Letters to you

A word came through to rialian in reference to a goddess-form encountered through some friends, and which we were wondering about. Is this form beneficial? Does she even like people? Some gods and goddesses don't particularly care for people at all! These questions were running through our minds.

The word was "Maeonii". I decided to do a search to find out what that word was, not sure I'd get any hits at all.

The search results showed that Maeonia is another name of East Lydia, which is located in Asia Minor along the Aegean. After reading a bit about the history and mythology of Lydia, I learned that in pre-Olympian times, their goddess was Rhea, the daughter of Gaia and Ouranos (Greek for Earth and Sky). Rhea was what is known as a Titan (pre-Olympian deity) and was known as the Earth Mother, but also the Daughter of Gaia (earth). Maybe the daughter of Gaia can be interpreted as Life? But something about Beauty also, and Balance. Something akin to the White Buffalo Calf woman of North America, or the Shekinah of the desert tribes.

She was married to Chronos (Time). The children of Life and Time were the Olympians.

Here is an extensive web page about Rhea: http://www.theoi.com/Ouranos/Rhea.html.

She is Mother and Daughter at the same time. When the Olympians took over, she lost many of her privileges (the overthrow of goddess religion?) and retreated to the mountains of Phrygia "with her attendants the Korybantes and surrounded herself with wild creatures."

Interestingly, rialian has attended several workshops with R.J. Stewart on the subject of the Titans. The Titans are not respectors of persons/personalities, but are immense forces that are tied in with continental plates and in some cases with certain of the great tribes. They can move to another location if the land is similar or there is a migration of tribes. The feeling we got was that it was good to be aware of and to work with (rather than against) a Titan. This one can be found where the wild creatures are...