Nearly Cuivanya!

3340 Abolan 16

Tomorrow is Cuivanya! Second of three Mysteries of Life Festivals that mark the Mother half of the ritual year, this is a many-faceted festival. Above all, it is a festival most closely associated with the Dark Mother.

The Mysteries of Life festivals are really about the whole of life: life, death, and most importantly, rebirth. The Mother God website compares the three festivals:

"While the first feast of the Mysteries of life cycle, the golden Festival of Regeneration (Chelanya), celebrates renewed life, and the last, the Feast of the Dead (Tamala), celebrates death, the central autumnal equinox festival of Cuivanya celebrates life and death at once in the sacred mystery of the Harvest – the "death" that comes as the culmination and fulfillment of Life. The death to this world that is birth to a higher world."

Symbols of Cuivanya are the sickle, that essential tool in harvests, and the apple, which comes in abundance at this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere. Fruits and grains of this season are appropriate both for decoration and for offering.

Since this festival is one so associated with the Dark Mother, and it is a year ruled by Sai Rhavë, I've gone with a darker theme. We'll get into it more in the post tomorrow, but this holiday is also very much about remembering that nothing would exist without the Mother, sustaining all that is from moment to moment. It is a serious holiday, made all the more so by this year's ruling Janya; but, as with all these holidays, we can take them at our own pace. If a joyous harvest festival is what you need this year in all the uncertainty and difficulty of this year, then that is what you should have!