How the thiasos of the Starry Bull will be organized

I’ve been having some interesting conversations with folks about the thiasos of the Starry Bull which has helped clarify my own thinking on certain matters and brought up others I hadn’t considered before. So by all means keep the questions coming, folks!

To begin with, here’s the story of how I became an archiboukolos.

I found my way to the Hellenic polytheist community through Dionysos back in 1998. Unlike a lot of Dionysians I tend to focus on very specific, localized forms of the god and this has lead me into some rather interesting territory - Ptolemaic Egypt, for instance.

Back around 2007 I began having a series of visionary and other experiences that I realized in hindsight were my initiation into the Bacchic Orphic mysteries. At the time I felt it was only loosely connected to that since I had something of an aversion to the Orphic label because of some of the Orphic-identifying people I’d met in the community and how the tradition was often presented in scholarly works. I just figured this was my own weird thing and went bumbling along with it until I came across some studies that have radically challenged and in some cases even altered the status quo understanding of Orphism in academia. Creepily, this new understanding conforms to a lot of the experiences I’d had and gave greater context to certain other things that had been puzzling me for years.

Since no one else had come up with a Bacchic Orphic cult quite like I was envisioning, it fell to me to do so and it’s going to be awesome.

At this stage I am systematizing the information I’ve collected and will be turning it into a bunch of articles for this blog and possibly a book at some point. I am also working out a set of practices and traditions for the thiasos. Mostly this involves figuring out how to explain to others what I’ve already been doing, something that’s a lot more difficult than it may seem since all of this is so labyrinthine and has been so idiosyncratic up to this point.

The thiasos will consist of four grades:

• Akousmatikoi (Ἀκουσματικοί, “listeners”)
• Boukoloi (βουκόλοι, “tenders of the bull”)
• Speirarchoi (Σπείραρχοι, “troop-leaders”)
• Mystai (Μύσται, “those who have been intiated”)

The first stage consists of everyone who is interested in learning more about this tradition and have begun honoring the gods and spirits of the thiasos. Anyone who wishes to identify as an akousmatikos is free to do so and the title comes with no prescriptions or obligations.

After the person has spent at least six months in this stage and determined that they would like to progress they can contact me and we’ll begin preparation for them to take on the role of boukolos. After extensive conversation with the candidate, including an in person meeting and divination, I’ll begin a phase of personal instruction and entrust them with the rituals and other spiritual techniques of our tradition. Once they have demonstrated their competency in these by successfully leading a ritual in my presence I will ordain them as an acting boukolos of the thiasos. All boukoloi will be expected to maintain a schedule of weekly devotions and observe the festivals of the thiasos as well as adhere to any prescriptions laid upon them by the gods or spirits through divination.

Once they have served in this capacity for a year we will meet to see how things are going, if there are any modifications that need to be made and whether they wish to continue. This check-in is required to be performed annually for the first three years and at that point the individual may choose to remain a boukolos (though without the obligation for an annual check-in) or become ordained as a speirarchos with the ability to found and operate their own speira (religious club) under the auspices of the thiasos should they choose to – though they are under no obligation to. (Also note that a person may lead whatever groups they want, including a Bacchic Orphic group, it simply will not be considered part of the thiasos until they have received ordination.)

Except in very rare instances no one will be considered for initiation into the mysteries of the thiasos of the Starry Bull until they have completed three years of service as a boukolos.

Membership in the thiasos is non-exclusive: you may have any outside associations and honor whatever other gods and spirits you feel called to, in whatever manner you and they deem appropriate as long as you do nothing inimical to Dionysos and his retinue. My only concern is how you conduct yourself as a member of the thiasos.

And that’s it for now!