That great mundane divinity, the Earth, is the common Hestia of Gods and people. This divinity, on whose fertile surface reclining, as on the soft bosom of a mother or a nurse, we ought to celebrate with hymns, and incline to with filial affection, as to the source of our existence.Theophrastus, tr. Thomas Taylor, VII … Continue reading How to Do a Libation for Gaia
Tag: modern polytheism
Candles
I: Taper this candlethe color of meadblooming with morning lightmellow-sweet fragrancecotton wick yet whiteits sooty blackness divinedlong before my lighterhums electricto offer oil to Hestiato tip frankincensedrop by drop for Zeusas the wick keepsthe beeswax tameits fuel bridledby tight weave II: Jarred a wood wickflat as a fingernailthe candle's flesh whitestudded with fragrancewhen I lit … Continue reading Candles
I Pulled the Prayers to All of the Gods Into eDevice Formats for Free, In Case You’re Interested
This short ebook (is it actually a zine? is that how those work?) contains the three prayers to all of the Hellenic Gods that I published on this site in January and February (a modified version of I, the compact II, and the very Platonizing III). The prayers draw a lot of inspiration from Plato … Continue reading I Pulled the Prayers to All of the Gods Into eDevice Formats for Free, In Case You’re Interested
Healthy Reverence and Ancestral Traditions
In Plato and the commentators — and in people talking about them — I've often seen positive language about people observing their ancestral traditions, especially as Late Antiquity gets under way and doing so becomes dangerous to one's personal and political safety. In some places, there are remarks that so-and-so is from x place, but … Continue reading Healthy Reverence and Ancestral Traditions
The Future Is More Than Us
Sometimes, I fantasize about people who are utterly unlike myself being able to draw from their religious practices in ways that are unremarkable, not avant-garde. I think about the kids of polytheists today two decades from now waking up for a day of work and praying at a wall shelf shrine held up with command … Continue reading The Future Is More Than Us
Yggdrasil, or the World Tree, and White Supremacist Appropriation
In my family's group text on Thursday, my midsis wrote these motherf—ers below an image she shared from Wednesday's white supremacist mob storming of the Capitol. She had circled the QShaman guy, who was bare-chested with tattoos of several Asatru/Heathen symbols that are now being called white supremacist symbols. Because she and I are learning … Continue reading Yggdrasil, or the World Tree, and White Supremacist Appropriation
Indigo, Earth, and Starry Sky
A cotton tea towel that I dyed in October 2019 at an indigo dyeing party coordinated by a colleague. A few days ago, I had a sudden thought about indigo (the pigment that is drawn from several plants, including the indigo plant and woad) while praying, and I scrambled to write several lines of verse … Continue reading Indigo, Earth, and Starry Sky
Celebrating the Return of Light
The solstice candle in question, lit and veiled in darkness. Last night, I pulled my super-fragrant solstice candle out of the bubble wrap packaging it had come in. It was a purchase on November 30, 2018, from NaturalWitchRemedies (a store on Etsy that appears to be on hiatus right now) because it looked like a … Continue reading Celebrating the Return of Light
Preliminary Thoughts on Intergenerational Polytheistic Revivals
When I think about American polytheism and sustainability, two big things come to mind: (1a), the cycles of festivals and ritual in honor of the Gods; (1b), the shifting sands of what it is to live in a multicultural, multi-pantheon nation, where the boundaries between the traditions are permeable and shifting from generation to generation; … Continue reading Preliminary Thoughts on Intergenerational Polytheistic Revivals
