Anthesteria

Holly Hazeltree

The 25th to 27th of February is the time of the festival of the Anthesteria. It honours Dionysus and celebrates his conception and his birth, and was traditionally honoured by offering the newly opened wine skins of last year’s harvest to him. Thanks would be given to Dionysus for the previous year’s crop and he would be asked for his blessing for the coming year’s crop.

Dionysus represented the divine child, or the magical child. This festival, in early Pisces, is a good time to reflect upon where you have been over the year just gone and where you would like to be a year from now.

The planets for this week are: Sun, Moon, Mars and Neptune.

Meditation: Re-kindling the flame

Offering: Wine mixed with water

Ritual: Mixing the water with the wine, as you do this say: “We mix the wine with the water, in the sacred way you taught us, O Lord Dionysus. We celebrate the marriage of the sun and the moon.”

Prayer: We honour and give thanks to you, Lord Dionysus for your sacred gifts of wine, pleasure and the promise of growth.

Exercise/Work: Give yourself over to pleasure and experiencing the divine child within. Make note of any insights you gain from this. It is important internal work and helps the rebirth of the divine child in all of us via hopes and dreams, which will serve as a guide for the next year.

Creativity: As it is the time to celebrate the divine child, any creative stirrings you have at this time are to be actively encouraged. It may also be worthwhile keeping a dream journal for the next month at least, as dreams tend to be especially potent during the solar time of Pisces.

Rest: This is important this month, it’s not a time for being overly active or burning the candle at both ends, it is a sensitive cross-over time from winter to spring and is full of hidden inspiration and insight. It is a good time to be quiet and let yourself receive.

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