Assumption of Mary

Fresco depicting Assumption (Dormition) of the Mother of God, Serbian orthodox Sopoćani monastery, built by King Stefan Uroš I of Serbia in the early 13th century.

The feast of Assumption (Dormition) of the Virgin Mother of God, celebrates her death and consequent raising to heaven. It is celebrated on the 15th of August (28th of August in the Orthodox churches)

Interestingly on the 23rd of  August sun begins to rise in Virgo (Virgin) constellation, and Virgo zodiac sign begins...

Also interestingly, on the 2nd of August, summer ends and autumn begins. And the cooling of the earth begins. The power of the Earth (Mother) is rising and the Sun-Earth system which generates climate begins to be dominated by Yin (Cold, Wet, Dark) aspects...

This is what Virgo zodiac sign symbolises on the Sun (not Star) zodiac. On this zodiac, which is much older, the signs are fixed on the solar circle as they depict significant natural events that occur in the temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere every year at the same time...

The lady arrives riding on a lion, or in a chariots pulled by lions, or sitting on a lion flanked throne, or holding two lions one in each of her hands...

This is because Virgo (minimum Yin) arrives in the middle of Leo (maximum Yang)...

The hottest, driest part of the year in the northern hemisphere...

Leo is also the time when the main mating season of the Eurasian lions starts...

Mating season which spans Aug-Sep-Oct, Autumn, and which peaks in Virgo...

This goddess is found all over Eurasia and North Africa since at least the time of Çatalhöyük civilisation where we find the goddess seating on the lion throne

She is also Cybele

In India she is Indrani, the wife of Indra

 Shakti the wife of Shiva.

In Mesopotamia she is Ishtar, Inana and Nana, Nanay, Nanai...

For the Kushans she was Nana

Ancient Egyptians knew here as Sekhmet

And Qadesh 

In Ancient Middle East she was know as Asherah

And Astarte

And Al-Lat

Minoans depicted her as the unnamed "lady on hill standing between two lions", now known as the "Peak goddess"

And Mycenaeans depicted her in her most basic form as Asherah pole, placed above the main entrance into the citadel 

Or as the Female Divinity between Lions like on this Amygdaloid Gem from Mycenae

Greek Mother goddess Rhea also rides on a lion and sits on a lion throne

And here is (apparently) Demeter too...With a snake, symbol of sun's heat.

Norse knew her as Freya

And finally in Serbia she is known as Perunika, the wife of Perun (Slavic Thunder god), or Ognjena Marija (Fiary, Burning Mary), the wife of Ilija Gromovnik (Elijah the Thunderer).

She is "fiery, burning" because she is "Mother Earth" during the hottest part of the year in the northern hemisphere. According to the Serbian legend, her husband Ilija "would burn the whole earth to cinder, if not for his wife, Ognjena Marija, who calms him down...".

A very good description of the beginning of the cooling of the northern hemisphere...The beginning of Autumn, which happens in Virgo...

I wrote about this in my posts "Two crosses" and "Yin and Yang"

Anyway, the autumn is here. It's been raining on and off for two weeks now in Dublin..

For those interested in (the original) Solar zodiac you can find the links to all the zodiac signs I have covered so far on my "Zodiac" page