Pagan Everyday - First Fruits by Barbara Ardinger, PhD

August 7: Birth of Hathor

One of the eldest goddesses, Hathor was originally a local deity of Dendera in southern Egypt who was incorporated into the cults of Ra and Horus as Ra’s mother or daughter or Horus’ mother. “Hathor” is her Greek name. First, she was Het-hert, or “Sky-house” or “My house in the Sky.” Worshippers of Horus renamed her Het-heru, or “House of Horus,” meaning she was the sky through which the hawk flew. Hathor also become the solar eye, the cow of the sky whose right eye is the sun and left eye is the moon.

Like Isis, Hathor corresponds to “golden Aphrodite” and is the goddess to invoke when you’re “in sexual need.” She’s the goddess of singers, dancers, artists, cosmetics, and intoxicating drinks. Early inscriptions also identify her as the goddess of the date palm and the sycamore tree. On New Year’s Day, Hathor’s image was brought out of the temple to be bathed in the first rays of the rising sun.

In an early Egyptian story, we learn of the Seven Hathors, goddesses of fate to whom a childless king prays. When his wife gives birth to a son, the Hathors arrive and pronounce his destiny: he will die by means of a crocodile, a snake, or a dog. In another story, the Hathors tell a beautiful young woman that she will die by the knife. It is possible that Hathor not only foretells the fates of humans, but she also receives them when they arrive in the Underworld, which makes her a goddess of regeneration.

Sometimes, however, Hathor causes the untimely ends of those whom the gods decide must die. As the Eye of Ra, she was once set upon blasphemers. As Sekhmet, she “prevails over humanity” with such joi de mort that the gods have to pacify her.

The Elemental Salamander

Research is wonderful. I have just found one—marginally—trustworthy source that asserts that “today was the ancient Greek salamander festival.” I don’t believe it for a moment, but because I want to talk about fire in August, I’ll use this make-believe festival as my hook. I dug into The Secret Teachings and learned what Manly P. Hall has to say about salamanders, which are spirits of fire

who live in that attenuated, spiritual ether which is the invisible fire element of Nature. Without them material fire cannot exist; a match cannot be struck nor will flint and steel give off their spark without the assistance of a salamander, who immediately appears (so the medieval mystics believed), evoked by friction. Man is unable to communicate successfully with the salamanders [emphasis mine]….

I don’t know much about magical salamanders, having never met one personally. I have trouble keeping candles lit, but I recognize the importance of fire, both real and metaphorical.

When I cast a circle, I invite the powers of the four directions and elements to bring their gifts to the circle. The gifts of air include discernment; of water, compassion; of earth, growth; of fire, creativity. If we can draw these gifts into our lives and our consciousness, I believe, we will live more magical and more productive lives.

Reader, nearly every “expert” says that the elemental spirits are untamable and should be invoked with enormous care. They are mischievous and not much interested in our petty human concerns. Do you invoke elemental spirits into your circles? What kinds of manifestations have you had? Try this experiment the next few times you cast a circle. Follow my lead in asking the elemental powers to bring their gifts to your magical work. See if there are any changes in your magic.

Isis

Isis, Great Lady, Queen of Heaven, mother goddess of Egypt, is mentioned in papyri that date back to 1500 B.C.E. We know that the Romans brought her worship to Italy in the second century B.C.E. Some years later, as she later became associated with the Ptolemaic god, Serapis, she became the foremost Hellenistic goddess and was soon as popular in Greece and Rome as in Egypt.

Thanks to the Romans, the “cult” of Isis found its way north and west into Europe, where she was often identified with local goddesses and is probably the original of Europe’s many Black Virgins. She was likewise carried east by the Romans into Asia Minor. Temples to her, called isea, were built in nearly every land. There are isea, for example, in the ruins of Pompeii, and her likeness appears on Roman coins as late as the fourth century. In 188 an iseum was built at Szombathely, Hungary; it was enlarged in the third century. This same iseum was rebuilt in the 1950s and now an annual Mozart festival is held there.

The popular worship of Isis thus endured from the fourth century B.C.E. until past the fourth century C.E. The Serapeum in Alexandria was destroyed in 391, the last official festivals of Isis and Magna Mater took place in 394, and the last mention of an Isis festival in classical literature dates to 416. Although her worship gave way to Christianity, we know that her iconography endured in the images of the young mother nursing her holy son.

Our major literary sources of information on Isis are Plutarch’s Of Isis and Osiris, which was read by Shakespeare and countless other poets, and The Golden Ass, a novel by Lucius Apuleius. The first is Greek, the second, Roman; both were written in the first century.

Barbara Ardinger, Ph.D. (www.barbaraardinger.com), is the author of Pagan Every Day: Finding the Extraordinary in Our Ordinary Lives (RedWheel/Weiser, 2006), a unique daybook of daily meditations, stories, and activities. Her earlier books are Finding New Goddesses, Quicksilver Moon, Goddess Meditations, and Practicing the Presence of the Goddess. Her day job is freelance editing for people who don't want to embarrass themselves in print. Barbara lives in southern California. To purchase a signed copy of Finding New Goddesses, just send Barbara an email at bawriting@earthlink.net