3/28/2015

Hymn to the Fates


"Daughters of darkling Nyx, much named, draw near, infinite Moirai, and listen to my prayer; who in the heavenly lake, where waters white burst from a fountain hid in depths of night, and through a dark and stony cavern glide, a cave profound, invisible abide; from whence, wide coursing round the boundless earth, your power extends to those of mortal birth; To these acceding, in a purple veil to sense impervious, you yourselves conceal, when in the plain of Moira you joyful ride in one great car, with glory for your guide; till all-complete, your heaven appointed round, at justice, hope, and care's concluding bound, the terms absolved, prescribed by ancient law, of power immense, and just without a flaw. For Moira alone with vision unconfined surveys the conduct of the mortal kind. . . Come, gentle powers, well born, benignant, famed, Atropos, Lachesis and Clotho named; unchanged, aerial, wandering in the night, untamed, invisible to mortal sight; Moirai all-producing, all-destroying, hear, regard the incense and the holy prayer; propitious listen to these rites inclined, and far avert distress, with placid mind."


(The Fates painting by Alfred Agache, circa 1885. Hymn to the Moirai, Fumigation from Aromatics, Orphic Hymn, trans. Taylor)

3/20/2015

Happy Spring Equinox

 
May all the beauty of Spring surround you!
 
 
 
(painting copyright Helena Nelson Reed)

3/16/2015

Vision of the Divine Feminine

 
"She is so bright and glorious that you cannot look at her face or her garments for the splendor with which she shines. For she is terrible with the terror of the avenging lightening, and gentle with the goodness of the bright sun; and both her terror and her gentleness are incomprehensible to humans . . . But she is with everyone and in everyone, and so beautiful is her secret that no person can know the sweetness with which she sustains people, and spares them in inscrutable mercy."
 
Vision of the Divine Feminine by Hildegard von Bingen. 
(Scivias, III, 4.15, trans. Mother Hart, O.S.B. and Jane Bishop)
 
 
(Painting of the Divine Sophia by Pamela Matthews, all rights reserved.)
 

3/10/2015

Hymn to Aphrodite

 
"I will sing of stately Aphrodite, gold-crowned and beautiful, whose dominion is the walled cities of all sea-set Cyprus. There the moist breath of the western wind wafted her over the waves of the loud-moaning sea in soft foam, and there the gold-filleted Hours welcomed her joyously. They clothed her with heavenly garments: on her head they put a fine, well-wrought crown of gold, and in her pierced ears they hung ornaments of orichalc and precious gold, and adorned her with golden necklaces over her soft neck and snow-white breasts, jewels which the gold-filleted Hours wear themselves whenever they go to their father's house to join the lovely dances of the gods. And when they had fully decked her, they brought her to the gods, who welcomed her when they saw her, giving her their hands. Each one of them prayed that he might lead her home to be his wedded wife, so greatly were they amazed at the beauty of violet-crowned Cytherea." (Homeric Hymn, trans. Evelyn-White)
 
 

(Aphrodite on a swan, art from kylix, Kameiros/Rhodes tomb.)

More Goddess Devotions:  In Her Name


3/04/2015

Blessings of the Full Moon

 
Happy Full Moon in Virgo!
May the seeds of harmony grow in beauty.
 
 
 
(photo copyright Nuttakit.)