The God and Goddess
The Craft year of eight festivals is often represented as an
eight-spoked wheel. The turning of this wheel symbolizes the turning of the
year through the seasons, and each of the 8 spokes represents a festival.
At Yule the God is born as a babe from the Goddess. At
Imbolc the Goddess is purified and renewed as a virgin (the face of the earth
is washed by winter rains). At Ostara the young vegetation God emerges and
meets the young Goddess (the earth begins to green in spring). At Beltane they
marry and the earth flowers.
Now we come to Midsummer, the height of the solar wheel.
This is the time of the longest day and shortest night, and a time of maturity,
both in the agricultural cycle and the lives of the man and woman. They now
rule as King and Queen; just as the Sun is at its height, so too they are at
the height of their creative powers.
The Sun God has reached the moment of his greatest strength.
Seated on his greenwood throne, he is also lord of the forests. The man’s power
is reflected in his Kingship, and in his mastery of nature and rule of the kingdom.
The Goddess is also at her finest at this time. The Goddess
is becoming a Mother from the seed that was planted earlier at the rivalries at
Beltane. She blossoms just as the earth blossoms with abundance. She basks in
the light of her lover and grows with child each day. The land is glowing with
flowers and ripening fruit as the Goddess glows and ripens as well.
The Battle of Light
and Dark
In the story of the Oak/Holly King, the sun god is seen as
split between two rival personalities: the Oak King, the god of light, who
rules the waxing year from Yule to Midsummer, and his twin, the Holly King, the
god of darkness, who rule the waning year from Midsummer to Yule. Often they
are depicted as fighting seasonal battles for the favor of their goddess/lover,
who represents nature.
The dark twin is not an evil power but merely the other side
of the coin. One is light, the other dark, one summer, one winter, one sky, and
the other the underworld. Pagans accept these polarities as a necessary part of
the whole—winter comes but summer will return. The sun sets, travels through
the underworld at night, and is reborn with the dawn. The King dies; returns to
the underworld womb of the earth goddess and is reborn.
Deities of Midsummer: Father Gods
Mother
Goddesses
Pregnant
Goddesses
Sun
Gods and Goddesses
Thunder
Gods (Most)
War
Gods and Goddesses (Most)
Goddesses: Aine (Irish)
Aestas
(Roman)
Artemis
(Greek)
Athena
(Greek)
Banba
(Irish)
Bona
Dea (Roman)
Cerd
(Iberian)
Chup-Kamui
(Japanese)
Dag
(German)
Damona
(Breton)
Dana
(Irish)
Dia
Greene (Scottish)
Djanggawaul
Sisters (Aboriginal)
Elat
(Semitic)
Eos
(Greek)
Erce
(English)
Eriu
(Irish)
Freya
(Norse)
Gerd
(Teutonic)
Gokarmo
(Tibetan)
Grian
(Irish)
Hathor-Tiamet
(Egyptian)
Indra
(Aryan)
Isis
(Egyptian)
Jord
(Teutonic)
Kali
(Indian)
Keca
Aba (Russian)
Kou-Njami
(Siberian)
Kupulo
(Russian)
Mabd
Maeve (Irish)
Marici
(Tibetan)
Mitra
(Aryan)
Nut
(Egyptian)
Olwen
(Welsh)
Robigus
(Roman)
Sekhmet
(Egyptian)
Shekinah
(Hebraic)
Vesta
(Roman)
Wurusema
(Hittite)
Xatel-Ekwa
(Hungarian)
Zoe
(Greek)
Gods: Apollo (Greco-Roman)
Baal
(Phoenician)
Balder (Norse)
Bochica
(South American)
Chacol
(Mayan)
Dagda
(Irish)
Dharme
(Aryan)
Donnus (Irish)
El
(Semitic)
Hadad
(Syrian)
Helios
(Greek)
Hyperion
(Greek)
Ganges
(Indian)
Gwydion
(Welsh)
Legba
(Voodun)
Llew
(Welsh)
Lugh
(Irish)
Maui
(Polynesian)
Oak/Holly
King (Anglo-Celtic)
Orunjan
(Yourban)
Prometheus
(Greek)
Ra (Egyptian)
Sol/Helios
(Greco-Roman)
Thor (Norse)
Upulero
(Indonesian)
Xiuhtecutli
(Aztec)
Zeus
(Greco-Roman)
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