Since there is so much snow back East, I thought of course of the old legends of "Frau Holle", a Nordic Goddess of Yuletime who, it is said, is shaking her feather bed when it snows. So I felt like re-visiting an article I wrote about this Triple Goddess last year.
12-10-2012:
One of the Goddesses that reflects this time, and the idea of the flux of cycles, is the Nordic Goddess Frau Holle. Holle has very ancient origins indeed, and is a Weaver Goddess, a Spinner of fate. Mother
Holle is very much associated with Yule, and with the hearth and home,
especially in the winter. But she is known throughout northern Europe,
an ancient
goddess that predates the advent of Christianity. **
Also known as Holda or Hulda, she is a triple goddess, embodying
the passages of life. In some myths, she is "the ash girl", her face
half black with soot and half white. This comes from a story of how in
order to marry the God of Winter she had to come to him neither naked
nor clothed, and neither in light or darkness (the White Goddess and the Dark Goddess). As the Mother goddess,
she protected the forest and was often shown among trees. Holle (interesting to see the relationship in the name - "Holy", "wholly", "whole") in old age is Winter's Queen, and Mother Holda is the source of "Mother Goose"
legends, because the snow flies when the she shakes the feathers from
her down bed. In Holland, they still say that 'Dame Holle is shaking
her bed'.
"Frau Holle, as she is known in Germany, was called The Queen of the Witches.
The brothers Grimm tell a story of step-sisters who both go to visit
Frau Holle in the 'nether realms'. They begin their journey to her by
falling in a well............Holle's
name is linguistically related to the word Halja, which means
"covering", and is the ancient Teutonic name for Hel, the Norse land of
the dead. Holle is sometimes called the Queen of the Dead, and resides
in the 'nether' regions. She possibly lent her name to the country Holland, 'the land of Holle', which is also called the Netherlands because many parts of the country are below sea-level."
Sandra Kleinschmitt
Holle/Hel is thus both light and dark, young and old, illumination and shadow. Whole.
As Joseph Campbell pointed out, to
understand the evolution of myth is to understand many things, including
the evolution of language and religion. One of my images that I keep
creating lately is "dual" masks, masks that are half black and half
white, or half "underground" and half "above ground vegetation". I
think this reflects my sense of how very important holistic
consciousness is, personally and collectively, whether we speak of
shadow work, coming to terms with the ebbs and flows of self, or the
cycles of our Mother Earth, the ebbs and flows of the seasons and the
creation/death/rebirth cycle. To try to live within the Whole. Or at least, come to terms with it!
And who is Hel, the ashy side of Holle's face, from whose name we get "Hell"? Besides being the
origin of the word people use daily as a swear word, and millions of
Christians have a mighty fear of going to (without knowing anything
about where the concept originated from). People no longer remember that
once "go to Hell" meant to die.
"Hel (Hell)
has been used by the early church as a scare tactic to frighten
the masses into “righteous” acts. To get the real story, we have
to go back to the early Nordic people and look this death
Goddess in the face.
 |
| Hel" by Susan Seddon Boulet |
Hel
is cast into the netherworld and becomes the ruler of that underworld
to which souls who have not died in battle will depart. As thanks
for making Her ruler of the netherworld, Hel makes a gift to
Odin. She gives him two ravens, Huginn and Muninn (Thought and
Memory). Ravens are messengers between this realm and the next,
opening pathways to death’s realm.
Her realm is named for her, Hel or Helheim. Because She accepts
all to Helheim, she also becomes the judge to determine the fate
of each soul in the afterlife. The evil dead are banished to a realm of
icy cold (a fate that the Nordic people found much worse in
telling than a lake of fire). Unlike the Judeo-Christian concept,
Helheim also served as the shelter and gathering place of souls
to be reincarnated. Hel watches over those who died peacefully of
old age or illness. She cares for children and women who die in
childbirth. She guides those souls who do not choose the path of
war through the circle of death to rebirth."............
Rowen Saille of the Order of the White Moon,
Like
Persephone, who is both the Queen of Spring and the Queen of Hades, Hel
as the dark side of Holle governs the world beyond that of the living,
the underworld or invisible realm. In magic, she makes thin the veil
between worlds.
"Magic is the art of changing consciousness
at will."............ Starhawk
Seidhr [SAY-theer] or Nordic shamans called upon Hel's protection and wore "the helkappe",
a magic mask, to render them invisible and enable them to pass through
the gateway into the realm of death and spirit. The Helkappe, a mask,
was thus understood as a liminal tool that enabled transit between the
seeming dualities of life, and was infused with shamanic power. To take
this metaphor further, to wear a mask consciously, and as a
psychic/sacred tool, is to engage consciously with the continual flux of
personae - young/old, dark/light, good/bad. This is the realm of the
soul, beyond duality. Wearing that kind of mask, and taking it off at
will, enables one to enter both realms.
For anyone who may wonder where the "flying broomsticks" of
witches (or Harry Potter) comes from, Dame Holda is probably the source.
Because of her association with the hearth and home, the Broom was both
symbol and magical tool. Folk traditions of "sweeping away evil from
the hearth" are very ancient throughout Europe.
As a symbol of the Hearth, it is interesting to see this also
transformed into the "vehicle of witches". In later folktales, Frau
Holle becomes a fearsome hag, riding her broom and bringing the storms
of winter.
A wonderful commentary on Holle/Hel come from the Goddess Inspired Blog
and again I quote, as she writes so beautifully of the non-duality of this myth.
"Mother Holle started off Her existence as the Goddess of Death and
Regeneration. During the Neolithic in what Marija Gimbutas termed Old
Europe people believed in the cyclical nature of all existence. Every
ending was understood to be the beginning of a new chapter. Death,
rather than being the final end, was seen as a resting stage prior to
new life. Just as seeds rest deep undergound during the cold winter
months waiting to sprit up as a seedling in spring, so were the dead
seen as having returned to the Goddess’ dark womb to await renewal and
rebirth.
The Goddess of Death and Regeneration was associated with winter and
the colour white. Small stiff white Goddess figurines with small breasts
and exaggerated pubic triangles were placed alongside the dead in order
for Her to accompany the person on her or his journey of renewal. The
Goddess of Death and Regeneration was not feared or seen as being evil,
but instead was considered to be benevolent and generous.
 |
| Mandorla of the Spinning Goddess by Judith Anderson |
“She holds dominion over death, the cold darkness of winter,
caves, graves and tombs in the earth….but also receives the fertile
seed, the light of midwinter, the fertilized egg, which transforms the
tomb into a womb for the gestation of new life.”..... Marija Gimbutas
Old white-haired Mother Holle and Her underground realm are one
interpretation of this aspect of the Goddess. In the fairy tale Mother
Holle is described as being kind and generous and very just. She lives
at the bottom of a well. The well itself can be
interpreted as being the birth canal leading to Her dark underground
womb...........Mother Holle is described as having ugly big teeth, a big nose and a
flat foot. The latter shows her love for weaving or spinning, another
sacred act associated with the Goddess: She is the Life Weaver, the
Spinner of Destiny and Fate.
Mother Holle was known all across the Germanic world. She was called
Holle in Germany, Hel or Hella in Scandinavia and Holde on the British
Isles. She is the origin for the word hell and its German variant Hölle, as well as words such as holy and holding in English and Höhle (= cave) in German.
The Scandinavian Goddess Hel is probably the most widely known
version of Mother Holle as Goddess, although by the time the
Indo-European Norse wrote down their religious beliefs, Hel was no
longer the benevolent Regeneratrix of the Neolithic. She had become the
dreaded Queen of the Dead.
As was the case during the Neolithic, Hel’s realm Nifhelheim also
lies below the earth at the root of the World Tree. Incidentally the
bottom of the World Tree is also home to the three Norns, Weavers of
Destiny. While, as said above, originally the Goddess of Death and
Regeneration was also the Weaver of Fate and Fortune, later beliefs
separate Her more and more into Her various aspects.
Despite being feared by the Norse as the dreaded Hag of Death, Hel
has Her benevolent roots hidden in plane sight. Being linked to the
earth, She is one of the old Vanir Earth Goddesses, Vanir meaning “the
Giving One”.
In Central Europe Mother Holle also evolved over time. Instead of
becoming the Goddess of the Underworld, though, She became the Queen of
Elves and the Mistress of Witches. Her character was actually very
similar to that of Greek Hekate, the old Crone who roams the world with
Her fearsome dogs. Around 900CE Frau Holle had become an old weather hag who was said to
ride in on Her broom stick bringing with Her whirlwinds and snowfall.
Her life-giving generous nature was retained more in Germany than in
Scandinavia, as even during Christian times She was seen as bringing
life to the land causing growth, abundance and good fortune."
http://goddessinspired.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/mother-holle-the-germanic-goddess-of-death-and-renewal-weaver-of-fate-and-fortune
