Whilst researching the mythology of the Venus of Hohle Fels, I discovered something of interest; a modern-day group of witches, based in Germany, who consider the figurine to be a representation of the Goddess Holle. As such, she is a central figure in their rituals and seasonal celebrations.
I read about the group in an e-zine article called ‘The Goddess Temple News’. This article was written by Mariam Wallraven, who is the leader of the group. It was entitled ‘Priestess/Priest Training in Germany’. In this article, published in 2015, she describes her spiritual journey, which began when she was initiated as a Priestess of Avalon in 2008. This led to her having a vision of Priestesses and Priests reclaiming the Goddesses of Germany. After her initiation, she led many Goddess workshops, became a Soul Healer and began studying mythology, literature and gender studies in depth. During this period, she published two academic books and gained a PhD in women’s occult literature.
In 2014 she began teaching others and created a 2-year training course. As part of this course, she taught her students about the eight pagan festivals known as ‘the wheel of the year’. These festivals are Samhain, Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lammas and Mabon. The Avalon group had taught her to associate one particular Goddess with each festival, but she decided to change this. She wanted to include Goddesses who had been forgotten or replaced by Roman Goddesses and felt it was important to bring more diversity into the festivals. She wanted to show that all cultures were once Goddess worshipping cultures. Mariam included some of the German Goddesses in her training course and sometimes celebrated more than one Goddess per festival.
Mariam lives very close to where the Palaeolithic ‘Venus of Hohle Fels’ was found. At the Winter Solstice (Yule) Mariam honours the Goddess Holle as the Goddess of Air and Vision. She and her group create ceremonial feather fans to represent the element of Air and connect with the energy of the Goddess Holle. Holle/Perchta is still widely known in Germany through folklore and fairy tales (and was immortalized by the Brothers Grimm as Frau Holle). Mariam teaches her group that the web of the world is woven anew at this festival, and Holle rides on the wind with the wild hunt.
Each summer the coven go on a pilgrimage to the cave where the Venus of Hohle Fels was found. They also visit the tiny figurine in the museum to connect with the ancestors who held the feminine as sacred. The Goddess Holle is held in high regard in the group that she is ‘first amongst equals’ and as such, they place her at the centre of their wheel, because she is the cosmic Great Goddess of rebirth and the eternal cycles of transformation.
References.
Grimm, J, Stallybrass, J.S. (1882) Teutonic Mythology. London: George Bell and Sons.
Wallraven, M (2015) Priestess/Priest Training in Germany. The Goddess Temple News’, Lammas Edition.
Heath, C. (2013) From Fairytale to Goddess: Frau Holle And The Scholars That Try To Reveal Her Origins.
Comments