Autumn Equinox and the rites of Eleusis

[smokingboot]

I never know what to do with this celebration: Some call it the Mabon, birth of the sacred son, but this is a relatively new addition to the legend of the triple goddess and her consort, the horned god: It doesn't make that much sense either - Winter Solstice is the time of the sacred child, male and female. Less forced is the druidic interpretation, that this is the time of perfect balance between day and night, the light and dark, the dwindling days before winter takes over field and pasture at Halloween.

Maybe this is why I am no good with it. I seldom do rituals at this time. I like dramatic definites, and what is this equinox? Not quite Lammas, not quite Samhain... and my body doesn't like it either...I have been feeling under par all day, teaching me once again that I am out of sync with something important. Or that I am a nutter who only feels relaxed in extreme situations.

So I dig deeper into the past for another magic to stir me at this time. And as my harvest is inevitably one of words, I offer this at the altar of season's change, with all my love to those who want it.


Scholars seem to be sure that this was the time of the Eleusinian mysteries, a massive spiritual celebration of the ancient world, centred around the worship of the Goddess of the fertile earth, Demeter, and her daughter, Persephone (called also Kore) Goddess of flowers and Spring.

Persephone was kidnapped by Hades, God of the Underworld, and dragged off to his realm. Demeter was beside herself with grief, travelled the world over until, aided by Hecate and Helios (and I think others too) she finally discovered where her daughter had been taken. There was then an enormous fuss, with Zeus wishing he was anywhere else doing anything else; He didn't want to offend mighty Demeter - her absence had created years of famine on the earth - but offending his brother the God of the Dead was not a politically astute move either.

It was finally decided that Persephone could go home if she had eaten nothing in the underworld realm. She had in fact eaten six pomegranate seeds, and so it was judged that for six months of the year she would stay with her mother and for six months of the year, she would stay with her husband. So, a textbook explanation of the calender legend.

But what actually happened at the festival of Eleusis? We know that the order of events went something like this:

Before day 1: Procession from Athens to Eleusis, leaving gifts at the foot of some representation of the Goddess Demeter.
People would pour libations upon the earth, bathe, wear new clothes, hang out together, dance a bit.

Day 1 (ish): 'Torch day' would occur, On reaching Eleusis, processions would search the town looking for Persephone. Matrons would carry baskets bearing goddess symbols: wheat and barley, a comb, a mirror, a snake. There would then be much dancing.

Day 2: Clean up day, entailing a long bath in the sea, where initiates would wash away ignorance and become renewed and purified, just in time for more dancing.

Day 3: Hug a tree day. The people would build a great altar around a tree, and offer incense/libations/offerings to Demeter, cue more dancing.

Day 4: Carnival day. A representation of Demeter was carried around in a huge procession, during which much raucous behaviour occurred, followed by (what shall we do now?)more dancing.

Day 5: Incendiary day: in preparation for the true start of the mysteries, everybody carried torches. Final chance for dancing before the mysteries really got going.

Day 6: Two veiled women, garbed in mourning, would head a procession of the people across the bridge leading to the city. On the bridge, they would meet someone playing the part of the nurse/jester/goddess Baubo, who would act out the story as follows: Baubo could not let Demeter carry on looking so sad, so she lifted her dress and gave her a flash of her punami. Not surprisingly, this was the last thing the great goddess expected. Demeter just couldn't help herself, laughed like a drain, and the gloom her sorrow had brought the earth was lifted.

Then the initiates would drink kykeon, a hallucinogenic drink. Some say this contained Amanita Muscaria
(Fly Agaric: very poisonous unless sorted by an expert, so not recommended)some say it was fermented barley/wheat alcohol, possibly with added scraping of ergot-like fungi. Whatever it was, it was considered sacred and potent, leaving people too wanged out to even think about dancing.

After this, perhaps unsurprisingly, accounts of the actual rites grow somewhat hazy. There was a fire built in the sacred place. Here it would be that men and women would give themselves up to the significance of the great changes: Kore, the victim/maiden/princess becomes the queen of Hades and also regains her home above. Her mother Demeter goes through her time of mourning, her time of being the barren one who gives nothing in anger and grief, and then returns to earthy laughter and earthly abundance.

This was one of the great festivals of the feminine: The time would come that the father and the resurrection of the son would take over, but some part of me feels that the sex, whilst primary in reverence of all life and death, isn't all that this festival was about.Persephone and Demeter, Pomegranate and Barley, the powerless becomes the ruler, the barren is fertile again; the story here is of the heart and soul, of the mind as well surely.

And here, with respect and reverence at the time of the great balance, I stop.