As it happens, I don't have all that much, and I only blog when something interesting happens.
(Oh, that quip about me being interesting - just a quip!)
I have, however, started writing again. Oh, no, nothing you'll find published, but stuff for my own enjoyment. and not poetry. Ugh. I could never get into the flow of writing poems.
Thanks to my ollamh, I've "discovered" a "new" goddess: Minona, the Dafomey goddess of divination (read 'fortune-telling'), sorcery/witchCraft and fertility, and also a protector of women. According to most sites, she had no temples as I presume other gods did, but women built shrines to her in their houses and made offereings of fresh fruit to honour her.
I wonder... does 'fertility' also translate to desire or even lust? Anyway.
The type of fortune-telling Minona was sent to Earth to teach people was the reading of palm kernels. Sadly, that skill has been lost. This is where the question arises of, can she thus be called upon for other forms of divination? I'd like to think so, but then the original skill she taught gets ignored. My Pagan friends, please give me your thoughts on this matter.
I know her Greek counterpart, Hecate, Mother of Witches, is a "general" goddess of divination.
As part of the course I'm doing with my ollamh, we have to do a book report (which, please note, I thought only existed in America). As such, I've been doing quite a bit of reading, sadly forcing myself to do it (I've never enjoyed reading anything remotely non-fiction except for history). I will admit, before one and all, though, that I'm truly enjoying what I'm reading so far, and even though the book is a bit dated form the time of its publishing, it still makes one think.
Why do we Pagans look more to the Paganisms of Europe and North America than to the Paganism to be found right outside our own doors? Am I wrong in saying we do? I mean, we live on the African continent, with such rich histories across Her surface. Yes, the African people are NOT too fond of telling us their religious histories, but from those few who do, can't we learn? I feel as though we lack a certain something in our Paganism that we sometimes overlook because of our European ancestry.
Anyway, just some thoughts. Let me know what you think ;)
Ok lets look at the divination issue first. To me personally divination is the art of divining ones "fortune" if you will. But it is also being a councelor, a friend, a doctor and and and. The tool that you use to divine with is just a tool. I could just as easily create my own system. So yes I do believe that Minona can be a general Goddess of Furtune Telling.
ReplyDeleteAs for embracing our African Heritage. I fully agree. I got into so much kak with the sensus because I insist on calling myself an African. To me that is afterall what I am. Was I not born and raised on Mother Africa? Secondly, I love reading African tales and I believe there is so much we can learn. I especially love learning about the Yeruba tribe. I try to read and see everything by Credo Mutwa, the Zulu Shaman, that I can find and since I was knee high to a grasshopper, I have been entranced by the life of Shaka, the Zulu Emperor. I would love bring the African element into our rituals and show the rest of the world that while what we have learned from them is great, it is their time now, to learn from Mother Africa!