Artwork: "Mother and Child" by Olivia Robertson
From Juno Covella by Lawrence Durdin-Robertson:
Anglo-Saxon: THE MOTHERS; Modraniht, Night of the Mothers. (Hislop, The Two Babylons, p. 93) "as the 25th of December was called by our Pagan Anglo-Saxon ancestors, 'Yuleday', or the 'Child's day', and the night that preceded it, 'MotherNight' " (Hilda Davidson, Gods, Myths, N. Europe, p. 112). . . "Bede mentions them in De Temporum Ratione (13), where he tells us that the night before Christmas was known in heathen times as Modraniht, 'the night of the mothers'. There seems little doubt that they were closely connected with the birth of children".
Babylonian: THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN. (Hislop, The Two Babylons, p. 93) on the festivals held on December 25th. "Long before the fourth century, and long before the Christian era itself, a festival was celebrated among the heathen, at that precise time of the year, in honour of the birth of the son of the Babylonian queen of heaven. . The same festival was adopted by the Roman Church . . This tendency on the part of Christians to meet Paganism half-way was very early developed."
Semitic (General): THE HEAVENLY VIRGIN, THE HEAVENLY GODDESS; ASTARTE. (Frazer, Golden Bough abgd. p. 358) "No doubt the Virgin who thus conceived and bore a son on the twenty-fifth of December was the great Oriental goddess whom the Semites called the Heavenly Virgin or simply the Heavenly Goddess; in Semitic lands she was a form of Astarte".
Egyptian: ISIS, NUT. (Eisler, Royal Art of Astrol. p. 270) "the goddess Isis, the Virgo Caelestis, the Egyptian sky-goddess Nut [was] believed to give birth to the Sun on the 25th of December". (Fell. of Isis Dir.) "December 25th: ISIS AND HER SON HORUS. Festival of children and young animals and birds and other creatures".
Persian: SPENTA ARMAITI. (Frazer, Golden Bough abgd. p. 358) "Mithra . . his nativity also fell on the twenty-fifth of December". For Spenta Armaiti as the mother of Mithra see Days of the Month: 25th.
Cyprian: MYRRHA. (Hislop, The Two Babylons, p. 97) "The mother of Adonis . . was mystically said to have been changed into a tree, and when in that state to have brought forth her divine son (Ovid, Metam. lib. x. v. 500-513) . - And this entirely accounts for the putting of the Yule Log into the fire on Christmas-Eve . . As Zero-Ashta, 'the seed of the woman', which name also signifies Ignigena, or 'born of the fire', he has to enter the fire on 'Mothernight', that he may be born the next day out of it".
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Associated links:
Juno Covella
Goddess Art of Olivia Robertson
