#i love the whole polytheism of it all

[callisteios]

Orthodox also have nuns and monks, but my knowledge ends at the strictly male-only monastic community at Mount Athos

Ok well not to be rude to the Orthodox Church but I was mostly right. Plus I think I would have a hard enough time joining Catholic nuns as a non catholic, don’t you have to be Greek or Russian or Serbian to join an Orthodox Church?

Please tell me more about what the men are doing on Mount Athos though

[hedgehog-moss]

Pls give recommendations for Odd books 🙏

Here we go, a list of literary oddity :) This post contains majestic spheres, alien taxonomies, cruel subway polytheism, a fourth-dimensional cat, disturbing earthworms, infinite space football, existential mussel terror, a Parisian absurdist time loop, and a picture of a telegraph-pole-man-cheetah. I'm not exactly recommending these books, in the sense that I won't take any complaints if you find them more odd than good, and some of them transcend the concepts of good and bad anyway.

• The Other City, Michal Ajvaz. It's all like this:

• Contes du demi-sommeil, Marcel Béalu ('Half-asleep tales') —is the book that prompted my post about stories that have no ambition or justification beyond being odd. I'm sad that it hasn't been translated :( One of the tales is about a strange opaline sphere that rolls on the road. It doesn't accelerate when the road becomes a steep slope but continues rolling majestically. At one point it floats away towards the sky. Someone wonders if it was the moon. Someone else says authoritatively "It was an angel's egg." Everyone is reassured by this explanation. The whole thing feels exactly like remembering a dream you had. There is also a man who reads too much and whose body atrophies so only his head is left and his wife puts it in an egg cup for better stability.

• Leonora Carrington— The Skeleton's Holiday, or maybe the Hearing Trumpet. I've read them so long ago but I think the latter is the one with the old ladies and nuns? There's also a guy who was murdered in his bath by a still-life painter because he said there was a carrot in one of his paintings, but it might not have been a carrot? It's hard to remember details from this book without feeling like I might be making them up. Bonus Leonora Carrington painting which kind of feels like a short story:

• The Codex Seraphinianus, of course. I wish there were more bizarre encyclopaedias out there.

Also I love this review:

• Sleep Has His House, Anna Kavan —I really liked the way this book used language; making life feel like a fever dream even more than in Samanta Schweblin's Fever Dream (which I really liked too.)

The eye is checking a record of silence, space; a nightmare, every horror of this world in its frigid and blank neutrality. The actual scope of its orbit depends on the individual concept of desolation, but approximate symbols are suggested in long roving perspectives of ocean, black swelled, in slow undulation, each whaleback swell plated in armour-hard brilliance with the moonlight clanking along it . . .

• The second half of Michael Ende's Neverending Story, where things get stranger! I remember the hand-shaped castle with eyes and the city of amnesiac former emperors and the miserable ugly worms who cry all the time out of shame then create beautiful architecture with their tears...

• The Gray House, Mariam Petrosyan. This is the one I had in mind when I talked about a 'museum of the strange, but one you wouldn't want to be trapped in after closing time'. Another book that made me feel uncomfortable in a similar (good) way was Edward Carey's Observatory Mansions, the protagonist of which is a man who curates an odd private museum and can't stand the sight of his own hands.

• Oh, speaking of uncomfortable, and hands—He Digs A Hole, by Danger Slater. To me this book was in the more-odd-than-good category but I liked its refusal to have a coherent philosophical meaning. It's about a man who can't sleep so he goes to his garden shed and saws off his hands and replaces them with gardening tools. Then he starts digging a hole. And then it gets weird. (Read at your own discretion if you have a worm phobia; there's some body horror featuring sexually aggressive earthworms. And then it gets disturbing.)

• 17776 — Someone sent me an ask a few years back to recommend this online multimedia narrative to me and I really enjoyed it! Here's the summary, borrowed from the wiki page: Set in the distant future in which all humans have become immortal and infertile, the series follows three sapient space probes that watch humanity play an evolved form of American football in which games can be played for millennia over distances of thousands of miles. The work explores themes of consciousness, hope, despair, and why humans play sports.

• Saint-Glinglin, Raymond Queneau —the author admitted that this book presents some "internal discontinuities." I didn't like it much but I respect the talent it takes to write a novel where everything feels like a random digression, including the key suspenseful scene that matters to the plot. The one digression I loved had to do with the way the narrator is existentially horrified by various sea creatures. It's like he dreads them so much he can't help but think about them when he should be telling a story.

The oyster... This gob of phlegm, this brutal way of refusing the outside world, this absolute isolation, and this disease: the pearl... If I conceptualise them even a little, my terror starts anew. The mussel is even more significant than the oyster and even more immediately admissible in the domain of terror. Let us indeed consider that this little sticky mass whose collective stupidity haunts our piers, consider that it is alive in the same way as a cow. Because there are no degrees in life. There is no more or less. The whole of life is present in every animal. To think that the mussel, that the mussel has, not a conscience, but a certain way of transcending itself: here I am once again plunged into abysses of anxiety and insecurity.

Near the beginning he philosophises about what would happen if a man and a lobster were the only two survivors of the apocalypse. The lobster would break the man's toe and the man would say, "We are the only beings that remain on this devastated Earth, lobster! The only living beings in the universe, struggling alone against the universal disaster, don't you want to be allies?" But the lobster would disdainfully walk away towards the ocean, and "the sight of the inflexible and imperturbable lobster pierces the sky of humanity with its unintelligible claws." (I can't overstate how little this has to do with the rest of the book.)

• Autumn in Beijing, Boris Vian —needless to say the story does not take place in autumn nor in Beijing.* To the extent that it can be said to be "about" something, it's about people trying to build a train station in a desert with tracks that lead nowhere. (I just went on goodreads to check the title, and it's actually called Autumn in Peking in English. I also discovered that it was featured in a list of Books I Regret Reading. I liked this book, but I understand.)

(* French writers love doing this—like when Alphonse Allais said about his 1893 book The Squadron's Umbrella "I chose this title because there aren't any umbrellas of any sort in this volume, and the important notion of the squadron, as a unit of the armed forces, is never brought up at all; in these conditions, hesitating would have been pure madness.")

• The Library at Mount Char, Scott Hawkins—I fear this one makes a little too much sense for this list, but you can't say it isn't weird; and I loved it and recommend it any chance I get.

• The Eleven Million Mile High Dancer, Carol Hill —this book was so wacky and made me laugh. I've not yet managed to successfully recommend it to someone; its brand of odd didn't resonate with the people I know who've read it but that's okay. You could say it's about a woman astronaut whose weird cat disappears into the fourth dimension (or the quantum realm?) and she goes to space to save him—but that makes the book sound more straightforward and less messy than it is. Her cat leaves her a note before he disappears:

• The Bald Soprano, Ionesco —fun fact, there's a tiny theatre in the Latin Quarter in Paris where this absurdist play has been staged every night for nearly 70 years, with the exact same set design and costumes and everything, like the actors are stuck in a time loop. They celebrated the 20,000th performance this year! There's an actress who has been playing her character for 40 years and said joining this theatre was like joining a religion. I've been going to see this play as a New Year tradition with my best friend since we were 14, so I love it madly, though I wouldn't say it's good, necessarily—the author said it was about "absolutely nothing, but a superior nothing."

• Statuary Gardens; or Les Mers perdues (apparently not translated) by Jacques Abeille. This man is obsessed with weird statues. Unfortunately I find his writing style rather dull—I feel like he takes strange ideas and makes them feel mundane in a bad way...! But his books still have a nice, quiet, oneiric atmosphere, and images that stayed with me, like a solitary gardener trying to grow stone statues in the depleted soil of a walled garden. Here are some illustrations from the second one:

I'll look into some of the books recommended on my previous post! (and I agree with the people who brought up Cortázar, Borges, and Junji Ito. <3) Some potentially-odd books I have on my to-read list: Clive Barker's Abarat, Goran Petrović's An Atlas Traced by the Sky, Salvador Plascencia's The People of Paper, Jean Ray's Malpertuis; Jan Weiss's The House of a Thousand Floors; Brice Tarvel's Pierre-Fendre.

[tino-i-guess]

Need some opinions/help

TLDR; In October, in a somewhat impulsive decision, I started worshipping Athena and Hermes. I am having doubts and feelings of inadequacy due to not being as invested as some other people. Does all of this mean I should leave the religion or stop for the time being?

I am quite new to hellenic polytheism. I've always had an interest in polytheistic religions, occasionally doing some research but never really doing it heavily. I knew the very very basics of hellenic polytheism, since a friend of mine practices. In the beginning of October, I had a slight breakdown. I have been struggling with school a lot and was feeling completely lost and abandoned by most people in my life, so I did what looking back on it was a rush decision. I made an altar for Athena and prayed (more like begged, I'll be honest) for some kind of help. I made a small offering based on what I knew and that was that. It wasn't a completely unexpected decision, since I had been thinking about it for a while.

Well, it worked. I did quite well on my upcoming test and felt calmer in general. I decided to make a small altar for Hermes too and do more research. For the past few months, I have thus been trying to do as much research as I can, pray and make offerings based on what I know the best I can. However, recently I've been having some doubts.

I feel out of my depth and overwhelmed. I've never been religious, nor has my family ever been religious. Every time I try to research more, I feel overwhelmed and tear up with all the new facts and seeming rules. Things are contradicting each other and I have no one to check with because my friend is also pretty new and we're not very close. I feel as if I'm constantly messing up. A lot of the practices relies on instinct and reading between the lines. I have anxiety and I'm autistic so these two places are my weaknesses, in some cases even impossible for me without direct guidance. I'm confused on so many concepts that everybody else seems to find obvious.

I feel inadequate. Everybody I have seen talking about the religion seems really fully into it and devoted to it (something that I think is amazing and wonderful) but I feel like that cannot be applied to me. I feel like I somehow don't believe/love the Gods as much as others. I don't want religion to take up a big part of my life, at least not as I am currently. Additionally, I don't have much free time or energy in general, so I am not able to make offerings and pray properly every day. I also struggle with intrusive thoughts, which makes prayer and worship extra hard. However, I do love the Gods and the thought of taking down their altars and just stopping makes my heart squeeze. But then again, I don't feel as close to them as a lot of people I have seen, tho that might be a time issue. Part of me is definitely stopping me from getting closer to them by constantly saying how ridiculous I look trying to 'bond' with them. I want religion to be a casual facet of my life, to be able to make a weekly offering and pray once a day maybe without much worry or anxiety, to learn about the religion and Gods more and more.

I feel upset and stressed about this whole situation. I don't want to stop but part of me feels like I am being constantly disrespectful. A small part of me also feels like I have somehow offended Athena specifically. I also am hesitating stepping back, lest I upset kharis, if somehow I've managed to establish it with my flaky track record. I want honest, hard opinions and advice. Am I simply not cut out for this? Is this just a beginners rut sort of deal I need to power through? Did anybody else feel like this? How did you deal with it?

I am sorry if anything is unclear. Writing this made me quite emotional and my thoughts are all over the place. If I haven't mentioned a crucial detail or something, please ask and I'll happily respond and give more details on some things. Thank you in advance, χαίρε.

[lucent-roase]

okay watch me awkwardly explain an au or headcanon or something

here’s a small comic-y thing i wasn’t going to post but i haven’t posted any art for over a week i think

i never finished it but the idea was Hunter converting to paganism after all of his religious trauma because i’m pagan and want to project it onto someone

honestly for him it doesn’t really make sense because the isles now knows about the archivists and how they created that world but idk… but who the hell cares what makes sense???? Willow is also pagan here and she’s like “haha yeah i’ve been practicing ever since we went back to the Human Realm” and to me its real

they would either be Hellenic or Nordic polytheists, i don’t know much about Norse religion practices but i read a book about the mythology a long time ago and i’m sure Hunter would love it (plus, i mean, being polytheists they could worship anyone)

i’m sure finding out that the Titan wasn’t saying all that stuff to Belos would probably be crushing to hear. for Hunter, he had to realize that the Titan never had big plans for him, and Willow had to realize that she’d been blatantly lied to her whole life. especially in hellenic polytheism, people can communicate to their gods and deities and i’m guessing Hunter would find a lot of comfort in that. i bet Willow would like to have an outlet where she could just rant to someone finally without worry about what her friends would think.

[h0bg0blin-meat]

I think I need to make it clear for many Vaishnav (looking especially at you, ISKON) Hindu extremists (and even many Shaivites) that ya'll can have your sects and your beliefs as Vishnu or Shiva as your supreme lords. I don't have an issue with that.

But when you try to say that this is the ONLY truth about the Vedic religion (I'm not using Hinduism here because it doesn't sum up the pantheon as much as the ''Vedic" word does, despite the term being associated with the Vedas, and yes we need to come up with a better word that comprises this entire pantheon as a whole), that's when I have a problem, because that is definitely NOT the entire pantheon.

Do not spread the beliefs of your sect as the ONLY canon belief and don't speak for the people who don't fall under this category. I have seen this in all of social media and it pains me how much of a linear pantheon this once oh-so flexible culture has become.

Yes the concept of Prajapati and the Supreme being has existed since the Vedas. But when you say that Vishnu and Shiva are somehow superior to other gods as the ONLY CANONICAL BELIEF, that just flips me off, and I'm gonna call it out.

How dare you forget the four Vedas, that had no mention of such an idea? This might tick some people off but Indra, Agni, Rudra (which later became synonymous with Shiva, but is a whole different deity), Mitra, Varuna, Vayu and a few other Gods were just as much powerful as Vishnu or Shiva, if not more. This is ANOTHER canonical truth that these extremists (again, somehow mostly Vaishnav) are denying.

Ancient pantheons weren't some linear path with just one canon event. These were their own multiverses of a plethora of VARIOUS canon events, myths and legends. So stop making the Vedic religion a linear, rigid pantheon. Remember? It's not an organized religion. There can be SEVERAL canonical truths. Like I definitely understand that a religion/culture changes overtime. It evolves. Fine. Vishnu is the supreme God now, fine. But you can't deny the history. The Vedas that didn't canonize this. Are you gonna say that these Vedas, that came BEFORE this Vishnu/Shiva being the considered the supreme lord(s), were wrong? I hope not lol.

Besides, I'm not even gonna get into ISKON. They have regarded anyone that's not Vishnu as a demigod, which is ABSOLUTELY VILE AND DISRESPECTFUL. Do they even KNOW what a demigod is??? FUCK NO. They don't. They just like to use that word to inferiorize other deities, due to their unhealthy and toxic obsession with Vishnu, who doesn't deserve it. On top of that they have claimed that worshipping such gods will not lead you to eternal peace, or that it's somehow wrong. Ah yes. Gotta love gatekeeping and toxic cult fan behavior. Call me rude but if you disrespect a GOD (yes, Indra, Mitra, Varuna and others are ALSO GODS, FYI) is WILD, and they should be called out for it. (Some Shaivites have done the same in case of Shiva, and they need to be similarly called out.)

In conclusion, worship whoever tf you want, but remember that theologically, and even historically, there can be more than one canonical story. It really depends on which sect/region you belong to. You CAN be a polytheist. Idk why Hindus these days are inadvertently trying to appeal to the monotheistic pantheons so much, to the point that they have an internal dislike for polytheism, which they're not aware of, but it shows when they speak up.

This pantheon (like every other pagan pantheon back in the day) is very broad. Remember that. And it's very flexible. So let it be like that, and stop gatekeeping it and having a war between who supreme Lord is. I'll stop my yapping here. But I hope people understand this. Cuz damn.

[miryum]

I had a thought—

So Hogwarts was founded around 990 CE, right? Up to when Harry attended, that gives us about 1000 years that Rowling didn't cover or explore. And that means 1000 year of troubles that I have questions about

1000-1300 CE: Okay, so like, medieval times. Can we talk about the sexism that would be here? How did the professors handle that? The girls would have to wear these horrid clothes and expect to have flying lessons? Or were flying lessons only for the boys? How much of Hogwarts was gender segregated? And the Holy Roman Empire was all the rage. That means ultra-Christianity. What if a kid from upper Scotland came in and worshipped polytheism? What then? Would the other kids have burned them or killed them?

1400 CE: This was when witch burnings/huntings were getting popular. I'm assuming that the kids were safe when they got to Hogwarts, but what about Muggleborns? If a guy dressed in robes came to this peasant's mudhut and said "your daughter's a witch!" you're telling me that those parents wouldn't burn their daughter at the stake? And yes, wizards/witches could easily hide their abilities once they graduated, but what if they had a kid that came out magical? How would you explain that your baby is levitating to the townsfolk? Or what if you married a muggle? Would you have to hide your identity your entire marriage? Would you have to hope your kids weren't magical like you? And what if you're a woman who then marries an awful muggle man and you know you're stronger than him and can kill him extremely easily in his sleep, but you can't because it's 1400 CE?!?!

1500 CE: We're getting to the Renaissance right now, okay? So all these kids are beginning to explore literal magic and you're telling me they didn't mix that with the new inventions of the era? Was Galileo or Michelangelo really a wizard? And if all these inventors/thinkers were wizards, who else? Magic has spanned all of time, apparently, so were the pyramids built with magic? (sorry, that was a small side tangent.) And then the Reformation came along and split everyone into different religions. Were there tensions among Catholic/Lutheran students? What about the teachers? What if a Lutheran fell in love with a Catholic at school? What then?

1600-1700 CE: Now lemme ask about social classes. How big of a problem was that? And I think we all know that this problem spanned much longer than just the two centuries I'm giving it. Imagine if a Dutch aristocrat's daughter was admitted to Hogwarts and "oh, it's just a fancy boarding school?" you tell the parents, "great! she can go" so then she gets there, all dressed to the nines with the ballgowns and big wigs and finds out she has to room with a peasant girl and an artist's daughter. Can you imagine?! And yes, maybe they would've become friends, but realistically, probably not. The daughter would demand her own room, but the headmaster couldn't do that, so what would happen? Would she order her new roommates to help her get dressed each morning? Would she look down her nose at them? Would there be different tables in the Great Hall for the upper class? I'm assuming that the professors would have different viewpoints concerning what their background was, so would the Dutch daughter be aghast when her professor (who used to be a blacksmith's apprentice) takes her down a notch and hits her in front of the whole class? And what would recreational activities be like? Yes, everyone would have the same uniforms during class, but can you imagine a guy walking up to you on a lazy Sunday dressed in his powdered wig and golden coattails with their weirdly high white socks and buckled shoes?

1800 CE: Slavery. We know that had to have been racial segregation, right? And even if Europe was all progressive and abolished slavery starting in the 1400s, some countries definitely still had slavery. And don't even get me started on America and Ilvermorny. Being a Southern belle and then having to take classes and eat in the same room from the same plates as someone that looks like the slaves your father owns? (What about the fucking Civil War?! Confederates and unionists in the same school?!) And I'm sure the same thing happened in Hogwarts! And I didn't even mention the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the 1500-1800s!! How did Hogwarts handle racism? If they just banned all non-whites from the premise, then they lost a large chunk of the next generation of wizards and witches. And those poor boys and girls they banned. Imagine having all these strange phenomenons happen your entire life and have no idea why or trying to hide them because you didn't go to Hogwarts and learned what they were or how to channel them!

1900-2000 CE: Oh my fucking god. Where to begin? The style is drastically different from the 1600s. Now students are coming in with flappers dresses and their hair slicked back and everything and professors are like, "what the fuck?" Did the Yule Ball have different types of dancing? I'm assuming so. Were their more dances because the students loved it? And then the fucking Great Depression hits and now most students can't even buy the necessary textbooks to come to school. Most are needed by their families for work (AND ALSO!!! I didn't mention, but in medieval times, did parents even let their kids go to Hogwarts? They needed them to work the fields or stuff.) Then, growing anti-semitism starts up and some of the students are discriminated against because of their religion, just like back in 1000-1300 CE. The World Wars happen and what if a German kid (who's being indoctrinated and I can go on a whole other rant about children in Germany I swear, don't get me started because I will defend the kids until my last breath) is proudly wearing a swastika just like his daddy and then sees a Jewish kid and starts yelling slurs, just like his dad does? How many kids did Hogwarts save from concentration camps? Did the magical kids beg for the muggle siblings to come and stay at Hogwarts to save them from Auschwitz? Then there were hardly any boys for a generation because they were all off fighting a goddamn war! Things started to chill out for a while until kids came into Hogwarts wearing bell bottoms and tye-die and the girls were burning their bras and were the boys cheering them on or was there serious backlash? How much fucking weed was passed around in the 70s? (This is the marauder era btw.) Did the gay wizards/witches finally feel safe enough about coming out? Or were there too many people against them still? OR, did the homophobic people learn to be more accepting because they had to be? Because they were in the same classes, same dorms, same everything as gays? What about magic birth control? Or, was everyone too worried about Voldemort to burn their bras and come out as gay? How much did Voldemort truly influence the Wizarding World? And then Harry fucking Potter came along, the 90s happened and now, his kids have just graduated! I'm assuming Hogwarts has to have changed with technology, but how much? Do professors think magic is losing the battle to technology or are Muggleborns actually still more fascinated by magic than their phones (I'm assuming if you saw someone change from a human to a cat, that'd be more cool than a TikTok, but who knows?!) Does Hogwarts have WiFi and outlets? Or are kids forbidden from technology? And how did kids from the 80s-90s keep up with technology? Did they all just trapse down to a small town by Hogsmead and have to catch up with all the blockbuster movies there?

In short, I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS

[tenebrisdivina]

Godspousery: A Different type of Relationship

This begins my series of posts on Godspousery

Art: by art of yayu

After receiving permission from my deities; I have been guided to share some of my experience with spousery as it may be of help or interest to some, since there is a lot of confusion and misconceptions around what this path actually is and means.

To preface this: I am more traditional and old school meaning that godspousery to my eyes is only marriage to the divine. I have been married to both my spouses ( who are demonic divine dark lords) for 6 years (at point of this writing) and have worked closely with various divine beings and spirits for close to 16 years now.

I have noticed in more recent times that some people misconstrue the term godspouse to mean just about any and all types of relationships with the divine. In my experience this is not the case. It is not a term that covers all types of relationships ( ie familial, platonic, devotional etc). Nor should it be used as a catch all phrase as there is a distinct difference between these types of relationships. Genuine godspousery is not the same as a platonic or other relationship with the divine. Nor is it a stand in for any form of romantic or sexual relationship with the divine.  The term spouse is used for a reason ( ie married to the divine). I am also of the viewpoint that devotional polytheism and devotee ought to be used more often to refer to these other types of relationships instead of lumping it all together under one term.

Godspousery is a sacred path and practice. It is not something to be taken lightly nor for the human egoic wants and needs, since its really not about you or your ego. I have the experience of having a patron, having normal devotional and/or working relationships with gods, spirits and Demonic divine as well as being espoused. All of these types of relationships are different; though most often share an element of devotion and being a devotee and some are more heavily focused on this then others- such as patronage. While godspousery and patronage both have heavy elements of devotion to them, one of the key differences I have found is that my spouses are connected to me on a much deeper level, soul level- then just normal devotion. They know me ( the entirety of my being) in ways few others do. How we connect on this deep level is rather like puzzle pieces fitting together- but in a way in which each of use is whole in and of ourselves (still learning to be on my part; though it is encouraged)- however there is a sense of joining and completeness to this relationship. Of balance between us all so that we may build and prosper together. It feels like home. Of course there is love as well- but this more complex than what humans often consider love to be. Especially with such darker beings as I am bound with. The Demonic divines’ ( and deities’ ) understanding of what love is reaches far beyond what humans know it as. And often it may not look like anything humans are familiar with. There is also a lot of trust and learning to trust my spouses in this and on my personal path. There is a depth of presence and feeling of being held in a sense but  rather across all aspects of myself and in all realms, that comes with this perhaps particularly to my dynamic at least.

 On this- a side note; there is no room in godspousery especially at this depth of relationship, for co-dependence or toxic/problematic attachment styles  or relationship patterns etc. If one genuinely connects with a god/god-level being on this level and one still has these problematic traits; they are soon worked through so that a healthier type of relationship between the parties is formed and possible. One thing about this is that a genuine deity/ god-level being- will not tolerate, enable or conform to ones insecurities or problematic/toxic attachment styles and relationship patterns. They can help one to move and heal into a healthier place, but they will not interact with you in a way that enables these styles to continue- especially in a such a depth of relationship. While the deities and beings in question may be “understanding” of this is a way- they do not enable it.

One of the main differences I have found between Patronage and Spousery- is that while my Patron knows me well as well and knows my soul so to speak- it is a less intimate dynamic in a sense. He knows me well and guides me as a close mentor, cares about me specifically and guides my path, but there is more of an overarching kind of strategy to it. Not to say that my Spouses don’t also have this, but it is a bit more calculating and for me patronage, is more focused on guiding me rather than the intimate relationship that Spousery affords. My Husbands feel closer to my heart and more deeply “internally” connected- They nourish my soul and They are a place of rest. While my Patron can also nourish me it is not to the depth of how my Husbands do so. ((sometimes for some godspouses; a patron may be the Spouse, but this is the difference I have noted between Them in my situation.)

Godspousery is also different from parental relationship with deities. Parental relationships (which I experienced while being a devotee of Setekh and Kali ma) feel very- well parental. While I was deeply devoted to them, regular worship, bhakti etc, It was more casual in a way. I could connect about anything and they would offer advice or aid. Tbh it was impactful and healing but it was not this soul level depth that my Spouses have. While I called Setekh and Kali Ma my patrons and for a while they were- it is still a different relationship from my actual patronage with Lord Abaddon. In all cases I felt cared about by these divine beings and have been intimate with them. But with the more “parental deities” it wasn’t so personal, so deep reaching and was more similar to a “regular” devotee relationship with a deity. My spouses are also obviously a lot more intimate with me and also know me with a depth that the others “don’t”. All of these relationships have been and are very valuable and meaningful to my journey and path. But being espoused- my Partners also have more impact on me then anyone else.

All these types of relationships mentioned are again different from regular devotee and/or working with the other deities and demonic divine beings, and all are impactful in their own ways. Regular devotion and “working with” is often more “business-like.” Some beings I work with may be stricter on how They are to be approached and worked with, and some may over time become more like casual acquaintances and friendly. But there is still a distance to it- even if some of these practices involve sexual relations/exchange, it is more “professional.” These beings also know I am owned by and married to my Husbands, so there can be also a reservedness to the interactions. ( I use the term owned because I am- in a BDSM sense I am in a heavy M/s relationship with my Husbands, this is personal but also aids in my specific workings, priestessing and dynamic- obviously this is not the case for all godspouses etc).

[magnetothemagnificent]

Sorry if this is an inappropriate or rude question, you don’t have to answer.

I’ve been dealing with internalised negative feelings about religion, due to being raised by very Christian family, when I’ve never believed what they said. It made me think that religion is an awful thing, a cult by sorts.

A few years back, I made a friend who is Jewish and he’s really cool and I respect him a lot. I also am trying my hardest to respect that he is religious but I can’t help that voice in my head, saying he’s corrupted. I don’t think I believe it anymore but I kind of want to ask, a reassurance I guess, what your views are in religion as a whole? Why do you believe it’s good?

First of all, it is not marginalized people's jobs to prove to why they deserve humanity. If you had asked any other Jew this question, they would have every right to ignore this quesiton and/or call you out on it.

However, I do put myself out there and try to educate people, so I'll answer your question.

Religion is part of human culture and history. For as long as humans have been humans, we've always had symbolic representation, taboos, and imagination. Paleolithic humans burying their dead with body paint and bead ornamentation- that's an example of spiritual belief. To be human is to be illogical, superstitious, and imaginative. Even other animals can sometimes act according to superstition or seemingly illogical motives. Humans are incredibley intelligent, and with our intelligence comes questions we cannot answer and fears we cannot explain. Where are we from? What is death? Where are we going? What is our purpose? These are all answers we seek, and having a religious belief set can help answer these questions. Religion is just a world view in the same way Western science is a world view, and they're not incompatible with each other. Many scientists are religious, I myself am a student of science and am religious.

Religion has brought people together for all of human history- it allows the sharing of ideas and resources. Harvest festivals, weddings, coming-of-age ceremonies, funerals, all these religious events serve to reinforce the bonds in a community. A relationship must be maintained and reinforced, or it becomes stagnant. Having a shared spiritual belief system and coming together for ceremonies reignites communal bonds. Religion also allows for a community to have a shared moral system. While religion isn't necessary for morality, it definately helps define the values and morals of a person and community. If a community can come together and agree on a system of values, then there's less potential for violence due to incompatible values. Religion is a social contract. Religion is also a comfort, and can help with the immense wait of loneliness we face. If the trees and water have spirits, then you are not alone. If your loved one goes to an afterlife after death, then they are not alone.

Religion has as much potential for harm as any world view. Just as there have been countless atrocities committed in the name of religion, so too have there been countless atrocities committted in the name of science. Does that mean we should just toss out all of science? No. In the same way we shouldn't get rid of religion.

Additionally, "Religion" isn't a monolith. It's not one world view, but a category of world views. There are many forms of religion and each religion is different. Monotheism, polytheism, animism, ancestor veneration, etc- these are all different kinds of religion that can overlap with eachother too. A bad experience with one religion doesn't define all religions. With all due respect, your experience is anecdotal, and you can't apply your singular lived experience to every since religion in the world.

And for Jews, our religious identity is deeply important to us. We've been persecuted for thousands of years for our identities, and we've miraculously not disappeared from the face of the earth. You don't have to understand why your friend is religious, but you need to unpack why you think he's corrupted and why you think you have the right to apply your experience with religion to every religious person. The fact that you were raised Christian might be another contributing factor to your bias towards your friend- antisemitism is often deeply ingrained in aspects of Christianity.

[loemius]

Do you worship/honour any less known gods?

Also do you try to incorporate all gods (including minor gods) into your practice or do you find yourself sticking with the same few?

hi!! thank you so much for the ask, this is a great question!!! i do try to incorporate all the gods into my practice. to keep it simpler on myself i like to use phrases like "this offering is for all the deathless gods" or something similar like "for all the immortals" "for all the gracious gods" etc. i'll pray to all the theoi in general and talk about my day and thank them for their blessings, then move onto prayers for specific theoi if i have any that day. i also will give offerings to specific theoi solely for them when they have festivals. like for example demeter and kore have a whole string of holidays in the coming weeks, so they'll be getting offerings just for them. i'm a reconstructionist so i really lean into the idea of polytheism as a system of gods that all work together and try to honor that. i'm definitely closer with with some theoi though! i'm an apollon and aphrodite devotee, and i consider apollon my patron god. they get daily worship from me, but i definitely do my best to worship all the theoi. as for lesser known gods i worship: HERAKLES. i think everyone Knows about him but i don't think ive ever met another herakles worshipper on this website. i find his story inspiring, in a way. he's given these impossible tasks and went through so much grief and hardship, and yet he never gives up and always pushes through. and he's not afraid to call on others for help! he's such an interesting figure and i really, really enjoy worshipping him. if anyone's interested in him, i highly suggest the book oxford handbook of herakles. i found a pdf of it online! really good resource. thank you again for this ask and very thoughtful question!! may the gods bless you always with happiness, health, and love <333 as a reminder my ask box is open for more q&a's!!!!

[poorbrokemess]

About me? (TLDR: this is a temple. Polytheism. Deities. Partner is Trans. I dont mess with closed practices)

If you care lol

I'm older than you. (Most of you at least lol.) I was a teen mom, my oldest is almost 17. If that helps.

I have a lot of dead people I care about.

Father

Brother

First love/best friend

Best friend/sister from childhood

And Mike.

I name him only because I feel he will be brought up a lot. He is part of my spirit team. I knew him in life, but we were not close until after he died.

Plus expected others like grandparents and aunts/uncles,people I knew from childhood but those are not *impactful* as the others to me personally

Let me explain.

I deal in death. Idk all it entails. But sometimes I know before hand. Sometimes I get the gift of experiencing it. Sometimes it's just folk in my dreams staring at me that I KNOW are the dead waiting for me.

As if I'm a doorway.

Which, being born dead, and dying a few times naturally and chosing to come back, may have something to do with it.

I think if I learned the skill, more than the inborn talent, I could be a medium of sorts.

I'm autistic. I gathered some alphabet letters along the way, from the

🌟trauma🌟

CPTSD, OCD, ADHD, as well as others

Agoraphobia has been my biggest struggle. So I may post about that as well.

But at the end of the day this is my temple.

For the Gods.

I recognize all Gods/goddesses/deities/spirits. I'm someone who believes in all or none.

I *work* with Loki, Hekate, and Thanatos.

I am devoted to Loki, his children, Lucifer, Hades, Hermes, Hekate, Hypnos, Osiris, Thanatos, Anubis, Hel, Isis, Hephaestus, Thor, Ares (his twins hold a very special place with me), Pan, Dionysus, Apollon, Artemis, Bastet, and Tyche.

I'm sure if I forgot one they will let me know.

I recognize them all however.

You'll notice Lucifer and Hades are my most posted about.

That's because they have been here for a long time, but I've been ignoring them.

I do my absolute best to stay away from closed practices, but I love them all the same.

I've felt Lucifer for a long long time. Like forever. But because of his connection to Lilith, I've struggled immensely.

I finally. Finally get over myself. Begin to work with him diligently.

Then in comes Hades. Who. Surprisingly, is easy to miss. Quiet. Calm. Chill, yet warm. So quiet.

*hey, just because I'm quiet doesn't mean I'm not here 🤨*

So they are new. But the kind of new that says *oh, I've known you my whole life*

Idk

Also my partner of 14 years is Trans. So, leaf if you don't like that.

I also don't want to be told it's okay to work with Lilith(or other closed practices). I personally feel like for my practices and beliefs it's disrespectful unless they come to me, which she/they have not.

I'm just a mess 🥰

[broomsick]

second attempt at nordic polytheism anon (what a name...) here again! i totally forgot to ask: do you have any recommendations on necklaces/jewelry that one can wear which isn't too obvious but still represents the faith? i'm from germany, so stuff like thor's hammer or runes are either frowned upon or straight up illegal (like the tiwaz rune for example... which is a shame bc i really like tyr, i think he could help me with my job where i have to decide over justice and injustice)

Welcome back! I’m so sorry to hear that you cannot wear Tiwaz in the name of Týr. I have a friend who considers him her primary deity, and who loves him dearly, and she would be devastated if she couldn’t wear his most prominent symbol. Same goes for me, as I’ve worn the same Mjöllnir pendant for nearly eight years, now. It could be possible for you to acquire one such pendant, made using a minimalistic design! I find that wooden ones are generally more discreet, as well.

These are the types of discreet designs I mean! You'll notice that the very last one to the right has a low-key Tiwaz carved onto it. Just in case you're curious, here are the artists to each of these: Hunterbone, KykvendiByK, Pagafanshop.

The same type of logic could also apply to a Tiwaz pendant, though I can't know for sure how far this ban on nordic symbols goes. It's also possible for you to browse for jewelry inspired by norse mythology, but that might not be as well-known, or which hasn't been co-opted by wh1te supremacist groups. In this sense, there are so many fun symbols for you to choose from! And they can be as secular-looking as you need them to be. The cat or the falcon to represent Freyja, the raven or the wolf to represent Óðinn, the goat or a drinking horn to represent Thórr, the weaving spindle or a cloud to represent Frigg, the boar or any symbol of agriculture (sickles, wheat...) to represent Freyr and the elves, symbols of the sea (anchors, sailboats, compasses...) for Njörðr, etc etc.

Just doing a bit of digging around mythological sources could give you loads of ideas! Surprisingly enough, the wolf is a very prominent symbol of Týr! After all, according to myth, Týr was the only Áss who was brave enough to relentlessly care for Fenrir: he would feed him and help him grow when no one else would approach him, for fear of being attacked. In this sense, they shared a bond like no other. One of mutual respect. And in the end, Týr respected Fenrir to the point of keeping his oath to him and losing a limb in the process, for it was only fair for him to do so. With as little historical information as we have on Týr, we do with the cards we've been dealt.

Rings are also quite discreet, a lot more so than necklaces! I have a whole bunch of norse pagan-themed rings that I wear on a daily basis: I have one which depicts the Ægishjálmur, and one that's decorated with the Elder Futhark alphabet, for example. I also wear a serpent ring in honor of the Miðgarðsormr and of Loki, and a ring with a low-key dragon design (a dragon tail and wing wrapping around the finger) to represent the tale of Sigurðr, who is the hero I work with the most, and who is very dear to me.

I hope I could help you out a little, and I wish for you to have a fun and fulfilling journey on the nordic path!

[orangepunkwitch-blog]

Sharing this here in case any Lokean followers haven't seen this yet.

Everything Ocean Keltoi has explained, I already knew, but it's nice to hear him not only say it, but have all the points together in one video.

And as someone who, while a newbie Pagan, encountered and started working with Loki first, I never EVER got the whole anti-Loki stance some Heathens have (despite never interacting with them; I've only ever heard of them or saw comment threads and the like online).

The first I've ever heard of Loki was when I was a kid and heard his name mentioned in The Mask. A god that creates such a mask because he thought that was funny? I loved that concept as a kid (and my weird-ass logic made me think I wasn't allowed to convert since I was baptized in the Serbian Orthodox church; my parents never made it seem okay to explore other beliefs... ever). When I became a fully developed adult and my brother passed away in 2011, I became agnostic, until I once expressed to a friend that I wished one could still worship old gods again, because the Norse gods sounded so much nicer than the biblical god. That's when she told me that that's a thing, and I discovered what paganism was. And then I made it a point that, while I will open myself to any of the gods who listened (and even said to them it's okay if they don't want to interact with me, since I'm so used to no god ever listening to me), I still hoped Loki would be the one to answer, because I'd prefer a god with a sense of humor who doesn't judge a mortal for simply being human. The rest is history.

I've had 2 instances where I've asked him for help, as I was desperate and didn't know what else to do and couldn't figure things out for myself. Both times he helped, it sort of put me almost in a state of madness because of HOW he helped (he's helped me with some small stuff too but sometimes the big stuff is.. a LOT). The first one was we were not able to afford rent anymore, as rent kept going up while my muž and I lived in Pittsburgh, so I asked for help, thinking he'd either help with our financial situation (namely I was hoping for a decent-paying job similar to what my muž made) so we could afford to rent elsewhere or that a place would become available that had significantly lower rent. You know, something like that. Instead, he gave us bedbugs. Because he KNEW that our only option was to move in with my parents and I didn't want to resort to that, so he forced my hand. His reasoning roughly being, "It's either the bedbugs or a fire in the building, and I REALLY don't wanna be that guy, so you got bedbugs."

The second time, without going into detail, he induced a non-threatening medical "emergency" (as in, give me a spook bad enough to warrant my first trip in an ambulance) to get the ball rolling to lead me to getting the surgery I needed for my endometriosis. His reasoning being, "You finally have health insurance and there are vaccines available. You have no excuse now. Not even this pandemic."

I'm doing much better now and it's thanks to Loki. He basically was the kick in my ass needed to make the only decision that would actually work out for me, even if I didn't think it would.

Despite making my practice something along the lines of "Serbian Polytheism Pagan Edition," Loki is still in my practice, and helped me learn an awful lot regarding non-xtian beliefs and beings, including and especially the Trickster archetype.

Any Heathen that bans Loki, avoids him, etc. either have a lot of xtian baggage that they still need to work through, or they're the type of people that don't like being held accountable for their actions and kept in check. Xtianity (as it is commonly practiced and forced onto people by power-hungry assholes) has really affected how many look at non-xtian beliefs, because everything has to be compared to xtianity (even some atheists are guilty of this because everything is xtianity to them).

Lately, I haven't had a whole lot of interactions with Loki I feel could be worth-sharing because I'm not having a whole lot of interactions with him in general the past few years (except for everything regarding me getting my surgery) and that's because the gods are giving me space to learn and grow and figure some stuff out on my own. I do chat with them from time to time via divination, but in terms of actions, they're letting me do my thing for a bit.

[weidaoduzun3]

Demiurgy and How a Confucian Passion for Learning Can be Considered As Such.

What is Demiurgy? As the author of Egyptian Mystic Polytheism so succinctly puts it:

Demiurgy is a type of “devotional act.” A devotional act is any activity outside of direct prayer with a religious purpose and significance. What makes “demiurgy” unique as a type of devotionalism is that it is principally concerned with the act of creation. Like theurgy, to mimic the gods and pursue likeness, one must participate in creativity as a lesser version of God’s creation. Producing, crafting, constructing, and creating are all acts that mimic the “Demiurge” or “Creator Deity.”

So, essentially, these are mundane activities that are performed with the intention to ritualize and devote said craft to the Demiurge, the Creator god of the Cosmos. As the quote above mentions, this is similar to theurgy in that these mundane activities help us mimic the Creator.

With that out of the way, lets take a look at Corpus Hermeticum XI.22, which I think supports such ritualized "demiurgy:

Mind is seen in the act of understanding, God in that act of making.

This sentence refers to God’s literal creation of All Things and how He is seen through His creation, as this whole preceding paragraph refutes the idea that God is entirely invisible and “unseen.” For context, here is the passage:

In Corpus Hermeticum V, we are told God is invisible and entirely visible. For us to understand God, we must become like Him (Corpus Hermeticum XI.20), as so much as that is possible, in each of our Fated predispositions. A way to do so is to create things ourselves through begetting, making music, writing, or exercising, i.e., our own Demiurgy. You can find a list here if the reader wants a more comprehensive list of things that can be considered a devotional act to the Demiurge -- Demiurgy. So essentially, if God is seen in His Creation, we too can see the Demiurge manifests itself via our lesser creations.

Also, possibly a Confucian passion for learning could be considered Demiurgy. Let me explain: To take this principle out of context and apply it to Hermetic thought, I'd like to talk about the Confucian disciple Yan Hui 顏回, who was unmatched in his genuine and effortless love of the Way and learning. In the Analects 6.3 we see a ruler inquiring to Confucius about a "disciple who loves learning":

There was one named Yan Hui who loved learning. He never misdirected his anger and never repeated a mistake twice. Unfortunately, he was fated to live a short life. Since he passed away, I have heard of no one who really loves learning.

Yan Hui is also praised for his love of learning in Analects 2.9 and 5.9. Generally speaking, in Confucian thought, learning, rites, and conforming to cultural adornments 文 do indeed change our native “stuff” 質, which Confucius thought contained inherent flaws that were corrected via rigorously conforming, yet also effortlessly loving social and cultural arts, rites and learning. So, if learning in and of itself can change us for the better; correct our inherent flaws, and make us more like God, then we should all try to emulate Yan Hui and his effortless love for learning because when we learn, we grow. According to Chapter 2 of Effortless Action: Wu-Wei as a Metaphorical Concept and Spiritual Ideal in Early China by Edward Slingerland, learning and instructions (and other things) are essential to constantly strive for and put effort into to abide by the Confucian Way. Learning and instruction change our inherent "stuffs" in a way that makes us effortlessly abide in the Way 道.

So, back to the Hermetica. In Corpus Hermeticum XI.20, we are told to:

“Make yourself grow to immeasurable immensity…”

Arguably, this can be done by a passion for learning (and, of course, many other things)— which cannot be taught but must be realized. And what do we see all throughout the Hermetica? A yearn for Gnosis. Gnosis differs from conventional knowledge, as gnosis is experienced rather than learned. Something that Edward Slingerland argues is the source of Confucius's frustration with the current age of the Zhou Dynasty in Analects 15.13:

I should just give up. I have yet to meet a person who loves ren 仁 as much as he loves the pleasures of the flesh.

Confucius is frustrated by the fact that you genuinely cannot teach a person ren 仁 or "humaneness." Whether we are talking about ren or gnosis (mind you, two completely different things), these things must be experienced and "recollected," as Edward Slingerland argues in Chapter 2. The idea that the gnosis of the gods, God, and the Demiurge is "recalled" is found in passages from Plato's Phaedo 73c-75e and other dialogues I have yet to read, such as the Phaedrus and Meno. Likewise, in Analects 7.30, Confucius exclaims:

Is ren really so far away? No sooner do I desire ren than it is here.

Recollection is also found in the Corpus Hermeticum IV.2:

The man became a spectator of God's work. He looked at it in astonishment and recognized its Maker.

Now that we have established that the Analects, Platonism, and Hermeticism are structured somewhat similarly, let's look at Corpus Hermeticum I.31, we read:

“Holy is God, who wishes to be known and is known by his own people…” Corpus Hermeticum I.32: “Grant my request not to fail in the knowledge (gnosis) that befits our essence.

This suggests that God wishes us to know Him as much as possible according to our inherent predispositions to gnosis. So what I’m getting at is that if we can realize and acquire a Confucian-style passion, such as Yan Hui, for learning, this can change us and make us become more like God. The love for learning. The yearning to know God and His creation and the sciences that we have developed to understand his creation is most certainly Demiurgy. We never stop learning, whether we continue education after high school or not.

So, now that we have established that learning can indeed change us and help us mimic and help us recognize God and the Demiurge's creation, here are some examples of how I use my love for learning (but this love cannot be compared to Yan Hui's) as Demiurgy:

Reading academic literature on my beliefs

Learning the mythologies of the Ancient Egyptian gods

Going to college to broaden my knowledge and to establish a career.

Learning about myself: both my corporeality (psychology/body/health) and my incorporeality (soul).

This list goes on and is certainly not limited to those few bullet points. But if it is not clear by now, learning helps us grow as individuals; learning allows us to better understand the world around us, from our own communities to other cultures around the world. Such a whole-hearted pursuit of learning can be considered Demiurgy because we are actively creating a better version of ourselves. Just as in my musings, I consider Demiurgy because I am creating writings that will go on to inform and help other people understand the topics I write about with an intention of devotion to the Demiurge. My active pursuit of learning also is Demiurgy because everything I learn is done in devotion to the Creator of a world I love so much, and He is ultimately responsible for the very things I choose to learn.

So, do you all think the yearn and love for learning in and of itself can be considered Demiurgy?

[xxdoubledaisyxx]

This is my spirit bomb.

It's all I've got left, and all of it.

That is what God is. What we all understand on *their* level.

Like what Jesus Christ did. That's his work, his choice, his whole life given up as a humble offering of faith, and doing what he needed to for the only reason of *not denying* what is true also on God's level. (Wait. You would only understand that if you really *knew* what that was with professional expertise on that academic subject as a participant in that profession yourself.)

Only one us can do that-- what Jesus did in his time. None of us should want to do that either.

...

I am concerned that people may be in danger right now. That's why this matters to me, and what I trust I can rely on any one of you to do in your time. This is what it means to be civilized. We all *really know* on this level that we will do so no matter who we are, because is something all good animals know also and will do on this level. Just don't expect all to be so proficient in the human language.

"Yeah. From the top of the ocean to the bottom of a lake..... la la la.... today is our day to celebrate our days and tomorrows."

I was just walking by after being in the public library renting some films to watch tonight at my leisure, when I heard what sounded like a car horn going off in an erratic manner. It was going off for pretty much the entire time I was looking for a movie after walking upstairs. Then I left after making a selection relatively quickly because I was feeling socially anxious as a natural feeling of being aware collecting attention from other people, especially official employees, because of how corrupt the law enforcement is to the extent of servings its own government, the USA, in the capacity of that nation itself being what is done on that level by a national identity.

If that is what the USA is doing, then they should know that better than anyone, and none of us should want to do that either, which makes one thing true:

"We are all in agreement about why it is good for there to be a 'Free Nation for Democracy and Polytheism' and that is why they wanted that to be the USA 'when the New World was discovered'. That's why we all did so then, and why we agree that is necessary now as well, because God is eternal in all ways you can imagine God to be anything as long as it is good, because that's what God and human beings have in common as the source of eternity which created mortal life, which is life without eternity.

That is why it is good to see a Crucifix and know what you are looking at. For once in your life, at least, until that is entirely forgotten by legitimate mistake testimony. (this was the first you heard about it because it was a direct and immediate self-report. An honest mistake.)

In moments like that, take note, because everyone can benefit at any time with a reminder about that. Even if none of us know the reason why when we are, we can be assured of one reason, and one reason only:

"There is a good reason, and we will never know what that is, because that is God's reason, and my brain would melt like butter if I knew it."

For men that is the girl's Lockeroom.

For women that is the boy's Lockeroom.

While our reason may not be "God's reason" there is a human reason that all women and men have in common with "God's reason". That is why it is good for little boys and girls to listen to their parents and watch them carefully to learn about what it means to be yourself as an adult.

That's why it is good for people to receive hard spankings as children. That's is the same reason that is "God's reason", and look what happened to Jesus for "God's reason".

But it is also good why adult human beings should have restraint when they teach that to anyone for any reason that is theirs too.

"Don't you know, that when it come to you, I love the animal part of you."

Having restraint is the entire purpose of a civilized justice system in any nation of any creature that also understands "God's Reason".

It doesn't matter who you are. That is why it is good to respect the badge of an enforcer of the law, whether or not it is one you can see or cannot see because it is an invisible badge only Grown Up Adults can see.

That is why we all agree to obey the laws and commands of officers, but also why we have civil rights. Those officer jobs are coveted by the most evil creatures in existence, in other words, no-shit demons, and they will always find ways to have a presence there because:

"That is a job based entirely on civil trust we have in that makes our mutual interest the same. Not only do we want to survive, but we want to survive happily."

Real life is not a horror movie, but there's a reason for that too. (Probably). I know what that reason is, and know that it is "not Good", because it is my profession to do so as a theologian. That is why anyone is a Christian today at all. If they do not have that Reason, they are most certainly lying because they are Evil.

I may not have organizational credentials with any existing religion to be there, but I have gone there purposely like anyone else who also finds that necessary for themselves. That is why I invented my own religion for myself. I call that the Way of the Story, and that's why you should not feel ashamed about the difference between children and adults. That is also God's Reason.

That is what we all agree about what God's Reason is, whether we are young or old, Muslim or Satanist. Russian or American. Chinese or Japanese. We are all on the same side there, are we not? (Even if that person is dead.)

That is also why no human being should ever expect another human being to prove "God's Reason" was our own. Jesus Christ proved that for all human beings as the best Jew of an Ancient Age.

A lot of time has passed since Jesus did what he did and everything changed. Jews are very different now than they were then, when they were also called "Jews". If Jews are different now from when they were "Jews" in the Torah, then what makes them the same?

Jesus Christ is what makes the Jews of the Torah the same as the Jews of the New Testament. Specifically because of what Melchizedek did in Abram's time, the he also does in Jesus' time.

There is only one Good kind of Christian. That is one who understands that what makes Jesus Christ good is God having something to do with it that you should be afraid of understanding because of what happened to Jesus for what that reason was. Do not pretend like you want to go there yourself, not only would you be insulting the subject you are learning about, but that subject is doing something for your benefit willingly for true love that is greater than you and rightfully his.

You should not make that more difficult than necessary because of something you do to make their situation worse, nor should you want to. If he wasn't doing that, then you would be. Maybe you feel like a lizard in a cage within a cellar of the home of desert arollobits just trying to make a good supper every now and then, but at least you don't have to live out there. Outside. "God" protects you inside, but not Outside.

Enjoy the movie.

[orthodoxydaily]

Saints&Reading: Friday, August 9, 2024

july 27_ August 9

THE GREATMARTYR AND HEALER PANTELEIMON (305)

13th century icon of Saint Panteleimon from St catherine monastery of Mt Sinaï

Under the Reign of the impious Maximian, the cruel persecutor of Christians, almost the whole world was covered with the darkness of idolatry. Everywhere there raged a great persecution against those who believed in Christ, and many confessors of the most holy name of Jesus were dying as martyrs. At that time, in the land of Bithynia in the city of Nicomedia, there suffered for Christ the holy great martyr Panteleimon.

From early childhood his mother educated him in Christian piety, beginning with the knowledge of the one true God living in the heavens, our Lord Jesus Christ, so that he might believe in Him and please Him by good deeds and turn away from heathen polytheism. The child attended to his mother’s instructions, and, as far as his age would allow, embraced them. But what a loss and privation! His mother and guide departed to the Lord while he was still a child. After her death, the child easily followed in the steps of his father’s error; and his father often took him to worship the idols, thus confirming him in pagan impiety.

Later, the child was sent to a grammar school, and when he had successfully passed the whole course of pagan studies, his father sent him to a medical school, entrusting him to a certain famous doctor, Euphrosynus, to be trained in the art of medicine. Having a receptive mind, the child easily learnt all that he was taught and soon excelled his fellow students, and could even bear comparison with his own teacher. In addition, he was courteous, eloquent and handsome, and made an excellent impression.

Having received a reply, the emperor ordered him to be put through his medical training as soon as possible, as he wished to have the youth by him always, for he was worthy to stand before the emperor and serve him. By that time, the young man had already reached full maturity.

Perceiving in his spirit that the boy would be a chosen vessel of God, Hermolaus once went out to meet the boy and asked him to come into his house for a moment. The meek and obedient boy went into the priest’s house. Seating him beside him, the elder asked him from where he had come and about his whole manner of life. The boy told everything in detail, how his mother had been a Christian and was dead, and about his father who was alive and, according to pagan laws, worshipped many gods. Saint Hermolaus asked him: “But you, good child, to what side and faith would you like to belong, to your father’s or to your mother’s?”

“My mother,” replied the boy, “while she was alive, taught me her faith, and I loved her faith. But my father, being stronger, makes me keep the pagan laws and wants to put me in the imperial palace as a servant of the emperor.” “And what does your teacher teach you?” asked Saint Hermolaus again. “The teaching of Asclepiades, and of Hippocrates and Galen. That is what my father wanted; and my teacher says that if I master their teaching I shall easily be able to cure every kind of illness.”

In these words, Saint Hermolaus found an opportunity for a profitable discourse and began to sow in the boy’s heart, as on good soil, the good seed of the word of God: “Believe me, good youth,” he said, “I will tell you one truth; the teaching and art of Asclepiades, Hippocrates and Galen are nothing and of little help to those who resort to them. Yes, and the gods which the Emperor Maximian and your father and other pagans worship are false, and nothing but a masquerade and a hoax for the feeble-minded.

“However, there is one true and almighty God—Jesus Christ. If you will believe in Him, you will heal every disease simply by the invocation of His most pure name. For He gave sight to the blind, cleansed lepers, raised the dead, and with one word, freed people from possession by the demons, whom the heathen worship. Even His clothes gave healing. For a woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years, as soon as she touched the hem of His garment, was healed at once.

Pantoleon received all this teaching of Saint Hermolaus as true and took it into his heart. He joyfully meditated upon it and said to the holy elder: “I frequently heard this from my mother and often saw how she prayed and invoked that God of Whom you have been telling me.”

From that day, Pantoleon came to the old priest every day, and enjoying his inspired talks, grew strong in the knowledge of the true God. When he returned from his teacher Euphrosynus, he never went home without first visiting the elder and receiving his soul-saving instructions.

At once the child rose up alive as if from sleep. Then Pantoleon fully believed in Christ. He turned his bodily and spiritual eyes towards heaven and blessed God with joy and tears for having called him out of darkness into the light of His knowledge. Quickly, he went to Saint Hermolaus the priest, fell at his feet, and asked for baptism. He told him what had happened: how the dead child had come to life by the power of the name of Jesus Christ but that the snake had died.

After his baptism, Pantoleon stayed with the priest Hermolaus for seven days, imbibing as from a fountain of living water the divine words communicated to him by the lips of the priest and by the grace of Christ. On the eighth day he went home, and his father asked him: “Where have you been, my son, for so many days? I have been anxious about you.”

“I have been with the teacher at the emperor’s court,” the Saint replied. “We treated a sick man whom the emperor loves very much, and we did not leave him for seven days until we had restored him to health.”

So said the Saint, and he told no lie. For in the form of a parable, he spoke the truth allegorically. In his mind, he referred to Saint Hermolaus as the teacher; by the royal palace, he meant that interior peace in which the Divine Mystery is accomplished; and by the sick man, he meant his own soul, which the Heavenly King loved, and which for seven days was given spiritual treatment.

Here again he spoke allegorically of Holy Baptism which he had received, and of the other Mysteries of the Christian Faith which he had learnt and which are all of great price, exceeding all riches—for they were obtained by the Blood of Christ. When he heard this, Euphrosynus stopped his questions, and blessed Pantoleon was filled with the grace of God, bearing within him the treasure of holy faith. He was very concerned as to how to bring his father out of the darkness of idolatry and lead him to the light of the knowledge of Christ. Conversing with him wisely every day by parables and questions, he said to him:

“Father! Why do the gods who are fashioned standing remain standing just as they were at first and never sit? And why do those made sitting continue to sit till today and never stand?” “Your question is not quite clear to me,” replied his father, “and I do not know what to answer to it.”

By constantly putting questions of this kind to his father, the Saint caused him to lose faith in his gods and begin to understand the falsehood and error of idolatry. His father formerly used to offer large numbers of sacrifices to the idols every day, but now he stopped worshipping them and began to despise them.

Seeing this, Pantoleon rejoiced that at least he had aroused doubt in his father regarding the idols, even if he had not yet completely succeeded in turning him away from them. Pantoleon often wished to smash his father’s idols, of which there were many in his house, but he restrained himself, partly so as not to anger his father—whom according to the commandments of God we must honour—and partly because he was waiting for the time when his father would know the true God and would want to destroy them with his own hands.

The Saint replied: “If you have spent all your money on those doctors from whom you received no benefit, how will you remunerate me if you receive healing and are able to see?” “All the little that I have left,” cried the blind man, “I shall readily give to you.”

“The gift of sight,” said the Saint, “which reveals the light to you, will be given to you by the Father of lights, the true God, through me, His unworthy servant. And so, give what you have promised not to me, but distribute it among the poor.”

Hearing this, Eustorgius, Pantoleon’s father, said to him: “My son, do not rashly undertake a thing which you cannot do, or you will make a fool of yourself. In actual fact, what more can you do than the doctors more experienced than you who treated him but could not cure him?”

“Not one of those doctors,” retorted the Saint, “knows the means that I know, for there is a tremendous difference between them and my teacher who revealed his means to me.”

Thinking that he was speaking about his teacher Euphrosynus, his father remarked: “I have heard that your teacher also treated this blind man and could do nothing.”

“Wait a little, my father,” replied Pantoleon, “and you will see the power of my treatment.” With these words he touched the eyes of the blind man with his fingers, saying: “In the name of my Lord Jesus Christ Who enlightens the blind, receive your sight.”

At once, the eyes of the blind man were opened and he began to see. And at that moment, Pantoleon’s father Eustorgius, as well as the man who had recovered his sight, believed in Christ. Both were baptized by the holy priest Hermolaus, and they were filled with great spiritual joy at the power and grace of Christ.

Then Eustorgius began to smash all the idols in his house, and his son Pantoleon helped him. Having broken all the idols to pieces, they threw the remains into a deep ditch and covered them with earth. Eustorgius lived only a short time after this and then passed on to the Lord. Having thus become the heir to the extremely rich paternal estates, Pantoleon at once gave his men and women slaves their freedom and generously remunerated them.

He gave his property away to the needy: to beggars, to the poor, to widows and orphans. He went round to the prisons and visited all who were suffering in chains, comforting them with medical treatment and gifts of those things of which they were in need. Thus, he was a physician not only of wounds but also of human misery and poverty. All received from him generous help; the poor were enriched by his generosity, and in curing them he was helped by the grace of God.

He was given the gift of healing from on high, and he healed every kind of disease free of charge—not so much by means of medicines as by invoking the name of Jesus Christ. Then Pantoleon truly became Panteleimon, that is, all-merciful, and by name and in deed he showed mercy to all. He did not let anyone go away from him without alms or consolation. For to those who were in need he gave assistance and treated the sick without payment. The whole city brought their sick to him and left all the other doctors because they received from no one such quick and perfect healing as from Panteleimon, who successfully treated everyone and accepted payment from no one.

The name of the merciful physician became known to all, and the other doctors were condemned and mocked. As a result, there arose on the part of the doctors no little jealousy and enmity in regard to the Saint. It had already begun at the time when the blind man regained his sight, but it reached a peak in the following manner...Continue reading Holy Cross monastery

VENERABLE ANTHUSA, ABBESS OF MANTINEA IN ASIA MINOR  (759)

Venerable Anthousa the Confessor lived during the reign of Emperor Constantine Copronymos (ca. 741). She lived at Mantinea, Paphlygonia in Asia Minor during the VIII century. Her parents, Stratḗgios and Febronia, were distinguished for their piety, and raised their daughter in the same way.

Despite all the marriage proposals Anthousa received, she remained a virgin. After her parents reposed, she did not change her mind, but devoted her parental inheritance to charitable and sacred causes. Forsaking the world at a young age, Saint Anthousa lived a life of asceticism in the mountains in complete solitude. She received the monastic tonsure from Hieromonk Sisinios, and became Igoumeness of a Monastery with ninety nuns. These nuns were known for their obedience to their Igoumeness and for their spiritual discipline. Saint Anthousa built two monasteries: Mantineos, with a church dedicated to Saint Anna; and another in honor of the Holy Apostles, which was a women's monastery.

When Emperor Constantine Copronymos ordered a harsh persecution against the Holy Icons and those who venerated them. Saint Anthousa's Monastery became one of the most ardent defenders of Orthodoxy. The Emperor sent his agent to say that she would be left alone if she ceased to venerate the Icons. When she refused, she and her nuns were subjected to torture, for disobeying the Emperor’s decree. Soldiers tied them up and flogged them. Then burning icons were placed on the Saint's head, and her feet were burnt with red-hot coals. Finally, she was exiled.

But when the Holy Igoumeness predicted that the sick Empress would escape death, and would give birth to twins, then she loved Anthousa very much, and supported her Monastery in various ways. Among those who had witnessed her torture was the Emperor’s wife, to whom the Saint predicted the birth of a son and a daughter. When Saint Anthousa's prediction was fulfilled, she was allowed to return to her convent, where she reposed at an advanced age. The daughter born to the Emperor’s wife was also named Anthousa (April 12).

After living a life pleasing to God, the Holy Confessor Anthousa reposed in 759 (or 775, or 794), and now lives with Him forever. She was buried in her cell.

2 TIMOTHY 2:1-10

1 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 3 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. 5 And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. 7 Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things. 8 Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, 9 for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not chained. 10 Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

JOHN 15:17-16:2

17 These things I command you, that you love one another. 18 If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. 25 But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.' 26 But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

1 These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.

[thegodsaremyhome]

Hello!! I’m very very very new to Hellenism so I’m sorry if I get anything wrong! I’m very interested in working with Aphrodite but I have a few questions if you don’t mind!

1. I don’t know much about Greek mythology so do I need to know it to work with deities? (I think that’s the correct word feel free to correct me if I’m wrong). I know most of the names just not the whole background😊

2. I’ve been researching about working with Aphrodite and many people put candles and incense on their altars for Her, but in my household I am not allowed to have any of those unless it’s in the kitchen and that wouldn’t be my ideal place for an altar. So I’m wondering are they an absolute necessity to have or can I just skip out on that so I can have my altar elsewhere?

3. Does Aphrodite get angry easily? I know we aren’t supposed to compare Her to anybody and not allowed to say someone is as beautiful as Her but what if I accidentally do something that makes her mad and I didn’t know… also how do I know if she is angry?

Thank you so much for reading this, have a good day/night <3

Hi! First of all, I know this was a while ago, and you are probably not as new to Hellenic Polytheism now as you were then, but I would still like to welcome you! Hellenic Polytheism has offered me a lot of solace and comfort, and I hope it has done the same for you.

Now, to answer your questions!

So firstly, I would say you don't need to be an expert in The Mythology in order to worship Greek Deities(Gods, and Theoi are also proper terms to use!) However, you will want to look into it as it will be useful in many ways! One, reading a myth about a certain deity can help you learn more, and therefore grow closer to a deity. And as a result, it will help you learn things that are associated with said deity, and give you ideas on what you can offer them, decorate their alter with, etc. So basically, you don't need to know the whole span of Greek mythology before you start, but you should definitely learn as you go.

Second, you definitely don't need incense or candles on an altar in order for it to be complete. If you would like something that would give the candle effect without actually lighting one, you could always get those fake battery-powered candles. But it's definitely not a requirement.

And lastly, despite what the myths might tell you, Aphrodite does not get angry easily. In fact, in my experience she's very patient and understanding. Aphrodite exudes love and comfort, and you definitely don't have to walk on eggshells with Her. Of course, you should still show great respect, but if you slip up, She won't smite you or anything! Seriously, don't worry about it. However, if you do happen to do something upsetting to Her, I'm sure She'll just let you know about it! Otherwise, you're okay. Don't stress.

Again, I'm so sorry for the very late reply, but I hope you've been fairing well in your Hellenic Polytheism journey and I hope these answers still help you in some way.