detail from J  W  Waterhouse's 
Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus

The Rite in the Grove

In his monumental (it is the largest single work in the English language) The Golden Bough, Sir James Frazer compiled the myths, legends, superstitions and legends of Europe, and added such of those of the rest of the world that were understood in the reign of Queen Victoria. Frazer's many volumes contain all that is required to understand what went on in the grove sacred to the goddess, but Frazer avoids stating it explicitly. Robert Graves, the poet, remarked on this:
 

 Sir James Frazer was able to keep his beautiful rooms at Trinity College, Cambridge, until his death, by carefully and methodically sailing all round his dangerous subject, as if charting the coastline of a forbidden island without actually committing himself to a declaration that it existed.
For all that, Graves himself follows a similar course. His work, The White Goddess, charts Frazer's forbidden island in greater detail, adding it's latitude and longitude as it were, but then he hides the map at the back of the least visited part of the library, the poetry aisle. (Graves' book is subtitled A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth, and not The Ancient Secrets of Witchcraft Revealed). The history of religion is indeed a dangerous topic, for in pursuing it we trespass on the domain of all the major religions, and unveil the doings of many a secret society and coven. This demand for secrecy has always existed, and there is a poignant example of this in myth--the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.
 

  Orpheus  Gustave Moreau

In this tale, Orpheus, who was the son of the muse Calliope, loved Eurydice, a nymph. Calliope was one of the aspects of the goddess, so we may understand that Orpheus stood high in her favour. This is confirmed when we are told that Orpheus was fair of face and form; was highly musical, and in his love songs to Eurydice he is the very model of a temple poet. One night, Orpheus happens upon the sacred grove, where the baccantes (who on any other night were just the girls of the temple) are conducting their secret rite. Orpheus is discovered and seized, and even the esteem of the goddess cannot save him. The end of the story has Orpheus' severed head, still singing of his love for Eurydice, being washed ashore on Lesbos. This myth disguises the actual rite conducted annually in ancient times. We will reconstruct this rite in considerable detail in a future chapter.

Orpheus recurs many times in the history of goddess lore. He represents the kinds of men with an awareness of and a relationship with the goddess. He is both poet and musician, which talents are gifts of the goddess, and he makes a gift of his life and his death in return. The Orphic Mysteries, a play-acted initiation rite of an Athenian cult of Dionysus, were passed to later European societies, and so Orpheus became of interest to many composers, painters and writers touched by a goddess spirituality.

An example of this is Jean Cocteau's movie Orphee, in which a poet inspired by the goddess-as-Death enters the Underworld.

 

 

 
 
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The Horror







The central rite of the ancient goddess cults was the annual sacrifice of the man who represented the spirit of the old year. This man was a 'king for a year', and was treated as a god on earth for the period of his reign. Apart from being ritually lamed , he enjoyed every indulgence he wished. At the end of the year, he died at the hands of the priestesses, and became a god. Originally, the king sacrificed was an actual king, or the high priest called by Frazer the King of the Forest. Later, men of lower rank could be chosen, and many competed for the honour.
 
 
 

The lamed king on his way to becoming a god ...note that his posture and position of the lamed foot is that of Zeus, which was later echoed in portrayals if the Christian god, such as Michelangelo's in the Sistine Chapel.

The four-spoked wheels, which are impractical for normal use, identify this as a ritual carriage. The wheels symbolise of the four seasons,

 


 
 
 
 
 

The Night of Nights



 
 
 
 
 


 
 

ALPHITO BAITULE LUSIA NONACRIS
ANNA FEARINA
SALMAONA
STRABLOE HATHANEATIDAS URA DRUEI
TANAOUS KOLABREUSOMENA
KIRKOTOKOUS ATHROIZE TE MANI
GROGOPA GNATHOI RUSEIS IOTA
 

Barley Queen Goddess, Deliveress from guilt,
Lady of the Nine Heights, Queen of Spring, Mother of the Willow
Ura, reeve the Immortal One stretched out on your Oak
Taunt them in your wild dance
And gather the Children of Circe under the Moon
As the fearsome -faced Goddess of Destiny, 
you will make a snarling noise with your chops.
Dwindling to Nothing.






 


 
 
 

This Greek text concerns the annual sacrificial rite of the Goddess worshippers, in which the (willing) victim was tied to an inclined T-shaped cross of oak; was taunted by the naked Maenads, and was torn apart by them. Parts of his body were eaten, and the head was placed in the fields to ensure the next year's fertility. The victim was willing because he had been treated like a king; was under the influence of drugs, and believed that he was on his way to the heavens as a new god. In the celtic countries, a different rite may have been used, but at the same times of year.