Sacred Grove Night. The procession moves through the forest. The priests from the dancing rhythm. Women, garlands of flowers in their hair and torches in hand to invoke the Goddess and fertility prayers rise mysterious and terrible, whose meaning has been lost. The goddess is present, they perceive the distance between the leaves dark. Or perhaps they are nocturnal animals, they observe carefully the strange procession. But it makes no difference, wild animals are the goddess and the goddess are the animals. They know that today, in honor of the goddess, no hunting is banned, no one bother you.
The forest breathes, sweats, shakes. Attendance will be barely perceptible in the dark, will be those archaic words spoken in a voice thick, will be the desires, wishes, the wishes. It 's the mother forest, and at the same time rebellious and mysterious, like the myth of the earth itself.
not have to cross the oceans to find magical forests. We are walking distance from Rome, as its periphery, and still live the sacred grove of Nemi, lying attron lake sacred to the goddess. The power of this place was great. The Sacred Way, the main artery of the Roman Forum, which flowed in the early years of processions, sacred festivals and triumphs, heads straight to the Wood of Nemi, a religious center in Rome was a mere periphery. The Sacred Grove
then extended over all the Alban hills, a forest of oaks and live oaks that had illago epicenter, the Sacred Mirror of Diana.
Nemorensis Diana (Diana of the woods) was the goddess of the forest. Artemis was the mystery of the forest, the elusive goddess of wild nature. It would not accept violations. When the Theban prince Actaeon spied her bathing naked, Artemis did not forgive the violation, and sentenced him to death the counterpoise of the hunter transformed him into a deer. The pompous prince felt what it means to be hunted down by dogs, and I devoured those same dogs he trained to kill.
Artemis, the revenge of the game, in this forest was honored as Diana, Hecate and Lucina (and even as Isis)
Protected by Diana, had lived in this sacred forest, the nymph Egeria. He was honored, and many went so far to listen to his predictions, but did not live in palaces or temples, because his home was the forest.
Egeria, muse and wife of the second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius. When her husband died, Egeria, which was not taken, melted into tears in his forest, until Diana, moved to pity by his pain, turned into a source, a spring gushed from the rocks to fall into the lake with waterfalls. Today Diana
Nemorense no longer reigns in this region, and few have eyes to see the tears flow into Egeria Sacred Mirror of the Goddess.
But Artemis-Diana is still here in this small forest to the crater, breached by the villas that have strangled the lake, from roads and camps.
Artemis still holds its festivals here. There are no priests, nor maidens crowned with flowers. There are only them, the forest animals, the few survivors dormice, dormice, hares, moles, voles, rabbits, weasels, martens, skunks, foxes and badgers.
's not a grand feast, as you might imagine the Latins. From the cliffs above the tuff get the noises of a bloated and coarse edge. Smarmittato a van, an iron mill, the rattle of a chain saw. The old songs are known to cling to the rocks silent, mysterious invocations are forgotten. Yet the ancient goddess is here, in the trees, leaves, in the thrill of the animals. His bare feet trample plastic bags and broken glass, abandoned the remains of an archaeological dig. In its most ancient land, Artemis camping as illegal immigrant. Violated, humiliated, forced to suffer in silence any desecration, Artemis does not react with exemplary punishments. You know, the fallen goddess, that these human deaf to his power, you throw yourself into the trap of Actaeon. They'll tear their own dogs. And then the forests will grow back around the goddess. With the patience of the centuries to come.
