Mother Goose rides through the air on a very fine gander. Today, Mother Goose is limited to the nursery, her rhymes intended to entertain only children, yet Mother Goose’s namesake bird links her to a host of powerful spirits: Aphrodite, too, rides through the air on a goose. The bird is sacred to Egyptian Hathor and Roman Juno, both valiant protectors and advocates for women.
In the Middle Ages, the once sacred goose became associated with witchcraft and disreputable women. Attempts to discredit Lilith and the Queen of Sheba depict them as dangerously beautiful, seductive women, with one goose’s foot peeping from beneath a skirt. Mother Goose’s famous marital recommendation echoes an old witch charm: Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue and a sixpence in their shoe!
Follow Mother Goose’s directions in order to provide spiritual protection and promote romance in the marriage. Regardless of gender, or chosen attire for your special day, consider incorporating something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a sixpence in your shoe. If you’re wondering what to put in your shoe instead of a sixpence, consider that after decimalisation in Australia in 1966, the sixpence continued to circulate at the value of five cents. The new five cent coins were introduced with the same size and weight. So you could use a five cent piece. Alternatively, if you account for inflation, five cents in 1966 is worth about 40 cents in 2020.
For couples that see each other before the ceremony, you may consider bringing up feminine energy to protect the masculine just before the ceremony. In some Slavic ceremonies, primal protective feminine energy is evoked by wrapping a cloak or veil around the partner who is standing in the masculine energy. If there is no cloak or veil, then the holder of the feminine energy evokes the primal nature of the feminine to protect the masculine by circling them sunwise either three or seven times.
* In Scottish folklore, sunwise, deosil or sunward (clockwise) was considered the “prosperous course”, turning from east to west in the direction of the sun
