She’s more popular than Santa in some parts of Italy— and it’s been passed down to me that she represents the liminal space between ancestors and children, not unlike how the ancestors deliver candy to the children on Il Morti. She is the one who keeps the bond alive between the worlds of this season, delivering sacred treats of nuts, figs, sweets from the otherworld to this one, reaffirming the connection between the living and the dead.
Read MoreLucy is a mysterious wonder of winter. What do her eyes really mean? In a culture where the evil eye is so prominent and wearing small eye amulets are common for protection, could she be a symbol of protection, a seer that predicts and wards away the evil? Or as the Goddess of Light, is she the one who enables us to “see” through the underworld of winter? To help us carry on with a new kind of “sight”? Or are her eyes a message to us to “stay awake, eyes open, watching” even in this season of hibernation? Or is she the bringer of hope and the promise of grain? When we are starved of light, of fresh food, is she the carrier of sacred seeds that can be stored during the winter months? Is she the reminder to be grateful for abundance, that we have seed to soak and cook over the winter fire, slowly, filling our bellies until the season shifts and the soil is soft again, and the sun is re-born?
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