A wild UPG appears! (Sulis and water deities in general)

[Tana]

Agreed. Seems like a good way to handle this.

The SIG leader, Darkhawk, is ok with this.
If everyone agrees, we can move the thread there.

[Shine]

The SIG leader, Darkhawk, is ok with this.
If everyone agrees, we can move the thread there.

 
I think that sounds like a good idea if everyone else is cool with it.

[Jack]

In other words, I think the Lady of the Stars is *part* of what Brighid does and who She is, but far from all She does or is.

And, going the other way, I think Brighid is *part* of who/what the Lady of the Stars is, but not the only part or the whole.  I think the LotS encompasses many entities.

I actually think this is quite close to my own experience of the difference between "gods" and "powers" and is also similar to a blog post I saw last month on deities and archetypes:

First, let’s look at deities riding archetypes. This is something that happens constantly, I think. A new pagan or polytheist reads their first books on Wicca, they learn a bit about Jung in some college class, they remember back to their childhood when they read some books on Greek mythology or saw some film, and they go, “Yeah, a Mother Goddess and a Horned God–it makes sense!” They start a practice, and interact with those archetypal beings, who have a powerful effect on them, but don’t end up having much personality beyond a certain point. Then, suddenly, the Horned God starts to show some strange characteristics depending on the time of year or the circumstances or the rituals involved; and before you know it, the Wiccan duotheist soon becomes a soft polytheist because at different times in their experience, they get Hermes, Loki, Pan, and Herne the Hunter rather than just “generic Horned God.”

[Stardancer]

 
After 11 interesting pages, I'm not entirely sure where to hang this, so I'm responding to the first post instead...

Part of finding a constellation could be finding those bits that _aren't_ in it, right? So, I consider 'my' Gaia to be a cosmic goddess, the physical universe. I put a feeler out, asking if She was connected to this Lady of the Stars - and got a smiling "not really". (BTW, Brigid once also told me I'm 'not on her list'. She seems to have very clear preferences on who she wants! :)

My impression is that the LotS that you speak of is a more .. cerebral deity? Focused on the spirit of things? The stars as distant and beautiful? While the cosmic Gaia is the stars and planets and atoms as physical entities, matter. Concrete. Life manifest - whether as plankton or trees or swirling galaxies.

Best description I can come up with is, the difference between fire and earth?

Damn, this is hard to put into words... I can _feel_ it, but not say it..

[Shine]

(BTW, Brigid once also told me I'm 'not on her list'. She seems to have very clear preferences on who she wants! :)

Agreed. At one point I thought of approaching Brighid and got a response along the lines of, "this won't end well for you." To be fair, most deities can and do make their preferences very clear. They just have different preferences that they bring up at the appropriate times.

My impression is that the LotS that you speak of is a more .. cerebral deity? Focused on the spirit of things? The stars as distant and beautiful? While the cosmic Gaia is the stars and planets and atoms as physical entities, matter. Concrete. Life manifest - whether as plankton or trees or swirling galaxies.

This is kind of what I'm getting out of it, too. Bast as Lady of the Stars/Ancestors works with elements of the soul to forge an akh--a spirit--, that eternal being that can inhabit an actual physical star.

Brighid/Sulis/et al devotees will have to pipe up with their impressions if they so desire, because I'm pretty firmly rooted in Kemetic stuff. Maybe if this thread gets moved to the Mystery Builders SIG more people will feel comfortable chiming in.

Best description I can come up with is, the difference between fire and earth?

This seems to be a good expression of it.

[Fausta]

However, I'll pop downstairs to see if any of our books mention her,

 
OK, not much in my books (one on mythological stories seems to be on loan somewhere, I better ask it back). I'm translating on the fly...

Mythologia Fennica by Christfried Ganander (of which I happen to have the facsimile edition, which is written in old Swedish with old spelling, the book came ot in 1789)  and Anna-Leena Siikala's "Suomalainen samanismi" (Finnish Shamanism) say approximatey:

Päivätär - one of wolf's foster-mothers, maiden of the day, the beautiful sunrise, which rescues both the sun and the moon from darkness brought on by evil Kuumet, who darkens the moon (as the moon wanes and is invisible). The moon gets eaten and hidden in an iron barn, and then is released and born, delivered by Päivätär.  Päivä = sun / day.

The moon is mentioned as being Päivätär's son*, but spells do mention several children of Päivätär (she's asked to put her foot down and order them to behave, for example).

(* As a sidenote, Päivätär's son, Päivän Poika travels to the underworld in order to find himself a bride - Kuutar, moon goddess is mentioned of being the moon's bride. Kuutar also has sons, who apparently tend to be rowdy.)

Going more starry, there's Otavatar (-tar/-tär ending denotes female, Otava is the Ursa major), the wife of Otava, päivän Tyttö (päivä's daughter). She was prayed to help against thieves working in the night, as well as to help bring back those who had been taken, that is those who got lost (and in a country this sparsely populated even now, getting lost in the woods is something to be scared of).

Checking some English language information on Päivätär, she seems to be labels a virgin goddess. While she does get mentioned of being "beautiful maiden", it seems to be more of a description of age and looks, possibly of marital status, but not that of actual virginity.

[SatAset]

Can someone expand on Nit, please?  Resources?

I need to learn more about the Kemetic deities.  Like I don't have enough reading to do.  Sigh...

The Great Goddesses of Egypt by Barbara Lesko has chapters for Nit, Hetharu, Aset/Isis, and Mut.  

This is an excellent book and the scholarship about the Goddesses is fantastic.  I highly recommend it.  Just ignore the whole matriarchal society in ancient times parts and it's great.

[Shine]

The Great Goddesses of Egypt by Barbara Lesko has chapters for Nit, Hetharu, Aset/Isis, and Mut.  

This is an excellent book and the scholarship about the Goddesses is fantastic.  I highly recommend it.  Just ignore the whole matriarchal society in ancient times parts and it's great.

The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt by Richard Wilkinson has pretty good sections on these goddesses, too, along with entries on other, more obscure Netjeru. Wilkinson's book doesn't go as deep into detail, though. Really, you'd read it for the other entries as well.

I expanded on Nit upthread a bit. Guess it got buried. XD

[Vale]

Anyway, I've been doing some meditating on and working with Sulis

I've just relaxed the privacy on my Sulis photobucket album - there are some pictures there of the sacred spring and a video of the overflow. Since the temple access was "improved"  the video could not be taken now - I used "improved" in the very loosest sense. It was far better before. I'm not altogether sure now where one of the altars has actually gone!

Some of these were taken "after hours". Without the crowds the temple complex takes on a whole new aspect.

URL is http://www.photobucket.com/sulis

The album password is cauldron

[Tana]

URL is http://www.photobucket.com/sulis

The album password is cauldron

 
Thanks for sharing. This is neat!

[Sophia C]

I've just relaxed the privacy on my Sulis photobucket album - there are some pictures there of the sacred spring and a video of the overflow.

These are fantastic. Thank you!

[Sulischild]

I've just relaxed the privacy on my Sulis photobucket album - there are some pictures there of the sacred spring and a video of the overflow. Since the temple access was "improved"  the video could not be taken now - I used "improved" in the very loosest sense. It was far better before. I'm not altogether sure now where one of the altars has actually gone!

Some of these were taken "after hours". Without the crowds the temple complex takes on a whole new aspect.

URL is http://www.photobucket.com/sulis

The album password is cauldron

Oh my.  Thank you very, very much indeed for sharing this.

Having looked through all the photos, I'm rather emotional in ways I can't explain at all.

[Vale]

Thanks for sharing. This is neat!

Just hanging this hear - glad you all like them. It is pretty easy to beat the crowds if you get there on opening and head straight down into the temple. Generally you have 20 minutes or so peace and relative privacy ( there are cameras)  before the visitors following the guided handset tour get down there which is plenty of time.

As for the night time pictures, I was invited to a cocktail party there and was shameless enough to stash the DSLR in my handbag and vanish into the temple for half an hour before I felt obliged to return to the party and be sociable :ange:

[Cabal]

I've just relaxed the privacy on my Sulis photobucket album - there are some pictures there of the sacred spring and a video of the overflow. Since the temple access was "improved"  the video could not be taken now - I used "improved" in the very loosest sense. It was far better before. I'm not altogether sure now where one of the altars has actually gone!

Some of these were taken "after hours". Without the crowds the temple complex takes on a whole new aspect.

URL is http://www.photobucket.com/sulis

The album password is cauldron

 As someone who honors Sulis, thank you so much for posting this! She is very special to me on my path.

[Vale]

As someone who honors Sulis, thank you so much for posting this! She is very special to me on my path.

If anyone here wants any of the full size picture files then I'm happy to send them for personal use only. Let me know which ones by PM and an email address.