THE SPIRIT OF THE CORN

Many cultures that maintain a direct link with the land, and rely on
the production of food crops, have a rich mythology surrounding the
cycle of the seasons. When we look at the traditions of the
communities who still practice the old seasonal festivals, we begin
to be aware that, as we have moved away from this personal link with
the land, we have lost something quite precious in personal and
community terms. One of the main things we have lost is stories -
those myths and tales which speak gently and with wisdom to the
deeper part of our being, beyond logical thinking They inspire us to
create pageants, celebrations, feasts, ceremonies, and dancing,
activity that fills the place of TV, with its sterile stories
of 'real' life feeding us with false adrenaline and sense of
companionship.

In the celebrations of the earth cycles each individual within the
community could find a place for their particular gifts, whether that
be cooking, dancing, making costume, or teaching words to the young
people -the traditional parts would often be passed down in families.
All ages, also had their part to play; the young people could
spectate, have fun and learn through the stories the deeper levels of
meaning within the myths, the underlying parallels with their own
life-cycle, of conception, growing, maturing and death. In this
simple way these major events are accepted as being as natural, and
inevitable as the seasons themselves and a part of the larger
Creation.

DEMETER AND KORE

European traditions were greatly influenced by the culture of the
Ancient Greeks, whose earth-mother,or corn-mother goddess was called
Demeter. Legend tells how Demeter's daughter Kore, the Maiden,
(sometimes called Persephone) was outside playing one day, picking
flowers, when Pluto, the God of the Underworld found her and carried
her off to his realm to be his queen.

Her mother, Demeter, wandered desolately searching for her, disguised
as an old woman. Eventually she came to Eleusis, near Athens, and
lived humbly there for a year, in sorrowful brooding. During this
time the crops shriveled and men and animals died. Zeus intervened
and ordered Pluto to release Kore, and Demeter was united joyfully
with her daughter. But in the underworld Kore had eaten of the sacred
pomegranate, which bound her to return to the underworld for a third
of each year. Now, like the seed corn, she spends part of each year
underground, and part above the surface. Within this myth we see
marking of the seasons, and the promise of life after death, spring
after winter.

EGYPTIAN INUNDATION

In the creation mythology of ancient Egypt, the Goddess Isis
represented the land, waiting for the fertilizating overflow of the
Nile, personified by her consort, Osiris. Seth, Osiris' brother,
(representing the power of drought), murdered and dismembered Osiris.
Isis, sorrowing, found and re-assembled all the body parts of her
beloved Osiris, except for the phallus, substituting one of gold.
Osiris found new life as Lord of the D Dead, and was resurrected in
the birth of his new son, Horus. Osiris was also the corn. Effigies
of corn were buried in tombs, and in tomb paintings, we see corn
springing from Osiris' corpse. One inscription at Philae says:

"This is the form of him whom one may not name, Osiris of the
Mysteries, who springs from the returning waters."

So here is a myth that is linked to the specific patterns of drought
and fertility in the land, and promises that life will follow death,
as fertility follows drought.

Osiris 'beds' were also put into tombs using the cycle of germination
as a symbol of resurrection. These consisted of a wooden tray, made
in the form of Osiris, filled with earth and sown with corn. They
were fitted with a perforated cover through which the seed could
sprout.

So important was the association with the harvest, that part of the
Pharoah's regalia of office was the flail,the jointed rods that were
used to separate the corn at threshing.

~HerbalWitchCraft