Sacred Feminine, Sacred Earth

When I got up this morning and looked out of my second story window, it looked as if it had snowed. But it was a display of white dogwood blossoms lighting up the yard. dogwood blossoms were seen as symbols of Jesus’s crucifixion. According to legend, dogwood trees once grew as large as oaks in Israel, so it was used to build Jesus’s cross. After Jesus’s resurrection he saw how sad the dogwood was so he turned it into a small twisted tree that could never be used as a cross again.

The dogwood tree is also associated with Hecate, an ancient Greek goddess of protection, magic and hidden wisdom. The name Hecate translates to “the distant one.” In Athenian homes, she brought prosperity and blessings to families as a goddess who ruled over the earth, sea and sky. She was a lover of solitude who chose not to be the center of attention. Dogs were one of her sacred symbols.

I am currently reading Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul by John Philip Newell.

The Celts incorporated the sacred feminine with the sacred earth. Newell says, "When the sacred feminine and masculine move as one within us and make love, we are well. It is to this end that the stories of Brigid of Kildare invite us to awaken." She is a beloved Celtic saint "who models female leadership, inspires poets and musicians, midwifes at new beginnings and embodies compassion and boundless generosity..." p.46

The Deer's Cry is a prayer attributed to St. Patrick. The fourth verse "is entirely omitted in many Western Christian hymnbooks. This reflects the tragic separation between grace and nature, between the spiritual and the physical that has dominated so much of our Western Christian inheritance and made room for the Western world's unchecked exploitation and abuse of nature." p. 73

I particularly like the recognition of women as equals and the respect for the earth that was denied by the Roman Church who wanted to dominate Christianity for their own ends.

Let us bind ourselves to the earth by invoking this more literal translation of the ancient Irish text:

I bind myself today

The energy of stars,

The brilliance of sun,

The whiteness of moon,

The splendor of fire,

The flashing of lighting,

The wildness of wind,

The depth of seas,

The fecundity of earth,

The solidity of rocks.

Celtic Cross in Iona, Scotland