Divine Couple (Union)
The divine couple promotes the health and well-being of the family, household, or locale and assures the continuity of life, even after death. The presence of the divine couple brings domestic harmony, prosperity, and success in business and commerce.
Invoking the Qualities of Harmony and Balance.
Divine couples are a common feature of Celtic iconography, even more so than among the Greeks and Romans. Popular local goddesses personifying the land partner with gods of fertility and prosperity to assure the continuance of life.
In areas occupied by Roman armies, native goddesses acquired Roman gods as partners, creatively sanctioning both a military and a spiritual reality. Portrayed as equal in size and balanced in authority, these divine partners provided assurance of the orderly continuance of life through the dangers and unpredictability of daily life amid conquest and occupation, and even beyond the portals of death.
Together as partners, or individually, Sucellus the Hammer God, and Nantosuelta, a territorial river goddess, were widely revered throughout Provence, Burgundy, Germany, and Luxembourg. They are a handsome couple of equal size and proportions, usually portrayed seated beside each other on thrones or standing regally, accompanied by their individual symbols of authority. He holds a hammer or mallet, and sometimes a pot; she carries a cornucopia or plate of fruits and grains, and occasionally a scepter festooned with a symbol of a house. Together they are associated with prosperity, health, and wellbeing, the success of the wine harvest, and through regeneration the protection of the living and the dead.
In occupied areas of Gaul, Germany, and Britain, Mercury and Apollo became popular among the Celts, Apollo even acquiring several Celtic surnames. Though Mercury retains his winged cap and Apollo his lyre, they are nonetheless paired with the native Celtic goddesses, Rosmerta and Sirona respectively. One of Rosmerta's characteristics includes holding a rudder perched on a globe, as though to guide it. Sirona is associated with curative thermal springs and healing. Though divine couples were usually portrayed as equals, a unique stone from the Rhineland in Germany suggests Rosmerta's authority over the Roman Mercury. The iconography shows the Roman god offering his money bag to Rosmerta, who sits before him on a throne.
Irish and Welsh legends are full of the intrigues of supernatural lovers, often the background or rationale for war. There is no way to directly compare these figures with the divine couples of Roman-Celtic iconography, except to point out a common lineage. Like the supernatural couples of an earlier time, the female heroines are active and forthright, and scarcely the pawns of male intrigue. Indeed, like evenly matched teams, their equal powers animate the action.
IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, you are seeking to bring confidence and strength into your life through the balancing of powers. No real success - in the external affairs of life or in the inner life - is achieved through domination or force. In time, those things achieved by force will always feel shallow and unsatisfying.
Having drawn this oracle, you are attracting to your life a situation asking you to balance strength with compassion and action with tenderness. You may wish to examine and explore aspects of your life that could be brought into greater balance. The feminine and masculine powers within you are seeking to become strong and resilient so that true balance may permeate all of your life. The harmony gained in the balancing of opposites will bring confidence and success to your personal and professional life and assurance in the continuity of life amid external changes.
No comments:
Post a Comment