Who may see the passage of a goddess unless she wills his mortal eyes aware?

2 years!

2009-11-11T16:40:36Z

As of last sunday, I have been a hellenic polytheist for two years now. That makes me happy. ^_^

There has been some good conversation on E-mail lists i'm subscribed to recently. Enjoyable reading!
I don't spend much time in the wider 'community' anymore because I can do without petty fighting. Now I avoid eclectic-y pagan circles simply because we don't have much in common and i'm thus uninspired to join in, and the militant 'omg evry1 iz doin it wrooong exzept meee' recons.
Instead I've just been lurking a whole lot in recon circles (ones that are full of regular recons that are normal people, not the above types haha). I may actually start taking part eventually, but...meh.

In addition, I'm considering becoming a member of Hellenion; for the resources if nothing else. But I'm not sure whether to become a member now, or wait until march!

Things for Persephone

2009-10-29T12:59:44Z

Did a small ritual for Persephone this morning, it was supposed to be on the 9th of the lunar month, but life happened. :(
Offered a rose scented candle, lavenadar incense, green tea and a hymn.

Now, I'm planning a festival that will happen in about a weeks time. It will honour her descent to the underworld, along with Hermes, Hekate and Hades.
Currently I have about 4 different versions of the Hades/Persephone myth in front of me to work with, and plan to read them all before designing a ritual. But I'm not complaining, because it is my favourite myth. ^_^

This is part of my project to fine tune a ritual calendar, and follow the cycles of particular gods I honour (if applicable of course).

a_quiet_patch @ 2009-10-25T18:05:00

2009-10-25T18:06:03Z

Oooh, I'm on Hellenions blog roll!

YAYAYAY It's almost christmas book time!

2009-10-25T17:52:02Z

Yep, I'm beginning to compile the list of books I want for christmas!
Reccomendations, anyone? Anything hellenic pagany, or anything scholarly about paganism/ indo european religions/ ancient greece.

So far, I wish to get 'kissing the limitless' by T. Thorn Coyle. OK, this book fits none of the catagories above, but Thorn is a pretty awesome woman!

Today, I saw 'The Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion' for just £3 at the garden centre. It pains me to say I was about 30p short!! It would have been an impulse buy, but I think it would have been worth it? Does anybody have this?
I'll get it soon!

----
On a different note, I have about £6 worth of loose change that has been offered to Hermes. Now that I have changed the money box that I use for him to a little clay vase; i'm looking to get rid of this.
It's the poppy appeal time of year, so I'm thinking about just finding the nearest poppy money box and putting it all in there. xD

Hospitality is difficult in a tiny house!

2009-10-04T10:16:09Z

We have my aunty, uncle, 2 possibly 3 cousins and a cousins boyfriend over for dinner later. Including us thats 10 people.
The only problem is that our house is very small, we don't even have 10 chairs for the table!! However we do get to eat lamb, mmmm.

In other news, I am getting back on track with worship again, and trying very hard not to go back to being so crap. I'm also thinking of doing a Hestia shrine revamp. I really don't like it as it is currently, and I never ever burn the candle on there. What I'm thinking of doing, is maybe purchasing one of those candles that are shaped like a little glass lampshade? I can burn that more often, and for longer periods of time without worrying about it being used up fast or an open flame being near where people walk!

Crete!

2009-08-13T08:04:04Z

I'm back from crete! Photos soon, I saw soooo much stuff. I saw lots of very famous minoan artifacts, and went to a temple of Apollo Pythios, and a syncretic temple of Isis-persephone and Serapis-Zeus/Hades (I'm not sure which, the sign said Zeus but the statue was CLEARLY modelled after Hades, and he is married to Persphone...).

It appears t3h intawebz has exploded while I've been gone, I'm so confused! I would make a comment but I have massive CBA. Seriously, the best thing that ever happened to my religious practice was not concerning myself with everything that went on in the Hellenic Polytheist community. I don't need it at all really, is that selfish?
Instead, I'll stick to the people I know and like, and Livejournal. ;) Instead of feeling disheartened because people are bickering instead of talking about practice. I'll just talk about practice anyway. xD

Crete!

2009-07-28T11:14:24Z

This evening I leave for a fortnight in crete! I'M GOING TO GREEEEECE!! I can't wait, there is so much I want to see!

I will be back on the 12th. I shall miss you all!

Wish me luck on the plane as I hate flying xD I'm going to bug Poseidon and Hermes about it later (Hermes as god of travel, Poseidon for safe passage over the sea) :D

I am taking Hesiod's 'works and days' with me, plus Jennifer Larsn's 'greek Nymphs', Robert Graves' work of fiction, 'I, claudius' and Watchmen (Even though I aleready did a reread of this in arpril!).

Birthday-ness!

2009-03-14T20:09:38Z

I've had a really great couple of days ^_^
On friday I got a really huge card signed by lots of my friends. That was really sweet. I love them for it.^_^

Today, I got from various people:

-Watchmen graphic novel, w00t!
-Kharis:hellenic polytheism explored
-Some plays by Euripides (Bacchae and others)
-Hesiod's theogony
-Greek nymphs -jennifer larson
-A huge print of my favourite Alphonse Mucha picture to go on my wall ^_^
- Itunes vouchers, HMV vouchers and some money! Yay!

I also saw watchmen with Callam, Eve, Tom, Ross, Dave, Laura, Lydia and Chris. I had a great time but the film itself was a little disappointing?
I mean, it was a great film, but not -watchmen- great. The story is so complex that it didn't translate all that well onto the big screen. I've read the freakin' novel and I was STILL confused by the film.
That said, RORSCACH FTW!!! They portrayed him brilliantly I thought. He's always been my favourite and the film really did him justice.
The fight scenes were pretty good too, I loved the prison scene. ^_^ It was all shot so well.
Callam thinks I am very sadistic because I kept laughing at the gory bits. But only when they were riculous (y'know...hands being chopped of and shit xD) in my defense.

As for the sound track? At times it was edgy and awesome, at other times it just didn't fit! They put Jimmy Hendrix over the scenes in the antarctic...but not in 'nam? Seriously?

In addition to this I saw the new X-men trailer. ZOMG YES! This film looks AMAZING. IT HAS GAMBIT IN IT!!!!!!!!! <333
Star trek looks decent but I don't know if I can take Zachary Quinto seriously as spock? I'm such a huge star trek geek ( I seriously down play my fangirlyness) I just know I'll either love the film forever or just pick it apart.

*ahem* All in all, a really excellent day spent in really good company. :) I had alot of fun!

I make no apologies for my god awful grammar, and certainly no apologies for my inner fangirl!

a_quiet_patch @ 2009-02-28T09:55:00

2009-02-28T09:59:10Z

Another way my religion impacts on my daily life is the fact that certain laws and taboos are unconsciously ingrained on my brain.
I touched a dead thing today and immediately went 'eww miasma!' Much to the confusion of the family.

Hail Hephaestos! Divine IT technician.

2009-02-21T10:25:25Z

Yesterday was something else I swear. Either the gods have a really twisted sense of humor,or my microsoft office package is actually Evil microsoft .

I had spent two days on my biology coursework and had just finished. By some ironic twist of fate THE VERY LAST SAVE ended in disaster. Suddenly, this error box popped up saying there was an error and data was lost. Then word shut down.
When I looked on the memory stick that the work was saved on...it was GONE. TWO DAYS WORTH OF WORK GONE!!! I reacted in the only way I could, I squealed a little and then cried. I tried everything to get it back, and looked everywhere. When my dad got home we ran one of those recovery programs and it found the file but said we had to pay a stupid amount of money to actually get it back. It looked bleak.
Then suddenly...the computer crashed. The whole reason I saved to work on the stick in the first place was because the computer is so unstable (yet how ironic is it that the work was lost off the stick instead?). When we loaded everything back up...there was the file on the stick!! It had been renamed, but it was there.

So, two hours, lots of prayers to Hephaestos and a wasted phone call to my uncle later; my work was back in one piece.

It was ironic because it was the very last save, it was ironic because I saved it to the memory stick to prevent this from happening, it was ironic because all it took was for the computer to crash!

Thank you Hephaestos, and fuck you microsoft! I'm going to buy a mac just to piss you off!

Local gods

2009-02-19T10:09:21Z

I was working at this bar, with a little garden out front. In the pond lived this giant salamander thing the size of a crocodile. It was ancient and blind, but it was the god of the local area too. I'm sure i've seen him in dreams before, but this might just be dream de ja vu. When the cold winter months came, he would be helped out of the pond, and he would fall into a deep hibernation on the patio.
Then one year, there was building work being done on the site and he had nowhere to sleep. He moved off into the forest. He never spoke words, but he still spoke to people, telepathy or something.
I followed him out into the forest, it was dense and lush, with a mist clinging to the trees and soaking the undergrowth. I dug a hole in the ground, and found a poem somebody had buried for Apollo. I heard a noise and turned, and there was Apollo dancing off into the distance. He was wearing a wolf hide as a tunic and it's head as a headress (the classic shamans dance outfit), he also had a brown rattle and bells on his feet. His hair went down to his mid back and it was a brunette colour, it was tied back in a ponytail. He turned back briefly to look at me, and I honestly cannot remember what I did next.

Later, I had met up with an old school friend, and we were walking high in the mountains. We started digging in a snow drift and uncovered an ancient statue, it looked like the virgin mary; and indeed thats what we thought it was, until we heard a voice. In front of us was a woman dressed in a rather trashy way, she informed us that the statue was not virgin mary at all but her! She was the god of this area. She asked me my relation to the boy, I said there was none. She then informed me that she was the goddess of ancestry and bones.

The rest is hazy.

In other news, I ish dolling again!
And Nuri!! There was an Amish lady on TV last night and I swear it was your twin! xD

Aphrodite!

2009-02-15T18:52:20Z

Yesterday was the designated day for a libation to Aphrodite according the Hellenions calendar. The fact this fell on valentines day was a coincidence not lost on people. ^_^

I offered some lavender incense, jasmine tea and some posh chocolates. Everything was very aromatic and luxurious, quite fitting for Aphrodite I think.
I'm going to honor her more often.

It also gave me an idea for a festival! A festival honoring the female gods amongst the twelve Olympians, fun right? Artemis, Athene and Hestia in the morning, Aphrodite and Hera at midday, and Demeter and Hera (again) in the evening! This can be my little project for the next few weeks.

In addition to this, I've been creating god play lists on my I-pod. Aphrodite and Nirvana go great together I swear...Heart shaped box!!

Anthesteria 09

2009-02-08T11:45:47Z

This is the second Anthesteria I have celebrated, and this year was far better than last year.
It was planned better, I had the experience of last year to go on, and generally I was in a better mindset.

I set up a temporary altar with a picture of a masked
Dionysos wreathed in Ivy.
The first day was very much a light hearted day. I had no structured ritual planned, I just had a rough idea of what I wanted to do (which basically involved a hymn, libation and some dancing, all in honour of Dionysos the fair flowering/the reveller), That was alot of fun, and I had been preparing myself beforehand by listening to the Dionysos playlist I made at lenaia.
After the dancing came awful nausea. >.<

Day two was a little more sombre, all altars and shrines were covered, lest they become defiled. This certainly created a whole new atmosphere in my living space as I am rather used to my shrines now. I spoke as little as possible and when the time came, I did my ritual in silence. This ritual was very structured and I had been planning it for weeks...it paid off! Libations were poured for Dionysos, Orestes and my ancestors by blood, adoption and culture. Overall this was a really great ritual, and I truly understood why the shrines should be covered by the end. The nausea returned.
In the evening, prayers were offered to Hermes and Hekate, asking them to protect the household for the third day; when those that have passed can walk with us.

Today I layed out an offering of milk, oil, garlic, etc to these dead and to Hermes psycopompos with the request that he lead them back to their graves. Then, I purified my home in the way I developed last year. Later, I uncover my shrines once again.
I hope everyone who celebrated had a great time!

Happy anthesteria!

2009-02-06T19:16:47Z

Anthesteria begins today, I hope everyone enjoys it. I leave you with the lyrics to 'hollow man' by Kula shaker, a song I associate with Dionysos:

I can only speak the words as quickly as they're coming now believe me,

Looking down upon the bed suspended by a silver thread I'm breathing.
From the feeling I had to be sure,
that you've felt this before.
It's a long load, long lonely road.
It's a long road, long journey home.

Trying to see poetry within the shifting imagery of meaning
Well if you're feeling hollow man
Just throw the stone and shatter your reflection...with questions.
Well if you're trying as hard as you can
To see where you fit in this plan
IT's a long road, long lonely road.
It's a long road, long lonely road.

It takes time to find the place you love
It takes time to find the place you love

Well if you've got to be sure in that feeling you've got to take time.
It takes time to find the place you love,

Oh it's a long road...long journey home.

Proper update on monday.

A very US biased meme!

2009-01-28T19:36:21Z

Let's Compare Your Results to the Average

Your Results Again:

Average of All Quiz-Takers:

So I'm more or less average overall! I shall make a regular thing of doing this meme to see how I change with different situations.
As I said however, very US biased so the cultural bit may not entirely reflect my view.

Book time

2009-01-24T17:23:37Z

I can feel that an amazon order is immanent. I've tried my best to suppress to urge to buy new books for quite a while, after all I am in the middle of several and still have 2 from my last order I have yet to read, but it's so hard!

I was bored today and so decided to take a look at some book previews on google. Usually the previews have pages removed at completely random intervals so they aren't much use.
But today I was taking a look at books recommended to me, and I looked at Jennifer Larson's book on Nymphs. It had the first 38 pages in the preview and I read them all.

Now I want to read the rest!
I also want a few books by Ronald Hutton, and the second edition of Kharis (which I always want but never seem to order, mostly because I can only get it from amazon.com and I order from amazon.co.uk).

In other news, my plans for theogamia have been postponed until I feel better. :(

Lenaia!

2009-01-12T11:00:28Z

Okay, time for a brief write-up of my lenaia clebration on saturday. The LJ cut is fucking up and the formatting is weird 0__o

.Last year I celebrated Lenaia over a course of three days. This year I decided it would be alot better to celebrate in one day, with a big ritual.

I set up downstairs because nobody was home, and there is a lot more space than in my tiny little bedroom. I set up a simple altar with cups for a libation, a candle for Hestia and an image of the god (A bearded mask wreathed in ivy. It was by far the most fitting image I found, although I'm sure a picture of dionysos as a youth would have been nice too!). Whilst I was setting up I plugged the speaker into my Ipod and put it on shuffle. Some really appropriate songs came up and it really helped set the scene!
I also prepared the meal beforehand so all I needed to do when the time came was to throw it into the pan and soften the veg a bit (it was a vegetable stirfry).

To start the ritual, I played 'summoning of the muse' by Dead can dance and did my purification, prayer and libation to Hestia, and the invocation.
For the invocation, I recited Oprhic hymn #46 to Dionysos, and stated the occaison of the festival. After the expected libations, I put on 'Hymn to Bacchus' by Daimonia Nymphe and began to dance. This was very much the focal point of the ritual, and it had been choreographed beforehand. It went so much better than I had hoped. xD
Then, food time! I served up the meal and recited the myth of Dionysos' birth. I didn't slip up on the names of his nurses, w00t.

When all was finished, I followed it up with some divination, which gave me a bit to think about, and ended the rite.

It was one of the best rituals I've ever done. Nothing went wrong, and I didn't have to make any compromises. Happy Lenaia! Roll on Anthesteria xD

I just inhaled some pomegranite juice. >.< Now I keep coughing it up and it's in my lungs and all acidic and hurty. :(

Heliogenna!

2008-12-20T12:22:25Z

I've started celebrating Heliogenna today! More on that later, but I'm exited about it. ^_^

Chris bought me a 2009 planner for christmas. I'm using it to write out a festival calendar for the year. It's going to take a while.
Whilst writing up something about Lenaia I realised just how much I love dionysian festivals. It's the only time I properly honour dionysos, and I honestly love it.

German market and musings

2008-12-14T17:03:09Z

So today, I accompanied my family on a trip to the German christmas market in Birmingham.
I bought some yummy earl grey tea, and had some hot cherry wine (I live for this stuff, I swear) and some mead too!

We got talking about children, and I mentioned about raising children in a particular faith. I said that it's a shame but I have to put so much thought into how I will approach this with my children in future. I have such odd beliefs and I don't want it to cause them trouble.
My dad informed me I was waffling and that it was the alcohol talking.

I was waffling, but it wasn't the drink. I wasn't drunk, tipsy or even red faced.

I bought a pretty cloth for my altar whilst there too! It has leaves on, and matches my offering bowl! Pictures later.

I'm going to gut my room, throw out all the shit; clear the walls and generally start creating a more coherent space. From here I can build new shrines and start making my ideas take shape.

Cards!

2008-12-02T08:04:03Z

Those that wish to recieve cards for the holidays should post their adresses here!
I'm happy to send them out to the vast majority of you, so post!
Comments are screened.

a_quiet_patch @ 2008-12-01T18:08:00

2008-12-01T18:09:10Z

Those in britain, go look at the moon right now. It is so beautiful it will make your day, I'm serious.
Venus and jupiter are so close to it. Go look now....why are you still reading?

a_quiet_patch @ 2008-11-23T18:11:00

2008-11-23T18:21:45Z

Why is neopagan suddenly a derogatory term?

The dictionary says:

ne⋅o⋅pa⋅gan⋅ism /ˌnioʊˈpeɪgəˌnɪzəm/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [nee-oh-pey-guh-niz-uhm] Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun a 20th-century revival of interest in the worship of nature, fertility, etc., as represented by various deities.

The other dictionary says:

a believer in a modernized version of the principles of old pre-Christian religions, especially reverence for nature and natural objects rather than worship of a transcendent supreme being

So what about the word and it's connotations is there to make it an insult? There isn't anything.
Neopagan is NOT synonymous with intellectual dishonesty. Stop treating it as such, it isn't fair on people.

Interesting dream

2008-11-15T09:54:42Z

It was a version of the persephone and hades myth, and I was playing the part of persephone.

I was in the sea ( at this point she was the daughter of a sea god) when a pirate ship pulled up beside me and took me on board and down to hades.
In hades, Hades' advances and gifts were rejected and as soon as I could, I appealed to my sea god father who made Hades take an oath that he wouldnt make a move on me again. With that I returned to the surface and went about my daily life.

Pretty soon I began to miss Hades. He had tried to be accommodating and something about him was charming. I had become used to his company.

So I had to see him again, I went to the entrance of the underworld and he came out to meet me. He was his usual charming self. I instantly regretted that oath because the more I spoke to him the more I really wanted to be with him, there was an underlying chemistry and tension. I appealed to my father and got the oath dissolved.
Then, together, we descended to his palace and had a feast of underworld foods; and I was happy.

Obama, Athene, hymns and invocations

2008-11-05T18:55:44Z

I'm glad Obama won, he is so popular all over the world, he's made history in many ways, and I can't wait to see what becomes of this, even simply because it has lifted the spirits of so many around the entire world.
He even said himself it wont be easy because he is taking power in such a difficult time economically, but this 'new era' people are harping on about has been initiated simply by him winning.
He had my support!

---
Now, on to Athene!

I PASSED THE BLOODY MATHS TEST!!
The stupid, stupid test that has been killing me inside slowly for the past few weeks. I was one of three in the entire class that passed, and I passed it by 1%.

It's the little things that reaffirm ones beliefs. It is the knowledge that your prayers have been answered.

I'm most grateful to Athene, I gave her some offerings earlier, and promised that when I have the space and the means, I will build her a shrine in the hopes of building a relationship with her, and further assistance.

--
In other news. I've nearly got my invocation for poseidon ready. It'll be used tomorrow! :O
In addition to his, there are several hyms I must write.

Weird dream.

2008-11-04T07:57:27Z

So last night, I had a long and annoying dream again, but the last part was very odd.
It was set in times slightly earlier than these. I was talking to penny and suddenly this woman came in who had been a total scheming bitch elsewhere in the dream.
She spoke in supplication to penny and said that in her past life she was buried in this house. Penny allowed her to talk, then gave her a gift.
Oh...did I mention her and laura were gods? I guess not.

Both were seated on thrones, and if you could give them a true fact about a past life, they would give you a gift. I got a gift from penny quickly, and moved on to laura whose gift was a garish pair of jingle bell earrings on purple ruffled ribbon.
I inquired about what deities they were. Penny's name began with 'M' and she was a pre celtic british deity, quite an obscure one. She vaguely mentioned Tara (the place).

Laura's name was something akin to 'lakitome' or 'latigone'. She couldn't remember her pantheon, but there was a logo that looked like some kind of cowry shell above her throne, so I assume she was african in origin.