Today the Vatican is celebrating the Three Wise Men. Children all over Italy are holding presents they received from La Befana. Sometimes La Befana, the Good Witch, flies in her animal form and fills old socks with gifts. In southern Italy she comes in the form of a small ant. In other towns she comes in the form of a great big cow. Children bang on drums and shout her name and laugh and sing for the ancient old woman to come and bring them gifts. An echo to ancient shamanic ceremonies.
The ancient woman comes in many animal forms depending on which geographical area one is in. In Rome, we love discussing her tattered socks in a song that all people chant. Just stand in Rome and shout out loud: ‘la Befana vien di notte!’ Without skipping a beat a voice of a nearby Roman will automatically join in ‘con le calze tutte rotte!’ It’s not a song, it’s a giggle chant. Everyone smiles. It has a rhythm to it.
The socks, le calze, are in fact a great clue to her ancient archetypal origin. In her different forms and versions all over Italy one common thread is the sock. Children put out their woven socks for her. In some villages its not a sock but an actual thread itself that is given. Anthropologists Claudia and Luigi Manciocco have gathered research from all over Italy and noted that through the centuries the Befana has been associated with the sacred thread. The thread of life. She and her fellow Fates use the thread of life to weave the world into reality. They are not the only ones to have a profound association with thread.
Goddess Athena in pre-Greek times was shown with the spindle as a sign of her status as the Great Weaver Goddess. The Creatrix, Mother Earth, had several symbols of her universal power. The spindle, weaving and thread were one. Researcher Max Dashu points out that spinning yarn into thread was not only a woman’s job but a sign of the Goddesses presence.
This was known to such a degree that in medieval times the Church banned women from weaving spells into their textiles. This led to the famous burning of the spinning wheel. Remember, Sleeping Beauty? The spinning wheels were all burned by the bad witch but in reality it was the church that in medieval times banned weaving spells into textiles. In Florence the festival of women, the weavers, took place also on the Epiphany.
The Befana and her Neolithic Goddess counterpart, both are closely associated with animals. In Befana’s case it has been split into geographical locations. Sometimes she is a dog, others a deer. In neolithic and paleolithic times the One Goddess was known to shapeshift into all things on Earth as she was the Earth. This means she was in the water, on land and in the air. What better way to symbolize this than in animals? Such as water, land and air animals. Popular animals of the Goddess were snake, fish, deer and bird. Archaeologist Maria Gimbutas and author of Lady of the Beasts have collected many examples from all over the world.
In the Vatican today the Befana waltzes into St Peters as part of a great procession.
The Befana is associated with Goddess Diana-Artemis who also comes in deer form and is known, like the Befana, for her sacred nocturnal flight. The anthropologist Claudio Manciocco links la Befana with the famous Cibele Sibyl.
We can say that the Sibyls walk back into the Vatican today. A location that once was theirs. A sacred power spot of massive oracular power. As each pope chose a Sibyl to be associated with and to have on their tomb. We can see that the Sibyls never fully left.
Clues, such as the presence and ancient roots of the Befana, we can see that the Mother Goddess is still here, the famous Sibyl oracles are still here.
The great, ancient, primordial power of the Divine Feminine is still intact.
The Divine Feminine for all of earth, all of humanity. One home for all.