Horse Goddess

Riding and honoring Her

Over the past few years, the way that I honor Epona has evolved from being in front of the altar to being in the saddle. I have focused on having a connection to Her through my connection with horses. Standing in front of my altar, I feel Her strength and calm at the core of my being. That same core has become central to riding and connecting with my horses.

There have been times when I’ve put my foot in the stirrup and known I shouldn’t ride. I’ve felt that nagging anger that rises and spills over for seeming no apparent reason. It means my inner self is in turmoil and I have no business being on a horse. It’s not always a dramatic feeling. Sometimes it’s a little thing, like getting irritated when the halter clip doesn’t come undone or my mare’s tail swats me in the face one too many times.

These are all things that should just roll off and be let go. They shouldn’t nag at me like some three-year-old kid asking for the eight time for some candy at a checkout line.

It’s more than just being centered and grounded. It’s about being fully in the present with my horse. Fully with her and aware. Letting go of what happened at work (or recognizing when I am too wound to let those things go) and enjoying the connection with my girl.

That’s what is at the core of it. Recognizing when the mood is there and we are good to work — both for me and for her. She has days when she’s had that same look in her eye that I get when I just had a crappy day. We do something else on those days. Sometimes we don’t ride. Other times we go on a trail ride, or set up obstacles in the ring and have fun playing with pool noodles.

When you commune with a deity, you don’t force the connection. You ground, center, and let go into the presence of your god(s). It’s like releasing into yourself to connect to the divine by traveling through your perceptions: a reaching in to reach out to Her.

It’s the same with riding. You have to listen to where you are emotionally and physically, and pay the same attention to your horse’s state as well. When you do, then it’s like magic because you work together, you connect and things that seemed more difficult because of poor communication are within reach.

This past year my mare and I have made more progress than we have in the past three years combined. We had a lesson a few weeks back and my girl suddenly started engaging her hindquarters so her impulsion increased. Her trot went from silky smooth to feeling like a bouncing ball.

And I laughed for the sheer joy of feeling her move and how we could work as a team. How we could be connected.

It was a ridden prayer to Her.

Site down briefly

Tomorrow is Eponalia, which had me thinking about things to post here about how I celebrate. I knew I needed to do some site updates on the backend with the new version of WordPress that came out. Opened the URL and received a pesky “Unable to connect to the database” error message. WordPress backend was also down and offered the same message.

I was able to log on to the control panel for the domain and verify that the databases were indeed there and the SQL server was up. I opened a support ticket with the hosting company and then began Googling for answers.

If you ever receive the same type of error message, this article about how to fix the error establishing a database connection does indeed help you resolve the issue.

Re-entering the database password for the database account in the control panel corrected the problem.

Sites back up. And I closed the support ticket.

Finding names

For a long time, I went by the nickname Sena, a Gaulish word I thought meant priestess. Actually, nope, sena means old. Once I realized that, I decided to look for a different name to use that would honor Her. Something with horses, I thought. You know, like the feminine form of machis, the modern Gaulish word for horseman or horse rider.

Instead, I found the name Épasias in a list of ancient Gaulish names that are attested to in historical writings. Épasias is a name for a female follower of Epona.

When I saw the name, I felt that tingling at the back of my neck. Yes, this was the right name.

Map of religions, cults, and myths

Simon Davies of the Human Odyssey FaceBook group created a poster showing the evolution of myths, religions, and cults. It’s an interesting read to peruse.

The Evolutionary Tree of Religion 2.0UK poster: http://bit.ly/ZAQR4x USA poster:…

Posted by Human Odyssey on Monday, September 29, 2014

New issue of Air n-Aithesc

Air n’Aithesc: Our Message has a new issue out! We have an excellent selection of essays, poetry, and reviews. Information on this issue from Facebook page for Air n-Aithesc lists three book reviews: The Names Upon The Harp: Irish Myths and Legends by Blackbird O’Connell; The Gaelic Finn Tradition by Maya St.Clair; and Celtic Chiefdom, Celtic State by Finnchuill.

And a quote from my article, Building a Personal Relationship with Deity:

Going before Her altar, I can sense Her presence behind me, around me, in me. Like the warmth of hands pressing on my shoulders: She is there with me both in Her temple and outside. She is the strength and anchor; the calm in the storm, the mare who guides the herd to safety.

To read more, please check out the second issue of Air n-Aithesc

http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/779616?__r=486121&s=w

 

Happy birthday, Grey Cat

A Facebook email this morning included the usual list of friends’ impending birthdays, including one for my mentor Grey Cat, who passed away two years ago. It is a strange feeling seeing someone’s name and picture smiling at you from a birthday list. For a moment, I saw Cat’s picture smiling and I reached for my phone to call. Her number is still in my Contacts list.

I stopped, caught myself. Felt the subtle swirl of emotions as I remembered the memorial service two years ago. Right about that time, a friend of mine messaged me with a note that it was Cat’s birthday. He was upset too. We spent part of the day talking about Cat and what had happened since she had passed.

I like to think that Cat would be happy with the paths that my friend and I are on. We’ve used what we learned from her as stepping stones on our own paths. We’ve taught others along the way when appropriate. In our own ways, we have honored her memory through what we are currently doing.

We both resigned from NorthWind, the tradition that Grey Cat founded, because it was no longer our home and because nothing had been happening in the group for months. Even when my friend and I had tried to encourage activities to rebuild the community of initiates, we met with resistance and disinterest. We tried for a year after Cat died to get things moving and nothing happened.

Some times the best option is to vote with your feet instead of putting energy into activities that go ignored. My friend and I both voted with our feet, a year apart. Not one person commented upon my resignation letter on the public mailing list when I resigned this past March. I had hoped for something, even a “keep in touch” from people I had known for almost 30 years.

Silence some times speaks volumes.

I miss Cat a lot at times like this. I miss the friendships and community I always found at her place within the Trad.

So many things passed away with her.

New magazine Air n-Aithesc

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Here is a happy announcement! The first issue of Air n-Aithesc(which means “Our Message”) went live on February 11th! Here’s the blurb from the journal’s web site explaining the purpose:

Air n-Aithesc: Our Message is a peer-reviewed magazine that hopes to offer well researched material for Celtic Reconstructionists and others who value the role of academics as much as they value the role of the spiritual in their practice.

The magazine’s main aim is to offer as many resources as possible, from research articles to in depth explorations of how personal experiences fit in with the sources,  book reviews, and much more.

airnathesc_frontcover

I was incredibly honored to be included a staff member and as a contributor for this issue. The other committee members and contributors are people I greatly respect. It is an honor to be amongst such fine company.

What’s in the first issue? Lots of goodies! Including an article on Epona by yours truly. It was an amazing experience to write it. (Processing the research will be another post, I think.)

Wander on over to HP MagCloud and take a sneak peek. Maybe buy a digital or hard copy and support a fine cause.

You can also follow the journal on Twitter and Facebook.

Happy Eponalia!

Happy Eponalia! Every year I try to do something on December 18th to honor Epona. Whether it’s fixing a special meal, leaving offerings on the altar, or going out to the barn to visit with the mares, this day is my major holiday of the year.

To celebrate Her feast day, I had a friend over and we cooked several recipes we found online and in the book Classical Living. We made cucumeres, soft boiled eggs with pine nut sauce, shrimp with scallions, and an incredible apple cake (from the book Classical Living). This was my friend’s first time celebrating Eponalia. We cooked the meal together and talked about deity, horses, and how the relationship with each is similar. After dinner, we went to my altar and lit incense as an offering.

It was wonderful evening. I’ll have to find the apple cake recipe and post it here. It was scrumptious.

Quick review of “Lore of the Sacred Horse” by Marion Davies

Marion Davies’ book Lore of the Sacred Horse lacks two key things: citations and citations. I reviewed material that I know well (specifically about Epona) and found that key facts were missing. For example, Davies states on page 23-34, that Epona “had a feast day in the Roman calendar, on the 18th December. Epona was the only Celtic deity to be so honoured by the Romans.”[3]

This first sentence is partially true. Epona did have a feast day attributed to December 18 but it wasn’t from *the* Roman calendar. The feast day was from a regional calendar inscription from Guidizzolo in Northern Italy (which would have been in Gallia Cisalpina).[1,2]  Because this is the only example of Epona being mentioned in a fasti, wouldn’t that indicate that this marks a local celebration (instead of being part of the larger religio Romana)?[4]

Unfortunately, this kind of incomplete information is prevalent through the book. Readers are asked to trust Davies’ information and are not provided any way of continuing their research through citations. I didn’t see other authors mentioned in the text either.

Assuming that the other sections of the book are written in the same way as the information about Epona, don’t trust this book as a source. That doesn’t mean there aren’t good tidbits. You can always learn something from a book, even if it is an example of how not to present research. It is obvious that Davies did research for this book. It’s just a shame that the author did not include any evidence of it.

References

  1. Boucher, Stéphanie (1984). L’inscription d’Entrains CIL XIII, 2903 et l’apparition du culte d’Epona en Gaule au I siècle de notre ère. Hommages à Lucien Lerat. W. H. Paris, Les Belles Lettres: 131-134.
  2. See the inscriptions page at Epona.net: http://epona.net/inscriptions.html
  3. Davis, Marion (1995). Lore of the Sacred Horse. Capall Bann Publishing. pp. 23-24, 36, 60-1, 70, 127.
  4. “Epona in the Fasti.” (2004) Forum discussion on Ancient Worlds between Nantonos Aedui and Moravius Horatius. http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Post/335807

Cabyll Ushtey

A stone skipped across water
leaves ripples
aquatic hoofprints
spreading like a diffusion of memories
ending abruptly in a beard of lily pads
seated with a different type of frog