Today, someone asked me a very hard question about what we do when people we respect say and do things that are awful — how to reconcile someone's piety with bad behavior that leaves our faith shaken without sinking into spiritual disquietude and extreme sorrow. I am going to tackle this question because these things … Continue reading Piety, Faith, Unmooring
Category: polytheism
Something Beautiful from Plotinus
This week, I ended up reading Ennead I.6, "On Beauty," because I encountered a quotation from it twice, and it seemed like completing the repetition triad was in order. I would like to share the quotation with all of you, which makes a satisfying tetrad. How, then, can you see the kind of beauty that … Continue reading Something Beautiful from Plotinus
Learning Plans and a Few Recommended Readings
I have been a self-directed learner for a long time. The way I pushed myself through school was via convincing myself that everything would eventually be relevant to my creative writing. In 2019, after listening to the grades episode of The Happiness Lab podcast, I processed a lot of feelings (anger, regret, sorrow) about my … Continue reading Learning Plans and a Few Recommended Readings
A Miscellany of Quotations — More from Proclus’ v.1 commentary on the Timaeus
In June, I finished reading Volume 1 of Proclus’ commentary on Plato’s Timaeus. My copy (the translation by Tarrant) is now filled with marginal notes and heavily underlined, some of the notes in all caps, others paragraphs that spilled over the seams of the margin to end in the whitespace at the bottom or top … Continue reading A Miscellany of Quotations — More from Proclus’ v.1 commentary on the Timaeus
Four Drops of Bay Oil
four drops of bay oil three together, the fourth alonecircling as they twistedsmaller circle inspirallinguntil they pressed together in contactlike prayer hummingwithin the mindlight descending victorious When I prayed this morning, the drops of bay oil I gave to Apollon caught the light, three grouped together, the fourth alone. I watched the smaller bit inspiral … Continue reading Four Drops of Bay Oil
For Anyone New(er) to Polytheism or Regular Worship in General
On my blog's main page, the "New to Polytheism?" area has been converted from a gathering of posts that I tagged because I thought they would be useful to people new to polytheism to a menu-like page, as shown below in the screenshot. You can visit the new page here. I keep linking to many … Continue reading For Anyone New(er) to Polytheism or Regular Worship in General
More Poetry Book Updates — Shared from Pangrammatike
Sharing this from my other blog, Pangrammatike. I did some light divination (prayed to Apollon and used the random.org date generator) to settle on October 29. Apologies to anyone who has seen this multiple times. 😅 For many months, I have been working on a poetry collection. If you have ever asked, “What is a … Continue reading More Poetry Book Updates — Shared from Pangrammatike
A Complete Thargelia Ritual
Next Thargelia isn't until May 17-19, 2021. In 2020, I used a ritual outline, and I'm uploading it today so it has enough time for Google's crawlers to find it in time for people frantically searching for a ritual outline next year. Some Background As I said in a previous post, my ritual outlines tend … Continue reading A Complete Thargelia Ritual
Linking Out to a Few Blog Posts I read, With Some Added Comments
While I rarely ever post link roundups, there are a few posts floating around the blogosphere this week that I think are worthwhile shares (especially now that I'm making an effort to be quieter). First, John Beckett wrote "What to Do When You Make a Mistake in Ritual." It is a useful post because we … Continue reading Linking Out to a Few Blog Posts I read, With Some Added Comments
