Greetings to all folks near and far.

Greetings to all folks near and far. I send best wishes for a very happy Thanksgiving Day to you and yours. May your journeys be safe and may you all be blessed with love and joy.

This year I give thanks to all who have subscribed to the Folklore and Mythology newsletter and participated in the forum. With much thought I have decided to resign from BellaOnline. This has been a wonderful experience for me the last four years. BellaOnline is a wonderful community full of great people. It is time for me to continue my journey in writing novels in the hopes of getting them published. I thank you for your wonderful support.

My latest article is "Goddess Comparative Mythology"

This is my second article on the comparative mythology of the mother goddesses worshiped in ancient mythology.

In ancient mythology, the term 'mother goddess' is used to represent fertility, creation (giving birth to humanity), and motherhood. It is usually symbolic of the bounties of Earth, especially at harvest times.

You can read this second article at the following link:

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art27616.asp

and the first article at:

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art5062.asp

I would love to have you stop by the forum and chat with me and others on these two articles. Comparative mythology can get very complex, yet it is such an interesting subject to discuss with others. So, I do hope you stop by. I look forward to meeting you in the Folklore and Mythology forum.
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Long ere this, when the wall around their City was not yet built, and when the Gods had set up only the court with their twelve seats and the Hall that was for Odin and the Hall that was for the Goddesses, there had come into Asgard Three Giant Women.

They came after the Gods had set up a forge and had begun to work metal for their buildings. The metal they worked was pure gold. With gold they built Gladsheim, the Hall of Odin, and with gold they made all their dishes and household ware. Then was the Age of Gold, and the Gods did not grudge gold to anyone. Happy were the Gods then, and no shadow nor foreboding lay on Asgard.

But after the Three Giant Women came the Gods began to value gold and to hoard it. They played with it no more. And the happy innocence of their first days departed from them.

- from The Children of Odin, by Padraic Colum, 1920
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How unfortunate and how narrowing a thing it is for a man to have wealth who makes a god of it instead of a servant.
- Open Letter to Commodore Vanderbilt, 1869, Mark Twain
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Till next time, may your home be filled with laughter and may it ring from floor to rafter.

May you walk in Beauty and Harmony.
Phyllis
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Phyllis Doyle Burns, Folklore and Mythology Editor
http://folklore.bellaonline.com

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