Equinox Blessings

May all your harvests be blessed this Equinox!

("An Autumn Idyll" by Francis Davis Millet, 1892)

Enrollment date reminder

A reminder about the next opportunity to be enrolled in our home-study program. Please have your applications in by this Sunday, September 23rd, for October 1st enrollment. Thank you! You can read more about our Temple of Learning here:

In Her Name ~ Home-Study Mystery School

Praise-song

“What greater praise can I give you than to call you green?

Green, rooted in light, shining like the sun

that pours riches on the wheeling earth;

incomprehensible green, divinely mysterious green,

comforting arms of divine green

protecting us in their powerful circle.

And yet, you are more than even the noblest green,

for you glow red as breaking dawn,

you shine white as the incandescent sun.

Splendid One,

none of our physical senses can explain

or comprehend you.”

Hildegarde of Bingen, "Item de Virginibus"

September 17th is the feast day of Hildegard of Bingen, also known as the "Sybil of the Rhine."
(Photo by M. Thyssen.)

Hymn to Persephone

TO PROSERPINE

"Illustrious, horned, of a bounteous mind,

Alone desired by those of mortal kind.

O, vernal queen, whom grassy plains delight,

Sweet to the smell, and pleasing to the sight:

Whose holy form in budding fruits we view,

Earth's vigorous offspring of a various hue:

Espoused in Autumn: life and death alone

To wretched mortals from thy power is known:

For thine the task according to thy will,

Life to produce, and all that lives to kill.

Hear, blessed Goddess, send a rich increase

Of various fruits from earth, with lovely Peace;

Send Health with gentle hand, and crown my life

With blest abundance, free from noisy strife;

Last in extreme old age the prey of Death,

Dismiss we willing to the realms beneath,

To thy fair palace, and the blissful plains

Where happy spirits dwell, and Pluto reigns."

("The Hymns of Orpheus", trans. T. Taylor, Painting of Proserpine by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1874.)

Other Hymns and Devotions to be found on our website:  In Her Name

Blessings of the Blue Moon

Homeric Hymn to Selene

"And next, sweet voiced Muses, daughters of Zeus,

well-skilled in song, tell of the long-winged Moon.

From her immortal head a radiance is shown from heaven and embraces earth;

and great is the beauty that ariseth from her shining light.

The air, unlit before, glows with the light of her golden crown,

and her rays beam clear, whensoever bright Selene

having bathed her lovely body in the waters of Ocean,

and donned her far-gleaming, shining team,

drives on her long-maned horses at full speed,

at eventime in the mid-month:

then her great orbit is full and then her beams

shine brightest as she increases.

So she is a sure token and a sign to mortal men."

(Homeric Hymn to Selene, photo by Dreamtime.)

Other Devotions to the Goddess found on our site:  In Her Name

Opening of the Mundus Cerialis

The Mundus Cerialis (the world of Ceres) is an underground vault in Rome that was sealed by a stone lid the majority of the year.  On August 24th, October 5th and November 8th, it was opened for offerings to be made to various Deities, including Ceres, and to allow the spirits to rise and wander in the world of the living for the day.  The rites held during the Mundus Cerialis acknowledged the Goddess Ceres as Her role as the fruitful earth, guardian of seed-corn and guardian of underworld portals.

(Photo by Lylum of the entrance to the Umbilicus Urbis (navel of the city).  This may have been part of the underground Mundus structure. It is the symbolic center of Rome.)

Other sites sacred to the Goddess may be found on our website:  In Her Name

Enrollment Reminder - Correspondence Courses

A reminder that our next enrollment date is September 1st, and student applications need to be in by August 24th. For more information on our home-study courses in the Goddess mysteries and Priestess training, please see this section of our site:

In Her Name ~ Temple of Learning

Perseids and Wohpe

In recognition of the annual Perseids meteor shower.  Wohpe is a Lakota Goddess whose name means Falling Star.  She is a Goddess of peace and in later stories, becomes White Buffalo Calf Woman.   Turquoise is her stone as it reflects the many shades of blue of the sky and the blue-green of the ocean.  Connect with her to bring harmony and awareness of the eternal cycles of time.

(photo by B. Inglory)



Full Moon Blessings!

In some Native American cultures the August Full Moon is known as the Green Corn Moon, so today we are honoring the Corn Mother and other Grain Goddesses:  Iyatiku, Selu, The Corn Maidens, Yellow Woman, Chicomecoatl, Demeter & Persephone, Zaramama, Ukemochi, Annona, Dewi Sri, Nidaba, and Ashnan.

In Her Name ~ Temple of Learning