Along the lines of the Simplicius passage I mentioned in my January update, today, my Discover Weekly updated. One of the pieces, "What Fills the Gap" (Will Cady) features passages from an Alan Watts lecture — Part 2 of "Out of Your Mind." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmT3t2Kdr3I There's a lot of Phaedrus and Timaeus energy here, especially in … Continue reading “At first the soul was united with the Gods …”
Month: January 2023
Deity-Focused Compassion Meditation
This post begins with Apollon, the Lord of Abiding Compassion. Apollon is the God who harmonizes all things together. He pulls us into unity from division; he gathered, and does gather, and will gather, the parts of Dionysos — for we are cut apart much as he was by our interactions with the world — … Continue reading Deity-Focused Compassion Meditation
January 2023: Happy, Calm Things
One of the things I appreciate about this time of year is how neon-navy the sky is when I leave work. The sky coaxes itself lighter every day, and soon the sun will still be up when I leave my basement office. One day late in the month, I caught a glimpse of the young-crescent … Continue reading January 2023: Happy, Calm Things
Did K.T. Tunstall Read the Bacchae?
When I pray to Dionysos, I usually read Orphic Hymn 30 or the verses from the Bacchae in the Grene & Lattimore-edited translation that start a few lines after line 70. The section is translated beautifully, with the kind of presence that works well for recitation before doing prayer beads or something. Blessèd, blessèd are … Continue reading Did K.T. Tunstall Read the Bacchae?
Six Prayers to Nantosuelta
These are six of the seven prayers that I wrote for Nantosuelta for the nights that I was praying to her, and in the spirit of devotional offerings, I am making them available here. "Six Prayers for Nantosuelta" (this specific set of poems) by Kaye Boesme is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International … Continue reading Six Prayers to Nantosuelta
Nine Evenings of Praying to Nantosuelta
Last Friday, I started a novena for the first time. I had heard of them being done in contemporary polytheistic practice as a way of bracketing periods of increased devotion for specific Gods, and I had seen this mostly done by polytheists who were formerly Catholic. I have no connection to that frame of mind. … Continue reading Nine Evenings of Praying to Nantosuelta
In Which I Do Something Platonic to Me Not You’s “Kill the Noise” Lyrics
In my Discover Weekly playlist, a piece by an artist called Me Not You was introduced to me. And Plotinus’ On Beauty has been on my mind because I was part of a private group discussion about it recently. So, my mind was primed when I started listening to this, Muses help me. My laundry … Continue reading In Which I Do Something Platonic to Me Not You’s “Kill the Noise” Lyrics
Five Points About Polytheism
In 1931, librarian Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan proposed a set of five laws of library science that are still in use today. I was reflecting on these earlier today while thinking about the ethical difficulties of reader's advisory and collection development (when there is a conflict between the materials you wish people were asking for and … Continue reading Five Points About Polytheism
What to Expect on KALLISTI in 2023
Over the past few months, I’ve been rereading Simplicius’ commentary on Epictetus, and it has given me ample things to be reflective about as I welcome the new year. In particular, over the past week or so, I've been thinking a lot about what Simplicius says about philotimia. The word is usually translated as "love … Continue reading What to Expect on KALLISTI in 2023
KALLISTI 