An Interesting Trio of Roman Garden Goddesses

Post Reply New Topic

Last year I had went to visit my sister up in New England and we went to this place that had three old goddess statues displayed in the center of a large garden area. I thought they were lovely and managed to get some really nice pictures with my phone of each one.

I guess one could say I felt "drawn" to them even though i had no idea who they were at the time. But i printed them out and framed them for my spiritual altar, and after doing a little research on the photos i learned that these are Roman Goddess statues depicting Flora the Goddess of Spring & Flowers, Ceres (Greek equivalent Demeter) the Goddess of Grains & The Harvests, and Pomona the Goddess of Fruit & Orchards.

They make up an interesting trio of nature deities for sure, and they're apparently popular not just over in Europe and in the New England area i was in but even here in the Deep South of all places there is a secret society fraternity house of sorts known as The Grange (or The Patrons of Husbandry) that pays tribute to these matrons of agriculture, and it was started right after the American Civil War ended with the South's crushing defeat. It's supposed to be like a Free Masons type club of rural farmers but some Christian types think the place practices occult Pagan worship.


https://www.maplewoodgrange.org/grange-history.html

https://www.apocalypse-confidential.com ... husbandry/

Being a polytheist and occult dabbler myself, it doesnt really matter to me either way. But I find the very idea of a trio of goddess responsible for teaching humanity to grow, harvest, cultivate, and feed itself to be fascinating. And it would make total sense that they would have a place in the deep rural southern states where you get a lot of farmers, gardeners, and people living off the land like my great grandmother did.

Also apparently in Ancient Greece while Demeter was mostly regarded as an earth mother who fed humanity with the harvests, she also had a darker, more Cthonic aspect known as "Black Demeter" (Demeter Melaina). This lesser known aspect of the Queen of the Harvests focused on the great famine she brought to the world when her daughter Persephone was kidnapped by Hades. She literally brought starvation and death to the world from the soil itself until her daughter was returmed to her for half the year in which case the joy she felt would ressurect the crops to feed humanity.

She posessed the power over life, death, and ressurection itself. And she was linked to both the upper world and the Underworld through her connections to Hades after he married her daughter.

I read somewhere that there were ancient mystery cults dedicated to her worship that believed humanity could conquer death itself through her worship, not unlike the Christian worship centered around the ressurection of Jesus who they believed would grant their souls eternal life after death, if they accepted him as their messiah.


Anyways I guess what I'm getting at is that I'm seriously considering going down the Neopagan path of honoring Flora, Ceres/Demeter, and Pomona on my personal altar. I've also been taking an interest in growing many flowers around my hard, and ive even startes growing some fruits and tomatoes from discarded seeds i got from old Walmart produce my Mon was planning to throw away. Things like cherry tomatoes etc.

Here are the three statues i saw that inspired me to persue a spiritual path in gardening and nature.





Flora



Ceres



Pomona

Oh and I even thought of the most fitting RWS tarot cards to represent each goddess in my own personal rituals.

Ceres as "The Empress" card. The highest ranking of the three Goddesses being one of the original 12 Olympians. She sits next to a field of grains in a lush landscape wearing a maternal gown adorned with pomogranite fruit embroidry (the same fruit Hades tricked her daughter Persephone into eating so she could never truly leave the Underworld).



Flora as the "Queen of Wands", holding a large sunflower overlooking empty barren soil mounds before they are to be tilted to grow and harvest for Spring Planting.



Pomona as the "Queen of Pentacles", sitting on a throne surrounded by trees and vines producing fruit and flowers.



And all three Goddesses celebrating with goblets of wine in a toast to a successful year of gardening as they are surrounded by the fruits of their labors in the "Three of Cups".

Since all three are Matrons of the Earth, I'm seriously thinking of building my own personal shrine by clearing a small space in the woods behind my Mom's house. That way maybe I can honor and worship them in secrecy since my Mom doesnt approve of my spiritual beliefs. I will grow beautiful flowers and lush fruits to present as offerings to be judged.

I will keep my altar supplied hidden in a tin box around an old tree to protect from the elements and grow things from seeds harvested myself planted around my outdoor shrine.

Good luck with creating that shrine.

And I hope your mother appreciates your gardening, even if she doesn't agree with your spiritual beliefs?

My Mom is a therapist and unfortunetly I suffer from bipolar disorder aswell as autism. She treats anything I take an interest in as a symptom of psychosis. It sucks...

Yikes! I'm very sorry to hear that.

I've always thought that, for people who were into gardening, it was a wholesome, calming activity.

Yeah it's not so much the gardening she has issues with, but the esoteric occult stuff like neopaganism, tarot cards, witchcraft, etc. Anytime I mention that stuff she browbeats me into giving it up.

I mean i get that spiritual psychosis can be a real issue for people who suffer bipolar disorder, but sometimes I get the feeling she just wants to conform me to "acceptable" beliefs like Christianity or Atheism because I annoy or embaress her or something. She doesnt want me to have any ounce of originality anymore.

Apparently The Grangers don't really exist in the Deep South anymore, even though that is where it originated. It's more commonly found in the Northeast and Midwest these days.

I know they claim not to be involved in the occult and are only into harmless stuff like helping local farmere, but let's be honest here does any secret society ever really admit to occult activity? Some of them actually are involved lile the Golden Dawn, and given how weird that Bohemian Grove thing is with members consisting of powerful men from all over the world who meet to burn effigies in rituals involving a giant owl statue in the deep woods (while allegedly getting naked outdoors).

I just cant help but think The Grangers were onto something like maybe trying to contact the Pagan Goddesses of harvesting to restore all that damage done to the Deep South after a lot of plantations were destroyed and crops were burned to the ground.


I'll probably never join the Grangers but I can honor this trio of goddesses in my own symbolic way by teaching myself to plant and grow things.

I like those statues, and that combination of spirituality and gardening makes sense.
Also regarding your mum: even if you had every mental illness under the sun you should be allowed to have passions and religious beliefs without them being reduced to mere symptoms. You're an individual not a textbook. Normies get to enjoy whatever they want without scrutiny. I don't have bipolar but I know that feel!

I have a penchant for goddesses too. I have my own little shrine to the earth mother and similar feminine icons. Most of them are recreations of the paleolithic venuses but I also have more modern takes on the idea. I made one myself out of clay, based on a female bonobo in the style of paleo venuses. I made her because bonobos are matriarchal, my favourite animal and one I have very strong personal ties to. Plus, I am already drawn in by the divine feminine and I think the two interests are closely related.

I would like to add some greek and roman goddesses to the shelf some time.

I think my beliefs are more pantheist. I don't believe in a human shaped god(s) but I think gods and goddesses are humans' way of personifying the aliveness of the cosmos itself and the divinity inherent in its natural laws. The earth being everyone's collective mother is one such way of personifying it that appeals to me. The earth gives us life. The sun could be our "dad" and the sun's rays, his figurative "sperm". Although I think in most pagan religions, the sun is usually a female, and the male sun idea was something popularised by Wiccans.

I really needed to hear what you have explained to be about it being ok to have my own beliefs even though i am diagnosed with a mental illness. Thank you for that.

You are absolutely right I am an individual with my own thoughts and feelings not a textbook to be studied and anaylized. I wish my Mom would understand that about me...

Anyways it's interesting that you brought up the earth and sun as personified deities. The earth does indeed feel like our collective mother figure (and Ceres aka Demeter is just one of the many faces of the mother earth itself as the more 'domestic' side ruling the harvests).

The Sun & Moon are also identified as life-giving deities because without the sun we wouldnt have daylight, warmth, or the rays to nourish and grow life itself. The moon also plays an important role in nourishing life by controlling the tides of the sea and telling farmers the best time time to plant and harvest crops or guide hunters in search of food

The Sun & Moon's genders are always different depending on the cultures honoring them.

For example in Ancient Greece The Sun was always ruled by a male deity like the Titan Helios or the God Apollo, while the Moon was always ruled by a female deity like the Titaness Selena ot the Goddess Artemis.

But in Japanese Shinto the Sun is regarded as a feminine Goddess called Amaterasu while the Moon is her brother a God known as Tsukuyomi (and they have another brother Susanoo the God of the Sea & Storms).

I always found Amaterasu to be interesting because as the Sun itself she is regarded as Japan's most important deity and the Imperial Family claims a direct lineage to her which granted them the right to rule (sorta like the belief in the Divine Right of Kings I guess?)

But yeah the Earth itself provides and nourishes life, the Moon watches over the Earth itself protecting it, and they both swear to the Sun which provides warm rays to all life.

It's all poetic. Who's to say that the Earth, Sun, & Moon can't all be divine mothers?

That the Moon protects the Earth seems to be literally true, according to some scientific findings of the past decade.

See Is the Moon maintaining Earth's magnetism? The Moon may be a major factor in keeping Earth’s magnetic field, according to new research, BBC Sky At Night, March 31, 2018.

Why is that important? See also the following YouTube short: How the Moon Protects Life on Earth, on the Museum of Science channel. According to the description: "The Moon helps control Earth’s tides, but did you know it might also help fuel our magnetic field? According to a recent study, the Moon’s gravity may act upon the liquid iron in Earth’s core, creating a push and pull movement which generates the dynamo effect. The dynamo effect is responsible for our magnetic field, which shields Earth from harmful radiation. Without our magnetic field, the Earth would have no atmosphere, which means nothing could grow. Because of this, the Moon is likely essential to protecting life on Earth!"

Also besides the concept of 'Earthen Mother' Goddesses I've also always been personally fascinated by the Dark Feminine archetype in certain Goddesses like Lilith, Hecate, and Kali (and some of the male deities who arent given enough attention in regards to embodying that same darkness like Hades the God of the Underworld or Saturn the God of Time).

After I started working with Ceres/Demeter and her companions Flora & Pomona I soon learned through research online that Demeter herself was more than just a Goddess of the Harvest, she literally was a Dark Goddess and Cthonic deity herself. She even had these secretive cults dedicated to her scattered throughout Ancient Greece that honored her with the title of "Black Demeter" as she controlled life, death, and rebirth through the black fertile soils. Just like in the story when Hades kidnapped her daughter Persephone and while grieving she quit doing her Goddess Duties of keeping the harvests going which caused a global famine that nearly starved the world to death until her daughter was given back to her (for at least half the year, thus creating the seasons).

She basically used her own dark feminine power as a Goddess and mother in a deeply patriarchal world to hold the entire world hostage until her daughter was safely returned to her. She is much darker and more powerful than the average wiccan or neopagan gives her credit for because on the surface she seems to be nothing more than a Grain Mother.

After learning and realizing all this I gained a much deeper respect and understanding for Demeter/Ceres. Like any true parent worth their salt she wasnt afraid to play the badguy when it came to protecting her child whom she loved dearly.

Also besides the most famous myth regarding her daughter Persephone's kidnapping, there's a few others I found interesting tgat highlight her role as both a Goddess of Nature and a Dark Goddess.

In one myth she was persueded by the Sea God Poseidon but rejected his advances. She transformed into a horse and fled to escape him, but he transformed into a faster horse and chased her down and forced himself on her. She becomes pregnant with a Goddess named Despoina the Goddess of Winter. Demeter abandons the baby because she was born out of a brutal rape and washes away her traumatic memories in a purifying bath. Despoina grows to resent her mother and her half sister Persephone and enjoys destroying the beautiful flowers they grow together with freezing winter frost and winds.

In another myth there was a Greek King named Erysichthon who destroyed a grove of trees that were sacred to Demeter despite being warned not to do this. She punished him for this crime against her by cursing him with a spirit of insatiable hunter that dwelled in his stomach. No matter how much he ate he always felt starving. He wound up trading his own kingdom and even his daughter for food to satisfy his cravings and when he finally ran out of resources to obtain more food he devoured his own flesh and died.

And then there's an interesting story of how Demeter disguised herself as a mortal woman while searching for her daughter. A king and queen took pity on her and took her into their home for shelter and providing her with the job of looking after their infant son Demophoon as a nursemaid. Demeter was so moved by their kindness and hospitality that she wanted to repay them by conducting a secret ritual to turn their young son into an immortal God. At night she rubbed the baby in the substance Ambrosia which gave eternal life and divine beauty to all who consumed it (and only the Gods like her were permitted to eat it, for mortals it was off limits unless permitted by Zeus on rare occassions), , and she would place the baby over the hearth fire to "burn away his mortality". However while performing this ritual the boy's mother walked in and fearing for her child's life she screamed in horror, interrupting the secret ritual which caused Demeter to drop the baby in the fire as she vanished and the child perished in the flames.


I feel like Demeter/Ceres definetly had Dark Goddess aspects to her role as a Motherly Goddess that were better known to the Ancient World but are less known or understood by people today. Neopagan or otherwise. A lot of young peoole especially seem to have reinvented her as this annoying overprotective helicopter mom who was trying to shelter her daughter from marrying a dark and brooding handsome badboy of the Underworld.

The reality to that myth was much darker and less simple than that.

Indeed! The Moon aswell as the Sun & Earth seem to work together in harmony to support all life in this world. So it's really no wonder that humans have been assigning deities to each one since ancient times.