-
The Modern Merlin’s Corner-February 2025: Embodying the Divine Masculine in a Toxic Masculine Society
Hello, and welcome to February! I hope everyone who celebrates had a wonderful, and inspiring, Imbolc. We’re currently seeing the effects of toxic masculinity in our society-especially if you live in USA. Our leadership, to be blunt, embodies everything that the masculine energy has to offer in its shadow: greed, hatred, bigotry, intolerance, and more. While there are many who support this cult of personality surrounding the “FOTUS”, I believe there are many more who are opposed to him, including within the United States. As a male leftist, pagan, witch, sorcerer and mystic, embodying the masculine comes with a sort of taboo these days; many see anything masculine as simply…
-
Good God!: Cronus
Cronus was the youngest of the 12 Titans – Greek deities who ruled the world before Zeus. The primordial deities Uranus (Father Sky) and Gaia (Mother Earth) were his parents. Uranus prevented all his children from leaving Gaia’s womb. The mother begged her children to do something. All but Cronus were too afraid to act. He escaped Gaia’s womb and used a stone sickle she gave him to castrate his father. He threw the testicles into the sea and it’s said Aphrodite arose from the white foam while blood dripping from Uranus created the Gigantes (giants), Erinyes (furies), and Meliae (nymphs). Cronus freed most of his siblings and took his…
-
The Modern Merlin’s Corner-December 2024: Saturnalia, Yule and Winter Celebrations
IO Saturnalia! I hope my readers are having a joyful and blessed Saturnalia and start of the holiday season. Before getting into the subject of this month’s column, I want to take a moment to address some changes coming in 2025 to this column. Rest assured, I will still be contributing this column to our publication, but I will be re-defining it in some ways, excluding certain subject areas, as they will be touched on by other columns I will be writing, and add in other subject areas into this one. This column will still remain fairly eclectic, but I will be expanding it to include more on the subjects…
-
Good God!: Cernunnos
Meet the Gods: Cernunnos Merry meet. Cernunnos is one of the Ancient Ones, as old as the earth. A nature and fertility god, he is said to have been born of the All Mother Anu, working his magic in the wildwood as the first humans on earth came to be. He was part of evolution, seen “as a shape-shifting, shamanic god of the Hunt” in prehistoric times, according to the article, “Cernunnos – Ancient Celtic God” by J. M. Reinbold. His image was painted on cave walls and carved into cliffs. People dressed in skins, bones and feathers danced to communicate with him. They still do a dance in his…
-
Good God!: Sucellus
One of the gods that fits well with Mabon is Sucellus (also known as Sucellos), the god of wine and crops – two main components of many Mabon celebration feasts. Although originally a Celtic god of agriculture, forests, fertility, and of alcoholic drinks of the Gauls, his cult flourished with the Gallo-Romans and in Britain. The Encyclopaedia Britannica refers to him as “a humble but powerful guardian … protecting and blessing marginalized communities” which included the working class. “He was seen as the guardian of crops, ensuring their growth and protection from harm.” Sucellus was depicted as a robust bearded man of middle age, carrying a large mallet and sometimes…
-
Good God! – Helios
Helios is the Greek god of the sun and solar activity. A second-generation Titan, he was the son of Hyperion and Theia; his two sisters were Eos (the Dawn) and Selene (the Moon). Helios lived in a golden palace at the end of the earth. Each morning Eos would create the dawn in the East, making way for her brother to drive his golden chariot across the sky, pulled by four fire-breathing (sometimes winged) horses – one of the most recognizable images in Greek art. When he reached the West, he hid in a golden goblet on earth that carried him back to the East while Selene would begin her…