Freya's Stars: The Chickens

Freya's ChickensWe know them as the Pleiades - that tiny jeweled swirl of stars barely visible in the sky, one of the prettiest constellations of all. Supposedly the ancients knew them as Freya's Chickens, and She agrees with this. It is part of why I know that chickens are her sacred animals - after all, hens are maidens who can produce golden treasures! I often put golden chickens on a ritual altar to Freya. They can also be fighting warrior birds when they are upset, which is also very Freya.

However, the Pleiades - and more specifically Alcyone, the largest star which is used for conjunction purposes in astrology - are often a sad harbinger rather than a joyous one; sometimes they are characterized as a mourning woman. (The Chinese associated the Pleiades with marriages that would end in separation.) When I asked Freya about this, She gave me an image of herself as the Mourning Bride, Mardoll, hunting for her lost husband. So the Pleiades encompass this aspect of Freya, whereas Gemini has a different one. (I was soon to discover that some stars belonged to the same deity, but in different aspects.) The sorrowful side of the Pleiades is their association with bereavement, but it can also give affected people the ability to be good counselors of the bereaved.

As a fixed star, Alcyone (by which the placement of the Pleiades is calculated in a chart) bestows inner vision and mysticism (when I read this I got an additional image of Freya as Seidhkona/Sorceress) but also judgmental anger and a certain amount of ruthlessness. It is a star of love (of course, for Freya) and is said to make influenced people wanton, passionate, and insolent, especially if they are women - in other words, not reticent, monogamous wives but women who talk back and own their sexuality. In some placements, it gives a love of luxury and beautiful clothing - also very much Freya, who earned the loveliest necklace in the world with her favors. Alcyone also portends success in agriculture (the Spring Maiden of Fertility) and sea trade (back to Mardoll, the daughter of Njord).