August Totems: Horse

In our tradition we divide the year not only by eight solar and agricultural holidays, but also by the Kalends. We celebrate twelve months of the year by the common calendar, plus a special thirteenth month for Samhain.  These month cycles are associated with different totemic spirits. Each month is assigned an animal, a bird (or other flying creature), and a tree. August's totems are Horse, Apple, and Swan.

The totemic associations are as follows:

Horse (Each) – travel, power, freedom, civilization
Apple (Quert) – beauty, choices, love, inspiration
Swan (Eala) - shape-shifting, love, grace, beauty

Horse


The Horse is associated with the female Divine, the land, and travel both on the inner and outer planes. It is connected to the Sun and is a symbol of sexual desired. Furthermore, it is associated with power and freedom, divination, the spread of civilization, birth. Wind and sea foam often signify the power of the Horse.

The Horse’s skills for hauling, hunting and battle have made it an animal that has been a true partner to mankind in many respects. It has been connected to head hunting due to the fact that warriors would frequently hang the severed heads of defeated opponents about the necks of the horses. Horse gear and/or parts, like the teeth, as well as whole horses were often interred with their masters upon the human’s death. Horse bones found in the foundations of houses to bring good luck, like horse shoes today. These findings indicate a long history of the Horse in connection to the burial rites of the Celts and other cultures.

Epona, Rhiannon and Macha are all Celtic Horse-Goddesses. In some images a Mare holds a key to the Underworld or Otherworld. Rhiannon is seen riding out of the Otherworld on a white horse. A common activity at Samhain and Beltane is the riding hobbyhorses.  The Horse is often a phantom creature or provoker of nightmares, who get their name from her, as Mare is an Irish Goddess.

The Horse is associated with freedom because it allows us to move without restriction from place to place. However, this freedom often comes without proper restraints, which can lead to trouble for the rider. The connection to freedom is also echoed in the poets’ tendencies to liken horse-riding to flying.

Sovereignty is another aspect of the Horse. In Ireland the kings performed a symbolic marriage with the horse to secure their rule and connection to the land. The Horse was then slaughtered, its blood spilling upon the ground, and its meat eaten by those in attendance. This is a version of the Sacred Marriage.
   
You can learn more about our tradition's wheel of the year through this link.

August Totems: Apple

In our tradition we divide the year not only by eight solar and agricultural holidays, but also by the Kalends. We celebrate twelve months of the year by the common calendar, plus a special thirteenth month for Samhain.  These month cycles are associated with different totemic spirits. Each month is assigned an animal, a bird (or other flying creature), and a tree. August's totems are Horse, Apple, and Swan.

The totemic associations are as follows:

Horse (Each) – travel, power, freedom, civilization
Apple (Quert) – beauty, choices, love, inspiration
Swan (Eala) - shape-shifting, love, grace, beauty

Apple


The Apple is a deciduous tree. The wild crab-apple is Britain’s only indigenous type. It is related to the rose family, along with Hawthorn, and so it develops thorns from spurs on its branches. It has gnarled trunks, often growing at crazy angles to “hide” amongst other trees. It’s leaves are almost heart-shaped, and its blossoms are deep pink with a scent similar to honeysuckle, which attracts bees. Some types of Apple trees can hold fruit on the branches throughout the winter.

This tree represents the choice between similar and equally attractive things. It is one of the “Seven Chieftain Trees” of the Celts. It’s fruit and bark are used in tanning.

The Apple is associated with love spells, likely due to its associations with Aphrodite. The “Gardens of the Hesperides” contained an especially sacred apple tree that granted immortality. The Hesperides ,nine beautiful maidens, representatives of Aphrodite, guarded this tree, and a serpent was coiled at its roots. The Greeks sometimes saw the sun as a crimson apple sinking into the sea, being replaced by Hesperus (Venus) the ‘star’ sacred to Aphrodite. An apple cut open crosswise reveals the sign of the pentagram, a symbol also associated with Aphrodite, due partially to the fact that the planet Venus, the heavenly embodiment of the Goddess, cut a perfect pentagram in the sky over the course of four years. The Apple’s association with Aphrodite is further strengthened by the golden apple, engraved with the words “For the Fairest,” that was awarded to her by Paris and which resulted in the beginning of the Trojan War.

The Apple has long been sacred to the Celts, as well. One of its sacred islands, Avalon, is named the “Isle of Apples.” Old apple trees are more likely than other types of trees to host mistletoe, making them sacred to Druids. Merlin also had a sacred apple orchard. Apple cider was said to be the most sacred drink of the Druids.

August Totems: Swan

In our tradition we divide the year not only by eight solar and agricultural holidays, but also by the Kalends. We celebrate twelve months of the year by the common calendar, plus a special thirteenth month for Samhain.  These month cycles are associated with different totemic spirits. Each month is assigned an animal, a bird (or other flying creature), and a tree. August's totems are Horse, Apple, and Swan.

The totemic associations are as follows:

Horse (Each) – travel, power, freedom, civilization
Apple (Quert) – beauty, choices, love, inspiration
Swan (Eala) - shape-shifting, love, grace, beauty

Swan

The Swan is often depicted with a silver or gold chain around the neck in Celtic legends -- possibly a carry-over from the Aphrodite tradition of the golden sash. Aphrodite was a water-bird Goddess in early Proto-Indo European practice, and the Swan is heavily associated with her in Greek tradition. This is hardly a surprising connection, given that the Swan is very prominent in love stories in Celtic lands, including the tale of Oenghus and Yewberry (who is a Swan Maiden).

In Celtic lore, Swan is associated with Otherworldly travel and migration of the Soul. The "swan song" speaks of both grace and beauty (because Swan's final song is said to be strikingly beautiful) and also of death and transition. Swan is often the poetic representation of the Soul itself in Celtic lore.

This bird's skin and feathers were used to make the bard's ceremonial cloak, according to Philip and Stephanie carr-Gomm's Druid Animal Oracle. This is another sign of grace and beauty -- the grace and beauty of word and song, which the celts understood to be very important to both art and magic.

Swans are intimately linked with shape-shifting in celtic lore, as well. Several tales speak of children and maidens who are changed (or can change themselves) into swans for one reason or another. Because of these shape-shifting characteristics, Swan is also further linked to Elphame and the realm of Faerie.

Swan is sacred to Oenghus, Lyr, Cuchulain, Aphrodite and Apollo.

Swan's connections to Horse and Apple:

Swan, Horse and Apple are a very potent feminine, Faerie Totemic set in relation to the White Goddess (known/shown to us as Goda).

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".