The veil between the worlds is thin --
A good time for seeking within.
The Goddess rules the world of the dead.
Make sure your ancestors are well fed.
For if you are blessed by your kin,
Winter will slough off like a skin.
Samhain, the start of the Celtic New Year, celebrates the third and final
harvest. At this time in the Celtic world, animals were brought back from
their summer pastures to be slaughtered for meat over the winter. With the
earth entering into its winter phase, people celebrated their dead
ancestors, who now lived in the** Otherworld, for, at Samhain, the veil
between the worlds is at its thinnest. It was believed that by honouring
them, the ancestors would ensure the return of fertility to the land at
winter's end. People would put food out for their dead ancestors – a custom
replayed today when householders give treats to ghoulish little visitors.
As a symbol of the earth, the goddess takes on her crone aspect. The Serpent
Goddess reigns at Samhain as the deadly Queen of the Underworld. Imagery of
death, such as serpents and skulls, abound, and are given their due respect.
Underlying this imagery is the recognition of renewal, like the snake who
enters a deathlike phase only to emerge anew from its old skin. Several
Celtic myths tell about a hero summoning his courage to kiss the hag of
winter, often three times, after which she turns into the beautiful maid of
summer. This suggests that one must face death in order to find the source
of renewal.
Images of the Hindu goddess, Chinnamasta, show symbolically how death renews
life. When Chinnamasta, the Goddess of Great Wisdom, decapitated herself,
three streams of blood flowed from her neck. Two streams flowed into the
mouths of her devotees, and one into her own mouth. Images show Chinnamasta,
wearing a cobra around her neck, standing on a divine copulating couple,
with the Goddess on top. This image speaks to the two faces of the goddess,
sex and death, and shows how sexual energy leads to death, as procreation
requires parents to make way for their offspring. The sacrificial death
nourishes the renewed life.
Like Chinnamasta, the Greek goddess Medusa was decapitated. One of the two
streams of blood that flowed from her neck was deadly, the other gave life.
Myths about Medusa describe her as a lovely woman who suffered the 'sin' of
vanity for her beautiful hair. Athena punished her by turning her hair into
snakes, making her so terrifying that a mere glance at her led to death.
After Medusa was killed by Perseus, Athena affixed the Gorgon's head to her
own breastplate to frighten the armies of her enemies.
Originally, Medusa was the Libyan Serpent Goddess of Wisdom. The myth of her
decapitation was developed later to explain her face on the chest of Athena,
who was actually another form of the Serpent Goddess. Like Medusa, Athena
epitomized wisdom.
Early depictions of Medusa, and her two sisters, show the three Gorgons with
large tusked faces and snakes for hair. Robert Graves, who believed that
Greek myths represented religious-political history, postulated that the
Gorgons represented the masks worn by priestesses of the lunar goddess to
frighten the curious from Her mysteries. Perseus, the 'hero' who killed
Medusa, represented the invading Hellenes, who took over the temples of the
triple goddess and stripped her priestesses of their masks. However, the
invaders were unable to totally eliminate the protective power of the
Gorgons. Their images appeared throughout ancient Greece, over ovens, on
walls, and other places, to warn off the curious.
The Greek goddess, Hecate, is a popular goddess to invoke at Samhain. She
combined fertility with death; by day, she ensured abundant crops; by night,
she was the goddess of magic, ghosts, and tombs. Originally, Hecate was a
powerful and benevolent lunar goddess, honored above all others by Zeus. She
became associated with the underworld, ghosts and tombs, as well as magic.
Hecate is a goddess of cyclical phases, including death and rebirth. Robert
Graves described her as the Snake Goddess of Tartarus, the underworld. He
believed that the twelfth labor of Heracles, the capture of the
snake-tailed, three-headed dog, Cerberus, was derived from an icon showing
Hecate, as goddess of the dead, welcoming Heracles to Tartarus. She took the
form of a three-headed monster, with, perhaps, each head corresponding to a
season.
As a goddess of the underworld, Hecate's role was to search for the souls of
the dead in the wasteland between the worlds. In the myth of Demeter and her
abducted daughter Persephone, Hecate helped Demeter search for her daughter,
and later acted as Persephone's guide between the worlds.
[image: Winged Hecated with Dreadlocks, copyright (c) 2003, Sage
Starwalker.] *Winged Hecate*,
(c) 2003 Sage Starwalker.
All rights reserved.
After photo, 175, *Lady of the Beasts*, Buffie Johnson.
As a form of the Serpent Goddess, Hecate was often depicted holding snakes,
being entwined by snakes, or with a head of snakes. An ivory plaque from the
Spartan sanctuary of Artemis (8th century BCE) shows her as a winged goddess
with a snake meandering up to her arm. Robert Graves believed that the myth
about the death by snakebite of the wood nymph, Eurydike, and the subsequent
failure by Orpheus to retrieve her from the underworld, was mistakenly
derived from pictures showing Orpheus entering Tartarus and encountering the
Serpent Goddess, possibly in the form of Hecate. It was Eurydike's victims,
not herself, who died of snakebite. Male human sacrifices were accomplished
by viper bites and offered to the serpent-grasping Queen of the Underworld.
The Goddess, in her deadly serpentine form, is seen in many myths, such as
the Egyptian myth in which Isis creates a serpent to bite her ailing father,
Ra, to force him to give her his secret name that would allow her to restore
the wasteland to abundant life. A similar myth of the Zimbabwe people tells
about the first man, Mwuetsi, who was bitten by a snake that was the lover
of his wife, Morongo. As Mwuetsi grew sicker, the land became barren and
people began to die. Finally, his children strangled him and appointed a new
king, revitalizing the land. This story may have reflected the ritual murder
of the king in medieval Zimbabwe, who was killed every four years and
replaced with a new king. The last Egyptian pharaoh, Cleopatra VII, also
faced death by snakebite, possibly reflecting a similar practice of
sacrificing the Pharaoh at the end of her/his reign by the bite of a viper.
An ancient Egyptian belief was that death by snake bite would secure
immortality.
Supernatural beings, such as vampires, come into their fully glory at
Samhain. One of the earliest sources for the vampire legends was the
Mesopotamian goddess of death, Lamashtu. She was depicted on protective
amulets as a terrifying creature with the head of a lion and talons of a
bird, suckling a piglet and a dog, and holding a snake in each hand. From
Lamashtu came other goddess who took the form of succubi, or seductive women
who drained men's life blood as they slept. The succubi included Lamia and
Lilith, again forms of the Serpent Goddess. In one of the stories about
Lamia, she appeared as a rich Phoenician woman. She was about to marry a
young man when a philosopher exposed her true nature as a snake.
Accordingly, she disappeared, together with her house and all her riches,
leaving her young fiancé bereft. Lilith, said in some medieval mystical
texts to be the first wife of Adam, was also described as a snake. She could
take the form of a beautiful, seductive woman, who would kill her lovers,
give birth to demons, and murder children. She came to epitomize the evil of
sexuality and men's fear of women's seductive powers.
The Serpent Goddess symbolizes the bridge between the worlds, death, and
renewal. Samhain is a time to remember and celebrate those who died during
the year, and for reflection on the mysteries of death.
*References
*+ Graves, Robert.* The Greek Myths: Complete and Unabridged Edition in One
Volume*. New York: Moyer Bell Limited, 1988. (Originally published 1955).
+ Johnson, Buffie. *Lady of the Beasts: The Goddess and Her Sacred Animals*.
Vermont: Inner Traditions International, 1994.
+ Waterstone, Richard. *India: Belief and Ritual, The Gods and The Cosmos,
Meditation and the Yogic Arts*. Living Wisdom Series. London:
Macmillan/Duncan Baird, 1995.
+ Willis, Roy. *Dictionary of World Myth: An A-Z reference guide to gods,
goddesses, heroes, heroines and fabulous beasts*. London: Duncan Baird,
