Saturday, October 25, 2008, 01:18 PM CST [Goddess]
Modron, Welsh Mother Goddess associated with autumn, harvest and fertility (art by Karemelancholia)
Bereshit (Genesis) through a witch's vision
וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, יְהִי רָקִיעַ בְּתוֹךְ הַמָּיִם, וִיהִי מַבְדִּיל, בֵּין מַיִם לָמָיִם ; וַיְהִי-כֵן And Elohim said: 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters' ; and it was so.
וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, יִקָּווּ הַמַּיִם מִתַּחַת הַשָּׁמַיִם אֶל-מָקוֹם אֶחָד, וְתֵרָאֶה, הַיַּבָּשָׁה; וַיְהִי-כֵן. And Elohim said: 'Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear.' And it was so.
וְאֵד, יַעֲלֶה מִן-הָאָרֶץ, וְהִשְׁקָה, אֶת-כָּל-פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה. and there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
וַיְבָרֶךְ אֱלֹהִים אֶת-יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי, וַיְקַדֵּשׁ אֹתוֹ And Elohim blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it
in the beginning of the morning, one day ...
A waking vision this shabbat morning - a mist surrounded me and filled my vision. Then, the middle of the mist parted and a mountain could be seen. Both the base and peak of the mountain extended beyond my focused field of vision, and both extended from within the mist even as much of the sloping sides of the central portion of the mountain were clearly visible. Suddenly, a pearlsphere the size of a giant hand fell from the skies within which the peak of the mountain rested. Just as suddenly, a Divine masculine hand reached down from the same skies and caught the pearl sphere in midair just before it entered the portion of the mist covering the base of the mountain to strike the sea/earth in which the mountain rested.
Two ideas came immediately and simultaneously to mind - one, that erev shabbat I had watched the video Mists Of Avalon, and two, "catching" the "falling" soul of messianic consciousness as described in Kabbalah for the Hebrew letter nun.
As I am investigating the symbolism of the vision for this entry, out of the mist it becomes clear to me a connection between the triple aspect of the Goddess Morrigan (of a singular Goddess Modron) and the three verses of the Birkhat Kohanim (of a singular Kohen).
Modron is associated with autumn (the "fall" season). Duir is associated with the oak "tree". This morning's hidden path divination performed with the waning cresecent moon 11% full during the planetary hour of Jupiter (door of thesabbathsoul) was the card "tree in fall", a card symbolizing liberation.
Today's Torah portion is Bereshit, containing all three symbols - mist, tree and fall - were all singularly caught as one like an acorn of shabbat consciousness in my waking vision.
The sixth shaman stone in my Temple Collection (the second stone found with the fifth shaman stone as described in Days Of Awe) is represented by the spirit of Butterfly. In ancient Celtic tradition, Butterfly represents the immortal soul in contact with the Ancestors, and alchemically represents transformation of the Dark Shell into the Flight of Light. The spirit of Butterfly in Celtic tradition therefore corresponds to the phenomenon of the Holy Shell in Jewish tradition as taught by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (Secrets Of The Redemption).
As Blodeuwedd is linked to Butterfly through my very real experience, so too is Blodeuwedd linked through Butterfly to the reality of redemption as written above. Through the idea of redemption (perfected consciousness), Celtic Blodeuwedd corresponds to Jewish Chayyah, the mother of Immortal Life and the alchemical rectification of the soul of Eve.
The fifth shaman stone (from the yard outside my bedroom window) in my Temple Collection is represented by the Celtic goddess Blodeuwedd in the form of an owl (as opposed to her fair flower form as discussed in a previous entry, Relentlessly Faithful And True). It is in this form that she is definitively known as a Dark Goddess.
The short chapter in the book Doorways To The Otherworld (Catrin James), which discusses Blodeuwedd in her owl form, is introduced with the picture of a feather. Not with an owl, but with a feather. Interestingly, right before my Rosh Hashanah encounter with the cricket (קריקט), searching purposefully around in the grass for stones, I came across a single very small feather. I picked the feather up, gathered it into the folds of my skirt with two stones I had found (side by side) just moments before, and continued walking. A few seconds later, I encountered the cricket (a totem of "finding light within the dark", אתהפכא חשוכא לנהורא).
I wasn't looking for a feather, but I found one and kept it, knowing that its purpose would come to me later. What indeed is the connection between Blodeuwedd in her owl form, a feather and a cricket? The thread of connection is active release from a ritual binding and subsequent resurrection.
Catrin James writes of Blodeuwedd in the form of an owl:
It is through becoming an owl that Blodeuwedd escapes the manipulations of men who seek to confine her. Also (in the myth under discussion) Blodeuwedd as flower woman and owl is the only one not to be drowned ... And even as Blodeuwedd does not drown in the lake, so too you will find that in holding on to your truths at this time of transformation, you too will not drown ... In swimming in the ocean of the mystical, others may drown by listening to the wrong words, or identifying with ego, but in holding things lightly yet at the same time paradoxically realizing the sanctity of these messages, these visions, you are coming to a greater wisdom ... The owl dreamstone is to do with silence, stillness, and if you find anything belonging to owl, or indeed any other gifts of the sacred creatures such as feathers, these too can be added to your collection, amongst your most sacred things ... it is a visitation of the goddess, it is the unseen and she has put her hand upon you for a reason that you may not know right now but in the fullness of time will develop, even as darkness gives way to light.
Finding Blodeuwedd's feather on the second day of Rosh Hashanah is yet another amazing "coincidence", just like with my encounter with the deer on Erev Rosh Hashanah (as described in Witch's Shofar).
Taking the feather symbolism further into elucidating the thread of connection, a feather is used in preparation for Pesach (Passover) during the ritual called Bedikat Chametz (a ritual search for chametz, a substance which spiritually is that which can sour the outcome of spiritual development or mystical work). The important idea, especially within the unique context here with regard to Rosh Hashanah and the entire High Holy Day period, is that the sacred point of bedikat chametz is not to find chametz, but isto resolve all doubts. The existence of doubts implies the existence Amalek (collective negative energies which seek to destroy a person or people). Bedikat chametz therefore symbolizes the ritual destruction of Amalek (which in my case, would be all the negative energies which seek to destroy me and that which I am).
The centerpiece of our Rosh Hashanah observance, prayers, and sounding of the shofar is the remembrance of the akeidah - the binding of Yitzchak to the altar and Avraham's apparent willingness to sacrifice him as worship to God. The akeidah has followed us throughout our long history. There have been millions of akeidot in Jewish history and most of them ended in the death of the victim and not in him or her being spared.
Yitzchak emerged from his experience of the akeidah (a wizard's binding ritual) alive (symbolized by the shofar), just as I emerged from my akeidah alive (symbolized by the appearance of the antlerless deer by the roadside). As Yitzchak was not slaughtered by knife, neither was I slaughtered by becoming involved in a fatal collision of my car with a deer. Finding Blodeuwedd's feather destroys all doubt that I am spared. And, as Yitzchak was resurrected from the Rosh Hashanah altar of Avraham, so too am I resurrected from the Rosh Hashanah altar of the Sacred Earth, through my encounter with the cricket subsequent to finding Blodeuwedd's feather. As a totem creature, cricket "is about resurrection. Awesome!
Thank Goddess, She has released the bound. Of course, upon my fifth shaman stone shall be written matir assurim (מתיר אסורים) in Hebrew, Ogham and Bardic runes. Interestingly, the shoresh-root (תור) of the word matir (meaning 'who releases') can, among its many meanings [1], mean "purposeful searching" (like I was doing, looking for stones) and "foraging for grass" (like the cricket was doing when I, looking for stones, saw her).
My Torah is Her Torah.
Footnote:
[1] Etymological Dictionary Of Biblical Hebrew, Matityahu Clark
Sunday, September 21, 2008, 12:56 AM CST [Goddess]
In follow-up to my post Mabon - Tam Z'Man, A Perfect Time, note the two Hebrew letters which embrace the Ogham letter muin in the graphic which favors the witch's expression - tav (associated with Mabon) and chet (associated with the Divine Feminine power of the witch through the run and return of the Lifeforce) - have a combined gematria of 408.
This prophecy (זאת) of the Divine Feminine is wholy united (חִשֵּׁק) with pure passion (חשק), in triple portion ...
... of which, there is no question. R. Shneur Zalman of Liadi
Note: Each of the three Hebrew words above has a gematria of 408. The Hebrew word in the middle (חִשֵּׁק) is a rare word, just as my Noble NameMyfanwy is a rare Welsh name meaning "rare, fine one". The name Myfanwy is One Unified Name expressing three explicit interwoven aspects of the Divine Feminine with rare passion, perfect precision and pure clarity.
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