The first and most important thing she gave me during this time was an understanding of her essential nature. She is dea biformis, or the two-formed goddess. That is, she is dual aspected in her role as the patroness of our covenstead. As befitting important aspects of witchcraft praxis and the ancient ties of Diana to Janus, she is "two faced," a goddess of liminal, in-between places, looking upon both extremes from a place of power and wisdom.
Each of these aspects has a name, of course, which are not to be spoken outside of the proper places and times for doing so. But for our purposes, these aspects are Our Lady of the Oaks and Our Lady Amaranthine.
The essential division between the two aspects lies in understanding something of the nature of our home. Our Lady Amaranthine, named for the color of her robes, is the Diana Within - the household goddess, who is the Lady of the home. She watches over and protects us and all those things that the interior of the home is associated with: nurturing, health, prosperity, and the like. She is also the Diana I go to directly for better understanding of household Mysteries - she is the witch-queen of all the sorceries of hearth and kitchen for our home, as well as my mentor (if you will) on the idea of household gods and the rites to interact with them. I mostly interact with her through meditation and communion.
Our Lady of the Oaks, on the other hand, is a bit more distant.
She is wild, our Diana Without (as in "outside," rather than "lacking something"). This aspect is far more akin to the classical depictions of Diana, although she is very clearly tied to this land - not merely the property the house rests on, but to the Stone Mountain area and its environs. She is a witch-queen, too, though her Mysteries are deeply rooted in this land, and its old magics. The thing that sets her most apart from the depictions of Diana I know is her skin - it darkens and lightens, ranging from the very pale of the lightest Caucasians when the moon is dark, and deepening to a deep, African mahogany when the moon is full. I mostly interact with her in dreams.Next week, I'll talk a little more about Our Lady Amaranthine.
Thanks for reading, folks.
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