#sacred duality

[paganravennest]

Contemplating Brigid on Imbolc

With Imbolc being today, I have also been contemplating the duality and balance of the Goddess Brigid, in that she is associated with both fire and water.

In her fire aspect she is the blacksmith, the tender of the burning hearth, the keeper of the sacred flame. Lighting the fires of inspiration in poets and artisans of all types. She also fuels our hospitality, our humanity, or desire to protect, serve, and help others.

In her water aspect she is the healer and midwife, the nurturer, and the tender of animals. She soothes, calms, and heals. She also invites us to internal contemplation while rejuvenating and washing us anew.

I'm going to strive to be mindful of my own balance of fire and water today. Too much fire and creation can turn to destruction, we can also burn out. Too much water and rest can turn to depression, we can also drown in ourselves.

In thinking about Brigid in this light, I wrote two new mini devotionals for her:

Brigid of the holy fire, Poets and artisans, she inspires, Devotion to craft, is all she requires, All hail the Great Goddess Brigid!

Brigid of the holy well, Illness and injury, she dispels, Pain and suffering, she does quell, All hail the Great Goddess Brigid!

[paganravennest]

Hathor or Sekhmet are two sides of the same coin that is the Eye of Ra. Hathor is the nurturer, the nurse maid of Horus, and the one who brings comfort and peace to those in the afterlife. She is a goddess of femininity, sensuality, and feminine sexuality. She is also associated with dancing, music, and joy/celebration. When Ra had been insulted by another god and stopped participating in his daily duties, choosing instead to withdraw from everyone/everything, it was Hathor who exposed her genitalia to him to make him laugh and regain his zeal for life.

Sekhmet on the other hand is righteous anger, and a powerful protector. She defends Ra against his enemies and stands firm against the tides of Chaos. Her rage runs deep and when it is fully unleashed she is brutal and can be difficult to rein in. One myth tells of how Ra set her loose upon the world after mankind disrespected him. Her fury was un-ending and she almost wiped out all of humanity. Ra realized his mistake and ordered a vast quantity of beer to be dyed red and poured out so that if formed a small lake. Sekhmet mistook this for blood and drank it up, causing her to become very inebriated and return to her more peaceful form.

I know for myself, and I think many others, Hathor is a very approachable goddess. Her attributes are ones that many people admire and she can be seen as a good model for femininity. Sekhmet on the other hand is dangerous, messy, loud, and wild. She is everything that we are told women should not be. Rather than nurture, she maims, yet she also protects.

How can we embrace one, but not the other? After all Hathor is Sekhmet and Sekhmet is Hathor. Honestly I think we women not only need both, but already are a bit of both. We not only bring great pleasure, joy and comfort to others (and ourselves) but we can also be fierce agents of change, strong and fearless in our Independence, and powerfully protective. Hathor/Sekhmet shows us that we can be both nurturers/mothers/wives, and fiercely independent and capable of standing up for our truths and what is right.

When I want to remind myself of this duality, I use the cat/cow Yoga poses. I feel the passive/receptive qualities of Hathor while in cow pose before switching to cat pose and feeling the active/projective qualities of Sekhmet.

For the longest time I wanted to write a devotional poem for Hathor and hit a mental block every single time. That was till I embraced her other side: Sekhmet. Once I did the words flowed easily and I ended up with a mini devotional for each of them.

Sekhmet of the bloody fight,

With claws that rend and fangs that bite,

Using vengeful anger to set things right,

All hail the Great Goddess Sekhmet!

Hathor with her sacred sistrum,

Giving dancers their joyous rhythm,

Mistress of feminine sensualism,

All hail the Great Goddess Hathor!

[paganravennest]

Duality and Balance of the Divine

So, a quick warning that this is mostly UPG. The following information comes from my meditations on Apollo/Artemis as well as information revealed to me through my work of developing a working relationship with these deities.

When I first began working with deities I pushed back hard against Apollo and Artemis, after all MY witchcraft and life were more wild than that, more nuanced, more *mysterious*. I only held these beliefs because I was very new and did not at all understand Apollo or Artemis. Eventually it was revealed to me that Apollo was the conduit through which I was able to write my divine poetry, he was the source of my spark of creativity. It took me much longer to warm up to Artemis and it wasn't until I was really struggling to regain my sense of separate personhood and an identity outside of "mom" after my 2nd child was entering toddlerhood that I began to accept Artemis and work to understand her more.

Let's bring this ramble back to my original idea though: Apollo represents the highest ideals of humankind, the great achievements of civilization: medicine/health, art (in all its forms), knowledge, innovation, deeply personal spirituality, order/justice, and a desire to better ourselves and others. Artemis on the other hand represents wild nature: untamed wilderness, instinct/animal nature, impersonal power, giver and taker of life, a delicate order that seems chaotic at first glance, finding ourselves through solitude with an understanding of the importance of community for human's survival, and the desire to question what it means to be human and striving to understand our place within the web of life.

We need both to survive. The fine balance between them must be maintained for us to thrive. We cannot embrace the one and shun the other. Artemis and Apollo are twins, two halves of a whole, seemingly opposed but also complimentary, sacred duality and balance personified.

Here are the mini devotionals I wrote for Artemis and Apollo that I feel scratches the surface of this:

Apollo is the Golden Son of Olympus, A patron of the arts and a paragon of progress, Guiding humanity to be at its best, All hail the Great God Apollo!

Artemis of the desolate and wild, Untamed maiden, freed inner-child, Reminding us that Nature is often not mild, All hail the Great Goddess Artemis!