Magical Symbols and Modern Totems - The Starbucks Siren

Symbols have a way of exerting a mysterious power over the people who use them, even when they have been supposedly removed from their original context. The Starbucks logo, for instance is one manner through which a traditional representation of a mystical being - in this case the Mermaid, or the Siren - has resurfaced in modern society. The mermaid, or siren, is a very powerful heraldic creature and has graced many coat of arms such as the one in Warsaw since the 14th Century. As a heraldic creature, the mermaid or siren evokes the qualities of eloquence, expression, and wealth.

As is the case with any heraldic creature, it is thought that a certain reverence of the mythical being or what it stands for will similarly result in various qualities and gifts being bestowed upon all in its jurisdiction. Though it may seem like a stretch, the accord the Starbucks Siren with the status of a heraldic creature for the company is perhaps not as far fetched as that. The metaphor of "Brand worship" is after all, a concept that is becoming increasingly common-knowledge to members of the populace and it is perhaps not so difficult to see how brands sometimes take on an almost mythical life of their own.

As the heraldic emblem of the Starbucks company, the Starbucks Siren has done just that by pulling in wealth and loyal customers alike with her siren song. For her patrons, the Mermaid also provides in her shrine (Your local Starbucks outlet, lol!) a conducive atmosphere for relaxation or the flow of ideas. As with any mermaid, she probably also has the ability to serve as a muse for creativity, reflection, and expression which may explain why many seem to be drawn to her "grotto" to engage in such exploits.

This is not to say that the Starbucks Mermaid has become a religion or anything of the sort, but rather provides an interesting perspective with which to look at a very familiar and well-loved facet of popular iconography. Perhaps now one might perceive the mermaid differently when taking in their daily cup of coffee.

Working with Goddesses pt. 3 ~ Swanmanes

Light and Love

Many of us have, in one form or another, known of the myth of the beautiful Swan Maidens. The Swan Maidens are a prominent creature in European mythology and may be described as spiritual shape shifters that have the ability to change form from a beautiful woman to that of an animal, often a swan. Some of the more popular contemporary interpretations of the Swan Maiden is the tale of Swan Lake or The Swan Princess but the legends of the Swan Maiden may actually be traced back to a mythological archetype that can be found in the folklore of almost every culture: of mysterious and beautiful women who can take the shape of various animals in order to cross the boundaries between their worlds and our's. In many of these legends, a young man spies the beautiful maiden who is often bathing or frolicking in a river with her sisters and schemes to steal the feather garment which allows her to transform back into a Swan. He eventually does so and thus prevents her from flying back to her realm and she is forced to be his wife. The story varies from this point on with the Swan Maiden staying with the man willingly and of her own accord in some instances, even going on to be the mother of his children, or eventually leaving him when she rediscovers the location of her stolen feather garment. The myth exists in various forms across the planet and are in many ways similar to the Selkies or Mermaids of Irish folklore and the Buffalo women of African folklore but perhaps find the most similarity in the story of celestial maidens a cross of East Asia who are either given the ability to fly between the human world and the celestial one through the use of a feathered garment or, like the European Swan Maiden, uses the garment to transforms into various species of birds. In many of these Eastern cultures, the Swan Maiden may also be considered a Tennin, or celestial being, which possess many similar qualities to Western conceptions of angels or fairies. Because of their association with small bodies of water and the skies, they have also been likened to the Apsaras of Hindu and Buddhist mythologies.

The Swan Maidens and many of their counterparts are considered to be the personification of grace and beauty and in many cases this is typified by their various animal forms. Their abilities to shape shift also grant them the knowledge and wisdom that comes from both sides of the great divide and they can be approached to act as guides for people who wish to bridge the gap between their conscious-human selves and their primal-animal natures. In doing so, the Swan Maiden and her Sisters are capable of helping one reach a state of enlightenment that can be found by attuning oneself to one's environment and a distancing of the natural self with the constraints of one's human existence. They are also sometimes depicted playing various musical instruments and are believed to be able to inspire musicians, dancers, or those otherwise invested in the arts with their exploits.  The Swan Maiden and her Sisters may be honored in many ways and invited to bless the lives of practitioners who venerate them but because they are not Goddesses into themselves they are often not worshiped as such in their own right. Rather, practitioners who choose to invite the Swan Maiden and her Sisters into their lives may set up small shrines to these spiritual entities around their houses, or decorate particular work spaces associated with art, music, or creation with various Swan Maiden imagery.

Valkyries of Norse Mythology are also sometimes depicted wearing swan skins. In the Völundarkviða, Wayland Smithand his brothers marry valkyries who dress in swan skins. 

A similar tale that can be found in Japan is that of the Crane Wife. In the folktale a man marries a devoted young woman who turns out to be a crane in disguise. To help the impoverished man make enough money to survive the winter, the Crane Wife plucks out of her own feathers to weave beautiful silk brocades which the man is able to sell but she becomes increasingly ill as she does so. When he finds out the true nature of his wife's identity and her illness she leaves as the conditions of her interaction with humans prohibits them from ever learning of her true identity.

Blessed Be
)O(

Working with Goddesses pt. 2 - Chloris and the Coming of Spring

Light and Love.

Flora by Alexander Roslin

Several deities in the Greek pantheon may be associated with plants, vegetation and the renewal of life that is promised by the coming of Spring, but none is perhaps as known to both lay person and Pagan practitioner alike than the Goddess, Chloris. Compared to the other goddesses of vegetation and plants like Gaia, Demeter, or Persephone, Chloris may be considered a minor Goddess by certain standards due to her relatively small role in Grecian religion but her namesake has endured to this day in the term Flora, which is used as a general term to refer to all manner of plant life. According to legend, Chloris had humble beginnings as a nymph that dwelt in the gardens of the Elysian fields. Her beauty was noticed by the wind God, Zephyrus, who kidnapped her and took her as his wife.  She was later elevated to the status of Goddess and worshiped as such under the name of Flora which gave her dominion over flowers of all kinds. She plays a minor role in several Greek mythologies in which she was responsible for transforming the characters Adonis, Attis, Crocus, Hyacinthus, and Narcissus into their floral counterparts. In the olden days, the festival of Chloris/Flora was called the Floralia and consisted of men and women adorning themselves in bright colors and flowers. Household pets and farm animals were similarly bedecked with flowers and would be paraded throughout the festivals to invite Flora to bestow upon them her blessing of fertility. Her worship is sometimes conflated with the worship of Persephone (who is similarly a nymph, elevated to the status of Goddess after being kidnapped by a God and whose dominion is also Spring and the personification of beauty and flowers). The priest (or priestess) of Flora is called the Flamen Floralis. Traditionally celebrations dedicated to Flora or Persephone would last for six days and six nights.

Persephone or Chloris are some of the deities that certain Wiccans or Pagans have incorporated into their celebrations that welcome the return of Spring. Practitioners are typically encouraged to wear colorful clothing and various pieces of flowers or greenery attached to their person. Altars to these Goddesses may be decorated using ribbons of bright colors, but more importantly fresh flowers of various colors and varieties. Flowers associated with fertility, longevity, the sun, and the coming of spring such as Chrysanthemums are often a popular choice. Candles may be lit in the colors of white, pink, or red, and floral essential oils are sometimes used to diffuse the scent of flowers in the practitioner's sacred space. In some modern Pagan traditions, a flower crown or some variation of it is offered to the Goddess by the practitioner and is sometimes worn after invoking the Goddess to symbolize the presence of Persephone or Chloris during the the night. There are typically no formal rituals associated with the honoring of Chloris and Persephone and the coming of Spring and revelers are often encouraged to eat, drink, and be merry, in representing the abundance and color of the season. 

Primavera, or the coming of Spring as depicted by Botticelli. Chloris is depicted being kidnapped by Zephyrus in the far right. 

The Goddess Chloris, depicted with her husband Zephyrus heralding Aphrodite's arrival in The Birth of Venus. The Goddes on the right is Pomona, another minor deity associated with Fruits and also the coming of Spring.

The romancing of the Goddess, Chloris by the Wind God, Zephyrus, by William-Adophe Bougeureau. 

Who are some of the Goddesses and Gods that you like to invoke for your Imbolc or Spring celebrations? As always, I love to hear from you.

Blessed be.
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Contemplations of Wiccan Spellcasting, Neo Paganism, and Environmentalism.

Blessings sisters and brothers.

And when the Earth was in dire need, when man had turned upon the Mother and destroyed the very Spirit that birthed us all, it flew down from the sun: a bird of rainbow colors. And from the light reflected upon its wings, the earth trembled and shook, and all manner of life began toburst forth. At the end of it all, the world was once again: Paradise. "Paradise bird myth"

So I have recently begun to do the literature review for my PhD (The anthropology of ecology and environmentalism) and I must say that I have begun to unearth all sorts of wonderful tit-bits of information regarding religion, spirituality and the ecological/environmental movement. Did you know, for instance, that there is a fundamental difference between the two terms; "environmentalism" and "ecology"? The former suggests a retrospective look at the world we live in. A "repairing" (for lack of a better word) of the damage we've already inflicted upon Mother Earth. The latter, on the other hand is essentially more radical in nature, and believes that societal norms and values (namely the restrictive duality of the contemporary world) need necessarily be overturned in order for environmental (or rather, ecological) changes to be permanent. It is concerned, in other words, with shifting the predominantly capitalist world-view to a more natural shade of green. Bloch (1998) discusses in his musing of the matter that the Alternative Spirituality movement (Wiccans, neo-Pagan, etc.) of fairly recent times may be seen to be a subversive social movement that is gradually moving along that direction.

The summary of his otherwise fairly lengthy (and, I'm afraid quite dismissive at times) analysis is that unlike "traditional" or "organized" religions, whose theories and ideologies of cosmology (who we are as a people, where be belong, and where we come from) is juxtaposed upon the   metaphorical and literally unreachable sky/heavens, the cosmology of many alternative spiritualites is positioned right here, among the mundane practices of the earth. The heaven vs. earth dichotomy that structures the living world as a material resource, to be used in support of the ephemeral life of the individual (a supposed recurrent theme across many forms of organized/structured spiritualities) purportedly no longer exists across the spectrum of Alternative Spiritualities. Indeed, by pointing out that the "common laws" of specific religious groups which binds its supplicants as a social category unto itself do not hold sway with alternative spiritualites, Bloch (1998) also demonstrated the ways in which the alternative spiritual movement is structured not by fixed rituals and traditions (in the way that one can be Neo-Pagan and practice Wiccan spell casting, or Nature Spiritualist and practice Kaballa, but still find a sense of spiritual camaraderie with each other)  but a pervasive and "universal" ideology regarding these people's connections to the land. The metaphysical cosmology of existence with alternative spiritualites, therefore is not focused upon the heavens and the spiritual hereafter, but rather grounded in the many mundane things that happen on earth and the sustainability of of the Planet (personified through Its "spiritual consciousness" known as Gaia). "Mundane" actions like recycling, growing trees, and show respect for all living creatures, is therefore given an added dimension of significance via spirituality. It is theorized, therefore that many individuals of alternative spiritualities therefore exhibit a more fundamental dedication to the environment (though it is arguable that this is definitely an oversimplified generalization on Bloch's part).

Which leads me to question; is my own fundamental dedication to the environment an inherent component of my own Neo-Pagan/Wiccan Spiritualism? Or is this all just a coincidence? To be honest although I do see some truth in Bloch's words, I also do think that it really all depends on the general disposition of the individual to the environment in the first place. Frankly, I have always been dedicated to environmental preservation and the conservation of endangered species. Indeed, what my entrance into the Neo-Pagan spiritual realm some 12-13 years ago did was  not so much give me an entirely new and enlightened view of my environmentalism, but rather, consolidated that "practical" aspect of my life, into the spiritual. Looking at some of my fellow practitioners, I can similarly attest that many, if not all of us, hold a deep reverence to the environment and are therefore often involved in one way or another with environmentalism, conservation, or the green (vegan/vegetarian)/health food movement. Is there any truth in this? As a Wiccan or Pagan practitioner, what do you think? Is the environment and nature an integral part of who you are as a person? And to what extent does your reverence for Nature go above and beyond your own spiritual customs?

Love and Light
)O(