A plan made and written downIncenseWineFirst fruits storedA kindness done in advance
Invocation Approach
Tone
Quiet and practical
Address
ProvidentiaForesightProvidentia Augusta
Relationship
The care that arrives before the need
Warning
She is not anxiety and does not guarantee the future
Resonance
Those planning for others carers and stewards
Symbols
The globeThe cornucopiaThe rudderThe altar
Mythology Summary
Providentia is the Roman personification of foresight and provision, an abstraction of the imperial cult with no mythology of her own; Cicero treats providentia as one of the components of prudentia, alongside memoria and intellegentia. She appears on imperial coinage as Providentia Augusta and in dedicatory inscriptions, and stands in the state's religious vocabulary for the foresight that provisioned the city and the dynasty. Her Greek counterpart is pronoia, and she is a civic personification, not a figure of myth.
Modern Practice
Providentia is invoked at the beginning of a plan, and by those who keep others: the household budget, the store cupboard, the rota, the care arranged before it is needed. The practice is provision without anxiety - the thing done now that will matter later.