 Hello everybody. Welcome to part eight of our reading of the Return of the Divine Sophia. Last week's reading was pretty powerful and we're starting this week's reading off with chapter 11. Now as I say almost every reading, if this is your first time joining us, welcome. With this book sometimes you can pick up with different parts and listen to different parts. It's not really a consistent story but if you would like, I am placing the full playlist down in the description box below called Understanding and Magdalene if you would like to start from the beginning. But with that being said, let's go ahead and start with chapter 11. On my book, this starts on page 204. The Direction of Time and Space. Mary said, When the wind blows, listen, the Spirit is speaking. Let your prayers be set upon the four winds in spirit so that they should be a blessing to the whole earth. If you pray in this way, the supreme spirit above will receive your prayer from the gospel of Mary Magdalene. I returned to Shasta's Circle two weeks before the spring equinox. The daffodils, John Quills and crocuses had just begun emerging by the road and in places you could smell the sweet scent of the fresh earth. I know what a daffodil is but those other two I'm not familiar with and I'm from Georgia so. A blanket of green grass covered the city and swaths of red and purple and orange tulips were just springing up. As the circle gathered at Shasta's house on a Saturday afternoon, I realized that we would be spending most of the day in the enchanted grove. We make our way down to the enclave of Mary's garden and settled into a circle on benches and chairs. Welcome to the Garden of the Goddess, Shasta began. Today we will learn about the power of ritual and ceremony in the cycles of time. This sounded exciting to say the least. So my friend Cindy from Sacred Garden Yoga who comes on this channel a lot knows where this garden is and so hopefully soon we're going to try to get in contact with Shasta and possibly go visit this garden and so I don't know if she'll let me film in the garden. We'll see. If she does, I will totally take some footage and share with you guys. Cindy's been there before. But first let me tell you what this circle will be called. At the end of your studies, each of you will have the opportunity to become a member of the fellowship of ISIS, an ancient sisterhood of women who are walking between the worlds. We are those who learn to walk with both the seen and the unseen realms. This society is connected to many great circles from our past including the priestesses of ISIS, the priestesses of Avalon and the Order of the Magdalene, the sisterhood of the Shields and the Native American Twisted Hair Societies who have long been the record keepers of the Earth's history. She looked around the circle at our astonished faces. The Twisted Hair lineage is linked to the writings of Carlos Castaneda who was an initiate of this branch. Wow, this explained a lot. So the Native American teachings were linked to the Yaqui path of knowledge while those other groups had existed in cultures all over the world. However, each circle has its own name and so we will have ours. I have meditated our name and we will be called the Serpent Gourd Woman Society. There was a moment of stunned silence as the group digested these words, Serpent Gourd Woman Society. What could that possibly mean? Shasta must have seen the shocked look on our faces before she went on. You must each begin to look deeper than the surface if you are to understand the mysteries. You must begin to discern the hermetic significance behind these symbols. This took a moment to sink in. I tried to come up with what these symbols stood for but for the life of me I couldn't think of anything spiritual about the Gourd. I just learned more about the meaning of the Serpent but I was still a bit ambivalent about it. After all, I had been inoculated with Christian theology where the snake was synonymous with Satan. But again, darkness can't create anything, only the light can't. God created the snake. As usual, Shasta seemed to be reading my mind. Her eyes alighted on me as she began to speak. The Gourd is the humblest vegetable on the earth and like women everywhere it comes in many different shapes and sizes. The Gourd is not only food but it can be turned into a bowl, a water ladle, or even a rattle if it is dried properly. It is also a symbol of the great cosmic egg from which the universe is born. The Divine Mother pours forth these life-giving energies so that the world of creation can come into form. Throughout this year, we will begin using Gourd rattles to rattle ourselves awake. She points to two large baskets at her feet and laughs. Was she laughing with us or at us? We all suddenly realized the baskets were full of Gourd rattles. Most of them were round while others looked like wily, undulating snakes. The Gourd is like the womb of Mother Earth herself. It is round, fertile, and full of the mysteries of life and like women it comes in every shape and size. Several of us looked at one another but we were all too bewildered to speak. Okay maybe the Gourd was safe I thought but what about the serpent? Shasta smiled mischievously as if she knew what I was thinking. The serpent has long been the symbol of wisdom for tribal people everywhere except the Christians who misunderstand its symbolism. It represents the Kundalini life force located at the base of the spine exactly and it is also linked to the activation of our DNA. It is exalted form of the good serpent represents the one who has awakened. This is why Egyptian queens wore a ureus on their foreheads. It is also why Moses carried a serpent staff because Moses stole it from the Egyptians. We can see the same serpentine staff with Asculapius the Greek father of healing and it is said that the Gnostic tradition that Jesus also carried such a staff with him in the name of the creator engraved upon it. When he spoke to the multitudes it looked like an ordinary staff but when he taught his disciples in private it was often transformed into a serpent that would coil up near him. Sometimes it also said that when he wished to initiate a disciple the staff was transformed into a good serpent and would bite the disciple injecting gnosis and power into them. However, because people have been taught that the serpent was evil many fled from the source of transformation and I personally don't believe that any snake bit anybody. I think that's a metaphor for the awakening of one's own Christ consciousness which is Kundalini. Remember Yahshua and Magdalene were teachers they were gurus they taught people how to transform darkness into light that's what the word guru means is to transform darkness to light. No one can do that for you only you can do that for yourself and teachers will help you become the alchemist but you're the one that actually has to do it yourself. Whoa I had never heard such a story before although certainly Jesus or Yahshua is often depicted with the shepherd staff as many of the other great biblical figures are. Years later I was to discover a tale told by the Gnostic Christians that exactly matched the story of Yahshua and the serpent staff. It was the kind of story that we read about in the Bible regarding Moses and the priests of Egypt who were all able to transform their staffs into serpents at will and again this goes back I think again this is all metaphor because it goes back to the obelisk. Remember people think the obelisk is Osiris's wiener which that is an infiltrator. If someone tells you that the obelisk is Osiris's wiener that's they're doing that intentionally there's no there's no evidence to say that actually it was the obelisk was meant to be represent the spine or the antenna as above so below as with the micro so with the as with the macro sorry so with the micro so our spine is where Shoshuna that channel of energy lies and that's our energetic pathway that's where Kundalini or Christ consciousness rises up. The obelisk is the earth's antenna so it's kind of like that spine where it's taking in energy and I'm going to ask you this dealing with infiltrators in the truth or community who are making you believe that the obelisk is Osiris's wiener and it's got to come down riddle me this what if those obelisk are the antennas that are that need to be used for Tesla technology and they're having you go vigilant vigilante and tear them down then we're not going to have free technology so everyone should be researching this do not take someone's word for it don't even take my word for it research for yourself taking someone's word for it is what goddess in this situation to begin with. I had no idea if this was intended to be taken literally or if it represented some kind of spiritual alchemy I think it represents spiritual alchemy Shasta went on in truth the staff represents the spinal column literally was just saying that while the two snakes that run up it represents the two nervous systems that run up and down the spine and that is your two nostrils. This is the cadence the universal staff of healing the sympathetic nervous system is the male aspect of our being which produces our voluntary actions the parasympathetic nervous system is the female aspect that governs automatic processes like breathing and digesting when spiritually activated and balanced these two currents can bring us to a place of enlightenment when we unite these two polarities in the heart we can awaken the power of love then we raise the serpentine energy to the center of the forehead to activate our third eye or inner sight this is the bendu point directly linked to our ability to see those subtle worlds this allows us to finally lift the bells of the physical world and gaze into the inner realms and the bendu that's where we get the word bendi from and that's why you see in India the bendis the marks right here on the third eye the serpent is also a symbol for wisdom and of spiritual transformation this is why I have chosen this name for your group you are now entering a process that will completely transform you I took a deep breath putting aside my ingrained conditioning and fear of the serpent that I had learned since childhood everything Shasta had said made sense but was I too conditioned by my past to let these concepts in the sacred circle and the celebration of ritual the gourd is the shape of the medicine circle that holds all things in balance it is the holy chalice that we feel filled with ceremony and prayers the circle is a place of communion where we will share our fondest dreams and banish our deepest fears the women's heads bob subtly as they listened today I wish to teach you about the eight directions of time and space and to talk about the difference between ritual and ceremony donna emerald and claudia exchanged a meaningful glance ritual and ceremony are both ways of calling and spiritual energies in order to communicate with the divine ritual is something that is done the same way over and over passed down from generation to generation like a sacred formula this reception of words gestures and attentions creates a resonance through time like rippling moving through time past the time present linking all other sacred circles to have to have performed this ritual together in this way we can connect with all those who have gathered in sacred song dance or ritual by campfires throughout the ages and this gives the ritual great power we can observe this and many buddhist jewish and orthodox christian temples ceremony however is an ever-changing living vehicle that is never done the same way twice it arises spontaneously from the need of the moment and can thus be powerful heartfelt and directly inspired by spirit both ritual and ceremony have the power to link us to all the other circles that have ever been strengthening each with our prayers shots to look around the circle to see if we were following her so let's do an exercise i want you to name any ritual you can think of in your daily life images of holy mass flashed through my head the wafting of incense the nicene creed the sacrament of bread and wine but before i could speak emerald raised her hand getting married emerald grinned and everyone laughed yes getting married was certainly a ritual a ritual it had been done for thousands of years sarah raised her hand funerals she offered claudia snorted and then laughed sorry it's just a strange juxtaposition marriage and funerals like death and taxes several of the women giggled seeing the joke but sarah was not done it is a ritual or a ceremony when we bury someone shafts to answer the funeral is the ritual but the specifics of the way we honor the deceased is different for every person so that becomes the ceremony part a ceremony with the ritual very interesting i thought claudia grinned how about receiving an academy award yes she would think of that being the wonderful makeup artist that she was plus it was a funny idea we had all seen so many academy ward shows that by now they probably were ritual they absolutely well she's saying no they're not ritual but we know they are ritual we know they are ritual no that's a ceremony or ceremony same thing you know you guys get what i'm saying it that's a ceremony it even says so academy awards ceremony we see you controllers we see you the event seems like a ritual since it occurs each year but it's really a ceremony since it's different each time i raised my hand why was the only thing i could think of a religious rights how about sunday morning services aren't they rituals do we do them the same way each time she shafts to not it yes going to church is a ritual but the sermon the songs and the things that are shared each time are different so these are the ceremonies try to think deeper think of other things that become rituals in our lives even if we are not aware of them alex cleared her throat you mean like making the bed every day very good shasta nodded yes rituals that have nothing to do with religion but are just a part of your daily life like brushing your teeth feeding the cat taking the dog for a walk these things can become rituals too if we do them often enough it was clear that none of us had ever thought of these activities as rituals before they might be unconscious rituals but they are still rituals shasta looked around the circle anything that you do over and over becomes a habit and habits can become rituals and these can often begin to define your world eventually you no longer question your actions you just do what you've been conditioned to do this is how we are all programmed not to think for ourselves i began to see where this was going it was as if everything we did have the power to become an unconscious ritual waking up at a certain time showering working nine to five each day paying our bills becoming hypnotized hypnotized by our routines and then we become blind to all other choices i thought of a story then that had once i'd once heard about the native americans when the first clipper ships appeared off the coast of north america the native americans were not able to see them i heard that too that they couldn't see the ships because they didn't know what they were these large wooden ships were completely outside their world view but the shaman who had spent a lifetime developing a more expanded consciousness had been able to see the reflection of the ships on the water after a few minutes he could perceive the ship itself when he shared the vision with his tribe this allowed them to expand their perception to see the ships as well eventually the entire tribe could see it as they allowed this new idea into their consciousness i realized then that we were each like this we get used to a certain way of seeing the world of seeing god or reality and then we cease to ask questions perhaps as children we saw more clearly but after being told the same thing over and over and over again year after year we are lulled into certain unconscious complacency after a while we cease to question our reality and we lose the ability to see the ship that is moored in the harbor no matter how real it may be shasa lifted her chin and at our dismayed expressions i'm not criticizing anyone i'm just saying that you must examine your actions carefully instead of running like a mouse through a maze in search of the same bite of cheese each day when we are children we see with fresh eyes but then over time we become conditioned to believe whatever society tells us but to become aware we must first wake up inside that dream we must be first become purposeful i exchange a meaningful glance at claudia we had just been talking about this very subject in our careers claudia had said that she went to work paid her bills eight slept and began to wonder if that's all there was to her life sometimes in the middle of this routine there would be an excitement of a new romance or a new client but in general she had a point what was the purpose of life if we were just continued to run around the same same maze shasa continued starting today one of your homework assignments is to make a list of all your ritual activities both secular and spiritual and don't forget to include the habits of the holidays holidays are the time of serious ritual and what you unconsciously associate with them for better or for worse can directly affect your experience i knew exactly what she meant my family have been so conditioned by the many years of my father's rages at the holidays that even after he passed away we still continue to have yearly dramas each christmas or thanksgiving it was too bad because i dearly loved christmas shasa began speaking why do you buy presents at birthdays or christmas why do you cook a turkey at thanksgiving why are there football games on sundays alex and sharon shifted uneasily i'm just suggesting that you think about what you are choosing by paying attention and making deliberate choices in your life you could begin to act from an awakened mind donna raised her hand does this mean that i can stop washing the dishes every night i don't think my husband would like that we all laughed in this circle shasa responded we will all be performing rituals we will be giving birth to spiritual thought forms for the purpose of manifesting them in our lives but the two laws of the priestess path are do harm to no one and always protect the children let me reread that for those in the back who didn't hear the two laws of the priestess path are do harm to no one and always protect the children now you know why they made magdalena whore now you know why they took out the female sophia from the apocryphon books because those are the two laws of the priestess do no harm and protect children these are the true two primary laws we live by these words covered a host of subjects if we harm no one then we will always act in a positive way and if we always protect the children then we will take care of the next generation that will grow up and become wise and whole alex raised her hand if we think bad things is that like black magic shasda looks suddenly serious we are not doing black magic here when anyone uses his or her powers selfishly it always creates a karmic backlash it's bad karma to use selfish intentions to threaten the free free will of anyone else plus negative thought forms can rebound on the sender so the spiritual work that we do here is always focused on good everyone not it so yeah selfishly people are trying to pull tarot cards and other people without their consent that's black magic and it's always going to come around and bite you in the ass and again as i've said from what i understand the way spirit works if you pull tarot cards on someone without their permission you're not getting the true story spirit's not going to let you know the true story there are boundaries all right let's go back to ritual and ceremony shasda said ceremonies come naturally to every human being particularly women who are often more in touch with life transitions than men are women perform ceremonies all the time for example when you give a birthday party hold a wedding shower or furnish your baby's bedroom to welcome into the world ceremonies mark the end of one stage of life in the beginning of another saying to buying events so that the moment is honored women have been marking life passages since time immemorial meg raised her hand can you just say what the differences between ritual and ceremony again shasda cleared her throat ritual is more formal and ceremony is more fluid you can establish the energy of the circle and ritual by calling the directions and then fill up the circle with whatever kind of ceremony is appropriate for that moment in time understood we all nodded beginning to grasp the difference between these two so the ashtanga yoga practice is a good example because we do the same practice every day it only shifts when we're giving you postures which happen infrequently but every day even though you're doing the same movements every day the learning the reaction the experience is always different so the ritual is the movement the experience is the ceremony the directions of time now let's talk about the eight holy high days of the year these are called the directions of time several of the women pulled out their notebooks no pasta put up a hand just listen so you can learn to take this information in on another level reluctantly they put their pads and pencils down the eight windows of time and space corresponds to four seasons of the year so you are already familiar with them relief spread across our faces the spring and autumn equinoxes form the horizontal arms of the great annual cross while the summer and winter solstices the vertical axis of that cross mark the longest and shortest days of the year these four powerful holidays make up the cardinal cross of time each year with the veils between this world and the others grow thin in between these four great doorways are four other high holy days and these are exactly six weeks apart Meg cleared her throat excuse me Shasta I don't want to sound dumb but what are the solstices and equinoxes exactly I mean I've heard of them but what are they Shasta raised her hands forming two globes as the earth moves around the sun each year there are two points when the tilt of our planet's hemispheres are either closest to our farthest from the sun these two dates mark the two solstice points of winter and summer the solstices are the shortest and longest days of the year while the equinoxes are the two days when the day and nights are equal in length ah in the northern hemisphere the summer solstice falls on June 21st and when this when the sun is up for the longest time six months later we have the shortest day of the year which is the winter solstice on December 21st below the equinox equator in South America or Australia these dates are reversed and the equinoxes Susan asked throwing back her long red sexy hair the word equinox means equal distance the equinoxes occur every fall and spring when the length of the days and night is equal that's March 23rd and September 23rd when the scales are perfectly balanced in fact the fall equinox begins in Libra whose symbol is the balanced scales after the spring equinox the days become longer and after the fall equinox we pass into winter this is the time of the winter crone when we go into the cave to hibernate this all makes perfect sense to me but it seems strange that we no longer longer honor these important holy days especially when they had nothing to do with religious belief systems but were grounded in astronomy and seasons how had we fallen so out of step with these rhythms as usual Shasta seemed to be reading my mind in the ancient world these eight high holy days were times of great celebration they signal the time when the community would sow their seeds for planting harvesting their crops or mend their nets like the eight lunar sections of the moon these eight stations of the sun mark the changing seasons of the year Meg cleared her throat what are the eight stations of the moon Shasta smiled every month the moon waxes and wanes and is interaction interaction affects the mood of people and animals exactly plants and minerals the eight stations start with the dark of the moon or the time of the gestation and planning so the new moon the moon becomes a crescent moon and a quarter moon and the waxing or the gibbiest moon before becoming the full moon for three days of every month this is the time when the electromagnetic energies of the moon pull the minerals up into the plants so that it's the best time to harvest your crops perhaps the ancient people knew something that we had forgotten but Shasta went on after the full moon life begins to wane create a waning or dismantling moon the last quarter moon and finally the balsamic moon before it returns to its station beside the sun making it invisible to us on earth this is called the dark of the moon where it remains for three full days before beginning the cycle all over again i had never really thought about all this although clearly i'd watched the moon all my life and marveled at its beauty and its cycles so during the new moon i realized the sun and the moon were on one side of the earth together and during the full moon the moon was exactly opposite the sun creating a powerful yin yang balance for the earth this is why the full moon was so potent it was all starting to make sense the marriage of polarities Shasta continued the moon goes through the cycle 13 times in every year and that's the number 13 was always linked to the moon the menstrual cycle of women and the goddess she looked around the circle and yes that's why women get their periods once a month we follow the moon cycle similarly the sun goes around through eight stations of the year charting the same essential season winter roots go into the ground since the world lies asleep under a blanket of snow at the candle muster february second we are still in darkness but moving towards the return of light six weeks later a spring equinox we fill the stirrings of new life in the spring we begin to implement plans that we have nurtured all winter wall on may one some six weeks later flowers push up into the light animals fowl their young and everything answers the call of the life-giving sun then on June 21 we have the summer solstice the summer is when the plants come into full harvest bricks get made homes get built and our dreams can flourish then on august one we celebrate the bounty of the earth mother who has given us our fruits and flowers in september at the fall equinox the days and nights become equal again but from this point on the days become shorter than at hallow moths or halloween we pass fully into shorter days as we celebrate the day of the dead and then finally just before christmas on december 21 the sun enters the darkest phase as it seeks lowest in the southern skies it stays there for three entire days just like the dark of the moon before it begins to move upward renewing its annual pilgrim edge across the sky this is the dark phase and best for gestating ideas animals hibernate trees go dormant and people mend their nets and talk about their plants for spring season shasta took a breath and looked at us hoping that her words had painted the picture of this celestial dance that made its way across the heaven each year this is the innate rhythm that all living things respond to and that once we as harmonious attuned communities celebrate together we took a moment to let that sink in why didn't we still celebrate these milestones i wondered after all we all knew that summer and winter blew in and we all had boots coats and sundresses to prove it but what happened to our modern holidays donna raised her hand what are those dates again shasta ticked them off her fingers december 21 february 2nd march 23rd may 1 june 21 august 1 september 23rd and november 1 although the year was often thought to begin in the spring although the year was often thought to begin in the spring with the equinox this is why we have easter at that time it is the season of renewal or resurrection exactly it even says in the bible that the new year is uh should be in the springtime not in the middle of winter which i covered that years ago on this channel and it makes sense right because it is when the earth is being reborn again these dates seem easy to remember the cardinal cross points were all around the 21st and the other holidays were on the first of the month except for bridget's day on february 2nd i reflected on our modern holidays to see if any of them corresponded to these dates but i could only think of christmas easter ground hawk's day around the first of february shasta went on may day falls on the first of may and was once called belting the festival of fertility it marked the celebration of light august 1 was lug nashta from the Celtic word lug the god of light today the church has turned this into llamas november 1 was salwan and this holiday was meant to honor the ancestors who had to pass to the other side which we did a um show with cindy over halloween it's salwan is now the festival of all hallows eve and candle mess is the festival of bridget the goddess of the flame and the goddess of returning light this day marks a promise that the sun will return at the equinox the next celestial marker for my interest in archaeology and sacred temples i knew that this celestial clock had been figured long ago into many of the alignments of sacred sites around the world by honoring this natural earth sky rhythm communities knew how to prepare for each season sites like stone hedge had been created to predict certain astronomical events like full moons eclipse and meteor showers these eight high holy days are portals that allow us to step between the world shasta explains this is why they are important days in spiritual ceremonies it is a time when the alignment between the earth the sun allows the veils between the world to grow very thin and this gives us the power to more easily contract to more easily contact the other dimensions her words sent a shivered through me i imagine that these points opened up energetic alignment within the cosmos linked to the heavens i suddenly realized that while some of these dates corresponded to our modern holidays the church had shifted our attention away from the actual days of alignment essentially causing humanity to fall out of sync with the natural rhythm of the cosmos let's read that again let's read that again i suddenly realized that while some of these dates corresponded to our modern holidays the church had shifted our attention away from the actual days of alignment essentially causing humanity to fall out of sync with the natural rhythm of the cosmos so what is black magic we've talked about this the novahoe said black magic was doing working against nature for your own selfish desires what is white magic working with nature so in this statement alone the church is practicing full-on black magic i wondered if this had been deliberate causing the world to fall out of sync with nature and ourselves absolutely it was later i was to learn that when the church fathers superimposed christianity over the seasonal wheel they had shifted the true dates backwards or forwards to misdirect the energies as a way of keeping us from making these spiritual connections for ourself thus december 25th became a substitute for the winter solstice december 21st uh first valentine's day falls two weeks after candle mass and easter is usually a week or two from the spring equinox i knew that the reason december 25th had been chosen as jesus jesus yasha was birthday was because the sun had reached its lowest point in the sky in the three days it had symbolically died at the winter solstice where it appeared to stand still for three days enacting the sacrificial death of the sun this was linked to the great story of the great solar lord descending into hell for three days before rising from the dead this was the real reason why jesus horus osiris mithra and the other great solar avatars had their birthdays placed on december 25th a message of light they were identified with the return of the celestial sun in its annual circuit of rebirth but once again in my opinion the real yashua was not crucified because the god that i worship doesn't demand human sacrifice or blood ritual that's what lucifer demands not the god that i worship and how exact exactly does halloween fit into all this claudia scratching her head i'd seen her dress the year before as a peak pussy cat with fishnecked stockings and a tail scha scha scha rusta rub christian calendar was converted to all hallows eve and november one became all saint's day finally no november second was turned into all souls day honoring not only the church fathers but the ancestors of the common people this holiday was originally the day of the dead that honored our ancestors with prayer it is a powerful time to communicate with loved ones on the other side but few people use it this way anymore some believe that it was on this day that the great flood took down at lantis some 11,500 years ago that's that's new for me guys so no wonder the dark forces use utilize this holiday the most if it took down at lantis in goddess tradition it is a time when the chrome comes into her power she is pictured as the old woman veiled in secrets the sage of life and death all cycles and her maiden form she has bridged the the bride but in winter she becomes the chrome they call her the callage in the Celtic lands and she foretells the future of all who would listen later i was to learn that the callage is an irish name for the white ghost lady from the other side who acts as an intermediary between the world of humans and spirits she is also called grandmother of time and is still honored in many places where the day of the dead is celebrated in mexico for example people dress up in colorful costumes and share food with their departed loved ones the mood there is festive not solemn it was in england at the ritual ritual for begging for soul cakes first originated eventually evolving into our modern day custom of trick or treating there aren't holy days in august anymore are there meg complained i could see that all of us were trying to work out how our existing holidays fit in with the old calendar at least i've never heard of any she shrugged shasta made a face the church took great pains to abolish as many festivals of earth-based wisdom as they could particularly those that honored the goddess while the solstice was often assigned to the lords of light the midsummer harvest was dedicated to the great mother isis demeanor diana serious and all goddess who protected the forest filled crops and animals august 15 is isis's birthday in egypt but it was later turned into the day of ascension for mary the mother here in america it is celebrated as the green corn festival by the america native americans who created effigies of the corn maiden wow the church leaders had co-opted whatever they would i thought they had completely eliminated the celebrations of the midsummer's eve dedicated to the goddess that have been captured so brilliantly and shakespeare's midsummer's night's dream this celebration had been connected with grapes wine fertility sexual celebration and songs this was the kind of joyful celebration as the ones i had discovered in canaan and mesopotamia that were dedicated to ash torus and tamuz no wonder the church had gotten rid of these holidays like belting which celebrated the fertility of the people in the land it had been way too much fun besides leaders of the totally patriarchal sect of yaway or mohawk had so hated the mother son or husband wife partnership a combination that they had just deleted it from our minds later i was discovered that the arch archaeological goddess festival had originally been dedicated to isis because she was the one who had rescued the grains of wheat along the nile after the great flood she and osiris had brought these seeds of wheat and barley to the people and thus preserved them for future generations this was also why isis was known in greece and roam as demeter a respectively the goddess of cereals and grains shasta went on lavis or august 1 was intended to thank mother earth for her bounty and to acknowledge her as our life giver but the church changed the name to the festival of the blessed virgin and moved the date to august 4 three days past the window of alignment today these festivals have passed into oblivion i wondered if the men who had made these decisions were so ill-informed that they had just didn't know the real dates or if this misdirection had been deliberate oh it was deliberate it was absolutely deliberate i suspect the latter by short circling our connection to the natural rhythms of earth we followed a step of the harmonies of the universe we become confused and disempowered sarah raised her hand what about easter why do we have easter eggs and bunny rabbits and what does this have to do with jesus the whole thing seems kind of screwed up we laughed knowing just what she meant all right let's talk about easter shasta said with a gleam in her eye why do we have easter eggs at easter we all look bewildered of course the question had occurred to us before but i had no idea emerald spoke up because of estara the german goddess of rebirth who supposedly invented nature itself shasta looked police yes estara like gaya represents not only the planet earth but all the great cosmic eggs creation itself reveals the same shape from the oval of the galaxy to the solar system they all represent the egg of mother earth what a thought how would the ancients have known what modern-day astronomers are only now just discovering how could they have known about the shape of the orbiting planes planets or galaxies perhaps they saw them shamanically or maybe it's because they came to earth from another planet as humans are not natural inhabitants of this earth just a thought and also we know that their technology was far superior to ours so we have to give them a little bit more credit that they weren't just some nomadic tribal people they had more technology than we do right now we're we're the nomadic barbaric people compared to our ancestors certainly the egg was the universal shape that produced life in Vedic culture the divine couple Vishnu and Lakshmi were said to reside inside a cosmic egg during the long night of the world and in Egypt thought the ancient architect of humanity was shown spinning this cosmic egg on a potter's wheel i realized that there were a lot of hidden scientific and religious principles woven into these symbols did you know the month of may was named for the goddess maya emerald interjected and that june is named for Juno Zeus's wife we all looked at her in surprise why wasn't this stuff taught in school supposedly the resonance between the goddess and our calendar made perfect sense shasta looked pleased yes maya was the roman goddess who gave birth to her maze like green tara in india maya was the goddess of earth maya's color is green for healing infertility so may day is her festival maya is the goddess who blesses all sacred unions human and animal alike this is why may is the most popular month for weddings emerald was just i thought it was june that was the most popular month for weddings listen if i ever get married it's going to be in like the winter months i'm not getting married when it is balls hot outside here in the south it's not going to happen we're going to do in the winter where it's a little bit more pleasant emerald was just yes this was the Celtic celibate celibacy than a gig was the goddess whose private parts hung over the doorway for fertility to touch your yoni when you went through the door was considered good luck a sign of home's fertility what impossible i thought i was duly scandalized it was a stylized vulva sharon explained i saw those carvings when i went to England last year wasn't she the irish symbol for procreation