Apollo of Mount Soranus and Feronia
Within the last part called “Lupercalia: From Juno to Feronia” we went into the ritual of Lupercalia, and its nature as a purification ritual. Such a ritual also took place on the sacred mountain to Feronia, mount Soracte. Which was located close to an ancient grove dedicated to this goddess.
The most interesting connection regarding Feronia, is the one she has with Apollo of Mount Soranus, whose worship strongly resembled that of Feronia. His priests where known as Hirpi Sorani, meaning "the wolves of Soranus". In the literary texts of the time he is usually called Apollo without any epithet. The Hirpi Sorani had a distinctive wolf cult, marked by a myth where, during a sacrifice dedicated to Apollo Soranus, wolves seized the entrails of the offerings from the altar. Pursuing these wolves, shepherds reached a cave, the toxic fumes of which triggered a pestilence among them. In response to this crisis, an oracle directed them to adopt a wolf-like lifestyle, meaning living by plundering, providing an intriguing origin for the wolf cult associated with Apollo. Which became their way of explaining the ancient and archaic rituals. The wolf was for them also considered to be a sacred animal connected to both Apollo and Feronia. In addition, on some Etruscan urns there is a wolf-like demon emerging from a well, which might also signify a passage to the world of the dead. Caves play an essential role in chthonic cults. The priest could pass to the world of the dead either through a cave or a well – or, symbolically through fire, as the Hirpi Sorani did.
The most probable origin of Apollo there dates back to a primordial cult of the sun which, on special dates, was seen rising and setting behind this particular sacred mountain. The places of Apollo and Feronia were often important oracular sites. In fact, on the eastern slopes of the mountain there were deep wells from which even today large condensation mists emerge which many Roman authors such as Servius described as vapors typical of the cult of Apollo. It seems that the slight intoxication of the priests or priestesses allowed them to enter a trance state and speak through the mouth of these deities. In ancient times, they were seen as being connected to the wolf cult of Apollo. The warriors and priests then also held ritual feasts on a mountain, whilst burning fires and giving offerings. The purification process was represented through the radiant embers, and the priests' miraculous passage across them unharmed. This purification was facilitated by the forces originating from the Underworld.
The Hirpi Sorani priests, symbolizing wolves, traversed the fire, symbolically journeying to the realm of death and returning. In doing so, they conducted a purifying ritual that extended its effects to the entire community. They lit a lot of pine wood and expanded the burning embers. Then they would walk on it barefoot without feeling pain three times, jumping on the embers as if in a dance and in this way carrying the meat, the gifts and sacrificial offerings up to the altar of Apollo, in a complex ritual that took place at the Winter Solstice.
Feronia would oversee this ritual, which was also symbolically connected to the underworld. This unique cult's rituals unfolded on Mount Soracte. There were also annual festivities in honor of Apollo and Feronia that took place at the base of the mountain at the temple of Feronia and her sacred grove. Next to this Feronia was also from a Jungian lens through this death and rebirth rituals providing the warriors of the tribe with a space of psychological healing, where they through the ritual have a psychological space to face what comes up from the unconscious. Which in the ritual is symbolized through the facing of the underworld, and the return from it. Echoing the heroes journey and Katabasis.
From my own experiences with such symbolic journeys I know how within dark spaces, they are potent for unconscious material to come up, to be worked through. The cavern at Mount Soracte and the Lupercali cave for Juno for instance, who are both like other caves for the Romans a passage into the underworld, serve as such a dark and symbolic space where these processes can take place. Which Juno and Feronia oversee, and help with the integration of the contents of the unconscious. The death and rebirth ritual itself is a purification ritual, where the elements of the shadow are purified in a sort of alchemical psychological process, and integrated into consciousness. This includes both the shadow and also the anima and animus. Becoming akin to the alchemical wedding, and union of all opposites into one being. Which is often after the return of the Koryos and it's descendant rituals after later celebrated in a hieros gamos type ritual.
The death and rebirth ritual itself is a purification ritual, where the elements of the shadow are purified in a sort of alchemical psychological process, and integrated into consciousness. This includes both the shadow and also the anima and animus. Becoming akin to the alchemical wedding, and union of all opposites into one being. The final goal of the process of Jungian individuation. Where the creation of the world and the death of Yemo can be seen as the symbolic process of dissolution of the psyche into matter.
This final death and rebirth ritual done within the context of the Koryos, Lupercalia and on Mount Soracte, becomes the facing of the shadow, and the underworld, and thus the return of the initial wholeness lost to what the Orphic mystics would call the titanic dispersion into matter. Where unconscious psychological contents become projected into the world in an unconscious manner. This death and rebirth symbolism also then connects again to both the rising and setting of the sun, important to Mount Soracte, next to the link with the winter solstice. These rituals are in that sense very archaic and within the Proto-Indo-European context highly important. As such these type of rituals give us powerful ways to transform ourselves, through such a symbolic death and rebirth. Through the guidance of the goddess.