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 practice
A Brief Post on Birthday Offerings
On my birthday every year, I give an offering to the Gods. It's often something small — until the pandemic, my birthday usually happened while I was at a library conference, so the most I could do was a quick prayer with my travel ritual tools (a small libation bowl) and images of the Gods … Continue reading A Brief Post on Birthday Offerings
For Those Who Have Nourished Our Minds
There is a saying that our minds contain the sum of everything that we have encountered and read, a chaotic mixture that each of us must order through a process of sense-making, en-forming what is within us according to intention and necessity. Quite often, one of the ways we do that is through intentionally exposing … Continue reading For Those Who Have Nourished Our Minds
Prayers to All of the Gods
I have made some updates to the prayers to all of the Gods that I published on my blog earlier this year, including the downloadable PDFs, mobi, and ePub files available on Gumroad. Here are the links, with the estimated time they take to use in ritual. Note that the time does not include any … Continue reading Prayers to All of the Gods
When You Have a Bit of Time for the Gods
You don't have to be a mystic or super-religious to worship the Gods. A polytheistic mindset is one that affirms the existence of many Gods, whether you're a Platonist with a sophisticated sense of how the divine unfolds from the One or a Stoic with your Zeusizing cosmology (I'm not a Stoic so don't quote … Continue reading When You Have a Bit of Time for the Gods
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
Heavy Reflections on Athene and Arachne
When I think of Athene, I think of strength, determination, and stubborn tenacity. She is the Goddess born from Zeus even after he swallowed Metis, her mother, and her birth is a symbol of the resilience and persistence of birth, life, and womanhood in the face of tremendous adversity — being swallowed by history and … Continue reading Heavy Reflections on Athene and Arachne
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
Full Moon April 2021
The full moon is in the middle of the night tonight. I plan for the week on Mondays because it is the day I refresh my to-do list in my bullet journal, which answered my "is it today or tomorrow?" question with a resounding "today." I do not have reminders about the full moon in … Continue reading Full Moon April 2021
