Sozeresh
God of fertility, family wellbeing, and the harvest. Honored at the winter solstice.
Mythology
Sozeresh is the god of the stored harvest and of the household that survives the winter on it. His emblem is a branch — often a hawthorn or pear bough with seven shoots — kept in the granary through the year and brought into the house at the winter solstice, candles fixed to its tips.
In the old rites the head of the family carried the Sozeresh branch in from the cold, and the household greeted it as it would greet a returning traveler: with bread, with cheese, with the best seat by the fire. He is a guest-god, and the whole ethic of Circassian hospitality is rehearsed in how he is received.
Sacred Correspondences
- ·Grain, granaries, stored abundance
- ·Family continuity and children
- ·The winter solstice
- ·The hawthorn/pear branch
- ·Candles and hearth-light
- ·The granary and storeroom
- ·The threshold
- ·The hearth in deep winter
- ·Ploughed fields at rest
- ·Fresh bread and white cheese
- ·Honey
- ·Candles lit on a branch
- ·The first and last sheaf of a harvest
- ·Wheat gold
- ·Deep green
- ·Candle amber
- ·Seven (the seven candles)
- ·Twelve (the months provided for)
- ·Do not waste or throw away bread.
- ·Do not let the branch touch the ground when carrying it indoors.
- ·Do not receive the rite while refusing hospitality to a guest.
- ·Do not count your stores aloud with pride.
Establishing a Relationship
Sozeresh rewards steadiness rather than intensity. Keep a small store — a jar of grain, a shelf of preserves — that is explicitly his, and replenish it before you need it. Bake regularly. Feed people.
His season is winter; his practice is provision. Mark the solstice every year without fail, and speak the names of the household's children and elders at that rite.
A Ritual
- 1On the longest night, choose a branch with several shoots from a fruiting tree; ask the tree first.
- 2Fix small candles to the tips — seven if the branch allows.
- 3Carry it in from outside without letting it touch the ground. Someone at the door greets it aloud as a guest.
- 4Set it upright at the hearth or table and light the candles from one flame.
- 5Serve bread, cheese, and honey; the first portion is set aside for Sozeresh and left overnight.
- 6Name each member of the household in turn and ask that the stores hold until spring.
- 7In the morning, keep the branch in the storeroom until next winter.
Rituals presented here are respectful reconstructions drawn from ethnographic description and contemporary Khabze practice, compiled by an outsider for educational purposes. Practice varies by family, village, and diaspora community.