Glaux's Nest

Charm of the Spiral Castle

2012-02-04T10:56:00.001-05:00

In a silver castle
far beyond the sea
grows a golden apple
on a silver tree.

On the Isle of Apples
through the pearly mist
stands a spiral tor-mound
on which the castle sits.

Waters flow upon the isle,
pools of life-in-death.
A sacred river circles it
the ancient stream of Lethe.

The castle spins between the worlds
to touch the vault of heaven.
Stars dance around its towers four
two Bears, one Crown, the Sisters Seven.

Upon the highest tower
with linen at her feet
spins the castle's Lady
in her uneasy seat.

Down below the castle
iron touches fire,
where Cain pounds at the anvil
all that we desire.

The Mighty Dead reside within --
Ancient, wise, and brave --
for those who walk the Crooked Path --
seek Rose Beyond the Grave.

Seek the turning castle
by right of Scarlet Thread.
It won't be found with mortal eyes
but ones hallowed by the dead.
~Natalie Black, Imbolc 2012

Cross-posted from my other blog.

Athena Devotional

2011-12-06T22:27:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note to mention that Bibliotheca Alexandrina publishing house is seeking submissions for a future Athena Devotional. You can learn more about the project here. I've submitted some of my work from this blog. *crosses fingers*

Lovely Owl

2011-11-18T10:50:00.002-05:00

My new favorite thing of the day. :)

Black Dog

2011-10-20T13:57:00.001-04:00

If you are going through hell, keep going.
~Winston Churchill

Churchill knew about Bipolar Disorder firsthand. He was stalked by this own black dog; just as is my father, just as I am.

The dog hungers for anxiety. It lives on fear and self-deprecation. It has a nose for the tragic.

Medications can chain the dog. They make him invisible. They make me wonder if there ever was a black dog in the shadows of my mind, in the darkness at my door.

But the dog is real, and when that barghest fixes you with his baleful stare the color drains out of your world and you remember all of the pain that can be laid at your doorstep. You are accountable, and the dog is judge, jury, and executioner.

Carry your guilt and the dog will grow teeth to gnash at your soul. If you have worries, fears, the dog will sneak in on padded feet and poison your thoughts.

You must fight the dog.

You cannot take it out back and shoot it. No. That rage only feeds the beast. You cannot abandon it at a shelter, no matter how many times you might check yourself in, or attempt to check out.

The dog will find you where you live. It will roam around you, just out of sight, yet you will sense the terrible weight of its great shaggy bulk slowly smothering you.

You will hear it howling in the darkness. Sometimes you might spot its heavy paw prints in the dirty places of your mind. Do not follow its tracks. The dog is crafty and will try to lead you off of the path of recovery.

Kill the dog with sunlight, with joyful songs, and silly films, and warm hugs from loved ones. Kill the dog with kindness. Forgive yourself. Be gentle with yourself. The dog will slowly starve.

Let go. Forgive. Reject guilt.

Kill the dog.

You can read more about Churchill's own Black Dog, here.

Into the Underworld

2011-10-09T23:35:00.000-04:00

To paraphrase Proust, I am going on "a journey that no one can take for [me] or spare [me]."

This has been a long time coming.

I've been fairly open on this blog about my bipolar disorder in the past. I currently have major depression, to the point where it is difficult to even spell the words to form this post.

Tomorrow morning I will be checking myself into a clinic in order to get my medications in order, and to try to get myself back into some semblance of normalcy.

I am scared and sad that it has come to this, but I have to find a way to get better. Now.

Why I'm Against Marriage, Gay or Straight

2011-08-06T20:21:00.001-04:00

As cute as this is, um, no.

After the (awesome, well-deserved, fantastic) decision in New York to allow gay marriage one of my coworkers asked me if Laurelei and I would be traveling to the Big Apple for a nuptial holiday. The short answer, which I gave said coworker, is no. The long answer I figured I'd hash out here.

I have a problem with state-sanctioned marriage because it combines two things that really shouldn't be together in my opinion (not, not a man and wife, lol). I was thinking Church and State. See, I kind of agree with those fundie wack-jobs that drone on about marriage being a sacrament. It *is* a sacrament. A wedding is about you and your mate(s) and your God(s/esses). I think that churches should have a right to refuse to perform a ceremony of marriage to anyone they deem beyond their church's pale. I also believe that if churches continue to remain uber-conservative that they will eventually fail. More people will look to alternative faiths like Paganism to fill their spiritual needs in a loving and accepting way.

Now, a marriage is more than only a spiritual commitment, of course. It is also a legal contract. You are effectively creating a corporation between you and your spouse. You get some other rights as well, including power of attorney. This legal contract should be state-sanctioned and should be open to EVERYONE, regardless of gender, or current legal status. Yes, I am calling for the ability to incorporate with more than one person at a time. Access to this form of contract should be accessible to anyone of the age of majority for a small fee at the county clerk's office, no questions asked. This is something like a civil union, but not with the problems of being "separate but equal", because it is like this for everyone. The government would have no place in a marriage or a wedding. The government is there to protect and promote the family. If you will recall, the Supreme Court decided decades ago in the case of Braschi v. Stahl Associates that:

"The majority has extended the definition of family to include anyone with an emotional and financial commitment. The regulation’s intent can only be applied by a definition of family to include objectively verifiable relationships based on blood, marriage and adoption as the State has historically done in estate succession laws, family court acts, and similar legislation."

So, you legally do not require a "marriage" to have a family.

I have an awesome family. We have kids, cats, rabbits, and lots of love. I don't need or want the state getting involved in my family. They should be there to protect us as good, honest, hardworking members of the proletariat. They do not have the right to judge if my family is "good enough" for them to approve of. I have a marriage, thank you. I was joined in love in the eyes of my Gods to my family. I don't need New York, or Indiana, or anyone to give me a piece of paper confirming what has already been solemnized. I respect and celebrate the rights of those that do. But I think that a change is coming in the way we see relationships in our society, and I believe in that change.

Note: But, seriously, I do think this whole gay marriage in New York thing rocks. How can you not love this?

Thelema and Possession

2011-07-21T15:53:00.000-04:00

Maman Brigitte

I was asked a question last week by an O.T.O. brother about how I reconciled being a Thelemite and doing my own will with allowing possession to occur like I did with Maman Brigitte at Babalon Rising. As a Thelemite we are not supposed to do anything that interferes with our true will and, at first glance, possession looks to be right out. So how do I justify it? Other than just generally being quite awesome how does possession mesh with my work as a Thelemite?

First of all, I trust the Gods. Even though I know there are many spirits who have their own questionable agendas I put faith in the Gods, and by extension the Lwa, to be in keeping with Universal Will. If I am aligning myself to the Gods I am also attuning myself to that Universal Will, which is by extension my own True Will.

"But, Glaux," you ask, "How can a trickster deity like Loki, or Discordia, or Papa Ghede be keeping with Universal Will? Isn't that like inviting in Charonzon?" Yes and no. Even Charonzon has a place and a purpose in the multiverse. By aligning myself with the energy and Will of Chaos, Death, or the Adversary I am bringing their balancing energy into our realm.

Also, and this is an even bigger reason than aligning myself with Universal Will, I 'm a witch. A Thelemic witch, yes, but firstly a witch. That is my Great Work. Those are my blood oaths. I walk a crooked path. I talk with Gods, and invite them in. I bring about change within myself and the world around me by working with spirits of the Gods, the Ancestors, the Mighty Dead, and the Seelie & Unseelie Courts. Possession is a key technique for a shaman, and that is what witchcraft is, the vestiges of ancient European shamanism.

Maybe you think that witchcraft and Thelema are at odds with each other because of how each system views possession, but I maintain that witchcraft, specifically Gardnerian Wicca is the most prolific expression of Thelema in the New Aeon. It is no secret that Gardner had a charter from Crowley, or that the original Gardnerian Book of Shadows borrowed (stole?) heavily from the Gnostic Mass and other Thelemic texts. Nor should it come as a surprise that Wicca has pollinated and disseminated itself through mainstream culture much more effectively than the magical system of Thelema. Wicca is the most popular face of Thelema today, even if most witches have never heard of Crowley or the Book of the Law. So, no, I don't think that witchcraft and Thelema are mutually exclusive paths, rather I believe that, for those who are bound to each system, they compliment each other as magical paths.

A Perfect Day

2011-06-28T00:25:00.000-04:00

The delightfully artistic and playful author/muse SARK wrote in one of her many (wonderful/amazing/colorful/inspiring!) books about keeping notes on what a perfect day looks like in order to manifest positive things, and to recognize and appreciate when those wonderful things happen in your life. I've been running with this idea for a few months now, and have assembled my (ever-growing) list below.

During the perfect day I will...

dream a delicious dream ~ wake up of my own accord ~ write! ~ teach ~ learn ~ pray ~ perform ~ nap ~ eat a tasty meal that someone else prepares for me and cleans up after ~ be in nature ~ be loved deeply & well ~ move with spirit ~ bathe luxuriously ~ dance! ~ create ~ cry in awe ~ get a gift ~ read a book so wonderful that I want to pass it out on streetcorners ~ wear flattering, beautiful, comfortable clothes ~ shop for fun at leisure ~ drum on my frame drum ~ experience a miracle ~ smell flowers ~ sing well ~ share energy ~ get a chiropractic adjustment ~ laugh long and hard ~ snuggle ~ amaze myself ~ stay up late talking with a friend ~ sleep in a comfortable, extravagantly furnished bed ~ travel somewhere new ~ see an owl ~ talk with a Goddess ~ have a giggle fit ~ listen to the waves meet the shore ~ work magic ~ hold hands ~ get lost in my thoughts ~ fly ~ hope ~ spend time with my best friends ~ inspire someone ~ breathe deep ~ sniff my cat's fur ~ make O's around a fire

What would you do on your perfect day?

On Coming Out

2011-06-22T23:06:00.002-04:00

I've found that "coming out" as anything controversial or against what consensus reality would label as "normal" is pretty much the same across the board. (this is coming from a Thelemic Pagan Polyamorous Lesbian, so trust me on this.) There will always be people who get their feathers all ruffled just because someone is doing things differently than they choose to. The thing to remember is ultimately these people don't matter. What matters is that you are being your honest authentic self, the person God/dess created you to be. If you do this you will find that your life opens up, and that you find the people who are your real family. These are the people who will love you for who you really are. They are out there waiting. Your life is out there waiting for you to grab it and own it!

So, Glaux... you like owls huh?

2011-06-22T22:40:00.003-04:00

Yes I like owls. It's kind of a thing for me. Let me explain.

When I was in high school I was that weird girl who was in all the school plays and painted her lips black and wore a biker jacket. I was also openly Wiccan, which really means I'd read a few Scott Cunningham and Ray Buckland books and I was really jazzed about this Lilith character I'd read about.

Anyway, in spite of myself I was a real book hound proto-librarian type who loved to do research. I still have the (now very full) index cards that I started back then on each of the sepheroth. Much like today, if it had to do with the occult I wanted to know it.

I was dating this guy who was in a garage band and was really into Native American spirituality. I think it had something to do with idolizing Jim Morrison. He lent me a book, Ted Andrew's Animal Speak. I thought this book was amazing. AH. MAY. ZING. Because of it I was determined to find my totem animal spirit.

Armed with the wherewithal that only a sixteen year old can muster I boldly trekked out into the woods to commune with nature. I was certain that if I simply went out into the world with intent that the universe would make apparent my very own totem spirit in a matter of minutes. This did not happen.

What did happen was that I missed lunch. And dinner. And nothing happened. No forest critters appeared from the brush for consideration as a totem. No chipmunks. No blackbirds. No nothin' for hours.

The sun was setting, and I knew it was time to turn back towards home. The sky shifted orange and pink, and then to deep lavender. I was out of the woods and walking through the field next to my house when a monster tried to eat me. It came out of nowhere, aimed straight for my head. I ducked to the ground, prone and terrified.

Of course, you can all guess what had happened now, but then, in the moment, I thought the sky was falling for certain. And yes, when I finally got the nerve up to peek at the tree behind me, there she was. Perched in a bare tree, silhouetted in the fading purple sky, the unmistakable outline of an owl. She is a great horned owl, and she sings me to sleep every night thereafter that I spent in my parent's home. In the evening she wings by my window.

Flash forward into my early twenties as I am coming into my own as a magician. Every witch needs her fetch, and mine came in the form of a screech owl. I was now deeply into the mysteries of Lilith, and came to understand her as a kind of great cosmic mothering owl-spirit. I took my first magical name, Noctua, Latin for screech owl. I cut my staff from a grove where a nest of screech owlettes makes their home. I go on late night walks just to listen to them call out.

And on into my thirties when I have collected my lineages and degrees, and have molded a truly magical life for myself. Athena starts talking to me. She gives me a few tasks to complete, and I perform most of them (one being the work of this blog). I begin to see that the "great cosmic mothering owl-spirit" is an archetype in many ancient European cultures. Lilith, Athena, Blodeuwedd, Ereshkegal, Calleach, the Burney Relief Goddess, and so on. I take another name. This time Glaux, Greek for owl.

I don't know where the owl will fly me next. Right now she is embedded as the archetypical Black Goddess of the American Folkloric Witchcraft/Spiral Castle tradition I am working. She looms large as a life-sized copy of the Burney Relief over the desk I sit at now. I am surrounded by owl trinkets and paraphernalia. A wooden flute carved into an owl that makes hooting noises, an obsidian carved owl from my trip to Mexico, a maneki neko inspired owl from "Japan" in Epcot, several stuffed hedwigs, a stained glass owl from my mother in law. There are literally hundreds of them.

Do I like owls? Yes. And I've come to think that, just maybe, they like me back.

Decompression

2011-06-20T20:37:00.001-04:00

Another Babalon Rising festival is in the books, and my life is beginning to show signs of what those in consensus reality would call normalcy. Babalon Rising, for those that haven't heard, is an annual four day occult festival dreamed up by yours truly and some of my closest cohorts.

This was officially my "year off" for the festival. Meaning, instead of running around all day and half of the night like a manic trying to herd Thelemites (much worse than herding cats, I can assure you) I actually was able to attend portions of the festival and even sleep in.

So what did I do with my precious time? I served as a sounding board for my friends who needed space to vent, I ran the Qabalah Bar (a tradition at Babalon Rising; someone nude is painted as the Tree of Life and shots corresponding with each of the sepheroth are mixed and then imbibed as body shots from the living "tree") and I got ridden hard at a New Orleans voodoo ritual to Manman Brigette. I don't think I've ever been possessed quite so completely before. I have (nearly) no recollection of what occurred during my time as a horse (save the odd image of a little white boy's bare butt covered in fishnets and bouncing to the beat of the drums -- it's funny what the Gods will let through!)

I got to ride around French Lick, Indiana with the legendary and notorious magicians Lon Milo DuQuette and Donald Michael Kraig. That's one for the bucket list. By the grace and wisdom of my spiritual sister Magdelyn M. I got to help begin working the New Aeon work of the Cup and the Paten. I had the stunning realization that, in a small way, I am helping to shape the history of occultism in America, something I love very much and am humbled by.

In this year's Feast of the Beast ritual I invoked Hadit, the master magician. It is a good archetype for me to be working with, as much progress has been made since then on my other blog. Thus far I have held the FoB roles of: Babalon, Nuit, Baphomet (best costume EVER), a Maenad, a Scarlet Woman, and now Hadit. Next year is our seventh year and I plan to serve as Babalon once again.

My profound thanks and agape go out to everyone who participated in this year's festival. The energy was astonishing. After performing the opening Star Ruby ritual I was so overcome I could barely walk, and that was just day one. Thank you sisters and brothers. 93!

Occult & Witchcraft Learning Series (OWLS)

2011-06-17T19:56:00.001-04:00

Asteria Books Publishing House is proud to announce the launch of our new "Occult & Witchcraft Learning Series (OWLS)" line of books.

We understand that novice practitioners are yearning for material in comprehensible portions over a potentially wide range of topics, which is precisely what the OWLS Library provides. As an OWLS reader, you can choose from lesson titles in any course to create a comprehensive and personalized Book of Shadows or Grimoire. Furthermore, each OWL book comes with its own 10-question quiz and answer-key, allowing you to check your knowledge when you finish. OWLS are a great way to build a reference library, flesh out a Book of Shadows, or plan a Craft 101 class for your group.

Ebooks are available in .pdf format. Each book in the series is 50 - 60 pages in and costs only $1.00 to download per book. Print copies of the OWLS library will be available for purchase soon through the Asteria Books website.

Although there are dozens of titles in the works only five OWLS are currently available: Ritual Basics,Witches' Tools, Spellcrafting, Esbats, and the Wheel of the Year. These titles are all part of our OWLS Eclectic Witchcraft series. Many other series and titles will be available soon. For a complete list, visit the Asteria Books website.

New Blog

2011-05-30T00:50:00.001-04:00

Laurelei and I started a new blog to share our thoughts on Witchcraft. If you are interested in that sort of thing, please check us out here: American Folkloric Witchcraft. I'll still be using this blog (Glaux Nest) as my primary personal journal.

I've been writing a lot about Witchcraft lately and am eager to share some of that over at AFW. Meanwhile, I hope to get back to blogging in general here. My universe has been a bit crazed for the last few months, as our house flooded back in March and we've been displaced since then. Most of my belongings are in storage pods on our front lawn and I am sleeping in an RV.

I've been assured that I'll be back in my home sometime later this week. Regularly scheduled blogging should resume soon after I'm settled.

Aradia's Gifts

2011-04-25T00:27:00.003-04:00

So, I promised I'd start blogging about the Craft. I'll start with something traditional, some selections from Aradia, o il Vangelo delle Streghe. [Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches].

According to an Italian legend, Aradia is the daughter of Diana and her brother Lucifer. Aradia was said to be an avatar of Diana sent to earth to teach people the ways of Witchcraft to free them from slavery and degradation.

The folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland collected a series of documents from an informant he named Maddalena concerning the survival of an ancient practice of Witchcraft (or Strega) among certain hidden sects throughout Tuscany. He published these as Aradia.

The Gifts of Aradia

In the fourteenth century, Aradia was said to have taught that the traditional powers of a witch would belong to any who followed in the ways of the Old Religion [la Vecchia Religione]. Aradia called these powers "Gifts", she also stressed the point that these powers were the benefits of adhering to the Old Ways, and not the reason for becoming a witch.

These are the powers:

To bring success in love
To bless and consecrate
To speak with spirits
To know of hidden things
To call forth spirits
To know the Voice of the Wind
To possess the knowledge of transformation
To possess the knowledge of divination
To know and understand secret signs
To cure disease
To bring forth beauty
To have influence over whild beasts
To know the secrets of the hands

The Covenant of Aradia

To obtain the powers of the Strega there were certain rules that needed to be followed. They are as follows.

Observe the times of the Treguenda, for therein is the foundation of the powers of Stregheria.

When good is done to you, then do good to another. If someone wishes to repay you for a kindness, then bind them to go out of their way to help three others, then this shall clear the debt.

Do not use the arts of Stregheria to appear powerful among others. Do not lower the standards of the Art and thereby bring contempt upon the Old ways.

Do not take the life of anything unless it is to preserve life, yours or another's.

Do not give your word of honour lightly, for you are bound by your words and by your oaths.

Do not accept any authority over you unless it is of the Gods. Instead, cooperate with others but do not be a slave and always preserve your honour. Give respect to others and expect respect in return.

Teach all who appear worthy and aid the continuance of the Old Religion.

Do not belittle another's religious beliefs, but simply state your own truths. Strive to be at peace with those who differ.

Do not purposely cause harm to another, unless it is to prevent true harm to yourself or another.

Strive to be compassionate to others, and to be aware of the hearts and minds of those around you.

Be true to your own understanding and turn away from those things which oppose the good in you, or are harmful to you. Hold reverence to all within Nature. Destroy nothing, scar nothing, waste nothing, live in harmony with Nature, for the ways of Nature are our own ways.

Remain open in your heart and in your mind to the Great Ones who created all that is, and to your brothers and sisters alike.

The Charge of Aradia

In addition to the above instructions, Aradia offered this piece of advice, which has evolved into the modern Wiccan Charge of the Goddess.

Whenever you have need of anything, once in the month when the Moon is full, then shall you come together at some deserted place, or where there are woods, and give worship to She who is Queen of all Witches. Come all together inside a circle, and secrets that are as yet unknown shall be revealed.

And your mind must be free and also your spirit and as a sign that you are truly free, you shall be naked in your rites. And you shall rejoice, and sing; making music and love. For this is the essence of spirit, and the knowledge of joy.

Be true to your own beliefs, and keep to the Ways, beyond all obstacles. For ours is the key to the mysteries and the cycle of rebirth, which opens the way to the Womb of Enlightenment.

I am the spirit of witches all, and this is joy and peace and harmony. In life does the Queen of all witches reveal the knowledge of Spirit. And from death does the Queen deliver you to peace and renewal.

When I shall have departed from this world, in memory of me make cakes of grain, wine, and honey. These shall you shape like the Moon, and then partake of wine and cakes, all in my memory. For I have been sent to you by the Spirits of Old, and I have come that you might be delivered from all slavery. I am the daughter of the Sun and the Moon, and even though I have been born into this world, my Race is of the Stars.

Give offerings all to She who is our Mother. For She is the beauty of the GreenWood, and the light of the Moon among the Stars, and the mystery which gives life, and always calls us to come together in Her name. Let Her worship be the ways within your heart, for all acts of love and pleasure gain favor with the Goddess.

But to all who seek her, know that your seeking and desire will reward you not, until you realize the secret. Because if that which you seek is not found within your inner self, you will never find it from without. For she has been with you since you entered into the ways, and she is that which awaits at your journey's end.

Free Strega texts and information online
Aradia, or The Gospel of the Witches by Charles Godfrey Leland
Etruscan Roman Remains by Charles Godfrey Leland
Stregheria.com by Raven Grimassi

The day Carrie Fisher saved my life

2011-03-25T21:04:00.003-04:00

As I've stated here before, I am Bipolar I & I have Season Affective Disorder. This time of year is always a challenge for me, as I tend to veer a little to the manic in early spring. "March Madness" is an accurate moniker. "Mad as a March hare" also applies here. So, it always a crap-shoot as to just how my mania will manifest each spring. Good times.

Anyway, I wasn't aware of this fact for what feels like a very long time indeed. I was married at the time, and was working in a job environment that was toxic to my spirit. I didn't know why I was so sad most of the time, especially since I had everything I "wanted" at the time.

One day I signed up to go along with another women in my office to a Working Women's fair at a local hotel. I neither knew nor cared what the fair involved, I was just glad to get out of the office for that day. Carrie Fisher was the keynote speaker.

Who doesn't love Carrie Fisher? Apparently, no chica my age, because the poor woman was mobbed by adoring throngs of young women praising her as a role-model for women's empowerment in the Star Wars trilogy. You could tell by her expression that she thought they were all insane. I liked her right away.

Being a literary sort I had read several of Ms. Fisher's books, starting with Postcards From the Edge. I had devoured her work, identifying with many of her zany characters. When it came my turn to have a little face time with her I mentioned how much I loved her writing. She cocked an eyebrow at me, "You look a little young to have read my books." (I was 22) "Oh, no, Ms. Fisher! I've read almost all of them, and I think they're great!" And that was that. Into the hotel meeting hall I went with my co-worker, eager to hear Carrie Fisher's witty monologue.

When Carrie stepped up to the podium I didn't know what I was expecting to hear about. Maybe some comedy (she's a very witty lady) or some dish about her notorious family tree. There were plenty of both of those things, sure. But what was amazing about her talk that day was how she opened up to the audience, with warmth, humor, and a few tears, about living with Bipolar disorder.

Midway through her talk I was nearly in tears. My coworker asked what was wrong with me. I answered her, "I think I have Bipolar disorder." It was like Ms. Fisher had held a mirror up to my face with her speech. I recognized the painful lows, and the maddening yet scintillating highs, the monomania, the excesses, the loss of control.

The next day I scheduled an appointment with my doctor to talk about my suspicions. Soon after that I was hospitalized (in March, natch) for Bipolar disorder. I was diagnosed Bipolar I, with Season Affective Disorder. I began a long string of chemical therapy to treat my symptoms. It took years, but my doctors finally found the right chemical cocktail to keep me at an even keel.

Carrie Fisher turned much of the monologue she shared with us at that conference into an autobiography titled Wishful Drinking. She has no idea how much of a difference her words made to me. I am horribly certain that, had I not received treatment for my disorder, I would not be here today.

I was thinking about her a lot this week because of the death of her step-mother, Elizabeth Taylor. She tweeted: "If my father had to divorce my mother for anyone- I’m so grateful that it was Elizabeth."

So, thanks Carrie Fisher. You're one of my heroes, and not because you played Princess Leia.

In which I assure the world that rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

2011-03-25T20:38:00.003-04:00

So, you may have noticed that its been a while since I've written anything here. Not that it should matter, because I embrace the whole "Blogging Without Obligation" movement, and I sincerely believe that if you don't have something to actually say, you really should keep your blogging to yourself. However, I haven't been blogging recently because, as you have probably also noticed, this is a very Athena-focused blog. That's been hard for me because, well, ever since my grand pilgrimage to the Nashville Parthenon in January Athena has felt very... distant.

How can I express this without sounding like a loon? If I tell you that Athena hasn't been speaking to me, would you even accept that at one time She was?

Okay, let me try this from a different angle.

I'm not just a Hellenic Polytheist. Sometimes I doubt that I ever really was one, or, rather I just worshiped the portion of the Pantheon that I felt like when I felt like.

I'm not just a Pagan. I'm a witch. It's probably the only fact that hasn't changed about me in the last twenty years. I am irrevocably and whole-heartedly a witch. I've immersed myself in every form and flavor of Craft I can get my greedy little fingers on, and I keep coming back to the same place. It's a witchcraft that has a very old feel to it. Some call it traditional witchcraft. In the past I've called it woodcut witchcraft (for the striking woodcuts of Craft produced during the 16th & 17th centuries), Cochrane's craft, Sabbatic craft, Treading the Mill, etc. Anyway, it's what I do. It's what I'm doing. And I'm going to write about it here, when I feel like, regardless of keeping to a blog "theme".

A very Pagan meme

2011-01-27T23:25:00.002-05:00

I was going to blog about Ophiuchus and the sheer level of insanity that surrounded its mention in the Minneapolis Star (not to mention its associations with Athena!) but I'll get around to that eventually.

In the meantime, here is a MEME. Exciting, right? I mean, I know you visit this blog just for its penetrating and insightful meme action. Joy!

The Great Big Pagan Meme of Doom

Do you have a magical/Pagan name?

Yes. I have a name I use in Circle and in the Ordo Templi Orientis, and I have a handle I use in the blogging and Hellenic Recon community, such as it is. My witchy name is Noctua. My online name is Glaux. I also have another name I use for Spiral Castle and Shamanic work, but that one is my secret.

How did you find Paganism?

When I was very young I read mythology, folklore, paranormal, and cryptozoology books almost exclusively. (Okay, so that and the Bunnicula series) I formed a natural belief in the Gods of mythology, and prayed to them regularly. In later childhood I found out about modern Witchcraft. My first two introductory tomes were Sybil Leek's Diary of a Witch and Paul Huson's Mastering Witchcraft. These two books would flavor my taste for Traditional Craft throughout my spiritual journey, although I had no idea there was any such thing as "Traditional Witchcraft" at the time. When I was old enough to wander the Mall's bookstore on my own (14? 15?) I bought Buckland's Big Blue Book of Witchcraft. After that I was struck with hormonal madness and proceeded to purchase only books with the term "Wicca" on the cover. (Gerina Dunwitch! Scott Cunningham!) I somehow avoided $RW and D.J. Conway's work.

So, um, short answer... I was a bookworm and Paganism found me.

How long have you been practicing?

I've tried to pinpoint the year for a long time. It was sometime in the mid 80's that I started identifying as a Pagan, and the early 90's when I began practicing something resembling Witchcraft. 20 years is a fair estimate.

Are you out of the broom closet?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I'm selective about who I divulge my proclivities to.

Solitary or group practitioner?

Both.

What is your path?

Eclectic. VERY. I do the Hellenic Polytheist thing, the Ceremonial/High Magick/Thelema thing, the NeoShaman frame drum and owl totem thing, the Dyke/Amazon/Goddess Spirituality thing, the festival Pagan thing, the Gardnerian Wicca thing, and the I-just-made-up-my-own-version-of British Traditional Witchcraft thing. I also read tarot cards professionally, do Reiki, Qadishti sex magic, Qabbalah, and I make a mean omelet.

Humm. My path might best be described as schizophrenic.

D E I T Y

What’s your brand of deism?

Uh... I'll take polytheistic animist for 1000, Alex.

Who is your patron God?

I haven't dedicated myself to a particular male Diety, but I have a deep and abiding fondness for Dionysus and Tubal Cain.

Who is your patron Goddess?

Athena. I also work heavily with Lilith, Ereshkegal, Sophia, Babalon, the Stregan Diana, the Black Goddess of the 1734 Tradition, and the White Goddess of Robert Graves's work.

What Gods do you worship?

Uh... see above?

Do you fear darkly aspected Gods/Goddesses, or rather respect them?

I respect them and fear them no more than I do any other face of Deity.

Do you worship the Christian God?

No I don't. I personally find Jehovah offensive in the extreme. His son Jesus was a groovy guy, but is just another face of the dying-resurrecting sun king. The Holy Spirit as Sophia I do honor, both internally and externally. However, I think that few Christians are willing to think of God as female wisdom.

Do you worship animals? Or plants?

Yes, I pour libations to nature spirits, and work heavily with my magical fetch and the greater concept of the "Prime" owl spirit.

N A T U R E

Do you regularly commune with nature?

Yeah, I'm a tree-lovin' mud-covered nature worshiper.

Taken a camping trip just to talk to nature?

Hah! How about if I bought myself a cabin in the woods just so I could go on nature retreats? 'Cause I did.

Describe the moment you felt closest to Mother Earth?

The moment of now is as good as any.

Do you have a familiar?

I have two pet cats that both enjoy participating in magic and in moving energy. I don't think of them as "Familiars" in the traditional sense. I have an etheric fetch that I use for shamanic work, and this I think of as my Familiar.

Have you ever called upon the powers of an animal in ritual?

Consistently.

Or a plant?

Of course. Surely you have heard of "Raising the Grove"?

Do you hug trees?

Yes. Sometimes they hug back.

Give them gifts?

I've left offerings, yes.

What are your favorite plants to work with?

I love rue and lavender, but under very different circumstances.

What are your favorite trees to work with?

Sassafras is my magical tree of choice. I also have a willow wand and a folkloric fascination with Blackthorn.

W H E E L O F T H E Y E A R

What is your favorite holiday?

How could I choose? The Athenian festival of the Arrephoria is a big deal in our house, what with Laurelei's devotion to Aphrodite and mine to Athena. I also love Yule and Samhain.

What is your least favorite holiday?

Although it's hard to dislike a holiday, Mabon comes pretty close. I mean, I'm older than the origins of that holiday, you know?

Have you ever held a ritual on a holiday?

Uh, yeah.

Ever taken a day off work to celebrate a Pagan holiday?

Yup. Typically Beltane. I take off for the Our Haven festival.

Do you celebrate Yule on the 21st rather than the 25th?

I celebrate a "Yule Season", something I commonly do with most Pagan holidays.

Have you ever felt the veil thin?

Yes.

Ever danced the Maypole?

Yes.

Know what the Maypole symbolizes?

Oh, come on. Don't insult my intelligence.

How do you usually celebrate the Pagan holidays?

That really depends on the holiday, now doesn't it?

D I V I N A T I O N

Do you use Tarot?

Yes.

Do you use runes?

No.

Do you use a pendulum?

Yes.

Do you use dowsing rods?

No.

Do you use astrology?

Yes.

Any other forms of divination?

Bibliomancy, casting of lots, chiromancy, shamanic vision work, dream interpretation.

S P E L L S

What was the first spell you did?

It was a spell to give me the power of "second sight". I was 9 or 10. It worked.

What was the latest?

Perhaps you have forgotten the magical adage: to know, to will, to dare, to KEEP SILENT?

Ever done a love spell?

Love? No. Lust? You bet your dove's blood ink I have.

A job spell?

Of course.

A healing spell?

All the time.

What was the most powerful spell you’ve ever performed?

It's an ongoing spell that I like to call Babalon Rising.

What deities do you usually call on?

Sorry, I don't spell and tell.

C R Y P T O Z O O L O G Y

Do you believe in vampires?

No. I think. Maybe Michael Hutchence. Maybe. But, really, no.

Werewolves?

Are we talking Jacob-from-Twilight full-transformation weres, or otherkin totemic aspecting, or medieval wolf shamanic cults? Because, um, NO, sometimes, and yes, in that order.

Shapeshifters?

See above. There's a world of difference between the witch who chants "I will go into a hare..." and the one that thinks "OMGZ! I r totally a demon-vampire-dragon-tiger! Watch me SHIIIIIFT!"

Elves?

Okay, again, there are nature spirits that descendants of Pre-Indo-European cultures would identify as "Elves", and then there are those people who have watched Lord of the Rings too many times.

Fairies?

See above.

Dragons?

Ditto. There may be dragon energy in the land, but if you tell me you're actually a dragon (and usually not just any dragon, but, you know, the prince of dragons in dragonland, and primary defender of all that is dragonish) and you don't have some very compelling reasons for believing this (other than your life is soooo booor-ing) I will laugh at you behind your back. Maybe even to your face.

Nymphs?

Yup. It's Greek. :)

Sprites?

I have no experience with sprites, so I will say no.

Mermaids?

No.

Satyrs?

No.

Ever “seen” any of the above?

If I told you "yes" would you believe me? Okay. I've only ever seen a few ghosts, a gnome (weird story), and a possible Goetic demon, and I've done some pretty wacky things magically speaking. If you've seen a troop of fairies, or think your boyfriend is a vampire, or that there is a satyr in your backyard you need to lay off the hallucinogens.

Ever used any of the above in magic?

I honor our local nymphs. It's the Hellenic thing to do.

Do you have one of them as a personal guardian?

No. I'm more open to some of them as possible guardians than others (dragons/dragon-energy? Maybe. Vampires? As a guardian? You seriously need to STFU.)

R A N D O M

Do you see a rabbit, a man or a woman in the moon?

A rabbit. I never could see the "man in the moon".

Own a cat?

Owned by two of them.

When you meditate, what does your happy place look like?

I meditate with my drum, or with a mantra, or maybe a candle flame. My "happy place" is wherever I park my bum.

Do you work with chakras?

Yes. I enjoy Reiki and get a lot out of working with chakras.

Do you believe in past lives?

Sort of.

If so, describe a few briefly:

I don't remember anything about any particular past life, although I have had an interesting experience possibly related to one. I was at a festival where there was a folk musician singing authentic ballads from ancient times in their original language. He began to sing a song that I suddenly knew all of the words to. I sang the entire song along with him. He told me later that the song was a 13th century Italian love song, and was common among the peasantry at that time. Who knows?

Do you believe in soul mates?

No.

Do you have a spirit guide?

Yes.

Is it always love and light?

Is this a trick question?

Photos from the Nashville Parthenon

2011-01-10T19:02:00.013-05:00

Laurelei & I just got back from a Caribbean cruise vacation, and on the way driving down to the port of Miami we decided to make a stop at the Nashville Parthenon. Here are some of the highlights.
Laurelei & I outside of the Parthenon.

The glorious 40 foot statue of Athena Parthenos. To give an idea of size, that statue of Nike in her palm is six feet tall.

Detail of the shield.

The interior of Athena's shield. Notice the figure of her near the handle, with her owl, overlooking Heracles.

Erecthonious gazes from a safe place behind his step-mother's shield.

Replica of the western pediment Parthenon marble of Athena.

Zeus watches as Nike presents Athena with laurels.

Detail of Nike and Athena.

Athena battles Poseidon.

The entire vacation was stupendous. I will share more about it soon. Hail, Athena!

Another Yuletide Filk

2010-12-23T14:56:00.002-05:00

Response was positive for my carol from earlier this month, so I thought I'd try my hand at another one. A special shout out to Cerridwen is in this song, as a Solstice gift to my sweet soul-sister Lily Savage.

A Joyful Winter Solstice
to the tune of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

A Joyful Winter Solstice
the Sun is born again
from the sacred cauldron-womb
of mother Cerridwen.

His fire shines on gilded pines
Oh, hear the ancients sing
of tidings of magic and joy.
Magic and joy!

Oh tidings of magic and joy!

The world was cold and darkened
the Sun had gone away
but now He has returned to us
on blessed Solstice day.

To light our hearts and warm our souls
Oh, hear the ancients sing
of tidings of magic and joy.
Magic and joy!

Oh tidings of magic and joy!

Athena and Winter Solstice

2010-12-21T21:39:00.003-05:00

Tonight is the winter solstice, which doesn't have any direct holiday celebration in the Athenian Greek festival calendar, but does have some indirect links to the worship of Athena. (The Greek festival of Lenaia also has indirect associations with winter solstice which were incorporated into the Roman Brumalia or "shortest day", but Lenaia itself isn't associated with the traditional themes of the winter solstice.)

Among many peoples the winter solstice is celebrated as the return of the light, or the rebirth of the sun. Diwali, Yule, Amaterasu's return (the Shinto sun goddess), Christ's birth (the light of the world), Hanukkah, Hogmanay, Lucia, Modranicht, Saturnalia, and Sol Invictus are all celebrated at this time of year with the same general theme. (For a complete list see this Wiki article.)

Athena is many things, but a goddess of "light" or "the sun" she is not. That role is filled in the Greek pantheon by Apollo. Apollo and Athena have a relationship alluded to by their symbols (owls of Athena, fed by mice of Apollo, and mobbed by his crows; serpent-beings such as Typhon, Erichthonios, and Medusa) their relationship in myth (Athena sides with Apollo in the Oresteia, much to the chagrin of the Furies of mother-right) and the fact that they are often mentioned as part of a trinity (with Zeus) of the most powerful and "most Greek" of the gods.

Karl Kerenyi takes this relationship a step further, citing Aristole via Clement of Alexandria. He states boldly that Apollo is Erichthonios, the divine child conceived by Hephaestus's botched seduction of Athena. To quote Kerenyi:

There was a secret tradition concerning him (Erichthonios), which Aristotle exposed and later systematizers of Greek mythology after him retained. According to this, Athene is explicitly assigned a son by Hephaistos with the name Apollon, and the two of them are described as protective Deities (tutela and custos) of the city of Athens. An inscription in the vicinity of the city celebrates Apollon with the epithet Hersos, which associates him (as divine child) with the Erechtheion. If the reading of "Lethe" in a passage by Plutarch is correct, then there stood in this same sanctuary an altar to the recognized mother of Apollon, who instead of openly being name Leto was hidden behind a playful pseudonym. Shining through all this mystery is a "sun child," neither more nor less sunlike than Apollon himself on Delos.

Kerenyi goes on to explain how the Athenian Arrephoria festival, a great deal of the festival cycle in Athens, and the construction of the temples on the Acropolis relate directly to the veneration of this "sun child" and his mother, the Virgin Athena.

And so tonight, as the sun is reborn from darkness, I honor Athena Parthenos, Athena Soteria, Athena Mother of the Sun/Son.

Thoughts on a Maxim

2010-12-02T00:44:00.003-05:00

Know thyself! A maxim as pernicious as it is ugly. Whoever observes himself arrests his own development. A caterpillar who wanted to know itself well would never become a butterfly. ~Andre Gide

Ouch.

"Know thyself" is the most common translation of (arguably) the most famous of the Delphic Maxims. The Delphic Maxims are inscribed at Apollo's Temple in Delphi and are said to have been delivered by Apollo Himself. The Maxims are suggestions for pious living rather than commandments. According to legend, they were written down by The Seven Sages who are usually identified as: Solon of Athens, Chilon of Sparta, Thales of Miletus, Bias of Priene, Cleobulus of Lindos, Pittacus of Mitylene and Periander of Corinth.

Now, I've had trouble reconciling myself to some of the maxims in the past, but this was not one of them. When a friend posted the Gide quote above earlier this week it forced me to question a concept that I had not even realized I had accepted without question.

I will readily admit that choosing to investigate my thoughts on this subject seem to support the very foundations of the maxim "Know Thyself", but I'll leave that paradox aside here for the sake of further exploration.

Would a caterpillar who wanted to know itself never become a butterfly? Does it do harm to the development of my butterfly/psyche to hold it under constant scrutiny? I can understand how that could be perceived as the case. My illness, bipolar disorder, thrives on the constant narration and criticism of my mind about my daily activities. I achieve a certain state of grace when I meditate singularly on my breath and not on the chatter and self-talk of my mind.

Perhaps in chastising "Know Thyself" Gide was recalling that old adage about not staring too long into the abyss lest it stare back into you. We observe ourselves, and observe ourselves observing ourselves. We see flaws that mirror back at us like the abyss, like the demons of the Goetia. We see strengths that we hold ourselves up by. We create an identity based not on who we are being, but on what we are perceiving ourselves to be.

It is important to note that "Know Thyself", although a popular translation, is only that, a translation. The maxim itself is Σαυτον ισθι which can also be translated as "Be Yourself", the advice given to us by our mothers and countless characters on Sesame Street. "Be Yourself" is a much kinder way to live than "Know Thyself". It challenges us to discover our True Will, to ultimately become whatever sort of butterfly we are intended to be.

*gets out Thelemic soapbox (it is composed of two perfect cubes and is exactly at navel height for everyone)*

Therefore, damned for a dog be "Know Thyself". There is no law beyond Do What Thou Wilt. Be Yourself. Love is the Law, Love Under Will.

A Yuletide Carol

2010-12-02T00:17:00.003-05:00

We've been listening to holiday music this week at work. I find it soothing, uplifting, inspiring... but it also causes me a bit of melancholy. I want Pagan songs for what I feel is a very strongly Pagan holiday. Shades of Paganism live in carols like "The Holly and the Ivy" and "Deck the Halls", but what about the miracle of Solstice? Isn't Solstice the real reason for the season?

With that in mind, I listened admiringly to the sweeping carol "O Holy Night". It is a beautiful, grand, and celebratory song of praise and wonder. I felt, well... jealous. And then something wonderful came over me, whole and pleasing. The muse brought me this filk of that carol today, and now I share it with you.

O Solstice Night
(to the tune of O Holy Night)

O Solstice night,
The stars are brightly shining.
It is the night of the Sun God's rebirth.

Long lay the world,
In cold and darkness pining,
Till He was born and His light warmed the Earth.

O thrill of hope!
The weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Lift up your hearts!
O hear the ancient voices!
O night divine!
O night the Sun is born.

O night divine!
O night, O night divine!

Bringing Owls to Athens

2010-11-29T16:16:00.003-05:00

It is difficult to picture the symbols of Athena without noting her constant avian companion the Athene noctua, or Little Owl. The Little Owl is sometimes seen as an aspect of Athena herself, and historians relate how Greek generals would keep a tame owl to release amid a heated battle in order to encourage his troops that Athena was with them.

In western culture the owl is interpreted as a symbol of wisdom. Scholars debate if this is due to the owl's fixed human-like gaze, or its ancient associations with Athena. But, which came first, the owl-as-wisdom-goddess or Athena herself, who came to be associated with owls?

Goddess figures with characteristics similar to Athena have existed since before recorded history. Marija Gimbutas traces veneration of the owl as a goddess, among other birds, to the culture of the Pre Indo-Europeans (PIE). From Sumeria comes the Burney Relief, dated around 1750 BCE, depicting a helmeted Goddess flanked by owls. Unfortunately, we can only guess at the significance of these icons, and cannot therefore conclude that they have any direct association to a Goddess of Wisdom.

So how did Athena become associated with the Little Owl? One clue lies in the ancient proverb "bringing owls to Athens". Although many scholars state that the "owls" of Athens were its famous tetradrachms. These silver coins depicted Athena's profile of the face, and her Little Owl with an olive branch on the reverse. Presumably, because Athens minted these coins themselves, there was little need to bring more silver to the city.

A more ancient interpretation of the proverb points to the significance of the first Parthenon, built by Xerxes I. One of the noted features of this early temple to Athena were its lofty rafters. In these rafters nested many generations of Athene noctua. The Athenians took this as a sign that Athena was present in the temple, and the birds were welcome there. Therefore, it was foolish to "bring owls to Athens", as they were already famous for their flock on the Acropolis.

Did the owls of the Parthenon influence the symbolism of Athena so much that she became forever associated with the Little Owl, or was the association already present before the building of the old Parthenon, so that the birds were simply seen as Athena's blessing?

Could it be a bit of both? One of Athena's most famous epitaphs is Athena Glaukopis, which is gleaming, silver, or gray-eyed Athena. Glaux itself means owl, so that even her name "A-Thea-na Glaux-Kopis" can be read "Holy Lady with Owl Eyes". Very early images of Athena sometimes depict her with bird wings in the place of the Aegis. Nike, often called Athena Nike, another of Athena's epitaphs, retained her wings into recorded history. Could these wings point to an early connection to the owl? Are they vestiges of the PIE owl Goddess?

When looking to Athena's association with the Gorgons, Monstropedia points out:

"The large eyes of the Gorgon, as well as Athena's flashing eyes, are a symbol Gimbutas termed "the divine eyes", appearing also in Athena's bird, the owl. They can be represented by spirals, wheels, concentric circles, and other ways. They radiate the sun's rays and weep the spring rains. Snakes also possess the eyes. The fangs of the gorgoneion are snakes' fangs. Snakes are a symbol of propitiation and increase. The round face is the moon. Sometimes gorgoneia are endowed with birds' feet or bee wings, more symbols of regeneration. The mouth is open so that streams may flow from it. The lolling tongue is a symbol of death. It cannot be said that these motifs belong exclusively to the European Neolithic and not to the Indo-Europeans. They appear among the Celts and Germans] as well. The Balts kept snakes as household pets. As Gimbutas points out, masks with staring eyes are portrayed in Paleolithic cave art. Very likely, the goddess precedes any Indo-European/non-Indo-European distinction."

Owl eyes, snakes, (as on the Aegis and found throughout PIE art) bees, fresh streams of water, the moon, the labrys, the olive tree... Athena's ancient symbols are varied and point to a strong connection to an indigenous PIE Goddess figure.

Back to the Blogging Board

2010-11-23T21:28:00.004-05:00

The other day I was reading my boss's blog, and enjoying it thoroughly, when I realized it hadn't been updated since July of 2009. I thought, "I should really encourage her to get back to writing in her blog" when the irony of the fact I haven't been keeping up with my own blog hit me. When I asked her about her abandoned webspace she defended herself with "Oh, I just don't have anything to write about." Which I promise you is not true. Even if the library wasn't going through a complete overhaul of our cataloging and circulation system (which we are) the day-today workings of a public library leave ample room for all manner of interesting anecdotes. I appreciated her sentiment, though. I, too, have not written recently for what I deemed lack of subject matter. I haven't done anything new/groundbreaking/vaguely interesting to anyone with Athena worship in a while, and, with the season of the Witch upon us, I've been poking around in Cochrane's letters and wishing I had the gumption to actually follow the Spiral Castle Tradition full time.

What is the Spiral Castle Tradition, you ask? Gentle reader, allow me to introduce you to a Tradition of Witchcraft in the 1734/Clan of Tubal Cain mold that Laurelei and I created whole hog from immersing ourselves in the Robert Cochrane letters and Graves' seminal The White Goddess. It is a ecstatic mystery tradition with legitimate roots in British Traditional Witchcraft. It is a three-degree initiatory tradition, although we make no claims of succession to anyone, apostolic, or otherwise. Our calendar is based on the eight festival cycle, along side a lunar calendar related to tree-months and totemic animal cycles. The central Deities of the tradition are the Red God: Tubal Cain, and two Goddesses, the White and the Black. Note 7/18/2011: We're blogging about it here.

Is anyone actually a part of this oh-so-nifty tradition? Well, sort of. I mean, if you count myself and Laurelei. I currently practice the tradition when it suits me, along with the Athenian festival calendar (when it pertains directly to Athena) and Thelemic practices including Liber Resh vel Helios and the Star Ruby (because who doesn't love using Greek in ceremonial magick?). So , yeah, my spiritual practices have been very *ahem* eclectic as of late. This is in addition to my loose studies in Goddess/feminist spirituality such as the Women's Goddess Retreat. I just can't seem to focus on one thing, which is probably why, although I am filled with good intentions to mentor to the local occult community, the student have thus far not appeared.

I have grand plans for all of these irons in the fire. I've started three different books, but none of them are anywhere near completion. The first, Under Her Aegis, is my attempt at a guide to the modern worship of Athena. The next is an untitled book on Thelemic Witchcraft. I can hear you laughing, but really, Gardnerian Wicca owes a huge debt to Crowley, and the promulgation of Thelema in the New Aeon has found its most vital medium in NeoPaganism. The systems compliment each other very well. The third work is a monstrosity I fear I will never finish. It is my attempt to distill my collected knowledge of Witchcraft into a single book. I see it as my Great Work, and, because of that, I wonder if it is even meant to be completed. It is more than a simple Book of Shadows. On my best days I see it as a greatly expanded volume in the spirit of Huson's classic Mastering Witchcraft.

All of this, and I still intend to go back to library school. I have always had lofty aspirations -- a good trait in an occultist.

Life is not all coven-planning and writing the next great treatise on Witchcraft. I fret over seeing my family for Thanksgiving later this week. I worry about our Yuletide gift-giving budget. I go to work happily and hope that the forthcoming new catalog and circulation system will run well and smoothly.

And, hopefully, I continue to blog. :)

Who are you calling an Introvert?

2010-09-24T15:29:00.003-04:00

Sometimes life gets in the way of blogging.

August 6th Laurelei and I decided to go vegetarian for a weekend artist's/shaman's retreat that we did together. We felt so good all weekend that we decided to keep going. So, as of August 6th, 2010 I'm an ovo-lacto-pisco-vegetarian. That means I still eat eggs, dairy, and fish/shellfish. We started doing this for our health and well-being (and I've dropped 10 lbs since making the switch!) and Laurelei hasn't had a single migraine headache since we became veggie. We think its a direct result of the hormones in meat that were wrecking her system.

We've (and by we I mean Joe) built a sunroom where our patio was and have created a weight room within it. I've started lifting by the Stronglifts 5x5 system again, and am mostly satisfied at how much stronger I already am. I'm still far away from my goals: to be less than 140 lbs by next year, to squat my ideal weight, & to be able to do a pull-up for the first time in my life, but I am making progress.

On the spiritual side of things I've come a long way with my Reiki technique and feel that I'm ready for my third attunement. Indianapolis Pagan Pride Day is tomorrow, and I'll be reading Thoth tarot cards all day. Unfortunately Louisville PPD is also tomorrow and I had to make the difficult choice to attend one but not the other. Also tomorrow is Laurelei's birthday (Happy birthday, sweetheart!) and I am hoping to make enough money reading cards to buy her whatever her heart desires from the vendors at PPD.

In early September we held the second annual Women's Goddess Retreat to great success. There are some beautiful photos of the event on our Facebook page.

I'm getting the writing bug again, so I expect that this blog will benefit from that. I'm back to working on Under Her Aegis, and I've started another book which I'll reveal more about as it takes shape. It's good to be back.

New Artwork: Maiden, Mother, Crone

2010-08-10T23:47:00.004-04:00

I've been painting on a weekly basis and just finished a new piece. This is "Maiden, Mother, Crone", acrylic, August 2010. I plan to vend paintings like this one at this year's Indianapolis Pagan Pride Day.I'll be featuring more artwork on this blog as I complete it. If there is something you would like to see as a painting, on canvas or frame drum, let me know. I can work requests by commission, and will consider bartering for work.

Layne Redmond's "Your Brain on Drums"

2010-07-31T14:27:00.002-04:00

This is an excerpt from Layne Redmond's film Rhythmic Wisdom. It combines Shamanism, Greek Religion, theta wave consciousness and the history of the wonderful frame drum. If you would like to learn more, read her book When the Drummers Were Women and view this instructional video.

Pronoia

2010-07-27T13:58:00.006-04:00

Have you ever stumbled unintentionally over just the right thing at the perfect time? I am inclined to agree with Helen Schulman who said:

"Miracles are natural; when they do not occur, something has gone wrong."

To wit, I was shelving books at the library a few days ago when I spied a volume I've never heard of: When the Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm by Layne Redmond. I'm familiar with some of Ms. Redmond's work, but I didn't know she had written a book. I checked out the book and brought it home for perusal.

Holy Cow! (and I mean that in the Catal Huyuk/Hathor/Milky Way sense) Frame drums are amazing! The history of this instrument ties together several threads I've been working with independently of each other. It covers matrifocal Goddess culture, which is very much where my interest spiritually has been lately; shamanistic practice, which is something I've been researching for the last year; and rhythm, which (and this is a little embarrassing) I've been working with intensively during my down time as a "drummer" on the Rock Band video game.

Laura just happens to have a frame drum which she says I am welcome to use, so I believe I've been called to learn a new instrument!

Instances like this make me wonder if there is something to pronoia, "the suspicion the Universe is a conspiracy on your behalf". Right now I like to think so.

The Colors of Athena

2010-07-17T10:31:00.005-04:00

And now for some lighter fare.

I've been working with different epitaphs of Athena and making notes of their subtle differences. Most noticeable in these visions has been the various colors of Athena's peplos. And so, presented here as completely Unverified Personal Gnosis, are a few of Athena's epithets and their corresponding colors.

Athena Areia (war) - scarlet
Athena Ergane (crafts) - pale saffron yellow
Athena Glaukopis (gleaming, silver, or gray-eyed; glaux means owl) - shifting dove gray
Athena Hygieia (healer) - white
Athena Nike (victory) - deep yellow
Athena Pallas (spear brandisher) - garnet red
Athena Parthenos (virgin) - brilliant white
Athena Polias (city) - white with elaborate trim
Athena Promachos (fighter of the front lines) - garnet red
Athena Pronoia (foresight) - pale yellow
Athena Soteira (savior) - brilliant white
Athena Tritogeneia (born of Triton, or third-born) - deep silver gray

From this UPG I have devised a system of visualization and shrine adornment that focuses on specific aspects and traits associated with Athena.

White: Athena as healer, savior, protector, and eternal virgin.
Yellow: Athena as creatrix, holy wisdom, intellect, craftsmanship and victory.
Red: Athena as warrior, weapons master, and patron of heroes.
Silver/Gray: Athena as spirit of stormy sky, fresh water, olives, serpents, and owls.

I also associate Athena strongly with the color bronze because of her involvement with the Khalkeia festival. Often I perceive her weapons, helm, tools, and aegis to be bronze. Occasionally, especially when working with the "gray aspect" of Athena, I perceive her skin itself to be a shade of bronze.

I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on these associations, and would love to hear from you if you should choose to incorporate them into your personal practice.

133.33 and the Librarian Occultist

2010-07-12T21:54:00.003-04:00

I am vexed, dear reader. It will come as no shock to you that I'm a librarian. I'm upfront about it right here in the "About Me" blurb on my blog: "I'm a librarian, a Hellenic Polytheist, a Traditional Wiccan, and an occultist." I first started working a library when I was in high school and I am now seeking my Master's degree in Library Science.

The overlap between my passion for libraries and my passion for occultism doesn't come up very often. True, I do see my work as a librarian as an abstract way of honoring the power of Athena, but I am "in the broom closet" at work. I am happy to serve quietly in my own way.

My frustration comes from a kind of open secret among the librarians I have known concerning occult literature. The secret is that books on occultism walk. What I mean by this is that these books (133.33 in the Dewey Decimal classification system) once checked out from the library never find their way back to the library. Often these books are not even checked out, but are blatantly stolen from the library. Go to any public library and examine the 133.33 section (it is an old habit of mine that I always go there first whenever I am in a new library). You will find it to be sadly lacking.

I've witnessed several responses to this dilemma. Some libraries choose to keep occult materials in a special "restricted" section, usually behind the circulation desk where they cannot be stolen outright. Other libraries keep the books as reference materials only so that they cannot be checked out. Still other libraries, and this breaks my heart, have elected to not carry occult materials at all. This is, of course, censorship, even if the library feels that it has no other course of action.

I have wondered for many years just who these occult book bandits are. The public library systems I have worked in have all been in very conservative rural communities. Is it rebellious teenagers looking for the small thrill of lifting a Wicca 101 book, or is it the rabid Christian fiction reading matrons attempting to save their community from "Satan"?

Who benefits from this form of censorship? Certainly not sincere seekers like the one I assisted earlier this week. Our online catalog showed twenty books on astrology, all of them listed as "long overdue" or "lost processing". The poor man simply wanted to know the stories behind the zodiac signs. I wanted very much to share with him the information orally, but, again, I am closeted at work and feared drawing attention to myself.

I am at a loss for a solution to this problem. Here at home I've enchanted my own personal library (which would make anyone with even a passing interest in witchcraft green with envy) so that any book loaned out (which, granted, only ever happens with those I trust implicitly) will find its way back home to me. The task of enchanting a public library collection seems daunting at best, and brings up some gray ethical issues for me.

I dream of someday directing a library filled with controversial books. Dangerous books. Books that open the reader's mind. For now I work quietly and wonder where have all the occult books gone?

Creating the Women's Goddess Retreat

2010-07-06T23:59:00.003-04:00

I wrote previously about my experience of running the Babalon Rising festival for its fifth year. I compared it to a child, grown beyond the scope of my own dreams. It has become something that the community it spawned needs and shapes. Let me then speak of my other child, not yet two years old and only just now developing into what it can be. I am referring to the annual Women's Goddess Retreat, an event that I am very proud to have birthed, and that changed me in ways I never thought possible.

The retreat started as a vision. It came from Hera, who I had no prior working relationship with. I'd read an interview with Tina Fey about her film Mean Girls and the book that inspired it, Queen Bees and Wannabes. It had occurred to me that communities, especially religiously motivated communities thrived only when the women in them worked together to build a place they were spiritually, emotionally, and physically invested in. I had been disheartened by the cliquish gossiping that was going on at my own spiritual home, Our Haven Nature Sanctuary, and I knew that I was as responsible as anyone for the present female animosity there.

My friend Anita, who has always been a great guiding force of growth in my life, had loaned me a book about women on retreat, The Woman's Retreat Book by Jennifer Louden. This book made me hungry -- jealously starving -- for a retreat of my own. I fantasized about a week alone at Crescent Beach, FL with time to write and paint and nap. I told myself that if I could just get away that I'd find the next step on my spiritual journey, and that, like magic, I'd suddenly know exactly what I wanted from my life. No one ever accused me of being an entirely rational creature.

And then Hera showed up. She came in a vision requesting, no, demanding that I put together a women's retreat in her honor. I hadn't really considered the idea of a group retreat before. How could I do the very self-involved navel-gazing that I dreamed of when I was facilitating a group of other women? And what would a retreat centered around Hera look like anyway? I imagined a group of ladies lounging by a pool, fanning themselves with peacock feathers.

Again, Anita had a solution. The retreat would honor Hera, yes, but it would also honor other Goddesses from different cultures around the world. I pinned the number at thirteen Goddesses, for the thirteen lunar cycles of the year. We would hold a circle for each Goddess, during which we would learn a little about Her mythology and worship. We would then invoke that Goddess and share in an activity together designed to teach us a life lesson that Goddess shared. I set the circles at two hours each, and determined that each woman would receive a journal to record her experiences in. This was as much for myself as anyone -- I wanted time to do my share of navel-gazing, after all!

Anita and Laurelei helped me flesh out the group of thirteen. The Goddesses we held circles for were:

Shakti ~ The Lessons of Inner Awareness, & Healing Ourselves
Diana ~ The Lessons of Owning your Power, & Finding Inner Strength
Hera ~ The Lessons of Dignity, Friendship, & Trust
Pele ~ The Lessons of Tending the Sacred Fire & Staying Centered
Gaia ~ The Lessons of Interconnectedness & Being Present
Aphrodite ~ The Lessons of True Beauty & Self-Love
Babalon ~ The Lessons of Sexual Freedom & Bottomless Love
Hathor ~ The Lessons of Celebration & Sacred Movement
Inanna ~ The Lessons of the Shadow-Self & Initiation
Brigid ~ The Lessons of Mythic Resonance & Bardic Magick
The Triple Goddess ~ The Lessons of Women's Cycles & Change
Sophia ~ The Lessons of Inner Wisdom & The Powers of The Sphinx
The Great Goddess ~ The Lesson of the Charge of the Goddess

Anita couldn't make it to the actual retreat, so we asked a handful of trusted friends to help present the circles for a few select Goddesses. Gina, our Firepanther, shared Pele's fire with us. Terri, Cricket to her friends, lead us on a mind-expanding trip around Gaia. My beloved friend Mary "Hummingbird" lead a moving circle to Brigid. The remaining Goddesses Laurelei and I divided up to share. Laurelei introduced us to Shakti through the use of mudras to move energy. When we began the yoni mudra our stories began to pour forth along with tears and laughter. If I had any doubts that we wouldn't be doing real internal soul work, they were quickly set aside. Under Laurelei's guidance Diana gave us each our own spiritual weapon of power. She taught us to see how beautiful we are when we share our smile and our love through Aphrodite's mirror. We danced a graceful and joyful circle for Hathor.

I lead circles for Hera, Babalon, Inanna, The Triple Goddess, and Sophia. Hera taught us the lesson that inspired the retreat, how to trust each other. Babalon's sexy energy had us all laughing and purring. I wrote an involved guided meditation for Inanna that lead each of us to embrace our shadow-self, while Laurelei gave us a Jungian tour through the Heroine's Journey. The Triple Goddess came out in full force, and seems to be the guiding presence for the upcoming retreat for this year. Sophia shared with us the powers to Know, to Will, to Dare, and to Keep Silent through a silent portion of the retreat.

Laurelei and I built a shrine in the woods for the Great Goddess. Our circle chanted "Ancient Mother" as women went in pairs to visit the shrine and meet the Great Goddess. When Laurelei and I had our turn we wept for joy and wonder, in spite of the fact that we knew exactly what the "mystery" of the shrine was -- we had placed it there ourselves, after all.

After the retreat I continued to use my journal daily until it was full. It got me writing again, in a way I haven't done in years. My writing inspired me to begin a book, Under Her Aegis, which I am still working on. My writing also lead me to understand my passions, and brought me to a place where I knew I wanted to be a librarian. It even inspired me to start this blog. I felt, after the retreat, as if I had brought something useful and necessary into this world. For the first time in my life I felt like a mother rather than a maiden. I will have no biological children of my own, and this transition was remarkable for me.

This year the Women's Goddess Retreat is changing its form. There are fewer Goddess circles and more time for personal reflection. There are also many rituals designed as rites of passage for several of the women in attendance. These women came forward independently of their own accord asking for rites of croning for themselves, and rites of womaning for their daughters. We are blessed this year with three croning ceremonies and one womaning rite. The retreat is becoming what I hoped it might be, a place for our community of women to come together and work with a common spirit.

The Goddesses for this year are:

Hestia ~ The Lessons of Finding Sacred Space & Returning Home
Grandmother ~ The Lessons of Inner Awareness, & Moving Energy
Brigid ~ The Lessons of Mythic Resonance & Bardic Magick
The Morrigan ~ The Lessons of the Warrior Spirit & Healing from Trauma
Athena ~ The Lessons of Peacemaking & Deep Wisdom
Discordia ~ The Lessons of Celebration & Spontaneity
Freya ~ The Lessons of Love & Women's Magic
Sedna ~ The Lessons of Role-Shifting & Adaptation
The Great Goddess ~ The Lesson of the Ultimate Boon

I will be facilitating the circles for Hestia and, yes of course, Athena. I am especially looking forward to Grandmother's circle, as we will be having an all-women's sweat lodge ceremony in Her honor. Also new this year we will be creating a Goddess quilt from 12x12 inch quilt blocks that each participant bring with her. We will assemble the quilt blocks on site.

I am proud to have brought this retreat into being, and I am nurtured and changed by it in ways I never imagined. Thank you for letting me share some of its magic with you, gentle reader.

My Journey to Athena

2010-07-06T22:44:00.006-04:00

How did I, a Witch and a Thelemite, become a Hellenic Polytheist? It has been a winding road.

Three years ago I began to open myself to the wisdom of the Greek pantheon. I had made a pilgrimage (hopefully the first of many) to the Nashville Parthenon, where I was struck with wonder at the awesome power of Athena for the first time.

I've worked with Owl as a primary totem since I was a dabbling teenager, my magical working name has always been Latin for the little owl, but I was not yet ready to accept that Athena had a place of prominence in my life. I had worked with the Goddess Lilith for many years with mixed results, and I resisted the Greek Gods as the stuff of my childhood. I had worshiped them when I was barely ten years old. They were my first forays into Paganism. Their myths were taught in public school. I sniffed at their commonness in my life. I was too blinded my the allure of the exotic to understand that what I mistook for commonness was nearness and affinity.

When Laurelei came into my life a year later she brought an enthusiasm for Aphrodite that was alluring. She also brought up some rather nasty conflicts whenever I channeled Lilith. My relationship with Lilith had been wearing thin for some time. She is wise, powerful, beautiful... but also jealous, cruel, and rapacious. Although I knew that ours was a poor relationship it was one I had cultivated over many years, and my own personal mystical symbolism had become intertwined with Lilith's. Owls, snakes, the Burney Relief, the apple, the Tree of Life, the cloak of protection offered by Her dark wings... these were ingrained in the very fabric of my spirit.

It seems now as if I had all of the pieces that should have led me naturally to Athena, yet still I resisted. I began to have visions of Hera, both waking and in dreams. She asked, no, she demanded that I found a women's retreat. I began work on that project, and it changed my life.

Then one night I had the dream. She was huge. Massive. As grand in scale as She was in Nashville. And yet, I could look Her in the eyes. She wore a garnet red peplos and carried a bronze spear that seemed to also serve as a spindle. Her hair was long, dark, and tightly kinked, like that of an African beauty. Her skin was rich bronze. She had a narrow full lipped mouth set above a strong round chin, a very noble high set nose that jutted forcefully from Her forehead. Her cheekbones were high and Her face was a gentle oval set upon a long regal neck. But what I will never forget, what is a blessing that will stay with me all of my life, was Her eyes.

They were deep set and very wide. Unblinking, steady, and shifting in color. One moment they were liquid sliver, like mercury, the next they were stormy, full of dark clouds and flashing lightning. Then Her eyes were the dark milky midnight blue of a barred owl's, and then the sea green of a deep pool or a "blue hole". When I think of them now my heart sings "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds", so brilliant do they sparkle, so much like the heavens they shine. They were all eyes I had ever admired. The eyes of the National Geographic Afghan Girl, the eyes of a boy I knew in high school, the eyes of my mother and my father, the stylized eyes of the Buddha, eyes of timelessness, eyes gray with the silvery gray wisdom of the sphere of Chokmah. Athena Glaukopis, I would later learn was Her proper name.

She said nothing. She didn't need to. In my heart I felt that She had always been with me, that it was Her mark that had left strange symbols in my soul... owls, snakes, the Burney Relief, the golden apple, the olive tree, the cloak of protection offered by Her aegis, the burning, blinding quest for knowledge that defines me. Athena abides and perceives. I am honored to serve Her.

Moody June

2010-06-27T23:59:00.003-04:00

June has been a rewarding but exhausting month. I've been ill twice, and now that I am well I find myself combating a bout of depression. Meh.

For the fifth year in a row I've helped put on the Babalon Rising Festival, and, as always, I come away from it not know what to say about it. The event is excellent, even if I am blowing by own trumpet, and it gets bigger and more powerful every year. Babalon Rising is a festival primarily for Thelemites, although we have a large NeoPagan and New Orleans Voodoo component. The festival itself is designed to be a continuous four-day ritual, with its climax on Saturday night during an event we've named The Feast of the Beast. We've been working the festival annually as a trip up the Tree of Life, which made this our Tiphereth year. Accordingly, the sun came out in full force, and I spent much of the event with heat exhaustion. Good things prevailed, however. I assisted in facilitating a Qadishti sacred touch event, and served as one of the multiple women who invoked Babalon during the climatic ritual. I helped run, and eventually took over, our annual Kabbalah Bar event, which involves providing sepherotic themed body shots off of a living Tree of Life. The gifted and delightful Louis Martine led a wonderful ritual to help clear the Gulf of oil. I don't think I've ever heard a better drum circle than we had Saturday night.

I love Babalon Rising, but it is like my child who has grown and moved on to things I never knew it could be. I consider myself lucky to be its parent, and ready to support it in whatever way it needs me each year. But it does not nurture me. The magic it represents is in a place that I like to visit sometimes, but I do not live there anymore. I've become more solitary, and maybe even a little jaded in my own approach to magic. I'll always be a witch at heart, but I'm in a place right now where serving the Gods interests me far more than rituals, potions, and pretty magic. My sense of wonder rests firmly with the Gods these days, and less and less with my own Will or ego. This has less to do with personal growth, I think, than with sheer exhaustion. I am no longer the Mage in her circle commanding the universe to bend. I am trying harder to bend with the universe.

I helped Laurelei with an Aphrodisia ritual during the festival, and it was lovely. I find much that is beautiful and comforting to my spirit in Greek ritual and myth. I was the hydrophoros for the pompe, carrying my beloved Goddess amphora. Laurelei established a stunning shrine to Aphrodite on the Our Haven grounds and we held the ritual there.

The Arrephoria happened in June. It is one of Athena's most important festivals, and is usually a big deal in our household as it combines mysteries of both Athena and Aphrodite. Alas, I was very ill during the Arrephoria, and did little more than burn some incense in tribute this year. Athena understands my lack of observance, of course, but I've been internally berating myself over it all month. The whole truth is that I've been internally berating myself about everything this month. I've entered a depression, which is a classic and expected component of my being Bipolar I. My medicines do an excellent job of keeping me in a sane and acceptable middle range of mood and productivity, but even they cannot keep me from dipping a little low or flying a little too high ever now and again.

Depression for me is a lack of creative flow, a general sense of impending dread, and an urge to sleep around eighteen hours a day. You can see why I haven't blogged much this month. I haven't touched my manuscript either, nor my paints, nor yarn. Athena is understanding. Look at the famous relief "Athena Mourning" and you can see that sometimes her heart hangs heavy as well.

Plynteria is here!

2010-06-05T23:59:00.004-04:00

I've been looking forward to Plynteria for weeks!

Plynteria, along with Kallynteria, are Athenian festivals of purification associated with Athena. The Kallynteria was celebrated on Thargelion 25, which is June 6-7. Kallynteria is the "festival of sweeping". It was a thorough cleaning of Athena's temple by women under the direction of Athena's priestess. The priestess also refills and relights Athena’s eternal flame in the temple. Kallynteria is an excellent day to refresh your Athena shrine or just erect one.

Kallynteria is followed by Plynteria, the "festival of washing". During Plynteria the cult icon of Athena was divested of its peplos and veiled. The icon was then carried by women in a pompe to the ocean where it was ritually bathed. The pompe was led by a woman carrying a basket of figs. Two girls, the Loutride, or bathers, washed the icon in salt water. In the evening the icon was returned to the temple in a torchlight procession and was re-clothed in her peplos. Only the Loutrides and the women who dress and undress the Goddess are permitted to see Her naked.

The ancient statue of Athena Polis at Athens was of human size or less, carved of olive wood, and probably showed the Goddess seated without weapons. She wore a tall, golden stephane (crown) and She may have had a Gorgoneion (Medusa head) on her breast.

Plynteria was a time that was considered apophras, or unfortunate, because the icon of Athena Polis was not guarding the city.

Tomorrow I'll be veiling my own icon of Athena and escorting her down to the pond where I will ritually bathe Her. After the bathing I will clean and rearrange my shrine to Her, light an oil lamp to symbolize Her eternal flame, and return the icon to its place on the shrine.

Here are some links for further information on Kallynteria and Plynteria.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plynteria
http://www.adf.org/rituals/hellenic/plynteria.html

Kali Plynteria!

Agora and Hypatia

2010-05-30T01:14:00.004-04:00

After what feels like an eternity the Alejandro Amenábar film “Agora”, based on the story of Hypatia of Alexandria, is finally seeing a limited release in American theaters this weekend. Rachel Weisz, who won my undying affection in the role of Evelyn Carnahan the plucky librarian in The Mummy, plays the role of Hypatia.

Agora has had a difficult time of being shown in the U.S. as The Wild Hunt Blog details here.

Hypatia is my hero. It feels fitting to me that she would come to America for our Memorial Day celebration, as this is the holiday when we honor our fallen heroes. Hellenics take stock in hero worship, and in my heart there is no hero of myth, legend, or history that shines quite like Hypatia.

Hypatia was a scholar, a teacher, a Neoplatonist philosopher, and, yes, a librarian. Her brutal death at the hands of an angry Christian mob marks the end of Classical antiquity.

My response to the horror of Hypatia's martyrdom is as close as I have ever felt to the feeling certain Christians attribute to meditation on the Passion of Christ. Hypatia has her own stations of the cross...

There she rides on her chariot, proud to be an independent educated woman in a time of increasing oppression and superstition. Now the mob interrupts her congress. They pull her down. Her robes are torn from her body. Her head smashes against the stone street rock. They beat her. They tear at her flesh with shards of oyster shells. They burn the ragged remains of her broken corpse. Who does she cry out for? In all of her studies concerning the goodness and richness of humanity did she ever fear that fate held such a cruel end for her by the hands of her own kind? Does her heart weep for their ignorance?

My heart weeps. Hypatia was murdered as a sign to all women who dared to live proudly, who longed for wisdom and freedom. She was battered as if she herself were a pagan goddess, brought low by this dark and fearful new religion.

This memorial day I encourage you to find and honor your own heroes, ancient, modern, or mythical. Tell their stories, adorn their altars, pour to them offerings. Honor the place within you that cries out for peace.

Athena and Medusa

2010-05-18T02:23:00.009-04:00

I have applied to be an Exegetai of Athena through Neokoroi. Part of the process of admittance includes the submission of two articles to their newsletter He Epistole. I shared my first article, Virgin Athena, here. Included below is the second article, with many inspirational thanks to the divine Thalia Took, who just happened to draw Medusa as the Goddess of the Week!

Athena and Medusa

In most myths Athena comes across as a gentle Goddess whose punishments are rare and just. This is not the case with the tale of Medusa. On the surface Athena's relationship with Medusa seems cruel and self-serving, very different from her relationships with other figures of mythology, but further investigation proves there is more going on between the two figures than the myth readily admits.

Medusa's story is a sad one. She was a lovely girl, often compared favorably to the goddess Athena. Medusa's beauty drew the unfortunate and unwanted attention of Poseidon. Medusa fled to a temple of Athena seeking sanctuary from the sea god's advances through prayers to virginal Athena. Poseidon found Medusa in the temple and raped her. As punishment for this desecration of her temple Athena transformed Medusa into a gorgon, a hideous creature with snakes for hair whose gaze turned men to stone. Medusa was beheaded by the hero Perseus with the assistance of Athena. From her body sprung forth her sons by Poseidon, Pegasus the winged horse and Khrysaor. Athena then gathered blood from Medusa's corpse and placed the head of Medusa, the Gorgoneion, prominently upon her breastplate, the aegis.

Who was Medusa and why is her myth so entwined with that of Athena, who seems to only want to punsish her for a crime that she was not at fault for? Pausanias points out that Medusa was said to have been from Lake Tritonis in Libya, which was also sometimes cited as the birthplace of Athena under her epithet Athena Tritogeneia, or Triton-born. This same epithet, along with that of Athena Glaukopis, has been cited as evidence that Athena's father was in fact Poseidon, not Zeus. Pausanias states:

"When I saw that the statue of Athena had blue eyes I found out that the legend about them is Libyan. For the Libyans have a saying that the Goddess is the daughter of Poseidon and Lake Tritonis, and for this reason has blue eyes like Poseidon."

So, we have links to two mythological figures of Libyan origin near Lake Tritonis with links to Poseidon. Athena and Poseidon have a famous rivalry concerning patronage of Athens, but Athena was never raped by Poseidon, was she?

Amazingly enough, there is a story of Athena being raped by her father. Although he is not named Poseidon, a story by Lycophron states that Athena was the daughter of the winged giant Pallas who attempted to rape his lovely offspring. Athena defended herself against his advances and slew him. She flayed the giant, taking his wings for her own use and his skin as her aegis. Here it is the fatherly male and not the transformed young woman whose visage becomes the basis for the aegis.

What of Pallas's wings? In early depictions of Athena she is shown winged, notably in Sparta. These wings would later be placed on the shoulders of Nike, goddess of victory, who accompanied Athena and was sometimes referred to as Athena. The Gorgons were also winged, shown with the same curling quadrupled wings as early black-figure-vase images of Athena. Medusa famously gave birth to the winged horse Pegasus, who myth states that Athena bridled and tamed. Suidas makes the connection between Athena, daughter of Poseidon and tamer of horses clear:

"Hippeia Athene (Athena-of-Horses) : They say she is a daughter of Poseidon and Polyphe, daughter of Okeanos; she was the first to use a chariot and was called 'of-Horses' because of this."

Athena was raped by her father, who may have been Poseidon, just as Medusa was. These events took place on the shores of Lake Tritonis in Libya and lead to associations with wings and winged horses by both Medusa and Athena. Both transformed a mutilated piece of themselves or their attacker into the aegis. There are clear connections here between Medusa and Athena, but what about Medusa's most notable feature, that of her snaky hair? Does Athena have connections to snakes also, and if so, do they bear any echo of Medusa?

Athena's associations with snakes are second only to her legendary affinity for owls. She wears the snake-tasseled aegis, and was said to be the mother of Erikhthonios, who was either part or all snake. So damning was her association with the snake that she forbid anyone to look upon her serpentine son, lest they recognize that she was its mother. The Arrephoria ritual of Athens commemorates these events. Anciently the snake in Greece was seen as the protector of the home. It guarded the grain, much in the way a housecat would in later Europe. Several deities with home protection roles had serpent associations, such as Zeus Kestos. Athena was so associated with the protection of cities that she was viewed in abstract terms as a great serpent. Her aegis is covered in scales and ringed with snakes to reenforce this association.

Barbara Walker states in her Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets under the entry Gorgon that “Gorgo, Gorgon, or Gorgopis... was the title of Athene as a death goddess.” She links the name Medusa with that of Athena's mother Metis and states that she believes that Athena was worshiped as Medusa/Metis in Libya where she was the destroyer aspect of the Egyptian goddess Neith who was called Anath among the Phoenicians and Ath-enna in Libya and North Africa.

Jane Ellen Harrison argues that the Gorgoneion is nothing more than a ritual mask, perhaps worn by Libyan priestesses in rites related to wisdom and the moon. The Orphics refer to the moon as “The Gorgon's Head”. Amazingly, an ancient image of Athena shows her winged and holding a crescent moon.

The similarities between Athena and Medusa weave an obscured but revealing pattern. Athena could no more punish Medusa than she could punish herself. Medusa, it seems, is only another older face of the complex Goddess known to us under the names Anat, Neith, Metis, Medusa, and Athena.

Sources Cited:

Theoi Project: Athena
Theoi Project: Medusa & Gorgons
Gimbutas, Marija: The Language of the Goddess.
Walker, Barbara: The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets: Athena, Gorgon, Medusa
Wikipedia: Gorgoneion

Gardening Projects

2010-05-17T18:28:00.008-04:00

May has been a busy month for me. I started this month at the Our Haven annual Beltane festival, where I danced the maypole and frolicked in the mud.

Laurelei and I have big plans for plantings throughout the grounds this year. First there is the Aphrodite shrine which Laurelei blogged about here. It is located within a growing hedge labyrinth which we started several years ago. We also have plans for a Dionysus shrine within the labyrinth, complete with grape arbors and statuary.

At another shrine on the grounds, the White Goddess shrine, located in the orchard where our cabin sits, we are going to plant climbing blue roses and moonflowers up the four trellises supporting the dome. I've included some photos of the shrine in this post. You can see our beloved cabin in the background.

I've been hard at work on the website for this year's Women's Goddess Retreat. I gave the site a full redesign and I'm pretty pleased with it. We've submitted a proposal to the Our Haven elders planning a Women's circle on the site. We've plans to add many plantings to the circle if it gets approved. We are considering starting with fairy roses and wisteria. We'd like to add several "womanish" herbs and plants to the area like motherwort and cohosh.

Here at home we're adding some lavender to our herb garden and many veggies to our food garden: strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, and cukes.

Anacreon Fragment

2010-04-28T21:35:00.002-04:00

The love god with his golden curls
puts a bright ball in my hand,
shows a girl in her fancy shoes,
and suggests that I take her.

Not that girl -- she's the other kind,
one from Lesbos. Disdainfully,
nose turned up at my silver hair,
she makes eyes at the ladies.

-translated by Richmond Lattimore

Anacreon was a mid-sixth century Greek poet from the island of Teos. He is noted for writing almost exclusively about the pleasures of life, love, wine, and banquets.

I am flummoxed that even when faced with poetry fragments like the one above some people continue to doubt that lesbianism was known and practiced among the ancient Greeks. Even if you choose to read Sappho's heady verses inspired by young women as romantic friendship rather than frankly sexually charge poetry, you cannot deny that Anacreon understood lesbianism and even associated it with the isle of Lesbos.

Spring 2010 He Epistole

2010-04-28T13:59:00.002-04:00

The Spring 2010 edition of Neokoroi's quarterly publication He Epistole has just been released. It contains an excellent article on Demeter Erinys by Suz Thackston and many other goodies. Many thanks to the He Epistole team for another excellent issue!

Words to Live By

2010-04-26T17:43:00.003-04:00

I've been pondering the attributes that I takes to be a good Hellenic Polytheist, and the attributes that I value most within myself. Some practitioners of Hellenic Polytheism subscribe to the Metron, an ethics system of "Seven Pillars" which has been reconstructed in various forms. One of them follows:

Ethike Arete - the practice of habitual excellence (ethics)
Eusebia - reverence, loyalty, and sense of duty toward the Gods (of Greece)
Hagneia - the maintaining of ritual purity by avoiding miasma
Nomos Arkhaios - observance of ancient tradition, (religious) law, and customs
Sophia - the pursuit of wisdom, understanding, and truth
Sophrosune - the control of self through deep contemplation
Xenia - adherence to hospitality and the guest-host relationship

Laurelei has proposed a system of ethics for the Temple of Aphrodite that I find inspiring:

Kharis (grace and reciprocity)
Sophia (wisdom and understanding)
Eusebia (reverence and piety)

I've been involved in the Caliphate Ordo Templi Orientis for years and as a Thelemite I have some pretty strong Greek ideas of what is right and ethical:

Thelema (True Will)
Agape (Fraternal Love)
Eros (Romantic Love)

Invoke me under my stars! Love is the law, love under will. Nor let the fools mistake love; for there are love and love. There is the dove, and there is the serpent. Choose ye well! He, my prophet, hath chosen, knowing the law of the fortress, and the great mystery of the House of God.
- The Book of the Law, Liber AL vel Legis, sub figura CCXX, as delivered by XCIII = 418 to DCLXVI, Chapter I, verse 57

And then there are the roughly 150 Delphic Maxims, most of which are reasonable, some of which are excellent, and a couple of which are patently ridiculous in modern society.

The good:

8. Be Yourself (Σαυτον ισθι)
15. Help your friends (Φιλοις βοηθει)
23. Long for wisdom (Σοφιαν ζηλου)
24. Praise the good (Καλον ευ λεγε)
25. Find fault with no one (Ψεγε μηδενα)
38. Nothing to excess (Μηδεν αγαν)
55. Give back what you have received (Λαβων αποδος)
56. Down-look no one (Υφορω μηδενα)
62. Praise hope (Ελπιδα αινει)
73. Be happy with what you have (Κτωμενος ηδου)
84. Make just judgments (Κρινε δικαια)
90. Live without sorrow (Αλυπως βιου)
93. Deal kindly with everyone (Φιλοφρονει πασιν)
106. Be grateful (Ευγνωμων γινου)
107. Pursue harmony (Ομονοιαν διωκε)
117. Acquire wealth justly (Πλουτει δικιως)
118. Do not abandon honor (Δοξαν μη λειπε)
124. Love whom you rear (Ους τρεφεις αγαπα)
126. Respect the elder (Πρεσβυτερον αιδου)

The bad:

9. Intend to get married (Γαμειν μελλε)
91. Live together meekly (Ομιλει πραως)
95. Rule your wife (Γυναικος αρχε)
132. Die for your country (Θνησκε υπερ πατριδος)
137. Grieve for no one (Μη επι παντι λυπου)

So how do I synthesize all of this into a workable system that won't drive me crazy? Here then is a personal Metron that I am trying to live by:

1. Kharis - grace and reciprocity
2. Sophia - the relentless pursuit of wisdom and understanding
3. Eusebia - reverence and piety to the theoi
4. Arete - excellence in deed, thought, word, and action
5. Thelema - the pursuit of my life's purpose and my Will
6. Sophrosune - moderation and temperance
7. Hagneia - ritual purity and avoidance of miasma

I think of Xenia as being a part of Kharis, and, as a Hellenic Polytheist rather than a reconstructionist, I hold no truck with Nomos Arkhaios. Rather, I value Thelema, which can be viewed as an outgrowth of Arete, but it has been so central to my own spiritual development that I've given it a pillar of its own. I believe that most of the Delphic Maxims can be sorted into one of these categories, and I'm pretty comfortable with holding myself to these standards.

Mounukhia

2010-04-26T16:25:00.003-04:00

The festival of Mounukhia is concurrent with Beltane this year (May 1, Mounkhion 16, near the full moon) and I will be up to my knees in mud at a pagan festival, so I thought I'd go ahead and share some information about Mounukhia a few days early.

The Mounukhia festival honors Artemis as her titles Potnia Theron (the Mistress of Beasts) and Artemis Fosforos (Artemis the Light-Bringer). It begins with a pompe in which the people carry round cakes in which small torches, or dadia, are stuck. These cakes are called amphiphontes (round-shining). They are offered to Artemis in thanks for the lives of beasts that were killed during the hunt, and for the light of the moon. Cupcakes studded with birthday candles make a simple and thoughtful substitute.

Mousa, sing of Artemis, sister of Hekatos (the far-shooter), Parthenos Iokheaira (the virgin who delights in arrows), who was fostered with Apollon. She waters her horses from Meles [a river in Lydia] deep in reeds, and swifty drives her all-golden chariot through Smyrna to vine-clad Klaros where Apollon Argyrotoxos (god of the silver bow), sits waiting for Hekatebolon Iokheaira (far-shooting delighter in arrows).
And so hail to you, Artemis, in my song and to all goddesses as well. Of you first I sing and with you I begin; now that I have begun with you, I will turn to another song.

~Homeric Hymn 9 to Artemis (trans. Evelyn-White)

Have a joyous Mounukhia!

Virgin Athena

2010-04-26T02:28:00.006-04:00

I have applied to be an Exegetai of Athena through Neokoroi. Part of the process of admittance includes the submission of two articles to their newsletter He Epistole. I thought that the first one might be of interest to the blogosphere, so I am sharing it here.

Virgin Athena

Athena is famous in Greek mythology for being one of only three Goddesses who were considered “virgin”. It was said in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite that alone of all creation these three Goddesses, Hestia, Artemis, and Athena, were immune to the arrows of Eros and the seductive spell of Aphrodite. But for Athena being a virgin ran deeper than simple immunity to romance. Athena was, rather surprisingly, a mother figure in Classical Athens, and is linked to Hephaestos in what could be an ancient heiros gamos festival.

Athena's legendary virginity begins with conflicting stories of her birth. In the most famous version, attributed to Apollodorus, Athena is born fully grown from the head of her father Zeus. Zeus had been warned that his bride Metis, wise counsel, would bear him a child greater than himself, so he chose to swallow Metis whole. Nine months later he was stricken with a terrible headache that served as the birth pangs which brought Athena into existence. Just as later Catholics would claim that their divine virgin Mary was conceived Immaculately by the will of the Father God, so was Athena born, not of a womb or woman, but from the perfect mind of Zeus.

A second and less well known birth story comes to us from Lycophron, in which Athena was fathered the winged giant Pallas. This Pallas later attempted to rape his daughter. In a rage the young Athena killed her father and flayed him, taking his skin for her breastplate – the aegis – and his wings for her own use. In the oldest known depictions of Athena, such as at Sparta, she is shown winged. This was the first, but not the only threat to Athena's chastity in myth.

When Zeus ached and moaned with the labor pains that would bring forth Athena we are told that Hephaestos took up a labrys and split mighty Zeus's head asunder in order to release the pain. Thus, Hephaestos was the first of the theoi to catch a glimpse of the newly formed Athena. We can only guess from later events what Hephaestos must have thought when he saw the radiant goddess for the first time. Perhaps Eros launched one of his famous arrows at the lame craftsman. Maybe he was taken in by the earth-shaking war dance she performed immediately upon her birth. As a smith, he may have just been impressed with her excellent taste in armor, since she was born fully armed. In any case, Hephaestos desired Athena and contrived to win her for his wife.

After Hephaestos set out to trap his mother Hera in a golden throne he fashioned for her he demanded the prize of either Athena or Aphrodite as his wife, according to many sources, notably Hyginus. If Athena rejected his proposal it is not recorded. Regardless, Hephaestos won Aphrodite as his bride rather than Athena and according to Homer [Odyssey 8.267] he regretted the decision. Aphrodite proved to be a lovely but unfaithful wife and Hephaestos harbored secret lust for Athena.

Athena came to the forge of Hephaestos seeking arms. What she received instead, according to Apollodorus, was an attempted rape by Hephaestos. In disgust it was said that Athena wiped Hephaestos's semen from her thigh with a fillet of wool that she then flung to the ground. The fertile earth, Gaia, became pregnant by this seed and bore the child Erikhthonios, king of Athens. Gaia gave the boy to Athena, who she claimed was his true mother. Ashamed, Athena hid the growing child in a kista, or chest, that she kept in the folds of her aegis.

Why was Athena ashamed of Erikhthonios? Why would she keep his existence a closely guarded secret? Erikhthonios was said to have the form of a serpent from the waist down. Is this deformity alone enough to cause Athena to shut away her fosterling, and, where did Erikhthonios gain this peculiar serpentine aberration?
Since the earliest recorded times Athena has been identified with the snake. This is demonstrated in her serpent-tasseled aegis, and in her special role as the guardian of the city, just as the snake served in ancient Greece as a symbol for the guardian of the home. Athena has deep roots in the prehistoric craftswoman serpent and bird goddesses that Marija Gimbutas documented in her work. Just as Gaia claimed that Athena was the true mother of Erikhthonios, so do Erikhthonios's defining features point to Athena having been his mother.

Athena guarded Erikhthonios with obsessive caution. It was said by Pseudo-Apollodorus that she sent the kista he was kept in to Pandrosos, the daughter of Kekrops, forbidding her to open the chest. With curiosity that echoes the fall of Pandora – who Athena had a hand in making – Pandrosos opened the chest and beheld Erikhthonios, at the sight of which Athena drove Pandrosos mad. Pandrosos then flung herself to her death from the Acropolis. These horrible events were commemorated each year at the Athenian festival of the Arrephoria. During the Arrephoria maidens were given a secret kista at the temple of Athena on the Acropolis filled with “unspoken things”. The maidens were strictly admonished not to look inside of the kista but to deliver it to the garden shrine of Aphrodite, below the Acropolis. The maidens then returned to the temple of Athena bearing a second kista, also filled with secret contents, from the garden of Aphrodite. I have concluded that the kista bore knowledge of Erikhthonios as the son of Athena and Hephaestos, just as it held Erikhthonios himself when Pandrosos kept it. It is telling that Athena sends knowledge of Erikhthonios to Aphrodite, the wife of Hephaestos, whose charms and seductions she was supposed to be immune to.

Thus I have deduced that, just as Gaia claimed, Athena is the true mother of Erikhthonios, making her one of the number of that fabulous mythic trope of virgin mothers. But how chaste was Athena's relationship with Hephaestos? Were they ever linked beyond one incident of attempted rape? To answer these questions I look again to the festival cycle of Athens, this time to the festival of the Khalkeia, which translates to “bronze chamber”. The Khalkeia was a festival of Hephaestos and Athena as patrons of craftsmanship. Throughout Athens Athena and Hephaestos were paired. Athena has a statue in the Athenian temple of Hephaestos that overlooks the agora, while the ever-burning lamp in the temple of Athena Polis is regarded by Burkert and others as the presence of Hephaestos.

Karl Kerenyi deduces in his Athene: Virgin and Mother in Greek Religion that during the Khalkeia festival Athena and Hephaestos joined in a heiros gamos, or sacred marriage rite, in a bronze chamber. The month leading up to the Khalkeia was a time for young Athenians to prepare themselves for marriage. Athena even takes her “husband's” name in Robert Parker's Polytheism and society at Athens which lists Hephaisteia as one of Athena's epithets, specifically related to the Khalkeia festival.

The marriage of Athena and Hephaestos bore rich fruit depending on which sources are sought. Both Apollon [Müller, Dor. ii. 2. § 13.] and Lychnus [Spanheim, ad Callim. p. 644.] are cited as being sons of the union of Athena and Hephaestos. I find that the idea of Apollon, Lord of the Arts, being the son of the theoi of craftsmanship to be an inspiring and illuminating twist in their collective mythologies.

Even with her yearly Athenian marriage to Hephaestos and a proliferation of sons, Athena still remains virgin. She is a virgin in the oldest sense of the word: ever a maiden beholden to no man. It was this virginity that allowed Athena to exist in realms outside of those typically open to Greek women. Now that we live in a society where women and men are recognized as equals it is time to restore Athena's roles beyond that of the eternally chaste daughter.

Sources Cited:

Theoi Project: Athena
Theoi Project: Hephaestos
Burkert, Walter: Greek Religion.
Gimbutas, Marija: The Language of the Goddess.
Kerenyi, Karl: Athene: Virgin and Mother in Greek Religion.
Parker, Robert: Polytheism and Society at Athens.

The Ever-Near Goddess

2010-04-20T22:31:00.002-04:00

Walter F. Otto in his oft-quoted work The Homeric Gods calls Athena "the ever-near" goddess:

Only the 'bright-eyed intelligence' capable of discerning the decisive element at every juncture and of supplying the most effective instrumentality is an adequate characterization of her ideal . Consummation, the immediate present, action here and now - that is Athena. She is spirited immediacy, redeeming spiritual presence, swift action. She is the 'ever-near'.

Athena stands behind Her favorite heroes and invisibly whispers advice, reason, and wisdom. Although it is a modern epithet it is a telling one. Athena is often overlooked by those who seek Her because She is already so ingrained in our lives.

I read a plea on a board tonight from a woman who offers Athena prayers, incense, and olive oil, but is left cold in her quest to find Athena. Athena is a remarkable theoi. She is found in every rational action, every skillful movement, every whisper of wisdom in our minds. She is the soft voice just behind you urging you to speak out, to learn, to try again.

Yes, there are times, rare and unbidden, where She reveals Herself to us in an omen, a shiver, a gleam of silver light. She may come to us in dreams, dazzling in Her finely woven raiment and polished bronze armor. We may hear Her clear strong voice, or be blessed with an inward vision of Her unspeakably marvelous eyes. But this is not how She usually comes.

Athena feels like the solemn peace of the gray fog of morning spreading its dew on all living things. She sounds like the perfect bon-mot falling from your mouth. She is the right book that you just happen to read at the perfect time. She is the meditative state that accompanies the creation of any art. It is good to seek Athena, but it is better to know that She is already with you. She is truly the ever near goddess.

Brilliant Theoi Picspam

2010-04-20T20:59:00.003-04:00

Really, this is bloody brilliant as far as picspam goes. A woman over at LiveJournal "casts" the theoi according to popular stars of the day. I don't agree with everyone. Paltrow as Athena rings false to me, but I'm hard pressed to choose an actress that could do Her justice. I love Hugh Laurie as Hephaestus ans Sean Bean as Zeus. Her choice for Dionysus is all wrong. Oh, just go look! What do you think? Who would play your Gods in your very own Homeric movie?

Physical Fitness

2010-04-15T22:44:00.004-04:00

As much as it pains my considerable vanity to admit it, I am overweight. Not "oh, golly, I sure could stand to lost ten pounds" overweight, either. No, I'm a good 50 lbs more than the healthy weight for my frame. And I hate it. I hate that I can't do a pull-up and that I get winded walking uphill. I hate the way my clothes hang on me -- they really don't "hang" at all anymore -- and the way I look in photographs.

In classical Greece a high premium was placed on physical fitness. This didn't mean starving oneself to achieve the rail-thin body type women in today's society are expected to maintain. It meant that men and women were expected to be strong, healthy, physically fit individuals. Men attended the gymnasia where they were put through rigorous training to keep them fit. They had to remain fit well into what we would consider older age in order to properly defend their city-state.

In Sparta men and women were taught to wrestle from a young age. For all that the film 300 got wrong about Spartan culture, the spirit of how they portrayed youth was fairly accurate. Greeks fought in the Pankration style, which is remarkably similar to our modern Mixed Martial Arts fighting. Imagine for a moment a society in which citizens are encouraged to actively participate in philosophy, local government, and the UFC. The Greeks, very simply, were badasses.

All of this makes my own weakness and general poor health seem more than laziness. I feel like I'm failing at my religious obligations. So I'm doing something about it. I've started weightlifting according to the StrongLifts 5x5 program, which uses barbell training and lots of squats. Tomorrow will be my third day on the program, or one week. I'm already feeling stronger in my core, and more than a little sore in my thighs (the squats are working!). I am not modifying my diet except to add more protein after workouts. I'm hoping to build muscle and strength and to burn body fat more effectively. In my experience cardio training just doesn't work as well as weight training for overall physical fitness. I'll be recording my fitness milestones in this blog. StrongLifts 5x5 promises to get me to a place where I'll be able to bench my ideal body weight (130lbs) and deadlift 1.5 x my ideal body weight (about 200 lbs). Right now those numbers seem impossibly high, but the program is designed to add weight in five pound increments each workout in order to train your muscles to lift heavier weight.

I'm a little concerned about becoming a gym rat, one of those people who talks all the time about how much they can bench, how much time they spent at the gym, or what they weigh. I can't stand those types of people, and I promise that my blog will not become a place for that kind of self-involved rhetoric. Also, I don't judge anyone who doesn't choose to exercise. How could I? I've been a lazy lump for years, and I'm only changing my lifestyle now because I'm sick of myself. I read recently about how no one ever makes a conscious change in their life until they are "at a 10". You can be fed up for years at a 9.5 and still not be ready to change. Then one day you wake up and with a sense of peace and grace and you are ready to change. You are at a 10. My "10" moment came when I went to put on my favorite butch hipster shirt -- an awesome vintage fitted western button-down piece that my dad gave me -- and found that it was too tight to squeeze my pudgy belly into. The beautiful mother-of-pearl buttons gaped open around my distended middle.

I'll never be a Pankration fighter. I'll never be a Spartan warrior, and I'll never look like Gorgo for 300 unless I starve myself. But I can be better. I can be stronger. I can be healthier. I can change for myself and for my Gods.

Glaukopis

2010-04-15T21:37:00.004-04:00

The poets call me the gray-eyed Goddess.
Flashing-eyed.
Sliver as the glint from a spear point.
Wild with battle fury.
But my sight is sharper than a weapon.

The scholars claim I came from a storm.
Mosture laden.
Eerie dark grey-green as the most dangerous clouds.
Bright as Zeus's lightning.
But my wisdom is more penetrating than rain.

The priests say I stare like an owl.
Unflinching.
Glassy blue pupils with no whites.
Able to see even in the faintest light.
But my eyes are older than the darkness.

Turn not away from my gaze, mortal.
I see all.
Rather, look me in the eyes and know the mystery.
Drink of my ancient pools of wisdom.
Know you the color of my eyes.

Written for Noumenia, Mounukhion 1.

Glaukopis is the epithet of Athena that I usually honor in my everyday worship. It has many translations: silver, blue-green, and gray-eyed, shining, flashing, and glinting-eyed, and, the oldest, and one of particular relevance to my own practice: owl-eyed. I have come to think of these many translations not just as an accident of an evolving language, but as a kind of mystery. Athena's eyes cannot be described completely by any one of the translations above, but encompasses all of them. I feel greatly honored to have 'seen' the color of Athena's eyes, although I will never be able to find the right words to explain them. This little hymn is my feeble attempt.

Unitarian Universalism

2010-04-10T20:45:00.002-04:00

Laurelei, the kids and I went to the Bloomington Unitarian Universalist Church for Easter last week. I've never been to a Church service before, (I've only been in a church for the occasional friend's wedding) let alone an Easter service, so I was cautiously optimistic about what I would find there.

The service was remarkable. They had a full gospel band and the theme of the day was "Moving Forward". Jesus was rarely mentioned, the concept of nature's seasonal resurrection and the "web of life" were central to the sermon. A gay man who was a member of the church spoke about finding a spiritual place that loved and accepted him. Another member talked about how the church loved "all of the parts" of her, that she"left nothing of [herself] at the door". I was deeply moved by the sense of community there, and was inspired by the work that the church has done as is doing in the name of social justice.

We sang "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around" by Joan Baez. Laurelei tapped me gently on the shoulder and had me turn to look at the congregation behind us -- we were sitting in the front row -- and I was amazed to see so much diversity in one place. She and I lit a candle for the Theoi in thanks for our recent blessings during the offertory. I smiled to see several statues of Goddesses throughout the sanctuary.

The children were welcomed during the first half of the service and were then whisked away to age-grouped religious education classes where they learned about different belief systems. I was surprised that both children immediately begged that we come back next week.

Tomorrow we'll be going back. It's hard to be a Hellenist and not feel the pull toward a community of worship. I'm pleased that the UU is a place that I can be a part of something spiritually big and community oriented that allows me to draw my own conclusions about deity and right action.

What I'm Reading

2010-03-31T23:13:00.002-04:00

A Day in Old Athens by W.S. Davis
Priestess: Woman as Sacred Celebrant by Pamela Eakins
Eat Mangoes Naked by Sark
The Aegean Civilization by Peter Warren

Why I chose them
First, I'm reading Eat Mangoes Naked because I truly adore Sark's writing and style. Reading Sark is as nice as curling up in a big rainbow colored silk comforter and listening to Sophie B. Hawkins. I'll be honest, Priestess caught my eye on the shelf because of its Weiser logo. Then I noticed that Charlene Spretnak, whose book Lost Goddesses of Early Greece captivated me, gives Priestess glowing praise, so I decided it give it a look. How could I not pick up a book titled 'A Day in Old Athens'? It looks thorough and enjoyable. The Aegean Civilization is a large book filled with glossy pictures of ancient artifacts and sites.

First Impressions
Like all of Sark's books this one is vibrant, fun, and colorful with handwritten text. These are truly a joy to behold and they always make me want to doodle more in my journal. Eat Mangoes Naked is about embracing pleasure instead of forcing it. It fits in beautifully with my Epicurian studies!

Priestess weaves autobiographical fiction and historical events to answer how Goddess-based religion became replaced with patriarchal beliefs. She profiles women in ancient Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, the Red Sea, the Dark Ages and the Reformation. There is a chapter devoted to Hypatia of Alexandria that I'm really looking forward to.

A Day In Old Athens looks like a breezy read considering the subject matter. Of special interest is the chapter on Women in Athens (Golly. girls merit a whole chapter! *eyeroll*) sections on Athenian dress and food, and several chapters devoted to temples, Gods, and festivals.

The Aegean Civilization covers Bronze-age Aegean civilzations such as Minoan Crete, The Mycenae, and Thera. It looks like it will be a nice source for the cultures that first embraced Athena and Her family.

What I've read recently

Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece by Joan Breton Connelly
Temple of Love by Laura Britton
Cult of Aphrodite by Laurelei Black

New Job

2010-03-29T21:25:00.006-04:00

After months of freelancing I finally have an out-of-the-house, set-schedule, working-in-a-real-brick-and-mortar-building job! Hooray! I'll begin my new post at the local public library on Wednesday. I'm fairly certain that my blogging will become more sporadic upon my new appointment. I'll be spending more of my free writing time working on Under Her Aegis, and less on this and other blogs. Rest assured that Stuff Pagan Culture Likes and Glaux's Nest aren't going anywhere, they'll just be updated less frequently.

Now that I have a job I can start saving for school in the fall. I plan to go back and get my Master's in Library Science at Indiana University.

Thanks and praise to Athena, Apollon, and Hermes who smoothed the way for me to get this exciting position in my field. Hail Theoi!

Ta Dio

2010-03-29T03:24:00.002-04:00

I hear the sound of your voice
like pan-pipes laughing in my mind.
The maenad in me awakens.
I am drawn into your song.
Spinning spindle
her dance weaving
the song of the seasons.
Hair unbound.
Girdle unbound.
Spirit unbound.
A bacchante in ecstasy.

Io euoi!
Io Zagreus!

I clumsily attempt to seduce the God,
drunk on his vintage,
unaware that he has been pursuing me all along.
I run down the hillside,
seeking the solace of the forest.
Unity.
Yab-yum.

Io euoi!
Io Bromios!

In desparate passion I tear into flesh.
Blood in my mouth,
a life pressed like grapes bursting.
Limbs tangled into vines,
Tasting your sweet goat song,
Singing your raucous lament.

Io euoi!
Io Sabazos!

Tasting you.
Drinking you.
Lord of my Salvation.

Written for the Greater Dionysia 2010.

Cult of Aphrodite is now available!

2010-03-29T02:25:00.004-04:00

The lovely and oh-so-literary Laurelei has done it again! Asteria Books is tickled to announce the arrival of Cult of Aphrodite, the much-anticipated sequel to Laurelei's groundbreaking work Aphrodite's Priestess!

Cult of Aphrodite is filled with rituals based on a modern calendar of Aphrodisian worship. These rituals are easily adaptable to solitary or group practice and are based on a Hellenic Reconstructionist format.

You can order a print copy of the book for $15.00 U.S. or you can order the ebook .pdf for just $4.00 U.S. -- an incredible bargain for such an extensive collection of original celebrations and rituals.

I did all of the line art, so you'll want to check that out as well. The image above is my take on the Arrephoria, showing Athena and Aphrodite exchanging the kista.

Release the Snark!

2010-03-28T16:36:00.002-04:00

I'm being snarky on the interwebs. I'm sure you'll want to go take a look. My colleague Nehmet came up with a delightful idea for a "Stuff Pagan Culture Likes" blog inspired by the hilarious original, Stuff White People Like. I had so many ideas for ~~derision~~, um, discussion that she made me a writer. So, go on! What are you waiting for?

Greater Dionysia

2010-03-28T13:19:00.006-04:00

We are well into the City, or Greater, Dionysia festival, Elephb olion 10 -17. It is an annual festival celebrating the coming of spring and honoring the God Dionysus.

Like most Greek festivals the City Dionysia began with a pompe, a kind of parade. The pompe featured a large phallus and the carrying of wine mixed with water. The pompe ended at the theater. Bulls were sacrificed at the theater, and a city wide feast of the meat was held. After the feast a second less formal parade through the street took place, the komos, which resembled a drunken revelry more than a stately pompe.

The following day a goat was sacrificed at the theater and a series of tragic plays were performed as a competition. It is thought that the word "tragedy" comes from the Greek for "goat song".

Wikipedia states:

Dionysus was often seen as the god of everything uncivilized, of the innate wildness of humanity that the Athenians had tried to control. The Dionysia was probably a time to let out their inhibitions through highly emotional tragedies or irreverent comedies. During the pompe there was also an element of role-reversal - lower-class citizens could mock and jeer the upper classes, or women could insult their male relatives...

The plays themselves could highlight ideas that would not normally be spoken or shared in everyday life. Aeschylus' The Persians, for example, while patriotic to Athens, showed sympathy towards the Persians, which may have been politically unwise under normal circumstances. The parodies of Aristophanes mocked the politicians and other celebrities of Athens, even going so far as producing his anti-war play Lysistrata at the height of the Peloponnesian War. The circumstances of the Dionysia allowed him to get away with criticisms he would not normally be allowed to voice.

In tribute to Dionysus, here is a photo of myself, wine-soaked and vine-crowned, at a Dionysian festival last year. I'm so pleased that the Greater Dionysia is upon us. Spring is here in full force, and camping festival season is coming quickly. I've put my maenad crown aside for the winter, and am looking forward to donning it again soon!

Tell the FDA to get moving!

2010-03-24T22:52:00.002-04:00

Today is annual back up your birth control day, a day devoted to raising awareness about emergency contraception. Now with bunnies, just because!

Tell the FDA to Act on Emergency Contraception from Center for Reproductive Rights on Vimeo.

Kali, Asklepieia!

2010-03-23T04:32:00.002-04:00

Today is the festival of Asklepieia, Elaphebolion 8, dedicated to Asclepius, the Greek God of healing. In addition to the usual libations it is a good day to begin a "spring cleaning" of the body, such as a fast or detox.

Asclepius was a son of Apollo, and his father is honored with him on this day. Asclepius's daughters are Hygieia ("Health"), Iaso ("Medicine"), Aceso ("Healing"), Aglæa/Ægle ("Healthy Glow"), and Panacea ("Universal Remedy"). The rod of Asclepius, a snake-entwined staff, remains a symbol of medicine today, although sometimes the caduceus, or staff with two snakes, is mistakenly used instead.

This Asklepieia seems particularly auspicious as it comes on the heels of health care reform in the US.

Here is the Homeric Hymn to Asclepius (trans. Evelyn-White):

"I begin to sing of Asklepios, son of Apollon and healer of sicknesses. In the Dotian plain fair Koronis, daughter of King Phlegyas, bare him, a great joy to men, a soother of cruel pangs. and so hail to you, lord: in my song I make my prayer to thee!"

Blogging for Choice

2010-03-19T07:35:00.003-04:00

Because having the right to choose what is best for myself and my body is important every day.

An important factor for women's advancement in society is our ability to control our fertility. Without that, we are trapped by the realities of pregnancy, childbirth and child-rearing; rather than a privilege and a gift, these aspects of being female become a burden.

I see attempts to limit women's reproductive freedom as no more than a gambit to keep women "in their place". To grant a fetus that cannot exist outside the womb greater rights than the woman carrying the fetus is fundamentally incompatible with the function of civil society.

In the words of supreme court justices O'Connor, Kennedy and Souter: "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life."

No one wants to plan an abortion. But the best way to prevent abortions is to prevent unwanted pregnancies: through sex education, improved distribution of birth control, and general empowerment of women to shape our own individual lives.

Among the many reasons that I'm pro-choice is because it is the only option that isn't poisoned with misogyny. I believe that we are responsible for justifying our beliefs, and just as one cannot claim that a given race is inferior to another because "it's what I believe", I don't think one can argue that men can assert control over a woman's uterus -- and future -- because they claim to believe that a fetus is comparable to a human life. That belief is a result of the fact that only women can get pregnant and only women would ever have to carry an unwanted fetus to term.

Can anyone really believe that abortion would even be an issue if men had to face the possibility of giving birth to and raising a child because of one night of failed contraception?

I think Florence Kennedy said it best: "If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament."

NARAL

Hymn to Pallas

2010-03-18T19:23:00.002-04:00

I sing now of the gray-eyed Goddess and Her love for the virgin Pallas.
Together grew these maidens, strong and lovely on the shores of Lake Triton.
Devoted to each other, long were their games of love and battle.
Under the olive groves they embraced, finding delight in the idleness of youth.
In fields of barley they played the war game with wooden spears, tunics tearing.
In jest Athena rolled upon Her back as Pallas raised her sharpened stick.
In paternal panic Zeus thrust the aegis between the sparring girls.
The spear glanced from the terrible gorgon gaze of the aegis wounding Pallas.
She fell into Athena's white arms, bloody and swooning.
The corpse of Pallas grew cold in the Goddess's embrace.
Athena, young and radiant, wailed to the heavens bemoaning the loss of Her lover.
She took up a piece of olive wood from their love bower and with great skill
fashioned a likeness of fair Pallas from the rough timber.
Athena draped Her aegis over the image, keeping it safe and sacred.
She took the name of Her playmate and added it to Her own.
So evermore when poets speak of Pallas they speak not of the nymph but of the Goddess.
Such is the love of ever-near Athena for those who honor Her.
So are we wrapped in the aegis of Her protection.
So are our crafts devotions to Her supreme skill.
Athena, may I always be protected under your aegis.
May I speak with wisdom and listen with the steadfastness of olive wood.
May I sing of your glory now and always.

Athena's Day

2010-03-18T19:05:00.002-04:00

Today is the third day of the Athenian month of Elaphebolion and is, like all third days after the Noumenia, sacred to Athena. Special libations were poured to her on this day, along with extra sacrifices. I like lighting a bit of frankincense and saying Homeric Hymn 39 to Athena, my favorite of Her hymns. Sometimes I enjoy writing a new hymn for Her, or offering a piece of sculpture or fiber-art that I've worked on to Her. Anything I can do to mark this day as special above and beyond my daily devotions to Athena I see as a good thing to do on this day.

How do you honor your patron Gods? When do you honor them?

I've got you under my skin

2010-03-17T00:16:00.006-04:00

I'm sure it's Pagan blogging protocol to have at least one post about your tattoos. If you don't have any tattoos then, obviously, you are not a True Pagan.(TM) I realized that I've neglected to mention anything about my body ink which I shall remedy now on pain of having my good Pagan blogger card membership revoked.

I've two tattoos, both with spiritual/religious significance. The first is a large blue celtic knotwork pentacle on my left shoulder in reference to my Witchcraft background. The second is a small red star of Babalon on my right ankle in honor of my work in Thelema and as a founder of the Babalon Rising festival. I've been slowly saving up for my next piece, which will be of an owl of the type found on the reverse of some Athenian drachma. This will be in deference to Athena and my own personal connection with owl as a totemic spirit.

I have plans for several more tattoos along my spine. Laurelei and I are considering matching Kallisti apples at our solar plexus. I am also considering a gorgon mask, a spider in a web, a labrys and a serpent spiral. All of these have connections to Athena, along with other personal symbolism. If you wonder why there are so many options in the "queue" while so few pieces have actually materialized, it is because I am very particular about getting a tattoo. I usually wait a minimum of three years after I've settled on a final design before I get the work done. I figure if I still like it and want it after three years time I can probably live with it being there forever.

I design some part of each of my tattoo artwork, and below is some flash of various designs that I currently have/will have/am considering.

Love and Wine

2010-03-16T04:02:00.003-04:00

Heavy clusters of grapes hang from the gnarled vines: indeed, Aphrodite is only more attractive when united with Bacchus; their pleasures are sweeter for being mixed together. Apart, they have less spice.
Pseudo-Lucian, Erotes: description of the temenos of Aphrodite at Knidos

Wine is the milk of Venus.
Ben Jonson

"[Wine] provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance."
Shakespeare, Macbeth Act II Scene III

Well, what does Shakespeare know about it anyway? The Greeks, wise in the ways of moderation -- including the moderation of moderation -- mixed their wine with water and knew the merits of raising a cup in the spirit of romance.

So let me toast the beauty of the lovely Laurelei, dutiful servant of shapely Aphrodite, and sweetest of mates.

Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss within the cup,
And I'll not ask for wine.
The thirst that from the soul doth rise,
Doth crave a drink divine;
But might I of Jove's nectar sup,
I would not change for thine.
Ben Jonson

Miasma, Katharmos, and Womanhood

2010-03-16T02:12:00.003-04:00

"Never omit to wash your hands before you pour to Zeus and to the other Gods the morning offering of sparkling wine; they will not hear your prayers but spit them back"
Hesiod 'Works and Days'

Birth, death, sex, murder, foreign influences, impiety, and certain bodily fluids all bring about miasma, pollution. This pollution can be of the body, soul, household, family, city, or land. The job of the purification [katharmos] of family miasma ultimately fell to the women of the family. Women were the washers of corpses, and the bearers of children. Women themselves were not viewed as harbingers of miasma, on the contrary, whereas semen seems to have been the pollutant that caused miasma during intercourse, there is no evidence of menstrual fluid having properties of miasma. Of course, there is still some debate about this (see comments section of link) in the Hellenic community.

Special rites of katharmos fell exclusively to women, such as the pinning up of hair during most rituals (women typically wear their hair down in ritual only if in mourning, or in certain orgiastic rites, such as those of Dionysus). Purification could also take the form of dancing, which is often associated with women.

The most common form of katharmos today is the preparation and use of khernips. Khernips is created by adding a smoldering brand, such as lit incense or a leaf of smoking herb to salt water. The khernips is then used to wash the hands of supplicants before a ritual takes place or an offering is made.

I have heard some individuals argue that katharmos is nothing more than good hygiene. While I agree that hygiene is a valuable element of working within a Hellenic worldview I see katharmos as something deeper. Katharmos could be achieved by music, tragic theater (k/catharsis), and dance in addition to the more common act of washing. Even medicine itself is a form of katharmos, something to bear in mind when considering the placebo effect.

Likewise, some people equate miasma with sin. Miasma does indeed seem to be related to primal cultural taboos concerning power and transition, but it is not sin. Sin is "the concept of acts that violate a moral rule" Miasma makes no moral judgment except in the case of murder. Confusion can stem from the idea that murder is the greatest form of miasma and carries the most severe consequences. Wikipedia wrongly states that the miasma of murder can only be purified by the death of the murderer.

Nashville Parthenon Pilgrimage

2010-03-16T01:15:00.003-04:00

My family and I are planning a pilgrimage to the Nashville Parthenon on Saturday April 10, 2010. We'll be there at Noon EST until they close at 4:30 pm and we'd love to see some friendly faces from the Hellenic community there. Laurelei has blond hair. I have dark brown hair. We'll both be wearing dresses and have flowers in our hair.

The gift shop at the Parthenon is a Hellenist's dream come true, so come prepared to drop some drachma. They even have pink squeaky Venuses (Venusii?) and, really, who doesn't need one of those?

This pilgrimage is something I've been planning for over a year and is part of a devotional commitment I've made to Athena. If you've ever wondered why I'm so mad for Her, when you see Her 42-foot gilded statue you'll understand. Don't think that its just about Athena, though. There are wonderful reproductions of the Parthenon marbles on site that depict all of the Pantheon. If you live within driving distance and you haven't been to the Nashville Parthenon consider this a sign that it's time.

Hilarious Teeshirt

2010-03-15T19:21:00.001-04:00

This is appropriate on so many levels.

Midwest Hellenic Fest: 2011 dates confirmed!

2010-03-13T21:03:00.002-05:00

Re-posted from Laurelei's blog at Aphrodite's Priestess.

Laurelei and I have task one completed for the Midwest Hellenic Fest. We have a date and venue confirmed!

Mark your calendars for May 27-29, 2011. That's Memorial Day Weekend, which is a great time of year for camping in southern Indiana.

Our location is in French Lick, Indiana at Our Haven Nature Sanctuary.

Our next steps:
1. Contact potential presenters. (We have several in mind.)
2. Enlist a couple of potential organizers/coordinators to help with the planning process.

How might you get involved?

Well, are you an author, speaker, musician or ritualist who would be interested in presenting? Would you or your group like to volunteer to set up a temple/shrine to one of The Twelve for the duration of the fest? Do you want to be responsible for an area of programming? Do you have another idea to share? Contact us with your thoughts.

We'll have a website up and running soon. I'm up to my elbows in html as we speak. For now, check our blogs for updates.

Who Defines Orthopraxy?

2010-03-13T18:22:00.004-05:00

I've heard it said throughout the digital agora that is the online Hellenic community that ours is a religion of orthopraxy not orthodoxy. We Hellenics are concerned with the action of doing our faith rather than believing it. So long as we are practicing a kind of "baseline" Hellenic Polytheism we can be included in the hallowed fold.

But what is baseline Hellenic Polytheism and who defines it? The surface answer is that Hellenic Polytheism is best defined as a Recontructionist religion based on information that we have available about the Ancient Greeks. The problem with this definition is that this body of information presupposes that the "Greeks" had some kind of unified practice. In truth the Ancient Greeks were a loose conglomeration of city-states, each with its own rituals, temples, mystery teachings, and, yes, orthopraxy.

So what constitutes modern Hellenic orthopraxy? Is it worship of the Dodekatheon, and if so, which set of twelve takes the honors? Is it the maintenance of a hearth, a Ktesios jar, a bomos, a shrine, a temple? Is it adherence to the Delphic Maxims? Is it adherence to the virtues, and if so, just which ones? (I do like the modern version of the Metron outlined here.) Is it devotion based on the HMEPA? Is it daily offerings? To whom? What kinds of offerings? Who decides? YSEE? Current authors? Wikipedia? If the Gods are still talking to us just how much wiggle room for UPG is there?

Frankly, I have struggled too long and too honestly to develop my personal path for anyone to dissuade me from it by claiming I'm not doing it right. But does that give me the right to claim that I am a Hellenic Polytheist? Can I successfully make the argument that I can be a British Traditional Witch, a Neo-Shaman, a Thelemite, a member of the local UU church, and a Hellenic Polytheist? Why not?

Owl Movie

2010-03-12T20:56:00.002-05:00

*studders* O-o-owl movie. Owl Movie. OWL MOVIE! Ack! *dies from the awesomeness* Seriously, though, how did I not know about this? Did you see the little Athene Noctua? OMG! *hyperventilates* I haven't been this excited about a film since the Lord of the Rings movies came out. *runs off to watch the trailer again*

Hellenic Clipart

2010-03-12T15:11:00.006-05:00

The Neokoroi list featured an excellent link for Hellenic Clipart recently. It was just too good not to share. Just look at all of those lovely line art drawings of Athena! These images are royalty free for public use. I expect that they will find their way into Under Her Aegis. Here is the Greek clipart link. And for my Alexandrian-minded friends they also have a lovely Egyptian clipart section.

Crown of Violets is now available

2010-03-12T13:55:00.004-05:00

I mentioned that Asteria Books has been busy, and one of our labors became available today! Crown of Violets, a collection of devotional work dedicated to Aphrodite is now in print. I contributed to this collection and Laurelei edited it and has many pieces in it herself. The ebook is only $2.50, so if you've any interest in Aphrodite at all please do check it out.

Agon Literary Review 2010

2010-03-12T04:32:00.003-05:00

Via the Aphrodite's Priestess blog.

Ο Αγώνας
The Agon Literary Review

An agon is a competition, a challenge, a contest. An agon was a part of a poetic or dramatic performance. It was a verbal sparring between characters in comedy. It was an athletic competition or race.

In 2010, Asteria Books is initiating its first literary agon for the Hellenic community. Beginning this year, we will sponsor an annual literary contest for the entire Hellenic community. Each annual competition will be formulated around a theme or central question that each writer/artist will address according to his/her vision.

2010 Theme
“The Beauty of Hellenismos”

Submission categories will include:

• Essay
• Memoir
• Short Story
• Poetry
• Flash Fiction
• Photography
• Fine Art

Top Prizes Include:
• free entrance to the Midwest Hellenic Fest (a three-day Hellenismos-focused festival retreat) for each category winner
• cash prizes for the top 3 overall submissions

Furthermore, category runners-up will receive:
• hard copies of The Agon Literary Review 2010 compilation

Additional prizes may be announced prior to the close of the submission period.

Rules:
• Each entrant may submit only one (1) piece of writing/art per category.
• Entrants may submit pieces to multiple categories, if they choose.
• Each category will be judged separately, making it possible to rank as a finalist or winner in more than one area.
• Judges may not submit work to the contest.
• The submissions of the 3 finalists in each contest category will be included in the compilation.
• Entrants retain their individual copyright to any material submitted to the contest
• Submission of material to this contest provides The Agon Literary Review and Asteria Books with the right to publish said material in electronic and print formats both in the annual compilation and for promotional purposes on the Asteria Books website
• No compensation other than the listed prizes will be made in exchange for material
• Textual submissions must be made in Word format
• Photography and fine art submissions must be made in JPG format with a quality of at least 300 dpi
• Submission deadline is June 30, 2010. Winners and finalists will be announced July 7, 2010.

Send all submissions to laurelei@asteriabooks.com

Why did Athena desire the golden apple?

2010-03-12T03:37:00.003-05:00

"Why should a keen yearning for lovely beauty distress her [Athena], to whom Klotho had assigned a marriageless and childless virginity."
~Telestes, Fragment 805 (from Athenaeus, Scholars at Dinner)

This question has vexed me for months. It has prompted its own share of hack fiction on my part (see Athena's Illiad Parts 1 & 2) and a slew of UPG revolving around what feel like conversations with the Goddess on good days and slow descents into madness on bad ones.

I can understand Aphrodite and Hera's claims to the golden apple inscribed KALLISTI: for the fairest. Both Goddesses were associated with golden apples in myth. Hera was said to own the Garden of the Hesperides which housed the orchard in which the apples grew. Aphrodite is sometimes named the owner of this orchard as well, and She uses the apples to good effect in the myth of the marriage of Atlanta. In addition to this, cases can be made for both Aphrodite and Hera as the "fairest" of Goddesses. Aphrodite's beauty is legendary, and Hera is praised as the cow-eyed and white-armed perfect bride.

So why did Athena, who has no prior mythological associations with golden apples and who is praised for Her wisdom, skill, and cunning over Her fairness of countenance insist on claiming the KALLISTI apple?

In my experiences with Athena She has presented Herself as a maintainer of peace. Her associations with war come from a place of skill, strategy, and a love for heroic deeds. She seems to abhor strife. She is noted as the greatest weaver, and serves in this role like a latter day Fate. When contrasted with Ares, Athena becomes a preserver Deity, whereas Ares serves as a destroyer.

But surely a Goddess as wise and thoughtful as Athena would have known that the KALLISTI apple would cause nothing but strife?

Athena has a special role on Olympus. She is the wearer of the aegis, which She shares with Zeus, and is the only God that Zeus trusts to wield his lightning bolts. Athena is the keeper of powerful relics. In the folds of the aegis are the head of the gorgon Medusa and the kista of the Arrephoria, both of which no mortal can look upon. One turns men to stone, the other drives them mad.

When the KALLISTI apple rolled into the wedding feast of Peleus and Thetis I propose that Athena knew fully well how powerful it was. She saw that it was an instrument of strife and would bring a terrible fate to all who looked upon it. Her wisdom said to claim the apple as Her own, to keep it safe in Her aegis with the other weapons of Olympus.

It was not vanity that brought Athena to the Judgment of Paris, but Her deep wisdom.

What I'm Reading

2010-03-12T02:50:00.004-05:00

Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece by Joan Breton Connelly
Temple of Love by Laura Britton

Why I chose them

Portrait of a Priestess was a seminal work for the creation of Laurelei's book Aphrodite's Priestess and I'm fairly certain that my own forthcoming book Under Her Aegis will make use of it as well. Temple of Love is Laurelei's first fiction offering. I've read the working manuscript, but the published edition has been expanded and edited from the first time I read it.

First Impressions

Portrait of a Priestess is quite a bit more academic than many of the books I've read lately. It doesn't seem dry, quite the opposite really. I find myself drawn into different sections of the book every time I pick it up. I imagine this will be a book that I jump around in rather than giving it a cover-to-cover reading. The photographs are stunning. I've barely had a chance to really absorb the book and already the photographic tour of Priestess costuming has proved enlightening.

I know that I'll enjoy Temple of Love. It is an excellent historical fiction novel, which is a genre that I adore. Temple of Love retells the story of Sappho of Lesvos as if she were a Priestess of Aphrodite. I feel strongly that this book could be the modern Hellenic answer to Mists of Avalon. Oh, and the cover is lovely. Whoever designed it deserves big kudos. Yes, that would be me. *wink* Expect more from Asteria Books soon. We've been a busy bunch.

What I've read recently

The Gods of Reason by Timothy Jay Alexander
The Way of the Shaman by Michael Harner

Athena's Illiad - Part 2

2010-03-12T02:38:00.004-05:00

Introduction

Part 1 is here. I'm considering scrapping this version of Part 2 entirely and jumping directly into the Illiad material instead. I may keep the first paragraph and save the rest of this version for the end of the story. I'm concerned that the reference to Keats is a bit forced.

Athena's Illiad - Part 2

On Olympus debate was stirring about exactly what Aphrodite meant by offering Paris the most beautiful woman in all of the world. We Gods knew that there was a mortal living who was more lovely than any woman in all of time had ever been. Her name was Helen and she was the wife of Menelaus, King of Sparta. The Kings of Greece had nearly gone to war with each other over her hand in marriage. To preserve the peace of Greece all of the Kings had pledged that Helen's chosen husband would be defended against all invaders and usurpers who might lay claim to fair Helen. A number of the Gods seemed convinced that Aphrodite was offering Paris the love of Helen. I was dumbfounded by this talk. Certainly Aphrodite would not risk the peace of Greece for her prize. Paris, well aware of the fabled beauty of Helen among mortals, plied his father Priam into a peacekeeping summit with Menelaus across the Aegean in Sparta. I tried to find fair Aphrodite, to dissuade her from this madness of offering Helen as a prize, but she was gone. Gone to Sparta to appear before Helen, offering forth the use of her magical zone – a golden girdle which made its wearer irresistible – and promising the love of a young and handsome prince en route to Sparta's shores.

Helen and Paris were awakened to love at first sight. Aphrodite's son Eros shot his arrows straight to their hearts, and truly, never had a mortal looked more lovely than did Helen bearing the zone of Aphrodite. Paris knew that the promise of Aphrodite had been fulfilled as Helen confessed her passionate love for him by the light of a sputtering oil lamp. Paris smuggled her away to Ilium that night, taking leave under cover of darkness like a petty thief. Ares, lord of war, rejoiced. He and his mother Hera would have their war. Zeus ignored the whole debacle. “What business have I with the love affairs of mortals?” he claimed, absolving himself of the coming bloodbath. “If you have a care about it, speak with Aphrodite,” he advised me. But Aphrodite had taken her leave of Olympus. She dwelt now in the violet mist around the mast of Paris's ship as it sailed swiftly through the Aegean Sea. She lent her starry crown to guide them back to the great city of Ilium. She took up residence within the hulking walls of Troy.

After the war, when Aphrodite and I were speaking to each other again, I asked her why she had done it. Why, out of all of the women in the world, did she have to offer forth Helen as Paris's prize? Helen, who had been promised to be defended by the myriad kings of Greece. Helen, whose beauty was trumped up by Aphrodite's art. Helen, who she knew would start a war to rage across the sea. Aphrodite drew forth the golden apple from the folds of her peplos. I had not seen it for many a long age, and was surprised at its luster. She regarded its inscription KALLISTI – for the fairest. Her answer was measured, spoken in the most dulcet tones. “This apple was meant for the fairest of Gods. Although it would have been wise for it to go to you, it would not have been truthful. I offered Paris the most beautiful of lovers. I could have given him someone less beautiful than Helen, but I would have been breaking my word.” She turned the apple in her hand, catching the light. “Truth is the mark of beauty. I promised Paris his true love. How could I be false to him when I offer forth truth?” She spoke these words and they fell like a muse upon the ears of poets. One Keats, regarding a Grecian Urn depicting the Trojan War, added them to a verse, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

This then is why, for all of my wisdom, I am not a champion of beauty. I seek skill. I do not rejoice in truth, but in craftiness. I am called a war Goddess, but in my heart I long for peace. The only joy I take in war is the nurturing of heroes, true champions of skill. Through war I have gained and lost the best of heroes. Hector was supposed to be my champion, but he was taken from me by the cruel division of conflict. From the battlefield I found another – a warrior who fought with his mind as much as his hands. My Odysseus. But his is another story for another time.

On Health Care Reform and Xenia

2010-03-08T15:25:00.002-05:00

Julia Ergane's blogs have quickly become some of my favorite destinations in the web. Really, how could I not like her? She's a Hellenic Polytheist devotee of Athena who knits and is a retired librarian. And here I thought I was so very unique. Ah well.

Now I find out we hold similar political views as well. Julia blogs thoughtfully on the concept of Health Care Reform in the U.S. as an obligation to Xenia, hospitality. I have read criticisms of this concept that refute that Xenia has nothing to do with government entitlements, and that it rather highlights personal responsibility. I respectfully make the assertion that a public option in health care is more than just Xenia, it is Ethike Arete, the practice of habitual excellence, or ethics. How are we as a culture to protect ourselves from the miasma of disease when we cannot afford to treat those diseases? How is allowing a disenfranchised person to languish without adequate health care ethical?

I will readily admit that I have a personal stake in the fight for a public option. I am a hard-working, educated adult who is currently without health insurance. I do not currently have a primary care physician, as I cannot afford to pay out of pocket to see a health practitioner. I am currently without hormonal birth control, as I cannot afford to pay for both the ongoing cost of a prescription and a full yearly exam. I am not a freeloader for expecting the right to affordable health care for myself and my family.

The public option is the ethical choice. It is the hospitable choice. It is the right choice for Hellenics.

International Women's Day

2010-03-08T14:52:00.003-05:00

Today is International Women's Day, which I'm told is a much bigger deal overseas than it is here in the U.S. It would have to be, since the only reason I even know about it is due to my habit of lurking on third-wave feminist blogs.

I have to admit that the first reaction I had upon discovering that today is International Women's Day was similar to Will Forte's salute to Women's Herstory Month: did you see what I did there? on last weekend's SNL.

Specifically the part where Mr. Forte gaffs "Good job women, enjoy the month of March 'cause that's all you get!" Which pretty much sums up how I feel about all of these [blank] History Months or [blank] Awareness Weeks. It's not as if anyone wakes up in March and says "By golly, I didn't know women even had history until today!" Increasing visibility of disenfranchised persons is admirable, but it is a full-time job, not something to be highlighted just once a year.

Athene Noctua

2010-03-04T00:18:00.002-05:00

I thought I would devote a bit of space to Athena's animal companion, the Little Owl.

The Latin name for the Little Owl is Athene noctua, which will come as no surprise to my Wiccan and Thelemic brethren as I've been using the name "Noctua" publicly in those circles for more years than I wish to count. Glaux, the name I use in Hellenic groups, is the Greek word for this same type of owl.

The Little Owl is native to most of the warmer parts of Europe, Asia, and north Africa. It is not native to Great Britain, but was naturalized there. It was also successfully introduced to New Zealand. It is closely related to the American Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia).

There is a gray Middle Eastern type of Athene noctua known as the Syrian Little Owl. The ornithological journal Dutch Birding has advocated naming it a separate species: Lilith's Owl (Athene glaux).

The Little Owl is famously depicted on the "tail" side of Greek coins, from the earliest silver tetradrachms to the Greek Euro.

Here is a lovely video of a Little Owl in the wilds of Spain.

Arrephoria Hymn

2010-03-03T22:51:00.004-05:00

Night comes all-bedewing
As I set my mewling son
Into the kista-basket

They said I was one of only three
Immune to your own son's arrows
Yet you have conquered me at last

I cover the kista and send for the maidens
Knowing that I must tell you alone the secret
That we now share a husband

I admonish the maidens not to look in the basket
Knowing that they will regardless
I crafted their grandmother Pandora, after all

They dutifully journey down my sacred hill
Two fall prey to womanly curiosity
Madness and death are their husbands now

The third completes her delivery
Into your grotto and into your hands
She gushes of your legendary beauty

The maid bears the kista back to me
Inside is my serpentine son sleeping soundly
And a bridal gift from you, my secret sister-wife

Khalkeia Hymn

2010-03-03T22:17:00.004-05:00

When I was born from my father's brow
A bright and terrible Goddess
It was your hand that wielded the axe
You who served as midwife
To mighty Zeus's agony

As I danced I knew you watched me
Olympus shook and Helios reeled
And it was no surprise that you asked
For my hand, or the Golden Kyprian's,
As ransom for your mother's torture

I envy your dove wife
Who prefers to take bloody battle
To Her bed and bosom
When your hands are the most skilled on Olympus
And your fire burns hottest

You always knew I would come
Come down into your forge
The center of your creative fire
To beg a new set of armor
And to flash my quicksilver eyes at you

You had been waiting for me
Had built me a bedchamber of bronze
A marriage bed of wool
Virgin though I am
You took me in the heiros gamos

They say I scorned you
That I thrust you from me
And abandoned your seed to earth
Mother I am to your child
Yet virgin I remain

And still I come to you
Each year just before the time
Of Zeus the Storm Bringer
I take the bronze key from my aegis
And enter the khalkeia

The Muppets Meets The Wicker Man

2010-03-02T15:20:00.003-05:00

*sings* "Two great tastes that taste great together!"

The Wicker Man (the original version with Christopher Lee) is my favorite movie. As those who know me very well know, I'm also a fan of The Muppet Show. So I was filled with delight to find this comic mashup of the two today on The Wild Hunt blog.

You can view the wonderment here.

The Gods in Living Color

2010-03-02T13:50:00.006-05:00

Vinzenz Brinkmann shocked the art world and shattered cultural beliefs when he unveiled his exhibition "True Colors" which restored bare white Classical sculpture to its multichromatic original glory. I love the restorations, and I think they can tell us a lot about Classical color associations with the Olympians.

In a discussion on the Neokoroi Yahoo Group about the Gods and their color attributes it was agreed by many people's UPG that Athena prefers dark red and soft yellow. Interestingly enough Brinkmann's restoration of a statue of Athena has her robed in rich saffron.

Another restoration of Athena shows a strikingly complex pattern on her aegis in gold, blue, and red with grass green snakes.

We as a culture are not accustomed to seeing these sculptures in vivid color. The effect has been called "kitschy" by some observers and even "garish" or "ugly" by others. Yet, to quote a Smithsonian article on the exhibit:

Listen to Helen of Troy, in the Euripides play that bears her name:
My life and fortunes are a monstrosity,
Partly because of Hera, partly because of my beauty.
If only I could shed my beauty and assume an uglier aspect
The way you would wipe color off a statue.

That last point is so unexpected, one might almost miss it: to strip a statue of its color is actually to disfigure it.

These restorations let us look at the past with new eyes. If a picture is worth a thousand words, think of the significance that these colored statues have for Hellenic Reconstructionists! Brinkmann has something to say about the relevance that these images would have had in the minds of the ancients in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

"We think of white marble figures as aesthetic monuments," Mr. Brinkmann says.

"We think of them as static, frozen in a museum installation. But we've learned

by our studies of polychromy that the interplay with architecture and the large ornaments on the pediment of large structures in fact turned them into actors on a kind of stage. And the more color they had, the more lifelike they looked." Much in the manner of the builders of medieval cathedrals, the Greeks told their great legends in pictures...
"The emotional response of viewers here is as intense as it has been everywhere else. The new view of antiquity upsets some people. Unconsciously, they register the message that images lie. Artists through the ages have been working hard to achieve just that. The aesthetic ideal of the Greeks was mimesis: the imitation of life. And it was color that brought their statues to life."

It is interesting to think that we culturally accept that the ancient Egyptians and Etruscans used lavish bright colors to bring their artistic visions to life, but we think of the ancient Greeks as more "Stoic" and staid in their use of color. Many modern Hellenic Reconstructionists will even tell you to worship in white linen fabrics, which is a terrible anachronism. The ancient Greeks loved color and pattern and used it abundantly in their clothes and on their statuary.

Athena's Illiad - Part 1

2010-03-02T00:44:00.004-05:00

Introduction

I've been working on a short story piece for a few months now. It is a retelling of the Judgment of Paris and the Illiad from the perspective of Athena. I'll be posting sections of it here for feedback and criticism. Oh, and yes, I did make the golden apple graphic to the right. Feel free to snag it and do whatever you like with it. I'm sure Eris would want it that way.

Athena's Illiad - Part 1

When mortals read the words of the poet Homer they hear one side of a very complicated tale. It is my opinion that all of the Gods were judged harshly by his laureled pen. As for myself you may be surprised to discover that I loved the city of Troy. Not as I loved my dear Greece, of course, but I never sought the destruction of Ilium. At least, not in the beginning. Troy was ruled by a dynasty descended from my beloved son Ericthonius. From this line I strived for generations to produce a hero that would be unmatched in skill and wisdom. A hero that would fight with heart and mind as much as hands and grit. Troy was also the home of my Palladium, a relic which reminded me of my first and best love, Pallas. I collected relics. In my goat skin bag were the Kista of Athens, Zeus's lightning bolts, and the head of the gorgon Medusa. I was the only God of clear enough mind to bear these tools of destruction. Had I only been given that most destructive of relics to begin with the war with Troy would never have happened.

When Priam's first son was born I knew that the seeds of heroism I had planted in the walls of Ilium had finally born rich fruit. Hector would grow to be a man of wondrous renown, not only for his heroic deeds but also for his quick and agile mind. I invested my time in insuring him a future of glory. If I had the wisdom so many praise me with I would have been less involved with the elder son of Priam and more interested in the growth of his younger son Paris. Paris was a vain and lazy youth with a slow mind prone to outside influence. If only I had seen! It was only ever my intention to preserve the peace of Greece. Alas, I could not see that far.

Not much is missed by the sharpness of my silvery owl eyes. At the wedding of Thetis to the moral Peleus I saw Eris slip in from the sidelines. I watched as she rolled that golden ball of chaos into the wedding feast. I knew instantly that it was a tool of death and destruction. It would only be safe hidden safely within the folds of my goat-skin aegis. I darted across the hall, swift as any bird of prey, and clutched at the golden apple. It had fallen at the feet of that dove, that violet crowned Goddess of Love, Aphrodite. I can see now that I was fortune's fool. Had I not been so eager to prevent chaos I would never had been its instrument. As it was, I snatched the apple from Aphrodite's silken hand just as she read its inscription: KALLISTI, for the fairest. Fast enough to make my head spin deceitful Hera was at our side, demanding the apple for herself, as was befitting the Queen of the Gods. Aphrodite insisted that the prize, having fallen at her lovely feet, was rightly hers. And I, overcome with terror at the chaos thrumming forth from the little golden ball in my hand, could only shake my head in disagreement with them.

If my father read the horror on my face, or could simply sense the overwhelming menace that the apple radiated I do not know. I only know that as swiftly as lightning he took the apple from my grasp. Would that he had kept it! Like a wryneck Hera slithered up to her husband. Did she not deserve the apple? Had it not come from her evening orchard? She flashed him her fox smile and petted his arms, cooing like a cuckoo that the apple should be hers. Aphrodite gasped. "The apple came to me," she pleaded. "Am I not the fairest of the Gods?" Zeus looked to me for guidance. "Give me the apple," I assured him, "and I will protect us from the dark fate that it promises." Mighty Zeus furrowed his brow. "I will not choose among you." He proclaimed. "But on the slopes outside of Troy is a shepherd named Paris who has proven himself to be a fair and worthy judge. Let him choose who shall claim the golden apple."

We all knew of this Paris. He was Priam's younger son and had recently judged Ares's bulls as finer than his own. Zeus seemed to think that this made Paris a fair judge. Aphrodite, Hera, and I knew better. In preparation to meet Paris Aphrodite shed her already sheer peplos and donned her golden girdle. Hera also freed herself of her purple vestments and elaborately braided her coppery hair around her golden crown. She readied a cask of gold and jewels to take to Paris. I understood then that to win possession of the apple, to save the fate of Gods and men, I would need to lower myself before Priam's son. I slid off my beautifully woven peplos and adjusted the aegis around myself for the sake of modesty. Hera laughed scornfully at my actions. Aphrodite rubbed love philters into her skin. What was she planning? And what could I offer Paris that would make him come to my side?

We found Paris resting beneath a cypress tree near his grazing flocks. Hermes handed him the apple and laid the task before him, eyes twinkling. Hermes seemed unduly amused by the entire embarrassing situation. But how could I expect him to understand the importance of that little golden apple? How could any of us have known just how terrible Paris's judgment would be?

Hera made her case first. She strutted about, every bit the peacock that she so admired. Was she not the fairest of Goddesses? And what gifts she offered Paris! The cask of gold and jewels would make him richer than all the kings of Greece, and I heard her promise him still greater power and wealth. Such was the domain of Hera. She promised war that would expand the power of Troy throughout Greece and eastward to Phrygia. I could not let her succeed. She would undo the peace of Greece and all that I had worked for. I strode forth, eager to make my own case. "Paris," I commanded, fixing him with my quicksilver eyes, "power lasts only a little while. I can give you fame that will last forever. Only I can make you a hero the likes of which men will sing of long after your temples are rubble and your body is dust. Only I can offer you immortality, dear Paris." Paris considered this, and I could see that I had won him from the claws of Hera. "But now I must hear from Aphrodite," said the youth. I swallowed hard, wondering what the golden Goddess of Love would offer forth. "Beloved Paris," breathed forth her honeyed voice, "Power is fleeting, and glory is cold. I offer you great love, my Paris. Love the likes of which the world has never seen. Love that will be sung of for as long as any hero tale could ever be, and love that is glorious while it lives. I offer you the love of the most beautiful woman in all of the world, Paris. She will love you fully, all of the days of your life." I knew that I was beaten. Paris was utterly transfixed by Aphrodite's promises. Paris proclaimed, "Power is the providence of my father King Priam. Glory is the hallmark of my brother Prince Hector. These are not of me. I pledge my troth with Aphrodite and declare myself a servant of Love!" Hera fumed, eager to leave. As Paris placed the apple into Aphrodite's hand I was filled with hope that the apple's chaos had been averted. Hera would not have her war, and what harm could come from the innocence of true love? What harm indeed.

Thalia Took

2010-03-02T00:29:00.004-05:00

I'm quite the fan of Thalia Took's artwork and writing. She has also heard the call of Athena, and has answered it creatively, with several lovely images. One of them is reproduced to the right. I was quite taken tonight with a brief story she wrote in Athena's voice. You can read the tale here.

The line "For this is truth: though I am a liar, I am entirely trustworthy." fairly ripples with the voice of the Goddess.

Reciprocity and Sacrifice

2010-03-01T18:48:00.004-05:00

Ask any of the chickies in my pen
They'll tell you I'm the biggest mother hen
I love 'em all and all of them love me
Because the system works
The system called reciprocity!

--When You're Good To Mama; Chicago Soundtrack

In Hellenic Polytheism a lot of emphasis is placed on reciprocity. Although it was known of in ancient Greece spellwork was generally frowned upon as a form of hubris. If you wanted to influence the outcome of a thing it was required that you sacrifice to the Gods.

I personally get enjoyment out of sacrificing to the Gods. It is remarkable to think that sacrifice could be an enjoyable process, but because the nature of Hellenic Polytheism is orthopraxy rather than orthodoxy I can do just that. Oddly enough to the modern mind, it doesn't matter if you feel like you are doing something sacrificial as much as it matters that you are actually doing something that qualifies as a sacrifice. Thus, burning a few grains of frankincense feels pretty good to me. It smells nice, is inexpensive, and it makes me happy. However it qualifies as a sacrifice. It is the same with writing a hymn. I enjoy it and it counts as an offering to the Gods. Whereas if I gave up chocolate, as an example, I may think of it as a sacrifice, but it does not count as one.

Back to reciprocity. There are many reasons I honor Athena above the other Gods of Olympus. She resonates with my work and my desires in a way that is difficult to put into words. I doubt that most people would claim Her as a mystic's Goddess, but She is that for me. At the root of our relationship is reciprocity. Do I imply that Athena needs me in some way? Of course not. I, on the other hand, do need Her. I write Her hymns, She offers me rationality with warmth. I burn to Her incense, She gives me profound peace. I blog in Her service, She gives me things to write about.

Reciprocity.

It is the defining characteristic of why I can claim knowledge of the truth of the existence of the Gods. I do therefore They are.

Worshiping Athena

2010-03-01T13:39:00.004-05:00

What do you get for a prehistoric Goddess who can make anything?

The books will tell you the obvious, that you should recite Her hymns in an ancient Greek dialect (although none of them can agree just what that sounds like) while you make libations of olive oil to Her on the third day following the new moon. That her priestesses in Athens wore white robes. That she's something of a stiff.

I respectfully disagree.

Oh, sure, She likes hearing Her old hymns recited, but she likes it even more when you have something new to say. The books are correct in that you really can't use enough olive oil when working with Her. You'll find that you bathe in it, that you rub it in your skin, your hair; that you buy products just because they contain that blessed ingredient. Honoring Her on the third day after the new moon is good. Honoring her at the start of something new is better. She delights in creation, and in the activity of the mind.

She likes red. Deep red. Garnets are a favorite. You'll find that you paint your nails garnet, and paint images of Her draped in rich crimson silk. In the Middle East She was called Anat, and is noted in myth for Her bloody raiment.

You will say a little prayer to Her whenever the pungent salt of an olive bursts in your mouth.

You will find that you take up the fiber arts. You will teach yourself how to spin yarn from wool fillets. You will collect exotic yarns. You will knit and weave as an excuse to procure more yarn, to spin more skeins. Your craft room will overflow with sculpting tools, paintbrushes, blank canvas, fimo, beads, embroidery floss, and assorted Simplicity patterns. That is, if it didn't already. She probably saw you coming.

Owls will flock to you. She likes it when you are dumbfounded by one of them, wild, up close, and in broad daylight. Give Her coins and feathers and burn frankincense whenever She sends one your way.

You may seriously consider purchasing a spear. She revels in a good Pyrrhic war dance, and it just isn't the same without a good spear.

There is a danger of becoming engrossed with turn-based strategy games. She likes games of war as much as any real battle, for it is strategy and cunning that pleases Her most. She abhors war. It is a way for heroes to prove their mettle and that is all. She is a Lady of peace, civics, and prosperity. It pleases Her when you choose your words carefully in a debate, and when you work for peace in your environment.

She is known for Her shining eyes. The little blue glass beads that Greece has become famous for, marked with blue staring eyes to repel the evil eye, are favored by Her. Iconography of St. Lucy, especially her almond-eyed medals, make good offerings.

Frankincense is always a favorite, but she also likes a bit of dragonsblood on occasion. It is Her deep red color, and has serpentine associations that honor Her snake-tasseled aegis, Her gorgon-bearing lamen, and Her son, the serpent of Athens. Snakeskin is a lovely addition to her shrine.

She likes beef -- most of the Greek Gods do -- burned from rich deep red to ash on Her altar, seasoned only with salt and hymns.

Make a pilgrimage to the Nashville Parthenon if you can. Her image will knock the wind from your lungs and make you weep with wonder. Better still, travel to Her native land of Greece and walk through Her holy city.

Her festivals can tell you a lot about Her preferences. The ninth day after the new moon in January was a major sacrificial day for Her. In late May Her image was removed from the temple to be washed each year. In early June She shared a the mystery of Her son's conception and birth with Aphrodite via a very holy covered basket -- She is known for keeping artifacts of great power and mystery tucked into Her aegis. Late July is Her birthday festival. She was feasted with games and gifted with a newly woven peplos -- She enjoys new clothes as much as the rest of us. Late September was another day of sacrifice. The end of October marked a mysterious hieros gamos festival between Her and Hephaestus concerning a bronze bridal chamber. She is fond of offerings of bronze.

Be clever yet humble. Be brave yet cautious. Be creative yet piously give thanks to the source of that creativity. Wear white robes if they suit you, or a silver tetradrachm on a chain close to your heart. Do good deeds. Work for peace. These are the offerings Athena favors most. Honor her with reverence and joy.

BtVS Fangirl

2010-02-28T21:07:00.006-05:00

We as a household have been rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's fun to see the series through the eyes of Laurelei's parents, and it's interesting to see how much my perspective on certain characters has changed. When I first watched the series (disclosure: I had never seen BtVS until just a few years ago, it was on while I was in college and I had no time for television!) I thought Angel was the perfect romantic foil to Buffy. He was dark, and brooding, and mysterious. Now he just seems like a 240 year old angsty teenager. I much prefer Riley this go-around.

One thing that hasn't changed is my love for (an identification with) the character of Willow. In college a few of my friends nicknamed me Willow, and even though I wasn't watching the show, I caught the reference. Willow was a witch. Of course, after actually watching the series, I now know that the nickname had a whole lot more to do with Willow's well-meaning fumbling and general nerd appeal than it ever did with her interest in the magical arts.

We've just reached the middle of season four, and the introduction of Tara. I am a total fangirl for Willow and Tara. Tara's performance of "I'm Under Your Spell" in the episode Once More With Feeling just makes me giddy. And, I don't know that any show has caused me greater outrage than the BtVS episode Seeing Red. Damn those title credits! So, yeah, I'm in full-on geek mode right now. Here is a YouTube video that sums up Willow and Tara's relationship. So sweet, so sad.

Down There

2010-02-28T13:48:00.004-05:00

As I mentioned, earlier this week Laurelei and I went to go see a production of The Vagina Monologues. Part of the interview process that Eve (such a perfect name for her!) Ensler used was to ask women "What would your vagina wear? What would its theme song be? What would your vagina say?" The actresses in the play had answered these questions in the liner notes of the program. And so, today I do a little lower-than-navel gazing and ask myself the three questions.

What would your vagina wear?

A coral pink pashimina shawl, ballet flats, and gray pearls.

What would your vagina's theme song be?

Something by Stevie Nicks, of course. Maybe Landslide, maybe Wild Heart, or Rooms on Fire. It depends on her mood.

What would your vagina say?

She would just laugh -- long, and musically, and uninhibited.

!({})!

Ten

2010-02-28T12:10:00.005-05:00

Laurelei's daughter just celebrated her tenth birthday. Milestones like that are cause for reflection in everyone's lives, and it made me think about when I was ten years old. Specifically, it called to mind my first ever forays into Paganism.

When I was in fourth grade I was crazy about mythology. The library at school had gorgeous hardback copies of D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths and D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths. I checked them out in rotation each week. I attempted to memorize every page. Every story, every illustration, every family tree. My first thoughts on comparative religion came from wondering why the punishments of Prometheus and Loki seemed so similar.

I was dazzled by the remarkable illustrations. There was Echindna nursing the young monsters of Greek mythology, Loki transforming into countless animals, Aphrodite rising radiant from the sea. Slepnirr galloping eight-legged across the sky. Sif's golden hair, and Gaia smiling up at Uranos. I recall that I was especially fond of Hermes, that youthful God of cleverness.

I wanted desperately to be favored by the Gods as were heroines like Medea, or Ariadne. I was enamored with the Pythia of Delphi, sitting on her tripod and murmuring the future. She was Apollo's chosen voice on earth! My very first prayer, sincere in a way that only a ten-year-old girl's can be, was to Apollo. I was on the bus going to school and was watching the sun rise. I knew that I wasn't supposed to look at the sun, that I would go blind. So I prayed to the Lord of Light to take my sight and give me second sight. At ten years old I prayed to become an oracle of Apollo.

Did the prayer work? Well, I did end up needing glasses, which, combined with my odd bookish nature, made Junior High a singularly awful experience. When I was sixteen I was gifted with my first set of Tarot cards, and over the years I've become surprisingly proficient with them. Does this make me an oracle? Hardly!

So did the God hear my prayers? I am certain of it. Inspired by Medea, and a series of events that I will relate at another time, I became a Witch. Honest to goodness. I have papers of pedigree and everything. And then, only last year, the most remarkable thing happened. The Greek Gods came back into my life. In my life as a Pagan up until that point I had been neglecting them. I thought them to pedestrian for my notice. They were the Gods of my childhood, Gods that people learned about in school. I wanted exotic Deities whose names resonated with darkness, night, and deep magic.

And then Athena showed up. I was immersed in totemic owl work, and serpentine magics, and Goddess spirituality. And there she was, owl-eyed and Amazonian, and gorgon-bearing, and glorious. With her came the others. Dionysus, compelling me to run wild through the forest, wine-soaked and half-mad at festival. Hera, demanding a Goddess retreat in her name. Aphrodite, spinning my love life into new unexplored dimensions. Demeter, teaching me how to be a mother, when I had expressly denied such a place in myself existed. Soon I couldn't deny it, I had become a Hellenic Polytheist.

I purchased a copy of D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths at the used bookstore that seemed to have been waiting for me. I share it with Laurelei's children, the oldest of which just turned ten. I marvel at the circle.

Video: Sappho and the Maidens

2010-02-27T20:13:00.004-05:00

I love this YouTube video with a mad and wild passion.

I want so much for the Midwest Hellenic Fest to have a feel like this video. I wonder if there is any danger of becoming more costume re-enactors than religious re-enactors?

Anthesteria Khytrai

2010-02-27T11:10:00.002-05:00

Today is the final day of the Anthesterion festival. Anthesteria Khytrai -- the feast of pots -- is the day when the dead are feasted with an offering of Panspermia. What is Panspermia, you ask? Get your mind out of the gutter! It is literally all seeds, and is a type of porridge sweetened with honey and flavored with dried fruits. Here are some thoughts from the Hellenic community that I have collected concerning Panspermia.

Robert from the Hellenic_Recons Yahoo Group suggests

A meal featuring the panspermia, sweetened or not, could be the bed for vegetable medley (I think meat is not appropriate for this chthonic rite), greens and green vegetables, etc. Walter Burkert in Greek Religion, Harvard 1985, refers to the panspermia as grains of all kinds boiled in a pot with honey (p. 240, see also pp. 237-242). This would preclude legumes I would think and refers to the very ancient, simple, and delicious meal of whole grains such as the barley with sesame sweetened with honey mentioned in the Homeric epigram. How about a onion/leek dish to go with it, that would be rather sweet and accompany it well?

Whereas Thomas Day Seymour's book Life in the Homeric Age states that the same Homeric meal was

a posset... of cheese, barley meal, and honey ...mixed with Pramnian wine.

Mano Madytinou, a native of the isle of Lesbos in Greece suggests

For those who are interested in more traditional Panspermia recipes, I would recommend looking into its modern form which is still used as the 'Food of the Dead' in Orthodox countries. It's modern name is 'Koliva' and the only probable difference between the ancient and modern recipes is the modern substitution of sugar for honey.

Here in Hellas, everyone's Koliva is slightly different to others in that different people will add a different mixture of things (such as more seeds, or more nuts, or more fruits, etc) Just please be careful when preparing Koliva because it must be prepared properly, kept refrigerated and eaten fresh because of the dangers involved with the fermentation of wheat.

There is excellent information about the history of Koliva at Wikipedia.

After the festival has ended it is traditional to cry out

Thuraze Kêres, ouket' Anthestêria!

Which translates Begone Ye Spirits! The Anthesteria are done!

Kali Anthesteria!

Anthesteria Khoes

2010-02-26T14:01:00.003-05:00

Today is the second day of the Anthesterion. Khoes, the day of the libations, marks the day that the basilissa was wedded to Dionysus. The dead were said to walk the earth on this day, and tomorrow they are feasted. Today is a merry day, however, and people dressed themselves gaily, some in the disguise of the mythical personages in the suite of Dionysus, and paid a round of visits to their acquaintances. Drinking clubs met to organize drink-off matches, the winner being he who drained his cup most rapidly.

Raise a glass to Dionysus today and let gladness fill your heart.

The Vagina Monologues

2010-02-26T13:36:00.004-05:00

Yesterday evening Laurelei and I, along with her mother and her mother's best friend went to go see a local production of The Vagina Monologues at the UU church in Indy. The show was remarkably powerful and poignant, and I am planning on being in next year's production. We were fortunate that one of the women from last year's Women's Goddess Retreat was performing in this year's production. The cast had great energy and vitality, and it made me long for my theatrical glory days.

The Vagina Monologues is presented throughout the world this time of year to raise money to end violence against women worldwide. You can learn more about this important work at vday.org.

!({})! Here is a playlist of the monologues from YouTube.

I was also deeply impressed by the work that the Unitarian Universalist Church of Indianapolis is doing, both as spiritually and socially. Laurelei used to attend UUI and she helped start a local CUUPS chapter there that is still flourishing. I am seriously considering joining the congregation. The only thing really keeping me from doing so is the thought of getting up early every Sunday morning! My spirituality is important to me, though, and surely it is important enough to wake early once a week for.

Owl 'O Clock

2010-02-25T14:30:00.002-05:00

My desk is situated next to a pair of sliding glass doors overlooking a small copse of trees and a pond. For the last few days around four 'o clock in in afternoon I've been visited by a Short-eared owl who always chooses to perch in the same long hanging branch near the doors. I knew that raptors hunt an area on a kind of schedule, but her hunting habits are so regular as to be astonishing. As someone who is overly fond of owls, I cannot help but take her appearances as a blessing of sorts. I know not if it is Athena checking up on me, a manifestation of my totemic animal, or simply a beautiful sign of encouragement from the mutliverse.

I wonder if she will stop by again today?

Anthesteria Pithoigia

2010-02-25T11:31:00.003-05:00

Today is the first day of the Anthesterion, a three-day festival for Dionysus. This day celebrates the opening of the new jars of wine. Celebrate with a glass, and don't forget to make your libations. You may choose to recite one of the two Homeric Hymns to Dionysus. [1] [2] I'll be attending a theater production later today to celebrate.

What is the Anthesteria? [from Hellenion's Temenos]

The Anthesteria is a three-day festival that literally means Festival of Flowers, it celebrates the Spring, the dead and new wine. At the beginning of the holiday, the Athenians would crown children who were three years old with wreaths of the first flowers of the year. The first day, Pithoigia (Opening the Jars), focused on opening new jars of wine, pouring libations to Dionysos (praying that partaking of the wine, mixed with water as the God had taught, should be beneficial and harmless) and then drinking. Children often received their own small pots of wine. The second day, Khoes (Day of Swings), was filled with drinking contests and an erotic mood. Khoes ended with the sacred marriage of Dionysos and the queen. This occurred in the (usually closed except this night) inner chamber of the temple of Dionysos in the Marshes, and the details were kept secret. Khytrai (The day of Pots) was the last day and devoted to the cult of the dead. Pots containing the traditional foods for the dead, cooked vegetables and seeds, were left out for wandering spirits. Despite leaving food for the dead, people took precautions against the dead coming too close. These precautions included chewing buckthorn, roping off temples and smearing house doors with pitch. At the end of the festival, the spirits were driven from the city.

See also Anthesteria on Wikipedia

Anthesteria, one of the four Athenian festivals in honour of Dionysus (collectively the Dionysia), was held annually for three days, the eleventh to thirteenth of the month of Anthesterion (the January/February full moon);^[1] it was preceded by the Lenaia.^[2] At the centre of this wine-drinking festival was the celebration of the maturing of the wine stored at the previous vintage, whose pithoi were now ceremoniously opened, and the beginning of spring. Athenians of the Classical age were aware that the festival was of great antiquity; Walter Burkert points out that the mythic reflection of this is the Attic founder-king Theseus' release of Ariadne to Dionysus,^[3] but this is no longer considered a dependable sign that the festival had been celebrated in the Minoan period. Since the festival was celebrated by Athens and all the Ionian cities, it is assumed that it must have preceded the Ionian migration of the late eleventh or early tenth century BC.

The three days of the feast were called Pithoigia (after πίθοι "storage jars"), Choës (χοαί "libations"; Modern Greek: χοές) and Chytroi (χύτροι "pots").

During the feast, social order was interrupted or inverted, the slaves being allowed to participate, uniting the household in ancient fashion. The Anthesteria also have aspects of a festival of the dead who freely roamed the city, comparable to the Roman Feast of the Lemures, the expulsion of ancestral ghosts: compare All Souls' Night and carnival. Either the Keres (Κῆρες) or the Carians (Κᾶρες) were entertained, and expelled from the city after the festival, symbolizing either the souls of the dead or the aboriginal inhabitants of Attica. A Greek proverb, employed of those who pestered for continued favours, ran "Out of doors, Keres! It is no longer Anthesteria". ^[4}]

Power Song

2010-02-25T11:17:00.003-05:00

In The Way of the Shaman Michael Harner discusses moving into altered states of conciousness through the use of rhythmic sound, (drums, rattles) dance,and singing. He briefly discusses the shamanic power song, which is a song the shaman sings to draw his/her spirit helpers close during trance. Below is a power song I have written for myself.

Rise, gray-feathered woman
Rise, shining-eyed night bird

Hwut! Hwut!
Answer my call

Rise, silent flyer
Rise, she of sharp talons

Hwut! Hwut!
Come unto me

Rise hook-beaked sister
Rise, great-eyed wisdom keeper

Hwut! Hwut!
I sing for you

What I'm Reading

2010-02-24T12:18:00.003-05:00

The Gods of Reason by Timothy Jay Alexander
The Way of the Shaman by Michael Harner

Why I chose them

Both of these authors are experts in their fields of study, and both draw a lot of fire from the communities they represent. I was drawn to Tim's work as a general outgrowth of interest in Hellenic Polytheism. I am also an avid board member at Tim's forum, Hellenismos.us. Michael Harner is the teacher of Sandra Ingerman whose book Soul Retrieval spoke volumes to me. Ingerman's work made me eager to learn more about the NeoShamanism movement, and I figured I could do no better than going directly to the source which is, arguably, Harner. Other contenders for the title are Castaneda and Eliade, both of whom I have read. It only made sense to round out my study with Harner.

First Impressions

Like all of Tim's books only a portion of the work is original material. I was disappointed to find that half of this book is taken up with appendices filled with information that can be found for free easily online. I felt a bit gypped. The primary source material that Tim is using supports the conclusions he draws in the book. I just don't know that an otherwise 97 page book needs four appendices equaling another 76 pages. I've been pleased with some of Tim's appendices in other books. His inclusion of White's translations of the Homeric Hymns and the list of epitaphs of the Olympians in A Beginner's Guide to Hellenismos have both proven useful to have readily at hand. Hopefully the meat of the 97 pages of original material will make up for the excessive amount of padding.

Harner's book has an interesting introduction to the third edition. It in itself sums up much of why people are returning to Shamanistic practices and what they can expect to gain from them. The book has some lovely line art illustrations. I am looking forward to reading this book more for enjoyment than education.

What I've read recently

Athena by Susan Deacy
Gods of the Greeks by Karl Kerenyi
Kharis: Hellenic Polytheism Explored by Sarah Kate Istra Winter
A Beginner's Guide to Hellenismos by Timothy Jay Alexander

Homeric Hymn to Athena

2010-02-22T18:54:00.002-05:00

Homeric Hymn #28

Eis Athênan

To Athena

Pallad' Athênaiên, kudrên theon, archom' aeidein

I begin to sing of Pallas Athena, the glorious goddess,

glaukôpin, polumêtin, ameilichon êtor echousan,

bright-eyed, inventive, unbending of heart,

parthenon aidoiên, erusiptolin, alkêessan,

pure virgin, saviour of cities, courageous,

Tritogenê, tên autos egeinato mêtieta Zeus

Tritogeneia. From his awful head wise Zeus

semnês ek kephalês, polemêia teuche' echousan,

himself bare her arrayed in warlike arms

chrusea, pamphanoônta: sebas d' eche pantas horôntas

of flashing gold, and awe seized all the gods as they gazed.

athanatous: hê de prosthen Dios aigiochoio

But Athena sprang quickly from the immortal head and stood before Zeus who holds the aegis,

essumenôs ôrousen ap' athanatoio karênou,

shaking a sharp spear:

seisas' oxun akonta: megas d' elelizet' Olumpos

great Olympos began to reel horribly

deinon hupo brimês glaukôpidos: amphi de gaia

at the might of the grey-eyed goddess, and earth round about

smerdaleon iachêsen: ekinêthê d' ara pontos,

cried fearfully, and the sea was moved and tossed with dark waves,

kumasi porphureoisi kukômenos: ekchuto d' halmê

while foam burst forth suddenly:

exapinês: stêsen d' Huperionos aglaos huios

the bright Son of Hyperion stopped

hippous ôkupodas dêron chronon, eisote kourê

his swift-footed horses a long while, until the maiden

heilet' ap' athanatôn ômôn theoeikela teuchê

stripped the heavenly armour from her immortal shoulders,

Pallas Athênaiê: gêthêse de mêtieta Zeus.

Pallas Athena. And wise Zeus was glad.

kai su men houtô chaire, Dios tekos aigiochoio:

Hail to you, daughter of Zeus who holds the aigis!

autar egô kai seio kai allês mnêsom' aoidês.

Now I will remember you and another song as well.

Syncretism and Hard Polytheism

2010-02-22T18:39:00.002-05:00

Let me be very clear, I am a hard polytheist. I always have been. I can not recall a time in my life when I did not believe in multiple Gods that are independent of one another. One of my major gripes with Gardnerian Wicca is the belief in the so-called Dryghton, which effectively reduces the religion down to monotheism.

That being said, I've come to a place during my research for my book where I've begun to accept that the Gods may manifest themselves under different names to different cultures. The example that is foremost in my mind is that of Athena, Neith, and Anat. Another well-documented parallel is that of Aphrodite and Inanna.

The Greeks believed in syncretism, but I am having trouble seeing how this fits with a hard polytheist world view. Part of me (the researcher) sees Athena as a facet of a very ancient Indo-European owl-and-serpent Goddess, one that shows up in other cultures as very different Goddesses. Lilith is one example. The other (hard polytheist) part of me looks at Lilith and Athena and recognizes that they are extremely different entities.

Should syncretism have a place in my spirituality? How much room does Hellenismos allow for this kind of middling academic polytheism?

On Sallustius and Virtue

2010-02-22T15:32:00.003-05:00

Sallustius wrote:

Those who make the world are Zeus, Poseidon, and Hephaestus; those who animate it are Demeter, Hera and Artemis; those who harmonize it are Apollo, Aphrodite, and Hermes; those who watch over it are Hestia, Athena, and Ares.

These are not the assignments I would have given these powers myself, but I trust that Sallustius knows more about the subject than I do. Especially interesting to me is the grouping of those who watch: Hestia, Athena, and Ares.

Athena is my dearest Goddess. After Athena there is no Deity I admire more than Hestia. Sure, I am closer to Dionysus, Aphrodite, and Hermes, but Hestia has more than her earned place of first reverence in my heart. I aspire to be like Hestia: gracious, contemplative, and as eternal in spirit as the flame. So it is interesting to me to see Ares in this triad.

I wonder who Ares is beyond the scant myths that exist of him. I wonder what names he bears beyond the epitaphs we are familiar with. I wonder if Ares would speak to me as do Athena, Hera, and Hermes?

I recognize that of the Hellenic virtues of temperance, prudence, fortitude, and righteousness I am sorely lacking in fortitude. I avoid conflict when conflict is necessary, even when I care about the matter at hand. I struggle to follow through on my commitments. My mind is strong, but my will is weak. Could my estranged relationship with Ares be the key to finding my inner strength?

Discovering Ares

2010-02-21T23:07:00.004-05:00

Earlier today I posed the question

"How should I cultivate a relationship with a God who is so alien to my own spirit?"

I put this question out to the multiverse, and it gave me a clear answer. Almost 12 hours exactly from when I wrote the entry, a young man posted the Homeric Hymn to Ares on the same forum I was doling out advice on earlier. Allow me to quote a portion of it.

"Restrain also the keen fury of my heart which provokes me to tread the ways of blood-curdling strife. Rather, O blessed one, give you me boldness to abide within the harmless laws of peace, avoiding strife and hatred and the violent fiends of death."

Ares, then, is not just the Lord of War. He is also the giver of restraint. That shows wisdom that any lover of Athena can appreciate. I believe I'll go light a stick of incense for Ares and attempt to make my peace with him.

Athena Shrine Photos

2010-02-21T12:19:00.005-05:00

These are from our old apartment. We have new-and-improved shrines at our new residence. I'll try to get some new photos up shortly.

The shrine features an iron Spartan Cyclic-influenced statue of Athena from Basil Street Galleries which I like because it displays Athena with wings, her owl and a crescent moon, all of which are older symbols of this Goddess. At her feet is a hand-sculpted Gorgon head that I made to honor her Aegis and her relationship to the dark serpentine energy of Medusa. To the right is a goblet filled with red roses, owl feathers and prayer scrolls filled with hymns to Athena. I hope to replace the roses with olive branches eventually. Also to the right is an owl's skull, which was a gift from a dear friend. Behind that is a large holed stone. At her feet is a bronze oil lamp embossed with owls that I picked up at the Nashville Parthenon gift shop. The lamp is lit with prayers to Hestia and is filled with olive oil. Beside it is a small skein of undyed wool -- as Athena is the weaver's Goddess -- and an ancient silver tetradrachm which depicts Athena's profile on one side and her little owl on the reverse, a gift from Laurelei. To the icon's is a black-feathered replica of an Athene Noctua owl, the owl depicted on her coins. I like the symbolism of the black feathers, as Athena has some very dark (almost chthonic) roots. Behind everything is a painting of Athena I did in acrylics.

Kaboodle: Hellenic Recon Editon

2010-02-21T12:12:00.003-05:00

I have a habit that is common to most westerners. I like stuff. Below is a list of things I've magpied from various places on the internet that I'd buy if I had the capital. Of special interest is the section on cloth. I want to have a nice and extensive collection of khitons and himations for use at festival. That also explains the big blingy safety pins which I plan to transform into fibulae. ;)

Greek Recon by nataliewitch