Spandaramet
Chthonic goddess of the earth, the underworld and the vine; her name came to mean the realm of the dead itself.
Lady of the Earth and the Buried Dead
Spandaramet descends from Iranian Spenta Armaiti, the holy devotion of the earth. In Armenian she is the ground under your feet in both senses — the soil that feeds and the soil that receives. Early translators used her name, and the derived spandaramet or sandarametk', simply to mean the underworld.
She holds the vine. The grape that roots in a grave and ripens in the sun is her whole theology: nothing is wasted, the dead feed the living, and wine is the proof.
Offerings to her were poured into the earth, not burned; hers is the one cult that goes downward.
Sacred Associations
Associations
Կապեր- Earth, soil, roots and caves
- The dead and the ancestors
- The vine, wine and fermentation
- Devotion, patience and long time
Realms
Տիրոյթներ- Underground: caves, cellars, graves
- The vineyard
- The autumn harvest
- The winter earth
Sacred Offerings
Ընծաներ- Wine poured directly onto bare earth
- Pomegranate seeds
- Grapes, raisins, the last of the harvest
- Something buried and left
Taboos
Արգելքներ- Do not disturb graves or take from them.
- Do not offer to her by fire; her offerings go down, not up.
- Do not speak ill of your own dead at her altar.
Sacred Colours
Գոյներ- Black
- Wine dark red
- Earth brown
Sacred Numbers
Թիւեր- Six — the months under the ground
- Nine — the ancestral generations
Establishing a Relationship
- 1
Learn your dead. Names, dates, one story each. Spandaramet's cult is ancestral before it is anything else.
- 2
Put your hands in soil regularly — a garden, a pot, a vineyard if you are lucky.
- 3
Pour wine on the ground before you drink, in autumn especially.
The Libation to the Ground
Autumn, at dusk; or on the anniversary of a death
- 1Find bare earth. Indoors, a large pot of soil will serve.
- 2Set out red wine, pomegranate seeds and a piece of bread. No candle, no incense.
- 3Kneel and place your palm flat on the ground for as long as it takes to breathe ten times.
- 4Say: 'Spandaramet, holy devotion of the earth — you take everything and give it back as fruit. I remember what you hold.'
- 5Name your dead aloud, oldest to most recent, one breath each.
- 6Pour the wine slowly onto the earth in one continuous stream. Scatter the pomegranate seeds after it. Press the bread into the soil.
- 7Say nothing else. Leave without looking back, and do not return to the spot for a full day.