JULY
Goddesses of the Calendar Month:
Ishtar
Apt
Apt-Renpit
Athena; Demeter and Persephone
July (personified)
Rosea and The Sun
Kerea
JULY 2nd
Jewish: ST. ELIZABETH and THE VIRGIN MARY. (Irish Catholic Dir.) “July 2nd. The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary ... Preface of B.V.M. Et te in Visitatione.” (Church of England Cal.) “July 2nd. The Visitation of the Virgin Mary”.
(Luke, i. 39) “And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda;
40) “And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elizabeth …
56) “And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house”.
(The Book of James, XII. 2) “And Mary ... went away unto Elizabeth her kinswoman: and she knocked at the door. And Elizabeth when she heard it cast down the scarlet (al. the wool) and ran to the door and opened it, and when she saw Mary she blessed her ...
3) ... Now she was sixteen years old …”
(Bridgett, Our Lady’s Dowry, p. 235) “The feast of our Lady’s Visitation was instituted by Urban VII in the Fourteenth Century ... In 1441 the feast was confirmed by the Council of Basle, and fixed for the 2nd July”.
(Mrs. Jameson, Legends of the Madonna, p. 189) “The earliest representation of the Visitation to which I can refer is a rude but not ungraceful drawing, in the catacombs at Rome, of two women embracing. It is not of very high antiquity, perhaps the seventh or eighth century, but there can be no doubt about the subject”.
(Bridgett, Our Lady’s Dowry, p. 325) “On the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin (1499) Andrew Lyall, Treasurer of the Cathedral [in Aberdeen], made a present of a large silver statute of our Lady of Pity, weighing 120 ounces, to the high altar. Thereupon William the Bishop made an ordinance that this statue should be ‘carried in procession round the Cathedral on all the solemn feasts of the Glorious Virgin, and granted forty days’ indulgence to all who should devoutly follow in the procession’. (Aberdeen Registers, published by the Spalding Club)”.
JULY 3rd
Dog Days begin.
Egyptian: SOTHIS; ISIS; SATET; HATHOR; Sirius, The Dogstar. Greek: MAERA; HECUBA; The Dog-star. Roman: CANICULA, The Dog-star. Arabian: Al' SHIRA, Sirius; Al' GHUMAISA, Procyon; Al' ALIAWAT AL SUHAIL, The Two Dog-stars. Polynesian: VENA, Procyon.
(Allen, Star Names, p. 123) “Sirius, the Dog-star ... [At Thebes] it was symbolized, under the title of Isis Hathor, by the form of a cow with disc and horns appearing from behind the western hills Great prominence is given to it on the square zodiac of Denderah, where it is figured as a cow recumbent in a boat with head surmounted by a star; and again, immediately following as the goddess Sothis ... But in the earlier temple service of Denderah it was Isis Sothis, at Philae Isis Sati, or Satit.”
(Liddell and Scott, Lex.) “Maira, fem. (Marmairó) name of the dog-star, strictly the Sparkler Anth. P. 9. 555, Nonn.: also of Hecuba [as bitch], Lyc. 334 …”
(White, Dict.) “canicula, fem. … A little dog or bitch Meton: The heat-bringing Dog-star.” (Allen, Star Names, p. 132) “Canis Minor, the Lesser Dog ... Hyginus had Icarium Astrum, referring to the dog Maera.”
(Allen, id. p. 121) “Sirius ... Al Shi’rá or Al Si’rá.” (id. p. 132) “Canis Minor ... We also find Al Jummaizá, their Sycamine, although some say that this should be Al Ghumaisá, the Dim ... from the fact that her light was dimmer than that of her sister Al Shi’rá ... the Two Dog-Stars were the Arabs’ Al Aliawat al Suhail, the Sisters of Canopus.”
(Allen, id. p. 134) “Procyon ... With the natives of the Hervey Islands it was their goddess Vena.”
(Whitaker’s Almanack, p. 188) “Dog Days. - The days about the heliacal rising of the Dog Star, noted from ancient times as the hottest ... period of the year in the Northern hemisphere. Their incidence has been variously calculated as depending on the Greater or Lesser Dog Star (Sirius or Procyon) and their duration has been reckoned as from 30 to 54 days. A generally accepted period is from July 3 to August 15.”
See also under Section II: Egypt, Sothis, and below: July 23rd, Sothis.
JULY 4th
Roman: PAX. (Seyffert, Dict.) “Eiréné ... the corresponding deity among the Romans was Pax, to whom an altar was set up on July 4th, 13 (before this era)”. (O.C.D.) “Ara Pacis ... on north and south [is] a rendering of the procession on the consecration day (4th July 13) with portraits of the imperial family and figures of lectors, priests, magistrates, and representatives of the Roman people. These reliefs rank among the most important products of Augustan art. The smaller reliefs on the inner altar showing Vestals, priests, etc., continue the procession on the inner walls”. See also under January 30th.
JULY 7th
Roman: JUNO; The Nonae Caprotinae. (Seyffert, Dict.) “Caprotina. A Roman epithet of Juno. A special feast, called the Nonae Caprotinae, was celebrated in her honour on the Nones of Quintilis, or 7th of July ... the female servants went in procession to the fig-tree, where they carried on all kinds of sports with the assembled multitude. Besides this, there was ... a festal meal at the tree, and on the next day a thanksgiving, celebrated by the pontifices”. (Rose, O.C.D., Caprotina) “the Nonae Caprotinae (7th July), i.e. Nones of the Wild Fig (caprificus), under which maidservants had a sham fight with stones, etc., and abused each other. It seems to be an old rite of fertility (fig-juice as equivalent to milk?...) grown unintelligible”.
(Varro, Ling. Lat. VI. 18) “The Nones of July are called the Caprotine Nones, because on this day, in Latium, the women make offerings to Juno Caprotina, which they do under a caprificus ‘wild fig-tree’; they use a branch from the fig-tree”.
(Ausonius, Ecl. xxiii. 9) “On the Roman Festivals (2nd hall of 4th cent.) ... I will make mention also of the feast held in the Nonae Caprotinae when matrons doff their robes to clothe their handmaidens.”
PALES; The Parilia, Second Festival. (Rose, O.C.D.) Parilia ... (cf. Palibus II. Fast. Antiates on 7th July).” See also under April 21st.
Chinese: CHIH-NU, THE HEAVENLY WEAVER-GIRL: See under Japanese: Orihime.
Japanese: ORIHIME, SHOKUJO, TANABATA HIME, THE HEAVENLY WEAVER-GIRL: The Tanabata Festival. (Hepburn, Dict.) “Tanabata. The festival of the Weaver or the star Vega, near the Milky Way, worshipped on the 7th day of the 7th Month”. (Allen, Star Names, p. 58) “The Korean version … turns the cowherd into a Prince and the spinster into his Bride ... they accomplish [their meeting] through the friendly aid of the good-natured magpies, who congregate from all parts of the kingdom during the 7th moon, and on its 7th night form the fluttering bridge across which the lovers meet”. (Chamberlain, Things Japanese, p. 160) “Festivals ... July 7th. Tanabata. The idea of this festival is most poetic”. (id. p. 437). “The Herdsman is a star in Aquila, the Weaver is the star Vega. They dwell on opposite sides of the ‘Celestial River’, or Milky Way and ... meet on the 7th night of the 7th moon, a night held sacred to them, strips of paper with poetic effusions in their honour being stuck on stems of bamboo grass and set up in various places”.
(Fell. of Isis Dir.) “July 7th: Chin Nu, Tanabata-Hime, the Heavenly Weaver-girl”.
JULY 8th
Roman: JUNO; Nonae Caprotinae, Second day. See under July 7th.
Jewish: ST. ELIZABETH (Irish Catholic Dir.) “July 8th ... S. Elizabeth”.
Greek-Egyptian: ARSINOË II, VENUS ZEPHYRITIS; The Deification of Arsinoe. (The Diegesis, cited by Trypanis, on Callimachus, p. 162) “Deification of Arsinoë (The poet) says that ... an altar and a holy enclosure were established in her honour near the Emporium (i.e. at Alexandria).” According to Trypanis, the deification of Arsinoë, sister and wife of Ptolemy II (Philadelphus), would have been initiated on July 9th, 270, before this era.”
(Callimachus, Ektheosis Arsinoes, frag.) “O bride, already up under the stars of the Wain ... snatched away, you were speeding past the (full) moon ... the great husband for his wife ... to light fires as an offering (?) …”
(Lempriere, Dict.) “Arsinoe … worshipped under the name of Venus Zephyritis. Dinochares began to build her a temple with loadstones, in which there stood a statue of Arsinoe, suspended in the air …”
JULY 10th
Anglo-Saxon and Norse: HOLDA and HEL. (Graves, The White Goddess, p. 405) “[in] the ‘Lady Godiva’ procession of Southam (twelve miles south of Coventry and included in Leofric’s earldom) two figures were carried, one white and one black - the goddess as Holda and Hel.” See also below.
English: GODGIFU, LADY GODIVA. (Lewis, Top. Dict.) “Southam, a market town and parish in the county of Warwick … fairs are held on ... July 10th, for cattle and horses; the last of these is a show fair, at which, in imitation of that at Coventry, the procession of Lady Godiva is celebrated”.
See also under Moveable Festivals: Friday after Trinity Sunday.
JULY 11th
Cretan or Italian: THEANO. (Perp. Fest. Cal.) “July 11th. Theano, wife of Pythagoras, born 6th century (before this era)”. (Fell. of Isis Dir.) “July 11th. Pythagoras and his wife Theano. Vegetarianism. Geometry and Mathematics”.
Theano, according to Lempriere (Class. Dict.), was a native either of Crete or Crotona.
(Lucian, Portraiture, 18) “The second model ... shall be the famous Theano … Theano shall contribute the greatness of her intellect.”
JULY 13th
Japanese: Bon Festival. (Chamberlain, Things Japanese, p. 160) “July 13-16. This is the great Buddhist Festival of Bon, which is often termed by foreigners the Feast of Lanterns, but might better be rendered as All Souls’ Day. The spirits of the dead ancestors then visit the altar sacred to them in each household, and special offerings of food are made to them”.
(Borlase, Dolmens, Vol. III. p. 854) “The resemblance between the Feast of Samain (Note: See November 1st.) when the dead returned to visit their friends, and the great festivals formerly held in the Sinto temples of Japan, as, for example, at Nikko, where thousands of lanterns were lighted, each one representing the spirit of an ancestor, and where masquerading and revelry took place for the diversion of the spirits then visiting the world, is very remarkable and significant of primitive unity of cultus. An account of such festivals and of the splendid ritual accompanying them, will be found in verse in the ‘Ancient Book of China’, called the ‘She King’.”
(Perp. Fest. Cal.) “July 13th ... Japanese Buddhist Commemoration of the Departed, 13th - 15th”.
JULY 15th
Finnish: RAUNI. (Catherine Koppana, Ms.) “Rauni is described by Ganander as the wife of Ukko the Thunder God, a sort of Juno. The name comes from ‘ronn’ or ‘raun’, the Nordic names for Rowan. Again a tree goddess of some kind. She appears in earlier folklore. Her Feast Day is July 15th”.
JULY 16th
Jewish: THE VIRGIN MARY. (Irish Catholic Dir.) “July 16th. Commemoration of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel ... Preface of B.V.M. Et te in commemoratione”.
Note: (Ashe, The Virgin, p. 201) on the festivals of the Blessed Virgin Mary: “The Carmelite Order, which held her in special reverence and hymned her as Flower of Carmel, allotted her no fewer that twenty-three days of its calendar”. Among the festivals observed by them in the mid-twentieth century are included “Our Lady, Mediatrix of all Graces”, “Our Lady of Ransom” and “The Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary”.
(Perp. Fest. Cal.) “July 16. All Communities”.
JULY 17th
Japanese: AMA-TERASU-O-MI-KAMI, THE SUN GODDESS. (Herbert, Shinto, p. 209) on Japanese Festivals: “July 17th from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. the first procession takes place; this is the Yama-hoko-junko, which consists of the following twenty floats ... (19) The Iwato-Yama, representing the three Kami Izanagi, (Ame-no) Tajikara-wo-no-mikoto and Amaterasu-o-mi-kami”. (id.) “It is interesting to note that some sections of Haydn’s ‘Creation’ have been adapted to choral songs which describe Amaterasu-o-mikami’s coming out of the Rock-dwelling of Heaven. (Anesaki)”.
OKINAGA-TARASHI-HIME, THE EMPRESS JINGO. (Herbert, id.) on other floats in the same procession (see above): (14) The Urade-Yama represents Jingu-Kogo carrying out divination ... (20) The Funa-hoko, in the shape of a ship (funa), which carried Jingu-kogo in her expedition to Korea. The Empress stands in it clad in red armour”. See also under May 20th.
JULY 19th
Egyptian: ISIS; MUT. The Opet Festival. The Marriage of Isis and Osiris. (Fell. of Isis Dir.) “July 19th. Opet Festival. Union of Isis and Osiris. Twin Souls. Spritual Union”.
(Christiane Desroches - Noblecourt, Tutankhamen, p. 185) “Every year in the month of Paophi, the second month of the floods, came the period of eleven days during which the capital celebrated the feast of Opet ... Ipet (Opet) - esut was the name of the temple at Karnak ... it was to this temple that Amun and his spouse Mut, accompanied by the god Khonsu, proceeded ceremonially at the time of this ‘divine emergence’, giving the crowd a glimpse of the triad of its three great gods. With the return of the royal family to Thebes, the feast of Opet recovered its lustre, and the majestic and festive spectacle it provided on the banks of the Nile and round the temples so impressed Tutankhamen, that he had all its phases sculpted”.
(Vera Vanderlip, on Isidorus, p. 27) “The Egyptian new year, which began theoretically with the coming of the Nile flood, was also celebrated as the marriage of Isis.” See also July 23rd.
Graeco-Roman: APHRODITE AND VENUS; The Adonia, in honour of Aphrodite or Venus and Adonis. (Walton, O.C.D., Adonia) “The Adonia ... At Alexandria the Rites consisted of a magnificent pageant of the wedding of Adonis and Aphrodite ... There was, perhaps, considerable variation in the content as in the date of the festival ... In fifth-century Athens they were held in April, in Ptolemaic Egypt perhaps in September, while under the Empire, the accepted date was 19th July”.
JULY 20th
Syrian: ST. MARGARET, of Antioch. (Irish Catholic Dir.) “- July 20 ... S. Margaret, Virgin …” (Church of England Cal.) “July 20th. Margaret, Virgin …” (Enc. Brit. 1812 ed.) “Margaret, St … The Orientals pay reverence to her by the name of Saint Pelagia or Saint Marina, and the western church by that of Saint Geruma or Saint Margaret.” Her date is given as the second half of the third century.
JULY 21st
Greek: DAMO. (Perp. Fest. Cal.) “July 21. Damo …”
(Lempriere, Dict.) on Damo, daughter of Theano wife of Pythagoras: “Damo ... Pythagoras at his death entrusted her with all the secrets of his philosophy, and gave her the unlimited care of his compositions Laert. in Pythag.”
JULY 22nd
Sun enters Leo (tropical).
Jewish: ST. MARY MAGDALENE. (Irish Catholic Dir. and Church of England Cal.) “July 22nd. S. Mary Magdalene”.
JULY 23rd
Egyptian: SOPDET, SOTHIS. (Fell. of Isis Dir.) “July 23rd. Festival of the Rise of Sothis-Sirius. Star of Isis. Stellar Beings. Awareness of the Stars”.
(Gardiner, Egy. Grammar, p. 205) “It must have been early recognised that the Nile began to rise afresh about the same time (near July 19th of the Julian Calendar) that the brilliant star Sirius (the dog-star), after having been invisible for a prolonged period, was first again observed in the sky shortly before sunrise. Consequently this latter event, described by modern astronomers as the heliacal rising of Sirius and by the Egyptians as prt Spdt ‘the going up of (the goddess) Sothis’, came to be regarded as the true New Year’s Day (wpt-rnpt, ‘the opening of the year’), i.e. ... ‘first month of inundation, day 1’ ”. (Fagan, Zodiacs Old and New, p. 14) on the three New Year festivals of Egypt: “The third New Year’s Day is that of the Heliacal Rising of the ‘Arrow-Star’ Sirius, which heralded the 1st day of the Sothic year”. See also under July 3rd.
Roman: SALACIA. (Seyffert, Dict.) “Salacia. A Roman goddess of the salt water. She was identified with the Greek Amphitrite, and regarded as the wife of Neptune.” (O.C.D.) “Salacia, cult-partner of Neptunus (Gellius 13.23.2), probably the numen of springing water (root of salire ...); Neptunus is a deity originally of fresh water”. (Rose, O.C.D.) “Neptunus ... His festival is of the oldest series (Neptunalia, 23 July); we know concerning its ritual only that arbours, umbrae, of boughs were commonly erected (Festus …) but it may be conjectured that its object was to obtain sufficient water at this hot and dry time of year.”
(Philocalus, Kal. anno 354) “July 23. Neptunalici.”
JULY 25th
Roman: FURRINA; The Furrinalia. (van Buren, O.C.D.) “Furrina (preferable to Furina), a divinity belonging to the earliest stratum of Roman religion; she possessed a grove, and annual festival (Furrinalia, 25th July), and a flamen ... Furrina. may have been a divinity of a spring or of springs”.
(Varro, Ling. Lat. VI. 19) “The Furrinalia, Festival of Furrina, for this day is a state holiday for this goddess; honour was paid to her among the ancients, who instituted an annual offering to her, and assigned to her a special priest”. Note: (Cicero, De Nat. Deorum, III. 46) on the Eumenides: “And if they are goddesses, - and they have a temple at Athens, and the Grove of Furina at Rome, as I interpret that name, also belongs to them, - the Furies are goddesses, presumably in their capacity of detectors and avengers of crime and wickedness”.
JULY 26th
Jewish: St. Anne. (Irish Catholic Dir.) “July 26th. St. Anne, Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary”. (Church of England Cal.) “July 26th. St. Anne”.
JULY 27th
Egyptian: HATSHEPSUT, Queen of Egypt. (Perp. Fest. Cal.) “Hatshepsut, Egyptian Queen - Initiate, suggested date, 1500 (before this era)”. (Fell. of Isis Dir.) “Queen Hatshepsut, Pharaoh. Architecture. Peaceful art of government”.
JULY 28th
Samian: PYTHAIS. (Perp. Fest. Cal.) “July 28th. Pythais, mother of Pythagoras”.
JULY 29th
Jewish: ST. MARTHA. (Irish Catholic Dir.) “July 29th. St. Martha, Virgin.”
JULY 30th
German-Russian: HELENA BLAVATSKY, Occultist. (Josephine Ransom, in The Secret Doctrine, Preface, Vol. I. p. 13) “Helena Petrovna Hahn was born at the midnight hour between 30 and 31 July (in the Russian Calendar 12 August) 1831, at Ekaterinoslav”.
JULY 31st
Celtic: Oidhche Lúghnasa, August Eve.
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