A Familiar Face...

Usually when I go to or from school, it's by train. Chicago Union Station, a Neoclassically-detailed building, with representations of Greek figures throughout, contains a statue of particular interest to me in the Great Hall. 

The Union Station website claims that this statue, a woman holding an owl, is meant to represent night, while the man on the column next to her holds a rooster, and represents day. They argue that this is meant to stand for the 24-hour nature of railroad transportation.

While I do not doubt that that was their intention, the Greek goddess of night, Nyx, is not associated with an owl. The only goddess I am aware of tied iconographically to the owl is Athena, of whom Owl Faced One is even an epithet.

Whatever the case, I find it comforting to pass through Her gate.

October 23rd, 2015

It's gotten so beautiful down here. Between all the trees and the leaves and just the smell of autumn in the air, it couldn't be nicer.

I took this picture the other day - look how yellow the leaves are!

I also enjoy this decorative menhir garden; it sits on top of a hill in the middle of a wooded patch, and is just delightfully Pagan.

This was the trees this morning. Look at that early sun falling through them!

I'm headed to the store now to pick up some pumpkins. Samhain is definitely in the air.

August 28th, 2015

I think I'm going to like my Architecture History class. Parts of it are definitely going to be a challenge, but my professor is very knowledgeable, and he keeps throwing out pieces of mythological information. Take this picture, for instance:

Many of you have probably seen this design before in sculpture or molding. What you may not know (I certainly did not) is that this pattern can be called "egg and dart"; the egg component symbolizes life, and the dagger symbolizes death. The pattern hails from ancient Greece, and specifically belongs to the fertility goddess Artemis of Ephesus. This is not the goddess as the Huntress, but rather as a deity of abundance. Her temple at Ephesus is one of the seven wonders of the world.

To the right is an image of Artemis. My professor actually pulled a reproduction of this statue out of his pocket while he was lecturing. The bulbs on her chest have been interpreted as breasts, eggs, ox testicles, and probably more. The scholarly analysis is that they are gourds, which are a particular symbol of this aspect of Artemis. 

That's what I've got. I just thought you all might appreciate this little tidbit. I also did another video today, if anyone's interested in checking it out.

June 20th, 2013

My family went out of state last weekend to visit with my grandparents for Father's Day, and to see my Aunt C's new house. It's pretty fantastic, even though she's not all situated yet - the garden alone is awesome! On the drive up there, we stopped at a rest station for lunch and I got myself a pretty pewter faery statue while I was at it. I think it's just perfect for my Litha altar, don't you?

My grandma had some other exciting goodies for me, one of which had been meant as a Christmas present: a Selenite candle holder! It's really good-sized, and a perfect centerpiece for ritual. 

The picture isn't the greatest; my apologies. I'm sure I'll put together a post about the various properties of Selenite sometime in the next few days.

Goddess Statue

This was the front and back of an EPIC statue that Hazelnut found on Ebay. It was only $11, and I really wanted to get it, but unfortunately, I thought it would be a bit awkward if random boxes from Ebay showed up on my doorstep, so I had to pass it up. Still, one day I'd love to find such a statue, and purchase it.