A lot of good stuff has been posted over the last couple days that I’d like to share with y’all.

First up are Dver’s accounts of Pithoigia:

Mist rising off a snow-covered field, white on white. An almost full moon in the dusk sky, glowing through the haze. Bowls inscribed with prayers, filled with dark wine which overflows in splashes of blood-red on the snow.

And Choes:

The same path, but everything’s changed, in just twenty-four hours. The snow on the field has melted, replaced by mud and wet grass. The marshes are nearly ponds now, and ducks call from them. The sky is full of clouds, no moon in sight. (All the bowls of wine are still there, though, askew from the melting beneath them.) I am overcome by my good fortune last night – I was there at just the right time to be part of that numinous but ephemeral landscape. Not that this place isn’t magical tonight as well.

And here’s a post by Kaye on Dionysos and pear cider:

The gods come first, I thought. Dionysos is not a loving god. There is nothing loving about liberation, nor freedom. It just is.

Aridela shares a powerful song and message:

Do you feel me yet? I feel you… Your desires, your hopes and fears, meeting in the spaces between. Music is just a pathway, and if you’re listening, then I’m walking with you.

Galina provides a moving recap of our Anthesteria observance:

Tonight was the final night of Anthesteria and shortly before sitting down to write this post, I completed the final ritual act to close the festival for our house. I made a porridge of barley, three other types of flour, beans, sesame seeds, and honey which I gave to Hermes, to our household ancestors, the Dionysian dead, and then also poured outside for the general wandering dead. I also set out wine. What I find so interesting about this is that at the winter solstice, in traditional Lithuanian polytheism, a very, very similar dish is made for the ancestors too! What’s more, a couple of months ago, I had a few House Sankofa folks here and we were about to settle into a ritual when my friend Gwen showed up looking dazed. She was carrying a casserole dish in a pattern that looked vaguely baltic. She said that my ancestors would not stop bothering her until she bought it for me. I had no idea why (I like to cook and have casserole dishes galore) but i thanked her, feeling slightly mortified at someone being badgered by my ancestors (she was good natured about it and gets the ancestor thing, as she honors her own dead too) and put the covered dish on my ancestor shrine. I figured they’d eventually tell me what they wanted it for. Tonight they did.

Moving on from things Dionysian, the Thracian has an interesting proposal:

I would like to see a rise in “empirical polytheistic religion” — that is, polytheistic religion “based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic” — instead of this zealous anti-mystic trend that people keep trying to call religion and spirituality.

P. Sufenas Virius Lupus shares what it’s like to carry a tradition:

For the last twelve years, I’ve been doing something every day to help to build the tradition of devotion to Antinous and a variety of other divine beings (including but not limited to Cú Chulainn, the Divine Hadrian, the Divine Sabina, the hero Polydeukion and his Trophimoi brothers, etc.). If even half of the time I’ve spent on that in the last twelve years was spent on interfaith activism, there would certainly be some rewarding results from it, but at very least, the Trophimoi would not be on that list, because I’ve been doing research into them since about 2006, and it is cumbersome, difficult, and not always as fruitful as I’d like it to be…but, it needs to be done, and I’m the only one that has done it. (There are some others who have done work on and for Antinous, but I’m still one of the main ones, and one of the only ones who is publishing.) Gardnerian Wicca exists on a level viable enough that someone spending 30 years on something that doesn’t directly build the tradition won’t be a loss to the tradition. Antinous and the devotional spirituality associated with him and those related to him, without me spending from as little as an hour up to as much as fifteen hours a day on it for the last twelve years, doesn’t exist at all.

Helio Pires weighs in on unity and diversity:

As a polytheist, I view things differently: diversity exists, it’s natural and it’s good. The Gods are real and individual entities and while some are different forms of each other, not all of Them are one. As a rule, I do not deny the existence of any god and it does not scare or confuse me one bit that, as a result, I have to accept the existence of millions of deities. Why should that be a problem? There are seven billion people in the world, most of which I’ve never met or even seen, and yet I do not deny their existence or feel compelled to have a meaningful relationship with all seven billion of them. I’m close to my family, friends, neighbours and co-workers, just as I’m close to the Gods and spirits with whom I have a connection of some sort. I don’t need to believe that all of them are one so I can be tolerant, just as I don’t have to believe that all people are one person for me to be respectful and helpful towards a fellow human. I also don’t think my family, friends et al are the only real people in the world and neither do I believe that the deities I worship are the only true Gods.

Rhyd Wildermuth explores a central principle of polytheism:

When the polytheist stance was depicted as being one of an axe-wielding viking, then, I found myself quite frustrated, because I’m never quite certain some people understand the polytheist position.  We start out from a position of acceptance of other people’s gods, because we acknowledge that there are many, many, many gods, and we’ve met a few of them.  And I accept other people’s accounts of their gods as sufficient evidence that their particular gods exist.  I don’t “need” evidence, because going around questioning or testing every single other person’s experience of gods would make me an insufferable asshole, and I doubt the gods would be interested in someone who interacts with them only to “verify” their existence.  In fact, I suspect the gods would ignore me utterly if I repeatedly demanded proof of their existence, in the same way asking a lover to prove their love for me repeatedly would be a barrier to love.

Conor ruminates on the value of competition:

Competition is ever present in life, you can escape difficulties no more than you can escape the necessity of breathing if you wish to live and sustain yourself. Make no mistake about it, competition has been present throughout the history of the genus homo. Our earliest ancestors had to compete for resources and mates. From Homo ergaster to the archaic Homo sapiens, competition for resources has been the eternal sentence for the genus Homo (I would argue it is that way for most animal species, but I won’t get into that now.) Competition used to be about life and death, with each loss making the individual face the possibility of his or her own death by threat of starvation, mutilation, or by being prayed upon by fearsome predators.

Ruadhán clarifies his post on Wiccan privilege:

Making it about You when it’s supposed to be about Everyone, or at least Someone Else is wrong. For a community that’s supposed to be so proud of its diversity, it’s awfully samey, at least until one starts digging around and discovers, holy shit, there’s all kinds of stuff going on in all these others rooms.

Oracle discusses the treatment of polytheists in the interfaith community:

In general, I think many have become divorced from the Sacred, because orthopraxy isn’t just about doing rituals the “traditional way” (despite some claims from Neo-Wiccans against the “elitist” Traditionalists). Orthopraxy is about Right Responsibility, Right Action, Right Choice, and Right Execution. It’s about Piety, bitches. So let’s get back to Don’s complaint that no one shows up: I want my Temple to participate in a local Pagan Pride Day that’s approaching. But, we are being told that a “generic Pagan” ritual is the way to go. Why? Because non-Pagans think we’re all the same. A polytheist ritual would be “too confusing.” And someone suggested that we should be inclusive, so they suggested the ritual format of another organization called ADF. So: be inclusive, be generic, but a suggestion was made to use the ritual format by an existing organization. How does that make sense?

Julian shares some important thoughts on polytheism and respect in Revering Multitudes:

One of the greatest strengths of Polytheism, I personally believe, is its open positioning regarding the spiritual and religious experience of others. When I affirm Polytheism, I am, at least in part, affirming the multiplicity and variation of religious and spiritual experiences and beliefs. Of course, I employ Polytheism to mean many Gods, but I feel that from the affirmation of many Gods so follows on the affirmation of many spiritualities and religions as well. If we permit the presence of multiple Gods with multiple methods of presentation and interaction, then it seems only reasonable to me to then expect religious and spiritual experiences to vary widely.

Last night (Chutroi, which brings Anthesteria to a close) while I was standing outside having a smoke and watching the honey-scented steam rise from the pot of panspermia we’d set out for the wandering dead and Hermes Chthonios, I heard a voice come out of the darkness:

On that way was I borne along; for on it did the wise steeds carry me, drawing my car, and maidens showed the way. And the axle, glowing in the socket — for it was urged round by the whirling wheels at each end — gave forth a sound as of a pipe, when the daughters of the Sun, hasting to convey me into the light, threw back their veils from off their faces and left the abode of Night.

I hailed him as sophos and olbios and asked the shade of Parmenides whence he had come.

He replied:

There are the gates of the ways of Night and Day, fitted above with a lintel and below with a threshold of stone. They themselves, high in the air, are closed by mighty doors, and Avenging Justice keeps the keys that fit them. Her did the maidens entreat with gentle words and cunningly persuade to unfasten without demur the bolted bars from the gates. Then, when the doors were thrown back, they disclosed a wide opening, when their brazen posts fitted with rivets and nails swung back one after the other. Straight through them, on the broad way, did the maidens guide the horses and the car, and the goddess greeted me kindly, and took my right hand in hers.

I asked him if he would give wise counsel (eubuolos) concerning the things that troubled my thoughts and darkened my mind (melas noe) and he nodded his grey head in assent.

I asked his thoughts on the state of contemporary paganism.

He replied:

Helplessness guides the wandering thought in their breasts; they are carried along deaf and blind alike, dazed, beasts without judgment, convinced that to be and not to be are the same and that the road of all things is a backward-turning one.

I asked what he thought of the attempts to redefine and erase polytheism.

He replied:

Mortals laid down long ago that form is many; it is necessary not to make them one, for those who try to do so are led astray.

I asked if the atheists and humanists would prove successful in their onslaught.

He replied:

How could what is perish? For never shall this prevail, that things that are not are. Do thou restrain thy thought from this way of inquiry. Nor let habit by its much experience force thee to cast upon this way
a wandering eye or sounding ear or tongue; but judge by argument the much disputed proof.

I asked if that meant we should persevere in our fight.

He replied:

Nor will the force of truth suffer aught to arise besides itself from that which is not. Wherefore, justice doth not loose her fetters and let anything of value pass away, but holds it fast. Our judgment thereon depends on this: “Is it or is it not?” Surely it is adjudged, as it needs must be, that we are to set aside the one way as unthinkable and nameless (for it is no true way), and that the other path is real and true.

How can we make our community strong, I asked.

He replied:

Since, then, it has a furthest limit, it is complete on every side, like the mass of a rounded sphere, equally poised from the centre in every direction; for it cannot be greater or smaller in one place than in another.

Then he knelt down, scooped up a handful of the ghostly gruel and disappeared.

I went back inside and read some Herodotos before going to sleep. This passage in particular stood out for me:

They had come up to Sardis with Onomakritos, an Athenian diviner who had set in order the oracles of Mousaios. They had reconciled their previous hostility with him; Onomakritos had been banished from Athens by Pisistratos’ son Hipparchos, when he was caught by Lasos of Hermione in the act of interpolating into the writings of Mousaios an oracle showing that the islands off Lemnos would disappear into the sea. Because of this Hipparchos banished him, though they had previously been close friends. Now he had arrived at Susa with the Pisistratidae, and whenever he came into the king’s presence they used lofty words concerning him and he recited from his oracles; all that portended disaster to the Persian he left unspoken, choosing and reciting such prophecies as were most favorable, telling how the Hellespont must be bridged by a man of Persia and describing the expedition. So he brought his oracles to bear, while the Pisistratidae and Aleuadae gave their opinions. (The Histories 7.6)

I’ve received a couple questions about the last post so I figured I should probably offer some context.

It was intended as a satire of the atheists and humanists who not only want to redefine the term polytheist out from under us but appropriate individuals from the past and claim that these figures espouse the same views that they do.

Parmenides of Elea was a great presocratic philosopher who had a mystical experience where he traveled to the realm of the goddess Ananke or Persephone and was blessed with perfect wisdom, experiencing an extreme state of non-duality. By taking his words out of context I’ve made it seem that he’s advocating a very different position than he likely would have. (Then again, perhaps not – his thought is complex and not easily understood. People have been debating the meaning of these enigmatic lines since before the time of Plato.)

The satirical nature of the post is indicated by the final quote about Onomokritos, the Orpheoteleste who was caught fabricating oracles of Mousaios as part of the war effort.

I’m taking such care in explaining this since it was recently made clear that reading comprehension isn’t so great in our community. An individual accused me of calling Wiccans Nazis, which I assume was in reference to this post.

Of course that doesn’t make any sense at all since the creator of the comic I referenced clearly identifies himself as a polytheist and second-generation Heathen not a Wiccan. Furthermore I just pointed out that Nazis liked comics too and left it at that. Any inferred relationship between these statements is on you. What, do you think that everyone who loves puppies is a Nazi since some Nazis were puppy-lovers? (Don’t they teach syllogisms in school anymore?) Instead of jumping to such absurd conclusions perhaps you should spend time considering why people employ comics which is to dehumanize their opponents and make their views seem silly. That’s something anyone can do, regardless of their political ideology. But the real reason I made that reference is because no online dispute is complete until it’s been Godwinned, meaning I’m biting my thumb at everyone.

Of course I think this person may have topped the old reductio ad Hitlerum trope since they go on at great length about how devotional polytheists want you to murder your babies and become a slave for the gods.

Truly, community dialogue has reached a new high.

So, just to be clear, the conversation with Parmenides was a joke. I’d like to think I could find a couple more important topics to discuss with a revenant philosopher than stupid online neopagan drama.

We’re plenty active and we challenge the interfaith community to live up to their ideals. I don’t think they like that. It’s far easier after all to believe everyone is the same as you, but the real test of interfaith values is how you treat people with whom you have nothing in common but a supposed commitment to your faith. (Galina Krasskova, Interfaith matters and polytheists know it)

Gus diZerega had the audacity to claim that no one is being told that polytheism is confusing or to water down their rituals at interfaith and pagan pride events. So Aine* provided a link to Oracle’s account of that precise thing happening which prompted Don Frew to go off on a long tirade accusing Oracle of either misunderstanding what took place or lying about it. When Ruadhán explained that it was bad form to dictate a person’s experience for them and compared such behavior to those who tell trans people that they’re not really being discriminated against while job-hunting Gus began frothing at the mouth and threatened to delete any further comments by Ruadhán.

This is becoming increasingly commonplace. For instance the individual** who accused devotional polytheists of advocating baby-murder and slavery posted shortly afterwards that they would only let through comments that agreed with them, no matter how civil that dissent was. (And I saw one of the comments they refused to approve – ha! I wish I got criticism so pleasant!)

Though I find such cowardice and refusal to engage in honest discourse shameful in the extreme (you’ve got no problem dishing it out but piss yourself when anyone questions you?) at least something good has come out of all of this, namely Ruadhán’s proposal, On invitations and Etiquette.

Ruadhán starts off by observing:

Polytheists didn’t ask to be lumped in with the pagan community, but by happen-stance, here we are, a part of the community, whether you or I or others like it or not.  Some of us keep our distance from the community for often personal reasons, some of us maintain a relationship with the pagan community for often political or social reasons (though it’s ultimately up to each individual polytheist why they do or do not participate in the pagan community). If you maintain that we need to be invited, then you are maintaining that we are a completely separate community, and certain etiquette needs to be taken into consideration, should we take that invitation. If you maintain that we need no invitation, then why not treat us with the respect to practise our own rituals as we see most fit, and maintain our own sense of piety and devotion that everyone else who lives here gets?

And then proceeds to give four suggestions that I think, if followed, could alleviate a lot of the tension and hurt feelings we see on display so regularly. I know that I am going to strive to keep these principles in mind (along with Del’s Some, Many, Most) and I hold out hope that others will as well. At least some others. Judging by Don’s comments, it seems some people are really invested in the role of white knight spokesperson, no matter how unwanted it is:

If folks like me don’t at least TRY to speak for you in a LIMITED and QUALIFIED way to the broader interfaith community, then you can guarantee that you will NEVER be invited, because the broader interfaith community won’t know you exist.

If the choice is between them not knowing about us or them knowing only what folks like you tell them about us, Mr. Frew, I’ll stick with obscurity. Especially considering your treatment of polytheists in the past.

* I’ve had my disagreements with Aine before but she has more than earned my respect with how she’s been handling herself during this latest skirmish and the wonderful content she’s been producing for her blog. May the Otherfaith thrive and prosper!
** I’d provide a link but every time I do people crow about the boost in their stats, so I intend to deprive this particular troll of the attention they oh so desperately crave.

Tune in tomorrow at 10:00pm EST when our guest on Wyrd Ways Radio will be Hathos of shamanbomb.com:

Hathos is a spirit worker, filmmaker and empathic healer specializing in emotional clearing. In this age of magical renaissance he stands firmly at the crossroads, his practice informed by Inner Relationship Focusing, American Folk Magic, British Traditional Witchcraft and Western Ceremonial Magic with a foundation in the contemporary shamanic cosmology of The Last Mask Community and the guidance of his helping spirits, Holy Powers and ancestors. He joyfully endeavors to bring spirituality out of the dark dusty recesses of esotericism and into daily existence where it can aid us in re-aligning with the ecstatic energy of our soul’s purpose and opening our hearts to create real lasting change in ourselves and in the world.

WordPress says that this is my 3,000th post so I figured I ought to make it an auspicious one.

Here’s my latest project – a collection of sources on the Bacchic Orphic tradition:

https://smokywords.wordpress.com/

I’ll be fleshing it out over the next couple weeks, but the core of the material is there.

To give expression to this tradition I am founding a cult called the thiasos of the Starry Bull. Who wants to join?

Kaikias was the Greek god of the northeast wind who was depicted on the frieze of the Tower of the Winds at Athens as an old, bearded man carrying a shield full of hail-stones. Considered a dark, violent and frenzied wind, his name is cognate to the Latin caecus which is derived from Proto-Indo-European *káykos “one-eyed.”

My, that sounds familiar.

O Muse of Sicily with strong Doric voice
sing to me a song of the land of my people,
the thrice-holy island of the maid who weaves an image of the world
as she waits for the embrace of her serpent-tongued father,
the land which saw the gentle one-eyed shepherd go mad
for love of the white-armed nymph of the windswept waves
so that he, with sharp rock, dashed out the brains
of the unkissed youth whose blood became a lovely river,
the land which saw the flowering of fair Naxos rich in grapes,
first colony of the wandering Greeks,
land which saw Bacchic women dance spider-mad
in forests nourished by the ash of Etna,
land to which the doves of Venus always return,
land of flame-haired Adranos and his hundred dogs
who was driven out by Vulcan when he fell
howling in rage from Olympos,
land of the Palikoi, testers of men’s heart and word,
whose breath smells of sulphur, whose hair drips with lake-water,
land where Daidalos fled, seeking asylum with just Kokalos,
who had his daughters drown the pursuing Cretan king in his bath
so that the rites of hospitality might duly be observed,
land of these and a thousand other fables and tragedies –
O Ivy-crowned Muse of Sicily, sing to me a new song,
a song worthy of my ancestors, my audience.

National Socialists with cats.

We’ve had our first presentation submitted, some new information about transportation and we’ve posted the meal plan menu.

And remember, folks, speakers must submit a bio and description of their presentation by April 2nd and all attendees must register by June 1st, especially if they want the discounted room rate. If you have other questions please send them to us at polytheist.leadership@gmail.com.

Despite a failed denial of service attack, we had one of the best episodes of Wyrd Ways Radio ever with special guest Hathos. We discussed emotional clearing, the ongoing need for introspection and the decolonization of our minds as a foundation for proper devotional practice, the difficulty of this work, the need to follow one’s own path and the dangers of comparing one’s self to others, ancestor veneration, respecting one’s adversaries, divination as a bridge to the gods and spirits, the centrality of choice and Hathos’ upcoming presentation at the Polytheist Leadership Conference. Really good and important stuff. But don’t take my word for it – listen for yourself:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/witchschool/2014/02/20/ptrn-circle-talkwyrd-ways-live-pagan-music-project

You should consider taking Hathos’ emotional clearing teleclass:

Emotional clearing is a body-based energy clearing practice that teaches us to interpret the wisdom of our body and truly work with life as a teacher. We will learn tools to clear triggers, emotional patterns, wounds or addictions at their root and free the energy and forward momentum locked in past traumas. My teaching method is a combination of Inner Relationship Focusing as developed by Eugene Gendlin and Ann Weiser Cornell of the Focusing Institute and emotional clearing as taught by Christina Pratt at the Last Mask Center for Shamanic Studies.

Going back through the blog to harvest source material for my new project Smoky Words I came across this review of a movie I wrote back in 2011 and felt moved to repost it.

The Persistence of Memory
Over the weekend Dver and I attended the premiere of A Story of Persephone, which was interesting both for its novel treatment of myth and the fact that a good deal of it was shot here in Eugene. (In fact, one of our friends was an extra, which is how we initially heard about the project.) I was a little apprehensive going into it because I’ve seen some truly godawful adaptations of the Classics, and the story of Persephone is particularly prone to being misunderstood. But I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of research they’d clearly done and the clever way that certain elements were handled. I’m not sure how many of you will have the opportunity to see this film, so I’ll provide a brief summary of the plot. Especially since it’s prompted some important thoughts over the last couple days that I’ll be exploring at some length both here and in future posts.

Basically, the movie is about the relationship between Demeter (an overprotective mother who runs an organic grocery store) and her daughter whom she insists on calling Kore even though everyone else now knows her as Persephone. Although they were once very close Persephone has moved to the big city and ever since they’ve been drifting apart. Persephone has stopped returning her mother’s phone calls (they used to talk every night) and she’s no longer interested in the things she used to be like spending time in nature and picking flowers. She’s becoming a young woman and is eager to explore what that means. As such she’s fallen in with a disreputable crowd of artists, club kids and ne’er-do-wells that mostly congregate at a burlesque house run by Hades. Aside from being the owner of the questionable establishment, Hades employs a bunch of goons (Johnny Quicksilver, Rhadamanthys and Aeacus) that commit petty crimes and rough people up when they get on his bad side. Hades has taken a liking to Persephone and invites her out on a date. A night of passion ensues and their relationship escalates quickly after that, with him being very protective and possessive of her. He beats up Johnny Quicksilver when the latter tries to sweet-talk Persephone into acting in a porno with him, which annoys Persephone since she wants to be an independent woman with the freedom to do as she pleases. Worried since she hasn’t heard anything from her daughter in over three weeks Demeter hires a lusty hippy professor named Pan (who moonlights as a detective) to track her down. Pan almost succeeds in doing so (with help from the Moirai, who run a used book store) but is dissuaded from continuing by Hades’ enforcers. When Pan tells Demeter that he’s off the case she doesn’t take the news very well, plunging into a fit of despair and nearly destroying her grocery store in the process. Then she wanders the streets of Eugene like a raving bag-lady until she encounters a young mother and child in a park. This doesn’t go so well as you can imagine (the child’s name being Demophon and all) but tragedy is averted by a laughing crazy lady who does a strip-tease for Demeter, bringing her out of her depression. Demeter then has a talk with Persephone’s absentee father (who is Hades’ boss) and the film ends with mother and daughter being reunited, albeit on changed terms. Persephone is an adult now and must have her freedom. But she promises to stay in touch and come visit periodically.

Over all the story was better than I had any reason to expect and the local scenery contributed immensely to my enjoyment of it. In fact, many scenes oddly paralleled UPGs and intuitions that I’ve had. For instance, the organic grocery store that Demeter runs is a place that I’ve long considered holy to the goddess and I think about her every time I go in there. The woods where Pan runs wild is one of the few places around here where I’ve strongly felt his presence. (Mostly I feel Dionysos and the Nymphai – but this spot is different.) And while they used John Henry’s for most of the shots of Hades’ club, they filmed the steps leading down to the Oak Street Speak Easy for part of it, and that’s a place that has always given me a strong chthonic vibe. (Especially since they host our monthly Goth Night.) So the movie was very cool for those and similar reasons, plus I enjoyed all of the clever allusions. Many of these were very understated, so that if you weren’t deeply familiar with Classical literature and some of the more obscure elements of Greek myth you might have missed them entirely. In fact, there were a number of scenes that must have been completely inexplicable to novices, such as the Moirai and Baubo. (And, of course, the fact that Johnny Quicksilver is Hermes.) So I enjoyed it on that level as well.

But, ultimately, the whole thing felt flat and uninspired to me. All of the drama and pathos had been drained from the story and the characters kind of sleepwalked through their parts. They weren’t bad actors – I actually think they did quite well with the lines that had been given to them, nor was the writing really at fault, either. The movie just lacked vision and dynamism and the reason for that, in my opinion, is the sources it drew on. This isn’t a contemporary adaptation of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. It’s not even based on Claudian’s De raptu Proserpinae or similar versions from Late Antiquity. When you get down to it the inspiration for this movie is pomo feminist revisionism of the sort you find in Charlene Spretnak’s Lost Goddesses of Early Greece and her numerous imitators.

In other words there is no rape, no violence, nothing painful or demeaning to be found anywhere. The cause of the conflict becomes the drifting apart of mother and daughter, the daughter’s burgeoning sense of herself as a separate and powerful person and how her mother has to come to terms with this and the changes it’s wrought in their relationship. Myth as metaphor, religion as therapeutic self-discovery. In an attempt to “redeem” the goddesses from patriarchal aggression they have been rendered impotent, meaningless and worst of all boring. And not just them. When Persephone in the movie tells Hades that she’s going to visit her mom he just kind of shrugs and says, “I’ll miss you.” In fact, he was pretty wimpy and passive through the whole thing to the point where I’m not really sure why Persephone had any interest in him, aside from his impressively manicured facial hair. I’m sorry, but pain and loss are what drive all great stories. You take that element out and you’ve got nothing worth reading, nothing that inspires us and speaks to the deep, dark places of our soul. Worse than that Demeter becomes a petulant and smothering busybody, whereas in the original she is an awesome and terrifying figure in her justifiable wrath. Further – and this is the strangest and saddest aspect to my mind – by rendering the myth psychological these people literally uproot the story. It ceases to have any connection to the mysteries of the earth and agriculture, the intimate bonds and cycles of life, death and rebirth. In the end it becomes about us, and nothing more.

This is precisely the criticism I raised about modern Paganism during the recent bruhahaha between Dianics and transfolk – it’s something I’ve argued since I first read Spretnak and her ilk, and I feel justified now that I’ve seen art that fails precisely because it incorporates this revisionist approach to myth. I think it’s entirely possible to update and contemporize ancient myth – Peter Milligan has done an exceptional job of it, as have Grant Morrison, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman and a bunch of others working in the comics and fantasy fields. You just have to understand why stories work, what they say to and about us, and most importantly let the story unfold as it will, without imposing your own ideology onto it. These stories are older than us, older even than the Greeks. The form in which they’re told may change, but the essential themes do not. Art was born with the dismemberment of Dionysos. You want to know why Christianity is so successful? It’s because there’s a bloody and battered Jesus hanging on every church wall. If we forget that, forget what that means, then we will cease to produce art of great and lasting value.

Speaking of classic writing, MadGastronomer has reposted a piece of hers called I shall set free my hair and wear a fawn skin which was originally published in Crossing the River: An Anthology In Honor of Sacred Journeys. It contains utterly brilliant and beautiful lines like this:

The journey through madness, which shucks off the burdens of everyday life and frees us (for Dionysos is called Eleuthereus, the Liberator) is a journey of dark as well as of light, and we may walk through Tartarus as easily as Elysium. While we journey, led by Dionysos Agyieus, Dionysos of the Ways, the path leads down as well as up, and we walk in the keeping of Persephone Chthonia, who knows the fear we feel when we begin to venture from daylight’s paths, for that fear is a fear of oneself. If you do not know yourself when you drink the wind and pound the drum, you will come to know yourself as you travel down, and Persephone has sympathy with that. Through Persephone comes all transformation and all rebirth, as Dionysos himself was reborn, and so through the transformation of madness and the rebirth of recovery, she touches us and holds us. Sacred madness can take us beyond trance and ritual into a place where meaning ends, and there is only being, only doing. Freed from the chains of the rational, we revel, unafraid of ourselves. We dance in the wilderness, where there are no roads, making our own roads where none can follow without madness.

That right there is exactly what the Bacchic Orphic mysteries are about.

Read the whole thing. Actually, you should do considerably more than that. I’d say hers is one of the top five blogs that I’m following at the moment. Don’t take my word for it – go see for yourself!

I’m pleased that there was such strong interest in the whole Bacchic Orphic thiasos of the Starry Bull idea – so let’s move on to step two: making this happen.

I have come up with a schedule of devotions which all members are expected to adhere to. How large or small your expression of devotion is I leave up to you to decide, but you must at least do something for each of them on their day.

Monday – Persephone
Tuesday – Ariadne
Wednesday – Hermes
Thursday – The Heroes
Friday – The Heroines
Saturday – Nymphs and Satyrs
Sunday – Dionysos

Each one of us, in our diverse locations, performing synchronized acts of piety – think how cool it’ll be to be part of that!

Now, I know that’s a fairly steep requirement.

Every day.

It’s okay. No one will think any less of you if you back out now.

So … who’s still game?

[I will permit comments to remain open for discussion.]

A couple folks have asked who the Heroes and Heroines are in this particular system, which is a really good question since it’s rather difficult to perform effective cultus if you don’t know who it is you’re honoring.

The simple answer is that these are the dead of Dionysos – initiates and revelers and drunkards and maniacs and prophets and martyrs and poets and all the rest who heard his call to freedom and responded. Being that these are the dead who belong to Dionysos, a god with a strong streak of gender fluidity himself, the division between male and female heroes isn’t an iron-clad one and some individuals can be included in either category, both simultaneously, or neither. And yet there are certain themes that run through these individuals’ lives making the distinction of limited utility. If you compare the stories of Orpheus, Melampos, Akoites, Alexander the Great, Ptolemy Philopator, Marcus Antonius, Friedrich Nietzsche and Jim Morrison on one hand and Ariadne, Arachne, Erigone, Charilla, Kleopatra, Dirke and Semele on the other you’ll find a lot of repetition almost as if they were acting out a pair of primordial myths through their lives. These two archetypes – the Suffering King and the Mournful Maiden – are not the only ones to be found in the tragic repertoire of Dionysos and most of his followers, dead or otherwise, do not follow any particular pattern this closely.

Since the dead are so important to Dionysos within the Bacchic Orphic tradition I felt it was important to set aside two days a week to honor them. At first I would just recommend honoring the Bakchoi and Mainades who came before us with the standard offerings and devotional activities for the dead and perhaps use this time to read their stories, reflect on their meaning and get to know them better. As you do so different ones will likely step forward and catch your interest and then you can take it further with these individuals if you feel called to do so. But it’s alright if you don’t – simply acknowledging those who came before us is an important and I might even say essential step in honoring the god in his chthonic form.

I figured I’d explain a little more about how I came up with the associations for each day.

Originally the ancient Greeks divided their months into three weeks, each of which was comprised of ten days. One of the earliest accounts ascribing days to respective deities is found in Hesiod’s Erga kai Hēmerai though different poleis had their own systems and sometimes these could even vary from neighborhood to neighborhood, as we find within the assorted demotic sacrificial calendars.

The innovation of a seven-day week seems to have happened in Hellenistic Egypt as a result of the rise of interest in Babylonian astrology and contact with the Jews. The days of the week were named after the Sun and Moon and the five planetary bodies which in turn were named after various Greek deities. Thus we find hemera Heliou “day of the sun”, hemera Selenes “day of the moon”, hemera Areos “day of Ares”, hemera Hermu “day of Hermes”, hemera Dios “day of Zeus”, hemera Aphrodites “day of Aphrodite”, and hemera Kronu “day of Kronos.” This system passed into Roman usage with the Julian calendrical reforms  though with the Latin names of the gods substituted. Later on a further alteration was made, with the days being given to Germanic deities such as Tyr, Woden, Thor, Frigg or Freyja, etc. which passed into English providing us with the mixed system we presently employ.

All of this was in the back of my mind when I came up with the Bacchic Orphic system though I also incorporated other traditional symbolism.

For instance, the reason that Monday has been assigned to Persephone is because the lunar region was often considered to be the abode of the dead and under the dominion of this goddess (Varro, De Lingua Latina V.68; Porphyry, De Antro Nymph. 18; John Lydus, De Mensibus, IV.149; Martianus Capella, II.161‑162; Plutarch, De Facie quae in orbe lunae apparet 942d). It is also the second day of the week and the number two to the Pythagoreans signified division and material manifestation - a central theme in the myth-cycle of Eleusis.

Tuesday was given to Ariadne for a number of equally esoteric reasons. It’s the third day of the week and three is a number associated with fertility, the balancing of polarities and the starting of new cycles – all concepts that are important to her. In earlier systems this day was dedicated to gods of war (Ares) and justice (Tyr) and Nonnos relates that one of the deaths Ariadne suffered was while leading the army of Dionysos to depose the haughty king of Argos (Dionysiaka 47.666).

The fourth day of the week already belonged to Hermes so no modification was required there.

I needed a day for the Heroes since I already intended to dedicate Friday to the Heroines (previously belonging to Aphrodite and the Norse goddesses of love and the feminine realm; additionally, beyond the obvious symbolism of this day Frigga is a goddess of weaving and that is a very prominent theme for a lot of the Aletides ) so it seemed appropriate to give the Heroes the preceding day. Another factor in the decision was that both Thor and Zeus are gods of lightning and one of the deaths claimed for Orpheus was that he was struck by a thunderbolt for revealing the mysteries to men. (Death by lightning is also a common theme in the golden lamellae.)

Honoring the Nymphai and Satyroi on Saturday was arrived at through metathesis – thus dies Saturni “the day of Saturn” becomes dies Saturi “the day of the Satyrs” and everyone knows Satyrs love to play with Nymphs. Furthermore, in Pythagorean cosmology Kronos presides over the cold, moist element – the same realm that Orphic Hymn 51 assigns to the Nymphai.

There are a ton of sources within the more Pythagorean side of Orphism that equate Dionysos with Helios and Apollon – Macrobius’ Saturnalia argues this point exhaustively – plus Dionysos is King (Anax, Basileios) and Tyrant (Tyrannos, Aisymentes) thus giving him the Day of the Lord seemed appropriate, especially in light of all of the points of contact between him and Jesus. (Though Jesus arguably has more in common with Melampos.)

But!

Things aren’t quite as haphazard as they may seem. Note the progression of the days in this system. The week begins with Dionysos, and appropriately so as he is the primary deity of this pantheon and all things, according to a certain strain of Orphic thought, began with the primordial Dionysos, also called Eros or Phanes. It then progresses through his mother Persephone to his wife Ariadne to his brother and companion Hermes. Hermes, as guide of souls, leads us into honoring the Heroes and Heroines and from there we revel with his nurses and instructors, the Nymphai and Satyroi, who sheltered him in his infancy from the implacable wrath of Hera. Thus there is intimation of a new beginning even in the midst of the old cycle’s end. Or as they expressed it at Olbia: Bios-Thanatos-Bios.

Some of you may have wondered if I’d changed my mind about accepting favors in lieu of payment for my spiritual and other services since I didn’t post any options during February. That’s not the case; I’ve just been working on some things behind the scenes and wasn’t ready to discuss them publicly.

Now I am.

I want to get as many people as possible to the Polytheist Leadership Conference. Specifically I want to get some of the up and coming voices in the community to attend since they have unique perspectives and a lot of other valuable things to contribute. But as I said a couple days ago:

There are a lot of smart, idealistic, and devoted folks who would love to come to this event and could make a real difference through their presence but are in danger of not being able to because they lack the financial means – often because of the work they’re doing for their gods and community. One person alone may not be able to afford this [...] but four or five people, each contributing a modest sum could manage it.

I’d like to test that theory out.

So I’m starting up a fund-raiser here at The House of Vines and the first recipient of the community’s generosity will be Julian Betkowski who blogs at Eros is Eros is Eros, appeared on a recent episode of Wyrd Ways Radio and is someone I would really like to get as a speaker for the conference.

I am encouraging anyone who feels so moved to send donations directly to him through Paypal at vermilionskies@gmail.com and I will also be offering my various services as an incentive. These services include:

* Proficiency in multiple forms of divination, and acquiring new systems all the time.
* Omen and dream interpretation.
* Ritual advisement.
* Festival planning and leading.
* Petitions to the gods and underworld powers.
* Purifications.
* The hunting of information in various worlds.
* The writing of:

- poetry
- hymns and prayers
- rituals
- essays
- short stories

And I am quite good at swaying mass opinion through controversy, propaganda and subliminal messages.

How much you donate – and whether you donate at all – is up to you, as I am a strong believer in the honor system. Likewise I’m not handling any of the money; you’ll be sending it all to his Paypal account. Once he’s received a sufficient amount to cover his needs we’ll move on and see if we can enable others to attend as well.

This is how we build community.

So what do you say, help a brother out? Especially a brother as handsome as this:

That bowtie alone is worth a couple bucks!

[Leaving the comments open for discussion]

I’ve had a couple people express interest in being members of the thiasos of the Starry Bull (and if you’re curious about what the name means, click here and here) but who asked if I’d be willing to ease the restriction.

No.

Orphikoi had a reputation for being excessively pious, elitist prigs in antiquity and it is ever so important to maintain tradition.

Besides, it’s not like anyone is dictating how much or what form of expression your devotion must take – I’m just requiring that you give them a token remembrance each day because this plants world-generating seeds and character is molded through repetition, character is molded through repetition, character is molded through repetition.

So, to help facilitate this during the first week as we dip our toes into the river of communal worship I’m going to post something for each of the members of our pantheon on their respective day and keep the comments open so that you can leave a message for them like the inscriptions and ex-votto graffiti ancient visitors made at temples. You can write prayers, poetry, record an oath or account of an experience or leave a simple pleasant acknowledgement of them. Whatever you want, however much you want – it’s totally up to you!

Doing this need take no more than a few moments out of your day (though there’s no limit on how much you can write) and yet would perfectly fulfill the cult’s admission requirement.

You get a crown at the end. And a magical decoder ring. Just sayin’.

I feel that I should more clearly define what I mean by Bacchic Orphic tradition. This is a highly individualized and localized expression of Dionysian religion that is rooted in the historical and geographic region of Magna Graecia or Southern Italy from initial colonization on up to its distorted reflection in Tarantism and as such is a fusion of Greek, Cretan, Thracian, Egyptian and indigenous Italian and Sicilian elements. It therefore differs from expressions of Dionysian and Orphic religion found in other places and time periods, contrasting perhaps most sharply with the forms these took in Classical Athens which tends to be the unconscious default within the contemporary Hellenic polytheist community.

It is predominantly a cult of ecstasy that seeks to bring about release, purification and revitalization through music, dance, ritual drama, feasting, sacrifice and direct communion with gods and spirits. By means of these cures it helps the individual dissolve social pressures, psychological imbalances, ancestral wounds and physical infirmities which are often tangled up together.

When the lifeforce becomes sublimated and sluggish and burdened by excessive cares it tends to create illness (spiritual and physical) within the individual which can go on to infect whole communities. Through the above mentioned actions the lifeforce is stirred and strengthened, often by inducing a crisis state that results in a frenzied climax enabling it to cleanse and recalibrate itself. This recalibration can produce the formation of a new identity, particularly if it is brought about by rites of initiation.

Described another way we are inducing altered states of consciousness or mild forms of madness to inoculate ourselves against more severe expressions of madness. Beyond healing there are many fruits of this madness including creative inspiration, access to other planes of knowledge, communion with gods and spirits, increased strength and potency and temporary imperviousness to pain and other physical limitations.

Aside from the this-world benefits of these practices our tradition also has a strong chthonic and eschatological focus with a pronounced concern for proper tendance of the dead. Instead of the impotent and witless shades of the Homeric tradition it is believed within Bacchic Orphism that the dead have power to influence events in our world and are often responsible for illness and calamity when neglected by their descendants. As such we strive to honor and placate these spirits so that they will assist us in our endeavors – especially the Dionysian dead which differ significantly from the ordinary dead since Dionysos has interceded on their behalf with the underworld powers and imbued them with some of his own abundant vitality. Even beyond this grace they are different because the experience of Dionysian ecstasy radically transforms the individual – the more we encounter it the more we are changed. In short mystai of this tradition may look forward to becoming feasting heroes and furious hunters in the afterlife because of the rites they have gone through here.

And the thiasos of the Starry Bull is a manifestation of this tradition in the modern era. It is a tradition that I am reviving and systematizing – hopefully with the assistance of others. I have been engaged in this process for a number of years now and finally feel that it is at a stage where others can be brought in. I am eager to see what this tradition will become in their hands and whether other people will reap the same positive results that I have through it. So a lot of the writing I’ll be doing over the coming months will be concerned with articulating and codifying and adapting this tradition for use by others. I will then proceed to guide others through it and teach some of the necessary techniques and then I’m going to attempt to organize activities for the thiasos on both a local and long-distance level.

Mostly I will be leading by example and anyone who wishes to revel with me is free to do so and likewise they are free to say “Yeah, that’s not for me,” or sift through what I post and glean what is most useful for them while discarding the rest. But I will not eschew speaking authoritatively on certain matters – especially things relevant to this tradition’s mysteries – because following this path will tear you apart and set you free so that you require nothing from no man or society, nothing that cannot be found in Dionysos himself. But that, my friends, is dangerous and frightening work and there are consequences if you do it wrong. I will not personally instruct anyone in this tradition that I am not willing to shoulder the burden and consequences of failure for – and if you balk at even the simplest of instructions that shows me that you are not ready for me to place this trust in you.

Just to be clear when I speak authoritatively it will only be with regard to the thiasos of the Starry Bull.

I do not speak for all Dionysians.

I do not speak for all Orphics.

I do not speak for all Hellenics, Romans, Thracians or syncretic Egyptians.

And I sure as hell do not speak for all polytheists and even less so for all neopagans.

For that matter I do not speak for any god, spirit or human but myself.

The only reason you have to accept what I say is because you acknowledge that you want what I am offering.

But there are as many ways to Dionysos as the god has faces and there are many wonderful and talented individuals out there who are deeply engaged in his worship and talk about him and share their experiences with him. Over the last couple weeks alone I’ve read marvelous material by Oracle, Dver, Aridela, Suz, MadGastronomer, Rhyd Wildermuth, Galina, Sunweaver, Narkaios Alepou, Jason Mankey, Where Dionysos Dwells, Ginandjack, Jack Faust and numerous others I’m sure I’m forgetting at the moment. So it’s not like I’m your only place to turn for a Dionysian fix.