“A ritual is the enactment of a myth. And, by participating in the ritual, you are participating in the myth. And since myth is a projection of the depth wisdom of the psyche, by participating in a ritual, participating in the myth, you are being, as it were, put in accord with that wisdom, which is the wisdom that is inherent within you.”
― Joseph Campbell


Image: Perun by Boris Olshansky

Guide to the Goddess: Demeter, Greek

Equivalents: Ceres (Roman), Isis (Egyptian)

Demeter is the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over crops, grains, food, and the fertility of the earth. Although mostly known as a grain goddess, she also appears as a goddess of health, birth, marriage, and has connections to the Underworld.

Although rarely mentioned by Homer, her legend is said to be ancient. The legend centres on the story of her daughter Persephone, who is carried off by Hades, the god of the underworld. Demeter goes in search of Persephone and, during her journey, reveals her secret rites to the people of Eleusis who had hospitably received her in what is known as the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Demeter through her revealed mystery rites provides the gateway to the mysteries through the gift of wheat. The grain in the head of wheat held its own reproductive power but also, due to the fungus of ergot, its revelatory power.

Image: Demeter Mourning for Persephone by Evelyn De Morgan

“Gnostics taught that there was an invasion that occurred about 3,600 BC and, about 1,600 years before the Nag Hammadi texts were buried, they wrote that this invasion was like a virus…The beings that were invading were called Archons. These Archons had the ability to duplicate reality, to fool us. They were jealous of us because we have an essence of some kind, a soul, that they don't possess and the Nag Hammadi texts describe the Archons. One looks like a reptile and the other looks like an unformed baby or a fetus… and has grey skin and dark, unmoving eyes. The Archons are duplicating reality so that when we buy into it, when we come to believe that the duplicated, false state reality is the real reality - then they become the victors.”
― Jay Weidner, Extract from Rense Radio interview

Image: Messenger by Erenarik

“As polytheism is in religious belief reflected in the recognition of moral complexity, so henotheism in religious practice is reflected in the recognition of moral diversity. To worship different gods is to align oneself with different ideals, and to embrace different moral standards. The example of the mother and the judge shows one way in which this works out in practice. The mother places parental love above impartial justice, while the judge does the opposite. In the language of Greek Paganism, the mother bows to Hera, the judge to Zeus Dikaios, and both are right to do so.”
― John Michael Greer, A World Full of Gods: An Inquiry Into Polytheism

Image: Detail of Zeus and Hera inspired by Rubens by Jeffrey Raum

“Dr. Jung, believed that archetypes are blueprints of the basic human qualities we all share. The archetypes themselves are undefinable natural patterns or forces that shape life in all ages and places. They cannot be known directly, but archetypal themes and images appear in myth, fairy tales, dreams, and fantasies. We tend to think of ourselves as unique individuals, and to a great extent we are. But just as there are shared patterns that shape our physical existence, such as having two arms and legs, two eyes, ten fingers and toes, so there are underlying patterns that shape our psychic existence.”
― Robert A. Johnson, Balancing Heaven and Earth: A Memoir of Visions, Dreams, and Realisations

Image: Wealhtheow by Yoann-Lossel

“Myth is much more important and true than history. History is just journalism and you know how reliable that is.”
― Joseph Campbell

Image: Atlantis by Frank Frazetta

“Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic. This is what uncouples him from belief in his own pretensions. The sardonic is all that permits him to move within himself. Without this quality, even occasional greatness will destroy a man.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

Image: Guild Ships Over The Basin by Sam Weber

“Since it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage.”
― C.S. Lewis

Image: God Speed by Edmund Blair Leighton

“Being real doesn't mean being reckless, it means allowing La Voz Mitologica, The Mythological Voice, to speak. One does that by shutting off the ego for a while and letting that which wishes to speak, speak.”
― Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves

Image: Patchwork in the Silence by Lucy Campbell

“Oral myths are closer to the genetic conclusions than the often ambiguous scientific evidence of archaeology.”
― Bryan Sykes, Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland

Image: The Riders of the Sidhe by John Duncan

Notes: The people known as “The Sidhe" or the people of the mounds were said to be descended from the Tuatha de Danann (the folk of the goddess Danu) who settled in Ireland millennia ago.

After being defeated by an invading force (or ideology), the two groups agreed to divide Ireland between them; the victors would take the world above, while the Tuath Dé take the world below (the underworld and perhaps the subconscious mind).

The Sidhe can only be perceived in visionary states of mind and at liminal places such as stone circles, sacred groves, wells and ‘fairy hills' or 'fairy glens'. Through the ages they have said to have been in contact with mortals giving protection, healing and even teaching some of their skills such as smith-crafting and the working of metals.

“Most people are surprised to learn that the early cultures of Europe even practiced shamanism. Mircea Eliade's books brush over shamanism in Europe with a few passing remarks, and he was, and still is, considered an authority on the subject. The reason for this silence may be that so very little of the shamanistic practices were allowed to remain after the Christian domination of European countries. Undoubtedly it became a crime to practice or teach shamanism, as happened with many other Pagan beliefs. The only remaining denoscriptions of Celtic shamanism are clothed in myths and legends.”
―D.J Conway, By Oak, Ash & Thorn: Modern Celtic Shamanism

Image: The Seer by Will Worthington

“The Sophia mythos does not belong in the past or to the past. It is a once and future myth, the timeless and insuperable alterative to the salvation narrative. It is a myth that nurtures and sustains those who embrace it, and fosters authenticity through direct experience of its subject matter: the passion of the Goddess.”
―John Lamb Lash, Not in His Image: Gnostic Vision, Sacred Ecology, and the Future of Belief

Image: The Grail of Summer Stars by Kinuko Y. Craft

“This is perhaps one of the most important things I learned during this investigation: We see what we believe, and not just the contrary; and to change what we see, it is sometimes necessary to change what we believe.”
― Jeremy Narby, The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge

Image: Illustration from 'The Red Book: Liber Novus' by Carl Gustav Jung

“Myths serve as source patterns originating in the ground of our being. While they appear to exist solely in the transpersonal realm, they are the key to our personal and historical existence, the DNA of the human psyche.”
―Jean Houston, The Hero and the Goddess

Image: Idun and the Apples by James Doyle Penrose

The True Meaning of ‘Peace’

Maimonides AKA ‘the Rambam’ the most prolific and influential Jewish philosopher points out that the commandment for ‘righteous deceit’ from the off-planet father god Yahweh is clear within the Torah (the first 5 books of the Bible).

“When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labour and shall work for you.”
-Deuteronomy 20:10-12

Chabad Lubavitch, the most influential and best-known Hasidic group give instruction on when it is permissible to lie. Telling the Truth...and When It Is Permissible to Be Less Than Honest

From the article - “And we are told that a lie told to promote peace is not included at all in the prohibition of telling lies. It seems then that since the ultimate goal of this lie is a positive one, it is not prohibited.”

Chabad indicates that a lie is permissible if it’s in the service of ‘peace’. The commonly known Hebrew greeting of ‘shalom’ means ‘peace’. However, we should ask ourselves what is meant by ‘peace’. According to Maimonides ‘peace’ means acceptance of and following the 7 Noahide Laws (currently being promoted to the UN) which is absolute submission to the rules of Yahweh. Therefore with this understanding, the true meaning of ‘peace’ in this context would be ‘submit or die’.

“For most of human history, 'literature,' both fiction and poetry, has been narrated, not written — heard, not read. So fairy tales, folk tales, stories from the oral tradition, are all of them the most vital connection we have with the imaginations of the ordinary men and women whose labor created our world.”
― Angela Carter

Image: Robin Hood Meets Maid Marian by Newell Convers Wyeth

“Greek philosophers were inspired by Sophia, and through her divine wisdom human beings could begin to form a new relationship with Sophia through the use of the power of thought. This is what gave birth to philosophy. When we consider the original meaning of the word philosophy, philo-sophia, love of Sophia, we can see it was really love for the Divine Sophia, who was present from the beginning as the divine plan of creation, that gave birth to philosophy.”
― Martin Rowe, Sophia Teachings: The Emergence of the Divine Feminine in Our Time

Image: The Banquet after Plato (extract) by Anselm Feuerbach

“Although the earliest Mesolithic and Megalithic sites of the world prove to be more sophisticated in design and construction than those of later date, most people continue to accept the unsustainable fiction concerning the world of the past. Ancient man was primitive and modern man is civilized. That is what the vast majority of people believe. It is, however, one of the most egregious fallacies conceivable.”
― Michael Tsarion

Image: Gates of Atlantis By Pierre-Alain D

“Animism has traditionally been considered backward and lacking in objective validity by Western scholars, but today philosophers, psychologists and scientists in our culture are beginning to realise that animistic peoples, far from being ‘primitive’, have been living a reality which holds many important insights for our own relationships with each other and with the Earth. One such insight is that animistic perception is archetypal, ancient, and primordial; that the human organism is inherently predisposed to seeing nature as alive and full of soul, and that we repress this fundamental mode of perception at the expense of our own health, and that of the natural world.”
―Stephen Harding, Animate Earth: Science, Intuition and Gaia

Image: Visionary Journey by Emma Lucy Shaw

Notes: If you would like to learn more about ethnic healing and returning to indigenous roots, check out the latest Fyrgen podcast interview with visionary artist Emma Lucy Shaw here. View more of her art and other services here.

“Prehistory is like a giant jigsaw puzzle with more than half its pieces destroyed or lost. It is impossible to reconstruct completely. But the greatest obstacle to the accurate reconstruction of prehistory is not that we are lacking so many pieces; it is that the prevailing paradigm makes it so hard to accurately interpret the pieces we have and to project the real pattern into which they fit.”
―Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade

Image: Font de Gaume by Charles R. Knight

“Who were the Gnostics? Until the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Library, most of our knowledge about them came from prejudiced sources, the church fathers who railed against and condemned them as the first “heretics”, a word that derives from the Greek hairetikos, which means “able to choose.” Heretics are those who choose something other than the received church dogma. What the Gnostics chose was gnosis over belief and experience over faith.”
―Gary Lachman, The Secret Teachers of the Western World

Image: Damnation by Daniel Valaisis