MAY, 2008

 May 9 - 18:

Mars enters Leo. He is quite at home in this fire sign, provided he observes the rules of respect required by his host, Leo's ruler, the Sun. For Mars, anything is better than the dull scenario of domestic duty he has just had to endure for the last two months in Moon-ruled Cancer. Mars is in Leo until July 1.

5/11 (Sun):

Pentecost Sunday, commemorating perhaps one of the first recorded trance channeling events in history: the miracle by which the Holy Spirit inspired disciples of Jesus to "speak in tongues", communicating in languages not consciously known to them, to a multitude of listeners from many nations. Among Christians Pentecost replaced Whitsunday, which was sacred to the Norse goddess Frigg, who was wife to Odin and honored among ancient Germanic peoples as Queen of Heaven. It was customary on this day to celebrate the power of feminine love by decorating love nests and mazes.

The first Mothers' Day in the USA was created by Julia Ward Howe, whose career was a notable example of how the actual experience of suffering, including the ravages of war, may stir compassion from those people in whom it is, as Buckminster Fuller put it, arousable. In the middle of 1861, as naive armies marched in romantic color into the American civil war, Howe wrote the lyrics of the famous Union martial anthem The Battle Hymn of the Republic. A few years after the war, disgusted with the misery that self-righteous men can inflict on their peoples, she organized Mothers' Day as a global peace demonstration designed to unite mothers everywhere in affirming the maternal values that nurture and enrich civilization. While Mothers' Day has since atrophied into a commercial holiday, it has never lost its true activist identity, and has been a focus of women's peace efforts in recent times. In 1982, several women were arrested at the Lawrence Livermore Lab, one of the USA's top nuclear weapons research sites, for blocking the gates to the facility and daring to proclaim that life is far more precious than profit or power.

In the Mayan calendar systems, this day begins the Uinal of Rebirth, the eleventh of the 20-day uinals in the current cycle of the Tzolkin, or 260-day calendar (6 Imix, Tzolkin 201). The symbolic bird for this uinal is the Scarlet Macaw, the energy principle that of flowering.

In the ancient Khemitian calendar (see 5/5), Day of the Purification of all Things (Month of Payni, day 28).

In the ancient Khemitian calendar (see 5/5), this was observed as the day on which Shu, neter (not "god") of the air, persuaded his twin sister, the solar neter Tefnut, to return from the land south of Khemit to the country of the Nile. The legend relates that Tefnut was so incensed at the presumption of Ra, the male principle of the Sun, that Shu required help from the eloquence of Djehuti (Thoth) to induce Tefnut to return. This story is thus the Khemitian version of the universal solar regeneration myth in which the female principle of fire withdraws her light and warmth from the Earth until she is treated with the respect she deserves (Payni, day 30).

5/15 (Thu):

In the ancient Roman calendar, this is the Ides of May. This day is sacred to Maia, the Goddess for whom May is named, and also to Vesta, goddess of the hearth and all sacred fires. On this day, Vesta's devotees, the Vestal Virgins, offer prayers in the Goddess's temple to ask the blessing of an abundant supply of water for the coming summer months. The festival of Maia is always observed a week before the entry of the Sun into Gemini, ruled by Maia's son Mercury (Hermes).

Among the Yoruba and Santeria peoples of Africa, 5/15 is the feast of Ochossi, the Orisha of animals, one of the emanations of the one divinity Olodumare.

 5/15 - 21 (1 week):

Month of Epipi begins

In the ancient Khemitian calendar, the month of Epipi, sacred to the protective cobra neter Wadjet, begins with festivals of Het-Heru (Hathor) and Bastet. In contrast to the preceding month of Payni, Epipi is a markedly feminine-centered month which celebrates above all the female forces of latent vitality and continuity in nature; and the critical importance of Truth, embodied by Ma'at, in all universal order. Some of the May events in the dramatic month-long festival cycle that now begins:

5/16 Feminine neters honored in their temples throughout Khemit (Epipi, day 2). It is now 70 days until the annual Nile flood, usually on July 26.

5/19 Het-Heru (Hathor) returns to her home in Punt, south and east of Khemit (perhaps present-day Somalia). The Neters mourn her absence. (Epipi, day 5)

5/21 The Neters sail after Het-Heru (Epipi, day 7). The festival cycle culminates on June 16 with the transcendence of Het-Heru as the star Sothis (Sirius).

Also the Roman festival of Dea Dia, honoring the goddess in her role as cosmic mother. 

In the Greco-Roman calendar, this day is sacred to Apollo, god of the Sun, of divination, poetry, music and all intellectual activities. Curiously, the Greeks and Romans honor Apollo's opposite at this time too, as 5/18 is also the first day of a week-long feast of Faunus, or Pan, the primeval, riotous God of male sexuality and vitality. The emphasis during this festival is on forming healthy masculine relationships of brotherhood, parenthood and mentorship.

Copyright 2008 Dan Furst. All rights reserved.