click image above to see candle set

~ DEMETER ~

She was worshipped as
"the Goddess"
by Greek peasants
all the way through the Middle Ages,
even up to the 19th century
at Eleusis
where she was entitled
"Mistess of Earth and Sea".

Her cult was already well established at
Mycenae
in the 13th century B.C.
and continued throughout
Greece
well into the Christian era.

Her temple at
Eleusis,
was the hive for an elaborate mystery-religion.
Eleusis meant "advent".
It's principle rites
brought about the advent of
the Divine Child.

Thus......
we have the corn,
Born of Mother Earth,
Demeter,
laid to rest in a gathering basket
(manger?).

Her flesh
was eaten by her followers,
in the form of bread,
(cornbread?)

Her blood was drunk in the form of wine.
(whiskey?)

Like Jesus,
she entered the Earth and arose again.

Initiates
are supposed to partake of her immortality.

Revelations are imparted to the initiate
through secret
"things heard, things tasted, and things seen."

Early Christians
opposed the Eleusian rites
because of their overt sexuality,
even though their goal was
"regeneration and forgiveness of sins."

Asterius said,
"Is not Eleusis the scene of descent into darkness,
and of the solemn acts of intercourse
between the hierophant
and the prietess,
alone together?
Are not the torches extingquished,
and does not the large,
the numberless assembly of common people
believe
that their salvation
lies in that which is being done
by the two
in the darkness?"

Monks
destroyed the temple of these sexual mysteries
in 396 A.D.,
but the site remained holy to the votaries of the Goddess,
so that ceremonies are carried out there. . .
& elsewhere. . .
still!

Mmmm. . . . . .
Let me get this straight?
A monastic "brotherhood"
siezed the lands
and destoyed the temples therein
because
another group,
(whom already had possession of the land
as many as,
oh, let us say,
enough years to create temples
and feed themselves
from the bounty of agricultural persuits),
was one day
drinking,
and doing Goddess knows whatever,
because everyone was paired off
and the Monks were not even invited,
and
the temple-dwellers were responsible enough
to extinguish the torches
in case
what was being done in the dark
was leaving a flame unattended.
(zzzleeping?)

Inside said temples?

On said land?

Still in the dark?

Eat my Wheat-ezzz!