Thanksgiving Blessings

“May the blessing of the Shining Ones come your way on this Thanksgiving Day and all days.

May these blessings come your way, to cherished friends and loved ones, to brighten each and every day.

Let them be a reminder that life’s beauty is everywhere and bring the happy reassurance that there are those who care.

May this day bring a Thankful heart, a special faith that never will grow old, and the warmest, dearest memories that any heart could hold. May the Shining Ones bless all with warm memories of past years and wonderful moments in the years to come.

May your word of the day be ‘Gratitude’.

Happy Thanksgiving and Blessed Be!” – Rev. Ron (Liomsa) Latevola

Goddess Ikapati

“Dewi Sri” by Much

“Ikapati’s themes are prayer, harvest, thanksgiving, luck and protection. Her symbols are harvested foods.  In the language of the Philippines, this Goddess’s name literally means ‘giver of food’, making Her the provider of the Misa de Gallo! She diligently promotes abundance of fields and crops, and She protects farm animals from disease.

When the sun begins to rise today, people take to the streets with all manner of noise makers to invoke Ikapati’s protection and to banish evil influences that might hinder next year’s crops. Effectively, even in more Christianized forms, this is a lavish harvest festival in which Filipinos thank the divine for their fortune and food, which is always a worthy endeavor.

We can join the festivities today by eating the customary rice cakes to internalize Ikapati’s providence and drinking ginger tea for health and energy. It is traditional during this meal to invite the Goddess to join you at the table. Just leave her a plate and cup filled with a portion of whatever you have.

Tonight, consign this offering to the earth, where Ikapati dwells (or to your compost heap), and whisper a wish for improved luck to the soil. The Goddess will then accept the gift and turn it into positive energy for the planet and your life.”

(Patricia Telesco, “365 Goddess: a daily guide to the magic and inspiration of the goddess”.)

According to Wikipedia, Ikapati is an ancient Tagalog Goddess also known as Lakapati.  Lakapati is “the Goddess of fertility and the most understanding and kind of all the deities. Also known as Ikapati, She was the giver of food and prosperity. Her best gift to mankind was agriculture (cultivated fields). Through this, She was respected and loved by the people. Later, She was married to Mapulon and had a daughter.” [1]

Interestingly enough, I found on a few sites that Lakapati is described as a transgender or hermaphroditic deity.  In a book entitled Mythologies – A Polytheistic view of the World, it states: “Lakampati (Lacapati/Lacanpate) – the major fertility deity of the ancient Tagalogs.  Farmers with their children brought offerings for him at the fields and invoke him to protect them from famine.  Some sources also said that foods and words are offered to him by his devotees asking for ‘water’ for their fields and ‘fish’ when they set sail in the sea for fishing.  Lakampati was a hermaphrodite deity and was commented by some authors and friars as ‘the hermaphrodite devil who satisfies his carnal appetite with men and women’.  He is identified to the ancient Zambal Goddess Ikapati although he/she also has a characteristics similar to other Zambal deities such as Anitong Tawo, Dumangan, Kalasokus, and Kalaskas” (p. 120).

“Dewi Sri” by Erwin Silman

According to Sri Owen, which was surprising to me, “Filipino rice spirits…are often male.  One group consisted of four brother gods: Dumangan, the god of good harvests and giver of grains; Kalaskas, who supervised the ripening of the rice grains; Kalasokus, in charge of the yellowing and drying of the crop ready for harvest; and Damulag, who protected the rice from wind (remember those terrible Philippines typhoons).  However, they had a female colleague, Ikapati, who was Goddess of cultivated lands and taught agriculture” (p. 54).  This leads me to wonder if Ikapati is somehow “related to” or has any connection with Dewi Sri, Mae Phosop, Po Ino Nogar, Wakasaname-no-Kami (who also is an androgynous deity)…

 

 

 

 

Sources:

Owen, Sri. The Rice Book: History, Culture, Recipes, “The Feminine Rice Spirit“.

Wikipedia, “Deities of Philippine mythology“.

 

 

Suggested Links:

Halili, M. C. Philippine History.

Ramos, Michael. Polvoron: Tales and Stories from the Philippine Islands, “Pearls“.

Goddess Gaia

“Magic Mountain” by Hans-Peter Kolb

“Gaia’s themes are abundance, providence, thankfulness, nature, divination, promises and the earth. Her symbols are harvested foods (especially fruit and grains) and soil. In Greek tradition, Gaia stretched out at the beginning of time, becoming the earth’s land. In this form, She continues to give life and sustenance to all things that dwell in and on the planet, even when the cold weather tries to steal away that life. So sacred are Gaia’s soils that any promise made with one hand on the earth is irrevocable. The oracle at Delphi belonged to Gaia before Apollo took over, giving Her the additional attribute of prophesy.

The Thanksgiving theme among Canadians is much the same as in the United States; it’s a time of expressing gratitude to the earth and the heavens for their ongoing providence.  Enjoy a robust feast of harvested edibles today to internalize Gaia’s blessings and foresight. Remember to give thanks to the creatrix of your feast before eating!  Also consider following Greek custom by leaving Gaia an offering of barley, honey, or cakes in an opening in the earth. This show of gratitude inspires Gaia’s fertility in the coming months and years.

To help keep yourself true to a promise, carry a few pinches of soil with you in a sealed container today. If you sense your resolve waning, release a little back to Gaia. This invokes Her strength and sense of duty.”

(Patricia Telesco, “365 Goddess: a daily guide to the magic and inspiration of the goddess”.)

“Breath of Gaia” by Josephine Wall

“In the beginning, the Greeks said, there was only formless chaos: light and dark, sea and land, blended in a shapeless pudding.  Then chaos settled into form, and that form was the huge Gaia, the deep-breasted one, the earth.  She existed before time began, for Time was one of Her children.  In the timeless spans before creation, She existed, to Herself and of Herself alone.

“Giants of Gaia” by Diana Elizabeth Stanley

But finally Gaia desired love, and for this purpose She made Herself a son: Uranus, the heaven, who arched over his Mother and satisfied Her desire.  Their mating released Gaia’s creative force, both marvelous and monstrous.  Uranus hated and envied Gaia’s other children, so the primeval Mother kept them hidden from his destructiveness.

Eventually, however, Her dark and crowded womb grew too heavy to endure.  So Gaia created a new element: gray adamant.  And from it She fashioned a new tool, never known before: a jagged-toothed sickle. With this Gaia armed Her son Cronos (Time), who took the weapon from his Mother’s hand and hid himself.

“The Mutiliation of Uranus by Saturn” by Giorgio Vasari & Cristofano Gherardi

Soon, Uranus came, drawing a dark sky-blanket over himself as he approached to mount his Mother-Lover. Then his brother-son Cronos sprang into action, grasping Uranus’ genitals and sawing them off with the rough blade. Blood fell in a heavenly rain on Mother Gaia.  So fertile was that even the blood of the mutilated sky impregnated Her.  The Erinyes sprang up; so did the Giants; and so did the ash-tree nymphs, the Meliae, humanity’s ancestors (and, in some stories, by throwing Uranus’ testicles into the sea, they caused the sea to foam and out of that white foam rose Aphrodite, the Goddess of love and beauty).

This was the familiar creation story that the ancient Greeks told their children.  Even after the earth mother had been supplanted as the primary divinity by invading Olympians, the Greeks worshiped Gaia’s power with barley and honey cakes placed at sacred openings in Her surface.  At such fissures, too, gifted people would read the will of the Great Mother, for She was through all ages the “primeval prophet” who inspired the oracles at Delphi, Dodona, and elsewhere.  And it was to Gaia – even in the days when Zeus ruled the pantheon – that the Greeks swore their most sacred oaths, thus recognizing Her ancient theological sovereignty” (Monaghan, p. 131).

“Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Tellus.

Many Neopagans worship Gaia. Beliefs regarding Gaia vary, ranging from the belief that Gaia is the Earth to the belief that She is the spiritual embodiment of the earth, or the Goddess of the Earth.

“Spring I – Gaia” by ~SargonX

Gaia’s name was revived in 1979 by James Lovelock, in Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth; his Gaia Hypothesis was supported by Lynn Margulis. The hypothesis proposes that living organisms and inorganic material are part of a dynamic system that shapes the Earth’s biosphere, and maintains the Earth as a fit environment for life. In some Gaia theory approaches the Earth itself is viewed as an organism with self-regulatory functions. Further books by Lovelock and others popularized the Gaia Hypothesis, which was widely embraced and passed into common usage as part of the heightened awareness of environmental concerns of the 1990s.” [1]

Here’s a quote that I’d love to leave you with by Sir James Lovelock from Ages of Gaia:

“What if Mary is another name for Gaia?
Then her capacity for virgin birth is no miracle,
it is a role of Gaia since life began.
She is of this Universe and, conceivably,
a part of God. On Earth, she is the source
of life everlasting and is alive now;
she gave birth to humankind
and we are part of her.”

 

 

 

Sources:

Monaghan, Patricia. The New Book of Goddesses and Heroines, “Gaia”.

Wikipedia, “Gaia (mythology)“.

 

 

Suggested Links:

Auralia. Orderwhitemoon.org, “Gaia“.

Goddessgift.com, “Mother Gaia’s Healing Chicken Soup” – for the kitchen witches out there 😉

Greekmedicine.net, “Greek Mythology: Gaia – Mother Earth, Mother Nature“.

Green-agenda.com, “Home“. (* This site actually seems to state that the modern green movement has some type of nefarious agenda of sorts, but it lists some awesome quotes that I wanted to share.)

Lash, John Lamb. Metahistory.org, “TAKE BACK THE PLANET: A Review of James Cameron’s Avatar (2009)“. (A movie I thoroughly enjoyed!)

Livingstone, Glenys. Matrifocus.com, “Beltane/Samhain @ EarthGaia“.

Mythagora.com, “Gaia”

Revel, Anita. igoddess.com, “Gaia: dose up on mama love“.

Sozaeva, Katy. Voices.yahoo.com, “Gaia – Goddess Worship and Understanding Our World from a Feminine Perspective“.

Theoi.com, “Gaia“.

Took, Thalia. Thaliatook.com, “Gaea“.