Sep 26 thru Oct 5Navaratri, Hindu Festival of the Great Goddess Huge holiday in India when Goddess destroys evil and restores cosmic order. Coincides with the end of the deadly rainy aka flood season, so you can see how this holiday made sense over the centuries — especially this year! The 2014 flood season in India and Pakistan was much worse and more deadly than normal.
Asherah was called the Tree of Life in ancient Mesopotamia, the tree symbol in the center is a flowering Asherah “Pole”
Sep 27, Day of the Willows,
The Day of the Willow Trees, that beautiful feminine tree. Mesopotamian Festival of Astarte and / or Asherah. Mesopotamia which is Iraq and Syria, surely could use their ancient Mother-God now. They have forgotten Her completely, and thus the rampant oppression, enslavement and murderous abuse of females is still taking place. They treat males they disagree with also murderously — another sign of having no Heavenly Mother. I heard that ISIL is so afraid of women that they run from them on the battlefield believing if killed by a woman, they will not go to heaven. Mother God and the Daughters-of-God are in great need in Mesopotamia.
Sep 29,Michaelmas, one of the oldest Christo-pagan holy days
Sep 30, Feast day of Saint Sophia, mother of Faith, Hope & Charity, saintly version of Goddess of Wisdom. Alternative feastdays for her are August 15 or 17, see previous Calendar entries in our Holy Days section.
OCTOBER
Oct 2– Druid Feast of the Guardian Spirits
Oct 4– St. Francis of Assisi Day, one of the most “pagan” and “alternative” of the Christian saints, he coined terms, “brother sun, sister moon”, and honored the covenant between humans and the animal kingdom. His mother was said to be a Cathar heretic who secretly practiced Catharism and may have taught it to him.
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)
Stella Maris “Star of the Sea” an ancient title of Goddess and Mother Mary, our Christian Goddess
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
Here are the ancient alternative holy days for May’s first twelve days.
May 9 thru 12 looks rather freaky… At Christmas many families put candles in the window in order to encourage this very event. Looks like our ancient forbears believed their dead returned home during the second week of May.
Pharoah holding the shepherd’s crook of rulership, called the heqa. Modern bishops of the church carry the same staff
Today, May 6, is Shepherd’s Day, a day for Shepherd gods many of which pre-date Jesus by millennia – Osiris, Shiva, Dumuzi / Tammuz (pictured below right). The Shepherd’s crook can be seen in ancient tombs held by Pharoahs — it was the mark of the god Osiris and also the staff of office for a Pharoah. A Christian bishop to this day must carry a Shepherd’s crook as proof of their high office. Pastor is a term for both ordained ministers and priests that means “shepherd.” May 6 Shepherds Day is an ancient holiday. See below…
May 1 – May Day (European holy day)
– Babylonian Celebration of Asherah, also Called the Queen of Heaven. Asherah is in the Bible. She was Yahweh-God’s wife. Women in the Old Testament actually complain to the corrupt ruling priesthood how bad life became after Hebrew women stopped “baking cakes” for Asherah. (This can be found in the Bible)
Sumerian Goddess Inanna and God Dumuzi one of the earliest Sacred Marriage bride and bridegroom couples
May 2 – Elena’s Day (Welsh)
– St. Helen’s Day (British)
May 4 – Celtic Festival of Cerridwen and Brigit – Corn Goddesses of fertility, healing, and poets.
– St. Monica’s Day (Irish)
– Veneration of the Thorn (Irish)
– Festival of Sheila Na Gig (Irish)
May 6 – Shepherd’s Day – Day to meditate on Deity as Lord of Animals and God as a Shepherd King: Dumuzi (Old Sumerian), Osiris (Egyptian), Pan (Old Greek), Shiva Pasupati (Hindu).
The Sumerian god Dumuzi was also spelled Tammuz. Sumeria was current-day Iraq, and near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers where the Garden of Eden supposedly stood. Tammuz’s initial was considered very sacred. The letter T, later called the Tau, was said to be “God’s mark” placed on the foreheads of the Hebrews in one of the Old Testament Bible stories. God told his prophet to make sure all his people got the Tau drawn on their forehead with oil or ash so they would be saved when an invading army came.
Another story in the Hebrew Bible has the priests aggravated because the women are carrying out an annual weeping ceremony for Tammuz / Dumuzi on the steps of the Temple! Maybe Mother Mary knew about that ancient “pagan” ceremony, it is said she was one of the temple “workers” aka priestesses. Then again, we know all the Divine Feminine elements were suppressed by Jesus aka Yeshua’s time, but the people of course still remembered them.
May 6 – is also Eyvind Kelve Day, a Norse / Viking saint’s day. Eyvind Kelve was a martyr for his faith, refusing to give up his old norse beliefs, put to death by a Christian-pagan King on this day (May 6) in 965 A.D.
LEMURIA May 9 thru 12, or by some reckoning May 9, 11, and 13 (only the odd days) Lemuria or Lemuralia was a Roman festival when the spirits of the dead are thought to revisit their homes. You should place bowls of beans out or sprinkle beans around the house to make sure the ghosts don’t turn malevolent. Vestal Virgin priestesses would make a special salted wheat cake for the people to use on this day as an offering to their dead.
Mother Mary as a Moon Goddess and Queen of Heaven riding the moon holding her divine son, God of Humanity
May 9 – Greek Feast of Artemis. Diana is her Roman name, she was very important moon Goddess to the ancients and many of her attributes — the moon at her feet, etc. — were later given to Mary, the Goddess of Christianity. Mary is also called the Queen of Heaven like Asherah mentioned above and like Inanna pictured above with Dumuzi. When Christianity was still new and still quite pagan, Jewish and gnostic, priests were asked who was the mother of Mary? It isn’t listed in the Bible. They told them, her name was Anna — from In’Anna, the ancient Mesopotamian Goddess.
Teaching the Ancient Wisdom Mystery Traditions online since 1999
