Last Friday, I started a novena for the first time. I had heard of them being done in contemporary polytheistic practice as a way of bracketing periods of increased devotion for specific Gods, and I had seen this mostly done by polytheists who were formerly Catholic. I have no connection to that frame of mind. … Continue reading Nine Evenings of Praying to Nantosuelta
Tag: polytheism
Five Points About Polytheism
In 1931, librarian Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan proposed a set of five laws of library science that are still in use today. I was reflecting on these earlier today while thinking about the ethical difficulties of reader's advisory and collection development (when there is a conflict between the materials you wish people were asking for and … Continue reading Five Points About Polytheism
🌄 Happy Solstice! 🌅
On Saturday night, my mom called. My girlfriend and I were just settling into the new couch — I've had getting a real couch in my purchase plan for a few years, and it was finally able to be realized now that I was on PTO for the holidays — and my mom had figured … Continue reading 🌄 Happy Solstice! 🌅
The Body and the Beehives
Yesterday, I finished reading a translation of Akka Mahadevi's vacanas for Shiva. Vacana seems to be a specific term for a free-verse form. I had never encountered writings from the Lingayat Shiva tradition, and it was very educational for me. It turns out that, for at least over a millennium, there has been resistance to … Continue reading The Body and the Beehives
We’re Probably Not Prepared
A few months ago, some new Pew stats dropped — a model of what happens if Christianity continues to down-trend. In the model, America becomes dominated by "nones" (and everyone grouped with them, presumably including the "spiritual but not religious" crowd). The information Pew provides on the release itself clarifies that: Under each of the … Continue reading We’re Probably Not Prepared
Seira Org Charts
As a follow-up to my most recent post on the divine series, I would like to share some Google Draw diagrams that I've made to use when explaining these things. I'm adding two quotations for reference to this post, but I think it's a good idea to look at them while reading another thing I've … Continue reading Seira Org Charts
On being in a God’s series
I have written at length about seira, both on this blog and in The Soul's Inner Statues. One thing I've reflected on over the past few days — seeded by interactions in a variety of places since July or so — is just how grounded and level-headed the conversation about individual people being in a God's … Continue reading On being in a God’s series
Three Thoughtworms
There are many quotations rolling around in my mind all of the time. I read a lot. Because it is (a) November and we are entering the holiday shopping season and (b) I am watching the Twitter headlines with horrified fascination, I would like to present the following three quotations. It is a sacrilege not … Continue reading Three Thoughtworms
What Can We Learn From the Goddess Necklace Trend?
When looking up the title of a book from 2000 that seems to be from a deceased author (hence nowhere online, and likely a soon-to-be-victim of what we call in library science "orphaned works"), my eyes were assaulted with advertising. This is unsurprising, as Google's search engine is primarily an advertising machine that just so … Continue reading What Can We Learn From the Goddess Necklace Trend?
KALLISTI 