Preparing for the Women's Goddess Retreat 2012

This weekend is the fourth annual Women's Goddess Retreat.  WGR is a not-for-profit fundraiser benefiting Our Haven Nature Sanctuary, LLC founded and facilitated by Laurelei and me.  I've blogged about it before here.

The Women's Goddess Retreat was created for all women who want to pause and honor the Goddess in their lives and in themselves. This retreat is open to anyone who lives their daily life as a woman. Both women-born-women and transgender women are welcome at this retreat.

We are aware that the inclusion of transgender women at this retreat is controversial to some people involved in the Goddess movement.  We believe that excluding transgender women from womanspace is elitist, phobic, and counterproductive to the kind of work that we want to achieve at this event.  It is my personal opinion that any woman brave enough to ask hard questions concerning gender-identity and deciding to embrace womanhood has done more soul-searching about what it means to be a woman in this society than many cis-gendered women.

This retreat is open to young women at the discretion of their mothers. We recommend young women be at the age of menarche and are deemed by their mother to be mature enough to handle themes of women's sexuality, trauma, healing, and aging.

At its core our retreat intends to:

provide a safe, nurturing place for women to develop themselves individually, and as a group, through new skills, and the sharing of information,

and

to learn about, invoke, and honor Goddesses and Goddess spirituality from around the world.

The Women's Goddess Retreat was designed to honor different Goddesses from various world cultures. Throughout the course of the retreat each of the selected Goddesses for this year will be invoked by all participants for two hours each. During that time we will share stories of that Goddess, perform group activities in honor of Her, and look to Her stories and our inner wisdom for Her lessons in our own lives. At the end of each two hour session we will release that Goddess's energy, and have time for quiet reflection.

These Goddesses will each be invoked, honored, and discussed during our retreat, along with the lessons that they have to share for our lives.

• Ariadne ~ Facilitated by: Laurelei Black
• Baba Yaga ~ Facilitated by: Firehorse
• Bast ~ Facilitated by: Rev. Bonnie Campaniello
• Cybele ~ Facilitated by: Sharon Rose King
• Inanna ~ Facilitated by: Daun Door-Key
• Kali ~ Facilitated by: Natalie Black (Me)
• Pele ~ Facilitated by: Linda Spahr
• Shekinah ~ Facilitated by: Hetty MacDowell
• The Great Goddess ~ Facilitated by: Natalie & Laurelei Black

If you are interested in attending this year please visit the Women's Goddess Retreat website.

Decompression

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!

Athena and Winter Solstice

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.

Creating the Women's Goddess Retreat

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.

Moody June

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!

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!

Gardening Projects

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.

Mounukhia

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!

Greater Dionysia

We are well into the City, or Greater, Dionysia festival, Elephbolion 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!

Kali, Asklepieia!

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!"

Video: Sappho and the Maidens

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

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

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.

Anthesteria Pithoigia

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}]

The Ballad of the Night That the Mead Did Flow Too Freely

Some of you have seen this already. Hell, some of you were there. For those that weren't, this is a ballad I wrote to comemmorate the Highland Clan of Our Haven's Midsummer, midnight, mead raid of 2003. Much love out to all my homies of the Gangtsa Wiggity-Wicca-Wack tribe. You know who you are.

The Ballad of the Night That the Mead Did Flow Too Freely

CHORUS:
Mead, mead! Drink it down,
that you may wear the Holly Crown!
Mead, mead! Drink it up,
and we shall bring you another cup!

Deep in the Lowlands burned a flame
When from the hills the Highlanders came
Kilted, painted, lead by drummers
to raid the camp on this Midsummers'

CHORUS

Lead down the hill by torchman Jack
With Oak King Joe in the back
His face the visage of bloody death
His warriors flanked at right and left

CHORUS

The Triple Goddess with them stood
As they appeared from in the wood
Shannon, Brenda, and Natalie
Blessed them with the power of three

CHORUS

And three warriors, leaping as deer
had brought their drums for all to hear
Robert the Dragon, High Bard Jerry
And Graham, who all did strive to make merry

CHORUS

The Child of Promise was also there
Prince Conner of the Golden Hair
In his eyes the sacred fire shone
as he sat upon his throne

CHORUS

The Lowlanders' circle now within
the Highlanders' dance could at last begin
Jerry drummed with a passion from hell
as Brenda's sistrum sang like a bell

CHORUS

Their drumming so inflamed the heart
that Graham's wedding band did break apart
Natalie and Shannon danced and howled
and through them was the challenge called

CHORUS

The Oak King took up the Goddesses' cry
As for Her love did he ritually die
And so mighty was his dragon's fury
that soon his companions began to worry

CHORUS

The Oak King fell at the Holly King's hand
Two times today he had died for the land
He had asked for water, they had given him wine
And He wilted as the fruit on the vine

CHORUS

But the Goddesses would not leave him alone
So to Avalon they guided him home
Through the mists and into the hills
Where legend says he sleeps there still

CHORUS

And in the morning when the warriors awoke
‘twas Jerry the Bard who first spoke
"Were it not for the harshness of the Sunlight's gleam,
I would swear 'twere only a Midsummer Night's Dream!"

Reposted from LiveJournal Jul. 4th, 2003