Zeus is gravity– unseeable, unknowable, defying human understanding. He holds the planets in place. He slingshots rockets back home. He cradles Earth in a steady orbit and tells them that they are safe.
Hera rests on the rings around Saturn. She drapes herself across their icy surface, riding their steady rotations, ever-watching, ever-awake.
Artemis holds the moon in her hands. Some call her goddess of the moon, but she knows that she is but a friend to Selene. She watches in awe as Selene glows, and she tries to bring that peace back to the forest with her.
Apollo lights up his sister’s hands as he rests upon the Sun. He surrounds himself with light, and he tries to find music in between the sunspots and the harsh solar winds. When he can’t find any music, he makes it for himself.
Hestia kindles the flames of the stars. She watches them grow up, and she mourns at their supernovas. She paints Earth’s skies with constellations, and she tries to keep the world aglow despite their dying light.
Poseidon takes pleasure in placing water in places where no one dares to look. He crafts great oceans in distant planets, at the center of unexplored moons. He knows that life is sacred, even if it is unknown.
Ares hurls meteors across distant skies. Asteroids are his cannonballs. Comets are his bullets.
Aphrodite watches in awe as Ares’ ammunition glides through the atmosphere. She sets them aglow and calls them shooting stars. She listens to the faraway wishes, but she can’t grant them all.
Athena plants ideas in the minds of faraway astronomers and cosmologists. She whispers of string theory, of the multiverse, of membranes, of dimensions. She smiles as ideas become theories and theories become facts.
Dionysus sends out constant reminders that the universe can never make sense. He muddles Athena’s great ideas and reminds us that the world doesn’t have meaning– it just is.
Demeter grows galaxies as if they are crops. She names them as if they are her children, “Sunflower”, “Andromeda”, “Tadpole”, and she nurtures them from seeds, waiting for the day that they will be ready for harvest.
Hephaestus sculpts quarks into atoms, atoms into elements, elements into entire nebulas. He knows that the other deities rely on him to make the universe work, but they seem to forget.
Hermes is the speed of light. He knows that he can’t be matched, can’t be broken, can’t ever be surpassed. He is infinite.
Hades sleeps at the center of blackholes. He pities those who quiver at the chaos, the terror, the horrible uncertainty of his gaping cracks in space; he knows that there is nothing to fear about darkness.
Tag: theoi
he is.
You guys thinking what I’m thinking
Deity bath kits. A bath bomb, a sugar scrub, a lotion, and a homemade candle. I’m down for this idea.
YAS
Lord of Misrule from Lush is so goddamn Dionysus it hurts.
Deity bath kits!!!!
yeah, like, thanks
I was this close to add
dionysos: “and then we do a threesome! :D”
Prayers in flight
Three prayers written while on a plane home, after several miracles of luck and timing coinciding to let me catch a flight on far too short a layover. Most prayers I feel very private about, but these felt meant to be shared.
*
Hail Hermes lightfooted, swift-winged!
Hail to the traveler, to the messenger, he of the golden sandals and the silver tongue!
Hail to he to speeds the way, who clears the path, who lightens the load.
Hail Hermes swift-footed, clever tongued, fleetly winged!
Hail to he who aids the foolish, guides and speeds along the way.
Hail the Messenger, he who connects and facilitates all.
Hail his kind heart and laughing eyes.
Hail Hermes, kind to the deserving and undeserving.*
Hail to my lady of the frost and snow, she who descends with the chill of the air.
Hail to she who carries life beneath the earth to slumber till her rise.
Hail Persephone Khthonia, our lady beneath the earth, she who carries the turn of the seasons on her heel.
Keep chill what should be, and let not your mother’s heat wrack the earth and tear it from its slumber.
Let all things lie fallow and recover their strength until the proper time.
Let no life’s green force be wasted, Persephone Karpophoros, my lady of flowers and fruits.
Let the seasons turn in their time and all belong where it falls.
Beg your mother to cool the southern summer that kills bat and stills bird.
Let all happen as it should, in its cycle, in its turn, in its allotted time.
Hail, fair Persephone, cruel and kind, light and dark, above and below and never less than divine.*
Hail the Theoi, gods of our ancestors, gods of our today.
Hail to those brightly burning and to those shrouded.
Hail Zeus, King of heaven, God of lightning, God of xenia.
Hail Hera, queen of heaven, goddess of marriage of family of home.
Hail Hestia, maiden goddess, she of the hearth and the flame.
Hail Apollon, brightly burning, of medicine and sun.
Hail to Hermes, ever laughing, he who parleys between all.
Hail Demeter, fertile mother, she who cares for the life of the soil.
Hail her daughter, Queen Persephone, ruler of dead men underground.
And hail her spring face, Karpophoros, bringing life forth with her rise.
Hail Hephaestus, clever craftsman, overlooked and underestimated.
Hail Aphrodite, child of sea foam, goddess of passions in her right.
Thought I would post a picture of my current combination altar/shrine. Hestia, Hekate, and Hermes have art and statues/figurines. (Hekate has three fox and wolf figurines, which are the closest I could get to dogs.) They’re hard to see, but on the tray, I also keep worry beads, a pot of barley, and then a bottle of perfume I use for offerings. Finally, the jug on the right is my Hermes jar.