Willow Goddess: Celtic MayDay Blessings

Kathy Crabbe, Daffodil & Solara, 2001, watercolor on paper, 8.5 x 11”.

Kathy Crabbe, Daffodil & Solara, 2001, watercolor on paper, 8.5 x 11”.

Welcome, with your lovely greenwood choir, summery month of May for which I long! ~ Welsh, 14th Century

When the gates of Beltaine swing open on May 1, sunlight and blossom welcome the procession of the year into the green halls of summer...we celebrate life, growth, love, and sexuality: "the force that drives the green fuse through the flower," in the words of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. ~ from Kindling the Celtic Spirit by Mara Freeman

Kathy Crabbe, Willow Goddess, 2000,silk dyes on silk, 8.5 x 11”.

Kathy Crabbe, Willow Goddess, 2000,silk dyes on silk, 8.5 x 11”.

Druidic Sacred Tree Saille - The Willow 5th Lunar Month Bird: Hawk Color: Haze Gemstone: Blood-Red Carbuncle

Beltane is the 2nd cross-quarterly festival day and is sacred to Sappho, the poet, Fairy Queen Brigid and the goddess Dana. Midway between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice, it celebrates the full blossoming of the spring. At May Eve, the goddess is one of Love and Death such as Freya, Frigg, Holda, Held, Hilde, Goda, and Ostara. Traditionally, this celebration was an orgiastic revel which celebrated the Maiden's coming of age and the rebirth of flowers and the fertility of the Earth. ~ Paraphrased from Year of Moons, Season of Trees, Mysteries and Rites of Celtic Tree Magic by Pattalee Glass-Koentop

The paintings above are available as originals, prints and cards. Please email me for more information.

More Celtic Tree Musings can be found here.

Druids: a Holy Female Sisterhood

Mugwort Zine, no. 3, Feb. 2001 © 2010 by Kathy V. Crabbe

Mugwort Zine, no. 3, Feb. 2001 © 2010 by Kathy V. Crabbe

Female Druids also known as dryads (Greek) or oak nymphs were oracular priestesses, each with her own personal tree spirit. Dryads were also known as priestesses of Artemis, whose souls dwelt in trees. Dryads could also assume the shapes of serpents and were called Hamadryads or Amadryades. Dryadism and druidism (Scottish) were two phases of the same religion, restricted to a female priesthood in the earlier, matriarchal stage, but later open to male priests as well. Irish churches were originally known by the old druidic name of dairtech, or "oak-house," a sacred grove. The Christian church attacked the Druids for their paganism, and also for their tendency to include sacred women in their ranks.

The "colleges" of druidesses, dryads, and high holy sisterhoods were later assimilated into Christian nuns. One of the three classes of druidesses consisted of secluded sisterhoods, such as the priestesses of Brigit, who lived in convent-like sanctuaries while tending perpetually burning sacred fires. Another less secluded class of druidess consisted of married women who lived at the temple and went home occasionally to visit their husbands. A third class was composed of temple servants who lived with their families.

There is no break between the ancient semi-magical formulae chanted by the Druids and later incantations of the wizard and “wise woman.”

The Vine Moon ~ 10th Lunar Month Moon of Exhilaration September 2 - 29th

Vine Goddess, Silk dyes on silk, 7 x 10 inches. © 2010 by Kathy V. Crabbe

Vine Goddess, Silk dyes on silk, 7 x 10 inches. © 2010 by Kathy V. Crabbe

During the tenth lunar month, also known as the “Moon of Exhilaration” or Vine Moon we celebrate the Autumn Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. The Vine Moon is dedicated to Dionysus, Osiris, and Bacchus and her five-pointed leaves are sacred to the White Goddess. The energies of this moon symbolize peace and enduring strength. The wild-growing vine or bramble also governs inspiration, imagination, poetry, and imagery.

The essence of strength contained within the Vine is retained in her wine.

My Handpainted Celtic Tree Goddess Deck ~ Inspiration

I have always been inspired by tales of the Celts and Druids probably owing to my red haired lineage and my collection of red-haired friends (and a red haired husband as well). So I painted a series of Celtic tree inspired Goddesses on silk for a hand lettered one-of-a-kind book that I later turned into a Celtic Tree oracle deck used for giving Soul Readings, Past Life Readings and Ancestor Readings.

Click here for the Celtic Year Oak Moon.
Learn more about Past Life Readings here.

Celtic Tree Wisdom Deck, Silk dyes on silk, Set of 13 Cards. © 2001 by Kathy V. Crabbe

Celtic Tree Wisdom Deck, Silk dyes on silk, Set of 13 Cards. © 2001 by Kathy V. Crabbe

Recommended Reading: Year of Moons, Season off Trees: Mysteries & Rites of Celtic Tree Magic by Pattalee Glass-Koentop

Celtic Year - Vine Moon

Vine Moon
Moon of Exhilaration
The 10th Lunar Month
September 2 - 30

Gemstone: Amethyst
Druid's Gemstone: Amethyst
Tribe: Manasseh
Color: Variegated
Animal: Snake
Bird: Tit-Mouse
Tree: Grape (Bacchus)
Ogham Symbol Name: Muin (pronounced "Muhn")

The Vine symbolizes both the heights of joy and the depths of wrath. It is the vintage season symbolic of peace and abundance.

The wild growing Vine rules inspiration, imagination, poetry and imagery. The essence of all contained within the Vine is retained, in strength, in her wine. It is sacred to Dionysus, Osiris, and Bacchus and its five pointed leaves are sacred to the White Goddess. Tonic healing is also related to the vine.

The Vine painting above was part of a series of silk paintings that I turned into a Celtic Tree Oracle deck that I currently use for Soul Readings.

My brother Gary Crabbe, a New Zealand vintner and wine maker - Grape Crushing Time

The Autumn Equinox is celebrated this month marking the point in the Wheel of the Year where the nights begin to grow longer once again. This is the harvest season, sacred to Demeter, goddess of the harvest.

This is an excellent Moon to gather knowledge and inspiration for a solution, direction or concept you are working on. Let us join in the harvest and share in the joy of the first wine of the season.

Temecula Wine Country - photo taken by my good friend, Stephen Eldred, Photographer

Ode To Wine
by Pablo Neruda

Day-colored wine,
night-colored wine,
wine with purple feet
or wine with topaz blood,
wine,
starry child
of earth,
wine, smooth
as a golden sword,
soft
as lascivious velvet,
wine, spiral-seashelled
and full of wonder,
amorous,
marine;
never has one goblet contained you,
one song, one man,
you are choral, gregarious,
at the least, you must be shared.
At times
you feed on mortal
memories;
your wave carries us
from tomb to tomb,
stonecutter of icy sepulchers,
and we weep
transitory tears;
your
glorious
spring dress
is different,
blood rises through the shoots,
wind incites the day,
nothing is left
of your immutable soul.
Wine
stirs the spring, happiness
bursts through the earth like a plant,
walls crumble,
and rocky cliffs,
chasms close,
as song is born.
A jug of wine, and thou beside me
in the wilderness,
sang the ancient poet.
Let the wine pitcher
add to the kiss of love its own.

My darling, suddenly
the line of your hip
becomes the brimming curve
of the wine goblet,
your breast is the grape cluster,
your nipples are the grapes,
the gleam of spirits lights your hair,
and your navel is a chaste seal
stamped on the vessel of your belly,
your love an inexhaustible
cascade of wine,
light that illuminates my senses,
the earthly splendor of life.

But you are more than love,
the fiery kiss,
the heat of fire,
more than the wine of life;
you are
the community of man,
translucency,
chorus of discipline,
abundance of flowers.
I like on the table,
when we're speaking,
the light of a bottle
of intelligent wine.
Drink it,
and remember in every
drop of gold,
in every topaz glass,
in every purple ladle,
that autumn labored
to fill the vessel with wine;
and in the ritual of his office,
let the simple man remember
to think of the soil and of his duty,
to propagate the canticle of the wine.

To read more Celtic Moon posts please click here.
To order a Soul Reading please go here - http://KathyCrabbe.com