I’ve got just about a year under my belt now, so I’m very much still a baby myself. But here’s a few things I wish I’d known, or think might be helpful.
Just make khernips with a match. No really. It’s the extinguishing of a flame in the water that makes it lustral. Don’t worry about the rest unless you really want to and have the time.
You don’t have to introduce yourself to any gods. They all want to be worshiped; just get to it.
We’re not as intimidating as you think we are. We just…read a lot. You can read a lot too. You’re welcome here. We’ll even help.
Statuary is nice. It is also wicked pricey. Here’s what you need on an altar: A bowl for offerings, a vessel for khernips (can be near the altar rather than on it)
Wine, olive oil, honey, water are pretty universal libations. You’re welcome.
Dispose of offerings however works for you. Just do it with respect, and you’re fine. Oh but don’t consume offerings to cthonic (underground) deities, alright? That’s bad times.
The gods demand Arete. That is your personal best, not the best of the person next to you, or your mother, or somebody you idolize on tumblr. Do your best.
This is a religion of Kharis. When you ask the gods for something, give them something. Then, do not forget the thank you. Offer again if you are granted what you asked for.
Our tumblr community is pretty great, but we also are sometimes wrong. Find sources, and for gods’ sake do not try to replace your studies with Tumblr. Read for yourself, learn for yourself, build your religion such that it best honors the gods and works for you.
If you’re like me, you’re constantly moaning “How do you pronounce THAT?”. I know, friend, I know.Try a couple of these lessons on the ancient Greek alphabet. It is NOT fool proof. It is an incredibly complex language, and pronouncing it ain’t easy. But boy it will help with those particularly tricky epithets.
Oaths are serious business. Gods are easy to fall in love with. Be careful. Be patient.
Real life pagans are way, way nicer than the ones on the internet. Go find them.
There are exceptions to most rules. Most of those exceptions are Dionysos.
No, ___ will not get jealous if you also worship ____. It’s a fear of us recovering monotheists, but I promise it does not apply to this religion. It’s kind of what POLYtheist means, and plus, most of our gods are related. Show the whole family some love.
“What is [god name] like?” They’re pretty fucking cool. Go find out for yourself, and bring gifts.
The gods know we are mortals, and that mortals make mistakes. Apologize. Bring gifts.
Reading Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece, By Joan Breton Connelly and it’s pretty neat. Here are some interesting points so far.
“….. Instead, religion was embedded in every aspect of life and was intensely local, highly dependent on regional tradition.”
“The Greeks did not even have a separate word for religion, since there was no area of life that lacked a religious aspect.”
“Cleaning, weaving, washing, dressing, decorating, grinding, cooking, and feeding can all be seen as the work of women in both house and sanctuary across the ages. It is this powerful analogy between house and temple that provides a critical foundation for female agency in Greek religion”
“For priestesses, failure to observe cult requirements represented not just a lapse in duty but a serious crime. It could arouse the wrath of the divinity and cause disorder in the harmonious functioning of the community.”
“As practitioners of household worship and the host of rituals occasioned by domestic life, Greek women assumed the role of ‘priestess’ within their own families.” This is interesting to me, because I’ve seen the same idea discussed about men as the head of the household assuming a role of ‘priest’ within the home, but this is the first time I’ve seen the idea posed for women.
May Hestia help your family to be more accepting of who you are, and not try to change you.
May Zeus help repeal any laws that put you in harm, or try to deny you any basic human right.
May Hera bless your current or future marriage, with a gorgeous ceremony where you and your beloved are entirely safe.
May Demeter make sure you have enough food during any dark times when you don’t know when your next paycheck or meal is.
May Poseidon keep you safe from harassment during those dreaded swim trips before transition.
May Artemis protect you from sexual assault, especially Her sapphic daughters.
May Apollo aid you with smooth hormone therapy, and surgeries without complications, especially His achillean sons.
May Athena give you the strength to deal with ignorant bigots, and explain your identity so they understand.
May Hermes help you stay financially secure through abusive homes and relationships, transition, lost jobs, and moving out.
May Aphrodite bless your love life to find a partner who understands and supports you, and so that you love yourself a little more.
May Hephaestus help you be creative in coming up with new ways to pass a little more, while still being safe.
May Ares help you protect yourself from people who wish you harm, so that you can fight back the oppression.
May Hades comfort your lost brothers and sisters who are now with Him, and help you keep hope.
May Dionysos protect His trans children from fatal self-hatred. There is nothing wrong with you, for Dionysos, a God, is just like you. You are lovely, and you are ethereal.
B) Did Persephone suffer sexual violence from Hades? Depending on how we analyse and interpret the Hymn to Demeter, we could answer: 1) Yes. 2) No. But whether we answer yes or no, the fact is that:
Persephone was a highly respected, and sometimes feared*, goddess in Ancient Greece. There were different cults associated to her as the Eleusinian Mysteries, which had an incredible long lifespan. Also, she had roles as koutrophos, or child nurturer (Radcliffe), as an exacter of justice, and a mediator for a blessed afterlife (funerary epigrams and orphic tablets).
As Aphrodite, Persephone was linked to the sphere of love (
Sourvinou-Inwood 1991) and her marriage is shown as a happy-loving one in some versions (Ovid, Claudian, plus the iconography in vase or reliefs depictions of Hades and Persephone together where they are joined by Eros or many Erotes).
Hades and Persephone were depicted as a most respectable and monogynous marriage (H. J. Rose, 1925). Their marriage was considered a sacred marriage or hieros gamos (Larsson,
Avagianou)
At Lokri, a Greek colony in Southern Italy, Hades and Persephone served as a paradigm for the married couple and received dedications from girls about to marry (Foley 1994). Persephone had the role of being a protectress of marriage.
The use of the myth as a literary paradigm for marriage in Attic tragedy indicates that the analogy was not confined to Greek Italy (Sourvinou-Inwood 1991).
So, even if we answered Yes to the B) question, we must consider that: i) myths are stories written in symbolic level and should not be taken literally. If sexual violence suggestions or actions take place, the myth is never meant to be an apologism of such actions by the Ancient Greeks.
In conclusion, no one is making historical inaccuracies, neither erasure or rape apologism by interpreting/re-interpreting the myth of Hades and Persephone as a healthy stable marriage.
*coherent to Hades speech to Persephone in the lines 365-369 of the Hymn say “you will have power over all that lives and moves, and you will possess the greatest honors among the gods. There will be punishment forevermore for those wrongdoers who fail to appease your power with sacrifices, performing proper rites and making due offerings.” (translation by Foley).
I had someone ask me a while back if I could share some resources on how I put on my veils, so here’s a step by step, with explanations, of today’s veil. Under a cut for length and lots of pictures.
But in case I do more than one of these, and so you know if you even want to look through it, here’s a picture of the finished look
ARIES: Aphrodite, The Goddess Of Love & Ares, The God Of War:
“I am made of war and she is made of love but what makes war, if not love?”
TAURUS: Orpheus, The Musician & Eurydice, The Oak Nymph:
“She was everything. A world with hope, a taste of the divine. My home was empty, she was gone, forever. But I would find her in all things, in hooded sun, in the name-whispering breeze scented with her perfume, in the dreamless darkness in which she walked.”
GEMINI: Echo, The Nymph Of Mountains & Narcissus, The Thespian Hunter:
“Shall the water not remember, my hand’s slow gesture, tracing above its mirror my, half-imaginary portrait? My only belonging is my beauty, which I take away and then return as love.”
CANCER: Selene, The Titan Moon Goddess & Endymion, The Shepard Prince:
“She was beautiful beyond men’s prayers for beauty, and she drew her silvery flesh out of the starlit air and her cold sweetness from the midnight dew. Virginal was she, loveliest, austere with visible purity. A godlike love swathed her soft shape in plumes of snow-white flame”
LEO: Helen Of Troy & Paris, The Trojan Prince:
“He looked at her as if she were the sun. One look like that can ruin or rescue, depending on which fairy tales you read, and she had read them all. Eyes like those could never lie, she thought, so when he looked at her, she saw all the devastation he would cause in her name, and all the inevitability of their demise, and all the women who chose peace over passion. To hell with peace. I want a lover like a hurricane or a lightning strike. Love should leave no survivors. So you will be my Paris, and I will be your ship to wreck.”
VIRGO: Odysseus, King Of Ithaca & Penelope, The Faithful Wife:
“Long as the day in the summer time, Deep as the wine dark sea, I’ll keep your heart with mine. Till you come to me.”
LIBRA: Pygmalion, The Sculptor & Galatea, The Statue:
“He slid his arm around the coolness of disdain, felt the distance of an Arctic plain, Rested his hand Upon an alabaster thigh, Saw eternal haughtiness in stony eyes. Human heart has he; She heart of stone – To tempt a man to be so close, but always so alone.”
SCORPIO: Eros, The God Of Love & Psyche, The Goddess Of The Soul:
“He would pluck the feathers from his shoulders, Set flames upon his bow, Drain celestial blood from his veins and become her equal, If that is what it took to deserve her; To share that grin one last time. Curse the gods, If he could only worship the light upon the pores of her skin.”
SAGITTARIUS: Perseus, Son Of Zeus & Andromeda, Princess Of Aethiopia:
“Who decided to call these chains? who said i was forced into who holds me? the rock i sit on is a throne of my choosing; the monster i’m to meet is a friend remembered; Perseus, i choose the water. Perseus, i choose salvation. Because at least this, i can say; the waves have never silenced me the way you always have”
CAPRICORN: Hades, God Of The Underworld & Persephone, Goddess Of Spring:
“He crept into her heart, seeking to devour her, but he was the one consumed”
AQUARIUS: Pyramus, The Handsome Youth & Thisbe, The Beautiful Maiden:
“My Sunset had been darkly beautiful, Asplash with deep reds and purple, crowned in gold. Oh that I had been Pyramus and she Thisbe. Star-crossed and Tragic, A love made eternal by mutual deaths”
PISCES: Leander, The Mortal & Hero, The Virgin Priestess:
“Love is not full of pity, as men say, But deaf and cruel where he means to prey. And now she wished this night were never done, And sighed to think upon th’approaching sun; For much it grieved her that the bright day-light Should know the pleasure of this blessed night, And them, like Mars and Ericyne, display, Both in each other’s arms chained as they lay.”
Nemesis is the Goddess of retribution against evil, and She’s also responsible for dealing out ill fortune to those with excessively good fortune. She’s a daughter of Nyx, and regarded most commonly as a punishing Goddess. She keeps retinue with Thyche (good fortune) and Aedos (modesty).
Her symbols include an apple branch, a whip or lash, and a sword. I also consider Griffins sacred to Her because of this passage from
Nonnus, Dionysiaca:
A wheel turned itself round before the queen’s feet, signifying that she rolls all the proud from on high to the ground with the avenging wheel of justice, she the allvanquishing deity who turns the path of life. Round her throne flew a bird of vengeance, a Gryps (Griffin) flying with wings, or balancing himself on four feet, to go unbidden before the flying goddess and show that she herself traverses the four separate quarters of the world: highcrested men she bridles with her bit which none can shake off, such is the meaning of the image, and she rolls a haughty fellow about as it were with the whip of misery, like a self-rolling wheel.
In Greek mythology the Erinyes also known as the Furies, were female chthonic deities of vengeance; Alecto (“endless”), Megaera (“jealous rage”), and Tisiphone (“vengeful destruction”)
The Carving Witch 