Hecate, Venus and The Virgin Mary
a peculiar harvest time connection
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I enjoy these continuities. They act as connections bridging old-world pagan festivals and the Christian medieval world. Indeed these archaic seasonal celebrations still echo into our post-modern world as faded flowers pressed between the pages of an antique book. To me, the morphing and transforming feast days and holy days show the deep universal impulse of humans to seek connection with the divine.
We’ve now moved into the season of Lammas/Lughnasadh, the "little harvest." For another five weeks, as we celebrate this cross-quarter day, we’ll find it has much to offer.
In the far distant past, August thirteenth was a festival day dedicated to Hecate, the wise and powerful Goddess of the Moon, and then later to Diana, the Moon Goddess of the Romans, and later still to the Virgin Mary who stands upon a crescent moon, and in the Eastern tradition and in Germany is celebrated in August as Virgin Mary, Mother of God Ripener of Grain.
Imagery depicting her wearing an "ear dress" with golden ears of corn or grain, known as Weizenährenfrau (woman with ears of wheat), was common from at least the 13th c. and possibly earlier.
In Poland, Aug. 15 is called Matki Boskiej Zielnej – Blessed Mother (or Our Lady) of the Herbs.
Venus
A little-known fact is that Venus goes through phases like the moon. Even though Venus is very bright in the night sky, she’s too far away to see this with the naked eye, but her phases can be observed with a telescope. Their first recorded observations are considered telescopic observations by Galileo Galilei in 1610.
This August 13th, along with celebrations for Hecate, Diana, and Mary, Venus does something special too.
Venus began her retrograde period (appearing to move backward from the vantage point of Earth) on Mary Magdalen’s Feast Day, July 22nd. This 40-day backward motion marks Venus's shift from an evening star to a morning star.
Two weeks after the retrograde cycle begins, from the vantage point of Earth, Venus will vanish from the sky for eight days.
The dance of Venus and Earth around the Sun creates a five-pointed star, called a pentagram, or it is sometimes thought of as a five-petaled flower known as the Petals of Venus (like The Rosa Mundi and The Rose of The Virgin Mary).
Also, on August 13th, Venus is new, like a new moon is new. On this day, she will begin an eight-year cycle. After eight years, she returns to the same place in our sky on about the same date.
This is also the beginning of an 18-month cycle for Venus while she is retrograde and conjunct with the Sun in Leo.
Numerologically eight and five are significant for Venus; combined, they equal thirteen, and the digits one and three, when added, equal four, the number of Earth. There’s a lot to play with and ponder here.
The divine feminine, ever-changing and adapting to changes in ideas and religions, continues throughout the ages.
Finding her in ways that resonate and are meaningful is a journey of delight and surprises as well as healing.
You can use the printable download above in many creative ways.
Collage with it, use it in an art journal, or create a small hand-stitched or accordion fold journal to hold your experiences of the divine feminine this season; use it as a page or as the cover, cut it apart, and use the various elements as collage elements. Print it on card stock and place it in your sacred space or on your Lammas altar.
If you have ever practiced this tradition or celebrated this day in any way, please share your stories in the comments.
The comments section is a safe and welcoming space to share your insights and experiences.
Comments and conversation are always appreciated and enjoyed, so feel free to let your voice be heard. I read them all and try to respond to each one.
Thank you for reading Hedge Mystic and participating in this vibrant and growing community of creative, spiritual humans. You are always welcome here, appreciated, and loved.
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Discussion is encouraged. Leave your reactions and insights in the comments.
I actually found a small statue of the Holy Mother Mary holding an infant Jesus in an antique shop the other day that had a pentagram as her halo. After reading this I was able to recognize it as a crossover of Venus and the Rosa mundi. It’s fascinating to me how they blend together!
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughtful contemplations and connections. This divine feminine energies are strong right now! I appreciate learning yet another layer!