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Pagan Kids |
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Diana/Artemis
Diana and Artemis are often worshiped
as one. In essence they are very similar, but are in actuality two
individual goddesses.
Artemis:
Being associated
with chastity, Artemis at an early age (in one legend she was three
years old) asked her father, the great god Zeus, to grant her
eternal virginity. Also, all her companions were virgins. Artemis
was very protective of her purity, and gave grave punishment to any
man who attempted to dishonour her in any form. Actaeon, while out
hunting, accidentally came upon Artemis and her nymphs, who bathing
naked in a secluded pool. Seeing them in all their naked beauty, the
stunned Actaeon stopped and gazed at them, but when Artemis saw him
ogling them, she transformed him into a stag. Then, incensed with
disgust, she set his own hounds upon him. They chased and killed
what they thought was another stag, but it was their master. As with
Orion, a giant and a great hunter, there are several legends which
tell of his death, one involving Artemis. It is said that he tried
to rape the virgin goddess, so killed him with her bow and arrows.
Another says she conjured up a scorpion which killed Orion and his
dog. Orion became a constellation in the night sky, and his dog
became Sirius, the dog star. Yet another version says it was the
scorpion which stung him and was transformed into the constellation
with Orion, the later being Scorpio. Artemis was enraged when one of
her nymphs, Callisto, allowed Zeus to seduce her, but the great god
approached her in one of his guises; he came in the form of Artemis.
The young nymph was unwittingly tricked, and she gave birth to Arcas,
the ancestor of the Arcadians, but Artemis showed no mercy and
changed her into a bear. She then shot and killed her. As Orion, she
was sent up to the heavens, and became the constellation of the
Great Bear (which is also known as the Plough).
Artemis was very possessive. She would show her wrath on anyone who
disobeyed her wishes, especially against her sacred animals. Even
the great hero Agamemnon came upon the wrath of Artemis, when he
killed a stag in her sacred grove. His punishment came when his
ships were becalmed, while he made his way to besiege Troy. With no
winds to sail his ships he was told by the seer Calchas that the
only way Artemis would bring back the winds was for him to sacrifice
his daughter Iphigenia. Some versions say he did sacrifice
Iphigenia, others that Artemis exchanged a deer in her place, and
took Iphigenia to the land of the Tauri (the Crimea) as a priestess,
to prepare strangers for sacrifice to Artemis.
Artemis is Apollo's sister, and Queen of the
witches. She is the goddess of the moon, the herbalist, the midwife,
the birthing woman, and the hunter. Artemis is an untamed wild woman
who runs free with the deer and the hounds. She is the woman who
runs with the wolves. She is "Mother of all Creatures." She is owned
by no man, and thus she is "Forever Virgin."
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Diana:
Diana, Roman Goddess of the Hunt, her Greek counterpart is virgin
goddess Artemis (daughter of the god Zeus and Leto, daughter of a
Titan, and also known as
Limnatis,
"Lady
of the Lake"),
from whom she acquires some of her aspects. As a moon (lunar)
goddess, Diana/Artemis is sometimes identified with the goddess
Selene (Moon) and Hecate.
On the northern shores of Lake Nemi, Diana's Mirror, in Italy, stood
the sacred grove and sanctuary of the Goddess Diana.
The Goddess Diana, is the Huntress and Goddess or
fertility, childbirth (She was especially revered by women, and was
believed to grant an easy childbirth to her favourites), the wild
woodlands, and associated with the constellation of Ursa Major. She
is also associated with fire festivals, her title Vesta, indicates a
perpetual holy fire in her sanctuary. Her annual festival, held on
August 13th, where she is invoked to protect the harvest from autumn
storms, is the middle of summer, when the sun is at its hottest.
Diana is often depicted holding a torch, a symbolic reminder of the
fiery nature of the Goddess.
Several other deities are associated with Diana at Lake
Nemi, Egeria, the Nymph of the Lake and Virbius, who, legend states,
was the Greek hero Hippolytus. Diana also had in attendance, The
Sacrificial King or King of the Sacred Rites. He was required to
pluck a branch of a certain tree, often identified as Virgil's
'Golden Bough', and slay his predecessor before taking up his
office. Whereupon he becomes the High Priest/Husband/Lover of the
Goddess. He holds this office until he himself is slain by a more
craftier or stronger challenger, a remainder of the Birth, Death,
Rebirth cycle of nature.
In Roman mythology Diana, goddess of the moon and hunt, and twin
sister of
Apollo, was
essentially a goddess of the woodlands, her sanctuaries were
commonly in groves, indeed every grove was sacred to her. She was
chief hunter to the gods also the goddess of nature, and of the
harvest. the guardian of springs and streams and the protector of
wild animals
In art she is typically shown as a young hunter, usually carrying a
bow and arrows, like her brother
Apollo. She
would use her bow and arrows to punish mortals who angered her.
In the Romanian language, the Latin name of the Roman goddess Diana
became the word “zana”, which means “fairy”. In folk tales, the
fairies would usually wander through the woods, in large groups. In
many tales, a young man sees the fairies bathing and steals some
clothes. When they discover someone is watching, they get out of the
water, get dressed and fly away. The fairy whose clothes were stolen
can’t go away, so she hides behind a bush, promising to marry him if
he gives her back her clothes (which have magical powers). The young
man refuses and gives her other clothes, they marry and they live
happily for a while, until, one day, she manages to find her fairy
clothes. When she does, she can fly back to her sisters, leaving her
son and her husband, who will be forever sad. Because, when someone
was married to a fairy, the other women mean nothing to him any
more. Not exactly Actaeon's story, but anyway, the man who saw the
fairies naked is punished for this, with an eternal sadness.
Correspondences:
Symbols:
bow and arrow (representing the rays of the moon), Moon,
Water, Forest Items, Sun, Hounds, Stag
Colours:
silver, white, indigo & Black
Planet:
Moon
Food:
Honey, Blueberry; Butter; Broccoli; Coconut; Cucumber; Eggs;
Grapes; Lemons; Milk; Potatoes; Pumpkins; White Wine
Plants/herbs: almond, amaranth,
cedar, cypress, daisy, date palm, hazel, mugwort, myrtle, ox-eye
daisy, willow, laurel , fir trees (especially silver fir)
Incense: Sandalwood; Lemon;
Rose
Metal: silver - Artemis may be
thought of as the “silver goddess.” She wore silver sandals,
rode a silver chariot in the silver moonlight, and kills with
silver arrows shot from a silver bow. In fact, many dying women,
as well as women in childbirth, went to Artemis to ask for a
quick, painless death from Her silver arrows.
Animals -
(She
is the protector of animals, all animals can be considered
sacred to her): deer/stags, geese, wild dogs, fish, goats, bees,
bears, fox, leopard or lion.
Zodiac
Sign: Sagittarius
Dates:
the 13th, the 15th, the 27th
Day of the
Week: Friday
Moon
Phase: Waxing crescent moon; maiden phase
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