The White Moon Goddess Gallery Presents

The Great Mother of Anatolia
Cybele

 
Image courtesy of http://fineartphotographysite.com/magical-fairytale-world-digital-photography/vache-kenyane-a-lhombre-dun-arbre/


Level Three Project by OceanPhoenix
Priestess in the Sisters of the Rising Moon School

© 2013.  All original material in this site is under copyright protection and is the intellectual property of the author.


Image, front and back, of the Cyble coin

http://www.dl.ket.org/latin2/mores/religion/cybele_coin.htm

Image courtesy of Tom Ross. tomross.ancients.info/

Her Other Names

Kybele, Magna Mater, Mater Magna, Great Mother, Dindymene, Kubaba

Associated Goddesses
Rhea and Gaia

Who is Cybele?
Her name is pronounced "sib-uh-lee" or "Sa-Bell."

Goddess of caverns and mountains, walls and fortresses, nature, and wild creatures.
She is the Dark Mother of the Maiden, Mother, Crone trinity.

Little is known of Her oldest Anatolian cults, other than Her association with mountains, hawks and lions. Her Phrygian cult was adopted and adapted by Greek colonists of Anatolian Asia Minor, and spread from there to mainland Greece and its more distant western colonies from around the 6th century BCE.


Image courtesy of http://one-evil.org/content/entities_gods_cybele.html

Regions, Culture, and Places Associated with Cybele

Mount Ida in Phrygia, Rome, Anatolian Turkey and Mount Berecyntus

The worship of Cybele spread from inland areas of Anatolia and Syria to the Aegean coast, to Crete and other Aegean islands, and to mainland Greece. She was particularly welcomed at Athens.  Catal Huyuk flourished between 7,000 BC and 5,000 BC in what is now called Turkey.  She was brought to Rome in 204 BC after it was predicted that with her there Rome would defeat the armies of Hannibal.  Indeed, Hannibal did retreat from Rome in 203 BC!


Altar of Cybele by OceanPhoenix

 Popular Myth

  Cybele loved a shepherd boy named Attis.  He went mad and castrated himself.  Attis bled to death.  In distress, She asked Jupiter to restore him, so, Jupiter changed Attis in to a pine tree.  Symbolically, this allowed Attis to embrace Cybele with his roots in the ground for all eternity.

Things That Are Sacred to Her

Cybele drawn in her chariot by lions towards a votive sacrifice (right). Above are the Sun God and heavenly objects.
Plaque from Ai Khanoum, Bactria (Afghanistan), 2nd century BCE
Image courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybele

Symbols
Pine, meteorite stones and keys

Animals
Lions and bees

Colors
Red, yellow and green.
Her sacred candle color  is pink.

Herbs
Almonds

Days of the Week
Thursday and Saturday

Elements
Earth and Fire

Stones
Meteorite stones

Seasons of the Year
Ostara, Litha and Beltaine

 Holidays

March 15: Spring Holiday – Attis returns from the dead

April 3-4:  Megalisia in Rome – The Romans celebrated Cybele on this day with a parade. Her image was carried through the streets in a chariot drawn by lions on the 3rd. The castrated priests who served Her danced alongside, playing timbrels and cymbals and gashing themselves.  Lucretius says "with bronze and silver they strew all the paths of her journey … and snow rose-blossoms over her." On the 4th, Her image was placed in the Temple of Victory.

The Cibeles fountain (better known simply as the people of Madrid’s Cibeles) in the city is Spanish in Madrid Spain , in the plaza of the same name
http://spain-holidays-travel.com/tag/goddess-cybele

Worship

8,000 BCE to the present day

Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük c. 6,000 BCE
Image courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybele

How She Was Worshipped by Her People

In Greece and Anatolia, Cybele's priestesses led the people in orgiastic ceremonies with wild music, drumming, dancing, and drinking. Other followers of Cybele, the Phrygian kurbantes, expressed Her ecstatic and orgiastic worship with music, especially drumming, clashing of shields and spears, dancing, singing, and shouting—all at night.

Cybele and Lions

How She Is Worshiped in Today's World

Early Christians condemned the cult as demonic. By the 4th century Emperor Valentinian II officially banned her worship and allowed cruel persecutions of any who continued the practice. During the reign of Justinian, property was seized, any items of worship were burned, temples were destroyed, and those who still followed the cult were tortured, forced to commit suicide, or buried alive. By the 6th century AD the cult was extinct...OR WAS IT?

On http://gallae.com, She is very much alive in today's world, although she is worshipped a bit differently, She is here and very much alive!

Continuation of Cybele Worship at the Restored Phrygianium on Vatican Hill

image
http://one-evil.org/content/entities_gods_cybele.html

The shrine of the Phrygian goddess Cybele, was situated in an unidentified place near the Vatican Basilica. It had to be closed following the measures taken by the Emperor Theodosius against pagan cults in 391 and 392. Among the numerous inscribed altars found there is this altar dedicated to Cybele and Attis, with the sacred pine of Attis, a bull and a ram, a souvenir of the sacrifices made, together with various cult objects. The precise date of its dedication is inscribed on it, 19 July 374 A.D.

A Ritual To Create Stability in a Relationship

Take an iron key (or a piece of iron and an old key bound together.)  Hold them in your projective hand.  Visualize the key being filled with radiant red light (love’s color). Say:

Cybele, let this key to our hearts be filled
Love and devotion here instilled.

Wear the key on a long chain so it rests over your heart chakra.


Key amulet made by OceanPhoenix (gifted to her sister-in-law)

Prayer to Cybele

To the Great Mystery which is within and without,
Honor be to the Spirit of Life.
May it flow like a river
Through the channels of our hearts
And branch out across the earth.
Let us find healing at the peaceful waters
And learn the love that empowers.
May the love grow as the flame
That brings light into the darkness
And melts hatred and fear,
And may we burn forever bright.
May we know the strength of our souls,
Know the worlds within us
As we know we are cells of a greater whole.
Two-fold in one, We are many fold in one.
Ah-ho, so mote it be, AMEN.

---Prayer courtesy of Joan Ann Lansberry

My Altar Dedicated to Cybele

 
Altar to Cybele by OceanPhoenix

~Book Sources~

~Web Site Sources~

~Pictures and Other Art Work Sources ~

~My Personal Things of Cybele~

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