"The moon was created for the counting of days." - Hebrew midrash
For Pagans, the cycle of the moon is a metronome for the spirit - a reminder of the natural rhythms from which we, as modern humans, are so often disconnected. The moon-rituals we hold (esbats), whether complex rites or simple meditations, are a way of "getting back in tune" with the natural world of which we are all a part.
Lunar calendars, as I've said in previous diaries of this series, mark out important events, changes or symbols of the seasonal cycle we call the Wheel of the Year.
The Harvest Moon. The Green Corn Moon. The Storm Moon. In cultures across the world, the progressions of the lunar year are the mile markers in the turning of that wheel.
I began this series with the April moon, which my coven observes as either the Egg Moon or the Seed Moon. Last month, we had the Hare Moon.
This month - next Wednesday, to be exact - will be what my coven calls the Honey Moon.
Now, "honeymoon" is a word we all know. It has its origins in the notion that the first month of marriage is especially sweet. But there's a lot more to honey, in mythological terms, than sweetness . . . and a lot more to the Honey Moon than the bliss of newlyweds.
Read on . . .
Honey.
Everywhere it's known, it's a symbol of sweetness. But every tradition that ever grew where there were bees and honeycomb also associated honey with purity, truth, wisdom, divinity and enlightenment.
Hindus believe Krishna, Vishnu and Indra were "born in honey" (madhava), and that whoever ate honey would be wise, prosperous and beautiful. Egyptians gave honey as a sacrifice to their gods, and anointed the lips of their priests with it so they would speak with divine truth. Persians used honey, rather than water, to purify their hands in Mithraic feasts. Greeks believed that Cupid dipped his arrows in honey, to fill hearts with sweetness, and the philosopher Pythagoras was said to have eaten nothing but honey, all his life.
Honey (and/or the fermented product, mead) was considered food of the gods among the Greeks and Norse, and they were not alone. Offerings of honey are a staple in religious rituals around the world.
Mayans (and many, many others) used honey in their religious rituals - possibly as a hallucinagen (certain varieties of honey are toxic - depending on what nectar the bee uses - and some can be psychoactive. Ancient writers - including Aristotle - described the effects of this "maddening honey").
The Hebrews valued honey so much they held it as kosher – despite being the product of a flying insect, a non-kosher animal. Honey is eaten for the Jewish New Year, as a symbol of peace and prosperity.
Honey was used in early Christian rituals, including baptisms, and continued in Coptic and Ethiopian churches after the Roman church abandoned it.
The medicinal history of honey is long and varied enough to be its own diary. Let's just say - everywhere there's been honey, there's been honey as medicine.
Canaan was the “the land of milk and honey”. Islam’s Paradise (jannat) has a river of honey, as does the Celtic version (variously called Tir Tairngiré, Mag Mell, or Tir-nan-og, among others).
As the one food that doesn’t spoil, honey was also a symbol of immortality and resurrection.
The Finnish Kalevala tells how the hero Lemminkainen was restored to life by magic honey from Mehilainen, the Bee. Honey is a gift for the dead in Russia, Africa, Persia, Rome, Greece and many other places.
Honey is one of the five elixirs of immortality in Hinduism.
The Egyptians – as well as the Assyrians, Persians and others – embalmed their royalty using honey and wax, and urns of honey for their use in the afterlife were interred with them. The Babylonians buried their dead in honey, and the practice pops up again and again in the Near East and Adriatic region. Some notables, including Alexander, were supposedly buried in honey.
Honey was so associated with paradise/the promised land because it is the pure gift of a world in bloom, the golden symbol of all the bounty of nature. Large, healthy hives producing honey meant a land rich in fruit and flowers. A place where honey flowed in rivers was a fertile land, indeed.
As such, it is a symbol of blessings and prosperity, and the Honey Moon is a time of counting those blessings.
At this moon, we take stock - not just of the blessings we have, but the blessings that paved the way for those blessings. Without flowers, there is no nectar. Without rich soil, there are no flowers. Without the rains and life's cycle of death and rebirth, there is no rich soil.
So now - on this last moon before the peak of the year at Midsummer - we think of all the good things that have brought us to where we are - the work we have done, the work that has been done for us, the favors and fortunes given by friends and strangers and powers unseen - and savor the sweetness of what has come from it all.
There's not much more to say, so far as ritual goes. Obviously, you should get some honey - whether you go all Mithraic and wash hands with it (which, I'm sorry, just seems like it would get really sticky), anoint yourselves or each other with it, or just pass it around to share. Honey-based foods are a nice addition, such as liebkuchen (German honey-cakes), or honey muffins. There's actually a nice collection of honey recipes here.
If you can get ahold of some mead to use as the "ale" in cakes and ale, so much the better. I'm lucky - I'm an amateur winemaker, and my small, five-bottle batch was finally ready this past April (it's a looong fermentation).
Honey-colors are good for clothing and decoration, and flowers - especially in those colors - are of course very appropriate.
But more important than the trappings or the menu - as always - is the spirit of the ritual. The spirit of this esbat, as I said, is the counting and sharing of blessings. No one should leave your circle without knowing what good things they have brought to you, and without remembering what good things life has brought to them.
The Honey Moon comes at the height of Summer, when life it at its zenith. It is the time to enjoy that life, and all it brings - to stop and smell the roses (or, rather, stop and taste the honey).
"Honey is the first blessing that God gave the earth" - attribution uncertain
How many more can you name?
Blessed Be.