{"id":4027,"date":"2010-08-01T01:10:38","date_gmt":"2010-08-01T06:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=4089"},"modified":"2010-07-30T14:49:26","modified_gmt":"2010-07-30T19:49:26","slug":"lets-spell-it-out-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2010\/08\/01\/lets-spell-it-out-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Spell it Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mid-Summer Spiritual Purification with Vesta<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDaughter of Saturn, venerable dame,<\/em><\/p>\n

Who dwell\u2019st amid great fire\u2019s eternal flame,<\/em><\/p>\n

In thee the gods have fix\u2019d their dwelling place,<\/em><\/p>\n

Strong stable basis of the mortal race.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Taylor\u2019s Orphic Hymns: Hymn to Vesta<\/p>\n

What\u2019s in a name?<\/span><\/p>\n

Vesta\u2019s name means \u201ctorch\u201d and was sometimes called the \u201cShining One\u201d or the \u201cThe One of Light\u201d and conversely some called her the \u201cLady of the Night\u201d.\u00a0 She was the \u201cKeeper of the Hearth\u201d, the \u201cKeeper of the Flame\u201d, the \u201cLady of the Loving Light\u201d, the \u201cGoddess of Fire and Purity\u201d and the \u201cGuardian of the Hearth and Home\u201d.\u00a0 Even though she was the \u201cThe Virgin Goddess of Rome\u201d (\u201cAlma Mater\u201d, meaning the \u201cVirgin Mother\u201d), she was the mother of the world, known as the \u201cMother of Growth and Wisdom\u201d.\u00a0 This \u201cQueen of Heaven\u201d was a \u201cLady of Peace and Loving Charm\u201d who was originally known to the Greeks as Hestia, \u201cThe Dwelling Place\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hestia<\/span><\/p>\n

Vesta was one of the many Greek gods \u201cadopted\u201d by the Romans; she was a minor Greek goddess of the home and hearth-fire.\u00a0 Sometimes called Histie, her worship began no later than 800 BCE and lasted through Christianization in 400 CE.\u00a0 Daughter to Kronos and Rhea, Hestia\u2019s name means both \u201ca dwelling\u201d as in a house, and \u201cfire\u201d; hence her worship at individual household shrines.<\/p>\n

Hestia\u2019s name came to mean a house or dwelling, but it started out as meaning \u201cfire\u201d.\u00a0 She was sometimes known as Ashta (\u201cthe woman\u201d), \u201cThe Goddess of Fire\u201d.\u00a0 Hestia took and oath to maintain her virginity and because fire is phallic, she was \u201cmarried\u201d to the sacred fire that she attended.\u00a0 So important was her job of tending the Sacred Flame that she missed an important Procession of the Gods.\u00a0 Another aspect of Ashta was \u201cthe Habitation of God\u201d and it\u2019s no wonder that later, as the virginal Roman mother-goddess Vesta, she was one of the goddesses that became the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God.<\/p>\n

But, back to Hestia\u2019s name.\u00a0 It is derived from \u201ches\u201d or hese\u201d which has two meanings; one is \u201cto shelter\u201d or \u201cto cover\u201d as in a house that shelters, and the other is \u201cto protect\u201d or \u201cto show mercy\u201d because Hestia is the \u201cProtectress of the Supplicants\u201d.\u00a0 Hestia was believed to dwell within the inner portion of every home and as such, she was the goddess of domestic life as well as the bestower of domestic happiness.\u00a0 It was even thought that is was her that invented house building.\u00a0 Like Hestia, maiden daughters of Greece tended to the household hearth and offerings of food and drink were made to her.\u00a0 This household devotion was not lost when the Romans \u201cadopted\u201d Hestia and renamed her as Vesta.<\/p>\n

Vesta<\/span><\/p>\n

Like Hestia, the Roman Vesta was the virgin goddess of the hearth-fire and the home.\u00a0 The new additions were making her the goddess of the community and public fires as well as the sacred ritual fire.\u00a0 Another thing that Hestia and Vesta had in common was that they were not originally shown in human form.\u00a0 Virgil stated that it was easier to \u201cfeel\u201d Vesta than it was to \u201cexplain\u201d her.\u00a0 Ovid said that both Vesta and the Sacred Fire required no statues because Vesta and her fire were one.\u00a0 Later, when she was depicted on Roman coins, she was shown as a veiled figure.\u00a0 Other pictures of her show Vesta as a beautiful woman with a votive bowl and a lit torch in her hand.\u00a0 In time, Vesta had many statues throughout Italy, but her worship was focused mainly at the round temple in Rome.\u00a0 This was where the Sacred Flame of the gods was preserved by the Vestal Virgins.<\/p>\n

Just like Hestia, Vesta was called the Shinning One and the One of Light which linked her not just to the fire, but to the sun and she was probably a Sun goddess.\u00a0 As both fire and Sun, she brought warmth to the Roman households, not only in temperature but also in emotion.\u00a0 Fire is a purifier, and as a fire goddess, Vesta was deity of purity and purification.<\/p>\n

Hestia and her fire were worshipped in the home, but Vesta and the Sacred Flame was both a household guardian and a symbol for Rome itself.\u00a0 As the deity of ceremonial and domestic fires, the flame in her temple burned continually and no home was complete without her fire.\u00a0 Daily offerings were made to Vesta at the household hearth which was her non-public sacred place.\u00a0 At her public Vestalia festivals, however, she was worshipped with extensive celebration.\u00a0 Sometimes Vesta was called by the name of the goddess Venus because their rites were so similar.<\/p>\n

Like Hestia, Vesta was worshiped as the mother.\u00a0 Hestia was wed to the flame, but Vesta also had a phallus-shaped statue in her temple.\u00a0 Vesta\u2019s fires were kindled by rubbing wood, a symbol of male sexuality, together.\u00a0 Through this \u201cconsummation\u201d, Vesta was goddess of regeneration as well as a symbol for the Roman state.\u00a0 Vesta and her Sacred Flame, the fire of the temple and the fire of the hearth, symbolized the renewal of the family and the Roman Empire.<\/p>\n

Fire Worship<\/span><\/p>\n

Vesta\u2019s flames, both in the home and in the temple, represented the intention of the people of Rome to regenerate just like their goddess; the continuum of the state.\u00a0 If the public fire in the temple were ever to go out, it was considered an ill omen because it was the safeguard of the Roman Empire; a possible end of civilization as they knew it.<\/p>\n

Because of this, there were two main objects of worship for the Romans; the Eternal Sacred Flame that was kept burning in Vesta\u2019s temple and the sacred Epidaurian Serpent, the Great Serpent of Fire.\u00a0 To the Pagans of Rome, fire-worship and serpent-worship were not necessarily separate, but they were both of great importance.<\/p>\n

Because Vesta\u2019s temple held this Sacred Flame, it was the most reverenced temple in all of Rome.\u00a0 Since so much depended on this flame remaining lit, the fire was heavily guarded.\u00a0 Like the Babylonian fire-worshippers, this flame was highly regarded by these Romans, until politics and a religious shift changed everything.<\/p>\n

Emperor Theodosius, who reigned from 378CE-392CE in eastern Pagan Rome, had essentially abolished his own office by banning Paganism and the worship of Vesta in 380CE.\u00a0 Once Gratian, the Roman Emperor of the west from 375CE-383CE, abolished Paganism by decree throughout Rome, the \u201cGreat Fiery Serpent of Fire\u201d was officially cast out of the temples.\u00a0 This also led to the extinguishment of Vesta\u2019s fires and as of 376CE the Vestal Virgins no longer received state support.\u00a0 The statue and the altar of Victory were removed from the Senate House but the Emperor Theodosius spared all statues that were in public view.\u00a0 So strong was Paganism in Rome, although it was officially abolished, 424 temples were spared to satisfy the Roman populace even though it offended the Christians.\u00a0 Vesta\u2019s worship began 400BCE (and earlier as Hestia, see above) and \u201cofficially\u201d ended 400CE but her flame never really burned out; she and her flame survived by traveling to other lands and \u201cbecoming\u201d other goddesses such as the Celtic Brigit.\u00a0 But before she had \u201cnuns\u201d in the north, she had Vestal Virgins in Rome.<\/p>\n

Vestal Virgins<\/span><\/p>\n

There were six priestesses that kept the perpetual flame burning and these women were known as the Vestal Virgins.\u00a0 It was said that this Sacred Flame was brought to the Vestals to care for from Troy by Aeneas, a Greco-Roman hero, and it was given to him by the shade of Hector.\u00a0 It then lived in the only round temple in all of Rome and cared for the priestesses of the Sun, the Vestal Virgins.<\/p>\n

Coming from good family backgrounds, they came to the service of Vesta when they were seven-ten years of age and held the office of the Guardian of the Sacred Flame for a minimum of 30 years.\u00a0 After leaving the family home, they called the convent their new home and they were cared for by the Mamaconas, the elderly matrons.\u00a0 If Rome was threatened by war, it was the Vestal Abbess who was the chosen person to negotiate peace.\u00a0 The Vestals wore white gowns with purple trim.\u00a0 They were highly honored, respected and trusted members of Roman society who enjoyed many privileges even though they were cut-off from the world that they once knew, including their family and friends.\u00a0 Besides maintaining the Sacred Flame, they also kept the wills of the Roman citizens and they were to ensure that the will was executed properly upon the maker\u2019s death.\u00a0 Also, if a Vestal wished to set a condemned criminal free, she could do so without anyone questioning her decision.\u00a0 There was something that they could not do, and that was to break their vow of chastity and if it was proven that she had violated her oath, she would be buried alive.<\/p>\n

The Vestal Virgins, as the priestesses of Vesta, offered no blood sacrifices but there was one day each year where blood did touch the altar of Vesta and this was during the horse festival.\u00a0 The October Horse, or Cut Horse (Equus curtis), was an annual horse sacrifice where the severed horsetail was taken to Vesta\u2019s temple so it could drip blood on the altar.\u00a0 Vesta had holidays of her own and they include:<\/p>\n