White Rose of Avalon

Myth

  • Freya and Friday the 13th

    Hello my lovely readers, and welcome to another Femme Fatale Friday, here at White Rose of Avalon!    Today it is a special Friday the 13th edition, where I will look at the Norse goddess Freya, and how she was demonized by the Church.    Friday the 13th was the most sacred of her days,…

  • Pygmalion

    For today’s post I would like discuss the story of Pygmalion.    This tale began as a myth in ancient Greece, and later would be used to inspire George Bernard Shaw when he wrote a play of the same name.    That play, which was set in the nineteenth century, was adapted to become the…

  • Birds as Emblems of Goddesses

    For today’s post I have chosen to discuss the birds that are sacred to my four favorite goddesses!    These goddesses are Aphrodite (Venus), Freya, Rhiannon, and Blodeuwedd!   All of these goddesses have bird associations, that make birds sacred to them in some way. First I would like to look at Aphrodite.  The Greek…

  • Sacred Objects to the Goddess Aphrodite

    Today I would like to look at sacred objects to goddesses!   In particular I will be focusing on sacred objects to Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love and beauty.  Aphrodite had two origin stories, either she was the daughter of Zeus and Dione, or she was born of sea foam.    The sea foam birth,…

  • Adonis: Lover of Goddesses

    Today I would like to talk about the Greek myth of Adonis.     He was a very beautiful young man who gained the attention of Aphrodite.   Eventually he was killed, and this is actually the story of the invention of the red rose.    When Adonis was killed Aphrodite pricked her finger on…

  • Priestesses of Aphrodite

    For today’s post I would like to take a brief look at what it meant to be a priestess to love goddesses in the ancient world!   In ancient Greece and Rome, priestesses in honor of Aphrodite and Venus (respectively) were a bit unlike those honoring other Greco-Roman goddesses.   Priestesses of Aphrodite-Venus were vessels…

  • The White Goddess

    The book The White Goddess by Robert Graves is considered one of the most influential books in modern Goddess worship.   It was even influential to men who created modern forms of paganism.    The book got its day in the sun in the 1960s among the counterculture.    It is also a very controversial…

  • Ancestral Mythology

    The concept of ancestral mythology is a very intriguing one.   This is the mythology that our physical ancestors would have believed in.   We each have a deeper connection to the myths and folktales of our own ancestors than to those of other cultures.   This makes for an innate feeling of interest (for…

  • Orpheus and Eurydice

    The tragic tale of Orpheus and Eurydice is one of the great romantic myths of the Greco-Roman pantheon.   Orpheus was the best musician of the ancient world.  He was gifted his lyre by Apollo himself!   When Orpheus fell in love and married Eurydice their happiness was short lived. Eurydice would die not long…

  • Lamia

    Lamia was a queen in ancient Greece who had an affair with Zeus, and was cursed by Hera.    Hera turned her into a half serpent woman.   Part of the curse included that Lamia killed her own children, and was tormented by this knowledge evermore! Lamia is also a species of monster that is…