forth to the light.”

The various stories we gather from Leto include her being defended from a giant named Tityos who had attempted to assault her, Leto's divine children intervened and swiftly protected her.

Along with the mortal Queen Niobe, boasting she was a better mother than Leto as Niobe had more children, insulting and enraging Leto, she sent her children to punish her by slaying all of Niobe’s children.

During the Trojan War, Leto sided with the Trojans, and she alongside Artemis, healed the wounded Aeneas in a sanctuary, while Apollo fashioned a wraith in his likeness to delude the warriors in the battlefield.

Depictions of Leto often show her being veiled and in the modest clothing of the time.

Apollo protecting his mother from Tityos.

Ancient Worship

Leto was widely worshiped in the ancient world, she had various dedicated temples and worshiped alongside both Artemis and Apollo in their temples.

The significant temples dedicated to Leto:

The Letoon in Xanthos, Turkey; (Lycian Center) the most famous and important center of worship in South West Turkey.

The Temple in Delos, Greece; the legendary spot where she gave birth to the twins.

The Temple in Latos, Crete; An important temple was built in the ancient city of Lato dedicated to Leto, Apollo, and Artemis.

The Temple in Didyma, Turkey; A well known spot for all three, Leto, Apollo and Artemis trip worship.

In many ways much of her worship was mostly alongside her popular kids, however, the few independent offerings included:

Offerings of incense like frankincense and myrrh. As well as palm tree branches and dates associated with her strenuous birth on Delos.

Worshipers of Leto often offered up agricultural products, especially holy sheaves of corn, as well as grain.

“In sanctuaries like the Letoon in Lycia, worshippers dedicated inscribed plaques, money, and even weapons (captured in battle and dedicated as memorials).”

Roosters were considered a sacred animal symbol to Leto for their association with the dawning of new life. Ancient Greek women often had roosters around to draw strength during childbirth.

Leto was given various epithets in ancient literature, though they were not necessarily unique to her:

lovely-haired

dark-robed, Hesiod.

fair-locked

fair-cheeked

Orphic Hymn to Leto 34

“Dark veil'd Latona [Leto], much invoked queen, twin-bearing Goddess, of a noble mien;

Cæantis [Koiantis] great, a mighty mind is thine, offspring prolific, blest of Jove [Zeus] divine:

Phœbus proceeds from thee, the God of light, and Dian [Artemis] fair, whom winged darts delight;

She in Ortygia's honor'd regions born, in Delos he, which mountains high adorn.

Hear me, O Goddess, with propitious mind, and end these holy rites, with aspect kind.”

Part two will include other aspects as well as opinionative ideas to initiate worship with the goddess or venerate her.

Sources: links, links, links, links.

My Kofi Little Shop.

[rosieandthemoon]

ruins of St Andrews Cathedral in Fife, Scotland

[zmiyinaart]

The Young Warrior

Not sure what the autumnal mood is about.