The temperature was down to 50 degrees as I went walking this morning. When I returned home I wrote this small poem to share with you BraveHearts.


Lady Autumn, the touch
of your cool kiss is
in the crisp wind today.
The slightest scent
of harvest lingers
in your tresses, and hints
how quickly red, gold
and orange become your colors
for final celebration of summer’s end.


©Dorothy "Chickee" Atalla, author
Conversations with the Goddess
Facebook Conversations
GoddessSpeaks on Twitter
Braveheart Women Blog

Have you ever felt challenged to the point that it seemed as if you were always climbing a mountain -- without the relief of ever going back down it? I've certainly had some of that in my lifetime!

Here's a quote that finds the good in such experiences:

"Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging." ~~Joseph Campbell

What have been your challenges that brought a gift to you, dear BraveHearts? I'd love to hear your stories.

Chickee Atalla, author
Conversations with the Goddess
Facebook Conversations
GoddessSpeaks on Twitter

I just ran across this writing by Danielle LaPorte, and had to share it with you BraveHearts. She writes in her own unique voice.

MY LIVED EXPERIENCE IS THAT WOMEN SIMPLY ADORE WOMEN:


: Women shake their cosmic pom poms. Go sister go! How many times has a girlfriend told you, that you got it going on, before your head out the door or the dressing room? That even though your new haircut makes you look like a mushroom...Really, you’re hot.... Go get ‘em.

: A woman makes a cup of her heart. She carries your concerns and fears with you, for you. When your eyes fill up with teary news, so do hers. It happens with women you’ve known for years, with women you just met at the grocery store, in the ladies room, in a prayer circle. She carries your story with her. She mixes honey with it and re-tells it to you and helps you notice how great you’re doing, in spite of everything, because of everything.

: Women bear their fangs for you. Like when Tammy threatened to put her cigarette out between buddy’s eyebrows if he didn’t leave us alone. He walked, we rocked.

: Women feed each other – literally and figuratively. Think of all the meetings or retreats you’ve been to. Who brings the cocoa and sparkling water? Who remembers that you’re lactose intolerant? Who asks you if you have everything you need?

: A woman will sacrifice without calling it a sacrifice. Leila was three months pregnant. I was moving cross-country (again.) Road trip anyone? We U-hauled our way from Seattle to Santa Fe with Leila coughing her cookies at every truck stop. I made it to my desert home and she flew back to the coast. And named her little girl Phoebe Danielle.

: Women hold on. It’s like Audrey Hepburn said, “Never throw anyone out.” It’s like my soul sister Donna says, “We’re all on the same bus so just go with it.” Meep meep.

: Women bypass history. A good sister listens to you bitch about the same jerk for years, she helps you pack when you’re smart enough to leave, and she stands by you when you repeat the same lesson with the next emotionally lame lover. She loves you enough to let you do it your way – again, and again, like it was the first time. No drama is too big for big women.

: A woman howls to help you remember what matters the most. She loves you enough to intervene. She will drag you out of your comfort zone and into the moonlight to say “What. are you doing? You may have temporarily forgotten who you are, but I haven’t and I’m hear to remind you.” Like when Karen told me over green tea, “D, maybe it’s all about the divine feminine for you, maybe that’s the question to live. It’s time to move on from playing small.” Arooooo!

: Women touch you. Michelle and I went to visit a friend in the hospital recovering from surgery. Miche brought lavender lotion and massaged Friend’s feet while she lay achy and groggy. I’ll never forget that stunning moment of loving service.

: Women push. Push babies out, push babies into the world. Baby ideas. Baby thought forms. Baby parts of you. “But Danielle, it’s just a thought-form that you ‘can’t take more,’” Navjit told me. “Don’t constrict. Expand.” Boundaries, pushed.

: Women know how to navigate the layers because they love the layers. Folds of skin, the sediments of time, the stories that build into the present. Like how Candis not only remembers what I love but knows why I love it. She is reverent, keen, actively interested in the why of me – and that is what it means to be witnessed by a woman. Word.



Dorothy "Chickee" Atalla, author
Conversations with the Goddess
Facebook Conversations
GoddessSpeaks on Twitter

Today's treasure for thought:

"It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. When you stumble, there lies your treasure." ~ Joseph Campbell

What and where do you think your treasure is, dear BraveHearts?


Chickee Atalla

Born from mother Ocean, she surges upward to encounter dawn of earth's first day. Who is this being? She is the Primordial Feminine. Ever-renewing like the sea, she rises, she RISES, and co-creates with Life itself.



by Chickee Atalla, author of the newly released Conversations with the Goddess: Encounter at Petra, Place of Power, at www.conversationswi ththegoddess.net.

Woman is spirit in the wind, she is the playfulness in the leaves as they dance across the ground. She will hear the joy and laughter of the birds in the sky above the chattering shadows in her mind that say “you can’t.” With sister wind in her face woman will only hear “Yes I can” because “I am!”

~~ Casey Leasure


Dear BraveHearts,

Enjoy this photo and prose poem by Casey Leasure, from his series, The Color of a Woman's Heart.

"Women may be the one group that grows more radical with age." ~ Gloria Steinem

How many of you are a Radical Older Woman, dear BraveHearts?


Chickee Atalla, author of the recently published Conversations with the Goddess: Encounter at Petra, Place of Power

www.conversationswi ththegoddess.net

I want to share this news with those of you BraveHearts who've expressed interest in my writing. Yesterday 2800 copies of my book, Conversations with the Goddess: Encounter at Petra, Place of Power were delivered from the printer to my house. Was that exciting? You bet!

You see, since October 2009 I've been working hand-in-hand with my publicist every day to launch my book during the summer solstice. That's how long it takes to create a book design from start to finished product and to promote a book!

I hope you will go to my website and read more about the nature and content of my book. And please, tell me what you think. Looking forward to your comments about my son's web design too, dear BraveHeart friends. I think it's gorgeous.

I invite you BraveHearts who live in Colorado to come to see“SHE: Images of the Divine Feminine,” a talk and slide show which I will present at For Heaven’s Sake Bookstore in Denver, on June 25th at 5 pm. The address is 4383 Tennyson Street, #1. Google the bookstore website for directions to the store. Bookstore telephone #: (303)964-0339.

I would love to meet you there!

Chickee Atalla, author of the soon to be released Conversations with the Goddess: Encounter at Petra, Place of Power http://www.conversationswiththegoddess.net

Hestia, goddess of fire and hearth, was revered in homes throughout ancient Greece. In return for her gift of fire, daily sacrifices and libations were made to her.

Some psychologists think that the absence of Hestian rituals in our daily lives is an unhealthy symptom in modern life. Among them is Dr. Laurence Lyons, who wrote about this in a dissertation titled Changing for Dinner: The Psychological Need for Ritual in Daily Life:

"It is broadly accepted that the dining table is one of the great civilizing places of life, yet most of us do not realize what terrible psychic cost we are paying by replacing rituals connected to food with 'fast food'…. In some ancient stratum of the psyche, Hestia surely weeps and her flame grows smaller.

"…it is difficult to locate Hestia in modern life. In many ways her fire has been allowed to die out, and with problematic consequences. I equate Hestia with the kitchen in the modern home. Although acknowledging that the pace and stress of today’s world have strained our efforts to “make a home,” I insist nevertheless that the buying, preparation, and cooking of food, and communal eating at the table are the modern equivalents of the ancient hearth. This gathering can occur, though less effectively, in other less demanding ways: in a family room, outdoors at a barbeque or picnic, or even in a restaurant. The key to the rituals associated with Hestia lies in the gathering together in a relational family way….

"…The cold hearth of Hestia’s shadow has an ever-widening grasp on today’s society. One of the most dangerous growing trends in the culture of the early twenty-first century is obesity. I would argue that the rise in childhood obesity comes, at least partly, from the decline in rituals of the kitchen and the table. When one is deprived of the civilizing effects of the table – and this includes food preparation – and thoughtful eating habits, the result is overeating. The combination of the overwhelming cultural emphasis on speed in all activities with lack of the warmth of the hearth and the congenial atmosphere of eating together while seated contributes to this national problem. The lack of hearth fire in fast food encourages overeating as compensation. Both adults and children routinely eat on the run, as it were, and therefore need to eat more to make up for what is missed by not ritualizing the process of nutrition. As a result, the current generation is the first to have a shorter life expectancy than its parents. The difficulty lies in knowing how to combine the external world of work and responsibility with the inner work of hearth-tending and family relational union. Again, ritual enactment is the way…. It is the act of coming together, without haste, to enjoy each other’s company and the fruits of one’s labors, that causes the ritual moment to occur. The more often this can happen in the life of the family, the better for the psychic well-being of that family. This simple act will insure that the fires of Hestia’s hearth will be kept brightly burning."

Do you feel passionately with Dr. Laurence Lyons that Hestia is hard to locate in modern life, dear BraveHearts? Or not? Please join in the conversation!

From Myth*ing Links:
http://www.mythinglinks.org/euro~west~greece~Hestia.html -- used with permission of the authors, Kathleen Jenks, PhD and Laurence Lyons, PhD

By Chickee Atalla, author of the soon to be released Conversations with the Goddess: Encounter at Petra, Place of Power http://www.conversationswiththegoddess.net In: Goddess Notes

Hestia, ancient Greek goddess of fire and hearth, was revered throughout ancient Greece. She was both a cosmic fire goddess and a presence in every home. In our time this ancient goddess is being recognized as a potent archetype by some writers. According to them, Hestia is alive, though she’s been underground for a long time.

Today I’m summarizing the story of a modern woman who -- much to her surprise -- met up with Hestia. Kathleen Jenks, PhD, describes herself as a single woman who doesn’t like to cook, has no children, and dislikes being confined in a house. She was unexpectedly appointed Acting Chair of the Mythological Studies Department at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Of this disconcerting experience she writes:

"I was thrown into the forefront and had to 'hold the center,' as we say, or tend the 'hearth' of this new program, which had begun only a few months earlier. Many students were upset and, in addition to teaching, I spent countless office hours with them, listening, soothing, reassuring. I did not want them to withdraw from the program, for then everything would fall apart before it had even had a chance to begin."

Besides these duties Jenks had additional time-consuming tasks as well, so she had to work until 11 pm most nights:

"I worked in a handsome, just completed building called South Hall – it held a spacious lecture hall with a massive, impressive stone fireplace dominating the wall at one end…. Alone in that building late one night, I realized that in accepting my new position, I had moved into a very unfamiliar archetypal energy – it felt veiled, elusive, and yet I resonated with it. It seemed to buoy me up despite my exhaustion and I was learning to trust its mysterious presence. ‘But who are You,’ I asked that night. I looked across the moonlit lecture hall to the dark fireplace and suddenly understood: it was Hestia’s energy. It was she who was enabling me to hold the center during those troubled months.

"That was a shock. I thought of her as matronly, solemn, somber. I thought of myself as writer, scholar, gypsy, storyteller, oracle-woman. We had nothing in common.

"And yet we did. Somehow…I seemed to understand how to hold the energies of fire in a tranquil manner. Until that moment, I had not recognized that as a Hestian role."

What is striking to me in reading this passage is that Jenks describes her experience of the Hestia archetype as a felt energy.

She then writes about her email correspondence with one of her advisees, psychologist Laurence Lyons, who was “into” Hestia. In his doctoral work Lyons was looking at the positive as well as the negative “shadow” side of various Greek goddesses, including Hestia. Jenks emailed back and forth with him about Hestia’s archetypal qualities. She told Lyons about how she had previously recognized them at work in her own life when she had been Acting Chair:

"I realized to my amazement that I, who have no hearth, dislike cooking, live alone, and thus have no visible connection with the goddess, was nevertheless ‘living’ her. Through her, I was nurturing, not my students’ spirits or souls, but the Fire of the larger realm of what myth is all about, making sure it burned brightly and that all was well in the physical/intellectu al/emotional/psychic space in which it burned. I wasn’t tending humans. I was tending Fire, which in turn tended the humans. I was functioning for those 7 months as The Hestia, as another might function as The Pythia, or The Demeter, or The Aphrodite. It was sobering and deeply moving."

Have you ever had a time in your life when, like Hestia, you had to “hold the center,” dear BraveHearts?

Let’s continue eavesdropping as Kathleen Jenks shares with her advisee, Laurence Lyons, her thoughts about Hestia:

"The two clearest, most visible, and frequent signs of the divine in the ancient world would have been fire and lightning. Hestia was the firstborn, the lady of fire. In pre-patriarchal times, she may well have been heaven’s queen, reigning over everything….The Greeks] never forgot or ignored her power. They never lost sight of her…. Thus, anchoring her vast energies to the central hearth of home and city was not actually a demotion. It was a strategic necessity for the sake of civilization. And the wily but wise Greeks backed it up with action, not just talk: at each daily meal, there was a continual honoring of the reality of Hestia’s warmth and life force flowing through the family; at the hearth in each town’s central hall, there was the same awareness – it was Hestia who held the center and nurtured the deeper dynamics of the societal fabric; even when a well-established city chose to start a new colony elsewhere, fire from the founding city’s central hearth would be carefully carried to the new site, preserving the sacred connection."

Such daily rituals surrounding Hestia gave “a sense of continuity,” Jenks comments. “These are peace-making activities. This is civilization at its best.” She points out a very important contrast:

"Since we rarely anchor anything in simple, earthy, daily rituals, we do seem to have catalyzed the potent shadow-side of Hestia. Our continued indulgence in imbalances leading to global warming also reveals her, for surely, as Lady of Fire, global warming lies within her purview. Perhaps all these imbalances reveal the shadow-side of an archetype, an essence, a patterning-force, that has been severely devalued for too long. Denied her ancient place of honor at the hearth of our world, Hestia is now unraveling our lives [italics mine]."

Jenks concludes her article with these astute words:

"…the Greeks never “tamed” Hestia – instead they freed her to focus on what she did best. Unlike the other gods, she required neither eros nor war. She, the cosmic hearth of the universe, was content to dwell by the small round hearth of each family, for she would not have made any distinction between them. It was all fire, nurturing a peaceful connectivity. For this, she was honored daily – sincerely and genuinely. She needed nothing more.

"No one is suggesting a return to worshipping Hestia. One need not even know her name. But she stands for a ritual that honors 'our daily bread' -- and as part of this ritual, she asks for a relaxed time in which our precious bodies can nourished within the circle of our families, or our friends, or those 'invisibles' we hold dear, or, simply, with ourselves. Through restoring such earthy rituals, our inner hearth will surely glow anew, healing body and mind, empowering us in unexpected ways."

How do you respond to Kathleen Jenks’ remarks about the devaluation of Hestia, dear BraveHearts? Stay tuned for next Monday’s post, page 6 of this blog series!

From Myth*ing Links:
http://www.mythinglinks.org/euro~west~greece~Hestia.html -- used with permission of the author, Kathleen Jenks, PhD.

By Chickee Atalla, author of the soon to be released Conversations with the Goddess: Encounter at Petra, Place of Power http://www.conversationswiththegoddess.net
In: Goddess Notes

Last Monday my blog post raised this question: what’s in the common phrase “keeping the home fires burning”? I’m not finished with that question yet.

Let me begin today’s post by telling you something of my story. Before I became a fulltime householder with two children I was a graduate student. When I became a fulltime mother, the stark contrast between the world of the hearth and the world of academe/the workplace immediately became very evident to me.




The world of the hearth revolved around very different realities: the creation, sustenance and nurturance of life; attunement to the wellbeing of children; maintenance and structure of an environment geared to their daily needs and rhythms; and the necessity to obey nature’s timeline for growth and development. In brief, process, rather than end product, became my focus of attention. “Keeping the home fires burning” was a matter of life and death, for I was responsible for my children’s survival.



These pressing necessities bore no resemblance to the demands of the academic world, where the total focus was on development of the mind. Academe was geared to fast-paced rhythms: competition, class schedules, deadlines, exams, development of career trajectories. All of these experiences brought the satisfaction of learning , meeting goals, and reaching standards of excellence, which were measurable by one’s grades. In this world the work of all the women in my family meant little or nothing.

Despite my awareness of the differences between the two worlds, I was too busy to think much about how and why they seemed split apart. But I discovered an essay, titled “Women’s Liberation and Reconciliation with the Earth,” by Catholic theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether. I had an aha! moment as I read her work.

Ruether spoke about how our lives are shaped by the cultural mythology in which we live. She said that the cultural mythology common throughout the Western world has been the outcome of a particular kind of dualism, which she described as hierarchical dualism. The most fundamental dualistic perception which has shaped western culture can be described in terms of two poles, she stated. A primary sexual symbolism is fundamental to this dualism. Woman/body/nature/i nstinct/the finite aligns with one pole. Man/intellect/cultu re/spirit/the infinite aligns with the other pole – and this latter pole is perceived to be the more important. More important = more dominant = hierarchical dualism.

Furthermore, said Ruether, these dualistic perceptions don’t merely inhabit the rarified ethers of philosophical inquiry, as we are wont to think. In fact, they have literally shaped our environment. One outcome has been separation of the world of work, dominated by masculine values, from the world of private life, the world of the hearth, dominated by feminine values. Another outcome has been creation of an enormously powerful psychic energy, which becomes destructive when it is disconnected from nature. The earth, our matrix of existence, becomes the target of this psychic energy. In its most extreme form, this psychic force expresses as technological assault upon earth and its people.

Now, I didn’t need Ruether’s essay to tell me that tending Hestia’s fire was less valued than the marketplace, for life in such a split environment reminded me of it daily. However, Ruether’s identification of our prevailing cultural mythology helped me see one important thing: the shape of my environment was a consequence of perception. It was perception which determined that the world of the hearth was less important than the world of the marketplace. Our perception creates our social reality.

Since the time I read Ruether’s essay more women have joined the work force, more women than ever before go to a work place every weekday. Today I read and hear that women are changing the marketplace. Yet I wonder, do cultural mythologies die all that easily? How many of you shuttle back and forth between the world of the hearth and the world of the marketplace? And how many of you feel there is a dualistic split between the values that govern these two spheres? I’m so looking forward to your comments. This could be a very fruitful conversation, dear BraveHearts!

Note: Ruether’s essay can be found in WomanSpirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion, where the title of her essay is revised to “Motherearth and the Megamachine.”

Next Monday: we look more deeply into why an ancient Greek goddess has been nominated by other writers as candidate for an archetype. Stay tuned!

©2010 by Chickee Atalla, author of the soon to be released Conversations with the Goddess: Encounter at Petra, Place of Power http://www.conversationswiththegoddess.net In: Goddess Notes

Two weeks ago the archetype of Hestia, Greek goddess of fire and hearth, became the topic for this blog series. Then last Monday you met Selene, a Greek woman of the ancient world, who spoke of Hestia’s presence on the hearth of her home. She told us Hestia was also present in the fire of temple altars across the land and on the sacred hearth of the Prytaneum, a public building at the center of every town and city.

These facts, known to scholars of ancient Greek civilization, tell us something about how the Greeks perceived their society. It’s significant that the hearth fire which burned in the home burned also in the Prytaneum. It’s probable that a town or city was perceived to be like an extended family, in which each town had a sacred hearth in its center as symbol of the common ties that bind as well as common worship. Just as the family of a private home hosted guests, so too officials of the town acted as hosts to guests and foreign ambassadors at the city’s sacred hearth.

Now I invite you, dear reader, to ponder this question. Does the commonality which Hestia’s hearth fire symbolized prevail in our own towns and cities?



Illuminaire ~ Greg Spalenka

Long before the ancient Greeks, Hestia was most likely perceived to be more powerful than Selene described. As fire goddess Hestia probably had enormous power, as depicted in Greg Spalenka’s painting. Here Hestia is portrayed as cosmic fire, the kind which we can see burning throughout entire universes, through the marvel of the Hubble telescope. In this respect Hestia is the equivalent of the fiery life force itself.




Cygnus Loop supernova


Why would a goddess of hearth and home be associated with something as vast as cosmic fire? Well, the ancient Greeks thought that a sacred hearth existed not only in the center of the earth, but even in the center of the universe.

Today’s world might dismiss such myth-making, but think about this: our scientists have deduced that there is fiery molten matter at the center of earth, and that the fiery explosion of stars’ births and deaths occurs throughout multitudes of galaxies. Consider also the meaning these same facts could gather if we allowed ourselves to think in terms of mythic equations:

Earth = our home. Fire at the center of earth = the hearth at the center of our home, the Earth.
The universe = our home. Fire at the heart of our galaxy’s activity = the hearth at the center of our home, the universe.

In arriving at a mythic truth, perhaps the ancient Greeks weren’t so naïve after all. Certainly a view of the world as one’s home is more comforting than the view that we live in an indifferent universe.

Today we still speak metaphorically of “keeping the home fires burning.” I suggest that this phrase goes at least as far back as Selene’s ancient world, even as far back as earliest humankind’s world. Remember, it was a very long time before electricity took the place of Hestia’s sacred fire in illuminating and warming homes.

Since the phrase “keeping the home fires burning” remains common coinage today, I submit that it continues to have a resonance of meaning as well. Even so, ponder this: many homes today have fireplaces, but how important is the hearth to us at both the literal and the symbolic level?

Then too, consider this contradiction. When I’ve traveled and spent time in hotels, I’ve found it striking how so many of these buildings have a fireplace in the lobby, with comfortable armchairs facing the hearth. Most of the guests in the lobbies pay little time -- if any -- sitting by that hearth, and most of the time there is no fire. And yet, it seems to me, the presence of so many fireplaces in these buildings might speak of something deeper than hotel guests’ desire for stylishly appointed spaces.

So tell me this: how important is your hearth to you, dear BraveHearts? I’m really looking forward to your comments!

Next Monday we”ll continue the conversation about why Hestia might matter to us. Stay tuned!


Note: Permission to use the visual image of Illuminaire granted by Greg Spalenka. You can view his visionary art at http://www.spalenka.com/


©2010 by Chickee Atalla, author of the soon to be released Conversations with the Goddess: Encounter at Petra, Place of Power http://www.conversationswiththegoddess.net
In: Goddess Notes

Let’s imagine what role Hestia, goddess of hearth and home, played in the life of an ancient Greek woman living in the fourth century B.C. on the island of Lesbos. Envision her as a young woman, with long dark curling hair and flashing, expressive eyes. She wears a tunic gathered at her waist by a belt of small gold chains. A wide gold bracelet curls around her upper arm.

She speaks: “I am Selene, a married woman since age sixteen. I have been fortunate in life, since my father gave me to a man who cares much for me. At our wedding my husband Jason gave me precious gifts. My favorites are a gold arm bracelet and a necklace, which has gemstones the color of our sea and a mother-of-pearl pendant. One of the greatest delights which my husband gave me is my falcon, which I named Ixion.

“My father also was a generous man like my husband. Unlike many fathers, he made sure his daughters received education. I learned to read and write, and I can keep my household accounts. I studied how to be graceful and comport myself in a womanly way. I know how to weave, to sing and play the harp. My husband is proud to have me perform when guests are present in our home.

“We have a villa with enough rooms for all in our family, a courtyard with a fountain, storerooms for grains and oil, and a great hall to receive guests. As a trader on our island, my husband has made us prosperous, enough to maintain a slave and hire two servants. Sometimes he is away at sea, so I am glad to have three sons to rely on. And my only living daughter is a great help in the household.

“In return for the plenty we enjoy, we give daily sacrifices to Hestia, who dwells on our hearth. A portion of our food we give so that she may receive sustenance. This was a custom of the ancient ones because she kept them alive. They said fire is a gift from the goddess. As an act of consecration, they fed her flames. And we continue this, our ancestors’ tradition, by burning food and pouring libations to the goddess in sacrifice. They taught us that Earth permits us to take part in her mysteries of transformation daily because the making of her gifts into food, wine, weaving, pottery, houses, and everything else in civilization, are transformations of her gifts into something else. Whatever gifts Earth has given us, a portion of that gift must go back to divinity. [Implicit in Selene’s remarks is the belief that Hestia is one of Gaia’s many aspects.]

“The ancient ones said that consecration comes from the willingness to give up what is important to oneself. This is a way of recognizing that the divinity has provided for us. And so, in consecrating our goods to the divinity, we are consecrating a part of our life.

“Hestia is the center of the home. Before the rest of our villa was ever constructed, a fireplace was built in its center. On our wedding day my mother-in-law brought coals from her hearth to kindle our first hearth fire.

“Hestia is the protectress of our hearth, the most important place in our house. She brings warmth in winter, warm food all day, and light.

“Our hearth is the sacred altar and center of our family life because Hestia gives us all domestic happiness and blessings. When a child is born we carry it around the hearth as a way of asking for welcome of the child by Hestia and for her blessing upon the family’s newest member.

“She is also goddess of the sacred fire of all temple altars, so she presides over all sacrifices. She is invoked first and the first part of the sacrifice is offered to her.

“Our community is our larger family, so our town has a sacred hearth in the Prytaneum, a round building in the town’s center. It is Hestia’s sanctuary. When an official takes public office he must first sacrifice to Hestia at the Prytaneum, and then swear his oath of service. Supplicants for her mercy can take sanctuary at our public hearth. Our officials host the city’s guests and foreign ambassadors at the Prytaneum. And I have heard that those who are sent out from Athens to populate other places take coals from the public hearth to start the hearth fire in the new colony.”

The following prayer to Hestia is what I imagine an ancient Greek woman like Selene might have spoken.

Prayer to Hestia

Hestia of the fire,

I invoke you,
behold me and hear:
firstborn of the Olympians, goddess of old,
you are the flame that dwells within everything
I feel your presence in the fire
I feel your essence in the flame
I feel your presence in the heat.

Virgin mother of fire,
mighty and gentle daughter of Kronos and Rhea
protectress of the hearth
guardian of the home
bringer of heat.
Ancient are you,
I revere you within the flame.
Keep away illness from my home
keep away anger from my home
keep away danger from my home.

I lay before your essence
my deepest prayers for a safe place to dwell.

Grant me my wish:
keep my home full of laughter and joy
keep my home filled with food
keep my home warm and safe.



Note: I don’t know who the author of this prayer is, since the name wasn’t given in the online article from which it came.



Next Monday we continue to look at the question posed on page 1 of this series: why would Hestia have significance to us moderns? Stay tuned!

©2010 by Chickee Atalla, author of the soon to be released Conversations with the Goddess: Encounter at Petra, Place of Power http://www.conversationswiththegoddess.net In: Goddess Notes

In our hours of quiet – perhaps during tea or coffee break -- we might mull over our choice to inhabit certain spheres of life. This is a time when the realm of archetypes can bring its gifts to us. The archetype of Hestia, Greek goddess of hearth and home, became known to me at such a moment, when I first read Jean Shinoda Bolen’s book, Goddesses in Everywoman: A New Psychology of Women.

I was then a busy householder with two young sons living at home. At that time the women’s liberation movement was emphasizing the importance to women of breaking free from stereotypes and cultivating the assertiveness and skill to be in the “working” world. I thought of myself as one who, to all appearances, was following a rather traditional path, at least for the time being. It hadn’t occurred to me that my choice in life had elements of the Hestia archetype.

What exactly is an archetype? you might be wondering. An archetype is an “image” we carry within our psyche. Archetypes are patterns which guide our development. These “blueprints” remain common to human beings across historical time. They can give direction and meaning to our lives.

You might also wonder, as I did when I first picked up Bolen’s book, How could an ancient goddess of hearth and home be relevant to modern women, who are choosing to move about in the larger world? Well, Hestia’s mythic story reveals that she wasn’t exactly the equivalent of a 1950s housewife.

To consider why or how Hestia might be relevant to us, we will first look at her mythic story. And we will ask who and what she was to the Greeks, who revered her throughout the ancient world.



Statue of Hestia


Some elements of Hestia’s story seem strange to our modern ears. Hestia was the first-born child of Kronos and Rhea. She was swallowed by her father at birth, just as were her siblings, because the older god, who was ruler, feared being displaced by one of his children. Zeus later forced Kronos to disgorge Hestia and her siblings. As the first to be swallowed she was also the last to be disgorged, and so was named as both the eldest and youngest among the siblings. When her brothers Apollo and Poseidon sought for her hand in marriage, Hestia refused and asked Zeus to let her remain an eternal virgin. He agreed and she took her place at his royal hearth. She had no throne, but tended the sacred fire in the hall on Olympus.

Hestia and fire were one and the same to ancient Greek consciousness: Hestia was the fire on the hearth. Considering that the ancient Greeks perceived fire as a primary element, it isn’t surprising that Hestia was the first-born child of Kronos and Rhea and therefore the oldest of the twelve Olympian gods.

I doubt that the common people in ancient Greece thought of gods and goddesses in terms of archetypes -- even though their famous philosopher Plato introduced the notion of a realm of Forms which resembles the idea of archetypes. Rather, Hestia was felt by the ancient Greeks to be a spiritual presence in the living flame at the center of the home, temple, and city. Even today our modern understanding of the chemistry of fire doesn’t completely account for fire’s living qualities, I dare say.

According to Bolen, Hestia’s symbol was the circle. Her first hearths were round, and so were her temples. When she was present, she made both places holy. Her significance was found in rituals, symbolized by fire. “In order for a house to become a home, Hestia’s presence was required,” says Bolen.

Hestia’s story tells us she was a virgin goddess. As such, she was inviolable. Okay, but what does inviolability have to do with fire? I “hear” you asking. Well, we know we can’t “fool around” or flirt with fire, not without serious consequences, so fire is inviolable in this respect. Then too, most of us think of our hearth and home as the place that is, or should be, inviolable. This belief was held by the ancient Greeks, to the extent that someone forced to take refuge could find sanctuary by the hearth of a Greek home.

In addition to her traditional fire attributes, Hestia has more intangible qualities as an archetype. For example, Bolen remarks that Hestia shares “focused consciousness” with two other virgin goddesses, Artemis and Athena. (In Latin, the word for “hearth” is focus.) However, the inward direction of Hestia’s focus is different, says Bolen. Externally oriented Artemis or Athena focuses on achieving goals or implementing plans, while Hestia concentrates on the inner life. The Hestian mode allows us to get in touch with our values by bringing into focus what is personally meaningful. Through this inner focusing, we can perceive the essence of a situation. Bolen’s choice of the word “essence” is a reminder that fire was an essential element in the ancient Greeks’ schema of the four elements: fire, air, water, and earth.

Today I’m keeping Bolen’s observations about Hestia’s intangible qualities brief – brief enough to be tantalizing, I hope, for I want to whet your appetite to learn more about Hestia. Further on in this blog series, we’ll look more into her intangible qualities.

Are you already wondering if Hestia is in your life, dear BraveHearts? Next Monday we’ll look at her importance to the ancient Greeks. Stay tuned!

Notes -

Bolen’s book has since been republished as Goddesses in Everywoman: Powerful Archetypes in Women’s Lives. Bolen points out that we can have more than one archetype in our lives, and at other phases in our lives we might shift to expression of a different archetype.

My definition of archetypes paraphrases depth psychologist Carl Jung’s definition.

©2010 by Chickee Atalla, author of the soon to be released Conversations with the Goddess: Encounter at Petra, Place of Power

http://www.conversationswiththegoddess.net