Tag Archives: dionysos

Messenger Bag

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I was actually inspired to make this post after reading this post from the LJ community pimp_my_altarPimp My Altar. My messenger bag began life as, well, and ordinary messenger/Israeli paratrooper bag that I purchased at Harry’s Army Surplus before their Ann Arbor location went out-of-business (due largely to gentrification and the sudden raise in rent for businesses on that block):

Mine was purchased for under $10 on a 50% off clearance, and I also got a fishtail parka for just under $20, on a 75% off clearance, and an extra-tall “walking stick”-sized umbrella for about $10 even (the latter is no longer a usable umbrella, due in part to Chicago winds, and in part to living with three cats).

This is how mine looks today:

It wasn’t a huge task to transform the paratrooper symbol into a Caduceus, which has been historically used as a printer’s mark. Regardless, as a symbol of Hermes, it seems an entirely appropriate thing to paint onto a bag that I primarily use for carrying notebooks, my agenda, important papers, my chequebook (which has the simpler Caduceus [sans wings] painted on the front), and a few other things that I’m in the habit of carrying with me, including my lyrics book, sheet music, drawing pencils and sketch diary, mp3 player or Walkman, personal phone book, cigarette tin and lighter, and gum. It reminds me of one of my favourite quotes from Derek Jarman’s film Caravaggio: “It was through an act of theft that Mercury created the Arts.” I recall that quote not because of theft (though I am frequently reminded of how the push for gentrification has essentially robbed this poor town of its culture before it could truly come into its own, and how the closing of Harry’s and several other down-town stores really solidified Ann Arbor’s gentrification in my mind), but because of Hermes’ long-held associations with the Arts and how I carry in this bag my simplest means of creativity.

All the pin-back buttons on the bag (with the exception of “The Amino Acids – Warning: Tangy Reverb” one) are also one’s that I’ve created. I had a few more on there before I took these two photos just now, but they either fell off or were removed by me at some time or another. [Well, except for a Dionysos button that I'm pretty sure some kid on the Amtrak stole while I was in the on-train restroom; it's one of those things that I just know, even though I couldn't prove it. Of course, I didn't even notice it was gone until I had already reached Chicago. There was just something about the way that kid kept looking at the button when he and his mother boarded the bus, kept looking at me after I came back from the restroom, and the fact that his mother was dead-asleep before and after I went to the restroom.]

Here’s a close-up (albeit, a dark one) of the buttons. I took it without flash to eliminate glare that would have made them unviewable:


left-to-right are: Top – Satyr & Nymphe (from a Roman mosaic), Narkissos (19thC CE illustration)
Bottom – Apollon & Muse, Hyakinthos & Zephyros, Apollon & laurel branch
(gone missing or out-of-commission: Dionysos, Hermes, Adonis, Eros, Caravaggio’s Narcissus, Hermaphroditos, Neokoroi flame, Hellenion flame)

How Eros has Affected My General Worship: Chloris

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Somehow, I think that the especial cult reverence that I afford Eros and the Erotes has helped me to see how the Theoi are connected and interact. One Goddess, Whom I now feel is often overlooked, Chloris (Flora, in Latin), the Goddess of Flowers, is one who I only really noticed after gravitating toward Eros cultus.

After noticing Chloris, it seemed quite obvious why She should be afforded at least some reverence in Erote worship: Many (and I do mean many) love stories in the mythos of ancient Hellas involve a metamorphisis into flowers. Many flowers are sacred to Aphrodite and the Erotes. Even in modern rituals that many people regard as being totally secular, flowers are often given in romance — and, interestingly, flowers are left for our dead. Again, we come to a relationship between Eros and Thanatos, Love and Death, a relationship which is far more pronounced in Gaelig mythology, and as we can see in the sources on Theoi.com, Ovid -in heavily implying Greek origin of this mythology (indeed, he implies it all over the place)- associates Chloris with the Isles of the Blessed in Elysium, and according to Wikipaedia, She is associated with not only Flowers, but also Spring and New Growth — an incredibly apt Goddess to associate with mythos often interpreted as life-death-rebirth mythos, such as Adonis or Hyakinthos, or even Narkissos.

And let us not forget that, botanically, flowers are basically the sex organs of the plant.

In connecting Chloris to Eros, the nymphai of the flowers are next, then the nymphai as a whole, Apollon, Dionysos, Hermes, Artemis… basically any other Theos with strong connections to the nymphai. In connecting Him to Chloris, we bring Him together with the Seasons, the Winds, the Weather Theoi, Zeus. All roads lead to Eros: Love and Creation.

Eros in My Daily Ritual

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When I first “came back to the Theoi” several years ago (after identifying as a “Satanist” between the ages of 19 and 22, then as “spiritual agnostic” for another year), I was initially “led” by Apollon. Based on the experiences relayed to my by other Hellenistai and Hellenic Neo-Pagans, Apollon seems to do that, a lot. Since coming to understand Eros cult worship, I include specific Eros reverence in my daily devotional worship.

My daily devotional worship is based on the page of Daily Devotions w/ Orphic Hymns that is on the Hellenion website. I follow this format almost exactly with only three real differences:

  • I do not use strictly Orphic hymns. My own theology deviates from that of the Orphics, so continuing to use hymns of their that deviate from my own theology just doesn’t seem right; after all, if you don’t believe it, then don’t recite it in devotional practise just because it’s ancient. If you ask me, there’s a difference between having respect, a certain degree of reverence, and consideration for ancient ways, and then there’s just blindly doing something or saying it just because it’s old. I do use a couple of the Orphic hymns, but pretty far from all of them; I also think that the Taylor translation of the Hymn to Hestia/Vesta is the best one to use, as I think his choice of words, measure, and general “flow” is the best-suited English translation of the hymn as it doesn’t merely translate the words, it gives an amazing feel for Who Hestia is, as a Goddess (some Hellenistai may disagree with me, but if studying primary sources has taught me nothing else, it’s taught me that even though the pre-Christian Hellenic religion was community-based, seldom were the times that people actually agreed on anything). I’m using more and more of my own works, which use simple lyric measures, alternative and/or modified lyric septameters, Beat-influenced free verse, and “slam”-influenced measure and verse.
  • I no longer use “Theos of the days” hymns listed by Campbell that weren’t regarded by Hesiod. I still do devotional practises daily, but a lot of those recitations he listed just felt like “busywork”, to me. Also, a lot of my modern practise is, essentially, Boeotian in origin, and maintains Eros as a primary Theos; while I have immense respect for Dionysos and Dionysian cultists, a lot of the numbered hymns of Orpheus are Dionysos-based — which makes sense for them, as Dionysos was one of their primary deities. For one whose primary cultus paid is “Erotic” and Apollonian in origin, filling a month with Dionysian “busywork” just doesn’t sit well.
  • At night, I also add in a special “Eros portion” at the point in the ritual outline where it says “Hymns to Patron/Matron Deities”

Now, in the interest of “community” cult worship (no matter how small or how many miles apart), let me share with you what I do in that little breaking-up of ritual.

After the hymn to The Stars, I go to my Eros shrine (which, in my small bedroom, is directly across from my Apollon/Hermes/Dionysos shrine, which also doubles as my primary ritual altar), and I light a small “tea light” candle from the Hestia candle on my primary altar/shrine; this, in my head, keep my Eros cult worship symbolically “connected” to my primary/general Hellenic practise. I then take a stick of sandalwood incense and light it from the tea light, get the flame going for a few seconds, then blow out the flame so that the incense smoulders and burns evenly[1]. I then recite the hymns to the Theoi I pay cultus to, starting with Eros. At libations, I first pour a portion of wine to Eros in an offering bowl at His shrine, then to the Pantheon at the bowl at my primary altar; then I turn back to the Eros shrine and take a tiny sip from His bowl. I also do not extinguish the Eros candle after extinguishing the first one.

The act of drinking a portion of the offering I took from a friend’s Shiavite Hindu practise, wherein he tells me that this is customary as it makes the offering a formal invite to the Gods into our lives. This struck me as a beautiful practise, in and of itself, and I also thought long and hard about how Hinduism has maintained many of its practises and traditions through the centuries and how, in ancient times, there is plenty of surviving evidence that little practises were taken back and forth between peoples. I see no reason for that small act to have not been adopted by, or possibly even adopted from Greek cult sects, had the traditions survived Christianity — in fact, I have a huge theory that I need to formalise into an essay about the similarities in practises between ancient Greeks and modern surviving polytheistic religions of Hindus and the Kalash peoples, and why modern polytheists engaging in a reconstructionist method should look to those surviving groups, as well as surviving Greek “folk practises” maintained in rural areas almost completely unchanged for centuries if the goal is to truly connect what we do, as modern worshippers, to the practises of ancient peoples. Shivite Hinduism is, basically (though more complex than just this, I’m sure), a sect that centres on Shiva as a primary deity. Even if I were to assume that this is a practise unique to that sect, that the Shivite sect is essentially what many Hellenics would consider a “cult”, then it still makes some sense to adopt some version of the consumption of the offering within a cult practise. I take a small sip of wine from Eros’ bowl with the thought, belief, and intent in my mind and heart that I am both inviting Eros into my life and a small part of Him into my soul.

I leave the tea light to burn itself out because first off, tea lights in aluminium cups (what I use) are probably the safest candles to do that with and since the cats aren’t allowed in my bedroom (for a large number of reasons), I don’t have to worry about them setting anything on fire. Secondly, as the shrine lies near the foot of my bed, I liken it to “leaving the light on” for a lover to come home to. As a symbolic gesture, it solidifies the invite to Eros into my life and soul.

Footnotes
1: I got the idea for sandalwood specifically from Sannion, as well as others who are Dionysos cultists. On the Hellenion devotions Devotional page I linked above, aromatic herbs are listed as appropriate for Eros, and while I do give aromatics at some times, I arrived at the conclusion for daily sandalwood for two reasons. 1) He shares with Dionysos the epithet of “Eleutherios”, or “The Liberator”. 2) Sandalwood incense, scented oils, scented candles, etc…, are commonly sold today as an Aphrodisiac or Erotic scent. [And, as a bonus, a box of 200 sticks of the sandalwood incense I use costs only $10 and lasts me over six months. As much as some people claim otherwise, being an Hellenistai in the recon method does not have to be expensive.]

The Theoi of Mod

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As I am wont to say, I am a hopeless Mod, so as a post I’m making cos I really want to blog today but can’t think of anything really good to say, let me explain to the non-Mod Pagans and Polytheists and Hellenistai reading this (which is probably everybody but me) the Mod culture with different Theoi.

Apollon: I generally think of Apollon as the most-Mod of the Theoi. Many Hellenistai recognise Apollon as the Theos of Moderation (unlike Nietzscheans, who regard Him as the God of Abstinence — silly, silly, Nietzscheans…), and there is an old saying about Apollon, often presented in the form of an exchange between He and Artemis, wherein Apollon states, “Ah, but I advocate moderation of all things, including moderation itself!” Mods in the 1960s were ragarded as flamboyant dandies in comparison to their working-class backgrounds, but it can’t be denied that they were still considerably less flamboyant than Oscar Wilde, who came before, and the other youth cultures that came after. Mods are still very much like this. The music, which danceable, is hardly the rhythmic thumping of disco and its derivatives (which I regard as Dionysian). Even Mod jazz has some semblance of order amidst the syncopation, but just enough of that freeness to steer clear of that soulless and detestable “smooth jazz”.

Dionysos: Dionysos and Apollon are far from being polar opposites (as Nietzsche liked to portray); to continue that misconception is to underestimate both Theoi, and (in this blogger’s opinion) is very much “missing the mark” and tantamount to blasphemy — but enough about that. Dionysos, through throwing in an element of careful excess (as a Theos of the Theatre and concerts, I highly doubt He approved of Axl Rose’s temper tantrums, and I also find it hard to believe that the Theos of Wine appreciates getting drunk to the point of being sick all over everything, or driving into a tree, or using substances to commit rape) is a Theos perfectly worshipped in just about any nightclub. And really, if any of the Theoi truly appreciate Jazz, I would have to say that it’s Dionysos.

Hermes: Hermes is the Theos most commonly associated with innovation, novelty, and progress — in other words, Hermes is a modernist. Apollon, being among the most sophisticated of the Theoi, is naturally a Modernist (and a modernist) by default, but where Apollon is there to remind us that analogue sound is of superior quality, making the slight medium degeneration from even perfect use of vinyl worth its imperfections, Hermes is there to remind us that it’s perfectly OK to record our records onto mp3′s to not only prevent unnecessary degeneration of the sound recording medium, but because the iPod just looks so cool! A God of Transportation, it was both the desire for affordable transportation and ost WWII resourcefulness that both birthed the Motor Scooter and popularised it amongst British Mods.

Hyakintos: Though commonly regarded amongst mythology buffs and modern worshippers as a Hero, I think there is sufficient enough evidence that the Spartans regarded Him as either a Theos in his own right, or as Hemitheos (demigod) to some extent. That out of the way, let’s look at the most famous attributes of Hyakintos — Young, Male lover and beloved of Apollon, Athletic. Though, in recent years, Mod had been maintained by older generations, at its heart, it’s still a youth culture, meaning that young people are necessary to its growth in both size and spirit. There is also a joke amongst Mod that goes “What do you call a fat Mod? A Trad Skin” and in the book Mod: A Very British Phenomenon, it is stated that “there are no fat Mods”. As for the gay? Well, just check out the first two albums by the band Secret Affair, which my guitarist and I joke solidifies their position as the gayest band composed of all-heterosexual members; also, Pete Townshend has finally admitted that, though he has maintained a heterosexual identity since the 1980s, he “experimented with men” in the 1960s, and at this point, everybody should know that David Bowie was once a more obvious Mod (if you ask me, he never stopped being a Mod, but that’s another story for another time), so obviously sexual ambiguity is not something that Mods should have any sort of problem with (and, historically, is something that Mods typically don’t). By this revelation of Mod, Adonis should be well-suited to Mod worship, as well.

Hekate: I’m not leaving out Goddesses, ladies! A Goddess of gateways and crossroads and the underworld (all of which get mentioned frequently in old blues standards covered by The Yardbirds and The Rolling Stones), Hesiod regarded Her as a feminine counterpart to Hermes and the most powerful of all the Titans. She’s also probably the only Goddess, after Artemis, whom I can envision looking just as regal and Divine with either a bob or pixi haircut. I also biased because there’s a song by Makin’ Time called “Two Coins For the Ferryman”, which seems to contain many Hellenic mythological references including, possibly, Hekate — though I could just be inserting my own meaning there because it’s what I want to hear.

Eros in my Art

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Hellenic pagan penal rosary by ~RowanInBlack on deviantART

This “penal rosary” is probably the first art-thing that I ever consciusly made with Eros in mind.

Where is He?

The two green glass beads are for Dionysos —twice-born, God of the Vine, God of Wine….
The four diamond-shaped beads are for Hermes —sacred to Four, protector of gamblers….
The seven silver beads are for Apollon — silver-bowed, seven is sacred, Lord of Moderation in all things….

The big pink quartz “doughnut” is for Eros. When I saw it at Jo-Ann, after browsing paints and canvases, I was inspired to do the rosary as, earlier that week, I had read “A Garland For Zeus” by Drew Campbell on the Hellenion website. I decided on an Irish penal rosary design for a few reasons, though mainly because of my own Irish heritage and as a nod to the time when Catholicism was persecuted in Ireland, much like how Polytheism has been more recently persecuted in modern Greece.

It seemed such an appropriate piece for Eros: It’s circular and unending. It’s pink, a colour associated with love and sex. It’s a large, though palm-sized, and natural, albeit wrought stone (it is said that in Thespiae that they maintained the oldest cult image of Eros, being a large unwrought stone).

I’ve had to re-string this piece at least twice, but it still remains one of my favourite devotional crafts to Eros.

Urban Theoi

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One thing that I always loved about Hellenismos is that many of the Theoi (Gods and Goddesses) have both urban and rural aspects and many others are neither inclined toward one place or another; the few Theoi that may even seem “strictly rural” are still very important to urban life. Basically, Hellenismos is a religion that, unlike some other Pagan or Polytheistic religions, makes no pretenses about the alleged virtues of rustic live over city life; all directions of human living are spiritually valid on an equal playing field, so to speak.

Still, though, I like to think that the ancient Hellenistai had been quoted as saying “the Gods of Hellas are the Gods of civilization” for a reason. ;)

One of the most obvious Theoi “of civilization” would be Athene: The namesake for the very large and very ancient city of Athens. The legends behind the founding of Athens state that Athene and Posiedon were feuding over who the city belonged to, and Athene won this dispute with the creation of the olive tree. Also being the Theon of wisdom, Athene seems a natural comrade of large universities and museums, halls of learning and collected wisdom of generations passed and present.

Museums themselves are named for the Mousai, and statues of the Mousai graced the entrance to the Library of Alexandria — Alexandria being the largest city in the world, in the days of the ancient library. The Mousai are the companions to Apollon, a Theos whose domains include education, medicine, and the arts — all institutions that typically experience greater growth, development, and cultivation in large urban areas before such is experienced out in the countryside.

Hestia (and her Roman “equivalent”, Vesta), in ancient times, was believed the heart and hearth of not only every home, but every polis.

Lykia Poet has written a very interesting article in her own blog citing the presence of Aphrodite in every city by way of common doves (commonly known as pigeons). The Cult of Eros and the Cult of Aphrodite have been heavily entwined with each-other, in both ancient and modern times, and while more often pictured with hares on ancient pottery, doves are another animal commonly held sacred to Eros.

Hermes is traditionally associated with messengers, commerce, and living by one’s wits. Urban life is brimming with all of that — not so much in rustic areas. And while city folk depend on farmers and keepers of livestock (another one of Hermes’ domains being cowherds) for food, rural dwellers benefit greatly from the money brought in from the cities — Hermes is a sly one, isn’t He?

Dionysos was honoured both in the woods and in the theatre. Theatres are typically best off in large cities, packing an audience in from wall to bloody wall, bringing in just enough of a din to make the make-believe on stage (or even the screen at our modern cinemas) all the more lively.

From the Dream Journal

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I’m not sure what city I was in, but that’s unimportant.  I start out walking along the pavement with this guy I sort of know in what appears to be one of those older, formerly Middle Class areas of a city like Chicago — the houses are all rather tall and almost all of them have these wrought iron gates.  Then there’s this HUGE house.  Did I say HUGE?  Make that HUGE house.  It’s up on this hill and has this HUGE front garden with fountains.

We stop in front of it to look at this garden and the gates open so, curious, we step in an only after we’ve stepped in, we see all of these “people”, whom neither of us saw as we were just standing out on the pavement looking inward.  Most of them look to be in this ambiguous sort of 25-40 age range, most of them fit, but there are maybe three or four who are really skinny and about the same number who are really fat.  All of them are wearing sparse clothing, like ancient tunics and tropical sarongs, all in really elaborate patterns.  They don’t really seem to be paying us much mind at first, and are just merrily gallivanting about.

I remember this garden rather vividly, even after being up for a few hours.  There are a lot of almond blossom trees that are flowering, several lilacs trees, a few elaborately trimmed evergreen shrubs with the branches sort of woven into spirals.  I recall a bunch of rose bushes, some of them pruned into miniature trees, but most of them not, and I noted a bunch of fuschias.

To get to the house atop the hill, there’s this really elaborate layout of steps.  almost all of the steps have some kind of elaborate mosaic that looks rather Graeco-Roman.  I remember remarking to my companion that a few of the figures in the mosaics included Dionysos, Apollon, Eros, Hermaphroditos, Hyakinthos, Adonis, several zodiac symbols, and some writing that I either couldn’t read or don’t remember right now.

The house itself is also oddly elaborate.  It looks kind of like a cross between a Victorian octagonal house and a sort of ancient Graeco-Roman stadium.  There are grape vines and rose vines growing up around a lot of columns places around the house to create a sort of “hanging garden” appearance; the house is at least three stories high and the columns go up about two and a half stories with connector beams placed at even-spaces heights in about three or four tiers.  Ivy is growing up the house itself.

The doors are just wide open, so we walk right in and on either side of the entry foyer is a reproduction of the Praxiteles Eros, and there’s a really pretty fountain, the base of which appears to be all glass except for some discreet copper piping that you can see through the glass.  A woman rushes over to us and announces frantically that “they” have been expecting us.  In a sort of Rocky Horror kind of fashion, we’re stripped down and redressed in some elaborately embroidered linen tunics, and we’re ushered into this hallway.

In the hallway, the walls and floor and ceiling are decorated in similarly elaborate (gawd, I wish I could think of another word right now) mosaics to the steps outside.  Oil lamp sconces are places pretty high up the walls at even intervals of about a couple yards each; high up enough to keep from getting knocked into, but low enough to provide adequate light.  We seem to be heading rather gradually upward, it’s not very steep, but when we get to the end, there’s this HUGE room; it’s got to be about an acre in area, at least, probably more.  There’s a very shallow pool about a few feet in; very shallow, only about two inches deep itself, but the water doesn’t get more than maybe half an inch deep.  There are steps that water seems to be flowing down.  The steps are about deep enough for an adult to comfortably sit on.

The the top of these steps, twelve or thirteen of them, if this huge sort of”window-box” shrine.  It’s about four feet high and three feet deep into the wall.  People have left all sorts of things there: small statuettes, bouquets of flowers, baskets of fruits, candles, hand-written pieces, and in the wall at the back inside of this “window box” is a stained glass sort of mosaic of Eros, Apollon, Adonis, and Aphrodite, and it’s illuminated in the back.  On the steps are sitting and reclining and laying on their bellies several people (about seven to ten each of men and women), but about twice as many statues.

I crawl up the stairs and sit in front of the shrine, almost exactly in front of the illuminated picture.  I beg my companion to come up and sit with me, as he’s stayed back before the pool.  After much pleading and arm-waving, he starts up.  Just as our fingers are about to touch, I wake up.