Thank you Maternal Grandmothers Originating from the Land Between Sea and Sky

Dear Maternal Grandmas of the Fardella family tree,

Sweet ghosts from my maternal family line that run through mitochondrial DNA in all males and females of the Fardella lineage, thank you for being the powerhouse, of habits, traditions and change. Your spirit moved Homer, Ovid, Virgil, Euripides and now me, to write myths about Sicily, the land between sea and sky that celebrates love as a form of spirituality.

Thank you for helping me understand that love is complicated and best seen with many eyes. The songs of the flute- playing, male shepherd Aci, attracted the sea goddess Galatea. The two fell in love but the one-eyed Cyclops, Polyphemus, suffering from the unrequited love of Galatea, killed Aci. According to Homer, that same Cyclops abandoned laws and devoured humans until he was blinded by Odysseus. Hesiod noted the Cyclops were not all bad. They forged the helmet of Hades that granted invisibility, the trident of Poseidon that commanded the waves, the silver bow of Artemis used for protection and the thunderbolts of Zeus that killed Asclepias, the son of Apollo, and resulted in the death of Polyphemus himself. Karma.

Love is an attachment that can cause bizarre behaviours. It was in Sicily, that Hades, in the throes of his love, snatched Persephone from her mother. Demeter searched for her daughter in the depths of the underworld as the winter set in. To appease mother and daughter, in spring, Hades lets the two reunite to work the land together.

Love is associated with elements of various female archetypes, often because women are used for sex or use sex for power. The temple of Venus of Erycina, perched on the hilltop in Erice, facing Africa, in Sicily, held the sacred sexual priestesses, that some called prostitutes, who kept the fire burning on the highest peak to guide sailors. They were vessels for the hieros gamos, the sacred union, that could elicit physical and emotional love capable of stopping wars. They could release divine fertile energy with cosmic powers of the Great Mother goddesses. The Queen of the night and lady of the Underworld stemmed from dark mother Earth who became catholicized as the Black Madonna. She was whitened in 2005, as have been several other painted and carved Black Madonna’s, causing a number of controversies.

Dear mothers, you carry a long and diverse history of many colours. It seems peculiar that the original pigments, a combination of soil, animal fat, burnt charcoal and chalk should be altered, as if history itself can be whitewashed.

Matriarchal and patriarchal power struggles often result in ambiguous interpretations. The motherless goddess Athena battled anarchic male giant gods and defeated them by throwing rocks that made Sicily and created Mount Etna.

In myth, Athena was angered when Poseidon raped Medusa. She turned Medusa's hair to snakes, and caused those who looked upon her to turn to stone. Medusa acquired the traits of the Minoan snake goddess, that represents renewal, and warding off evil, thus she was offered protection from being a victim to further evil. Medusa was decapitated by Perseus, who used the magic mirror shield offered by Athena, so he could protect his mother. He delivered the head to Athena who placed it on her shield. The flag of Sicily, holds the Trinacria, three female legs running, indicating rotation, around the head of Medusa.

Sicily, originally inhabited by Sicans, the aboriginal clans, Siculi, an Indo-European clan, and Elim’s, a group of Asian people, was repeatedly reconquered. First by Rome after the Punic wars and later by Byzantium and Arabia, then by royal marriage to the Norman Spanish heiress to Sicily, it became under Swabian German control.

The Swabian, Umfrido Quemfort, was given the name Fardella, 'carrier of the heavy burden', after surmounting odds and surviving with his battle apron cut in three. Frederick ll, the great intellectual ‘stupor mundi’ the Wonder of the World, the Holy Roman Emperor, and son of Henry Vl of the Hohenstaufen dynasty appointed Quemfort as Marquis in charge of taxes from the salt traps in Trapani Sicily. The family maintained this role through several centuries and political regimes. Generations of Anthony, Angelina, Teresa, Salvatore, Maria and Geraldina and others followed. Thank you spirits of my past, for demonstrating determination to meet challenges, and using your abilities to negotiate with diplomacy.

Brave souls, I appreciate your courage to follow a dream. I know you did your best with what you had, so the future could have better opportunities. I dare not judge you because I have seen with my own eyes how clearly things look in hindsight. I do my best to be your inspired, waking good dream come true.

Esteemed ancestors, I strive to pass to the next generations of offspring of heaven and earth, hope, strength and faith in man's capacity to overcome great obstacles while on life's Odyssey. As a member of the diaspora, I honor the legacy of social conditioning, and the traditions of the Italian culture that use wisdom and compassion to celebrate the complexities of love and enjoyment of life during unprecedented times.

I must sign off now. Family and friends are coming over soon and I need to make some pasta sauce and mylloi cookies. I embrace you. xo

p.s. Here is my recipe for the ancient sacred temple cookies: from https://orderwhitemoon.org/goddess/Venus_Erycina/Erycina.htm

Combine 1/4 cup honey, 1 egg, ½ teaspoon almond extract- optional add 1/4 of oil or butter. In second bowl mix ½ cup almond flour, 1 cup all-purpose flour , 2 Tablespoons sesame seeds.

Add the flour mixture, little by little, to honey mix. Knead until smooth. Put the dough in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. Make 1/4 inch triangle shapes that look like Sicily, baste with egg white, sprinkle with seeds.

Bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet at 300F until lightly browned on the bottoms, approximately 20 minutes.