Dorset's chalk ridge refers to  dramatic chalk escarpments like the  Purbeck Hills  and the  Wessex Ridgeway , formed from ancient seabed limestone, offering panoramic views,  chalk grassland , woodlands, and historic sites like  hillforts . Key sections include the Purbeck Ridge (Flowers Barrow to Ballard Point), notable for its windswept paths and views of Poole Harbour and the coast, and the Wessex Ridgeway, an ancient route with landmarks like  Hambledon Hill  and  Cerne Abbas . These ridges are popular for walking, cycling, and horse riding, showcasing distinctive landscapes and rich geology. Today, the patron saint of Dorset is recognised as Saint Wite  (pronounced Wee-ta)  aka St Candida, her name referring to the white chalk. My theory is that she is an echo of a much older goddess.  Legend has it that she was a 9th-century  Saxon  holy woman from  Dorset  who was killed by marauding Danes.  Loc...

The Roman name for the May Queen was "Maia", her name was thought to be derived from maius, maior , "larger, greater" signifying growth. She was explicitly identified with Terra (Earth) and the Bona Dea. Her identity became theologically intertwined also with the goddesses Fauna, Magna Mater, Ops, Juno, and Carna, probably under the influence of the 1st-century BCE scholar Varro, who tended to resolve a great number of goddesses into one original Mother Earth. In the late Imperial era, the neoplatonist author Macrobius identifies the universal earth-goddess as Maia, Terra, Magna Mater, Ops, Bona Dea, Fauna and Fatua. The Romans celebrated the earth-goddess as Bona Dea on the 1st of May at her Aventine temple. When the Romans converted to Christianity, May became the month the Virgin Mary, and she is called "Queen of the May". Invocation to the May Queen  May Queen, almighty and divine,  Come, blessed maiden, and to these rites incline, ...

Venus of Willendorf, 28,000 to 25,000 BCE Many statuettes of female figures have been found across Europe, dating to 28,000–22,000 years ago. We can only guess as to their purpose. Many assume that these statuettes were objects of reverence, representations of the Great Mother. When a human child asks where they came from, the answer is often "from mummy's tummy" so perhaps it is only natural to view the entire world as coming from a Great Mother. When trees spring out of the ground, are they being born from Mother Earth? When new stars are formed in the heavens, are they being born from Mother Nature? Is the entire Universe one great womb? Many religions have a "mother of the gods" who is Great Mother to a whole pantheon of deities. Some believed that all the deities were emanations or fascets of one supreme godhead. In Hinduism, the Great Mother (Mahadevi) manifests herself in various forms, representing the universal creative force. She be...

This Friday is a pretty special date. We will start the day with an awesome Solar Eclipse, beginning at 08:22 and ending at 10:38 GMT. This rare phenomenon will see Europe have 90% of its rays blocked out temporarily, with that figure rising to 94% in Scotland and up to 100% in Svalbard Norway and the Faroe Islands. This will be the biggest eclipse that Britain has seen since 1999. The word eclipse actually comes from the Ancient Greek work ekleipsis, which meant being abandoned. It was believed by the Ancient Greeks that the Sun would abandon us temporarily if the gods were angered. In many different cultures, there are stories of how the Sun was eaten or stolen to explain away the eclipse. Among them is the Viking fable that the Sun goddess is chased by a wolf, and when the animal catches her, a Solar Eclipse happens. Korean folklore suggests that solar eclipses happen because mythical dogs are trying to steal the Sun. In China, the belief was that a dragon attempted to eat ...

   Everytime I go outside I see new flowers popping up where there weren't any before. It's so exciting! Every day it seems to get a little bit milder, and the evenings draw out for a little bit longer. I love coming home from work while the sun is still up! I go down to the beach to catch the last rays and marvel at the variety of sunsets each evening provides. The twilight hours are so magical, the birds give their last song of the day, and the foxes sneak from garden to garden. Each evening is a little bit brighter than the last. It won't be long until I'm lying on the warm golden sand, basking in the evening sun of summer. We are approaching Spring Equinox, one of my favourite times of year! It is especially fun because of all the cute decorations. I already found an Easter Tree to decorate. It's a tradition from Sweden, and is found in many Germanic-speaking countries. Another thing Germanic-speaking countries tend to have in common is the use of the word Ea...

This adorable card shows a bare-bottomed Cupid eclipsing the sun as he prepares to shoot an arrow at a couple who have come before a witness to make their vow of marriage. By a wonderful conjunction of mathematical coincidences, the number six is both the sum (1 + 2 + 3) and the product (1 × 2 × 3) of the first three numbers. It is therefore considered “perfect.” This card represents the "perfection" produced by the union of two halves. The perfection of the number six is told of in the Bible, as it takes God six days to perfect his creation before he takes one last day to rest. This story is of course derived from Chaldean and Sumerian mythology. Six was considered the number of completion, harmony, love, creativity, and the physical senses. Psychic perception is sometimes called the "sixth sense". Psychic simply means "of the mind" as "psyche" is Greek for "consciousness". There is a classic tale where Psyche personified falls in...

I was recently asked a question by a friend of mine, regarding portrayals of the divine. She asked whether or not it was helpful to portray the Great Goddess in human form. Using a small statue to represent someone so boundless, so vastly supreme, may seem fruitless. Is it possible to accurately depict Her? Is it helpful to try and depict Her in human form? Since my childhood, I like to imagine Her as a warm and loving mother, but I knew that she was much more than that. And image we come up with is merely a symbolic representation of our experience of the divine.  The Metamorphoses of Apuleius describes a vision of the Great Goddess. She emerges from the sea, to announce that she is known by many names... "the Phrygians call me the mother of the Gods: the Athenians, Minerva: the Cyprians, Venus: the Candians, Diana: the Sicilians Proserpina: the Eleusians, Ceres: some Juno, other Bellona, other Hecate: and principally the Aethiopians which dwell in the O...

We are currently in the lunar month of goddess Rheda, and the Spring Equinox is drawing near. The next lunar month is that of goddess Eostre, also known as Ostara. For this reason, many pagans celebrate the Spring Equinox as the festival of Ostara. Who is this mystery goddess? It was the 8th century historian Saint Bede who made written record of this Anglo-Saxon deity. He claimed that the Christian festival of Christ's resurrection became known as Easter because it falls on the first Sunday after Eostre's full moon. Her name is ultimately related to the word east , which comes from the Proto-Indo-European word for "shine" or "dawn". Therefore, we assume that Eostre is a goddess of the dawn, and the increasing sunlight which follows the Spring Equinox. There are several places in England which may have been named after the goddess, such as Eastry in Kent, Eastrea in Cambridgeshire, and Eastrington in Yorkshire. Jacob Grimm theorised that her Old Germa...

A new lunar month is upon us! This is what the Anglo-Saxons called Hrēþ-mōnaþ, the moon of the goddess Hretha, also known as Rheda. Although we have next to nothing to base our ideas on, just like the goddess Ostara, we can guess as to her role. Some have suggested that she could have been a warrior goddess, who fights away the darkness of winter, in order for the spring equinox to triumph. The Romans named this month after the warrior god Mars. March was considered the first month of the Roman calendar year, until perhaps as late as 153 BCE. England later adopted the 25th March as their New Year, until reverting back to 1st January in 1752. Another name for this month is Lentmonat , meaning the month of "spring" or "lengthening of days". This is where we get the term "Lent" from, as a spring period during which food is sparse. In England a common feature of this month is the blossoming of daffodils, which spend most of the year dormant beneath the E...