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Getting to Know the Powers: Earth

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A basic introduction of the deity
Earth is the third of the Powers of the Three Realms – Land, Sea and Sky – and most like her mother, Night Earth has no co-ruler, but rules over all the world, from the heights to the depths, and her brothers realms are within her domain as well. But she is most fond of the things that move and dwell on the land – the animals, plants, humans, bacteria and all other members of the Tree of Life. Her grace and affections are fervently sought by both her brothers, as well as others in her generation, for she is the Power of fecundity, of life cycles, of growth and decay, reaping and sowing, and all of the Powers that come after her partake a little in her power. She is both caring and terrifying, simultaneously the Nourishing and the Devouring Mother, and no one will feel her touch and not be utterly changed by it for good or ill. She is the Power to which we all return in time, having spent our lives being nourished and supported in her arms and on her body. She is as vast as the globe and as approachable and unassuming as a blade of grass. You will find her as majestic as the mountain heights, as breathtaking as a sunset, as lovely as a flower, as mysterious as the dark caves and as implacable as the sea waves and the inexorable advance of a glacier.

Symbols and icons of this deity
Cows, the local landscape, veils, sickle, birch trees, groves, swamps/marshes, cattails, reeds, reed, rush or corn dolls, pottery, landscape art, images of cows and other animals, pigs and images of pigs (especially sows), sheaves of wheat, cornucopias, images of rivers/mountains/lakes/valleys/plains/hills, mother iconography

A favorite myth or myths of this deity
The Establishment of the Three Realms
When the Mother, the Twins and the Sisters set forth the bounds and the rules of existence, setting into motion the Great Pattern, the world was still formless and amorphous, potentiality still wrapped in chaos but enfolded within the Pattern. And so the Mother began to shape the next stage of the Pattern, forming the world tripartite. She took a lash from her eye and breathed upon it, and it became a man, full of sight and truth, far-seeing and able to control the powers of the heavens. She took a tear and mixed it with spittle, and held it to her heart, and it became another man, brother to the first, full of wisdom and compassion, deeply-knowing and able to control the powers of the deep. And finally, she took a hair from her groin, mixed it with her fluids and blood, and held it to her belly, and it became a woman, lovely and fertile, both nourishing and consuming, and able to control all the powers of the world. And she revealed these to her other children, and they rejoiced, and the divine twin of light took them to himself and named them his own.
And the man of sight took to the high places, and wed himself to the queen of heaven, the Sister of the seeing, and claimed all of the upper reaches as his kingdom, from the treetops to the mountains, from the dawn on the horizon to the very edge of night.
The man of wisdom took to the deep places, and gave himself to the queen of the waves, the lurker in the depths, and claimed all of the lower reaches as his kingdom, from the rivers to the ocean, from the waves on the shore to the bottom of the trenches.
And the woman surveyed all that remained, the hills and the valleys, the peaks and the caves, the forests and marshes and plains, high and low and in-between, and gave herself to herself, and named herself queen over all things, subject to no man or woman but Night and the Sisters and the Great Pattern itself, and she rules over all things that move and live upon this world, from the birds of the air, to the creatures of the deep, for her realm contains and touches the others. But over the creatures and beings of the land she rules alone.
And the brothers quarrel endlessly, desiring the woman for themselves, to woo her and gain her favor. And at times she chooses the first, at at other times she chooses the second, but she is bound to neither, for she is the Earth, and all things that live and move in this world are born of her, nourished by her, and shall be consumed by her in the end.

Members of the family – genealogical connections
Mother – Night
Father – none
Siblings – Divine Twins, Weird Sisters, Sky, Water
Consorts – Water, Sky, Fire, Abundance
Children – Passion,, Life, Wind, Death, Light, Sun, Moon

Other related deities and entities associated with this deity
Weird Sisters
Ocean
Water
Sky
Passion
Life
Death
Renewal
Healing
Fire
Forest

Names and epithets
Earth Mother, Holy Queen, Mother of Soil, Grain-Mother, White Cow, Lady of Valor, Mother of the Fields, Sacred Lady, Ancient Mother, Mother of Birches, Lady of the Marshes, Sacred Cow, Milk of Life, Sacred Lady, Lady of the Taboo, Faceless One,
Nerthus, Jörð, Hlödyn, Hertha, Fjorgynn, Ethniu, Tailtiu, Nantosuelta, Boann, Žemyna/Zemes-mãte, Nemetona, Demeter, Ceres, Cel, Tellus/Terra Mater, Gaia, Mara, Litavis, Rhea, Ops, and Cybele are all Euro-American deities and spirits that can potentially work in this slot, for those pursuing specific cultures and mythologies.
Non-Euro-American deities that work are Urash, Bhumi, Prithvi, Ninhursag, Ki/Kishar Asherah/Athirat, Yer Tanrıça, and Etügen Eke/Eje
Euro-American deities that work but should probably not be used due to oppression/appropriation issues are Maa-ema (Estonian/Finnish)
Euro-American deities that work but should not be used due to oppression/appropriation issues are Mari and Lurbira (Basque), Mastor-ava (Mordvin), and Raedieahkka/Maderakka (Sámi)
Non-Euro-American deities that work but should not be used due to oppression/appropriation issues are Pachamama (Inca/Peruvian), Ala (Igbo), Coatlicue/Toci/Tonantzin (Aztec/Nahuatl), Papa (Kanaka Maoli/Maori) and Asase Ya (Ashanti)

Variations on this deity (aspects, regional forms, etc.)
Earth has three main aspects: the Giver of Sustenance, the Mother of All, and the Holy One
The Giver of Sustenance is the first of Earth’s (not entirely) benevolent faces. In this form and with this name, she is the provider of food, of water, of air, of all the materials and substances we require to live. She is nurturing and comforting, though she does not only favor humans. But she can also be terrible in that if she withholds her gifts, whether in the form of poor harvests, lack of shelter, or storms and other natural disasters, we will not long survive.
The Mother of All is the second of Earth’s (not entirely) benevolent faces. This aspect is closely tied to the first, in that she is seen as a sustaining and providing parent, but also extends to birth and death. She is the mother of every living and non-living being that dwells in or on the earth, and all her children are in her care. This face can also be discomfiting, in that humanity is not her favorite or most important child, but merely one of millions, and so if we expect special treatment or a bending of the rules of nature because of some vaunted self-important status, we will be sorely disappointed when the reckoning comes.
The Holy One is the non-benevolent face of Earth, though not necessarily hostile unless transgressed against. This is the veiled, masked, untouchable, sacred mystery that can be found in all the holy and taboo places of the world. She is aloof, showing herself to only the worthy, and bringing retribution on those who defile her holiness. The ley lines are kept by her, and their joinings are her most sacred halls.

Festivals, days, and times sacred to this deity
All times, days and feasts are sacred to her

Any mundane practices that are associated with this deity?
Anything involving the earth, soil, landscape or motherhood

How does this deity relate to other gods and other pantheons?
Ruler/Provider/Sustainer

How does this deity stand in terms of gender and sexuality?
Earth is herself almost exclusively female and feminine, though she welcomes all as her children, and in some places was specially served by those without or between genders.
She is predominately heterosexual in her mythic pairings (Sky, Water, Fire, and Abundance), though there is an extremely bonding and intimate connection between all the female or female-oriented Powers that can be sexual as well as not.

Art that reminds you of this deity

























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Music that makes you think of this deity
Earth Mother, Ani Williams & Lisa Thiel
Mother of All That Is Alive, Ani Williams & Lisa Thiel
Mother of All Things, Ani Williams & Lisa Thiel
Isle of the Mystic Lake, Adiemus
This Sacred Land, Ah Nee Mah
Tower of Stone, Ah Nee Mah
The Bard’s Exhortation to the Salaryman, Annwn
Sumer is Y-cumen In, Annwn
Earth, Brian Crain
Meadowland, Amethystium
Genesis Hibernia, Dagda
Grace Cathedral Hill, The Decemberists
Behold the Passionate Ways of Nature, Hagalaz’ Runedance
Heartbeat of the Earth, Inkubus Sukkubus
Sanctuary, Inkubus Sukkubus
The Earth is Our Mother, Libana
Ancient Mother, Libana
Corn Mother, Lisa Thiel
Mother Earth, Within Temptation
Kodamas, Joe Hisaishi
Emerald Island, Leaves’ Eyes
Come by the Hills, Loreena McKennitt
Standing Stones, Loreena McKennitt
The Mystic’s Dream, Loreena McKennitt
Shenandoah, Sissel
This Moment, Fiona Joyce,
Trees, Fiona Joyce
The Rolling of the Stones, The Hare and The Moon

A quote, a poem, or piece of writing that you think this deity resonates strongly with
“There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.” – Wendell Berry
“…the care of the earth is our most ancient and most worthy and, after all, our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it, and to foster its renewal, is our only legitimate hope.” – Wendell Berry
“Reclaiming the sacred in our lives naturally brings us close once more to the wellsprings of poetry.” -Robert Bly
“In this moment, everything is sacred.” – Ariel Books
“For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfil themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves. Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree. When a tree is cut down and reveals its naked death-wound to the sun, one can read its whole history in the luminous, inscribed disk of its trunk: in the rings of its years, its scars, all the struggle, all the suffering, all the sickness, all the happiness and prosperity stand truly written, the narrow years and the luxurious years, the attacks withstood, the storms endured. And every young farmboy knows that the hardest and noblest wood has the narrowest rings, that high on the mountains and in continuing danger the most indestructible, the strongest, the ideal trees grow.
Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.
A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.
A tree says: My strength is trust. I know nothing about my fathers, I know nothing about the thousand children that every year spring out of me. I live out the secret of my seed to the very end, and I care for nothing else. I trust that God is in me. I trust that my labor is holy. Out of this trust I live.
When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let God speak within you, and your thoughts will grow silent. You are anxious because your path leads away from mother and home. But every step and every day lead you back again to the mother. Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.
A longing to wander tears my heart when I hear trees rustling in the wind at evening. If one listens to them silently for a long time, this longing reveals its kernel, its meaning. It is not so much a matter of escaping from one’s suffering, though it may seem to be so. It is a longing for home, for a memory of the mother, for new metaphors for life. It leads home. Every path leads homeward, every step is birth, every step is death, every grave is mother.
So the tree rustles in the evening, when we stand uneasy before our own childish thoughts: Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.” – Herman Hesse
“To encounter the sacred is to be alive at the deepest center of human existence. Sacred places are the truest definitions of the earth; they stand for the earth immediately and forever; they are its flags and shields. If you would know the earth for what it really is, learn it through its sacred places. At Devil’s Tower or Canyon de Chelly or the Cahokia Mounds, you touch the pulse of the living planet; you feel its breath upon you. You become one with a spirit that pervades geologic time and space.” – N. Scott Momeday
“…the Sierra, a region so quiet and pristine that we have the sense of being the first human beings ever to set foot in it. We fall silent ourselves in its midst, as if conversation in a place of such primeval solitude would be like talking in church.” – Jim Fergus
“If you have been in the vicinity of the sacred – ever brushed against the holy – you retain it more in your bones than in your head; and if you haven’t, no description of the experience will ever be satisfactory.” – Daniel Taylor
“The secret and the sacred are sisters. When the secret is not respected, the sacred vanishes. Consequently, reflection should not shine too severe or aggressive a light on the world of the soul.” – John O’Donohue
“Earth’s crammed with heaven…
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes.” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning
“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” – John Muir
“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity…” – John Muir
“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair” – Kahlil Gibran
“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.” – Kahlil Gibran
“Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains. You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow. They smelled of moss in your hand. Polished and muscular and torsional. On their backs were vermiculite patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.” – Cormac McCarthy
“What you take from the earth, you must give back. That’s nature’s way.” – Chris d’Lacey
“The earth will not continue to offer its harvest, except with faithful stewardship. We cannot say we love the land and then take steps to destroy it for use by future generations.” – John Paul II
“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.” – Rachel Carson
“It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know the sense of wonder and humility. ” – Rachel Carson
“Earth, my dearest, oh believe me, you no longer need your springtimes to win me over…Unspeakably, I have belonged to you, from the flush.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
“The love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only paradise we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need, if only we had the eyes to see.” – Edward Abbey
“How can we be so arrogant? The planet is, was, and always will be stronger than us. We can’t destroy it; if we overstep the mark, the planet will simply erase us from its surface and carry on existing. Why don’t they start talking about not letting the planet destroy us?” – Paulo Coelho
“Find your place on the planet. Dig in, and take responsibility from there.” – Gary Snyder
“Kinship with all creatures of the earth, sky, and water was a real and active principle. In the animal and bird world there existed a brotherly feeling that kept us safe among them… The animals had rights – the right of man’s protection, the right to live, the right to multiply, the right to freedom, and the right to man’s indebtedness. This concept of life and its relations filled us with the joy and mystery of living; it gave us reverence for all life; it made a place for all things in the scheme of existence with equal importance to all.” – Chief Luther Standing Bear
“We are the children of the earth and removed from her our spirit withers.” – George Macaulay Trevelyan

Any suggestions for others just starting to learn about this deity?
Clean up a natural place, set up a shrine/altar outdoors, donate to environmental causes, become a “nature” activist, protect the weak/less fortunate, protect a sacred place, make a sacred place, learn about your bioregion, reintegrate into your local rhythms, spend time outside getting to know the animals and plants that live near you, walk barefoot (safely)

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Getting to Know the Powers: Water

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A basic introduction of the deity

Water is the second of the Powers of the Three Realms – Land, Sea and Sky – and most like his adoptive brother-uncle, Wildness. Together with his wife Ocean, he rules over the Underworld, and thus is king of all things that swim, move through or touch the waters – rivers, lakes, rain, oceans, beaches/shores, harbors and ships. But he is also connected to the worlds above, ever competing with his brother Sky for the affections and love of their sister Earth. He is wise, caring, disposed to compassion and benevolence, a gentle protector and comforting father, but who has a bit of a mischievous and wild side. He directs the currents and waves, and keeps the order of the cosmos intact through his deep insight and sense of mercy, as well as a willingness to aid those in need. Of all things that swim, he loves dolphins the best, and of those earthly animals he loves, several are associated with water (otters and waterfowl), or wisdom and the depths (snakes). He is a lover of music, magic and good jokes. While he is less prone to violence than either his brother or his wife, he is as terrifying as them when angered, sending great waves and storms and shaking the earth itself, destroying cities and ships alike.

Symbols and icons of this deity
Seaweed, driftwood, sand dunes, rain, fishing net, boathooks, miniature/model boats, starfish, serpents, shells, sea glass, stones smoothed by the sea, salmon, boats/ships, trident/harpoon, anchors, swords, fishing tools, aquatic animals, dogs, otters, seagulls and other ocean or wading birds, waterfalls, rivers/streams, fountains and wells, musical instruments.

A favorite myth or myths of this deity
The Establishment of the Three Realms
When the Mother, the Twins and the Sisters set forth the bounds and the rules of existence, setting into motion the Great Pattern, the world was still formless and amorphous, potentiality still wrapped in chaos but enfolded within the Pattern. And so the Mother began to shape the next stage of the Pattern, forming the world tripartite. She took a lash from her eye and breathed upon it, and it became a man, full of sight and truth, far-seeing and able to control the powers of the heavens. She took a tear and mixed it with spittle, and held it to her heart, and it became another man, brother to the first, full of wisdom and compassion, deeply-knowing and able to control the powers of the deep. And finally, she took a hair from her groin, mixed it with her fluids and blood, and held it to her belly, and it became a woman, lovely and fertile, both nourishing and consuming, and able to control all the powers of the world. And she revealed these to her other children, and they rejoiced, and the divine twin of light took them to himself and named them his own.
And the man of sight took to the high places, and wed himself to the queen of heaven, the Sister of the seeing, and claimed all of the upper reaches as his kingdom, from the treetops to the mountains, from the dawn on the horizon to the very edge of night.
The man of wisdom took to the deep places, and gave himself to the queen of the waves, the lurker in the depths, and claimed all of the lower reaches as his kingdom, from the rivers to the ocean, from the waves on the shore to the bottom of the trenches.
And the woman surveyed all that remained, the hills and the valleys, the peaks and the caves, the forests and marshes and plains, high and low and in-between, and gave herself to herself, and named herself queen over all things, subject to no man or woman but Night and the Sisters and the Great Pattern itself, and she rules over all things that move and live upon this world, from the birds of the air, to the creatures of the deep, for her realm contains and touches the others. But over the creatures and beings of the land she rules alone.
And the brothers quarrel endlessly, desiring the woman for themselves, to woo her and gain her favor. And at times she chooses the first, at at other times she chooses the second, but she is bound to neither, for she is the Earth, and all things that live and move in this world are born of her, nourished by her, and shall be consumed by her in the end.

Members of the family – genealogical connections
Mother – Night
Father – Abundance (adoptive)
Siblings – Divine Twins, Weird Sisters, Earth, Sky
Consorts – Ocean, Earth
Children – Passion, Peace, Death

Other related deities and entities associated with this deity
Weird Sisters
Ocean
Earth
Sky
Peace
Passion
Death

Names and epithets
Catcher, Silver-Hand, Well-Keeper, Lord of Oceans, Great Serpent, King of Darkness, Calmer of Storms, Lord of the Shining Sword, Lord of Mystery, Giver of Riches, Friend of Sailors, Pure One, Lord of Taboo, Lord of Wisdom, Lord of Safe Harbor, Shelterer, Feast-Giver
Njörðr, Nuada, Nudd/Llud Llaw Eraint, Nechtan, Nodens, Nethuns, Ægir, Veles, Arawn, Velnias, Manannán mac Lir/Manawyddan fab Llyr, Lir/Llyr, Poseidon, Neptune, Pontus/Oceanus, Duberdicus, Nereus/Proteus, and Portunus are all Euro-American deities and spirits that can potentially work in this slot, for those pursuing specific cultures and mythologies.
Non-Euro-American deities that work are Yam, Enki, Apām Napāt/Apąm Napāt, Varuna, and Wadj-wer
Euro-American (Finnish) deities that work but should probably not be used due to oppression/appropriation issues are Ahti
Euro-American deities that work but should not be used due to oppression/appropriation issues are Sugaar (Basque) and Tjaetsieålmaj (Sámi)
Non-Euro-American deities that work but should not be used oppression/appropriation issues are Agwé (Yoruba/Vodou), Chalchiuhtlatonal (Aztec) Kumugwe/Qaniqilak (Salish/Wakashan Pacific NW), Tangaroa (Maori), and Kanaloa (Hawai’ian)

Variations on this deity (aspects, regional forms, etc.)
Water has three main aspects – the Shelterer, the Wisdom-Keeper, and the King Below
The Shelterer is the face of Water that is beloved by sailors and those who live near the oceans. He is the lord of safe harbor, of protection at sea, calming the rages of his wife and helping to guide sailors and their ships safely home again. Master of the beaches and shores, he creates safe and secure places to moor even among the rocky cliffs, and sends his servants, the dolphins, to protect, guide and rescue those who travel across his realm.
The Wisdom-Keeper is the lord of the freshwater – springs, wells, lakes, and rivers. He is the keeper of the wells of wisdom, granting a drink from them only to the worthy. As such, he is distinctly connected to the Weird Sisters, particularly Winter, who is also a ruler over the Underworld and the wells of wisdom. He is a powerful magician, with magical clothing and in several instances, body parts that are either magical themselves or can live apart from his body.
The King Below is the wealthy ruler of the deeps, with all the riches of the oceans, caves, and mines at his disposal. Silver and gold pour from fountains in his halls, and gems adorn every object. He has countless herds of cattle and other livestock, and there is always music and merriment in his halls, even though they are inhabited by the dead.
To me, he most often appears as an older man, sometimes bearded, sometimes not, with the weathered and wrinkled features of a life-long sailor. He usually comes walking along the sand of a beach, or striding through the shallower waters which rise up to meet him.

Festivals, days, and times sacred to this deity
Festival of the Dead
Festival of the Sun
Dog Moon
Dusk to dawn

Any mundane practices that are associated with this deity?
Sailing
Brewing
Swimming
Playing at the beach
Collecting seashells
Visiting rivers and waterfalls
Playing music
Magic tricks/illusions

How does this deity relate to other gods and other pantheons?
Ruler/Granter of Wisdom

How does this deity stand in terms of gender and sexuality?
Water is masculine. He is a warm and comforting father-figure, a wise teacher, a generous host and a caring friend.
Sexually, as with all of the other Powers, Water falls into a multisexual spectrum. He is married to Ocean, is one of the consorts of Earth, and intimate with many humans and spirits of all genders and sexes. He also has a passionate love-hate relationship with his brother, Sky, and many storms are the result of their affair.

What quality or qualities of this god do you most admire? What quality or qualities of them do you find the most troubling?
I admire his care and concern, his gentleness, his friendliness, his safekeeping of wisdom and tempering justice with mercy.

Art that reminds you of this deity





















Music that makes you think of this deity
Mare Undarum (Sea of Waves), Karl Jenkins
Lacus Lenitatis (Lake of Tenderness), Karl Jenkins
The Call of the Sea, Ocean Dreams
Beach Walk, Ocean Dreams
Hermit of the Sea Rock, Adiemus
Isle of the Mystic Lake, Adiemus
Seahaven, Annwn
Vessel of Mercy, Annwn
Scottish Fisherman’s Song for Attracting Seals, Aryeh Frankfurter
Nymphs of the Sea-God Nereus, Daemonia Nymphe
The Sea-Angler, Faith and the Muse
Annwyn, Beneath the Waves, Faith and the Muse
The Minnow and the Trout, A Fine Frenzy
Neptune the Mystic, Gustav Holst
Moewe (Seagull) – Joe Hisaishi
A Town with an Ocean View, Joe Hisaishi
Gake no Ue no Ponyo (Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea), Joe Hisaishi
Day of the River, Joe Hisaishi
Immrama, Stellamara
By The Sea, Sweeney Todd OST
Moonlit Beach, Anna and the King OST
The Grey Havens, Howard Shore
Into the West, Annie Lennox/Howard Shore
Moorlough Shore, Emm Gryner
Under Neptune’s Cape, Clannad
Precious Waters, Ah Nee Mah
Song of the River, Ah Nee Mah
Water, Brian Crain
Watermark, Enya
Orinoco Flow, Enya
Over the Waterfalls, Helen Trevillion
As the Water, Memoirs of a Geisha OST
Kellswater, Loreena McKennitt
Sailing By, Dagda
I Saw a Ship A-Sailing, Natalie Merchant
River, Natalie Merchant
River, Joni Mitchell
River, Susan McKeown
El Río, Javier Navarrete
Njord, Leaves’ Eyes

A quote, a poem, or piece of writing that you think this deity resonates strongly with
“I felt once more how simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else.” – Nikos Kazantzakis

“Look at that sea, girls–all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn’t enjoy its loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds.” – L.M. Montgomery

“My soul is full of longing
for the secret of the sea,
and the heart of the great ocean
sends a thrilling pulse through me.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“She loves the serene brutality of the ocean, loves the electric power she felt with each breath of wet, briny air.” – Holly Black

“That crazed girl improvising her music.
Her poetry, dancing upon the shore,
Her soul in division from itself
Climbing, falling She knew not where,
Hiding amid the cargo of a steamship,
Her knee-cap broken, that girl I declare
A beautiful lofty thing, or a thing
Heroically lost, heroically found.
No matter what disaster occurred
She stood in desperate music wound,
Wound, wound, and she made in her triumph
Where the bales and the baskets lay
No common intelligible sound
But sang, ‘O sea-starved, hungry sea” – W.B. Yeats

“Hark, now hear the sailors cry,
smell the sea, and feel the sky
let your soul & spirit fly, into the mystic…” – Van Morrison

“For whatever we lose (like a you or a me),
It’s always our self we find in the sea.” – e.e. cummings

“The cure for anything is salt water – tears, sweat, or the sea.” – Izak Dinesen

“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.” – Norman MacLean

“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.” – Margaret Atwood

“Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell: Ding-dong
Hark! now I hear them,—Ding-dong, bell.” – William Shakespeare

“We clear the harbor and the wind catches her sails and my beautiful ship leans over ever so gracefully, and her elegant bow cuts cleanly into the increasing chop of the waves. I take a deep breath and my chest expands and my heart starts thumping so strongly I fear the others might see it beat through the cloth of my jacket. I face the wind and my lips peel back from my teeth in a grin of pure joy.” – L.A. Meyer

“What she really loved was to hang over the edge and watch the bow of the ship slice through the waves. She loved it especially when the waves were high and the ship rose and fell, or when it was snowing and the flakes stung her face.” – Kristin Cashore

“She watched the gap between ship and shore grow to a huge gulf. Perhaps this was a little like dying, the departed no longer visible to the others, yet both still existed, only in different worlds.” – Susan Wiggs

“The river is everywhere.” – Herman Hesse

“They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual Becoming.” – Herman Hesse

“I thought how lovely and how strange a river is. A river is a river, always there, and yet the water flowing through it is never the same water and is never still. It’s always changing and is always on the move. And over time the river itself changes too. It widens and deepens as it rubs and scours, gnaws and kneads, eats and bores its way through the land. Even the greatest rivers- the Nile and the Ganges, the Yangtze and he Mississippi, the Amazon and the great grey-green greasy Limpopo all set about with fever trees-must have been no more than trickles and flickering streams before they grew into mighty rivers.
Are people like that? I wondered. Am I like that? Always me, like the river itself, always flowing but always different, like the water flowing in the river, sometimes walking steadily along andante, sometimes surging over rapids furioso, sometimes meandering wit hardly any visible movement tranquilo, lento, ppp pianissimo, sometimes gurgling giacoso with pleasure, sometimes sparkling brillante in the sun, sometimes lacrimoso, sometimes appassionato, sometimes misterioso, sometimes pesante, sometimes legato, sometimes staccato, sometimes sospirando, sometimes vivace, and always, I hope, amoroso. Do I change like a river, widening and deepening, eddying back on myself sometimes, bursting my banks sometimes when there’s too much water, too much life in me, and sometimes dried up from lack of rain? Will the I that is me grow and widen and deepen? Or will I stagnate and become an arid riverbed? Will I allow people to dam me up and confine me to wall so that I flow only where they want? Will I allow them to turn me into a canal to use for they own purposes? Or will I make sure I flow freely, coursing my way through the land and ploughing a valley of my own?” – Aiden Chambers

“We must begin thinking like a river if we are to leave a legacy of beauty and life for future generations.” – David Brower

“In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans; in one aspect of You are found all the aspects of existence.” – Kahlil Gibran

“It is said by the Eldar that in water there lives yet the echo of the Music of the Ainur more than in any substance that is in this Earth; and many of the Children of Ilúvatar hearken still unsated to the voices of the Sea, and yet know not for what they listen.” – J.R.R. Tolkien

“Always be like a water. Float in the times of pain or dance like waves along the wind which touches its surface.” – Santosh Kalwar

“The places where water comes together with other water. Those places stand out in my mind like holy places.” -Raymond Carver

“I sometimes think that people’s hearts are like deep wells. Nobody knows what’s at the bottom. All you can do is imagine by what comes floating to the surface every once in a while.” – Haruki Murakami

Any suggestions for others just starting to learn about this deity?
Help clean up the beach, play with dolphins, go fishing, teach a child about the ocean, study the hydrological cycle, work with your emotions, care for a local river or stream, swim in the ocean, a lake or a river, visit the shore and walk along the sand, help care for and protect sand dunes and shore habitats.

Waincraft and Concepts of Time

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So, those who have been following along with the Getting to Know the Powers series may have noticed references in the past four essays to time. There are six Powers who are associated with time as a concept in Waincraft – Abundance, Winter, Blood, Rain, Sun, and Moon. But these deal with different types of time and related concepts.

Abundance deals with time in the greater arc, the time of space-time and the fundamental quality that we experience as progression, age, change and ordered passage. This is clock time, science time, abstract time, philosophical time, counted in minutes and hours and centuries and aeons.

The Weird Sisters as a whole represent time as the three-fold spiraling progression of before, during and after. This is life time, social time, measured in breaths and events, years and decades and generations, families and cultures.

Winter is the first part of this spiral, and deals with the has been, the was, the already happened. In the cosmology, this portion of life time is associated with everything that lies under the surface, the unseen, the bones and worms and strange sea creatures and pale blind fish in dark underground pools. The past cannot be reached or seen or felt, but only imagined, remembered, told about, because anytime you try to get below the surface, you only create more surface

Blood is the second part of this spiral, and deals with the now, the is, the happening. In the cosmology, this portion of life time is associated with everything that can be seen, felt, reached, or touched – the surface as a sensate half sphere whose boundaries are formed by the past (under the surface) and the future (beyond the horizon) This is, in a sense, the only time we ever truly know, because we live in an ever-changing, never-moving moment of Now that a millisecond ago was To come, and a millisecond from now will be Then.

Rain is the third part of this spiral, and deals with the to come, the will be, the maybe. In the cosmology, this portion of life time is associated with beyond the horizon – that which cannot be seen in the now, and thus cannot ever be pinned down and definitively described. It is everything that lies beyond our reach and our knowledge. Tomorrow truly never comes, because by its very nature, it is unobtainable, just as no matter how long you travel or how high or low you climb, the horizon remains always out of reach, and what lies beyond out of sight and knowing until that beyond becomes here and now.

Sun and Moon, being children of Abundance, are markers of cyclical time, time in the lesser arc, the time of measurements and repetitions. This is calendar time, measured in days and weeks and months and seasons, the time of planting and harvesting, of building and repairing, of sailing and fishing and gathering. There are roughly 3.09 moon cycles per solar quarter (solstice to equinox, or equinox to solstice, or in the four-season year), or 4.12 cycles per solar third (for those who prefer three-season years) This yields, when rounded, twelve 30 day lunar months with 5 excess solar days (6 in leap years), or twelve 29 day lunar months with 17 excess solar days (18 in leap years). Waincraft does not have a set religious calendar, but one could be created based on lunar, solar and seasonal cycles for each person’s bioregion.

The Nature of the Powers

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“Do you view the Powers of Waincraft as distinct beings, or simply as “ideas” or archetypes. For example, is the Lord of the Green literally a god sovereign over growing things, or is he just the personification of growings things?”

Short answer is both.

Literally, the Lord of the Green is the Power of life in all its forms, but most particularly cyclical life, of which vegetation is the most abundant. Symbolically, he personifies the cycle of life that grows and falls and rises again.

The Powers of Waincraft are fully immanent and integrated with the physical realm. Thus they are both spiritual beings that control and direct natural and cultural forces, and the impetus behind and manifestation of those very natural and cultural forces. Orthopsychy applies to all of existence, the Powers included.

A true archetype can exist in its own distinction as well as echo itself in other distinct beings. There is nothing simple about either an idea or an archetype – they are both powerful, complex, and utterly fascinating creatures.

Is a Mother not a distinct being from all other Mothers, while still sharing an essential commonality that differs only in its particulars? A Teacher can teach history or common sense or magic, and the style of that teaching can and will differ depending on subject and personality, but they are still a Teacher.

It is a poor tribute to Jung that one of his finest achievements has been so twisted by pop psychology as to completely change its meaning.

Getting to Know the Powers: Rain

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A basic introduction of the deity
Rain is the third and youngest of the Weird Sisters, born of the union between Abundance and Night, granting her the understanding and power of both time and space, and making her the only Power other than Night to comprehend the totality of the Great Pattern. Thus, she is a power of foresight, birthing (of both children and ideas), nurturing, vision, prophecy, and idealism. Her knowledge of the Pattern creates in her ceaseless wonder and love for all of existence and its beauty. She is joyous and free-spirited and exuberant, running like her beloved horses across the vast plains of the sky, whirling and dancing through the storms of her husband, Sky. But she can also be sorrowful, weeping in dark clouds and pouring cascades, for all things must die in time; and she is merciless when that time has come for ending, for seeing what must be as she does, she holds no tolerance for grasping at what is not due.

Symbols and icons of this deity
Rowan trees and berries, grain stalks/sheaves, rainbows, horses, loom, swan feathers, flail/scythe, hair brush/comb (especially an ornate comb of bone or silver), veil, cauldron, fan, pictures of clouds, rainwater

A favorite myth or myths of this deity
The Weird Sisters
The story has been told of how the world was created – of Night’s love, and her twin consorts, and the four elemental twin-pairs. But the world ran wild, without purpose or pattern, in exuberance and fecundity overreaching the limits of possibility. And the Mother saw this in her Knowing, and realized that something would need to be done to reign in the excesses of creation, and to guide her children along the path. And so, she took a hair from her head, and twisted it into thread, so long that only she, in her vastness and Knowing, could see both the beginning and end of it.
And she took the thread, and wove it about herself, and lay with the Wild One, looking back towards the beginning of all things, and in time, bore a daughter, child of darkness and cold and magic, and this daughter picked up the beginning of the thread, and began to spin all the stories of the past into a spool. And this was the Keeper of the Past, who looks into the well of the Underworld and gathers all the memory of the dead.
The Mother took up the thread again, and wove the middle section about herself, and faced the present moment. And this time, she took to herself both twins, the Light and the Dark, Wildness and Abundance, and bore a daughter of both their seed, child of dark and light mixed. And this daughter saw all that lay around, and how it played into the greater pattern, and picked up the spool that her sister had spun, and began ply the yarn and set the warp. And this is the Keeper of the Present, who looks at the middle world and sets the pattern on what is and has been, keeper of the golden sands of time.
And yet a third, and final time, the Mother took up the thread again, and wove the end about herself, and lay with the Keeper of Time, looking forward to the unknown. And she bore of him a third daughter, bright and fair and with far-seeing eyes. And this daughter looked to the sky, and saw the unfolding of the pattern in the clouds, and took up the plied thread, and with shuttle in hand, began to weave the weft of what she had seen. And this shall be the Keeper of the Future, who looks beyond-the-horizon, and dreams what the pattern may yet be.
And so the limits of time were set, and the pattern made manifest, and the Sisters spin and weave the lives and places of all.

Members of the family – genealogical connections
Mother – Night
Father – Abundance
Siblings – Divine Twins, Winter, Blood, Earth, Sky, Water
Consorts – Sky; Wildness and Abundance
Children – Wind

Other related deities and entities associated with this deity
Winter
Blood
Sky
Water
Healing
Renewal
Sun
Wind

Names and epithets
Lady of the Grain, Mother of Harvest, Golden-Hair, Mysterious Becoming, Weaver, Grower, Mother of Horses, Planter, Kinswoman, Rain-Dancer, Rainbow Maiden, Mother of Clouds, Rowan Tree, Lady of the Plains, Prophetess, Sibyl, Priestess, Frith-Weaver, Mother of Rain, Lady of the Rowan, She of the Far-seeing, Lady of Sight, She Who Binds Together, Lady of the Heart, Beloved
Sif/Sibb, Frigg, Macha, Ragana, Gróa, Dēkla, Carmenta, Alruna, Thalna. Iris, Skuld, and Sjöfn are all Euro-American deities and spirits that can potentially work in this slot, for those pursuing specific cultures and mythologies.
A non-Euro-American deity that works is Saranya.
A Euro-American (Finnish) deity that works but should probably not be used due to oppression/appropriation issues is Rauni.
Euro-American deities that work but should not be used oppression/appropriation issues are Ravdna (Sami) and Aide (Basque)

Variations on this deity (aspects, regional forms, etc.)
Rain has three main aspects, as well as her combined role as Fate with her sisters: The Connector, the Nourisher, and the Harvester
The Connector is the joiner of hearts, minds, bodies and souls. She is the power of connection, of relationship, of family and friendship, kith and kin, love and community. She engenders peace and bonding between people with differences, and ensures hospitality and courtesy in the home and community.
The Nourisher is the power of nurture, growing, wonder, and support. She loves children more than anything else, and those that help others become more than they were. She dances in the rain, and fills the sky with beautiful rainbows and all manner of cloud animals and persons. She whispers to the saplings and green shoots, encouraging them to grow in the gentle drip of the rain.
The Harvester is the face of Death that Rain embodies – Death-as-Reaper, the death that harvests persons like stalks of grain. This death is the death that takes the toll of millions through famine, pestilence, plague and other mass non-violent deaths. The death that weeps for the necessity as she performs her duties, and whose tears, falling like rain, resurrect the dead anew.
The fourth major aspect of Rain is her role as Wother, or Singer, of the Weird Sisters. She is the one who sees the whole of the Great Pattern in the clouds and stars of the Upperworld, and weaves it out in the loom of fate, singing everything that will be into existence. She weaves the thread of the future as the weft, making the pattern exist by her very presence and magic. She sees all that might be, all that must be, all that should be, and her hands and heart give shape to the future.
In all her forms, she appears to me as a woman, just out of youth, with golden-white hair, dressed in the colors of the rainbow. Her eyes vary from the grey of rain to all the blues of the sky, and as distant and unknowable as the future

Common mistakes about this deity
None known

Festivals, days, and times sacred to this deity
Festival of Reciprocity
Festival of Thanksgiving
Tribe Moon
Grain Moon
Harvest Moon
Noon

Any mundane practices that are associated with this deity?
Childcare
Teaching
Cloud-watching
Dancing in the rain
Harvesting crops
Horse-riding
Weaving
Hospitality (hosting, boarding, etc.)
Community involvement

How does this deity relate to other gods and other pantheons?
Prophetess/Nurturer

How does this deity stand in terms of gender and sexuality?
Rain is the nurturing and visionary power of femininity, as well as the joy that comes from connections between family and friends. Her femininity is that of the houseparent, the person who chooses family over work, peace over hostility, hospitality over xenophobia, whose home and arms are always open. The childcare worker, the schoolteacher, the mentor – all those who seek to nurture wonder and help others develop themselves, who have a vision and inspire others to enact it.
All of the Powers of Waincraft fall along a multisexual spectrum, and Rain is no exception. She is the very power of connection between people – love, family, friendship, community – and her sexual expression reflects this. Though her primary mythic relationships are with Sky and her sisters, she is freely loving to all, joining with Sun to create rainbows and clouds, or with Earth to water the seeds and roots, or with Wind and Ocean in a whirling, swirling dangerously beautiful typhoon or hurricane, as just a few examples.

What quality or qualities of this god do you most admire? What quality or qualities of them do you find the most troubling?
I love her dedication to helping others find and become their best, as well as her joy and wonder for the world and her love of beauty and innocence.

Art that reminds you of this deity














Music that makes you think of this deity
Rain, Brian Crain
Rainbow Eyes, Blackmore’s Night
Rainbow Blues, Blackmore’s Night
O Vox Prophetica, O Quam Tristis
Rain Dance, Adiemus
Song of the Plains, Adiemus
Little April Shower, Bambi OST
Cloud Code, Meredith Monk
Sinus Iridium (Bay of Rainbows), Karl Jenkins
Palus Nebularum (Marsh of Clouds), Karl Jenkins
Friends in My Heart, Shimomura Youko
Dearly Beloved, Shimomura Youko
It’s in the Rain, Enya
How Can I Keep From Singing?, Enya
Cloud Woman, Lisa Thiel and Ani Williams
Rain Dance, Krys Mach
Remembering an old friend, Luo Tian Ping
Clouds, Luo Tian Ping
Somewhere over the Rainbow, Judy Garland
In the Rain, Joe Hisaishi
Family, Joe Hisaishi
The Sea of Cloud under the Moonlight, Joe Hisaishi
Sometimes When It Rains, Secret Garden
Lore of the Loom, Secret Garden
Hello Young Lovers, Marni Nixon
Song of the Sibyl, Dead Can Dance
Raindrops on the Windshield, Orphic Endeavors
Maid with the Flaxen Hair, Richard Stoltzman
With a Few Good Friends, Carly Simon
In the Rowans, Balmorhea
A Piece of Eight, Children of Eden OST
Stranger to the Rain, Children of Eden OST
Castle on a Cloud, Les Misérables OST
Connection, Miten & Deva Pramal
Old Friends, Howard Shore
Good Friend, Libana
Dreaming Wild White Horses, Hagalaz’ Runedance
Frigga’s Web, Hagalaz’ Runedance
On Wings of Rapture (Visions of Skuld), Hagalaz’ Runedance
Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head, B.J. Thomas
Singing in the Rain, Gene Kelly

A quote, a poem, or piece of writing that you think this deity resonates strongly with
I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity. – Eleanor Roosevelt

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” – Albert Einstein

“Nothing is more imminent than the impossible . . . what we must always foresee is the unforeseen.” – Victor Hugo

“The more boundless your vision, the more real you are.” – Deepak Chopra

“Every child needs a champion.” – Hillary Rodham Clinton

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.” – William Blake

“Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.” – Franz Kafka

“When I set a glass prism on a windowsill and allow the sun to flood through it, a spectrum of colors dances on the floor. What we call “white” is a rainbow of colored rays packed into a small space. The prism sets them free. Love is the white light of emotion.” – Diane Ackerman

“Love like rain, can nourish from above, drenching couples with a soaking joy. But sometimes under the angry heat of life, love dries on the surface and must nourish from below, tending to its roots keeping itself alive.” – Paulo Coelho

“Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.” – Roger Miller

“If I were rain,
That joins sky and earth that otherwise never touch,
Could I join two hearts as well?” – Tite Kubo

“The richness of the rain made me feel safe and protected; I have always considered the rain to be healing—a blanket—the comfort of a friend. Without at least some rain in any given day, or at least a cloud or two on the horizon, I feel overwhelmed by the information of sunlight and yearn for the vital, muffling gift of falling water.” – Douglas Coupland

“Valentine Weather
Kiss me with rain on your eyelashes,
come on, let us sway together,
under the trees, and to hell with thunder.” – Edwin Morgan

“Be the one who nurtures and builds. Be the one who has an understanding and a forgiving heart one who looks for the best in people. Leave people better than you found them.” – Marvin J. Ashton

“Each moment is a poetic expression of the undefined. As long as it remains undefined, it has all the beauty of the world and it steps inside to nurture your dreams.” – Grigoris Deoudis

“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.” – Herman Melville

“I know there is strength in the differences between us. I know there is comfort, where we overlap.” – Ani DiFranco

“One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn’t as individuals. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can welcome many people, even those in deep distress, and perhaps help them find self-confidence and inner healing.” – Jean Vanier

“The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.” – Richard Bach

“I may not always be with you
But when we’re far apart
Remember you will be with me
Right inside my heart” – Marc Wambolt

Any suggestions for others just starting to learn about this deity?
Help harvest crops, connect with family/loved ones, learn divination or oracular work, care for or form a relationship with a horse, bake bread from grain to loaf, mediate a dispute, dance in the rain, watch clouds for visions, practice vocal magic (particularly songs), nurture your inner child, play, experience wonder, spend time with children.

Getting to Know the Powers: Blood

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©2013 RebeccaJoseph

A basic introduction of the deity
Blood is the second and middle of the Weird Sisters, born of a triple union among Night, Wildness and Abundance, and containing within herself all the light and darkness and conflicting polarities of her parents. As such, she is both a power of destruction, chaos, and death, and a power of restoration, rebirth, and protection. Blood is everything we fear and revile – war, chaos, bloodshed, strife, death, destruction, abuse of power. But she is also the one that teaches us how to overcome those very things, the reminder that while we cannot change the past, we can change in the present to alter the future. She teaches us to conquer, to rise again from the ashes, to never give up and never give in. In her, all things return again as they were given, both good and ill. She is as unchanging and ever-changing and ageless as the Present, for it is the present that she rules over, that moment of Now which is as transmutable and slippery as sand through the fingers – the tighter and harder you grasp at it, the faster it is gone.

Symbols and icons of this deity
Loom and plaiting needles, swans, corvids, weapons, magical tools, bag of golden sand, corvid or swan feathers, gold or gold pieces, measuring scales, claws, blood

A favorite myth or myths of this deity
The Weird Sisters
The story has been told of how the world was created – of Night’s love, and her twin consorts, and the four elemental twin-pairs. But the world ran wild, without purpose or pattern, in exuberance and fecundity overreaching the limits of possibility. And the Mother saw this in her Knowing, and realized that something would need to be done to reign in the excesses of creation, and to guide her children along the path. And so, she took a hair from her head, and twisted it into thread, so long that only she, in her vastness and Knowing, could see both the beginning and end of it.
And she took the thread, and wove it about herself, and lay with the Wild One, looking back towards the beginning of all things, and in time, bore a daughter, child of darkness and cold and magic, and this daughter picked up the beginning of the thread, and began to spin all the stories of the past into a spool. And this was the Keeper of the Past, who looks into the well of the Underworld and gathers all the memory of the dead.
The Mother took up the thread again, and wove the middle section about herself, and faced the present moment. And this time, she took to herself both twins, the Light and the Dark, Wildness and Abundance, and bore a daughter of both their seed, child of dark and light mixed. And this daughter saw all that lay around, and how it played into the greater pattern, and picked up the spool that her sister had spun, and began ply the yarn and set the warp. And this is the Keeper of the Present, who looks at the middle world and sets the pattern on what is and has been, keeper of the golden sands of time.
And yet a third, and final time, the Mother took up the thread again, and wove the end about herself, and lay with the Keeper of Time, looking forward to the unknown. And she bore of him a third daughter, bright and fair and with far-seeing eyes. And this daughter looked to the sky, and saw the unfolding of the pattern in the clouds, and took up the plied thread, and with shuttle in hand, began to weave the weft of what she had seen. And this shall be the Keeper of the Future, who looks beyond-the-horizon, and dreams what the pattern may yet be.
And so the limits of time were set, and the pattern made manifest, and the Sisters spin and weave the lives and places of all.

Members of the family – genealogical connections
Mother – Night
Fathers – Wildness and Abundance
Siblings – Divine Twins, Winter, Rain, Earth, Sky, Water
Consorts – Wildness, Abundance
Children – none

Other related deities and entities associated with this deity
Winter
Rain
Earth
Death
Passion

Names and epithets
Battle-Crow, Lady of Slaughter, Golden Woman, Glorious Queen, Battle-Armed, Battle-Sacrifice, Gold-Drunk, Mother of Battle, Shrieker, Queen of the Banshees, Fury, Lady of Swans, Lady of Ravens, Battle-Witch, Mistress of the Twisting, Lady of the Sacrifice, Lady of Blood, Mother of Pain, Alloter of Ills, War-Lusting, She Who Delights in Battle, Lady of Chance, Mother of Grief
Gullveig, Gieldwíg, Heid, Baduhenna, Catubodua, Badb Catha, Złota Baba, Nemain, Hervör Alvitr, Andraste, Enyo, Bellona, Verðandi and Kārta are all Euro-American deities and spirits that can potentially work in this slot, for those pursuing specific cultures and mythologies.
A non-Euro-American deity that works is Agasaya. Non-Euro-American deities that are similar, but with multiple distinct differences, are Anat and Kali.
A Euro-American (Finnish) deity that works but should probably not be used due to oppression/appropriation issues is Vammatar.

Variations on this deity (aspects, regional forms, etc.)
Blood has three main aspects, as well as her combined role as Fate with her sisters: the Bloody Crow, the Golden Woman, and the Bringer of Strife
The Bloody Crow is the face of Death that Blood embodies – Death-the-Exultant, Death-as-Eater, the death that delights in bloodshed and carnage, that revels in war and sacrifice of living creatures. This is the Power of the carrion-eaters, the scavengers, the ravens and vultures and other animals that feast on the dead and dying. She is the collector of tears.
The Golden Woman is the giver of treasure and the receiver of sacrifices. She holds the powers of fire and rebirth, of prophesy and destiny. She is a powerful magician, just as her sisters are, though her talents lie in the realm of conflict, fate-weaving and what was known to the Norse as seiðr – an ecstatic form of magic involving such things as cord and thread, spinning/weaving fate or wyrd, chants and other vocal spells and charms, and which was very often sexual in nature. She is also, in this aspect, the power of reciprocity – that which was given is given in turn, that which was taken is taken back again, and so the connections between all things are strengthened. This aspect is the most like her second father, Abundance
The Bringer of Strife is the power that laughs in battle, that rejoices in conflict, that destroys for the sake of itself, that burns everything to the ground and salts the earth. This is the most malevolent aspect of Blood, as she is something we utterly fear, the joy and mad ecstasy of death and destruction. She is the queen of the battle-maidens, the melter of courage, the weakener of resolve, and while she can be called upon to afflict your enemies, she can also turn on you as well in the blink of an eye as it pleases her. She carries famine and deprivation, loss and ruin in her wake. This aspect is the most like her first father, Wildness
The fourth major aspect of Blood is her role as Watcher of the Weird Sisters. She plies the thread of the past into the yarn that is used to set the warp of the loom weaving the Great Pattern. She sees all that currently is, and her hands touch everything that exists in the present, marking them for destruction or exaltation at her whim.
In all her forms, she appears to me with pitch-black hair, blood-red lips and blood-stained claws, sharp teeth and sharper eyes, and skin the color of pure gold, or dark as night. She adorns with gold and feathers, and usually carries a spear in one hand, and a bag of sand or distaff in the other.

Common mistakes about this deity
Blood is also not the Power of Death in Waincraft, though she does represent one of the “types” or faces of death
She is not strictly a war goddess, though war can and does fall under her influence. Instead, she is a power of strife, conflict, chaos, sacrifice and blood, all of which are a part of war as well as other things.

Festivals, days, and times sacred to this deity
Festival of the Dead
Festival of Reciprocity
Blood Moon
Crow Moon
Twilight

Any mundane practices that are associated with this deity?
Weaving
Plying/Plaiting thread
Fighting
Voluntary simplicity/deprivation
Dancing
Martial arts

How does this deity relate to other gods and other pantheons?
Destroyer/Fate

How does this deity stand in terms of gender and sexuality?
Blood is the wild abandon of feminine power that is feared and denigrated by insecure or controlling masculinity. She is the patriarchal nightmare of the devouring, destroying woman incarnate.
All of the Powers of Waincraft fall along a multisexual spectrum, and Blood is no exception. She has minimal long-term relationships with the other Powers beyond her sisters, but much of her magic and power comes from her freely distributed sexuality to any and all. She has many similarities in this to Passion, but her charms are bloodier and wilder.

What quality or qualities of this god do you most admire? What quality or qualities of them do you find the most troubling?
I admire her resolve, her determination, her ability to completely remake herself after being destroyed, and her ability to teach us to do the same.
At the same time, of all the Powers, she represents some of the most unsavory and undesirable aspects of existence – pain and suffering, carnage and slaughter, chaos and malevolence and deprivation. She is not a Power to be called on lightly, or to be dismissed out of hand.

Art that reminds you of this deity



http://heroicevolution.com/storage/Morrigan.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1313017672762













http://journeyingtothegoddess.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/227922_10150204577251962_574766961_7622502_5996794_n1.jpg?w=220&h=545


Music that makes you think of this deity
The Three Ravens, The Hare and the Moon
The Raven, Omnia
Raven Night, Hagalaz’ Runedance
Morrigna, Dagda
Morrigan, Omnia
Morrigan, Trobar De Morte
Call to the Battle, Fenris Kindir
Warrior, Beth Quist
Love of War, Joe Hisaishi
Mars, the Bringer of War, Gustav Holst
Bloody Pleasures, Blutengel
Miser, Corvus Corax
Lacus Doloris (Lake of Grief), Karl Jenkins
So Sweet… The Tears, Autumn Tears
Blood Tears, Blind Guardian
In Our Tears, Secret Garden

A quote, a poem, or piece of writing that you think this deity resonates strongly with
It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood. – William Shakespeare
Blood alone moves the wheels of history. – Martin Luther
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. – Thomas Paine
I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict. – Plato
It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor. Live bravely and present a brave front to adversity. – Horace
All war is deception. – Sun Tzu
All the soarings of my mind begin in my blood. – Rainer Maria Rilke
Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have – life itself. – Walter Anderson

Any suggestions for others just starting to learn about this deity?
Help an abuse victim, rescue animals, learn defensive magic or martial arts, mentor someone, reduce clutter and superfluity in your life, sacrifice unnecessary possessions or self-defeating attitudes, contemplate the importance of sacrifice and reciprocity, learn to accept that all things must end, learn to start over after failure.

Getting to Know the Powers: Winter

by

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© 2007 dark777fairy

A basic introduction of the deity
Winter is the first and oldest of the Weird Sisters, born of a union between Night and Wildness, and as such is as wild and fierce and dark and terrifying as her father, but with the power and beauty and deep love of her mother. She is as ancient as the past, for it is the Past that she rules over in the trinity of Fate. She is cold and dark, bitterly beautiful and hideously ugly. She is the Power of winter, weaving, the past, memory, the underworld, and snow. She spins the thread that her sisters weave into the tapestry of the Pattern that comprises all of existence. She manifests most often as a wizened crone, solitary and hidden in far-off places, full of magic, mystery and impassivity, though she can help those who have earned her respect, and with a soft spot for children, particularly orphans and those dead before their time. But she is also the achingly beautiful, ageless, and hardened queen of ice who rules the land during the winter months with an iron fist.

Symbols and icons of this deity
Textiles and fabrics, sugar skulls, household tools, witch figurines, wagons, skulls, brooms, gingerbread cottages, spinning wheels or distaffs, torches, goose feathers, snowflakes, wells/fountains

A favorite myth or myths of this deity
The Weird Sisters
The story has been told of how the world was created – of Night’s love, and her twin consorts, and the four elemental twin-pairs. But the world ran wild, without purpose or pattern, in exuberance and fecundity overreaching the limits of possibility. And the Mother saw this in her Knowing, and realized that something would need to be done to reign in the excesses of creation, and to guide her children along the path. And so, she took a hair from her head, and twisted it into thread, so long that only she, in her vastness and Knowing, could see both the beginning and end of it.
And she took the thread, and wove it about herself, and lay with the Wild One, looking back towards the beginning of all things, and in time, bore a daughter, child of darkness and cold and magic, and this daughter picked up the beginning of the thread, and began to spin all the stories of the past into a spool. And this was the Keeper of the Past, who looks into the well of the Underworld and gathers all the memory of the dead.
The Mother took up the thread again, and wove the middle section about herself, and faced the present moment. And this time, she took to herself both twins, the Light and the Dark, Wildness and Abundance, and bore a daughter of both their seed, child of dark and light mixed. And this daughter saw all that lay around, and how it played into the greater pattern, and picked up the spool that her sister had spun, and began ply the yarn and set the warp. And this is the Keeper of the Present, who looks at the middle world and sets the pattern on what is and has been, keeper of the golden sands of time.
And yet a third, and final time, the Mother took up the thread again, and wove the end about herself, and lay with the Keeper of Time, looking forward to the unknown. And she bore of him a third daughter, bright and fair and with far-seeing eyes. And this daughter looked to the sky, and saw the unfolding of the pattern in the clouds, and took up the plied thread, and with shuttle in hand, began to weave the weft of what she had seen. And this shall be the Keeper of the Future, who looks beyond-the-horizon, and dreams what the pattern may yet be.
And so the limits of time were set, and the pattern made manifest, and the Sisters spin and weave the lives and places of all.

Members of the family – genealogical connections
Mother – Night
Father – Wildness
Siblings – Divine Twins (5 pairs), Blood, Rain, Earth, Sky, Water
Consorts – Wildness, Abundance
Children – Shadow, Fire, Ocean, Protection, Forest

Other related deities and entities associated with this deity
Blood
Rain
Earth
Death
Passion
Renewal
The Dead

Names and epithets
Witch-Queen, Forest-Witch, Lady of Winter, Old Hag, Grandmother Ill-Luck, Mother of Waters, Lady of the Crossroads, Speaker of Fate, Lady Luck, Grandmother Winter, Snow-Queen, Mother of Snow, Mother of Flax, Spinner, Storm-Hag, Hidden Lady, Mother of Orphans, Mistress of the Underworld, Mother of Souls, Grandmother Death, Lady of the Caves, Night-Rider, Phantom-Queen, Night-Terror, Kind Lady, Lady of Darkness, Keeper of the Pattern, White as Swans, Weaver of Death
Frau Holda/Hölle, Huld, Baba Yaga, Cailleach Bheur/Beira, Anu/Anann (of the Morrígna), Danu/Dôn, Laima, Hekátē, Urðr, and Hlaðguð Svanhvit are all Euro-American deities and spirits that can potentially work in this slot, for those pursuing specific cultures and mythologies.
A Euro-American (Finnish) deity that works but should probably not be used due to oppression/appropriation issues is Louhi
A Euro-American (Sami) deity that works but should not be used due to oppression/appropriation issues is Jambe-Akka.

Variations on this deity (aspects, regional forms, etc.)
Winter has three main aspects, as well as her combined role as Fate with her sisters: The White Queen, the Hag, and the Wise Grandmother.
The White Queen is the ruler of winter, cold and bright, ageless and dressed all in white. Here, she is one of the models of death in Waincraft – Death as Taker, the merciless, inhuman, impartial being that comes to all, regardless of station or wealth or love or loss, the cruel cold winds of winter that snatch away grandmothers and children alike without hesitation or compunction. She is ice, sharp and jagged and as beautiful as she is deadly.
The Hag is the witch who lives in a solitary cottage in the deep woods – the eater, the curser, the bone collector, the power of darkness and destruction and magic. She can be cruel and capricious, but is capable of being moved by fearlessness and strength of will, and will help those she deems worthy. She is a powerful, powerful witch and an excellent teacher in all the standard techniques of witchcraft and other “low” magic (and, if you get on her good side, she has a few more tricks up her sleeve that she might share with you)
The Wise Grandmother is the other side of the coin to both the Hag and the White Queen. Here, she is the magic of age and love, and the nourishing and covering snows of winter. She is kindly (to a point), and loves children and taking care of them, and is matriarch of the home and all its work – a stern taskmaster if you slack in your duties, but diligent, hardworking and down-to-earth. She cares for all of her children, divine and non-divine, and will assist those in need, provided they do not take advantage of her kindness.
The fourth major aspect of Winter is her role as Spinner of the Weird Sisters. She is the spinner of the threads, the keeper of the well, always and forever looking backwards and keeping remembrance of what was. She is Past, and her realm lies in the Underworld, among the dead and all the memories they carry. She is the portion of Fate that deals with past actions and influences, both from your own lifetime, and the lifetimes and choices of those who have gone before you.
In all her forms, she appears to me with white hair and pale blue eyes, though the color of her skin varies: snow white, bone white, the blue/black/grey of frostbite, weathered and tan, and as dark as rich, composted earth.

Common mistakes about this deity
Winter is not the Power of Death in Waincraft, though she does represent one of the “types” or faces of death, and has many similarities with Death herself (both old and young, feared, associated with the Underworld/Dead, and the colors white and black).
She is also not only an old woman, but can also take the form of a younger, beautiful one.

Festivals, days, and times sacred to this deity
Festival of Winter
Feast of the Dead
Night of Mysteries
Nighttime/Midnight

Any mundane practices that are associated with this deity?
Spinning thread
Knitting/Crochet
Housework
Ice sculpture
Playing in the snow
Wishing in a well

How does this deity relate to other gods and other pantheons?
Mother/Teacher/Spinner of fate

How does this deity stand in terms of gender and sexuality?
Winter is female, the embodiment of primal and ancient femininity – the old wise woman who is both terrifying and comforting, the crone, the hag, the grandmother, the ancient queen.
All of the Powers of Waincraft fall along a multisexual spectrum, and Winter is no exception. Though her major mythic relationships are with “male” Powers, and thus nominally heterosexual, she is also intimate with her sisters, and some mysteries hint at a continuous line of intimate sexuality among all the female-oriented Powers.

What quality or qualities of this god do you most admire? What quality or qualities of them do you find the most troubling?
I admire her care for the lost and lonely, such as orphans and the spirits of dead children, and I honor her dedication to the memory of what has been.
She’s extremely terrifying, even to those who find her favor. Fear is her bread and butter, and most of her lessons involve facing those fears.

Art that reminds you of this deity












Music that makes you think of this deity
Villvinter, Annbjørg Lien
Baba Jaga, Annbjørg Lien
Winter, Brian Crain
Snow, Brian Crain
Amid the Falling Snow, Enya
Concerto No. 4 in F minor, Op. 8, RV 297, “L’inverno”, Antonio Vivaldi
Waltz of the Snowflakes, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Winter, Daargard
Winter Variation, Meredith Monk
Queen of the Winter Night, Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Hella Roots, Mother Destruction
Hagazussa, Mother Destruction
Urd – That Which Was, Hagalaz’ Runedance
Snow Geese, Douglas Spotted Eagle
Midnight Queen, Inkubus Sukkubus
The White Queen, Nox Arcana
Ice Queen, Within Temptation
The White Witch, Harry Gregson-Williams
Nocturnal Hekate, Daemonia Nymphe
Hagall, Wardruna
Snow, Loreena McKennitt
And the albums:
Popplewell: The Snow Queen, Symphonika
Grimm Tales, Nox Arcana

A quote, a poem, or piece of writing that you think this deity resonates strongly with
Winter is coming. – George R. R. Martin

I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says “Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again. – Lewis Carroll

Spring passes and one remembers one’s innocence.
Summer passes and one remembers one’s exuberance.
Autumn passes and one remembers one’s reverence.
Winter passes and one remembers one’s perseverance – Yoko Ono

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome – Anne Bradstreet

I do an awful lot of thinking and dreaming about things in the past and the future – the timelessness of the rocks and the hills – all the people who have existed there. I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape – the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show. – Andrew Wyeth

The elk that you glimpse in the summer, those at the forest edge, are survivors of winter, only the strongest. You see one just before dusk that summer, standing at the perimeter of the meadow so it can step back to the forest and vanish. You can’t help imagining the still, frozen nights behind it, so cold that the slightest motion is monumental. I have found their bodies, half drifted over in snow, no sign of animal attack or injury. Just toppled over one night with ice working into their lungs. You wouldn’t want to stand outside for more than a few minutes in that kind of weather. If you lived through only one of those winters the way this elk has, you would write books about it. You would become a shaman. You would be forever changed. That elk from the winter stands there on the summer evening, watching from beside the forest. It keeps its story to itself. – Craig Childs

Snow was falling,
so much like stars
filling the dark trees
that one could easily imagine
its reason for being was nothing more
than prettiness. – Mary Oliver

In reality, Little Ones, there are two winters. One made for kids; the other for adults. The one made for adults is always too cold and always too long. The one made for kids is always perfect. A kid winter is an endless and wild snow carnival where all the rides are free – Carew Papritz

Any suggestions for others just starting to learn about this deity?
Keep your home clean, cook good food, practice fiber arts, walk in the snow, make an ancestor altar, help an orphan, practice witchcraft, make peace with aging, cultivate courage and strength of character, recognize the impact your past and your heritage has had on your current actions, thoughts, and circumstances.