Happy (Belated) Saint Lucy / Lucia Day!

Happy (Belated) Saint Lucy / Lucia Day! In Sweden, Saint Lucia is a young girl in a candle head dress bringing the light. Light is celebrated on Saint Lucy / Lucia Day because on the former calendar, December 13 was the winter solstice. In Italy, Lucy is a martyr who put out her own eyes to avoid seeing evil deeds, also celebrated on December 13.

Saint Lucy / Lucia Day Procession, original painting by Echoing Multiverse, available via Saatchi Art. Greeting cards, stickers, and other merch available through RedBubble or Fine Art America.

While in Italy, Lucy carries her eyeballs on a platter, in Sweden, the platter is traditionally covered with Lussikatter, curled up cat shaped saffron buns with raisin eyes. Which makes total sense as Freya and her cat sleigh preceded Santa and his reindeer.

Lussikatter

Freya's Cat Chariot - first published in 1865

"For the Pre-Christian Pagans of Europe, it was not Santa Claus but Goddess Freyja who arrived on Christmas Eve. Until 18th century, even many Christians used to address her as "Mother Christmas. The myth of Santa claus was appropriated from her "- Swedish Historian Ebbe Schön"

Lucy also rules the night, with Saint Lucy's Eve, Lussinatten, and/or the entire stretch of nights between Saint Lucia's Day and Yule being considered dangerous. Don't go out at night, or she and her troll entourage, the Lussiferda might get you, as illustrated in the 1922 painting below. Even if you stay inside, if you've been a naughty child she might come down the chimney to snatch you away.

"Nils Bergslien’s painting “Julereia” (1922) shows Lussi stealing a child and leading a parade of trolls, gnomes, murderers, and general degenerates."

Why is this lady of the light stealing children? According to sweden.se, a Swedish government-funded website, "The Lucia tradition can be traced back both to the martyr St Lucia of Syracuse (died in 304) and to the Swedish legend of Lucia as Adam’s first wife. It is said that she consorted with the Devil and that her children were invisible infernals. The name may be associated with both lux (light) and Lucifer (Satan), and its origins are difficult to determine."

Lussi = Satan's wife? Lussiferda = infernal children of the devil?

"In agrarian Sweden, young people used to dress up as Lucia figures (lussegubbar) that night and wander from house to house singing songs and scrounging for food and schnapps." Christmas Halloween!

"The first recorded appearance of a white-clad Lucia in Sweden was in a country house in 1764. The custom did not become universally popular in Swedish society until the 1900s, when schools and local associations in particular began promoting it. The old lussegubbar custom virtually disappeared with urban migration, and white-clad Lucias with their singing processions were considered a more acceptable, controlled form of celebration than the youthful carousals of the past. Stockholm proclaimed its first Lucia in 1927."

Lucia Day Procession from VisitSweden.com

Christmas Halloween sounds more fun.

Comments

Non Binary Mercury Symbol

The Mercury symbol is one of the symbols that has been proposed to represent nonbinary gender. Mars is traditionally the male symbol. Venus is female. Originally the Mercury symbol was a representation of Mercury's staff with its two entwined snakes. Mercury was a male god to the Romans, their version of Hermes, but snakes have represented the divine feminine since much further back than their co-opting by the Roman patriarchy. For example, the Egyptian Goddess Wadjet was depicted as a snake entwined around a papyrus stem as early as the Predynastic Era (prior to 3100 BCE). Someone crossed the staff sometime in the 11th century to look more Christian, which also makes the symbol look more feminine. Nonbinary, a mixture of masculine and feminine traits. Mercury, nonbinary symbol, original painting by Echoing Multiverse available via Saatchi Art . Stickers, buttons, and other merch available through RedBubble or Fine Art America . Solar System Symbols. Source: NASA Painte

Sophia and the Apocryphon of John

In 1945, thirteen leather-bound papyrus codices buried in a sealed jar were found by an Egyptian farmer near the town of Nag Hammadi, Egypt. These early Christian texts date from the 3rd century CE, and include writings attributed to John the Baptist. The writings of John became known as the Secret Book of John, or the Apocryphon of John. A translation by Frederik Wisse can be read online . In the Apocryphon, there is a female counterpart to the Father - the holy Mother, Barbelo. "She is the forethought of the All - her light shines like his light - the perfect power... The first power, the glory of Barbelo, the perfect glory in the aeons, the glory of the revelation... she became the womb of everything, for it is she who is prior to them all, the Mother-Father." I became aware of the Apocryphon of John after reading a graphic novel by Marisa Acocella, The Big She-Bang, The Herstory of the Universe According to God the Mother (highly recommended, by the way). In addit

Chang e, Moon Goddess

Chang e or Chang o, the Chinese moon goddess. The details of her story vary, but generally she is married to an archer who shoots 9 of the 10 suns to prevent the Earth from scorching drought. He is awarded elixir of immortality by the Great Queen Mother Goddess of the West. To keep the elixir from burglars, Chang e drinks it. The elixir causes her to float up to the moon, where she is separated from her husband, but at least has a jade rabbit and busy woodcutter for company. China's lunar landers are named after her. Chang E, Moon Goddess original painting by Echoing Multiverse available via Saatchi Art . Stickers, prints, and other merch available through RedBubble or Fine Art America . In older stories, she also births the 12 moons. In some versions of the story with the archer, Chang e is reunited with him during the 8th moon of each year. The Mid-Autumn Festival celebrates this reunion, and is one of the largest holidays in China. According to Wikipedia, "The Mid-A

Having a Child Is Like Having Your Heart Walk Around Outside Your Body

I've been reading a lot about evolutionary psychology lately. It seems that what really made us human was the bond between mother and child. Our big brains force us into the world before we can even hold up our own heads. We essentially must continue gestating outside the womb. The learning and empathy that develops between mother and child in infancy forms the basis of everything we call love, and lays the foundation for our cooperative culture. Evolution, driven by the mothers. It's been a series of fascinating reads, and it's reminded me of the quote about how having a child is like forever having a piece of your heart walking around outside your body. Or, in the case of my painting, your whole heart. My heart and I, walking through the parking lot of the New York Renaissance Faire a couple of years ago. Having a Child Is Like Having Your Heart Walk Around Outside Your Body, original painting by Echoing Multiverse. Available via Saatchi Art . Prints, stickers,

Eostre

The flowers are beginning to bloom, the sun has returned, Sunday is Easter! You've probably noticed that the date of Easter, unlike most Christian holidays, changes from year to year. Did you know that this is because Easter date is set by the "solar pagan calendar". The yearly celebration of bunnies and zombies occurs on the Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. Why would a Christian holiday be celebrated based on a pagan calendar? According to The Field , "In 595 CE, Pope Gregory sent a mission of 40 monks led by a Benedictine called Augustine, prior of St Andrew’s monastery in Rome (and later the first Archbishop of Canterbury), to England with instructions to convert the pagan inhabitants to Christianity. Augustine was advised to allow the outward forms of the old, heathen festivals and beliefs to remain intact, but wherever possible to superimpose Christian ceremonies and philosophy on them." Imbolc became Candlemas. Lughnasadh b

Walpurgisnacht, Beltane, May Day

Happy Walpurgisnacht, Beltane, and May Day! Saint Walburga, burner of witches luxuriating in the flames of the Asherah pole while the children dance for the great mother Goddess of the returning sun and somewhere in the distance the smell of bacon wafts from the sacrificial pregnant sow. Original painting and fine art prints available through Saatchi Art . Prints and merch also available in shop or through RedBubble or Fine Art America . Tonight marks a cross quarter day on the Celtic calendar. We are halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. If Ceridwen was stirring her cauldron for the year, she would be 3/8 of the way through. In ancient Greece, the beginning of May marks the return of Persephone from the underworld. The Romans named the month of May for the goddess Maia, to whom a pregnant sow would be sacrificed, in the tradition of Demeter and other Great Mother Goddesses. The name Maia is an honorific for older women related to Mater, or mother. ( s

Echoing Multiverse

Search This Blog