🌹🎶 Budding Hope

A Spring Equinox Ramble

What dare we dream of?

As the mechanisms of hate roll out their ego-pumped drones of destruction, hopeful buds peel open on tree branches. In Syria, preparations are underway for Nowruz celebrations, heralding the first official recognition of a Kurdish Holiday following a landmark decree recognising Kurdish as a national language in January. As the new moon floats into the dreamy constellation of Pisces, and spring days lengthen to equal night, millions of people will jump bonfires and prepare feasts for Persian New Year.

«زردیِ من از تو، سُرخیِ تو از من»
Zardi-ye man az to, sorkhi-ye to az man
‘May my paleness be yours, and may your redness be mine.

The Zoroastrian belief that fire is divine light and wisdom flickers in the Nowruz fire-jumping ritual, which celebrates the movement from winter to spring and the cleansing of negative energies, ready for a fresh start. Other rituals include the قاشُق‌زنی qāshoq-zani ‘spoon banging’ of pots and pans to drive out negative energies, a practice which also features in English Apple Orchard Wassails. To guard against misfortune in the new year, Kurdish villagers collect a pebble from the local spring, throwing it behind them without looking back as they return home.

Atargatis - Judith Shaw

Swimming in ancient Mesopotamian waters, we find the first known mermaid Goddess Atargatis. Known as Dea Syria/ Goddess of Syria, she was baalat / mistress of the city Hierapolis, modern-day Manbij and her temples, scattered across Syria, Lebanon and Turkey, contained sacred fish touchable only by eunuch priests. Carried by Syrian merchants into Greece and Italy, she became known as Derketo and merged with the water-born Goddess Venus/ Aphrodite, hatching from an egg in the Euphrates, clasped in the wings of doves.

Depicted riding lions, carrying doves and wearing a dolphin crown, in diverse myths, Atargatis swims the night skies as the constellation Pisces. As Derketo she persuaded Zeus to immortalise the fish who saved her from drowning after she fell into a lake. As Venus, she fell into the Euphrates with Cupid, whilst fleeing Typhon, where they were both either saved by or transformed into fish. In two intertwining tragic tales, she threw herself into a lake; either as Derketo, after falling in love with a mortal shepherd and killing him out of shame after giving birth to their child, or as Atargatis, after accidentally killing her beloved husband, Hadad. Today, we catch a flicker of her culturally fluid mermaid tail in a V of stars.

Rescued by doves after her mother’s death. Atargatis’s daughter, Semiramis, is identified with the historical Shammuramat (850-798 BC), who, unusually, maintained her Queenly status after the death of her consort Shamshi-Adad V. Mythologically attributed various roles, including founding Ninevah and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, she was the only historical Assyrian female to take part in military campaigns alongside her son Adad-nirari III.

Photo by Isaac Quesada on Unsplash

This tangle of fishy tales points to the fluid relationship between the real and imaginary. What becomes real often only does so after swimming about in the conceptual realms. The first ‘eureka’ moment is said to have been water-born to Greek writer Archimedes, who leapt out of his bath, saying ‘I have it!’ after realising that the waters rose as he entered. The myth goes that this enabled him to solve the King’s dilemma about how to test if his crown was pure gold, but it’s more likely that his bathtime experiments enabled him to write his foundational text on hydrostatics, On Floating Bodies. He certainly wasn’t the first or the last to have an enlightening dream in the bath.

Dreams encourage daring. whether it’s leaping out of a bath to solve a dilemma or taking steps towards a more equitable, peaceful society. Kurdish political analyst Zaid Safouk described the recognition of Nowruz as “a message of hope that peace remains the only path for societies.” Dare we dream of a day when all global leaders follow this flame of wisdom? I will leave you with the old Irish Blessing, in celebration of Paddy’s Day, with the hope that the road of peace rises to meet us.