Airts -- The Southern Gate

The Southern Gate – Airt of Earth

Values: Growth, Experience, Authority, Money, Physicality, Security, Nourishment
Colors:Brown, russet, black, green
Symbols: Square, stone, cornucopia, scythe, salt, cart, plate, Gnomes
Tools: The casting bowl, patens/pentacles, horns
Weapons: Shield (Targe)
Totems: Swan, Horse & Apple Tree
Musical Instruments: Drums
Times: Lammas/Lughnasadh, Noon, Summer, Coming of Age
Places: Fields, mountains, valleys, canyons, deserts, forests, gardens
Zodiac: Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo
Sense: Touch
Power: To Keep Silent
Process: Brushing Hair/Skin, Grounding, Eating, Burying, Binding



You can visualize the Gates (the portals to each of the four cardinal directions) in anyway you like; but I like visualizing a 2-legged dolmen or even the sort of wooden gate that is common on ranches. 

The Southern Gate is very much associated with the mortal realm, consciousness, and consensus reality. It is the gateway to the Greenworld, the magic of this plane that we inhabit. It is a noon-time, bright day, midst-of-summer's abundance place.

Because it is representative of consensus reality, some people might mistakenly assume that nothing is secret, hidden, or mysterious through the Southern Gate. This is an illusion, though, and one of the challenges in coming to truly know this place. For it is also the realm of the Good Neighbors -- the Little Folk, the Fey.

Goda is the Queen of Elphame, riding forth from her Barrow. She is the White Goddess upon her white Horse. She is the Lady of Sacrifice, linking her earthen power to the first Harvest -- the Red Day of Lammas. She is the Sovereignty Goddess with whom the King must conjoin in order to rule, and it is under Her auspices that the King's life is taken in order to feed the land and the people.

On our Year Wheel, the Southern Gate is open and most easily accessed at Lammas, and the three totems that sit here are all intimately linked with Sovereignty and Self-Mastery.

This is a time for reaping the first harvest, playing games, and settling into the work of approaching Autumn.

Meditation: Visiting the White Goddess at Lammas , Goda

Our tradition uses guided meditation to help impress certain symbols on our members' consciousness. Below is our Lammas meditation. It takes place at the Southern Gate of the compass, the place of earth and noontide .  It is the home of the White Goddess, whom we know as Goda. To use this meditation let yourself relax comfortably and picture yourself drifting downward and inward to the third realm, the lower realm. The third realm is a place of darkness and mystery.  Let yourself sink down into the third realm and rest there peacefully.

Meditation: Visiting the White Goddess, Goda

You open your eyes to see bright sun glinting through a leafy canopy above you. The sun is high in sky, and the day is hot and humid. You hear a buzzing of insects at the verge of the forest where the treeline gives way to the verdant farmland. Birds and small animals of all sorts fill the day with a hum of life that you can feel all the way to your bones.

You rise and look to the south, across the deep green corn field that stands just outside of the little woods. The corn is high, but you can see a hillock some distance away, and you know you want to go there. Gathering yourself together for the walk through the corn, you set your feet into the fertile soil. It is loamy and almost black in its richness.

The corn is taller than you, now that you are trying to find a path between the stalks. The smell of the soil and the chlorophyll fills your nostrils as the sun warms your scalp. You fill your lungs with the warm, earthy scent of life and lift your face to the sky. Two swans fly overhead, honking as they go.

You continue through the cornfield, following the straight tracks of the plentiful land until you hear a plodding clip-clop coming from your right. Curious, you adjust your course until you are walking in a small lane. An unbridled horse stops in the path and looks over its shoulder at you. You approach the horse, speaking in a low, soft voice. It allows you to pet its side and neck. Then, surprisingly, it bows low for you to mount it, which you easily do.

Seated upon the horse, you can see ahead on the path much more clearly than you had even from the forest’s edge. You certainly see much more than you did amidst the cornstalks. The path you were taking would lead through a grove of trees before climbing the hillock that you had set as your destination. A glimmer of sparkling water told you there was a stream or pond near the hill, as well.

Riding this horse will bring you to your destination faster, but it also gives you more opportunity to revel in your senses while you make the journey. You take some time to touch the horse’s short, bristled hair and feel its massive muscles moving under your legs. You smell its sweat mixed with the perfume of summer field and the approaching orchard. You see the vibrant and varied shades of green, laid with a foundation of deep brown and accented with colorful flowers and birds in the distance.

Soon, you are within the boundary of the Apple orchard. The trees are old, thick and twisted. The branches are full of both fragrant blossoms and ripe fruit. The horse bites an apple from one of the trees, and you pluck one, as well. You bite into it. The skin is firm and the flesh is juicy and sweet.

The land slopes upward and the path spirals around the hill. The horse bows again, and you dismount. You walk the path together. The orchard hugs the base of the hill on one side, but as you come around to the other side of the small Tor, you see that a stream caresses that edge. The two swans you saw in flight earlier are now gliding on the glittering ribbon of blue water.

When you have almost reached the top of the hill, you see a curious gate – two large rock pillars. You must pass through these twin standing stones in order to reach the zenith of the hill. You can’t see beyond this strange gate, because of the shape of the land. You cannot walk around this door.  You must either go through it or turn back.

The horse whinnies and stamps one hoof into the ground, urging you to choose. The stones are carved with strange markings and symbols. Some are unfamiliar to you, but others have deep meaning in your mind. (Pause.) You see a pentagram carved into one of the rocks along with the Apple tree rune, a horse, and a swan.

A woman is singing and laughing somewhere beyond the two stones, and you step up and through. Once you are over the hump of the hill, you clearly see the woman whose voice you heard. She is voluptuous and beautiful, her body curving and ripe and delicious. She dances naked in the sunshine, her hair loose around her shoulders. Round wooden platter filled with fruits and grains surround her – some set on the ground, others on large rocks. A few round wooden discs are sitting on their sides, with heraldic designs and family emblems painted on them in vibrant colors. You recognize some of these symbolic devices.

The woman stops singing and dancing, but laughter is in her voice and the air around her seems to shimmer as she greets you. “You’ve had a taste of Elphame. Would you stay for the sacrificial feast?” She holds a red-handled blade toward you.

“This place is Life Overflowing. Every living thing revels and quakes in the awesome rush that is this bounty. The beauty and love and life and joy that are here for all to claim with both hands are splendorous magics, and ones that are so easily overlooked and undervalued.” (Pause.) She holds one of the discs up as a shield. “Guard what is yours.” Taking another shield that is filled with food, she gestures for you to take what you want. “And be generous with the bounty of Love and Life and Beauty and Joy that are given to you.” She give you a round shield of your own, and a design appears on it. (Pause.)

“Life comes from Life. These bodies bring forth life while they live, and yet again when they perish and rot.” She smiles, lifting her arms. “There are deep Mysteries that lie hidden in their nakedness beneath the noon-time sun. Search them out.” She pulls you into an embrace and speaks a message just for you.  (Long pause.)

You thank her, and she releases you, turning back to her dance and song. Knowing that the time has come to leave, you turn and walk back to the stones.

You pass out of the standing stones and wind back down the Tor, led once more by the horse. You hear the swans leave their stream as you leave the orchard. You cross the cornfield and bid the horse farewell. Sitting down again in the warm forest floor, you close your eyes and breathe deeply, coming back to yourself.

Upon an Uneasy Seat Above Caer Ochren

In his 1st letter to Norman Gills, Robert Cochrane writes the following about the process of invoking the Goddess of the season:

"... invokes the Goddess through 'The dark of night and the evening star meeting together', which as you should know is brought about in the beginning by 'in an uneasy chair above Caer Ochren'."

Whatever interpretation of the above lines might be considered most accurate, we would like to offer *our* take on it.

Let's start with 'The dark of night and the evening star meeting together.' For reasons that are difficult to articulate clearly, we believe this is a reference to possession/channeling. I suppose the reasons are difficult to explain because they fall into the category of "Mystery." We can understand it, and even try to speak it, but will have some challenge in sharing its deepest meanings with you. We'll try, though, if it means helping others find the way to the Mysteries." Even Cochrane, later in the same letter, says that this process can't be taught in writing. Perhaps we should say that we aren't attempting to actually teach this process, but to shed some insight on this process and its significance to Craft practice.

I think perhaps it is easiest to say that the "dark of night" is a reference to the Self -- that internal place; the opening, yearning for something greater than what is known and seen. We all have it, this chasm that cries out for spiritual experience, for that which is beyond us.

The "evening star," then, is the Goddess who is being invoked. It could be any Goddess, though in our home-coven we only do invocations with the Black Goddess and the White Goddess (and Tubal Qayin, the Red God). We do these at their respective Sabbats, and we do this for the primary purpose of oracular communications from these Deities. We seek their advice and listen to the wisdom that they share throughout the year. We only use the method described above, though, -- the "uneasy seat above Caer Ochren" -- when we are doing oracle invocation with the Black and White Goddesses. (We use other methods with Qayin.)

The "uneasy seat" is perhaps a stellar reference, but we have interpreted it as something more practical. Caer Ochren, we believe, is a reference to the Spiral Castle. Certainly, Caer Ochren is one of the castles of Grail lore, and we believe it is Caer Sidhe itself. Some of this is just our gut instinct, but a little comes from an interesting linguistic find. "Ochren" means "sides." It could be easy to mistake "sidhe" (which means fairy) as "sides" -- or to intentionally muddy the waters by playing language tricks with these words.

So, now we have an uneasy seat above Caer Sidhe, the revolving castle, the Spiral Castle. For us, this is the center point of the compass -- and opens into all the sides. A seat above it, poetically, speaking could be the the starry point to which the central spire of the castle rises. The North Star, Tubelo's nail star, the iron hook.

It reminds us, too, of the oracle of Delphi sitting upon her tripod stand above the fissure within the temple's floor. The temple at Delphi held the omphalos, the world's navel, the center point. 

For us, we use a rocking chair as our tripod, as our "uneasy seat." When one of us sits in the rocking chair at Imbolc (the Black Goddess, Kolyo) or at Lammas (the White Goddess, Goda), we begin the process of ascending to the top of the Spiral Castle. It is the seat of wisdom, the seat of vision. By rocking back and forth as we work toward invocation (possession) we know that we are seething, which is a VERY effective way to alter consciousness.

So, while we can't exactly teach the art of possession, we know it to be one of the important arts or skills within Craft practice. Cochrane, then, is advising new practitioners to use seething as a tool to experience possession until other methods are easier at hand.  

 

Faces of the White Goddess

Names
Goda, Godiva (Old English: Godgifu, "god gift"), Rhiannon, Epona, Queen of Elphame, Lilith, Weisse Frauen, Dames Blanches, Witte Wieven, Lady Death, Eos, Aurora, Ushas, Ausera, Ausrina, Istara, Ishtar, Astarte, Araja, Arada, Aradia, Irodiada, Erodiade, Meroudys, Herodias, Herodiana, Diana, Eostre, Ostara, Austija, Habonida, Oona, Oonagh, Una, Uonaidh, Mab, Titania, Mielikki, Andred, Benzozia

Station of the Wheel
South, Lammas, August, Gate of Earth, Corn Moon

Totems
Horse, Apple, Swan

Tools
Shield, Pentacle, Kerfane, Warricking Cords

As mistress of the Wild Hunt, she is alternately known as frau Gode, frau Gaue, and frau Woden, demonstrating her connection to Odin. Agricultural customs of the region also preserve relics of pagan religion. When mowing rye, the villagers let some stalks stand, tie flowers among them, and when finished with their work gather around them and shout three times: “Fru Gaue, you keep some fodder, this year on the wagon.” In Prignitz, they call her fru Gode and leave a bunch of grain standing in each field which they call “Fru Gode’s portion.” In the district of Hameln, it was custom, if a reaper while binding sheaves passed over one, to jeer and call out: “Is that for fru Gauen?!” The name Gauen connects this legendary figure directly to Odin. In Old Norse, the fourth day of the week is known as Oðinsdagr, Odin’s day. In Swedish and Danish, it is Onsdag; in North Frisian, Winsdei; in Middle Dutch, Woensdach; in Anglo-Saxon, Wodenes dæg, but in Westphalia, they call it Godenstag, Gonstag, Gaunstag, Gunstag, and in documents from the Lower Rhine, Gudestag and Gudenstag. Similarly, in the History of the Lombards, the first literary appearance of Odin and his wife, Odin is known as Godan. Grimm observes that a dialect which says fauer instead of foer, foder will equally have Gaue for Gode, Guode. Thus, in Frau Gauen or Gauden, German farmers have preserved the memory of a Mrs. Odin at work beside her husband in the fields long after the coming of Christianity.

In the folklore of Lowland Scotland and Northern England, the Queen of Elphame, Elphen, Elfen or Elfan (and also Elfin Queen, Fairy Queen or Faery Queen) is the elfin ruler of Elphame (Elf-home; compare Norse Álfheimr), the usually subterranean Scottish fairyland. She appears in a number of traditional supernatural ballads, including Thomas the Rhymer and Tam Lin. She also appears in a number of accounts from witchcraft trials and confessions, including the confession of Isobel Gowdie.

The Queen of Elphame is variously depicted as attractive and demonic. A similar picture is painted by the 1591 witchcraft confession of Andro Mann of Aberdeen. Mann confessed that he saw "the Devil" his "master in the likeness and shape of a woman, whom thou callest the Queen of Elphen." Mann further confessed that the Queen of Elphen rode white horses, and that she and her companions had human shapes, "yet were as shadows", and that they were "playing and dancing whenever they pleased." Isobel Gowdie's confession also noted that the Queen of Elphame was "brawlie" clothed in white linen, and that she got more food from the Queen than she could eat.

But, in Tam Lin the Queen of Elphame is a more sinister figure. She captures mortal men, and entertains them in her subterranean home; but then uses them to pay a "teind to Hell". This ballad tells of the struggle of its heroine Janet, who must overcome the Queen's shape shifting magic to rescue a would-be victim from the Fairy Ride on Halloween. The Queen's shape-shifting magic extends to her own person. Mann's confession also noted that "she can be old or young as she pleases".

Lammas

Lammas is the first of the three harvest festivals, and is sometimes called "first fruits". It is a symbolic wake for the Sacred King (the Oak King) after his annual sacrifice.  Although it seems here in the Midwest that summer is at its peak, Lammas marks the end of summer and the start of autumn.  It is a time for merry mourning, a recognition that the heady days of summer are limited and that we should rejoice while we can.

Lammas is one of the Greater Sabbats, which occur when the sun is 15 degrees in a fixed sign of the zodiac, in this case, Leo.  This typically happens around August 6th, although tradition places the date at the kalends of the month instead.  Also, since the Celts reckoned their days beginning at sundown, Lammas is properly celebrated beginning on the eve of August first.  Like all of the Sabbats there is a span of roughly twelve days surrounding the holiday that make up a season of celebration.

Lammas takes its name from the Old English "hlaf," meaning "loaf" and "maesse," meaning feast. This was the day on which loaves of bread were baked from the first grain harvest and laid on the church altars as offerings.

In Irish Gaelic, this feast was referred to as Lugnasadh (Loo-nah-sah), a feast to commemorate the funeral games of the Irish sun-god Lugh. However, it is not Lugh's death that is being celebrated, but the funeral games which Lugh hosted to commemorate the death of his foster-mother, Taillte. That is why the Lugnasadh celebrations in Ireland are often called the Tailltean Games. The word element "nasadh" relates to the Gaelic, "to give in marriage," and so Lugnasadh can be interpreted as the "Marriage of Lug."  In relation to this, a common feature of the Tailltean Games were the Tailltean marriages, a rather informal marriage that lasted for only a year and a day or until next Lammas. After the trial year, the couple could decide to continue the arrangement if it pleased them, or to stand back to back and walk away from one another, thus bringing the Tailltean marriage to a formal close.

Lammas was also the traditional time of year for craft festivals. The medieval guilds would create elaborate displays of their wares, decorating their shops and themselves in bright colors and ribbons, marching in parades, and performing strange, ceremonial plays and dances for the entranced onlookers. the modern expression of this is in the many county and state fairs that take place during this time.

The Stag King falls in sacrifice.

There is a strong tradition of sacrifice associated with Lammas.  This is the day the Oak King falls at the hand of the Holly King in order to bless the land. The last recorded sacrifice of a king of England may have occurred at Lammas, in the year 1100. King William II (Rufus the Red, or William Rufus) rejected the relatively new Christian beliefs, and openly declared himself Pagan. His death in a "hunting accident" on August 2, 1100 c.e., is believed by many historians to have been a case of the traditional sacrifice being disguised for the sake of the Christian priests.  The novel "Lammas Night" by Katherine Kurtz (now out of print and hard to find) explores these themes of kingly sacrifice.  It also explores the old witch legend about English covens raising the Cone of Power at Lammas to stop the Nazi invasion during WWII.

Until recent years, in Scotland, the first cut of the Harvest was made on Lammas Day, and was a ritual in itself. The entire family must dress in their finest clothing and go into the fields. The head of the family would lay his hat on the ground and, facing the Sun, cut the first handful of corn with a sickle. He would then put the corn Sun-wise around his head three times while thanking the God of the Harvest for...

"corn and bread,
food and flocks,
wool and clothing,
health and strength,
and peace and plenty."

This custom was called the "Iolach Buana."

In the British Isles, the custom of giving the First Fruits to the Gods evolved into giving them to the landlord. Lammas is now the traditional time for tenant farmers to pay their rent. Thus, Lammas is seen as a day of judgment or reckoning. From this practice comes the phrase "at latter Lammas", meaning "never", or "not until Judgment Day."

A heraldic Catherine Wheel

An old Lammas custom is the construction of the Kern-baby or corn maiden. This figure, originally made from the first sheaf, would be saved until spring, then ploughed into the field to prepare for planting. The Maiden thus returns to the field at Spring.  Another popular Lammas tradition is the rolling of Saint Catherine's Wheels. These are wagon wheels set ablaze and sent rolling down a hill, likely in imitiation of the sun's decline after solstice.

In our own tradition Lammas is the time of year when the White Goddess, who is the Queen of the Fey and Lady of Sovereignty, is at her shining peak.  The Spiral Castle is open to the south gate, and the earth sends forth its bounty in abundance.  It is is a time of celebration, and for "gathering rosebuds while ye may", for it is the last hurrah before the wheel turns to the dark of the year.

There are mysteries here, for just as surely as this is the wedding celebration of the Solar Oak King to the Goddess of the Land, so too is this his death.  Our Lady is La Belle Dame Sans Merci, and to be king you must wed She who is Death in Life.

La Belle Dame Sans Merci on her pale horse.

A Lammas Song
by Robert Burns
traditional to many Book of Shadows

    It was on a Lammas night,
    When corn rigs are bonny,
    Beneath the moon's unclouded light,
    I held away to Annie:
    The time flew by, with tentless heed,
    Till 'tween the late and early;
    With small persuasion she agreed
    To see me through the barley.

CHORUS

    Corn rigs, and barley rigs,
    And corn rigs are bonnie:
    I'll not forget that happy night,
    Among the rigs with Annie.

    The sky was blue, the wind was still,
    The moon was shining clearly;
    I set her down, with right good will,
    Among the rigs of barley
    I knew her heart was all my own;
    I loved her most sincerely;
    I kissed her over and over again,
    Among the rigs of barley.

    I locked her in my fond embrace;
    Her heart was beating rarely:
    My blessings on that happy place,
    Among the rigs of barley.
    But by the moon and stars so bright,
    That shone that hour so clearly!
    She ay shall bless that happy night,
    Among the rigs of barley.

    I have been blithe with Comrades dear;
    I have been merry drinking;
    I have been joyful gathering gear;
    I have been happy thinking:
    But all the pleasures ever I saw,
    Though three times doubled fairly
    That happy night was worth them all.
    Among the rigs of barley.

You may listen to an interpretation of The Lammas Song from the 1973 version of the film The Wicker Man below.