My Witches Book of Spells (From the Rapture Series)

Sacred Fire

Here is something a little educational instead of a spell. This is real and fatual from another publisher writer I gave her credits at the bottom of this article it was so well written I fell it was worth putting in here for all you to read and enjoy. This is part of my Wiccan studies I love so much and practice in real life. I hope you enjoy this little bit of education about the fire festivals and the sun gods and goddesses.

The Goddess LadyDawn Ordained.

Sacred Fire

THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN BYELLEN EVERT HOPMAN

POSTED UNDERCELTIC STUDIES

The Goddess in the Sun

ModernPaganismis heavily influenced by Greek and Roman mythology, and as a result certain assumptions are made, such as the idea that the Sun is male and the Moon female. A careful study of indigenous traditions will reveal that this wasn’t true for many—or possibly most—cultures on planet Earth. In Egypt, the Sun was within the eye of the great lion Goddess Sekhmet or within the cow Goddess Hathor at night and reborn from the womb of Hathor each morning. The Egyptians also associated the Sun with Bastet or Bast—Lady of Flame, Eye of Ra, divine protectress of the pharaoh, whose sacred animal was the house cat.

Germanic cultures had Sunna and Frau Sunne while the Norwegian Goddess Sól traversed the heavens in a chariot drawn by the horses Arvak and Alsvid.

The Lithuanians and Lativans had Saule, the Finns Paivatar or Beiwe. The Hungarians had Xatel-Ekwa and the Slavs had Solntse. For the Arabs she was Al-Lat. In Australia she was Bila or Walo. In India she was Bisal-Mariamna or Bomong and in Sri Lanka, Pattini.

The ancient Hittites had Wurusemu, the Babylonians had Shapash. Among Native American cultures she was Unelanuhi to the Cherokee, Wal Sil to the Natchez, Malina to the Inuit and Herkoolas to the Miwok.

In Japan the Sun Goddess Amaterasu is still regarded as the Goddess of the Universe, from whom the emperor is descended.

In Ireland she was Grian (the Moon was her sister) and her path through the heavens was a central tenet ofCelticcosmology. To move "deiseil" or "sunwise" around a place or an object brought the greatest luck. When one engaged in ritual or processed around a sacred object, such as a holy well or a standing stone, it was important to move around it deiseil, in order to go with the flow of the universe.

A sunwise procession around a place or thing in Ireland was called "cor deiseil." In the Hindu tradition a sunwise procession is called "pradaksina" and is said to bring luck and prosperity. Moving with the Sun was a common facet of Indo-European culture.

Moving anti-clockwise,widdershinsor "tuathamail" (Gaelic) was considered very unlucky because it meant you were deliberately going "against the flow" of nature. In fact, invading armies would approach a fort tuathamail and the inhabitants would know that they were under attack.

Fire Deities of the Celts

The two most popular deities of the ancient Celts were Brighid/Bride/Brigantia and Lugh/Lugus/Llew. Both were deities of brightness and fire.Lughwas not a Sun God as is popularly supposed; he represented brilliance in craft and in thinking and was called "master of every art." Similarly, Brighid was a Fire Goddess, mistress or patroness of arts. She was a Goddess of Healing, Smith Craft (a magical art in ancient times), and Poetry, and also a patroness of mothers (because to be a mother was to be a mistress of every art to at least a small extent).

Brighid was the Goddess invoked atImbolc, the great Fire Festival of February 1 that celebrated the lactation of the ewes. Lugh gave his name to the festival ofLughnasad, the Fire Festival of the first fruits of the harvest, originally funeral games in honor of Lugh’s foster mother.