June Goddess Feasts
9-- Vesta. See March 1. June 9th is the ritual cleaning of her temple.
11-- Matuta. Roman dawn and matron deity. She is worshipped in a ceremony in which women hold their sister's children in their arms and beg Dawn's blessings for them.
21-- Aine. Irish. Originally one of the greatest Irish goddesses, she was a sun deity that took the form of "Lair Derg" -- red mare -- a horse that no one could outrun. Her special feast is Midsummer Night -- farmers carried torches of straw around Knockainy Hill, and waved them over the cattle and fields for protection and fruitfullness. Aine has survived as a fairy queen in south-west Ireland, and is said to haunt Knockainy Hill.
21-- Beiwe. Saami (Lappland). see also December. A sun goddess, third in order in supernatural precedence. She travels through the sky with her daughter in a reindeer enclosure, brings back the green of Arctic spring, and makes new plants grow, allowing the reindeer to grow and reproduce. White animals are sacrificed to her at each solstice. When Beiwe is invoked, special prayers are always said for the insane, it is thought that madness is caused by her long, dark winter absence. Her "sacred food" is butter -- it is offered to her, and eaten in her honor.
21-- Hu-Tu. Chinese -- Empress Earth. Patroness of fertility, and worshipped until this century. Sacrifices were offered to her on the solstice.
MayJuly
Return to the Goddess Gallery
Return to Iambe's Lair