July 22 Mary Magdalene Feast Day – the Holy Grail. Official Christian feast of St. Maria Magdalen, both Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. Some Magdalene devotees such as those in our Order of Mary Magdala, bake Madeleine cakes for the Queen of Heaven in honor of her day. Madeleine is a French form of Magdalene. Here is a good recipe for Madeleine cakes, and you can read about the history of Madeleine cakes here. Our Magdalene initiates and ordained priestesses wear red, white and green today, and light candles of those colors, the colors of Mary Magdalene. We display our red altar egg on Magdalene Day and recite litanies dedicated to her.
* July 28 Archangel Auriel (Uriel) Day. His/Her name means “Fire or Light of God,” and titles include, Regent of the Sun, Angel of Music, Patron of Prophecy, Archangel of Salvation, Angel of the Presence. See Uriel.org for more about him/her, the crystal egg association, and paintings.
July 29 – Festival of Thor – Celebration of Norse God Thor
July 31 – Lammas, harvest festival coming 40 days after Summer Solstice, offer 1st fruits to the Divine (See Aug. 1)
– Festival of Loki – Day to honor Norse trickster god Loki and his consort Sigyn
July 31 thru Aug 2 – Lughnasadh – Old Celtic / Irish Feast of Goddess Tailtiu and God Lugh (Deities of Life and Light), celebrating the grain harvest.
Longest day of the year, a day most chosen to get married. This is the holy day opposite earth’s orbit from Christmas, the solar “birth” holidays. Luckily this is not a solar “death” holiday, although some in the “Dark Side” of the spiritual world do think of this day as a “death of god” day, the idiots. Never will understand the hardcore darkside — as if they would survive if the sun didn’t?!
Look at all the Goddesses connected to the Summer Solstice holiday. Some of them are from homelands in the news today. Iraq is certainly in the news currently, as is Syria. We have Ishtar, the Babylonian and Syrian goddess who gave her name to Easter, and whose birthday is considered Summer Solstice. Brazil and the World Cup are also in the news, and is represented by Yemaya, the Brazilian goddess honored on Summer Solstice.
Scroll on down to see the ancient Egyptian holiday, Roman holiday (this was Hera’s Day!), and even Native American, ancient Hindu, and Druid holidays. This is quite a day worldwide and has been for millennia.
June 21: Summer Solstice (Click for more info on this ancient holiday) Here are all the deities — many Sacred Feminine ones — connected to this holy day through the ages.
– Day of Cerridwen and her Cauldron (English/Welsh)
– Day of Aine of Knockaine (Irish)
– Day of the Green Man (Northern Europe)
– The Great Mother (British)
– Alban Hefin (Druidic)
– Waa-Laa Ends (Native American)
– Litha (Wiccan)
– All Hera’s Day (Roman)
– Ishtar’s Day (Babylonian)
– Astarte’s Day (Canaanite)
– Aphrodite’s Day (Greek)
– Yemaya’s Day (Brazilian)
– Aine’s Day (Irish)
See also notes here about June Solstice holidays, including the other days coming after it.
June 23: Celtic Day of the Green Man – In honor of Herne, Cernernos, Lugh.
June 24: TEMPLAR HOLY DAY. In the Roman calendar this day was thought to be Summer Solstice. The Church renamed this pagan holiday to St. John the Baptist Day. Templars revered it highly. On Jun 24, 1314 a mysterious band of knights joined Robert the Bruce of Scotland on the battlefield making his victory at Bannockburn possible. These knights could only have been the a troop of disbanded and now in-hiding Templars who had fled to western Scotland. St. John’s day was used by Freemasons in 1717 to found the first public (non-Scottish) Order of Freemasonry in London. Masonic teachings are said to descend from the esoteric Christianity of Templarism. St. John the Baptizer was beheaded because he wouldn’t give in and sacrifice his principles. This is a Templar ideal, as is the constancy and regularity — order out of chaos — of the solstices and equinoxes. So for both reasons, Christian and “pagan,” we observe this day. See also notes here.
– Feast of the Sun (Aztec)
– Feast of St. John the Baptist
– Midsummer Bride (Swedish)
– Inti Raymi (Incan)
– Lady Luck (European)
– Burning of the Lamps at Sais (Egyptian)
June 25 – Parvati Praise Day – Hindu Women’s Festival for Earth Mother. June 27 – Roman Day of the Lares – Household Deities honored and tended
– Initium Aestatis (Roman)
– Arretophoria (Greek)
June 28 – Festival of the Tarasque (French) June 29 – Shiva Day – Hindu Lord of the Dance invoked for blessings
– Runic New Year
– Petosiris’ Day (Egyptian)
– St. Peter’s Day
– Herb Harvesting Day (East Anglican)
June 13: Feast of Epona – The Celtic Horse Goddess
– All Soul’s Day (Tibetan)
– Children’s Day (USA)
– Athena’s Day (Greek)
– Minerva’s Day (Roman)
June 14 – Vidar’s Day (Norse Heathen)
– Birthday of the Muses (Greek). Music, the arts & inspiration “born”
June 16 – Night of the Teardrop (Egyptian)
June 17 – Ludi Piscatari (Roman)
– Marriage of Orpheus and Eurydike (Greek)
June 18: Roman Day of Anna – Goddess Danu / Dana / Ana to the Celts. Early Christian-Pagans made sure Anna entered the Kristian story, making her Yeshua’s grandmother, Mary’s mother.
June 20 – Iron Skegge’s Day (Norse Heathen)
– Festival of Edfu (Egyptian)
– Kuan-Yin Day (day she became a Bodhisattva)
June 21: Summer Solstice (<–Click for details)
Also, see next blog entry for all the Christian – Pagan “Christo-Pagan” details on Summer Solstice
Today is Friday the 13th AND a full moon, both. Double whammy for the “superstitious” people out there (and in here!).
Also, they just said on the news that a huge solar flare left the sun early this morning and will hit earth with an energy wave that could “disrupt” cellphone service today.
Jodi: Guardian Angel in Training, the first book in the Jodi Trilogy, is a Christian Fantasy written by Karin Olson, a student in the Mystery School. The book will be free as a Kindle download for the next three days. (If you don’t have a Kindle, Amazon has free software to allow Kindle media to be read on all other electronic devices.)
Jodi was a special forces angel who desperately wanted to be a guardian angel and pleaded with God to let her try. After several centuries of her pleas, God finally gave in to her and assigned her to Gerald who had severe Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. The first book chronicles their life together for the first forty years of Gerald’s life beginning in the early 1900’s. The impetuous Jodi creates serious controversy in the angelic realms with her novel solutions to life’s problems not the least of which is introducing herself to Gerald when he is only four. Her actions create consternation in the rigid hierarchy of the Guardian Division.
The Jodi Trilogy consists of three books: Jodi: Guardian Angel in Training, Jodi and the Children, and The Jodi Experiment. Jodi and the Children narrates the expansion of Jodi’s innovations into a subculture of human families who work interactively with their angels. The family angels can now team guard. And anyone who knows their angel personally can see and talk to other guardians who are in similar relationships with their own angels. In the third book of the trilogy Jodi must form a new department in the hierarchy and overcome the obstacles thrown up by those who disapprove of her methods and by Satan who sees her work as a serious infringement on his access to humans.
Since Jodi introduces a new concept of interaction between humans and their angels, this might be a book that will be of interest to some of our Mystery School members. And since right now it is free ….
Here is a direct link to the free Kindle version of the book, Jodi: Guardian Angel In Training
Alternative, Suppressed and otherwise Forgotten Holidays for the first week of June
Month of Juno – Dedicated to Roman Goddess Juno, partner of Jove (God of Happiness), protector of marriage and family.
Movable Holiday: sometimes in May, sometimes in June. I really like the esoteric meaning of Pentecost and not just because I had a baby on that day long ago… The Sacred Marriage Holiday is awesome too since June in marriage month worldwide — many choose June for their wedding month, which makes sense since Juno is the Goddess of Marriage. To esotericists the Sacred Marriage also has to do with a Heavenly Mother marrying a Heavenly Father, be it God and Mother-God aka Yahweh and Havah / Asherah / Sophia, El and Elat, or Jove and Juno. The ancients knew about and celebrated the Sacred Marriage aka the Hieros Gamos. Read more here : Shavuot/Feast of First Fruits, Pentecost, Sacred Marriage holiday
June 2 – Juno Regina’s Day (Roman)
– Goddess Sin’s Day (Norse goddess pronounced “Seen”)
– Shapatu of Ishtar (Babylonian)
– Seamen’s Day (Icelandish)
– St. Elmo’s Day
June 4 – Socrates’ Birthday
June 5: Earth Mother Day – Call forth good harvests
June 11 – Feast of Matuta (Roman)
– Matralia (Roman)
– Fortuna’s Day (Roman)
May 24 – Day of the Three Maries (special to Mary Magdalene and Grail Christianity)
Margaret Starbird writes: On May 24th, the feast day of Saint Sarah — the dark refugee child known as “Sarah Kali” celebrated at Les Stes. –Maries de-la-Mer– I’ll celebrate by doing an interview about Mary Magdalene and reclaiming the Lost Bride of the Christian story…. Here is a link to the program, you can listen to the archive.
– Celebration of the Tao, Mother of the World (Chinese, Japanese)
May 26 – Festival of Diana begins (ends 31st) (ancient Roman holiday)
– Dakinis’ Day – Day Tantric Buddhists make offerings to Mother Tantra; day to unite will and power to manifest positive social change and environmental healing.
May 30 – Frigg’s Day, Northern Goddess, spouse of Odin (Teutonic “heathen” European pre-Christian holiday)
– Feast of the Queen of the Underworld Begins (Roman)
– Feast of the Queen of Heaven (European)
May 31 – Feast of the Triple Goddess – Marking the transformation of the Virgin into the Mother.
– Feast of Stella Maris – Venus, (and Asherah) as Star of the Sea. Mother Mary was later given the title Stella Maris
Movable Holiday: 2nd Sunday in May. Mother’s Day – Day to give love and thanks to all mothers; day for mothers to celebrate motherhood and contemplate their sacred duty to provide for the physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual needs of their children.
May 13 – Roman Garland Day, Offering garlands to Neptune.
– Month of Hawthorn, Celtic festival of the tree.
– Our Lady of Fatima Day (Portugal)
May 14-16 Feast of Divine Love and Compassion – Source of healing and beneficence, honoring Goddess as Isis (Old Egyptian), Oshun (Yoruba/Santeria), Lakshmi (Hindu).
May 14 – Isis Day in ancient Egypt
May 15 – Cold Sophie (German)
– Festival of Vesta (Roman)
– Maia and Mercury’s Day (Roman)
May 17 – Dea Dia (Roman)
May 18 – Celtic Feast of Old Greek God Pan – Who represents the masculine in Nature and protects men throughout their lives. Men recognized the transitions in their lives and honored male fertility.
May 19 – Old Celtic Feast of Brigid – In which sacred healing wells and springs were adorned with flowers in honor of Goddess Brigid, daughter of Mother Goddess Danu and Father God Dagda.
May 20 – Mjollnir (Germanic, Teutonic, heathen)
May 21 – Dark/Bright Mother Goddesses Day – Kali / Parvati and Hecate / Demeter.
– Plato’s Birthday
May 22 – Ragnar Lodbrok’s day (Norse Heathen)
May 23 – Semik (Russian)
May 24 – Day of the Three Maries (significant to Mary Magdalene and Grail Christianity)
Significantly, the article states “The text maintains a vision similar to Islam, contradicting the New Testament’s teachings of Christianity. Jesus also foresees the coming of the Prophet Muhammad, who would found Islam 700 years later.” It also states “It is believed that, during the Council of Nicea, the Catholic Church hand-picked the gospels that form the Bible as we know it today; omitting the Gospel of Barnabas (among many others) in favor of the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Many biblical texts have begun to surface over time, including those of the Dead Sea and Gnostic Gospels; but this book especially, seems to worry the Vatican.”
This is what the Assyrian International News Agency (an organization I have not vetted) had to say: “Muslims, liberal and secular organizations have portrayed this discovery as something that undermines Christianity, ignoring the many problems with this book and presenting it as virtual fact. In fact, in their zeal to support the anti-Christian narrative, they have withheld or suppressed information questioning the authenticity of this book. For these organizations and individuals, this is another tool in their arsenal for the attack on the foundations of Christian doctrine.” http://www.aina.org/news/2012022916569.htm
At one time, I just ignored posts such as the first one referenced, but now I respond to these posts with facts. For example: the statement, along with many others in the article, that “during the Council of Nicea, the Catholic Church hand-picked the gospels that form the Bible” indicates the poster is ignorant of basic historical facts.
Because so many people believe much of what they read on the internet, there will be many more of these high search result propaganda articles. Hopefully, accurate responses will rank higher in the search engines.
A primary mission of the modern Templars is responding to such posts in an accurate and factual manner.
+James
Teaching the Ancient Wisdom Mystery Traditions online since 1999