ancient night

I have only known about Nyx for a short time and it was completely unexpected to be tapped by her.  I was hesitant to acknowledge her as a Patroness because I was afraid of being ‘unloyal’ to my first Goddess.

Since I first found my initial Patron back in the mid-nineties, I’ve always known the joy of Trickster gods.   They aren’t all humor and mirth, nor are they full of spite and craftiness.  There is a good deal of laughter (usually Them laughing at me) but also a very easy camaraderie that I found with them.  I had a Patron Goddess who was more like a friend and she let me know that she wasn’t a typical ‘Mother’ Goddess.

Then along came Nyx.  Lady Nyx, who is very much a girly Goddess and also very much a Mother-figure.  Which threw me for a loop because I already had a mother, my mortal mother whom I love very much.  No way anyone could take my mama’s place.  I’m learning, slowly, that Nyx doesn’t want to take her place… Nyx is a spiritual Mother.  She wants to nurture my spirit, to allow me to see myself as beautiful and valuable.

This past week I made an oil in honor of my Lady Night and the scent is divine.  It starts out bright and citrusy and fades into a floral dustiness with just a hint of that initial citrus sparkle.  It winds around me and makes me feel enveloped in Nyx’s love.  I want so much to live up to her expectations of me, I feel like I’m constantly falling short of the mark.  But instead of laughing at me, Nyx is there to pick me up and dust me off.  She’s there to help me try again and to tell me that, no, I’m not always failing.  I just have a hard time seeing my successes.

Even as a child I would always choose dark places to hide in.  The dark was never scary to me, it was comforting.  It’s easier for bad things to find you in the light, in the dark you have a chance to escape.  Those were my thoughts.  It took a hard lesson to show me that hiding in the light is possible too.  But it’s kind of sad that my life is defined by the things I had to hide from.  Nyx is here to help to stop hiding, Lucifer started the process but I think she’s here to finish it.

I am a constant work in progress.  It’s scary and downright daunting to think about how much I have left to do, how far I have to fall if I mess up.  But maybe Nyx is right and I can start being proud of what I do accomplish instead of just seeing everything I do as a failure in progress.

Hail to thee, Lady of the Night.

That is actually a retorical question.  I know what it means, it just didn’t sink in for a while.  I keep looking for information on Nyx and everything that pops up says that she’s a ‘PRE-HELLENIC’ goddess.  Yet I keep looking in the wrong time period for her.  *facepalm*

Now that my brain has caught up with me I’ve found several books I should probably order that will help with my research on Nyx.

I have very few books that give information on Nyx, but the one with the most is ‘The New Book of Goddesses and Heroines’ by Patricia Monaghan.

In it she says that some have theorized that Nyx and the night were given precedence over the day in mother-ruled countries.  From what I know of the Celts, I can see where that idea came about as in Celtic cultures a new day started at sundown, not at sunrise.   The pre-Hellenic Greeks were believed to be either matrilineal or matriarchal, but no-one truly knows.

In the early myths Nyx is the first daughter of Chaos, her very name means ‘night’.  According to Monaghan, Nyx gave birth to Erebus (shadow or darkness) and mated with him to give birth to the first light ever seen – the Hesperides.   Nyx continued to have children; some benevolent like Sleep and Fate, and some more dreadful like Death and Age.  Monaghan surmises that perhaps the horrors that Nyx gave birth to is balanced by the fact that  she was also the mother of light.

Not only did Nyx birth the Hesperides, the nymphs of evening, but also to the Day.  From other reading, I am a bit confused about the Hesperides… I’m not sure if they are a triple personification of the evening star or if they attend Hesperos, the masculine embodiment of the evening star.  Her other child of light is Hemera, the day.  Nyx and Hemera shared an abode in Tartarus,  but never got to see each other.  One would be at home while the other traversed the sky.  Twice each day they could greet each other as they passed the brass gates of the Otherworld.  Night and Day could wave to each other from their respective chariots as one returned home and the other mounted the sky.

The last thing Ms. Monaghan has to say is that there were few worshippers of this Goddess in ancient times.  That correlates with the the feeling I’ve been getting – Nyx chooses only a few.  But, according to the book, Nyx grants the gift of foresight to her chosen followers.  They are granted the ability to see ‘beyond the night of the present’.

To start, I am a pagan happily practicing within my chosen tradition of witchcraft. I have been on my current spiritual path for 23 years and thought I had found the Gods that I would work with and call Patrons.

Then I met Nightmoon, another pagan who was learning about spirit guides. From her budding knowledge we were introduced to a new word – NYX. I had heard about Nyx in the abstract, aware that she was a goddess, probably Greek in origin. What I didn’t know was how she was about to change my life.

To begin with I didn’t think much about it. It wasn’t a message that had been directed at me, I wouldn’t need to worry. Right? Over the following weeks, Nyx’s presence became more pronounced until the night that I felt her call me.

~Do devotions to me; make offerings of poppy seeds and fire~ she whispered in the hidden places of my heart.

For nine nights I made offerings, giving her seeds of the earth and the fire of stars. In between I researched her, scouring books and the internet. There was so little information, almost nothing that gave any kind of clue as her nature. She is a dark mystery, hidden in the inky night.

Last night we spoke with Nyx again. She told us that she was being forgotten, that forgetfulness was death to a god.

~Remind people of me, find the children of Night. Let them come home to me.~

Search in the secret places of your heart. Search for Nyx.

Nyx, accept this offering.