Happy Summer Solstice!

At the beginning of the week, I received the Greek Alphabet Oracle, Bright Helios, who watches everything, watches you.

What a fortuitous oracle for the week of the Summer Solstice.

I lit tea-scented incense for Helios and several non-Hellenic Gods today, Sulis and Sunna. It’s the first time I’ve given an offering to Sunna.

The offering to a God and to two Goddesses reminds me of something I recently read in Proclus’ Timaeus commentary, “However, so that we can admire Plato’s plan all the more, we should turn our attention to the wider issues, i.e. to the organization of the universe, where we shall find an amazing integration of the lives of male and female. For among the gods these things are so intertwined, that a single individual can actually be designated male-female (arsenothêlus), such as the Sun, Hermes, and certain others” (trans. Tarrant, Bk1, 46.17-23).

Tarrant has a footnote there where he’s just not sure what’s going on because a genderless Helios is just beyond. I rolled my eyes a tad because even if this is referring to lost texts or attempting to reconcile multi-pantheonic accounts, there are things that become evident when one worships Gods (also, disclaimer, not all solar Gods are the same). Sometimes, I have daydreams about what a cross-pantheon solar temple would look like, with nooks for various Gods and icons and a complex, multivalent festival calendar.

Remember: Beyond the shadow of the image of the sun, there is the real sun.

☀️