The first degree of prayer is the introductory, which leads to contact and acquaintance with the divine; the second is conjunctive, producing a union of sympathetic minds, and calling forth benefactions sent down by the Gods even before we express our requests, while achieving whole courses of action even before we think of them; the … Continue reading Quiet, But Still Praying
Tag: modern polytheism
Looking at Sallust’s On the Gods and the World (Chapter 1)
This post begins with some personal background of why I want to look at Sallust. Its middle section is an exhortation to anyone who may be on the fence about worshipping a God to just try it out without pressure. The final section is a glance at Chapter 1 of Sallust’s On the Gods and … Continue reading Looking at Sallust’s On the Gods and the World (Chapter 1)
When a God Comes Into Your Home
In Marinus' Life of Proclus, one moment that I never thought too much about was the part when Proclus is described as having a vision of Athene. Proclus had preternatural levels of endurance, driven by his writing, teaching, and devotional worship, at a time when it was becoming very clear just how much needed to … Continue reading When a God Comes Into Your Home
Chanting from the Chaldean Oracles
I am an experimentalist. Objectively, it is probably identical to mysticism, but in terms of how I view it, experimentalist more adequately captures my methodological approaches, especially when it comes to interpreting things the philosophers have written, trying out new things, and playing with the range of sympathetic signs to refer to the Gods in … Continue reading Chanting from the Chaldean Oracles
How to Do a Libation for Gaia
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
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
