New Books in My Library

Well, as some of my readers already know, I do consider myself to be a scholar.  I've always been a well-read person since I was a child.  In college, as a History/English/Humanities major, I was on reading and writing overload, especially with the Honors Programme.  So, when I realized that I was actually a polytheist, I tried to find things to read.  There wasn't anything in the 1960s and 1970s in regular book stores.  It is still difficult unless you are close to a college or university book store. Back then there was no Amazon. What little there was could be cataloged under the heading of DRECK.  It took a while to find those first books, which were almost all published by university presses.
Anyway, I am having to replace some titles (too tattered etc.) and I am getting into the early philosophers (the Atomists and pre-Socratics).  There is also a lot of newer scholarship out there, so I need to keep up if I decide to become a priestess and neokoroi.

Connelly, Joan Breton.  Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece

Patton, Kimberley Christina.  Religion of the Gods: Ritual, Paradox, and Reflexivity

MacIntyre, Alasdair.  Dependent Rational Animals: Why Human Beings Need the Virtues (The Paul Lectures)

Deacy, Susan.  Athena.

Waterfield, Robin. The First Philosophers: The Pre-Socratics and Sophists

Epicurus.  The Art of Happiness.

Porphyry.  Porphyry's Against the Christians.

Celsus.  On the True Doctrine: A Discourse Against the Christians

Mikalson, Jon D. Ancient Greek Religion

Pagden, Anthony. The Enlightenment: And Why It Still Matters

Mills, Stephanie.  Epicurean Simplicity.

Guthrie, William.  Greeks and Their Gods (Ariadne Series)

Johnston, Sarah Iles. Ancient Greek Divination.

The Consolations of Philosophy: A New Series of Posts

Now, I am a realist and not a pie-in-the-sky romantic.  This is a result of my own personal experience as well as personality.  The Classical world generally was a world of realism.  The great philosophical schools of Epicureanism, Stoicism, Platonism and Aristotelianism each tried to deal with the great question of human happiness:  what was it?  of what did it consist? 
However, even human happiness was/is a fleeting thing, at best.  Yes, boys and girls, you have to put on your adult underwear and learn to carry on with gaping wounds as well as the smaller scratches which will never heal.  And they WILL not. Most all POP Psychology self-help is a crock as is vicarious atonement.  Philosophy is not navel-gazing.

The Theogony -- The Gods Created Themselves

One of the major reasons why I love this religion is Hesiod.  The beginning cosmology myth is so satisfying, I just breath in and know in my heart the truth of it.  The Gods created themselves as the Universe started to create itself.  There was no pre-existent divine being creating out of nothing.  Nothing existed -- then, there was something.  It is beautiful because no negative dogmas can be created out of it.  There is no good or evil.  It just is.  Thales also opined that the number of Gods must be more than all the grains of sand.  Of course, that must be true, as they were being born along with the Universe.  However, as billions of years expanded onward, more creatures continued to be created/evolved in this Universe.  Eventually, one of these creatures developed the ability to think and to recognize the Gods.  It took a long time for these first people to develop pantheons.  The Gods had been alone since the beginning of time and thought that they were alone.  Many horrible things were done at first (human sacrifice).  Eventually, it became known through the Oracles that the Gods were displeased with this type of sacrifice.  Sacrifice then became the offering of the purest of the animal stock and that was sufficient.
As time went on, problems within the human community arose and we saw the rise of the philosophers.  We wanted to know how to a good and wise life.  Great sages such as Solon and the 7 Sages of Delphi left their marks on the temple walls of our cultural ancestors.  We owe to them the beginning of Western civilization.  They are as much a part of us now in the 21st century.  Let us honour them as heroes along with our Gods, for they will help us put to rights a civilization that is but a dust-bin. 

The Liturgy of Sacrifice

There have been recent postings on Hellenic Pagan and on Hellenion_Chat which have led me down various trails of thought on ritual and its liturgy.
The major part of an Hellenic festival ritual liturgy is the time of sacrifice.  This is the prime focus.  Most modern people will claim to know nothing about this.  Of course, this is not true.  It is a case of bad religious education, as most Hellenistos and modern "pagans" were former Christians.  This is especially so for Roman Catholics, the Orthodox and members of "High" Protestant churches: Episcopalian, Anglican, and Lutheran.  It was especially clear in the Roman Church before Vatican II (yes, I do remember that far back) that the Mass was far more of a mystical mystery to enter than it has since become.  Anyway, the replication of Jesus' sacrifice is central to those services along with all the other theological understandings which come with it.
Our understanding of sacrifice is, of course, quite different.  It is the community offering to develop and further the reciprocal relationship with a group of the Gods from the pantheon.  These are the Gods of whom the stories are told of what they did for the community in days long ago.
Now, I will never be a main-stream "Politically Correct" individual."  The only reason I use fat and bone scraps cut from my meat is because I do not know how to butcher a chicken.  My Grandmother knew how, though, because she came from Russia.  Even my Grandfather had to ask neighbours to butcher his hogs and an occasional cow.  It is not something most of us know how to do anymore.  I know several Asatru groups who do have access to a co-religionist who is a butcher who will ritually slay a lamb or goat.  That may be a good way to go.  Ritual purity is usually equal across the lines; however, if you are acting as priest or priestess I would say that you should be there for the event, otherwise you are a hypocrite.  Of course, the Pythagoreans did not give meat sacrifice; but, IMHO, they were weird.  For those of us in the Northeast, I plan on sacrificing lobsters to Poseidon.  So far so good this hurricane season -- the steam will please him, YUM!.  Finally,  ask the Gods involved what they would like.  No one has even broached that most obvious of answers.   

Why Borrow Holidays/Festivals?

Maybe I am just getting old and crochety; however, I can hardly see straight when modern people take over and occasionally subvert another religion's holidays/festivals.  The thing that brings this to mind is a recent discussion happening over at the Google+ Pagan community about what "we" can "get out of Easter."
Give me a f*****ing break here, for Olympos' sake!  This is just another wonderful reason why I refuse to be targeted as a pagan -- oooh, the stupid shows so much it hurts my head.  If Christians need the nefarious dogma of vicarious atonement to understand that life goes on, let them.  I knew this a long time ago from both philosophical and scientific resources -- I don't need to be atoned for because there is no such thing as Original Sin (TM), created out of whole cloth by Augustine of Hippo.  You can't pick-and-choose what you want from a menu:  their menu is fixed -- it's all or nothing.
This is probably why I am moving further away from Unitarian-Universalism, too.  I like the people at our local congregation; however, I don't like it that if religion comes up it usually has either a Judeo-Christian slant, neo-pagan, or is Buddhist in orientation (I guess they love Joseph Campbell, well I can't influence their taste, it's just not mine).  It ignores the entire Western Classical tradition as if it's not "Politically Correct"  enough for a liberal organization.  Of course, African drums are not off the menu, either, and I do prefer a Haydn string quartet.  As a further matter of interest, I do not believe in the concept of race at all -- there are only ethnicities.  The genetic difference I have between myself and any living person on this planet is the same difference I have with any member of my birth family.  What I like is what I like, irrespective of the who, what, where, or when.  BAH!  FLUFF BUNNIES ALL!
As a further note, these people have completely ignored Eastern Orthodox Easter, which occurs in May this year.  How about those apples!  This is why syncretism does not work -- and will never really work.  The idiots only think about Roman Easter.  Will my headache ever go away!  

Winter Gods

I have been thinking about this topic throughout this so-so winter that we have been experiencing here in SE Connecticut.  When I was a child -- way back in the 1950s -- I remember our pond freezing in November and having snow on Thanksgiving.  This was normal.  In fact, winter rarely "ended" until the end of March; and, there was the occasional April snow that would bring at least 8 more inches.  To say the least, I am a Snow Girl still to this day (I generally dislike summer).  Connecticut is not, even in this time of global warming, a Mediterranean climate.  The ground demands a snow cover in order to properly conserve a good water table for the following year.  Rain when it lands on frozen ground just runs off into the creeks that eventually end up in the ocean.  We call it Mother Nature's Fertilizer.  Of course, the stupid people don't know how to add 2+2 when they make comments about hating snow-- this is one of the reasons industry has managed to hoodwink so many about the real danger of global warming.  We have to assist the gods of winter because they cannot do it all:  Poseidon, the Northern Winds, the Cloud(Snow) Nymphs, and Zeus. 

Elections 2012



Oh hail, Goddess Columbia, Protectress of our great land,

Be with us I pray as we go do our duty as citizens next Tuesday.

May we still ourselves before your altars, remembering that

What we do should not be for selfish reasons but for the best

Of our country and its people as a whole:

That no one, including the government, should have control

Over another person, except in the criminal justice system;

And, finally, as that great Hero Franklin Delano Rooselvelt

said, we need to be free from the greatest fear of all -- fear

itself.



It is only by this that we can truly be a great nation: one made

out of many. So may it be, Great Columbia!