#hieros gamos

[sag-dab-sar]

Modern Theogamia Ritual

▪️ Notes ▪️

I place the festival on the fixed date of February 14 but you can of course use any calendar

There is a purposeful timeline in this ritual: it starts with Zeus and Hera as “adults” [Teleios / Teleia], proceeds to Zeus and Hera being “marriage participants” [Gamelius / Gamelia], and finally ends with them as married “King and Queen” [Basileus / Basileia] of the Gods.

Anything in brackets is not said

Actions are marked by a blue dimond

I do not offer to Hestia every ritual, she receives first and last libation of every year. If you desire it can be added before the libation to Zeus & Hera and before the closing.

My self purifying method is left out, you can simply anoint self link by @/sisterofiris

Entertaining the Gods seems absent in the outlines I have seen— since hymns are not actual music in modern festivals (usually). For something like a yearly festival I find offering entertainment to be a good idea. Anything can be done, I chose music.

As far as I am aware bells are not used historically but I use it when invoking the Gods especially for inviting, libating, and offering. Something about marking my words to them with loud noise I've always liked.

“I have praised you before I shall praise you again” is a phrase I developed based on the idea of Kharis to use at the ending of libations and offerings.

The reading is supposed to be one 'story' not broken up into the distinctive ancient pieces.

This has my offerings: incense; water; cupcakes. It can be anything of course.

▪️ Ritual ▪️

🌺Prepare Space

🔹Have altar set up, including representations (of any variety) for Zeus & Hera

🔹Have prayers and words available

🔹Prepare liquid & food offerings and put to side

🔹Have unlit incense

🔹Have Hestia's unlit candle / flame if you use one

🔹Prepare anything needed for activities

🔹Have vessel of water, and something to extinguish in it

🌺Clean Self

🔹Wash hands & rinse face

🔹Possible addition: brush teeth and/or use mouthwash, as you will be speaking the names of the Gods

🔹Possible addition: I have hand sanitizer on my altar that I use before touching anything

🌺Khernips If You Want It

🔹Preform procession if you desire

🔹Light candles except Hestia’s

🔹Take vessel of water, light something with fire, and extinguish it in that water

🔹Ring bell

“Apollo Katharsios by your power may this water be purified”

🔹Sprinkle this water over the sacred space

“I purify this space for ritual”

🌺Purify Self

{Personal choice}

🌺Open The Ritual

🔹Ring bell

“I call upon Thundering Zeus and Ox Eyed Hera, Come O’ Great Theoi that I may honor your holy marriage. The Hieros Gamos!

I humbly request that you be present for this ritual. As your worshipper I wish to do you honor. Come to this altar which has been established with great respect.

Hear my words Zeus Teleios and Hera Teleia!

Hear my words Zeus Gamelios and Hera Gamelia!

Hear my words Zeus Basileus and Hera Basileia!

Khaire Theoi!”

🔹Ring bell

“Hestia, in the high dwellings of all, both deathless gods and men who walk on earth, you have gained an everlasting abode and highest honor [1]

I invite you— for you are first and last.

Ever present in my home! I light your sacred flame for this celebration!”

🔹Light flame

🌺Incense Offering

🔹Ring Bell

“This incense I light for you glorious Theoi, that its aroma may be pleasant for you”

🔹Light Incense

🌺Hymns

🔹Ring bell

“Zeus Teleios, Praise To You

I will sing of Zeus, chiefest among the Theoi and greatest, all-seeing, the lord of all, the fulfiller who whispers words of wisdom to Themis as she sits leaning towards him. Be gracious, all-seeing Son of Cronos, most excellent and great!” [2]

🔹Ring bell

“Hera Teleia Praise To You

I sing of golden-throned Hera whom Rhea bare. Queen of the immortals is she, surpassing all in beauty: she is the sister and the wife of loud-thundering Zeus,—the glorious one whom all the blessed throughout high Olympus reverence and honour even as Zeus who delights in thunder.” [3]

🌺Libation

🔹Ring bell

“Glorious Zeus Teleios and Hera Teleia, I sacrifice this liquid to you on the day of your wedding”

🔹Hold up liquid vessel

“This fresh water I pour out to the groom Zeus and the bride Hera"

🔹Pour it out into bowl, into fire, or on ground

"I rejoice in the Heiros Gamos, I rejoice in your union!

I have praised you before I shall praise you again!”

🌺Reading

“Let me speak of the Hieros Gamos, the Sacred Marriage of Zeus Gamelius and Hera Gamelia:

There is a presence of a cuckoo seated on the scepter. For Zeus was in love with Hera in her maidenhood he changed himself into this bird, in order to seduce her and she caught it to be her pet. [4] Zeus made Hera his blooming wife: and she was joined in love with the king of gods and men, and brought forth Hebe and Ares and Eileithyia. [5] Let your nuptial hymns, your nuptial songs, greet him and his wife! 'Twas in the midst of such wedding festivities that the Moirai formerly united Olympian Hera to the King Zeus who governs the gods from the summit of his inaccessible throne. Oh! Hymen! oh! Hymenaios! Rosy Eros with the golden wings held the reins and guided the chariot; 'twas he, who presided over the union of Zeus and the fortunate Hera. Oh! Hymen! oh! Hymenaios!"[6]

🌺Entertainment

“Glorious Gaia has given the the golden apples and tree to Zeus when he married Hera. [7] O’ Zeus Gamelius and Hera Gamelia, may music bring happiness on this joyous day of your union”

🔹Play "Bridal Chorus" lyrical version by Richard Wagner (version I use is here: link)

[English lyrics are here for meaning. They do not need to be spoken unless you want to]

Faithfully guided, draw near to where the blessing of love shall preserve you!

Triumphant courage, the reward of love, joins you in faith as the happiest of couples!

Champion of virtue, proceed! Jewel of youth, proceed!

Flee now the splendour of the wedding feast, may the delights of the heart be yours!

This sweet-smelling room, decked for love, now takes you in, away from the splendour.

Faithfully guided, draw now near to where the blessing of love shall preserve you!

Triumphant courage, love so pure, joins you in faith as the happiest of couples!

As God hath blessedly consecrated you, We consecrate you to joy; Attended by love's bliss, Think long upon the present hour!

[I interpret “God hath blessed” to be The Fates as mentioned in the reading]

🌺Offering

🔹Hold up offerings on plate

“On this joyous day of union, I bring these cupcakes in celebration!”

🔹Ring bell

“Zeus Basileus and Hera Basileia I pray to you: your presence is mighty! Your influence is immeasurable! I greatly thank you for your presence in my life."

🔹Place offering on altar in front of their representation

"King Zeus and Queen Hera please partake in my humble gift on your day of union.

I have praised you before, I shall praise you again!”

🌺Closing

“The King and Queen of the deathless Theoi are joined in union!

Zeus loved Hera passionately for three hundred years! [8]

Zeus Basileus and Hera Basileia I thank you for attending my celebration of your union. I hope it has gladdened your hearts.

Farewell!”

▪️ Literature Used ▪️

[1] Partial Homeric Hymn to Hestia

[2] Homeric Hymn 23 to Zeus

[3] Homeric Hymn 12 to Hera

[4] Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 17. 4

[5] Hesiod, Theogony 921 ff

[6] Aristophanes, Birds 1720 ff

[7] Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2. 113

[8] Callimachus, Aetia Fragment 2. 3

4-8 can be found on Hera's Theoi Project Myth 1 page Link

The divider is by @/thecutestgrotto

Sorry for any spelling mistakes, especially with the epithets I tried my best to catch any

[mythologyofthepoetandthemuse]

The Derveni Krater, a masterpiece of ancient metalwork. Found in Derveni, near Thessaloniki, in 1965. The funerary inscription on the krater writes it's dedicated to Astiouneios, son of Anaxagoras, from Larissa, an aristocrat. Some believe that this elaborate artefact was made in Athens while others suppose that it could be created in the Macedonian court, the date of its creation isn't clear as well, generally categorised as Hellenistic. What is most important though is the krater's vivid, playful and sensual decoration with satyrs, maenads and the pair of Dionysus and Ariadne. Usually, when someone died unmarried and the family had the means, such a depiction of a happy mated afterlife was preferred so to comfort the relatives for their loss. The relationship depicted between Dionysus and Ariadne seems more than sensual, the transparency of her clothing, along with his nakedness and their stances are more than revealing of their common passion.

Now at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, Greece. The Derveni Krater may seem gold but it's actually made of bronze.

[an-anxious-crow]

"I sing of golden-throned Hera whom Rhea bare. Queen of the immortals is she, surpassing all in beauty: she is the sister and wife of loud-thundering Zeus, -- the glorious one whom all the blessed throughout high Olympus reverence and honour even as Zeus who delights in thunder."

Homeric Hymn 12, to Hera

Happy Theogamia!

[tarotdeana]

El Andrógino, conocido por los alquimistas como Rebis, es un símbolo que representa la unión de los opuestos, la dinámica entre el Ying y el Yang, lo masculino y lo femenino, arriba y abajo, la luz y la oscuridad. Varias cartas del Tarot lo muestran con diferentes rostros y vestiduras. En la carta del Sol ☀️ aparece en la figura de un par de gemelos, llamados hierosgamos.

[magdalene-spirit]

The Hieros gamos is seamless intimacy, & holy communion with the One

It is worship of the unknown & the Mystery

THROUGH its forms

In this union, of borderless intimacy, there are no persons Only the holy flow of consciousness perceiving & knowing itself

Rooted & embodied-

Physical form in contemplation of rising sensation opens a door

through which we enter the inner holy of holies of the higher Magdalene temple

It is the temple of sensation & feeling states of consciousness as immanent vibrating presence

This is the holiest communion with your own vibration-existence

This immersion in vibration you crave

This is the intoxication with love & the divine madness— you long for

& seek in the other-

Know this in yourself first then you can come into union with another without need & holding on

Your desire is not wrong

but when it is covered with need it prevents

the truest of love to precipitate like a mist of perfume into the room

[emmajeanisnotmylover]

hieros gamos.

your touch, a charm your kiss, a trance green man that you are abundant, overflowing sprouting grasses, blooming, leaning in your tiger's eyes hold me close while you and I merge deeply your sensitive skin inside me like silk magnetized and ravenous in awe and in love, and even more than that gently spreading heart salves on unseen wounds you touch your tongue upon my skin (a sacrament like none before it) and split me open with such care I am opened to gaia I am opened to lilith I am opened up to sky and down to earth to cosmos and the underworlds to volcanoes and to rains to winds and oceans I am opened to artemis, persephone, and parvati I am between the worlds and rooted in you rooting through you over and around your stamen down through your blood, your bones, your stones your water, your pollen, your nature and down into the earth herself I am rooted through you and elevated into the heavens I am the tree of life, of this realm and every next one my throat is open, that holy portal from voice to vulva I crest and break over you, over and again through you, and around you and the most primal holy light shoots from you, through me from tip to top up through sibling trees and out to stars down through soil and bedrock engulfing ancestors plunging straight to the core of the earth. in the service of aphrodite through soft skins on soft skins scar tissue is made and remade new again alchemy pouring through our pores we exchange molecules and magicks through our fields, our fluids, saliva, and breath every part of me ever misused or abused ignored or unseen passed over for surface pleasures and cheap thrills as you see me, worship me, pleasure me whole and drape me in the finest of green gowns ever known to the gods woven of bluebonnets and grama grasses firewheels and prairie dropseed you tuck a thistle behind my ear and flowercrown my stigma with sweet reverence and love you hold me up to gaia, selena, and great mother - in your arms, I am safe. in your heart, I am seen. together, we create new worlds and sow new dreams.

[alchemyofmaya]

This new world is ours, I created it with all my Soul .. for you, my love 🌹

(for us.. for me.. that’s all there really is, it’s all just a dream)

[haggishlyhagging]

The moonman or moon god who was gradually evolved from the earlier ideas of the moon as fertilizing influence, retained the functions and powers which had formerly been ascribed to the moon. Indeed he came into being, as it were, by a concentration of the rather diffuse power which the moon had before dispensed. This moonman or moon god became the one giver of growth and fertility. For instance, the king, who was the earthly representative of the moon, was usually the rainmaker, and if the harvests failed he would bear the blame, perhaps even pay for his failure with his life. The moon god also inherited the moon's powers of fertility in regard to animals and human beings, so that he was approached by childless women with gifts and prayers that he would remove their curse of sterility.

It will be recalled that among the most primitive tribes it was felt that women and animals could only bear young by the power of the moon, a feeling which was crystallized among certain tribes into the belief that the moon was the real husband of all women, who conceived not by human seed but by the impregnation of a moon ray. It is not surprising therefore that in religions where the moon god is worshipped we should find that a marriage ceremonial is celebrated between the women worshippers and the god or his human representative. At first this custom was carried out in the case of every ordinary marriage as a purely secular measure, a necessary proceeding to ensure that the marriage should be fruitful. The king or headman, as the impersonation of the moon, slept with the bride on the first night of the marriage. This custom survived in France into the middle ages in the Seigneur's right. A similar marriage ceremonial came to form the central rite of the woman's mysteries in many ancient religions. This is a hieros gamos, a sacred marriage or holy matrimony which was thought to be absolutely necessary, not only for the fertility of the women who took part in it, but also for the crops and herds of the community.

In many religions these "mysteries" were performed annually and constituted one of the chief religious festivals. They are the basis for many of the fertility rites which have been so often described in connection with antique religions, and they have survived in the Spring carnival which still takes place preceding Lent, for Lent and Easter are festivals associated with the moon. These rites are connected with the dying and resurrecting gods, who are moon gods, or are sons of the Moon Mother.

During these festivals it is reported that the women displayed an abandon and gross sensuality which did not represent their normal characters at all. The participators might be respectable members of the society in everyday life. But at the time of these rites it was their duty to indulge in the grossest sensuality in order to stimulate the fertilizing powers of the god. Obscene jests and actions were a part of this deliberate attempt to arouse the god, and the lasciviousness which was displayed was intended to excite the Heavenly Bridegroom to bestow his fertilizing powers abundantly on the tribe.

Briffault gives the reason for these customs in the following passage: "The explanation of the sensual and sexual character of [these] religious rites lies in the notion that every function of woman, whether as mother, as wife, as supplier of food, as cultivator of the soil, as sorceress, witch, prophetess, or priestess, postulates her union with the god who is the bestower of these powers. The indecency so conspicuous as a feature of all heathen religions has everywhere reference to that union, in some form or other, of women with divine beings. The union of men with goddesses plays virtually no part in those conceptions and practices. It is to women that the sacred marriage with the Divine Bridegroom is a functional necessity; men do not require to be united with a divine bride to fulfill their functions. But every religion, from the most primitive to the highest, is pervaded with the idea that union with a god, a hieros gamos, or "Holy Matrimony," is a necessity to every woman."

-M. Esther Harding, Woman’s Mysteries: Ancient and Modern

[johnny-hoxton]

A queen, dressed in blue, surmounted by the moon, and a sun above a king dressed in red; these two emblems represent the alchemical principles of the dissolving 'lac virginis' (mercury), and the coagulating masculine principle (sulphur).

The Sacred Inner Marriage is an internal alchemical process bringing the sacred feminine into holy union with the sacred masculine. The return to inner wholeness symbolised by this mechanism is the essential key to liberation.

[criaturassolaress]

[parafrazerofhistory]

Sacred Marriage at Eleusis

“In the great mysteries solemnised at Eleusis in the month of September the union of the skygod Zeus with the corn-goddess [i.e., grain-goddess] Demeter appears to have been represented by the union of the hierophant with the priestess of Demeter, who acted the parts of god and goddess. But their intercourse was only dramatic or symbolical, for the hierophant had temporarily deprived himself of his virility by an application of hemlock. The torches having been extinguished, the pair descended into a murky place, while the throng of worshippers awaited in anxious suspense the result of the mystic congress, on which they believed their own salvation to depend. After a time the hierophant reappeared, and in a blaze of light silently exhibited to the assembly a reaped ear of corn, the fruit of the divine marriage. Then in a loud voice he proclaimed, ‘Queen Brimo has brought forth a sacred boy Brimos,’ by which he meant, ‘The Mighty One has brought forth the Mighty.’ The corn-mother in fact had given birth to her child, the corn, and her travail-pangs were enacted in the sacred drama. This revelation of the reaped corn appears to have been the crowning act of the mysteries.”

—J. G. Frazer, The Magic Art & the Evolution of Kings, part 2 (The Golden Bough, vol. II, pp. 138-139)

c. 1900 sketch by H. Graillot of a Pompeiian fresco depicting the Hieros Gamos (L-R: Iris, Hera, Zeus).

(Source: H. Graillot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

[paganizmturkiye]

Sevgililer günü ve Pagan kökenleri

Sevgililer Günü, her yılın 14 Şubat günü birçok ülkede kutlanan özel gündür.

Şubat ayı ortasının aşk ile ilişkisi antik çağlara dayanmaktadır. Antik Yunan takvimlerinde, Ocak ayı ortası ile Şubat ayı ortasının arasında kalan zaman Gamelyon ayı olarak adlandırılmıştı ve Zeus ile Hera'nın kutsal evliliğine adanmıştı.

Antik Roma'da 15 Şubat, bereket tanrısı Lupercus'un onuruna, Lupercalia günü olarak kutlanmaktaydı. Bu günde,Lupercus'un din adamları Tanrıya keçi kurban ederlerdi. Daha sonra kafalarının üstüne koydukları bir parça keçi derisi ile Lupercus'u simgeleyerek, Roma sokaklarında koşturup, karşılaştıkları herkese dokunurlardı.G enç kızlar gönüllü olarak ileri atılır ve bereket Tanrısının dokunuşundan paylarını almaya çabalarlardı. İnanışa göre bu dokunuş sayesinde doğurganlıkları kolaylaşacaktı.

Lupercalia bayramının arifesi olan 14 Şubat'ta genç erkeklerin genç kızların isimleri yazlı kura çekerek bayram boyunca 'çift' olma alışkanlığı vardı. 469'da Papa bu gayri-hristiyan bayramını yasaklayarak sadece kura çekilişine izin verdi. Ancak artık kuralarda kızların değil azizlerin isimlerini yazılıydı.

Romantik aşk ile Valentine arasındaki bağlantı ilk olarak 14. yüzyıla ait kaynaklarda görülmektedir. 1381 tarihli Parlement of Foules adlı kitaba göre, Fransa'da ve İngiltere'da 14 Şubat geleneksel olarak kuşların çiftleşme günü olarak bilinmekteydi. Günün bu özelliğinden dolayı sevgililer birbirlerine güzel sözler yazan notlar vermekteydi ve bu notlarda birbirlerine Valentine diye hitap etmekteydiler.

14 Şubat, 1800 yıllarda Amerika'lı Esther Howland'ın ilk Sevgililer Günü kartını yollamasından bu yana çok sayıda insanın kutladığı toplumsal bir olay olmuştur. Bunun doğal sonucu olarak olayın ticari yönü çok fazla önem kazanmış, sevgililer günü tüm dünyada ticaretin canlandığı bir dönem haline gelmiştir.

Sevgililer Günü Eski Bir Pagan Bayramıdır.

Hristiyanlığın boynuzlu, keçi bacaklı şeytan figürünün çıkış noktası Keltlerin Cernunnos'u ve Yunanlıların Pan'ı gibi eski dinin verimlilik İlahlarıdır ve bu tanrılar kötülük değil, bereket ve bolluk tanrılarıdır: İnsanlar İlk Çağda, özellikle anaerkil Anadolu'da, bu bereket Tanrılarına doğanın ortasında içip eğlenerek şölenler taparlardı! Sonunda hristiyanlık doğdu, eski masum verimlilik ilahlarına şeytan dedi, engİzisyonu kurdu, insanları kurtarmak adına benzeri ancak hitler döneminde görülecek inanılmaz yöntemlerle milyonlarca kişiyi öldürdü, dini yaymak için seferler düzenletti, savaşlar açtırdı... Daha da çok insanın yitip gitmesine neden oldu.

Oysa eski bereket ve doğa tanrılarının ayinlerinin hep şölen ortamında,kadın erkek eşitliğinde, hatta kadın önderliğinde, neşe ve eğlence içinde geçtiği biliniyor. Örneğin, şeytanın çıkış noktası olan keçi bacaklı,seks düşkünü kır Tanrıları olan faunların başları Faunus adlı bir Tanrıydı ve ona kimi zaman da Lupercus denirdi. Lupercus'un en kutsal bayramı ise 15 Şubattı!

Lupercalia günü şölenler verilir, içki su gibi akar, isteyen cinselliği yaşardı doğanın bağrında.

İS 495’de papa Gelasius bu Pagan festivalini yasakladı.Ama bütünüyle yok edemeyeceğini düşünerek yerine kendi görüşüne uygun bir kutlama koymaya karar verdi. Ama eski Pagan Tanrısı Lupercus yerine, geçecek bir aziz bulmalıydı.

Sonunda piskopos Valentine bu göreve seçildi; çünkü imparator Claudius tarafından gençleri evlendirdiği için kafası kesilmişti. Bu davranışı tarihe “aşıkları evlendirirdi” şeklinde yüce bir davranış olarak yazılsa da, aslında Valentin, serbest aşk ile sevişenleri engellemek ve tek eşliliği yaymak için insanları evlendiriyordu! Bilindiği gibi hristiyanlıkta boşanma yoktu!

Ama Lupercalia insanoğlunun yüreğinde öyle yer etmişti ki, hristiyanlığın yayılmasına dek sürdü. İS 494 yılında papa 15 Şubat’ı “Bakire Meryem’in Arınması” bayramına çevirdi!

Papa Gelasius belki Pagan festival ve onun seks yüklü kutlamalarını unutturdu ama, istediği sonucu hiç elde edemedi; çünkü insanlar Valentine’in yolundan gidip o günü "evlenmenin kutsal günü" olarak değil, aşıkların günü olarak kutlamaya başladılar.

Ama ilginçtir ki, aşkı yasaklayan bir despotun binlerce yıllık anısı, Kozmik Şakacı'nın oyunuyla artık aşk yüzünden akla gelmektedir.

Kurallar doğal içgüdüleri ne zaman yenebilmiş ki?

[an-anxious-crow]

Theogamia / Hieros Gamos - Helpol Festival

~ About it and how to celebrate it ~

Hieros Gamos, meaning sacred wedding, is the festival celebrating the marriage of Zeus and Hera on Gamelion 27 and, this year, on January 27th.

The Hieros Gamos is the celebration of Zeus and Hera's marriage and the celebration of marriage itself. They're honored as Zeus Teleios or Zeus of marriage rites and Hera Teleia or Hera as the married woman. Little to no details of the original festival remain, beyond the possible reenactments of Hera and Zeus' marriage at Knossos.

Good ways to celebrate the Hieros Gamos include giving offerings to Hera and Zeus, honoring or giving offerings to other married deities, feasting, and reciting the Orphic Hymns 15 and 16 and Homeric Hymn 12. You can also honor current or past relationships and the marriages of people around you.

Source 1

Source 2

[fountainbeee]

Watch "Hieros Gamos | Sacred Marriage" on YouTube

Discussing the topic of the sacred marriage between oneself and the inner spirit, including the inversions often pushed in particular philosophies and misinterpreted twin flame concepts.

[criaturassolaress]

[kei-yuki]

I think GRRM is playing with some magic and, specifically, alchemical topics here.

For narrative purposes, of course, but the idea of the Rebis, of maybe different rebis (I think Jon and Daenerys, the sun and the moon, can be the true rebis of the story) seems to plan on all the series.

Jaime and Cersei are perfect in their surfaces: beautiful, tall and proud Lannisters. They are like GOLD. But they are imperfect inside. They are all about appearance.

Instead, Jon and Daenerys are the underdogs that grow and learn and transform themselves throughout the story. Their union will be a new beginning for Planetos.

Was thinking about how a fun fact about the Lannister twins and their whole "two halves of the same whole" is they are FRATERNAL twins.

For context, there are two types of twins: fraternal and (actually) identical. The identical twins are coming from the same baby split in half (after egg and sperm got together) while fraternal comes from two eggs with different sperm for each. The thing here is gender comes from sperm, and you can't have identical twins (post sperm) that aren't the same gender.

Hence, Cersei and Jaime are just FRATERNAL twins by default, which means different eggs and different sperm, and DNA of mere typical siblings that just happened to be born at the same time. Their high physical likeness only comes from being born out of cousins.

Doubt GRRM checked genetics much when making them up, but he sure accidentally hit a spot in that "same person" delusion.