Maibi Dance

Ritual dance of Manipuri Priestesses

Maibi Dance

To the Graces

 

"Hear me, illustrious Graces, mighty named,
From Jove descended and Eunomia famed;
Thalia, and Aglaia fair and bright,
And blest Euphrosyne whom joys delight:
Mothers of mirth, all lovely to the view,
Pleasure abundant pure belongs to you:
Various, forever flourishing and fair,
Desired by mortals, much invoked in prayer:
Circling, dark-eyed, delightful to mankind,
Come, and your mystics bless with bounteous mind."

 

 

 

("Hymns of Orpheus", trans. Taylor; painting of section of "Primavera" by Sandro Botticelli)

 

More Devotions to the Goddess

 

Happy Full Moon!

 

May the Full Flower Moon of May bring
enlightenment through Beauty.

 

 

 

(artwork copyright Rebecca Ronesi)

Earth Prayer

 

The mountains, I become part of it.

The herbs, the fir tree, I become part of it.

The morning mists, the clouds, the gathering waters,

I become part of it.

The wilderness, the dew drops, the pollen,

I become part of it.

 

Navajo Chant

In the News: Expo - Acroliti Morgantina

 

From the article: "The senses will reveal to visitors the visual beauty - through the exhibition's location showcasing the Acroliti of Morgantina representing the Greek divinities of Demetra and Kore (about 530 BC) from the museum of Aidone (Enna), ready to be taken to Expo in Milan.. . With their solemn look, supernatural and mysterious, fascinating and charming, human and natural, the two goddesses will represent Sicily. Behind their strongly enigmatic smile there is a society that has produced it and one that has inherited today its territories and history, culture and knowledge. Sicily will thus have the face of the goddesses."

Read Full Article

 

 

(photo, copyright ANSA - All rights reserved)

Invocation to Lalita

 

Homage to the one who
Shines like a thousand rising suns,
Endowed with four arms,
Wielding a noose of love
And flashing goad of anger,
A sugarcane bow of mind
And five arrows of the five subtle elements,
Flooding the universe with her dawn-red splendor,
With campaka, asoka and punnaga flowers
Adorning her fragrant, shining tresses,
Whose crown is glorious with rubies
Who is enchanting, her ears adorned
With clusters of kadamba blossoms.

 

 

(text from Sri Lalita Sahasranama, trans. Shaw)

Happy Pink Moon

 

Blessings of the Full Moon in Libra;

May the eclipse reveal that which you have hidden from yourself.

(artwork, copyright Anniga, Deviantart)

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)

Happy Spring Equinox

 

May all the beauty of Spring surround you!

 

 

 

(painting copyright Helena Nelson Reed)