4

Potens

Potens’ sigil

Potens—Woman of Power

Potens means powerful. She is the woman full of potential.

Potens stands solidly in the space she inhabits. She surveys the world around her, anxious to move forward. And so she moves, centered in her own being. She’s on her path, the path that only she can find and define.

Her stride sure, heart shining, she is ready for what the days and nights will bring. She hears the call of far away shores, the sweet song of lovers, the rise and fall of voices calling for answers to age-old questions.

She smells unknown flowers, dirt, water, spices on the breeze. She tastes the sweet berries from within the brambles growing just to the side of her sometimes inclement path.

Potens carries a pen and a sword. She knows that both are mighty. She carries her shield with strength and her mirror with grace. She loves and she fights with equal fervor.

Potens is she who goes and she who stands. She is building, mounting energy, the explosion, and the aftermath. She is the picking it all up again and continuing the experiment.

Lovers’ furious, sweet, explosive dance as midmorning sun graces the dappled ground and under starry skies. Potens is new love; she is lust; she is learning how her body meets and melds with other bodies, the friction and fascination.

Not afraid to fail, Potens tries this, tries that, and tries again. She finds her way in the world step by powerful step.

Potens is burgeoning strength. She is the energy of bud bursting to blossom, the spark catching flame. She is the energetic, passionate energy that moves forward.

She is the warrior, activist, explorer, student, sacred fool, traveler, lover. She is the art freak, the drama geek, the prima donna; the world is her stage. She is the young queen, the beauty queen, the prom queen. She is the knight who rides her trusty steed along the border. She is the circus girl with a knapsack on her back. She is the street artist, the revolutionary, the homeless, streetwise kid busking on the corner.

Potens is the woman girt with the sword. She is the woman crowned with flowers, laughing in the blossoming orchard. She is the awakening of sexuality, sensuality, passion, power, courage, strength.

The Woman Girt with a Sword is an Honorific of Babalon, a Thelemic Goddess. It also easily applies to all women warriors. Some women girt with swords—or in some cases, spears: Joan of Arc, Boudicca, Lady Triệu, Nakano Takeko, Tomoe Gozen, Colesta, Buffalo Calf Robe. And one Disney character—Mulan.

Potens is inspired by innovation, not tied to tradition. She may be inexperienced, but she is overflowing with passion. She is the wave of the coming generation. She is the One who will change her world; through force, through passion, through art, through fight, through words.

Harriet Tubman, born Araminta (Minty) Ross, was an African-American revolutionary. Tubman was born into slavery around 1822. Early in life she suffered a blow to the head at the hands of a slaver, and suffered lifelong bouts of illness from the head trauma. That didn’t stop her from escaping—more than once—from the slavers. After multiple attempts, Tubman found her way to the north. She traveled at night following the North Star in order to avoid being found by bounty hunters. After her escape Tubman became a conductor on the Underground Railroad; the same network of secret routes, people and organizations, and safe houses that had helped her find her way to the north. The path from slavery in the south to freedom in the north was arduous and dangerous, but Tubman made the trek nineteen times. She returned to the south over and over, at great peril to herself, in order to help other slaves find freedom. In addition to her work as a conductor and abolitionist, she was active as a suffragist. During the American Civil War, Tubman was the first woman to lead an armed assault. She also worked as a scout and spy for the Union. In honor of her work, Harriet Tubman was called by the names Moses and General Tubman.

She is unrelenting, wild, untamed, untethered. She has broken free of her chains and fights for the freedom of others too. Sometimes she is short of compassion and other times overwhelmed in it. She is righteous anger at the state of things. She is the willingness to risk it all to create a new outcome.

Potens is a different sort of differentiation from the little child seeing herself in the mirror for the first time. Potens is seeing herself as herself, separate from her previous self, separate from the ground of being, springing forth from divine source. Yet she knows that she is connected by relationship, and that she has power to change what she sees around her.

	JOURNAL: What aspects of Potens speak most strongly to you so far?
	ACTION: Notice how Potens shows up for you as you read this chapter and in the coming days.

Her Occult Expression

The occult expression of Potens is self-righteousness, blind privilege, self-centeredness—which is much less “charming” in a young person than in a small child. In her occult expression, Potens’s anger may burn bridges, sever ties, and burn friends and loved ones. Her self-centeredness may make her act in unconscious ways, or she may come off as uncaring. She may even be ruthless at times.

She is impatient and often blames others rather than seeing her own culpability. Because of this, she may not be a team player much of the time. She may work better on her own, even though there is a loneliness to that.

Potens may feel misunderstood, like she is the only one who really knows what’s going on, or that she is the only one who hurts or loves or works “this hard.” There may be an element of self-martyrdom when Potens shows up in her unexamined expression.

In love, her unexamined territory is that of the jealous lover, the spiteful “woman scorned,” or a self-indulgent, self-focused, “I get what I want,” sentiment that may not take the whole picture into account. She may wreck relationships, break promises or agreements, take risks that are not always worthwhile or caring.

The Mean Girl is an unconscious expression of Potens. She is the Queen Bee, seeing herself as the super star and everyone else as the supporting cast. Her anger may easily come out as lateral aggression, destroying her relationships with the women who could be her circle-mates, sisters, allies, lovers, friends.

	JOURNAL: How do you see these areas of interaction, or reaction, playing out for you?
	ACTION: Notice when your unexamined patterns or behaviors mirror Potens’s, and address the parts of you that are not yet fully known. Feeling a tug of war about wants and needs? Check in with yourself, but also with those around you. Feeling overwhelmed with envy or jealousy? Ask yourself what can be done to make you feel better.

Her Empowered Expression

In her empowered expression, Potens commits to self-exploration before seeking to change the world. She lifts up her sisters, fights the righteous fight, and loves with her whole self. In her empowerment, she empowers the world.

As Potens awakens more and more fully to her capacity, her confidence, and her passion, she becomes a greater and greater force of nature.

Asmaa Mahfouz was one of the leaders of the 2011 uprising in Egypt. Mahfouz sparked the demonstrations at Tahrir Square by uploading a video to social media sites calling for the resignation of Hosni Mubarak and his cabinet. In her video she invited others to gather with her at Tahrir Square. Four brave, dedicated, young Egyptians joined Asmaa that day. From there, the number grew. The rising tide of unrest led to an eighteen-day occupation of Tahrir Square, with hundreds of thousands of people calling for governmental reform by mid-February. As of 2015, the revolution is not over. And Asmaa is still fighting on the front lines.

Potens is a force of bold, new, innovative ideas. Her empowered expression brings an openness to new solutions that may have been obstructed before. In her empowered aspect she’s not afraid to fail because a failure means she has tried. And Potens is very much about trying and trying again. She is tenacious, optimistic, and bold.

Her empowered expression lives for the journey, not the outcome. She is fearless, directed, and willing to risk comfort in favor of ingenuity.

	JOURNAL: What does the empowerment of Potens feel like in you?
	ACTION: Take action on some part of what you notice in feeling the power of Potens.

Her Sexual Expression

She is the young face of infatuation, love, sensual and sexual indulgence and communion. And she is choice embodied; this indulgence may be something she keeps to herself or eschews entirely for other passions.

Regardless of expression, hers is the sparkling promise of early spring growth reaching toward the sun. She is the raw power and transformation of the Beltane fire. She is the randy, wild play of the first heat. Sometimes this is expressed as passion for connection, or for her chosen work, or for her spiritual path. Sometimes it is expressed as sex for sex’s sake. Or it may be expressed as self-love and self-worship; she may choose the solitary path of sexual expression and exploration, choosing her self as her own best—or only—lover.

In her sexually interactive expression, she loves the energy that her experience of sexual play and interplay brings. Her sexual range is from the first fiery kiss to the joy and release of orgasm. Her sexual exploration may be about conquest, or it may be about seeking divine union. Or both at once.

Potens is fascinated by sexuality. She may not always be totally comfortable in it and may not always know her own effect, but even her discomfort leads to new ways of knowing herself. Potens plays her edge, plays the edge, finding the spaces beyond the boundary sometimes tripping and falling and sometimes easily growing her sense of self into the new territory she has discovered.

She owns her sexual expression and sexual choice as a place of power.

Sacred whores, also known as sacred prostitutes or temple prostitutes, were priestesses that, according to some scholars, offered rites of sacred sexuality in some ancient cultures. The Ancient Greek term hierodule may have meant sacred prostitute, and the Hebrew word qedesha is often translated as temple prostitute. There is controversy between historians as to the veracity of the theory of a widespread practice of temple prostitution, or sacred sexual rites. In contemporary use, the Sacred Whore is also an honorific title that is used by worshipers in reference to the Goddess Babalon. In recent years some sex workers—who in some cases are ordained priestesses—have claimed the terms sacred whore and sacred prostitute as their own. Sacred whores experience and offer the work they do as sex workers as healing work, work of the Goddess, and part of—and in some cases, all of—the work they do in their capacity as priestess. Some sacred whores ask for donations for their healing services. Others offer their services for free. Some work in a private or shared temple space—which under US law would be considered a house of prostitution. While this work is currently illegal in most of the US, many sacred whores—and some feminists—are working for the decriminalization of sex work.

In one of her most sexually interactive expressions, Potens is a face of the archetype of the sacred whore. Potens may be an exuberant sexual healer who combines her raw power and her dawning sexuality to create healing in herself, in others, and in the world.

	JOURNAL: In what ways does Potens’s sensual and sexual expression speak to you?
	ACTION: Feel your sexual power. Notice it. Play with it. Express it.

Potens in the Linear and Nonlinear Trajectories of Womanhood

Potens is the transition into forward momentum. In the linear aspect of the fivefold system, Potens is visualized as the youth. She is the young woman in high school, finding her own way into an individual sense of self. She is the one leaving home, going into university, going traveling, joining the circus, joining the military, or diving into social justice activism.

In the experience of the five faces, Potens is the embodiment of the point in time when we experience the world for the first time unmediated by the protection of parents, family, or even tribe. She self-defines by standing on her own, sometimes pushing away things that identify her with her child self.

While Potens is represented as a youth just starting out on her own, the flexibility of the fivefold structure acknowledges that this stage is a recurrent one in most women’s lives. While it’s easy to conjure a sense of this aspect when thinking of—or remembering—getting ready to move out of our family’s home or our first time traveling on our own, there is an inherent liberation to recognizing that we touch upon this stage of development again and again in our lifetimes.

Hélène de Pourtalès was the first female Olympic Champion, winning gold and silver medals in the sailing division in 1900, the first year women were allowed to compete. She was thirty-three at the time, and her sailing crewmates were her husband and her nephew.

Adventurers, soldiers, athletes, activists, journalists, or actors may find that Potens is their primarily resonant archetype. Even those who move solidly into the other phases of the fivefold goddess may find that Potens is where they feel most aligned and alive.

Ernestine Shepherd and Edith Wilma Connor are American bodybuilders who have both been recognized by Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest female bodybuilder; Shepherd in 2010 and 2011 at 73 and 74 years of age, and Connor in 2012 at 77 years of age. Shepherd started bodybuilding at 56. Connor entered her first bodybuilding competition at 65, and won first place.

	JOURNAL: What are some of the ways in which the archetype of Potens shifts your relationship with your idea of the divine feminine?
	ACTION: Create an image of Potens.

The Maiden

Potens is a very self-possessed archetype. This is a necessary departure from the previously existing archetype of the maiden. In many stories, maiden goddesses are considered the property of their mothers and/or fathers, and then of their lords.

Majority world is the newest term for what was previously known as the developing world, third world, or the global south. The minority world is what was previously known as the first world, or global north. Where previous terms have enshrined and justified colonialist mentality, using the term “minority world” reminds us that the fewest people have the most resources, influence, and power.

As the gods reflect humanity and humanity reflects the gods, we don’t have to think very hard to realize that in cultures around the world, girls and women are still considered property. Even in minority world civilizations, the concept of men “letting” their daughters do or not do a thing—down to how they are allowed to dress—is not uncommon.

In this interpretation of the myth of the Demeter/Persephone story I am looking through a contemporary lens. At the time that the myth came into being, there was no concept of self-time, or even true individuation for girls or even for women. These are relevant questions and comments in the quest for sovereignty and liberation.

In the story of Demeter and Kore and her shift to Persephone, Kore/Persephone follows exactly this trajectory. She is in deep relationship with her mother, Demeter, to the point of a pronounced lack of individuation. She is bartered away by Zeus, her father, and given to Hades to square up an old disagreement.

Persephone is abducted by Hades—as had been agreed upon by the men—and then she belongs to him. Though Persephone grows to own her station as queen of the underworld, she transitions to queen and mother because it is forced on her. She comes into her initiation through violation. In the resolution of the myth, she spends half her year as Kore with her mother, and half as Persephone with her lord.

Where is the time and space for Persephone herself? It exists only in the interstitial spaces between worlds, the journey from underworld to upperworld and the journey back again. Her self unto self exists only in the most liminal of the already liminal.

	JOURNAL: How will things shift as young women the world over gain more education, empowerment, and independence?
	ACTION: Do something to support independence in young women, whether that is your independence, or for the independence of young women in other parts of the world. Or both!

Revisioning the Youth

In moving away from the designation of maiden, we move away from the sense of ownership so prevalent in the mythology and archetypal reality of that concept. For many of us, the term youth may call up an image of a strapping young man. That’s okay, we’ll take it! Again, moving beyond the rote genderization that pervades dominant culture is part of the work we are doing here.

Claiming youth as part of our female experience and part of our divine feminine is part of us healing into the whole people we are as girls and women. Like child, youth is a station unto itself. It is devoid of sexualization or biological designation, has no connotation of ownership, and is free of the strictures that many of us think of when we say even “young woman.”

The youth stands on her own, facing her own future.

JOURNAL: What thoughts does the term youth bring up for you?

ACTION: Again, building on the previous chapter, notice when you think of something as “girly” or “that’s a boy for you!” or even have thoughts of what men or women are like or “should be” like. This time instead of just noticing it, do something about it. Confront genderized thinking in yourself, in your family, in your circle of friends, in your place of work. When someone says something that is reactionarily gender-based, say something. When you find yourself judging someone’s gender presentation, rethink your judgment.

The Virgin

There is another set of goddesses at least partially within the purview of Potens, the arena of the virgin goddess. (The virgin will be revisited in upcoming chapters as well, because it is an archetype spanning the whole of women’s lives.)

The term virgin is confusing when it comes to goddesses and also in contemporary versus archaic use. The word may mean a woman who is unto herself, or it may mean chaste, untouched, celibate. It may also mean naïve, inexperienced, or new.

Some virgin goddesses easily align with the archetype of Potens, as with Diana, Artemis, and Anat. This version of the virgin is youthful and remains ever under her own power. In some versions of her story, she is granted permission by a “greater” god, as in the case of the Hellenic story of Artemis, who was given her independence by Zeus.

There are other stories that place Artemis as a pre-Hellenic goddess who had no relationship with Zeus whatsoever and came by her own self-definition as a virgin. In some ancient stories, Artemis remained a virgin even though she took lovers.

Virgin goddesses may also be mothers, like the Norse Gefjon, falling into Creatrix, or Sapientia like the Greek Athena, the Roman Minerva, or the multivalent Sophia.

Some virgin goddesses may be equally at home in many of the five faces like the Hellenic Hebe, daughter of Zeus and Hera, wife or consort of Heracles, and mother to Alexiares and Anicetus. She is all of these things and still considered a virgin.

	JOURNAL: What are terms that you would use to describe the freedom that some Goddesses (and women) designated as virgins may have felt? What about some areas of restriction?
	ACTION: Examine your language regarding women’s lifestyle choices. Remember that a woman’s right to self-identity is part of gender equality. As we examine and dismantle our hidden assumptions regarding how other women “should” or “should not” behave, we give all women more freedom to be who they truly are.

Deities Who May Embody Potens Energy

Artemis is goddess of the hunt. She is personified as the archer. She is associated with both animals that are hunted and those that hunt. Stags and hounds are both sacred to her. She is envisioned as a young woman, often mid-run surrounded by stags or hounds. She holds a bow or wears one slung across her chest. Sometimes she is pictured wearing a crescent moon on her brow. She was known as Diana to the Romans.

Her attributes are courage, independence, action, wildness.

Aurora is the Roman goddess of dawn. She is often personified as a young woman, fresh-faced and radiant. Saffron robed and rosy fingered, she opens the gateway for the sun. Aurora is a goddess who was beloved by Roman and later, English poets. She was and is often written about as a symbol of erotic love.

Her attributes are light-giving, glory, gentle passion, inspiration.

Babalon is the Thelemic goddess of the new aeon. She is the sacred whore written of in the book of Revelations. She rides astride a beast (or the Beast), which some say symbolizes the unconscious forces of nature within each of us. She is also known as the Scarlet Woman.

In the writings of Aleister Crowley and others after him, she is seen as the salvation of women and the divine feminine. She is the woman girt with a sword. That sword, according to some, represents Will, something the feminine archetypes of the Bible lack. Babalon is a new aeon interpretation of the syncretic Ishtar, Astarte, Ashtoreth goddesses.

Her attributes are passion, vengeance, connection with the subconscious, raw sexuality, breaking of taboos, empowerment.

Erzulie-Freda is a Vodoun lwa (spirit) of love. She is by turns coquettish and despondent, as she knows well the joy of sensuality and pain of love as separation. She has three husbands—Damballa, Agwe, and Ogoun—and thus wears three wedding bands. She loves jewelry, dancing, sweet foods, fine champagne, and sweet liqueurs. She is known to dance and love with fervor and to weep just as passionately.

Her attributes are wealth, fine tastes, romantic love, luxury, and beauty.

Ishtar is the Babylonian queen of heaven. She is Venus in the evening sky. She is a goddess of love and fertility but also war. Ishtar was later known as Astarte to the ancient Greeks. She is also closely related to—and perhaps syncretic with—the Canaanite goddess Ashtoreth. However, Ishtar, Ashtoreth, and Astarte each have their own stories, so while we can see them as a grouping of goddesses with similar attributes and meanings, they also are their own beings.

Ishtar is likely to have been the “Whore of Babylon” referenced in the Bible. She is known as the queen of heaven in the book of Jeremiah. Some scholars say that in ancient times, worshipers of Ishtar may have practiced sacred prostitution.

Her attributes are magnificence, sexual desire, martial thinking, and action.

Tamar is a Georgian sky goddess. She is an eternal virgin who rides a serpent bridled and saddled with golden raiment. She controls the weather.

Her attributes are strength, power, courage, valor.

Additional Goddesses

• • Anat: Canaananite
• • Ayao: Santerían
• • Cessair: Irish
• • Gersemi: Norse
• • Hebe: Greek
• • Hlín: Norse
• • Hnoss: Norse
• • Iris: Greek
• • Juventus: Roman
• • Kurukulla: Tibetan
• • Melissa: Greek
• • Ochun: Yorúbá
• • Ostara: Germanic
• • Oya: Yorúbá
• • Pele: Hawaiian
• • Persephone: Hellenic
• • Sibyl: Greek
• • Skadi: Norse
• • Xochiquetzal: Aztec

	JOURNAL: What deities feel the most like Potens to you?
	ACTION: Find a story about a goddess you don’t yet know from the list above or from your own lineage, and read it.

Rites of Passage Related to Potens

Some of the rites of passage that belong to Potens are obvious: leaving home is a central one, the first big solo journey, being seen as an individual in one’s community in some way instead of “the child of so-and-so.”

The taking of one’s first lover might be dedicated to Potens as might falling in love, exploring sensual and sexual identity, and all pleasures of the field and bed.

Situations that call on exploring one’s power are perfect rites for Potens to preside over. Starting the path of the Warrior through martial arts or military training. The pleasure of the hunt, and of power. She is stepping into activism, which one may see as the path of the peaceful warrior. Moving into the willingness to confront injustice. Standing on the front lines as a guardian of Earth or community.

Did you know that many of the old goddesses of love are also
goddesses of war?

Also under the purview of Potens: starting a business, a venture, or a new project; diving into a new area of study.

The nonlinear aspects of this model allow us to honor the new awakenings that happen again and again in the range of possibly ninety years that we potentially get to inhabit our bodies.

We feel again and again into the promise and potential of Potens.

	JOURNAL: What rites of passage can you think of that belong to Potens?
	ACTION: Create a rite of passage for Potens.

Offerings to Potens

Potens wants offerings of experience more than items. She is very much about experiencing! If you want items for her altar, trust your gut. And you can always look to the goddesses you may already worship as Potens for hints.

Consider a statue of Artemis, or an arrow.

She may love a mirror or a picture of yourself that makes you feel strong, sexy, or powerful or all three!

You could offer perfume or essential oils, jewelry, or makeup. Or you could place a knife, shield, and war paint on your altar. Or you could use all of these.

What about an anarchist patch? A military sticker? A rainbow flag? A bumper sticker that sums it all up for you?

She’ll love tickets to a show or to a distant continent. (They can live there on your altar until you use them! When you go, be sure to take her with you.) You could offer your passport or money from the countries you have visited or will visit in the future.

	JOURNAL: What offerings does Potens want from you right now?
	ACTION: Make an offering to Potens.

When to Call on Potens

The times to call on Potens are when you need guidance or courage in the beginning of something. Potens will bring the spark that will kindle your dream into action. Call on her when you are looking for adventure.

You may call on Potens when you are traveling on your own, or going into battle—literally or figuratively. You may invite Potens in as the lover, or the beloved. Call on her when you are:

• • Planning a journey.
• • Leaving home.
• • Starting a new project.
• • Starting out in a new line of education.
• • Looking for a fun, joyful romance.
• • Looking for sexual engagement, whether for fun or spiritual fulfillment—or both!
• • Wishing to renew an existing sexual relationship.
• • Going into battle—warlike or peaceful.
• • Going into humanitarian service.
• • Consecrating a new pair of shoes or glasses.
• • Buying a car.

Some Days Sacred to Potens

Feast Days of Artemis—Sixth day of new moon

Artemis has many feast days, but the easiest to remember and to build regular ritual around is the sixth day of the new moon. Mark it on your calendar and make it a monthly devotional!

Feast Days of Artemis—Great Feasts

Full moons throughout the year are dedicated to different aspects of Artemis. Also, November 22 (approximate) when the Sun goes into Sagittarius, the sign of the archer.

The Feast of Babalon

The feast of Babalon can be performed at any time that seems relevant to you, although the dates of May 23 or June 17 are both relevant to the unveiling of the goddess Babalon. The Feast of Babalon is honored with a ritual and feasting and pleasure in her honor.

Armed Forces Day

Many countries observe Armed Forces Day as a national holiday. The date of the celebration differs nation to nation. In the United States, it’s observed on the third Sunday in May.

Peace Corps Week

Peace Corps Week is a floating-date observation. It’s a celebration that recognizes the ways in which the Peace Corps organization and its community contribute to positive change.

Amelia Earhart’s Birthday—June 24

Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly an airplane solo across the Atlantic Ocean. The aviator, or aviatrix if you prefer, was dedicated to her love of flying and broke many records for solo flights. In her life and work, she championed women’s rights and took as a challenge the attitudes against women and girls in her era.

Amelia married, but on her wedding day sent her husband-to-be a letter reminding him of the primacy of her commitment to her work and stating that she did not expect him to hold to “a medieval code of faithfulness,” nor would she be held to one.

Amelia is eminently quotable in her written and spoken unwillingness to be constricted by the norms of her time, and her pride and courage in the accomplishments of herself and other women. One of her quotes that exemplifies Potens is: “Adventure is worthwhile in itself.”

She, her aircraft, and her crew disappeared while undertaking an attempt to fly around the world. No trace of her remains nor the wreckage of her Electra 10E has yet been found.

Summer Solstice

Summer Solstice is the height of the summer. The sun is a very directed force; powerful, bold, strong, hot.

High School Graduation Ceremonies

This is a good time to celebrate the end of one educational chapter and life phase.

College Orientations

This is a good time to celebrate the beginning of a new educational chapter.

	JOURNAL: What days would you celebrate as sacred to Potens?
	ACTION: Create a Feast Day for Potens.

Seasons Sacred to Potens

Once again recognizing that there may be overlap in the year-wheel, Potens easily arcs from perhaps Ostara/spring equinox, to Litha/summer solstice. She is the sap rising, the Beltane fire, the bursting forth of spring into high summer.

	JOURNAL: What time of year do you associate with the Woman of Power?
	ACTION: Continue the process of creating a magickal wheel of attributions graph that incorporates the five faces.

Weather Patterns Associated with Potens

Late spring and early summer heat. Flash floods. Thunderstorms.

Her Time of Day

Potens is the rosy blush of first light, and she is midmorning. She is dappled ground under tall trees as heat descends.

As Moon Goddess, nighttime is also a place you will find her.

Her Colors

Pink, orange, yellow, red.

Animals Sacred to Potens

Dogs and hounds, stags, all game animals; in her more gentle aspects all creatures of the waterways; morning birds; horses, the phoenix.

Plants Sacred to Potens

Trees, wild foliage, late spring and summer flowers, kudzu, ginger, bird of paradise.

Suggested Elemental Correspondence for Potens

The suggested elemental correspondence for Potens is fire. Some possible elemental attributes; passion, desire, forceful transformation (from wood to ash), sexuality, innocence, youth, play, warmth, divine will.

	JOURNAL: How does this elemental correspondence fit with your existing magickal practices?
	ACTION: Work on your magickal wheel, starting with placing Potens in the south. Or elsewhere if you get different information from Potens herself.

An Invocation to Potens

Have you seen the youth, strong and wild
Leader of Hunts
Breaker and Healer of Hearts
Warrior and Lover

Potens, Powerful One
Dawn glowing, sister to moon and sun
I stand with you

Potens, Mistress of the Hunt
Arrow strikes its mark, prey falls
I hunt with you

Potens, She Who Goes
Sack on your back and bells on your ankles
I roam with you

Potens, Warrior Woman
Sword in hand and shield aloft
I battle at your side

Potens, Lover in the field
Flowers in your hair and grass-stained skin
I love with you

Potens, Sacred Whore
Healing arts reclaimed, bed as altar
I heal with you

Potens, Fool and Hero
I walk the tree with you
Arriving at the crown together, we merge

	JOURNAL: How does this invocation affect you?
	ACTION: Write your own invocation to Potens.

[contents]