It’s been quite a bit of time since I’ve had the opportunity to post anything. 2016 has been a great, yet challenging year. After more than a decade in Malden, we moved to a new home out in Pepperell and have been spending that last 6 weeks or so getting the house in order. We have Arsenic & Old Lace and OneStopOccultShop up and running.
For the moment, StregaCrafts is still in “maintenance mode”. We’ve had a number of health related issues regarding one of our 4-legged family members and are currently focused on that so I have no immediate date when StregaCrafts will be back on line for general orders. Even though the website isn’t taking general sales, I am available to make custom ritual incense. If you’re interested, email me directly.
As we get settles in our new home, I will have more time to devote to writing and revamping Streghe.us. For the moment, I’m reposting this great bit of information that was reposted to my FB page –
Below is a great bit of information regarding one of the native Siculu divinities – a very important one who the Greeks recognized as embodying the universal truths within their own culture and resonating with their own divinities. So much so that parts of her story and lore became blended with the Demeter/Persephone mythos.
The only thing that I take exception to is the concept of “pure race”. I find that concept to be unsavory at the least. Sicilians may be unique in terms of culture and genetic makeup, but Sicily is the melting pot of the Mediterranean – more often assimilating the “concurring culture” than being assimilated by it.
Stregoneria Siciliana (original FB link)
Persephassa: The Original Sicilian Goddess
In the beginning before the arrival of the Spanish or the Moors, before the Normans or the French, and before the Romans and the Greeks, three tribes coexisted on the island that would become Sicily. First came the Sicani, a tribe that would come to occupy the interior of the island. Then came the Sicels, who would claim the eastern coast as their home, and then finally would come the Elymians, the inhabitants of the western cape. Much about these original tribes of Sicily has been lost to history, including most details of their culture, language, and religion, however a few things have survived the ravages of time within the hearts of the people.
There is one ancient deity who still lives within the culture and hearts of the Sicilian people, who draws her origins from the oldest of the Sicilian tribes, the Sicani people. This goddess claims dominion over the very land and all it’s bounty, she causes the vegetation to spring forth while at the same time claims it as it retreats back into the earth. Life and Death are hers. Her name is Persephassa, the Maiden of Spring and Queen of the Underworld. It was this chthonic Queen who entered into Greek religion as Persephone and later into Rome as Proserpina, another goddess incorporated into Greco-Roman religion through colonization. However, make no mistake, this goddess is first and foremost Sicilian. It was even the famous tale of her rape and abduction that was claimed by the Greeks and slightly reworked to fit their mystical views, nevertheless the true tale of this story is still a favorite told by many on the island. Even to this day do Sicilians place a woven basket filled with fresh fruits and vegetables on their yearly altars to St. Joseph for Persephassa to take with her back into the underworld when the time comes. And it is this spirit, this beautiful and undeniable Soul of Sicily that, come Easter, I will now enshrine within my home and honor within the pagan rituals passed down to me to honor our Saints and nature spirits, the spirits under her domain. Here, ancient prayers and hymns will be uttered that sing of her favor towards her “pure race”- her chosen race- the children of her island. This beautiful and fearful earth mother shall now have a home here within the Sicilian-American community so to ensure that her name will never be forgotten!
S’abbinirica!
EVVIVA PERSEPHASSA!!!
Persephassa