A funny thing happened to me at a wedding

I was recently stalking browsing my favorite blogs and saw a lovely ornament over at Cordelias Cauldron.  Well, I mentioned my love of peacocks to Cordelia and soon received some wonderful gifts from her.  So, I thought I would show them off here.  However, first there is a back story (isn’t there ALWAYS a back story?) that I have to tell before you get to see the goodies. It all came about one warm Wisconsin day while celebrating the love of a good friend:

My patron goddess made herself known to me during a catholic wedding ceremony I attended.  If any of you have ever been to one, you know about the kneeling, standing, kneeling, standing—well you get the idea.  There is another component to these as well.  At various times during the ceremony, someone will get up and do a reading from the bible, or from a poem, or they will express some lovely sentiments for the happy couple.  

So, during this celebration of a friend’s love, I heard a family member say very clearly (as if they were beside me) and loud enough for the entire congregation to hear, 

“Hera blesses this union.”

Now, I did not think anything of this, as it had been happening as different times throughout the service.  It was not until the reception that I found out there was no family member named Hera and, apparently, I had been the only one to hear this invocation.  What happened was this:

As I went through the receiving line with my daughter at my side, I mentioned to her that I thought it was very nice of the grandmother to bless the marriage.  My daughter looked at me with a strange look on her face and said OK.  Now, my daughter often looks at me strangely so I did not think anything of this. When we got to the couple (the bride was a co-worker and friend), I asked about the blessing and the bride said that there was no Hera in either family.  My daughter took this opportunity to look at me with a “see I knew you were going crazy” look on her face.  As we too our leave and were driving home, I insisted that I was not hearing things and that Hera had expressly given her blessing to my friend’s marriage. Again, my daughter proceeded with the rolling of the eyes and silent pleas to the goddess to take pity on the crazy lady.

So, once we got home I got onto the computer and typed in the name Hera.  I found out that she is the Greek goddess of, among other things, marriage.  She is the queen of the deities being Zeus’s wife (Lindemans, 2001).  Now, thinking that Hera was a peaceful goddess (who else would be the patron of marriage and birth) I was happy that she gave her blessing.  

However, after further reading about how Zeus cheated on her all the time and that she was a vengeful woman made me wonder about the implications of such a pronouncement.  Was this a good thing for the two lovebirds or did it bode ill will?  Would my friend end up sad and lonely or would she have a long and happy married life?

Considering that this was about eight years ago and the two of them are still so very madly in love with each other you can taste it...I think it was a great thing.  Maybe Hera, having been the scorned lover so many times, knew that those two people were each other’s destined lover.

Okay, now that you know the story, let me tell you a couple of things with which Hera is associated.  Her scared animals are cows and peacocks.  Other associations include the crow, pomegranate (Lindemans, 2001).   The Romans worship Hera as Juno and the most popular month for weddings, June, is named after her (Hera, Greek Goddess of Love and Marriage).  

Which brings us to the visuals:

A duplicate of the ornament that I admired at Cordelia's Cauldron

A beautiful candle

A clip of peacock feathers

 Thank you Cordelia for the wonderful gifts!!

References:

Hera, Greek Goddess of Love and Marriage. (n.d.). Retrieved November 26, 2011, from goddess gift.com: http://www.goddessgift.com/goddess-myths/greek_goddess_hera.htm

Lindemans, M. (2001, May 12). Hera. Retrieved November 26, 2011, from Encyclopedia Mythica™: http://www.pantheon.org/articles/h/hera.html