Eurynome meaning Wide-Wandering. Alternate meanings: Wide-Ruling, With-Broad-Pastures is the focus of our #wildwisdom #soulstory this week leading on from our #treeteaching.
Eurynome
She is a very ancient Great Goddess of all; Creatrix of the universe; Queen of the circling Universe; Ruler of heaven, earth, and sea; She Who is the Visible Moon; perhaps originally a Dragoness.
Eurynome was born from Chaos,. She separated dark from light, and water from the sky. Then she began to dance across the water the beautiful, sensual dance of creation. As she danced faster and faster she danced until a wind grew behind her. Eurynome caught this wind, between her hands and formed it into a snake. The snake, called Ophion, coiled his body around the Goddess and made love to her as she danced.
Impregnated by Ophion, the Goddess transformed into a dove and lay the Universal Egg. seven times then persuaded the serpent to wrap its body around the egg seven times and care for it until it hatched. As it opened, the earth spilled forth, born populated with animals and plants.
In this tradition, the first human was the man Pelasgus who sprang from the soil of Arcadia (soon followed by others). They made little huts and ate acorns and wore pig-skin tunics.
Eurynome is a very ancient goddess. She is associated with fertility and vegetation and is a mountain goddess. She flew down to the top of a mountain and changed back into her goddess form.
Eurynome was the most important Goddess of Pelasgian myth. She was the Great Goddess, Mother, Creatrix, Ruler of the Universe, , called the Goddess of All Things. Queen of the circling Universe; Ruler of heaven, earth, and sea; She Who is the visible moon; and it is suggested by some, perhaps originally a Dragoness. There is a similar ancient Minoan myth in nearby Crete.
Eurynome was only one of the Goddess's names. Eurynome, "wide wandering," refers to her as the moon traveling across the sky according to Robert Graves who saw in Eurynome a lunar goddess descending from the Pre-Hellenic mother goddess of Neolithic Europe. In that case, –nome is as in our word nomad. The nomad wanders searching for pastureland, or land that has been "distributed" for the use of domestic animals. The moon is to be regarded as wandering. In the other interpretation, –nome is as in English auto-nomy. A ruler is someone who "distributes" law and justice. By the Sumerians she was called the "exalted dove," or, Iahu.
Later the Greeks took this myth and had her live on Mount Olympus as Queen of the Titans who ruled Olympus beside her husband Ophion until they were cast down by Cronus and Rhea into the earth-encircling river Oceanus. Statues later depicted her as a mermaid.
There is a great deal more to be said about this ancient goddess! But I shall have to write about it on my other blog. But in brief I believe her to be associated with an ancient bear mythology. When we look at Arcadia, the land from where she arose there are numerous references to bears.
Eurynome and the Tree Teaching
Eurynome the wide wanderer seems very fitting for our tree teaching this week. So, the tree teaching was about what find on our path… or on our wanderings you might say.
Eurynome is born out of chaos and brings creation. Out of the chaos of our day to day living and the thoughts that crowd our minds our direct experience of nature brings us an intimate connection with nature, with the world which we are a part of. This direct experience brings us into sharp focus with the other beings around us.
This is not just an awareness of other life forms but of life itself within and without and that there is no separation. It is Eurynome’s experience of the elements that forms her world. She revels in her experience, she dances.
A she becomes one with the forces around her she gives birth to the world. It could be said that as her spirit takes flight in the form of a bird she releases all ties with her form and connections. She is then able to bring new awareness to her experience in the form of the egg that consequently hatches into all of creation. A mountain goddess with a world view.
What is the peak of our experience? Is it necessary to travel to some distant place to experience something beyond ourselves? Must we wander wide looking for something other? As we journey the pathways of life what is there in our day to day living that we might look at afresh?
Perhaps it is a tree that you pass every day but have yet to notice.
Blessings
Amanda Claire x