Discovering Diana on my doorstep

I have travelled to faraway places in search of sacred sites. I have forged my way through acres of thorny thicket to find ancient remnants of an Aphrodite temple in Cyprus. I have climbed mountains to reach shrines to the Mother Goddess in Crete. I have endured hours of a death-defying journey in a rickety van driving alongside a sheer cliff edge to reach a sacred lake in Indonesia. What I didn’t expect was to stumble across a sacred site just minutes from my house.

I am lucky enough to live in Greenwich, just minutes from Greenwich Park. Walking there for the past four years has been an absolute blessing (and escaping there might just be the reason that my partner and I didn’t smother each other during lockdown). I walk our little sausage dog, marvel at some of the ancient trees, feed my crew of crows and stare with incomprehension at people who choose to… go running. It is a vast and beautiful place and after four years I had not realised that an ancient archaeological site lies just minutes from my walking route.

On that day I nearly turned in my witch card and accepted that I was a muggle after all. How had I missed it? How had I not noticed the energies yelling at me, “Hey! You! Priestess! The Romans built a Temple here hundreds and hundreds of years ago and you are walking past it every week!” I had come to the park without my little doggo and so I deviated from our normal route. As I wandered around I discovered a famous relic of an ancient tree, an ice-cream van (result) and a large grass-covered mound with a plaque nearby. Words cannot express the sheer elation I felt when I read the plaque and realised I was standing on an ancient temple site which was dedicated to a number of Roman gods including the Goddess Diana.

I immediately asked the ancestors for permission to enter and then I carefully and reverently walked on to the mound. Obviously there are sacred sites everywhere; our ancestors built shrines and temples and stone circles. Once upon a time, Goddess was honoured across the world. However, we have now covered a large portion of the land in concrete. As a Londoner, the vast majority of sacred sites are gone, demolished, destroyed. Buried beneath the concrete jungle. And so that is why I did a little happy dance right there on the spot when I realised where I was standing.

I walked to the middle of the mound and just stood. The sun was shining down on me and I took off my shoes so that I could feel Her sacred ground beneath my feet. Dogs bounded past. An ice-cream van jingled in the distance. People strolled by, barely casting a glance at the inconspicuous grass-covered mound. I stood there and felt as though I and I alone was in possession of a wonderful and delicious secret. I was standing in a Temple to Goddess! I was standing on the site where Diana had been revered hundreds and hundreds of years ago and it felt as though I had stepped into a magical realm that no-one else was aware of. It was an incredible experience.

As soon as I arrived home I opened the internet and greedily devoured every article on Diana I could find. Obviously I had always known about her – the Roman counterpart to Artemis, Goddess of the moon, of chastity, of the hunt and of the wild places. However, I soon discovered so much about Her. She was considered to be a protector of the lower classes (especially slaves), the Temple of Artemis/ Diana at Ephesus was one of the Seven Wonders of the World and she was worshipped at a festival on August 13th. Not only this, she is even mentioned in the Bible. In Acts 19:28, Ephesians chant, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” in the face of encroaching Christianity. The Asturian word for ‘water nymph’ and a Romanian word for ‘fairy’ are both possibly related to the Goddess Diana. Connections have been made between her and the Scottish Goddess Nicevenn and it is thought that Diana’s origins lie in an indigenous forest deity. I read and learned and and realised there is so much more to her than the image I’d always had of the Goddess with a bow and arrow.

Suffice to say, since that day Diana has become an important part of my life. At least once a week (and often more) I visit her Temple. As I write this, I am sitting her in Her temple. My little sausage dog sits at the edge, on guard. (He has quickly adopted his new role as one of Diana’s sacred hunting dogs). It is the end of June, the grass is high and two blue dragonflies dart across the mound; flashes of shimmering blue. I call her name softly, “Diana, Diana, Diana”. I place my palms on the warm earth and I know I am touching sacred ground.

“Diana, I call you back into this place.

Diana, I claim this ground as sacred space.”

Slowly, I walk around the edge of the mound, quietly chanting. I visualise the walls of the temple, the roof, the cool darkness of the interior, a basin burning with sacred flame in front of Her statue. My mind conjures up a temple made of majestic white marble complete with grand columns. I know that this isn’t what the temple originally looked like, however this is my energetic temple I’m building and if I want columns then I’m having columns. I circumnavigate the mound three times and I return to the centre. I thank Diana… and then I have to rush off because my little dachshund has made a beeline for a couple’s picnic and I have to grab him before he scoffs the sausage rolls.

I come here as often as I can. By calling Her name, visualising Her temple, chanting, raising energy – I create Her temple anew. I am creating an energetic temple to Diana right here in Greenwich Park in London. Diana has called me and I intend to follow.