Monthly Archives: January 2015

Holy Days

End of January Holidays, Jan 20 – 31

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Jan 24 – Feb 1 Sementivae – Old Roman festival of sowing, honoring Earth Goddess Terra (Greek Gaia), Grain Goddess Ceres (Greek Demeter), and Seed Goddess Proserpina (Greek Persephone).

Jan 25 – 30 Feast of Old Egyptian creating and destroying God-Goddess Amen – Amenet – The eternal transformer. Egyptians who deeply studied the Divine, (usually only members of the priesthoods and priestesshoods) came to perceive the many Gods and Goddesses to be aspects of the one God-Goddess Neter-Neteret.

British goddess Brigid became St. Bridget
Brigid, originally a British goddess who became the Christian Saint Bridget

Jan 31 – Feb 2 Imbolc / St. Brigid’s Day – Old Celtic / Irish feast of Goddess Brigid; merged with the Christian feast of St. Brigid. Fires were lit to welcome Her as She traveled about blessing fields, animals, and people.

Jan 31 – Feb 3 Old European Lunar New Year – Celebration of the Triple Goddess (Goddess of the Moon and the Seasons) being transformed from the Crone into the Virgin; celebrated with ritual bathing of divine images.

Jan 31 – Feb 4 Mid-Winter / Candlemas – Festival marking the transformation from death to life, the beginning of the agricultural year, awakening of hibernating animals, and return of migrating birds and fish. Observed with a candlelight procession to bless fields and seeds, recognition of newborns, and contemplation of life.

Holy Days

Mid January Esoteric Holidays Jan 7 to 19

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Here are mid-January’s ancient and still-practiced holy days and their esoteric meaning.

Jan 7 – Eastern Orthodox Christmas, meaning Russian, Greek, Egyptian, Middle Eastern, etc. Christmas. Yes, they still to this day have Christmas every January 7. The explanation is because they follow the old Julian Calendar which is 13 days behind. But celebrating on January 7 is very close to the day the earliest Christians celebrated Jesus’ birthday: January 6.  It’s nice that the Christians of the Middle East celebrate the “big day” on January 7, so close to the original date their ancestors insisted on for the first THREE centuries of Christianity. Too bad in 2015 it had to be the day the terrorists chose to attack Charlie Hebdo newspaper office and slaughter Europeans for insulting Islam.

English speaking Christians in the 1500s would bake a cake with a coin on it every January 7th — they considered January 7 to be part of the Epiphany holiday where the Magi / Wisemen find the Christchild.  Epiphany  is now celebrated January 6, and in Spain to this day, the children receive their Christmas presents on the 6th.  As for January 7, whoever got the piece of cake with the coin in it was hailed as King for a day (or Queen). Symbols such as a cross, would be drawn in white chalk on the door post, lintel, or ceiling to keep dark forces out of the home.

Jan 8 – Druid New Year’s Day
Midwifes Day (ancient Greece)
Justicia’s Day (ancient Rome)
Freya’s Day (Norse / Viking holiday)

Jan 11 – Carmentalia, old Roman festival for the childbirth goddess, Carmenta
Juturna’s Day – ancient Italian goddess of “still waters” aka pools, lakes, ponds, Roman baths

Jan 13 – Ancient Irish Druid Feast of Brewing
-Saint Silvester’s Day
-Old Calendar New Year’s Eve (still celebrated in Switzerland with clanging of bells to scare off evil spirits)

Goddess Vesta and her Ass which saved her
Goddess Vesta, the Virgin and her Donkey

Jan 14 – Feast of the Donkey (also called Feast of the Ass)
The donkey saved the Virgin Mother and her child during the flight to Egypt, but few people know the donkey also saved the Roman goddess Vesta, goddess of Virgins. According to Ovid, she had fallen asleep and was almost raped by Priapus when a donkey brayed to wake her up. Ever after donkeys were honored in her name and she is often depicted with a donkey beside her.

Jan 17 – 19 Feast of Fate – Ruler of Past, present, and Future, honoring Goddess as Moirai (old Greek), Norns (Old Norse), Coatlicue (Aztec), Pachamama (Inca), Manat (Old Arabic-Sufi) & Providence (Christian).

 

Holy Days

January Esoteric Holidays

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Goddess Hecate Hekate Isis
Hecate or Hekate

Jan 1 – Jan 31 January/Janus – Dedicated to Old Roman God-Goddess Janus – Jana, who knows both past and future.

Jan 2 thru 3 Feast of Old Greek Goddess Hekate / Hecate– who guides all through transitions and crisis.

Jan 3 or 4 Earth Perihelion – when the Earth is closest to the Sun. (It is farthest from the sun on the 4th of July). Peri means near, and Helion is for Helios, the sun god. The sun god is closest to us on this day, thus it is his “birth” day. We kind of have a sun-god / Light of the World birth “week”, or “season” every year this time, if you haven’t noticed, thanks to all the Festivals of Lights, Hanukkah, Yule, Christmas all based on the Winter Solstice of Dec. 21 and the Perihelion on Jan 3 or 4.  In 2015 the perihelion occurs at exactly: January 4, 2015 at 6:36 UTC (01:36 EST)

In January 2015, the full moon occurs on January 4. Most charts will tell you the moon is in Cancer when it goes full this month, but if you were to look in the sky you would see it’s actually physically located in front of the constellation Taurus, not Cancer.  (Our Mystery School always uses Sidereal measurements, based on the literal star constellations)

Jan 6  Original Christmas Day.  Now January 6 is called Epiphany in the mainstream church, with January 5 being Epiphany Eve. In the original Church for the first 325 years of Christianity, January 6 was celebrated as Jesus / Yeshua’s birthday. Then Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity, followed a few years later by making it the official state religion of Rome. He couldn’t resist moving Yeshua’s birthday to his own god, Sol Invictus’ birthday. That was Dec. 25 on the Roman Calendar, which was the Winter Solstice back then, now  in our modern calendar taking place on Dec. 21. Many early Kristian churches continued to celebrate Jan 6 as Yeshua’s birthday up into the 600’s AD even though Constantine had changed the date. Some rare Christian sects still celebrate Jan 6, calling it “Old Christmas”.