Beltaine 2011
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Volume 1, Issue 2 05-01-2011 Crane Chatter Beltaine Edition A publication by Three Cranes Grove, ADF S P E C I A L P O I N T S O F I N T E R - EST: Around the Fire with the Senior Druid IP Classes with Rev. Michael J. Dangler begin flowed easily in an atmos- level of involvement this summer Last night (as I‘m writing this) we had our monthly phere of trust and support. doesn‘t either. What ComFest Booth Dedicant Program meet- We gave ideas to one matters is that there is a Dublin Irish member who was having safe place for people to Festival ing. It was a small group difficulty making contact go to get questions an- Icelandic Talks and we got started a little late, and so the conversa- with housewights in her swered and support for Meditation residence. I was struck as their spiritual path. Classes contin- tion started rather infor- ue mally, even though there I left the meeting, that As the weather warms was a set curriculum. I THIS is what a spiritual up, I encourage everyone community is all about. to take advantage of that INSIDE THIS am working through Ian ISSUE: Corrigan‘s Nine Moons There are lots of types and get out there. This of pagan organization. was a time when our an- Around the Fire with program, and mentioned a 1 the Senior Druid contradiction I saw, or Some are networking on- cestors would have been ly. Some are spiritual, faring forth, so we should Beltaine 2 thought I saw, between his concept of the Gate- and some are a combina- consider doing the same. Luperca—The Wolf tion of both. Some see Go to a workshop, meet- 3 keeper and my own. A Mother Goddess couple of people saw no each other once a month ing, or ritual. Meet with Poetry a la Crane 8 contradiction, explained at the full moon and on fellow pagans, learn from it, and I actually came to high days and that‘s it. them, teach them, and In the Kitchen with 9 Some see each other at continue to grow a com- Skarlett understand it in a different every moon phase. And munity that supports its Nature Spirit Medita- way. This led to a discus- 10 tion sion of when to invoke then some are like Three members no matter what 11 Cranes, with a full sched- spiritual path they are on. A Mayan Experience and work with a gate keeper and when not to, ule of activities, rituals, As Beltane is the time for Review of Ostara service, and meetings. fertility and growth, ap- 15 with some of us doing it 2011 all the time, but others not Even within that, there are ply that energy to your Bardic Inspiration by 17 different levels of in- own spiritual path so you the Grove Bard if we are at an established shrine. The conversation volvement. Some people can share it with others. Freyja’s Frozen Heart 19 then turned to Outdwell- are good with once a month. Others get Nine blessings! Review of Hermetic ers with the same conver- 20 Magic sation of when you in- twitchy if they go a week without a crane fix. Survey of My Little clude that in your person- 22 Ponies al workings and when you The important point is that the type of organiza- Future Events 26 don‘t. The conversation tion doesn‘t matter. The Three Cranes Grove, ADF P a g e 3 Luperca – The Wolf-Mother Goddess Also known as: Lupa; The She- of my lowest points and in some Wolf; personal danger last year I had a Culture: Roman vivid reassuring dream. For this I Iconography: Luperca is usually owe her greatly. depicted as a she wolf and often with obvious breasts. Often twins The Capitoline Statue: are near by or being suckled by her. Some Favored People: Children & The Capitoline Wolf is statue of others in distress, strong independ- Luperca with twins underneath ent women, prostitutes & sex work- and has become a symbol of both ers, shepherds and farmers, canine the city of Rome and her ancient related people. empire. Her distended teats and and Apollo). Sacred Dates: February 15: Luper- gnarling expression show her as a calia; Feburary 21: Feralia. mother ready to defend her young. The Mythology: Sacred Site: The Lupercal Cave at famous statue itself is currently under the foot of Palatine Hill in Rome, debate since recent tests seem to indi- "Sometimes I remember it one way, Italy. cate that it only dates to the 1200s CE sometimes another... if I'm going to and it seems to possibly be a replace- have a past, I prefer it to be multiple Luperca is a rather obscure goddess ment for the lost or destroyed original choice! Ha ha ha!" – most know little of her or are all statue which is referenced prior to this -The Joker, The Killing Joke together unaware of her, so I hope date (at least the 10th century) as be- On the banks of the flowing Tiber this project does a little to rectify ing on display at the Pope's Lateran two twins are nursed by a she-wolf that issue. Palace where trials were held 'at the under a sacred fig tree near her cave wolf' ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ home. This is the image that is most My first exposure to her was a re- Capitoline_Wolf ). The statue re- connected to Luperca – however the production statue of the Capitoline mained there until it was transferred exact details of this scene such as the wolf in Eden Park of Cincinnati, over to the Palazzo dei Conservatori identity of the twins and parentage of Ohio. The statue was a gift from the Museum on Capitoline Hill by Pope the twins varies from tale to tale. city of Rome since Cincinnati was Sixtus IV in 1471. The twins under her named after the Roman hero Cin- were probably added at this point. In In what seems to be the oldest my- cinnatus in part due to the similarity 1586 she was then mounted on a ped- thology featuring Luperca the set of of the climate and geography to estal and moved to her current location twins underneath her were not Rom- Rome with a river and seven hills. at the Stanza Della Lupa. ulus and Remus – that particular myth seems to have come later and I took Latin class in High School Origins: acquired elements from an earlier where we celebrated various im- myth. The She-wolf's first adopted portant Roman holidays with little This is a highly debated topic and children seem to be the offspring of games and food. For some reason there are various origins debated for Mercury and a Nymph variously Lupercalia left an impression on me Luperca from Etruscan, Latin, Greek called Larunda, Lara, Lala, Tacita, or and I found a way to celebrate it in and other cultures. One hypothesis the Silent Goddess (she was also some fashion each year. When I current among the Romans holds that considered to be the same as Etrus- formally became a Pagan I began she and the Lupercalia may have come can goddess of death: Mania). giving honors every year to the she- from Greek settlers from around Mt. wolf. In the past couple of years she Lykaion who held a version of the Lara was the daughter of the river showed up in a few journeys and Lykaia and Luperca was derived from god Almo, and was very talkative, seems to have taken on a motherly the wolf deities / wolf-forms of several this attribute got her into trouble role towards me. When I was at one different deities (such as Pan, Zeus, when she reported on Jupiter's desire P a g e 4 Crane Chatter P a g e 4 Luperca – The Wolf-Mother Goddess—(cont from page 2) In a version told by Plutarch, a Rhea Silvia made into a Vestal Vir- for and attempted seduction of her gin. She had twins fathered by Mars sister Juturna to Juno. In a rage, Ju- phallus arose from a hearth in the who were raised by at first Luperca piter tore out her tongue so she home of King Tarchetios of Alba and then Faustulus and his wife Acca could no longer talk and sent her Longa and remained there for many Larenta. When they grew up they away to become a nymph of infer- days. A prophecy was given that if a killed Amulius and gave the throne to nal marshes. Mercury took her to virgin had intercourse with it she Numitor before heading off to found the underworld and on the way in a would then conceive a hero of great Rome around the area of the Lupercal sacred grove (probably of ether fame and strength. Tarchetios sent cave. Later on a story developed Hecate or Bona Dea (Wiseman one of his daughters to do the deed, where Remus was killed by Celer, a 2004, 80)) she was raped by Mercu- but she thought it was beneath her guard whose name meant fast, (or in ry (although some variants of the and so had a slave girl use the magic other versions by a guard named Fa- myths say it was consensual). She phallus instead. Tarchetios was furi- bius) after he rashly jumped over a gave birth to twins who became the ous and tried to have the twins who wall (or a ditch) instead of heading first two twin Lares (guardians of were born of the slave girl killed through the gate (in some versions the crossroads, fields, household through exposure by casting them Celer flees to Etruria after the mur- spirits, and often considered to be adrift in a box on the Tiber river.