The Gods need nothing, and we give offerings to them as a spiritual practice. The offerings connect us to them, often through sympathy, because we associate specific things with Gods. I offer pomegranate incense to Demeter and Persephone, frankincense and bay to Apollon — two examples out of many that I could give. Simplicius, in … Continue reading Payday Harvest
Category: polytheism
September 2022: Hitting a Hard Reset
September has been a very challenging month. At the end of August, I had blinding pain in my skull on one side and behind one ear. A rash started developing on my forehead, and it ended up being shingles. Yoyo has taken to sleeping in front of my shrine. She curled up by my knees … Continue reading September 2022: Hitting a Hard Reset
Worship and the Punishment Mindset
Recently, while checking to make sure that my scheduled posts were working properly on the account that spews out (slightly modified for length in some cases) passages from The Soul's Inner Statues with a few sleek quotations from (mostly) Platonists, I saw a TweetDeck notification that someone had quote-tweeted one of the tweets, which comes … Continue reading Worship and the Punishment Mindset
August 2022 Update: Quotidian Things
August has been a bit of a whirlwind. It's orientation season, which has involved so much contact with students. I adjusted my prayer routine a bit more and started to do morning contemplations again. I hit 100 days on Duolingo and can now say things like αγαπώ τισ γυναίκες. I keep confusing the words for … Continue reading August 2022 Update: Quotidian Things
The “P/pagan” ship has sailed, I guess
Over the past few months, I've started using the term paganism or paganisms on this blog more often — when I'm not using polytheist or theist, with theist my preferred term. A few blog posts from others have led me to understand that this term is under discussion (or under renunciation?) again, and I want … Continue reading The “P/pagan” ship has sailed, I guess
The Path to the Summit
I wish to communicate something exciting that has its origins in a conversation with a few people about the Platonic Theology (in which I learned that @barefootwisdom has memorized a lot of Proclus' hymns) and the way that the soul experiences ascent. After that conversation, I went back to the commentary and translations of Proclus' … Continue reading The Path to the Summit
Windows Can Be Mirrors
Last night, I came across a paper by Edward Watts, "The Lycians are coming: The career of Patricius, the father of Proclus," in Proclus and His Legacy. As someone who always loves personal and interpersonal anecdotes in commentaries, and who absolutely loved Damascius' Life of Isidore/Philosophical History fragments, I clicked on it, and I started … Continue reading Windows Can Be Mirrors
To Ray-Formed Belesama
Belesama, ray-formed, laughing sunlight,Child of Light and Water, holy Aletheia,compassionate and regal, still and flowing,your crown is the gleaming solar corona,your garments the unmoving light of truth,your adornments the quickening fire of wisdom.You surge forth with the solar wind,you break upon the mountain waters,you take the path through stream and river,you weather away all that … Continue reading To Ray-Formed Belesama
Why I No Longer Call Myself a Hellenic Polytheist
This blog post gets into our desire for authenticity and how self-reflection and being challenged pushed me to confront unhealthy thoughts, behaviors, and assumptions over the past few years, culminating in dropping the label Hellenic polytheist in favor of describing myself as theistic — I worship Gods. It uses three interwoven things — the article … Continue reading Why I No Longer Call Myself a Hellenic Polytheist
KALLISTI 