Horse Magick: Spells and Rituals for Self-Empowerment, Protection, and Prosperity - Lawren Leo 2020
The Great Mare
The Roman Empire was vast at its apogee. Under the emperor Trajan, who reigned from 98 to 117 CE, it stretched from England to Syria, and from Germany to Egypt. Its estimated 70 million inhabitants had incredibly diverse religions and customs. Like the Egyptians, the Romans frequently adopted deities outside their pantheon. Although the army worshipped Mars and the Zoroastrian god Mithras, the cavalry (alae) was specifically responsible for spreading the cult of Epona, whose name is Gaulish for “divine mare.”
Epona
The cult of this Celtic horse goddess was most popular in the first three centuries CE. Horses had always played an important role in Celtic religion. According to the observations of the Roman historian Tacitus, the Celts kept pure white horses that had never been used for work in sacred groves.1 The druids practiced hippomancy, the art of divination based on a horse's actions or appearance. For example, they interpreted neighs and snorts, or the sequence in which a horse moved its legs when it pulled a cart.
There are remote parallels between Epona and the older horse goddesses worshipped in Wales—Rhiannon, the Mare of Sovereignty—and in Ireland, where they worshipped Macha. But for the Celts, Epona played many roles. She was the goddess of fertility and death, and of both the Otherworld and the land of the living. She was a fierce warrior as well a loving mother. In the Roman period, she was almost always shown as a lovely young woman holding a cornucopia or patera, a shallow offering bowl, filled with grain, flanked by horses or mules. In other instances, she is shown riding side-saddle. There are representations of Epona in expensive mediums like marble and bronze, but also many in terra-cotta and wood. Temples dedicated to her are found in areas of Europe where the Roman soldiers were of Celtic blood, but there are a great number of extant altars that bear dedicatory inscriptions to her scattered throughout the empire. It is not surprising that they have been found in stables, where they were meant to protect the horses, especially when foaling.
Epona, in Roman times, was primarily the guardian of soldiers. The placement of grave markers, votive offerings, and inscribed statues near rivers, as well as depictions of her with a key, identify her as a psychopomp, a deity or spiritual being who accompanied and guided those who died to the Otherworld. Her feast day in ancient Rome was December 18, and the flower sacred to her is the rose. There is a humorous anecdote concerning worship of Epona in Roman writer Apuleius's novel, The Golden Ass. Here the protagonist, while in the form of an ass, eats roses that a devotee of the goddess had placed on her altar in a stable.2
SPELL FOR BONDING WITH, PROTECTING, AND REMEMBERING ANIMAL COMPANIONS
Use this spell to bond with, protect, and remember animal companions through the power of the ancient Celtic horse goddess Epona.
What you need:
Red, white, or yellow roses; dove's-blood ink; parchment paper; and a bowl of grain (oats will do just fine).
Instructions:
Follow the instructions found within the spell. Gather your roses and all else you'll need, then begin to read the spell slowly, as if Epona were speaking through you:
Bring me all your roses today—yellow, red, and white.
With dove's-blood ink on parchment, this is what to write:
Some pleasant words to honor me and then your heartfelt plea.
Make an altar grand or plain, and put on top a bowl of grain.
Place your petition on my altar under a rose deep red.
State your pet's name thrice and forever you'll be wed.
Another petition goes on my altar, but with a yellow rose aglow,
Injury, attack, and harm, your pet will never know.
A last petition goes on my altar under a rose forever white.
Your pet has passed, but lives with me where there is never night.
Great Goddess Epona! Punish those who would harm our animal companions;
Bless those who keep them safe and offer them loving homes.
May my roses and petitions honor you and keep you at my side in peace and war.
Why did I choose red, yellow, and white roses? Red roses are associated with love—the deepest bond. Yellow roses are associated with friendship and as an offering to Epona for protection. White roses are associated with resurrection and renewal.
Why did I choose dove's-blood ink, parchment paper, and oats? Dove's-blood ink is used to seal this spell's promise and to show loyalty. Parchment paper (or any stiff paper) is traditionally used in magickal operations to remind practitioners that this is not a mundane act. Oats are simple to find at the market and are magickally associated with health and abundance.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
For a thorough, well-documented, and helpful site on Epona, see: http://epona.net (accessed 5/20/2018).
Primary sources
Apuleius. The Golden Ass, trans. Sarah Ruden (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011).
Tacitus, Cornelius. Tacitus I, Agricola. Germania. Dialogus, trans. M. Hutton and W. Peterson, rev. ed. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1914).
Secondary sources
Bullia, Cassandra. Transcending Borders: An Analysis of Epona Worship Cross-Culturally and Her Roman Adoption. Retrieved from https://academia.edu (accessed 6/6/2018).
Davidson, Hilda R. E. Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions (Manchester, England: Manchester University Press, 1988).
Hughes, Kristoffer. From the Cauldron Born: Exploring the Magic of Welsh Legend and Lore (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn, 2017).
Linduff, Katheryn. “Epona: A Celt among the Romans,” Latoma 38, 4 (1979), pp. 817—837.
Waddell, John. “Equine Cults and Celtic Goddesses,” Emania Bulletin of the Navan Research Group 24 (2018), pp. 5—18.
Winkle, Jeffrey T. “Epona Salvatrix? Isis and the Horse Goddess in Apuleius' Metamorphoses,” Ancient Narrative 12 (2015).
NOTES
1 Tacitus, Germania, IX—X.
2 Apuleius, 3.7.