Medb, Goddess of Mead and Sovereignty

Medb, queen of Connacht. From the Proto-Celtic *medu-, “mead” or *medua, “intoxicating.” Legendary stand-in for the goddess of mead and sovereignty.

Medb and her cognate, the Indian Madhavi, with derivatives such as madhu, “sweet, honey, mead,” are daughters of the ideal kings Eochaid Feidlech and Yayati, kings who are models of justice, and rulers of a Golden Age.

As Madhavi sacrifices her womb to save her father’s kingdom, in so doing producing four sons who correspond to the three social functions, Medb’s sister Clothru agrees to bear a son by three fathers in order that her family’s line will have heirs, a son who when born is divided into thirds by two red stripes. This son, Lugaid Riab nDerg, then becomes High King of Ireland.

Medb guarantees the permanence or the renewal of the triad of royal virtues defined according to the three functions and provides for the establishment of good kingdoms.

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Virtue In Heroic Society

“Every individual has a given role and status within a well-defined and highly determinate system of roles and statuses. The key structures are those of kinship and of the household. In such a society a man knows who he is by knowing his role in these structures, and in knowing this he knows also what he owes and what is owed to him by the occupant of every role and status. In Greek (dein) and in Anglo-Saxon (ahte) alike, there is originally no clear distinction between ‘ought’ and ‘owe’, in Icelandic the word ‘Skyldr’ ties together with ‘ought’ and ‘is kin to’. But it is not just that there is for each status a prescribed set of duties and privileges. There is also a clear understanding of what actions are required to perform these and what actions fall short of what is required. For what are required are actions. A man in heroic society is what he does.” - Alasdair MacIntyre

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https://telegra.ph/Quest-ce-que-le-Paganisme--Que-signifie-%C3%AAtre-Pa%C3%AFen-04-03

Qu’est-ce que le Paganisme ? Que signifie être Païen?

A translation of our first article in French.

-Matamoro, The Sun Riders
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Statue of the sea goddess Jūratė in the embrace of her lover, the mortal Kastytis, in Palanga, Lithuania.

The famous piece of Lithuanian folklore was first recorded by Liudvikas Adomas Jucevičius in 1842.

Jūratė and Kastytis
Lithuanian folktale

Jūratė was the goddess of the sea (Jūra =sea in Lithuanian), who lived under the waves of the Baltic Sea, in a beautiful castle made of amber. She was the queen of the sea, and so she ruled over all the maritime creatures and maintained the peace and balance between them. One day, a talented young fisherman named Kastytis was fishing near her castle, and he caught many fish. This made Jūratė angry, as she thought he was disturbing the calmness of the ocean by taking too many animals at a time. She decided to punish the fisherman in order to restore the peace of her kingdom, but when she faced Kastytis, they fell hopelessly in love with each other.

They lived happily together in Jūratė’s amber castle for some time, but their happiness was not to last. Perkūnas, the god of thunder, the most powerful and feared of the Baltic gods, was the father of the Sea Goddess, and he discovered the affair between Jūratė and Kastytis. He got furious with Jūratė, not only for daring to love a mere human, which was not allowed for the superior Gods, but also because she had been promised to marry the god of water, known as Patrimpas. Out of his rage, Perkūnas used his lightning bolts to kill Kastytis and he struck the undersea amber palace, reducing it to its ruins. As to Jūratė’s destiny, she was tied to the ruins of the castle to spend her life there to the eternity.

The legend says that even today, Jūratė still mourns in her underwater prison for the loss of Kastytis. It also says that this is why little pieces of amber keep arriving to the shores and beaches of the Baltic Sea: they are what remain of Jūratė’s undersea palace after the strike from the God of Thunder. Those with the shape of a small amber tear are said to be the most precious, as they are the tears of Jūratė that arrive from her imprisonment to the shore during the stormy days that shake the ocean.

Adapted and edited from: https://www.balticrun.com/the-legend-of-jurate-and-kastytis/amp/

-Hariwulfaz, The Sun Riders
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There will be no new post this evening. Instead, please raise a glass to Finnish ornithologist, environmentalist, deep ecologist, author and fisherman, Pentti Linkola, who has sadly died aged 87. Lepää rauhassa.

In these times of crisis surrounding the coronavirus, with hospitals all over the world overloaded, it's a good idea to remember that nature provides us with plenty of things that can help us stay healthy.

A great example would be evergreen tea. A single cup of pine tea contains five times the amount of vitamin C found in an orange, and vitamin C is known to boost the immune system (although the claim is disputed). All you need to get a cup of evergreen tea is something to boil water in, a knife and knowledge of local poisonous evergreen species (in Europe that will mainly be yew, but there may be others). Just go out and find a non poisonous tree and cut off some small branches. Boil some water, take it off the heat and put the branches in. In case of pine and cedar it can help to cut the needles into pieces, but for spruce and fir this gets very tedious and I usually don't do it. Remember not to keep boiling the water as this will destroy the vitamin C. Fir, pine, spruce and cedar all taste different, and it's worth giving all of them a try.

Another good one is willow bark. Willow bark contains a substance similar to the functional component of aspirin. Simply separate the inner and outer bark, and boil the inner bark for a while. The result will be a painkilling tea. Just don't go overboard with this one because you can overdose on it.

For a milder painkiller, pretty much any part of birch will do. Bark, leaves and twigs can all be used to make tea.

Staying on the topic of birch, birch sap which can be tapped during spring is loaded with nutrients and antioxidants, despite being very low in calories.

If you get a cut and don't have anything else around, the slime found in cattail sheathes is a natural antiseptic. You also get some edible parts from the plants as well, and they tend to be very abundant in the Northern hemisphere.

Finally garlic has been shown to help white blood cells fight off pathogens. Garlic can pretty easily be grown at home.

There are many more things like this which can help you stay healthy, even when there is no coronavirus around. It's worth learning about them and including them in your life. A great channel to begin learning about foraging is https://www.youtube.com/user/OutsideFun1
A large chunk of the information in this post came from there.

-Seagull, the Sun Riders
@solarcult

I will be performing ritual tomorrow. This yearly ritual is for the Dawn Goddess and must be performed at dawn.

The basic framework for ritual I've used for a while:


Mark out boundaries of ritual space.

Delineate the space spiritually and mentally. I’ve done it vocally before, as well have seen it done well by marking the space by consecrating outwards in each cardinal direction. Many different methods to this.

Light the flame, consecrate the altar and call upon the God(s) that are relevant to the ritual.

Praise/ ‘Toast & Boast’ (Speak highly of the God’s deeds in mythology, I recommend kennings). You can read appropriate devotional poetry, or sing an appropriate song.

Make your prayers, some groups I’ve performed ritual with do rounds of toasts to Gods/Ancestors/Family+Friends (specifics), this works well in a group.

Give offerings, something significant to you, if you’re a rich man and you just offer some cheap booze from the shop that’s really tasteless in my view. Try to offer things that you created, put effort into, they have more metaphysical value than something store-bought. However store-buying is understandable, and better than nothing, especially for traditional alcoholic libations.

Put out the flame & close the sacred space, first spiritually then if you’ve marked the space physically return it to how it was, do not litter.

—

I recommend offering flowers for this event if you have some, along with other offerings, whatever you can provide that is meaningful.

If you have further questions feel free to ask in our group chat.

Many thanks to all who support our channel, our goal is to support this faith, so I hope as many of you as possible take action this year and practice.

-Owen, The Sun Riders
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