For some of us, Friday the 13th is not a bad luck day at all, in fact, it's auspicious for the Goddess, and highly misunderstood. And as for honey moons, that also is something with a bit of little known history.
For one thing, "Friday" originally was dedicated to the Nordic Goddess Freya, otherwise known as "Freya's Day". Freya was one of the oldest of the Nordic Gods, one of the Vanir** known for her beauty, her compassion (amber is still called "Freya's tears" ), and importantly, she was the Goddess of love, sensuality, and, along with Odin, also associated with Seiðr, sorcery, which may very well pertain to pre-Christian shamanic practices and beliefs.
There are further connections between "Friday the 13" and the Goddess, the most notable being that the number 13 represents the number of lunations in a year, and in many traditions is sacred to the Goddess or the feminine aspect of deity, because there are thus 13 menstrual cycles in the year. In many early cultures the year was determined by the number 13, the number of moons. And last, of course, the Moon is almost universally associated with the Goddesses, including Selene, Isis, Artemis, and so on...............a lot of "feminine" energy, imagery, his-story, and symbology going on here, and depending on your theological point of view, either very superstitious, or very fortunate! It is worth noting that we can see what happened to the once Sacred Day of Friday the 13th in the course of patriarchy by noting that we now (in the West) have a single male God with no wife, no mother, no daughter. Who doesn't seem to like women very much at all.
Freya is the patron and protector of all Cats - and she is sometimes depicted as being driven in her chariot by her cats. This is a Goddess I can very much appreciate.Last, many people may not realize that in medieval Northern Europe it was often the custom to give a newly married couple a months supply of honey mead, which was considered a very special, rare, and rather magical brew, in the hopes that it might help to bring about fertility and love. Hence, the "Honeymoon". This also was associated with Freya's Blessings.
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| John Bauer "Freya" |
In Norse mythology, the Vanir (singular Vanr) are a group of gods associated with fertility, wisdom and the ability to see the future. The Vanir are one of two groups of gods (the other being the Æsir) and are the namesake of the location Vanaheimr (Old Norse "Home of the Vanir"). After the Æsir–Vanir War, the Vanir became a subgroup of the Æsir. Subsequently, members of the Vanir are sometimes also referred to as members of the Æsir.
