Lua Saturni

February 18, 2025 Phyto-Holographic Sam

An Ancient and Forgotten Italian Goddess

Saturn's Plague, Saturn’s Misery, Saturn’s Will, Saturn’s Law

Paul Heermann ( 1673 - 1732 ) Saturn and Ops circa 1700 Marble Statue. Learn more here.

INTRODUCTION

Fueled by a dream of the God Saturn in 2020, I began Ancestral Healing and Veneration which ran parallel with a 3-year program learning Natural Medicine, and led me directly into the warm embrace of the Etruscan Pantheon. As of current, I have not disclosed the entirety of that dream, though I have alluded to it many times across my socials. It is of great importance that the reader understands that “dreams of Saturn”, as well as his proximity to me, are not out of the ordinary.

In April 2023, when Pluto dipped into Aquarius briefly, I was called to share information about a Goddess who I believe has been in my life ever since I can remember. Her name is Lua Saturni, and she is, of course, connected to Saturn. Pluto retrograded out of Aquarius and back into Capricorn for a final time, and her prominent energy dissipated from my life, making way for other energies to come forward. One of these energies was Usil, the Etruscan Sun God who has taught me a lot about Solar Time, Circadian Rhythms, biophotons, and many other facets of health and well-being that rely on the Sun. I have both directly and indirectly shared this information in 2024 across this blog and my Substack.

At the time of writing this, we are back in the Pluto in Aquarius transit, and we will never see a Pluto in Capricorn transit in our lifetimes. That being said, I was called to revise my original blog post about Lua Saturni, so the following post contains unaltered material from the original post mixed with new information and revised work. That being said, if you read the original post, some of this material may be redundant.

In the days leading up to diving back into research, I had many conversations with Tantric Practitioner and Podcast Host Brigid Burke, who interestingly, was the person I spoke to when I wrote the first post of Lua Saturni. Now, Brigid and I are both being called to engage with similar forces, and I should not have to remind my fellow magicians, witches, and ritualists what a blessing it is to have someone walk with you on a parallel journey.

Of note: I have a small group of friends who I talk to about this stuff. You know who you are! I don’t want to leave you out, but I also don’t want to blast your personal spiritual journey on my blog!

In this post, I will often allude to the Etruscans, Romans, and Greeks. For more on the Etruscans, the indigenous people of Italy, please check out my previous blog posts. For context, the Etruscans’ culture, religion, and pantheon were impacted by the Greek and Roman Pantheon, while also contributing to the Greek and Roman Pantheon, culture, and more.

Learn more here:

I will be sharing both academic research (I’m not an academic, I am a hobbyist Etruscan enthusiast) along with my personal gnosis on Lua Saturni and the Saturnian Deity. I use this term “Saturnian Deity” because, as Arthur Moros stated, the Saturnian Deity has held many names and faces throughout time and culture. I share the same opinion, even before I read The Cult of the Black Cube. This “Saturnian energy” is neither the Astrological Saturn, nor is it the Roman Saturn (and yet we cannot say that it isn’t).

As far as Lua Saturni is concerned, allow me to make a brief introduction, and then we will discuss Saturn’s connection first since she was invoked alongside Saturn. Lua is an ancient Italian Goddess, and she was part of the Roman Pantheon. She may have been connected to the Etruscan Pantheon under a different name, and we will touch on this later in this post. The word lua translates to plague in Latin, and this seems to be her main mode: destruction, dissolution, sickness, plague, and war. The following are Etruscan words that may or may not be related to the name Lua: Lupu, which means to die or has died, and luθ (pronounced luth) means altar, fecund, or field. Lua may have meant “stumbling block or dissoluteness”. Luca meant pain, grief, or mourning. Leusa meant heartbreaking and Lvs meant “destroyer or punishing God”.

LUA AND the SATURNurnian Deity

For my ancestors, the Etruscans, nature was a venerated energy that bore aspects of itself, displaying various physical forms. The Roman God Saturn and the Saturnian Deity were especially significant to my ancestors. Saturn was known as the King of Latium/Italy and the Father of the Ancient Italian People. This remarkably complex and archaic energy represented agriculture, land, time, and treasures found under the Earth (although this is now primarily Pluto’s domain in modern Astrology). Let’s also not forget the Golden Age of Saturn where he ruled, and the ancient Romans described this age as a great era of peace, harmony, equality, and abundance on Earth. Lastly, my good friend, Astro-Nerd, and fellow Italian-American, Alex Cason once reminded me that Saturn was the King of the Elysian Fields, the Isles of the Blessed Afterlife for heroes and revered ones.

Ancient Romans equated him to the Greek Titan Cronus, the God of the Harvest, yet the ancient Greeks recognized Cronus as a dangerous and temperamental deity who ruled over disorder. The Romans, however, perceived their Saturn as an altruistic mentor. Cronus is not to be confused with Chronos, who was the personified embodiment of Time itself. Although, my personal gnosis on this is “same hat, different head”. It is part of the same energetic body, yet the heart does not look like the kidney, does it?

Saturn was worshiped since the 6th century BCE, and as I’ve mentioned previously, this general archetypal energy was probably worshipped before that under different names. His name could be derived from “satus” which means to sow. There was also an ancient town called Satria in Latium, and it is thought that his name could have come from that. An alternative theory, and I tend to lean into this theory personally, is that he may have been the Etruscan Aise (the Etruscan word for God was Aise) named Satre who was thought to be a dangerous Death God who “ruled in the northwest sky”, the part of the sky relegated to omens of misfortune and enemies. Little is known about Satre, but some believe he ruled over funeral rites and the underworld. The Etruscans did not even like to say his name, and very little is known about Satre. Certain authors maintain that Saturn is a derivative of this Etruscan Aise. It is said that the earliest Saturn had an altar in the southwest part of the Forum which was associated with the Companions of Hercules.

In the popular myth of Saturn, his son Jupiter overthrew him, and Saturn fled to Rome. He was greeted by the two-headed God Janus, from which we get the word for January, and he founded the city of Saturnia. This begins the reign of Saturn’s Golden Age. The Ancient Romans perceived Saturn as a Benevolent God who taught his people to take care of themselves, sustain life, and was adamant about the prospects of equality and peace. There are accounts that during Saturn’s Golden Age, there was harmony and equality among all people, and Gods and humans co-existed in kinship and unity.

This is even more interesting when we remember that in Astrology, Saturn exalts in Libra, the sign of peace and equality. To take this further, Etruscan women were seen as equal. They were allowed to gamble, go to festivals, and drink with men. This societal view and way of life further emboldened Greeks and Romans to view Etruscans not only as “effeminate”, but also as “barbaric”. This strong tie to a Libra aspect is possibly why Saturn was also a God of Liberation, an aspect we will shortly analyze in a festival dedicated to him, and a Goddess with whom he is allied.

Ironically, in astrology, we do not associate being unbound as a Saturnian signification. In fact, the act of being bound or restricted is the energetic essence of our Astrological Saturn. However, by the end of this post, we will notice that Saturnian Deities have the ability to cause harm or protect oneself from harm. This theme also resumes through Lua as well.

In the myths, there was a prophecy stating that one of Saturn’s sons would overthrow him, and to prevent this prophecy from coming true, he began eating his children whole. That is, until one day, Rhea, his wife, wrapped a rock in cloth, and fed that to Saturn in place of his son Jupiter. Note: did you know that dinosaurs, crocodiles, birds, and goats ate/eat rocks? They are called gastroliths and are said to help digest food in their stomachs. Saturn rules over dinosaurs (birds are the descendants of dinosaurs), crocodiles, and goats. I always found this correlation fascinating.

Allow me to brush briefly on Saturnalia, a Roman festival and holiday that was devoted to Saturn, and took place between December 17 - 23. It also marked the Winter Solstice, and was a celebration when all social normality and structure stopped for one week. This holiday was said to be a remembrance of Saturn’s Golden Age. During this holiday, everyone could participate in the festivities, and a “Lord of Misrule” was appointed for this holiday, serving as the Mock-King and Merry-maker. An alternate name for the Lord was Saturnalicius princeps (leader of the Saturnalia) and made sure that everyone was participating in the chaos. Gifts, coins, and handwritten “verses”, like our Christmas cards, were exchanged, making Saturnalia the predecessor of Christmas. Both Saturn and Lua were honored during this festival. Attendees would offer Lua the weapons of their enemies as sympathetic magic to weaken any weapons still in the hands of the opposers, and the bodies of warriors who died in battle were offered to Saturn.

LUA’S ASSOCIATION WITH RHEA AND OPS

Lua Saturni has been called Saturn’s wife, consort, cohort, and associate, however, Saturn has already been known to have a wife named Rhea. Are they the same Goddess?

Rhea was a Greek Goddess of childbirth, menstrual flow, flow of time, abundance, wealth, and agriculture. She was also a Patroness of Opportunity, and she was Abundance personified. In many depictions of her, she is often flanked by two lions. Rhea’s Anatolian equivalent is Cybele, whose symbol was also lions and went by another name: “Magna Mater” (Great Mother), who had a mysterious Mediterranean cult called The Cult of Magna Mater that revered the Divine Feminine and Mother Goddesses.

Rhea’s name means “flow”, so where Saturn rules over time, Rhea rules over the flow of time. I always associated Rhea with Space-Time, or perhaps how time affects other planets, galaxies, or even unseen dimensions.

Ops is the Sabine equivalent of Rhea, and her partner was an Italian deity named Consus, a God of the Grain, specifically grain that was stored away. Ops had a temple devoted to her in the Regia (Royal House), and it was so sacred only the vestal virgins could enter it. On August 29th, her festival Opalia took place in this temple and marked the end of the harvest. These festivals certainly included activities that also celebrated Consus, but his distinct festival was on December 19th when the ancient Italians stored away their grain.

“In later times, [Rhea] is connected with the Greek God Kronos, but in earlier times, along with her epithet Consiua, she is more connected to an older God called Consus. [ … ]

Consus was honored in an underground altar in the valley of the circus at the foot of the Palatine. [ … ]

The calendar contains two feasts of Consus, the god of stored grains [condere] on August 21 and Dec 15. Each is followed, after a similar interval, August 25 and December 19, by a feast of the goddess Ops, the personification of abundance and, in the earliest times especially, of agricultural abundance. This arrangement proves a connection between the two divinities which is not at all surprising and which confirms the epithet of Ops in the August Cult: Consiua.”

- Georges Dumézil on Rhea, Ops, and Consus: Archaic Roman Religion, With an Appendix on the Religion of the Etruscans

So, here we see that Ops and Rhea had an older epithet, Consiua, and was a very old Roman Goddess of Earth Fertility. She was paired with Consus, the God of (stored) Grain who had ties to the Underworld. The Latin verb conserere means to sow. Recall that satus also means to sow. We also see another festival that overlaps with the winter solstice/Saturnalia.

The scythe is an important symbol of Saturnian energy, as it relates to themes of grain and the Underworld. It is also helpful in understanding why Saturn exalts Libra, the sign of balance and harmony. On one side of the spectrum, we have Rhea and Ops, who use the scythe to harvest crops. For our ancestors, food meant power, stability, wealth, abundance, fertility, vitality, general well-being, and life.

The scythe can also be turned into a weapon, and the imagery that comes to mind is the scythe-wielding Grim Reaper. So, while the scythe can harvest food, sustain life, and bring security, it does so while ending the life of those crops that were harvested. One of my personal beliefs is that one of Saturn’s lessons is that “Life Eats Life.” This is exactly what time does, and this is why Saturn is known as the Devourer.

Lua Saturni

Lua Saturni (Saturn’s Plague, Saturn’s Misery, Saturn’s Law, Saturn’s Will) was invoked alongside Saturn, and while some researchers believe she was the wife of Saturn, others call her Saturn’s Associate. She was also known as Lua Mater (Plague Mother). Her name meant dissolution or destruction.

She was called “The Liberator'' and Disruptor of Social Order. Recall that disrupting social norms was a theme glorified in Saturnalia. We discussed that the ancient Italians and Romans offered the weapons of their enemies, as both sympathetic magic to weaken any weapons left in enemies’ hands, and to purify the weapons of malevolent energy and/or spirits. By sacrificing these weapons to her, this prevented any further harm done to the victors of the battle.

Where Rhea was the Goddess of Opportunity, Lua was the Goddess of Liberation. With liberation comes resistance to order and the breaking free (destruction) of structures that no longer serve us. This is oddly Aquarian in nature, and Saturn is the traditional ruler of Aquarius, with Uranus being the modern co-ruler. In Modern Astrology, Uranus signifies revelations, revolutions, awakenings, sudden changes, turmoil, and earthquakes.

Lua is a Goddess of Blood, War, and Destruction. She was one of the deities prayed to during battle by the Fetial, a priest who sanctioned war. She was also called upon for protection against misfortune, illnesses, and destruction. Ironically, she could also enact war, and bring illness, misfortune, and destruction. The generals of war would invoke the “technician-divinities of destruction” who were Volcanus and Lua. Volcanus, or Vulcan, was the Roman God of Volcanoes, The Forge, Blacksmithing, and Fire. His Greek equivalent is Hephaestus, and his Etruscan counterpart is Sethlans. Both Hephaestus and Sethlans seem to have the same descriptors as Volcanus.

It was Lua and Volcuanus “quibus spolia hostium dicare ius fasque est" (to whom it is right and lawful to call the spoils of the enemy). Land, by the way, was part of the spoils of war, which connects Lua back to Earth with agrarian rulership, but in a more aggressive way. I appreciate how the ancient Italians and Romans offered weapons to Lua. However, weapons were thought to be made from the talent and skill of Volcanus, and both of these deities were called upon during war. In my opinion, with Rhea’s connection to the flow of time, and Lua’s ability to cleanse weapons, I believe Lua is a Goddess of Karma and Ending Karmic Cycles. Because of her war association, scholars say that she is like Saturn and Mars combined. In astrology, the planet Mars exalts in the sign of Capricorn, a sign ruled by Saturn.

A couple of years ago, when I reached out to Brigid Burke for the first time, I asked what she knew about Lua, and she brought my attention to the fact that Lua had some strong Hades (Roman Pluto) and Death connection. Hades is the Greek God of the Dead, King of the Underworld, and Lord of Wealth and Riches found under the Earth. In astrology, Pluto has very similar significations to Pluto combined with Saturn: riches under the Earth (inheritance), recycling, composting, poisons, death, transformation, and ghosts.

We talked about the Saturn and Pluto connection at great length in my Dark Phytonutrients Post for Saturn and Pluto.

The Etruscan equivalent was Aita (𐌀𐌕𐌉𐌀) who coincidentally shared the same name of the realm he ruled, much like Hades did. This Aise is yet another mysterious figure who had either not much written about him, or not much survived. Aita may have had other epithets like Calu (𐌖𐌋𐌀𐌂) and Śuri (𐌛𐌖𐌑), which means he may have also been the Aise I mentioned at the beginning of this post, my bestie Usil, the Etruscan God of the Sun. However, the Saturn + Pluto + Solar energy is for another post for another day. Yet, we will see how the Solar entity and Saturnian entity relies on each other soon.

Coincidentally, Lua is joined by spirits called Lares, called Lasa in Etruscan, who are thought to be Italian Hero-Ancestor spirits and/or house spirits and guides. These may have also been the Greek Daimons, benevolent spirits of Fate of Fortune, and it was believed that everyone was born with one. There is also a Sabine deity called Mater Larum, or The Mother of Lares. Ovid called her Lara and Muta (the Silent One). We will circle back to the importance of silence very soon. Roman Author Varro calls her Mania, and later Roman authors associate her with being joined by evil and restless spirits, the Lemures. I’m not sure if Mater Larum and Lua are the same figures, but I have seen this connection made elsewhere by other authors, and as we progress with the blog post, we will also see the connections.

Etruscans practiced lavish rituals in which they honored their ancestral family deities. There were possibly many functions of Lares: to protect the household, protect the land, protect the crops, protect the temples, protect the family, protect the traveler while on the road, etc. However, we only need to read the tales of the Unseelie Fae to see depictions of the Land of the Dead as a plane of existence that resides outside of time. This would link that theme of “flow of time”, that Rhea has ownership of, as well as Lua to Saturn’s affiliation to Hades and Death, Satre’s Death-God element, and Saturn’s chthonic characteristics.

During my more recent conversations with Brigid Burke, we spent a lot of time talking about Chthonic deities, and Lua was among them. Brigid was preparing to make a podcast episode on Lua (something I had been hoping for, for quite a while now!) and I was looking through my first blog post about Lua, getting ready to rewrite it. Saturn has been a focal point in the Venn Diagram of energies we are working with and exploring (to be honest, he is never too far from me; he is my steadfast shadow), so she sent me a document to read about Saturnian Verse, knowing I also write poetry. In brief, Saturnian Verse was used for ancestral work but eventually fell out of favor due to the meter being horridus (horrible).

I had read through the whole file, and towards the end, who but none other than Lua Saturni herself made an appearance. I rushed to email Brigid back, and told her there was a wealth of information on Lua that she totally read for her podcast! How synchronistic?

This document, titled Roman Religion and Roman Empire by Robert E.A. Palmer, mentions two ceremonial verses attributed to a Saturnian Cult. These two poems are the surviving verses that concern Lua Saturni, with her name written as Luam Saturni, translating to “Saturn’s Will” or “Saturn’s Law”. These prayers were written down, suggesting that Lua was a familiar diety to readers.

"This incidental example presupposed his readers' familiarity with Lua Saturni. Centuries later, Aulus Gellius cites Lua Saturni: "conprecationes deum immortalium, quae ritu Romano fiunt, expositae sunt in libris sacerdotum populi Romani et in plerisque antiquis orationibus."

Here is Google’s translation: "The prayers to the immortal gods, which are made in the Roman rite, are set forth in the books of the priests of the Roman people and in most ancient prayers.

Robert E.A. Palmer goes on to say this:

“Vergil hints at Lua when he writes: miserandaque venit arboribusque satisque lues et letifer annus.' […]”

Translation: A year of misery and death has come for the trees.

“Servius Danielis understood Vergil's intent and commented: quidam dicunt diver-sis numinibus vel bene vel male faciendi potestatem dicatam, ut . . . sterilitatem horum […] tarn Saturno quam Luae; hanc enim sicut Saturnum orbandi potestatem habere." […]”

Translation: Some say that the power of doing good or evil is attributed to various deities, such as . . . the sterility […] both to Saturn and to Lua; for like Saturn they have the power to cause bereavement.

In my work with Lua and Saturn, they are always putting their finger to their mouth to signify silence. I had mentioned this before on my socials, as well as my conversations with Brigid. I had, a few years ago, been introduced to a Goddess named Angerona, and I read somewhere that she was connected to Lua, though I could not find this text or recall where I read it. In fact, I had trouble remembering her name entirely, but could recall it started with an “A”. It was not until I read this text that I was re-introduced. Palmer discusses Lua’s connection to Ops, which we previously touched on, and a mysterious Goddess named Angerona, stating the three Goddesses may have been the Protectresses of Rome. Angerona may have been a part of the Roman and Etruscan Pantheon.

“[…] At this point it seems appropriate to mention an example of the old religion instituted especially for this silence. For the goddess Angerona, to whom sacrifice is made on 21 December, has an idol which represents her with a finger to her sealed lips as an admonition of silence."

Angerona, Rust, The Sun, and The Heart

Allow me to diverge a bit so that we can tie the above information together. I have not mentioned yet that Lua’s symbols are blood, fire, and rust (sometimes rusty nails). Nortia, a Fate Goddess, or the Etruscan (Nurtia, Norcia, Norsia, Nercia, or Nyrtia) of Time, Destiny, Fate, and Chance was honored every New Year, with a nail was driven into her temple at Volsinii, and this ritual was documented by Roman historian Livy who suggests this ritualistic marking of time, or timekeeping, being Etruscan in origin. The Etruscan word for year is avil.

Georges Dumezil has said that Angerona was a land fertility Goddess who helped humans endure the harsh winter months in preparation for “the return of the Sun”, or the New Year. However, she could also make the land barren. Okay, so let’s pause here. Lua, honored during the winter solstice, was the protectress of Rome. She had the ability to bring victory in battle to those who prayed to her, yet she could also bring war. She also, with her connection to Rhea and Ops, was connected to the land’s fertility, and paired with her consort or cohort Saturn, the land was abundant. Yet, again, Saturn and Lua could cause blight, barren fields, sorrow, and sterility.

The connection between rust and winter is interesting. During the winter months, a certain type of fungus, called “wheat rust” (Puccinia triticina) would lie dormant in grain (overwintering). This fungus turned the wheat red like rust, and could yield a catastrophic loss of crops. Even today, this wheat rust poses a danger to food security. Though it is not harmful to humans, it certainly turns the flavor of the wheat, which would have been noticed by our ancient ancestors, who were masters of agriculture. To prevent this, the ancients would roast the wheat, and store it away for the winter (Consus was the God of stored grain for the winter). There were also rituals in which a red dog was sacrificed to a God called Robigus, who was connected to rust.

During the shortest and darkest days, angor or angustiae (distress), was prevalent among the ancient Romans, and it is not hard to imagine a people who lived under a warm Mediterranean Sun would suffer so much during the winter season. Scholars of today assert that Angerona, Ops, and Dea Dia, a Goddess of Daylight after winter, are the same entity. Recall that Angerona was offered sacrifice during the Winter Solstice, about the same time as Saturnalia.

I feel like this is an important piece of the puzzle to present in this blog post, although it is an indirect puzzle piece: throughout 2024, my blog posts have been focused on working with Solar energy for health and well-being and resetting the circadian rhythm is paramount, especially in today’s culture. The Sun rules the heart in Medical Astrology and Astro-Anatomy, and it is the heart that pumps blood throughout our bodies (blood Qi, blood flow). Rust is often used in place of blood in sympathetic magic, and Blood Qi is a marker of vitality, a word often given to Solar/Leo energies (the Sun rules Leo). Continuing to weave with this thread: Angerona was prayed to relieve one from angina, a condition in which the arteries of the heart are narrow or blocked, which results in pain due to the heart not getting enough blood. Moreover, because of the lack of sunlight, paired with cold temperatures, blood vessels constrict and cause high blood pressure.

“When you are cold, blood vessels narrow in your skin and fingers and toes, so that less heat is lost. But this narrowing (called ‘vasoconstriction’) creates more pressure in the rest of the circulation, meaning the heart has to work harder to pump blood around the body, increasing heart rate and blood pressure. This is a normal response to the cold, but the extra strain can lead to heart symptoms for people who have an existing condition, especially during exercise.”

- British Heart Foundation

“Vitamin D is an important pro-hormone for optimal intestinal calcium absorption for mineralization of bone**. Since the vitamin D receptor is present in multiple tissues, there has been interest in evaluating other potential functions of vitamin D, particularly in cardiovascular diseases. Cross-sectional studies have reported that vitamin D deficiency is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, including hypertension, heart failure and ischemic heart disease. Initial prospective studies have also demonstrated that vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of developing incident hypertension or sudden cardiac death in individuals with pre-existing cardiovascular disease. Very few prospective clinical studies have been conducted to examine the effect of vitamin D supplementation on cardiovascular outcomes. The mechanism for how vitamin D may improve cardiovascular disease outcomes remains obscure; however, potential hypotheses include the down regulation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, direct effects on the heart and vasculature or improvement of glycemic control.”

PMCID: PMC2726624
**My note: bones are ruled by Saturn, as well as the skin which is the organ that absorbs vitamin D from the Sun. Don't worry, a Solar-Saturn post is coming soon.

TLDR: Cold temperatures narrow your blood vessels to reserve heat in the body. This raises your blood pressure, and your heart has to work harder. Vitamin D is linked to high blood pressure, too, along with hypertension, heart disease, and more.

Saturn’s signs, Aquarius and Capricorn, oppose both Leo (ruled by the Sun) and Cancer (ruled by the Moon). The Sun is the luminary ruler of the day, and the Moon rules the night, or darkness in general. During the winter months, it is hard to get enough vitamin D from the Sun, and therefore health, emotional well-being, and vitality wane, resulting in stagnant blood flow. Winter is a time for rest, with the return of the Sun being a time for re-vitalizing. Angerona’s insistence on silence is probably a call for rest during these dark months to reserve energy. The Etruscans were obsessed with the body, and I do not doubt that they were aware of the Sun’s secrets holding answers to the quest for a long and healthy life.

“The attitude of the statue is enigmatic, but we do not have the right to reject the lesson it offers on the pretext that every plastic portrayal, at Rome, comes from abroad. The Romans would not have portrayed Angerona in such a particular way unless the bandage and the finger on the lips had corresponded to something they knew about her, which could only be her determination to maintain silence. Nor do we have the right, on the pretext that silence is sometimes a characteristic of death, to attribute to the goddess an infernal meaning which nothing in her file suggests. I have proposed another solution, based on the comparison of myths which, in other IndoEuropean societies, relate to the same situation. One of the reasons for silence, in India and elsewhere, is to concentrate one’s thought, one’s will, one’s inner voice, and to obtain from this concentration a magic efficacy which the spoken word does not have; […] and the various mythologies are quick to put this power at the service of the threatened sun.”

- Georges Dumézil Archaic Roman Religion, With An Appendix on the Etruscans

The Sun, in many cultures, is connected to vital energy, life force, fertility, and the general welfare and prosperity of the community.

More from Dumézil about the topic of silence in Scandinavian and Vedic Mythology:

“Among the Scandinavians, the strongest of the gods […] Vidarr, "to whom/’ says Snorri, "the gods appeal in all times of peril.” Actually, his only known intervention takes place at the time of Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods. In the great crisis when the old world disappears, when the wolf Fenrir has devoured Odinn (Voluspd 53; E Ada Snorra St ., p. 72, ed. Finnur Jonsson 1931), and when the sun too has been swallowed by “the wolves” (Edda Sn . St ., p. 75), either by Fenrir himself (Vafprudnismdl 4 6) or by one of Fenrir’s sons (Grimnis mdl 39), it is Vidarr who alone engages and destroys Fenrir (Vol. 55) and makes possible the rebirth of the world. Thereafter the extinguished sun (Sol is feminine) is replaced by her daughter, fortunately born before she was devoured by Fenrir (Vafpr . 47). Two points are to be noted: (i) the eschatological crisis in which the sun is swallowed by Fenrir is regarded as a winter, “the Great Winter/Fimbulvetr ; (2) Vidarr, the god who guarantees the rebirth of the world by killing Fenrir, is defined as “the silent [one]” (Edda Sn. St ., p. 33), and this silence must be connected with his extraordinary power and his feat of delivery.

The analogy with Angerona’s task in the angusti dies of winter is illuminating: it was likewise through her silence and through the concentration of mystical power which it produced that Angerona must have fulfilled her duty of saving the wintry sun from danger.

Vedic mythology applies this prescription of silence, which is also used extensively in the Indian rituals, to a solar crisis which is not that of winter, but of eclipse. When the sun was hidden in the demoniacal darkness, Atri, a hero of ancient times, pulled it out “by means of the fourth brahman ” and by offering a cult to the gods “through a naked adoration/* For reasons set forth at length in 1956, we are led to believe that this “fourth** brahman is the inner voice and that the “naked** adoration is worship without the spoken word. […]

In this way we can explain the interdependence of Angerona and Volupia. The latter, despite what Saint Augustine says, is not uoluptas , but a personified substantive corresponding to the archaic adjective uolup(e) : it is the pleasure arising from a satisfied desire, a realized wish. And in this way too we can justify the definition of a Latin Greek glossary: Angeronia (an inferior variant of Angerona) is “the goddess of the will** [or of counsel?] and of opportune** moments […]”
My Notes**: Goddess of the Will as it relates to Saturn’s Will (Luam Saturni) and Opportune as it relates to Ops, with her name meaning plenty, opportunity, fortune, riches, goods, plenty, etc. Víðarr, by the way, was known as The Silent God in the Norse Mythology.

Conclusion

Since I published my first post on Lua Saturni, and took to TikTok and IG to speak her spirit back into the memory of The Collective, I have seen many other witchy blogs detailing how to “work” with Lua. Although, in the main, I disagree with magicians who say that certain Deities are “off-limits”, I do feel that it is necessary to caution readers about invocating Lua. It would be folly to bulldoze your way through, without any respect for the energy itself. The name “Lua” may have been an Ineffable Name (or a part of a Name), one that isn’t supposed to be spoken, and there have been ancient accounts of people who have paid the price for doing so. Remember, this is Saturn’s “Cohort”, and to invoke her is to invoke Saturn. There is a reason her face is hidden behind many other names, just like Saturn has been.

If you are an Astrologer, you may be familiar with the oppressive nature of Saturn. Alternatively, if you are a Ritualist, and have attempted to work with Saturn for baleful magic, you might be familiar with the Saturnian Deity’s cunning, malevolent, and sometimes scary energy. Lua is Saturn’s beloved friend and she is his Will. Among some texts, Lua can only be stopped by Saturn himself. In Holistic Medicine, this is called “like-for-like” remedies, where the cure is in the “poison”, so to speak. They are a part of the same energetic body, and Brigid has posited the theory that Lua is an emanation of the powers of Saturn.

Saturn has many faces, and together, Lua Saturni (Saturn’s Misery, Saturn’s Plague, Saturn’s Law, Saturn’s Will) is one of the ominous faces- one that destroys the Earth. Not Earth as a whole, but Earth as in the fertility, abundance, and prosperity of Mother Nature itself. Therefore, my warning to magicians is this: to invoke Lua without fully understanding this energy is to disrespect the Earth, and eventually, to destroy yourself. One must contemplate the reasons why a Protectress-Goddess of a particular region would also bring blight upon it. This destruction is an act that seems to be part of a natural cycle of the macrocosm and microcosm, and therefore I feel I must implore any who work with this energy to respect it. She is not a Goddess who needs your petitions to do her function.

However, she is the Liberator, and she sees the end of one cycle while bringing in a new one. Two years ago, I predicted that Lua Saturni would “return” to the Collective Consciousness with Pluto transitting through Aquarius. It is no coincidence that I am seeing more and more content about her when before there was very little, or none at all. Either that, or I have done an adequate job of singing her name, but giving The Fool (myself) such an honor and glory as that is not a great idea. 😉

It is no wonder why so many magicians, ritualists, and spiritual practitioners are looking to the more chthonic entities for help during this time. We should consider remembering Lua at this moment, too. When we endure sickness and misfortune, Lua can protect us. She can weaken and cleanse the weapons of our opposers, putting an end to a cycle of death and destruction while seeking resolution from the past, mistakes, or less beneficial choices. Her chthonic connection reminds us that the transitional phases are just as important as the beginning and endings. Lua is part of a natural cycle of death and rebirth, with a connection to the return of the Sun, the great Life-Giving Illuminator. In dark times, it is important to rest and reserve energy. It is how we rest during the dark, wintry period that will determine how brightly we shine against the summer sun.

And, with this in mind:

May our opposers and destroyers see their order of business to the end, where it is met with sterility, darkness, and no fruit to harvest. May the seeds they plant bear rusted, tasteless, and useless crops dying under an occulted sun. A sun, behind gray clouds, where its rays of light cannot touch their skin, and this ever-grasping for light, drains them of their vitality in full. And with no vigor, nor might, they saunter aimless through winter, with blood betraying their hearts. With limps hands seizing nothing but air, may their weapons fall to the ground. May they witness their aims to the end where, upon perceiving the blight they’ve caused for themselves, they- the most silver-tongued among them- are at a loss for words, and receding into the shadows, they sit idly in bewilderment.