Belesama, ray-formed, laughing sunlight,
Child of Light and Water, holy Aletheia,
compassionate and regal, still and flowing,
your crown is the gleaming solar corona,
your garments the unmoving light of truth,
your adornments the quickening fire of wisdom.
You surge forth with the solar wind,
you break upon the mountain waters,
you take the path through stream and river,
you weather away all that is base and material.
From your breasts the Kronian nurselings
fill their mouths with ink and nectar,
sweet mother of wisdom who fills all with form,
who scatters light like gold upon the water.
You are the one who left the company of Gods
to send forth holy rays in all directions, creating
a path for divine chariots and companions
to follow you swift to fashion waiting worlds.
You pierced Earth’s membraneous birth-sac
so life could gush sticky and thick upon her,
just as you pierced open every fit receptacle
so the providential goods of the Gods could
find completion within our sacred cosmos.
Cast your shining truth into my life, sweet one.
May you grant me fierce compassion, courage,
the strength to abide and run forth and return
in my own journey down from the divine circuit
with focused determination, achieving what is best.
Note: Belesama is often spelled Belisama, but I’m taking after the bare-bones transliteration of how her name was inscribed in Greek in Gaul, Bηλησαμα, although I suppose it could also be rendered Bilisama. She’s often associated with sunlight and rivers, and indeed a river in Britain is named for her. Cosmological associations, though, are not new — here’s a passage from Lemprière’s Bibliotheca Classica:
KALLISTI 