God Profile: Frigg

Art by Arthur Rackham

Frigg, AKA Frige(Anglo Saxon) Friga (Old High German) Frea(Longbard) Fri(Saxon)

Frigg is best known as the wife of Odin, the goddess Friday is named for and goddess of the household. She is a lot more than that, she is also a mother, oracle and ruler in her own right. From her hall, Fensalir, she rules and protects Asgard when Odin is gone. When he’s home, Allfather turns to her for advice. She can see the future of everyone but is quiet about it. Frigg is the mother Balder, mother or step mother of Hodr, stepmother of Hermod and Thor.

Cottage industry such as spinning is sacred to Frigg. So are the things involved in managing the household like balancing your checkbook or making a dinner. Frigg is asked to protect babies along with Freyja. She an Freyr are asked to bless marriages.

Also sacred to her are flax, cotton, sheep, spindles, keys, rosemary, Fens(a type of wetland), mistletoe, Birch

SOurces:
Wodening, Swain. Hammer of the Gods Anglo-Saxon Paganism in Modern Times. USA, 2003
Krasskova, Galina. Exploring the Northern Tradition. U.S.A by Book-mart Press, 2005
https://www.northernpaganism.org/shrines/frigga/friggas-gifts.html

Lore of the Little People-What are they?

The short answer is, we don’t know.

The fairy are given many different origins depending on time and location. They are described as nature spirits, demons, fallen angels,or the dead. These are mainly the beliefs of people from the UK according to stories recorded by W.Y. Evens-Wentz in his book The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries.

The Name Fairy is from the Old French faierie which is from faie, Fada, Faer, Faerfe, ect which is from the Latin Fata which is from Fatum, also latin. It was originally describing a “magical woman”.

Fairy went on to have multiple meanings such as….

• illusion (also called glamour
• land of Illusion(where fairies live)
• The people from fairy
• a person from fairy

I don’t know if the Persian word Peri, which describe similar beings who feed on perfume, has any relation.

Sources: Keightley, Thomas (1978) The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves, and Other Little People New York: Gramercy Books. pp. 4-13

Cleansing/ Saining herbs pt 1

So I was on Tumblr checking out mostly art when one of the pagan bloggers posted that non Natives need to stop smudging and white sage.

So I looked up why. .

Smudging is a rite involving the burning of sacred herbs, most likely White Sage. This rite is specific to some Native American Cultures. This has led to accusations of appropriation of the word and White Sage. I don’t really know which cultures they were taken from or why non-natives use it. I do know now that people are clearly annoyed or flat out mad about it. It’s also caused some environmental issues.

Funny thing is, in focusing on and popularizing specific assumed cultures and using one sacred her, people ignore the diversity of smoke cleansing and the plants that help us do it.. Hundreds of cultures world wide used smoke and herbs as a tool, not just white sage. I’ll be profiling them here. I’ll start with Sages.

White Sage. Salvia apiana

An evergreen shrub native to the South-West United States and North West Mexico but is becoming rare in the wild due to over harvesting and theft. So,please check your sources. Bee Flies, hummingbirds, bumble and carpenter bees, love them and act as pollinators. Most herbivores not so much. It’s a staple food among many Pacific Coast tribes who use it to make Pinole and seeds, leaves, and stems were added to other foods. A tea was made to help people regain strength.

Common Sage. Salvia officinalis

AKA, Garden sage, Culinary sage is a perennial evergreen shrub native to the Mediterranean. It’s most commonly used in cooking and is a main ingredient in saltimbocca. It’s also used to ward off evil and as an ingredient in Four Thieves Vinegar. It was sacred to various gods and used as an offering. It’s used as an essential oil as well. It can be burned for cleansing.

Other useful sages include Greek Sage. S. fruticosa,

Palo Santo. Busera graveolens

B. graveolens is a tree native to the area from the Yucatan to Peru and the Galapagos Islands, which has gained popularity in the New Age movement. This has unfortunately caused it to become threatened in Peru due to illegal logging.(they’re only allowed to use fallen branches) It was originally used by Natives as folk medicines and for cleansing, especially in Ecuador.

Palo Santo. Bulnesia sarmientoi

AKA. Ibiocai Lignum vitae or vera/verawood is a tree native to Gran Chaco in South America. It’s endangered.

Mugwort. Artemisia vilgaris

Aka Chrysanthemum weed, wild wormwood, Old Uncle Henry, naughty man, sailor’s tobacco, old man, St. John plant, Moxa, Ai Ye, armoise, felon herb

Native to temperate Europe, Asia, Africa, and Alaska, naturalized/invasive elsewhere. It was used for flavoring gruit, beer, for pain relief, a diuretic, and help remembering dreams. Many butterflies and moths like it and It can be burned for cleansing. A related plant, wormwood, is used to make absinthe.

Lavender.

Sources . Wikpedia,

Erowid.org/herbs/ Mugwort

Goddess project

I want to do a series of paintings featuring goddess from around the world. I want to depict them as accurate to their culture as possible. I have two versions, prehistoric and non.

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The one on the left is acrylic, she’s a figurine from the Vinca culture which was located in Eastern Europe. The one on the right is Persephone, based on a red figure vase. The flowers are asphodel, She’s done in watercolor and colored pencil.

I plan on selling the images I make and I’ll take requests as well.

I sell my work at Burning Blossom Crafts

Fave artists-Roberto Ferri

NAIADE 

Roberto Ferri is an oil painter from Taranto, Italy. He is self taught, taking full advantage if being born in Italy. He moved to Rome in 1999 were he devoted himself to studying the old masters.

This can be clearly seen in his art, this is especially true with Carravagio. Ferri’s style is dark, both in content and color. Backgrounds are minimal, often stone, cloudy, or solid black or grey and many have a single light source. The figures are realistically rendered, each part of the subject depicted accurately. However, looking at the parts as a whole, the imagery is surreal.

The imagery of Ferri’s paintings usually depicts mythology, mostly angels. Plants grow from flesh, body parts impaled, the vulnerable, twisting, figures appear almost luminescent. Death, suffering, and sex are common.

Artist Site: http://www.robertoferri.net/index.html

Artemesia Gentilechi art

Judith and Halofrenes

Judith and Halofrenes

Mary Magdalene

Artemesia Gentelischi

Self Portrait

Artemesia Gentelechi, one of my favorite artists, was the One of the few known Renaissance artists. SHe grew up in her father, Orazio Gentilechi’s  studio in Rome, Italy.  The eldest of his and Prudenzia di Ottovainio Montoni, she is considered the most talented.  She painted her first major work when she was 17, Susanna and the Elders, a theme she would return to over time. Contemporaries accused her of letting her father help, despite the fact that all major artists of the time received help from assistants and students.  

A little while after this work Artemisia was raped by fellow artist Agosto Tassi in 1612. A fate she apparently shared with his Sister-in-law and one of his wives, who disappeared. Once her father realized Tassi  wasn’t going to marry Artemisia, a common practice then, he sued him for damages.  Tassi was jailed for about two years.

Judith and Helofrenes

Understandably, the attack influenced her work.  The most common theme found is Judith and Halofrenes. (ex. on right)This is an  old testament story about a female Judge(tribal leader) and one of the few named women in the Bible.  According to the story, she beheads the General who was attacking her tribe.  I can see the appeal.  Another Theme is that of female solidarity, something she hadn’t received  as her mother had died when she was young and the only other female in her life, Tuzia, ignored her cries for help when she was attacked.

After the trial Artemisia married another artist, Pierantonio Stiattesi, with whom she had four children.  One of them, a daughter named Prudentia(after her grandma) became a painter as well. Despite motherhood and trauma, Artemisia kept painting.

Susanna and the Elders

Her style was similar to the artist Caravaggio who created a style now known as Caravaggisti Baroque. This style is typified by dramatic lighting, like that of a stage.  Her skill impressed both the Medici and the court of Charles the I. She was also the first woman accepted into the Academia delle Arti del Disegno in Florence, Italy.  While in Florence she befriended many influential people.  This included an affair with a nobleman, something her husband was surprisingly okay with.

In 1638 Artemesia and her father became court painters for Charles I. There the worked on the Queen’s House in Greenwich. A year later, her father had died.  Artemesia finished her fathers work and returned home.

Sources : mostly Wikipedia and Athenium

Alberto Rey Extinct bird exhibit

Glaucous macaw by Aberto Rey

Location Roger Tory Peterson Institute, Jamestown, Ny..

The extinct Bird project memorializes titular animals in still-life oil paintings on wood panels.  They are stark and poignant images of the only thing left of these birds, their skins. The only other thing in the paintings are burnt out matches that represent a life snuffed out as well as scale.  Some of the paintings are displayed with the skins that Alberto Rey used as reference.

 

 

 

Carolina parakeet from RTPI archives

Carolina parakeet by Alberto Rey

Rey, a teacher at SUNY Fredonia, was inspired after a tour led by Jane Johnson at the RTPI were he found himself moved by the sight of the stuffed and bound birds.  His research began at the RTPI were he took multiple pictures of the skins located in storage at the time.  He then took reference shots at The Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University.

Alberto Rey  speaking to high-school students about exhibit

Works cited

http://www.extinctbirdsproject.com/

https://rtpi.org/

 

A Silver Sun and Inky Clouds: A Devotional for Djehuty and Set — Henadology

This new devotional volume from Bibliotheca Alexandrina includes a revised version of my essay “The Nature and Functions of Thoth in Egyptian Theology,” which appeared originally in The Scribing Ibis: An Anthology of Pagan Fiction in Honor of Thoth (*Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/2N5OOTR). A Silver Sun and Inky Clouds: A Devotional for Djehuty and Set, ed. Ashley Kent […]

via A Silver Sun and Inky Clouds: A Devotional for Djehuty and Set — Henadology