Cornucopia

Chat about pagan and Wiccan holidays.
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Firebird
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Cornucopia

Post by Firebird »

What an interesting little symbol this basket is ....well it's frequently woven out of wicker but it can be made from many different substances. I recently saw one made out of bread that looked absolutely delicious.
The Cornucopia, or "horn of plenty" has been a symbol of fertility, bounty and fruition, great abundance and the Harvest since antiquity.
The open end spills out the plethora of fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds and flowers that Lord and Lady have bestowed upon us and represents the hard labor of all who toiled in the field to bring this food to the table. The harvests were important times when the peoples came together to rest and celebrate and share their crops with one another. It is likely the start of county fairs where new breads were baked from the first grains and before you knew it, who could grow the largest pumpkin or bring the fattest pig to the event. Seems as though skills in games were a natural addition to such fairs. (No doubt that came about after a few rounds of mead and beer tasting!)

Interesting it has been called a "horn" because the one end surely looks to be the horn of a cloven beast.
What I think gets overlooked frequently is the shape of the symbol itself, for it is completely androgynous in being both male and female at the same time. If you examine this wonderful symbol it's both man and woman with its projective end and it's receptive end being "one" in the same item. You have the projective principle on one end yet the other end is the deep receptive cavern of nurturing and the place where the bounty is birth out of.

I think an excellent symbol for all three harvest Altars and ceremonies. Most especially the Mabon ceremony because it feels to be absolute balance and bonding between man and woman, Lord and Lady, push and pull, give and take, etc...
Fill the Cornucopia with your bounty, it could be symbolic as well and used in spellwork to represent that which you wish to harvest. Place that which you wish to successful with inside to body of the Cornucopia and trust it will come to fruition with a certain amout of work in the field on your part.

Items for the 3 harvests:
Lughnasadh- wheat, flowers, tender fruits ie; strawberries, blueberries, blackberties.
Mabon- grains, seeds, nuts, flowers, firm fruits ie; apples, pomegranates, pears
Samhain- seeds, nuts, pomegranates, herbs, solid vegies and root crops ie; pumpkins, potatoes, oinons

Image
“There are things known and things unknown and in between are the Doors.”
― Jim Morrison
“All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”
― RWEmerson
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SpiritTalker
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Re: Cornucopia

Post by SpiritTalker »

Like this concept very much :)

I saw a photo from a Ren-Faire of a gal wearing a head dress made of 2 cornucopia horns, one over each ear and connected over top. She wore earth-tone green and gold harvest theme dress. it just spoke volumes.
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Firebird
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Re: Cornucopia

Post by Firebird »

I haven't found a better representation of this horn of plenty yet. If anyone else could post a pic I'd appreciate it :D
I'm looking at this Vintage banner of Californias abundant farming land that was available in the massive San Joaquin Valley. Nice incentive. ..who wouldn't want they're cornucopia flowing over? But it's been over farmed, and they're out of ground water, almond orchards are being torn down all over because they use too much water. Wish ecology movements were in force in those early days. California has lost more 75% of the old growth forests mostly due to logging and there is about 6% of native grasslands left due to over grazing. Oh gosh, this isn't really where I wanted to go with this post...
Bounty...
“There are things known and things unknown and in between are the Doors.”
― Jim Morrison
“All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”
― RWEmerson
:mrgreen:
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