Greek Myths

A question I'm occasionally asked is "how can you worship a deity that did (insert questionable or downright awful thing here) in mythology?" I think it's a fair question. When I first started looking at Greek deities and their myths, more than once I went, woah, wait, they did what? However, when I started digging deeper a few things became clear...

First, we have to remember that these myths are not holy text. They're not the word of God, or anything like that. They're not often meant to depict literal events. They're stories, and while some of them did have religious significance, many myths were told more for entertainment purposes. Likewise, we have to consider who wrote the myths. I don't just mean that they were written down by humans, but that surviving written sources were often written by educated men in particular. Often the view of a deity we gain if we only look at the myths surrounding them is not complete, we also need to attempt to look at the religious cults and folk religion that surrounded them.

We also have to consider the cultural filter with which we view these myths. Our culture is quite different from that of ancient Greece in many ways. One example that I see come up a lot is the meaning of virginity in Greek myth - Athena, Artemis, and Hestia were all considered virgin goddesses. Virginity is something that carries a lot of baggage for many in our modern culture. The whole link to purity, to how sex is sinful and dirty, and so on. Some say that virginity in ancient Greece just meant that the woman was not dependent on any man, and had nothing to do with sex. The truth is somewhere in between. One school of Greek thought was that men were projective, and women receptive, so when a woman and a man had sex, the woman was no longer wholly herself, a part of the man would always be in her. So yes, independence played a part in Greek virginity, but so did sex... just not for the same reasons sex plays in virginity today. (This is actually a huge topic in itself, all three of the Goddesses I mentioned remained virgins for different reasons... I'll have to revisit this topic in the future.)

These cultures had different morals and concepts from us today, and these are often reflected in the myths they created. Again, we have to remember that myths are created by humans, and sometimes elements of myths are perhaps more reflective of a culture's ideas truly something reflective of the deity involved. Yes, these people created these myths and included particular deities for a reason, but again, these are not divine revelations, they are human created stories.

Another thing to consider is that myths often have several versions, and of course could change through the years. Sometimes myths are in fragments, and we're trying to put a puzzle together when we don't have all the pieces. As an example, there's a myth where the hunter Actaeon sees Artemis as she's bathing, because of this she turns him into a stag and he is then killed by his own hunting dogs. I mean, that's kind of harsh, right?

Well, maybe. It depends on how much of the myth we look at. Some versions of the myth Actaeon enters into her sacred grove (or cave) where the spring is, knowing full well that this was her sacred ground, that it was off limits to him. Some say he stumbled upon her on accident, but kept staring at her when he knew that he should look away. Other myths say he had been boasting about being a better hunter than she was, and was entering into her sacred ground to hunt when he came across her in the lake. Some myths imply that he was planning to brag about how he had seen her naked. Some even speculate that in the earliest versions of this myth Actaeon was one of her hunting companions, and when he saw her he attempted to rape her.

Often myths have a deeper symbolic meaning, as well, if not several layers of deeper meaning. Let's hop over to ancient Egypt for a moment. Osiris was a god who is said to have ruled Egypt for a time, he was a kind and gentle king, he was fair, good, and the people loved him. He was eventually killed by his brother, Set. On the surface, that's pretty inexcusable.

However, let's look at these gods and what they rule, among other things Osiris is a god of the green vegetation, as well as the cultivated crops, and Set is a god of the desert. It's the same idea we see in many myths, where the gods reflect the seasons of nature, where the grain god dies, the harvest sustains the people.

Now I'm not saying myths are useless, that we should ignore them, or anything like that. Myths are an important tool to understanding a deity, and the role they played in their culture. However, you do need to try to look at these myths through the lens of the culture they came from, you need to consider how the myth was handed down, and perhaps changed over time, the role of story in the culture, what role the myth played in religious cults (if any). It's also important to understand that myths are only play a part in understanding a deity - there are many other aspects to consider besides the myths that may surround them.

Summer Sunday

A young white-tailed deer resting next to a field of growing corn.

Northern Starflower (Trientalis borealis)

The northern starflower is a small, perennial plant, which grow only a few inches tall. They are commonly found in woodland areas, and do well in shady areas with moist soil. Northern starflowers have small blooms from mid-spring through mid-summer, which then turn to seeds. They are generally found in clusters, since they can also spread through underground rhizomes.

Northern starflowers are so called because their white flowers look like little stars. While the flowers can have anywhere from five to nine petals, it is common for them to have seven petals (which is uncommon for flowers). Additionally, they generally have seven sepals and seven stamens, and sometimes seven leaves.

There doesn't seem to be any folklore about the northern starflower, at least not that I've been able to find. Nor does it seem to have any medicinal uses, and it's not really edible.

Still, the flower has some potential ritual uses. For example, seven pointed stars are often considered protective symbols, so one might place some of the blooms on an altar for a protective working, or in a protective charm bag. Some associate the seven pointed star with the fae, and so it might be used in their workings. I also saw a few northern starflowes with eight pointed blooms, and the eight pointed star is a sacred symbol of Ishtar, and sometimes of Venus and Aphrodite, as well. An eight pointed star could also be symbolic of the four quarter and four cross quarter days. Northern starflower might also make a nice decoration or offering to deities associated with stars, such as the Egyptian goddess Nut.

Starflower is listed as endangered in Georgia and Kentucky, and threatened in Illinois and Tennessee. So if you come across them in one of these areas, please just enjoy them where they are.

Rearranging the Shrines

I've spent the past few weeks (yeah, weeks, it's been a slow process) trying to bring a bit of new life to my shrines. Either they'd grown a bit stagnant, were no longer relevant, or were just in bad locations which meant they weren't getting the proper attention. I've found that often shrines and altars grow and change on their own with use, but sometimes they just need a total overhaul.

This was all originally prompted by the changes I wrote about in my last post, About halfway through that whole process my hearth shrine just started to feel off. I decided to move it to a different place in the kitchen, and I tried a lot of different arrangements, worked with different materials and styles, and nothing was clicking for me. Eventually I realized what needed to be done, and it's coming along... okay. I'm having a hard time deciding exactly in which spot it would work best.

I've decided to move Artemis' shrine into the kitchen where most of the others are. Right now I'm looking at other statues of Artemis, and considering maybe using a framed picture instead, since the statue I have right now doesn't fit the space well. I'm also debating which of two spaces would make for a better hearth shrine and which a better shrine for Artemis. Unfortunately I only have one "large" spot, so I need to decide which requires more room.

I also felt it was time to establish a proper shrine to Hekate, rather than just setting up a temporary one when needed. That's coming along rather well, as it was really just a matter of clearing off a spot that wasn't really being used for anything, and putting the 'temporary' items up. Again the issue is that I only have one large spot, and I'm not sure the small shelf where I've decided to put Hekate's shrine into will be big enough for what I generally use it for... I may have to continue using part of the hearth altar for some of Hekate's festivals. For day to day use, though, the small area works well.

Last, but not least, I took away the pillar candles from my Hathor shine and added in some new tea light holders. Oh, and I bought a beautiful new offering dish! Still in the mail, but I'm excited to add it in. Hathor's shrine is by far always the easiest shrine to maintain, perhaps in part due to location, perhaps because out of the deities I currently honor regularly, Hathor has been around the longest. I've had many years to experiment and discover what is appreciated.

Changes

I've struggled with writing this post for a while now. I'd write long, detailed paragraphs, delete them, write something simple, be unhappy with it, and never really got anywhere. Much of what I considered writing about is really too personal for me to put out there right now. I'm also still processing a lot of it. I thought writing it out would help that process, and in some respects it did, but I think most of it is best left to a private journal.

I will say that the last eight months have been a long journey. I think I vastly misunderstood a message from Westya at the beginning of all of this. There were a lot of disconnects, many twists and turns, struggles to sort through information, symbols, and so on, and it was rough. Then in the end, there was Hestia. That answered many questions, but of course created more. I am still working through most of those.

The two are of course fairly similar in many ways, one being a reconstructed predecessor of the other, but they also have their differences as well. The big picture of my hearth practice is still the same, but the details have changed.

Midsummer

Lately in my mind I've been thinking of the summer solstice as Midsummer instead of Litha. Not sure what brought about that particular change, but figure it's worth making a note of.

I spent yesterday cleaning out the fire pit in my grandparents' backyard. Some of the bricks had fallen over, and the whole pit and area around it had become a bit overgrown. Before any fires I'd made were small and off in a little sandy area to the side of the house, but the backyard is nicer so I've been working on cleaning that space up.

So since today is Midsummer I thought it would be a good time to have a fire and bless the fire pit. I know the area is going to need some more work. A bench would be nice, or maybe I'll just have to bring a folding chair out. I'm also considering making a small shrine on top of, or nearby the fire pit, or making one of the sides a bit wider for a bit of altar space. Not sure yet.

Today I also began making a large stang. I've written about this a few times in the past, this as been an ongoing search for... two years now? Something like that. I've just been waiting to find the right branch to start with. I had passed by the branch I ended up choosing many, many times. First, it wasn't the type of tree I was hoping to make a stang from, and two it was actually a whole small tree rather than a branch from a tree.

I was trying to avoid cutting a whole tree down, but this particular tree was in an area that was due to have some clearing anyway. Actually, this is how I lost the original branch I was looking at the year before last. It was a nice branch from a young white oak, but the week before I was going to cut it the whole area was cleared out and the wood hauled off somewhere.

Anyway like I said, this has been a long process, and I've been coming back to this particular tree for at least a year now. It just seemed like the right one to work with. So I left an offering at the base of the tree, and carefully cut it down. The trunk forked off into two branches, which I've trimmed off and kept for later use. I blessed the stang over the Midsummer fire, which had dried mugwort burning in it. Now it's going to be set aside for a while to dry out a bit before being worked further.

June 9, 2014

Wow, it's hard to believe that we're nearly halfway through 2014. I'm not even sure where most of that time went, which is always a little concerning. I mean, I don't believe that every day needs to be jammed packed with ~meaning~ or activity, but it feels like the last six months have just been a bit of a blur.

I've hardly made time to write here at all this year (although I do see several half-finished drafts sitting in my post list). Writing here has always provided me with motivation to finish little side projects, to research this or that topic, to write about certain experiences so they're not forgotten, and so on. I don't necessarily do these things only for the blog, but the blog gives me a place to keep all the information in a nice order. Scattered notes (or even no notes) and fragmented thoughts become something more.

I planned on participating in the Pagan Blog Project this year, to pick up where I left off last year, but right now I'm putting that on hold. I might join in at some point, but I'm not going to make it a priority at the moment.

What I do want to focus on is getting back into the 30 Days of Deity project I left off months ago, and combine it with a similar project I've been working through offline. I also want to continue on with the various plant and animal posts I've done in the past. That's really an area where doing write-ups for the blog really helps me get my notes together, organize research, and just bring everything together into a more finished form.There are definitely a few plant posts coming up in the near future.

Herbs...

Yesterday my grandfather gave me a little book on herbs he picked up on sale. I was just flipping through it and landed on a page which had a flower on it that I've had no success identifying for, what, two years now? Looking more closely, there seem to be three or four more that I might also have seen growing around. This should certainly be helpful this summer.

Conversion Tactics

So I've just had to delete a spam comment from a Christian blogger, which was the general "here's how to pray to Jesus and become a Christian" sort of copy paste I'm sure most non-Christians have seen many times over. There was no conversation, no personal element to it, simply the spam and a blog link (which I did not follow, and of course have no interest in promoting here).

I've always considered this a very strange tactic, and often wonder if the people who use it even stop to consider what it would be like from the other side. If I were to go to this person's blog, leave a comment on an unrelated post of theirs, no introduction, no indication that I actually understand that there is an individual behind the screen, just a spammy attempt to convert them... would they jump up and convert? It's very unlikely - and yet, that's all they seem to think other people need. As if we're not actual people with our own beliefs, experiences, and so on.

Beyond that, each Christan that I've seen use this particular tactic doesn't seem to understand one little thing... we've seen it before. There are very few non-Christians in my country who do not have a basic understanding of Christianity. Many of us come from Christian backgrounds, have Christan family members, have studied Christianity, and so on. It is very hard to miss Christianity in our particular society. Heck, there have been times where I've known more about Christianity than the Christian attempting to convert me! They are sometimes shocked to discover that, yes, I have in fact even read the Bible. I have taken the time to learn about their religion, but they have no interest in learning a single thing about mine, or how I have come to be where I am spiritually. Often I am made to feel like they don't even view me as a person - yet, even so, they think their spam will have some sort of success?

Look. I accept that most Christians feel they belong to the only true religion, and that sometimes they attempt to convert people because they believe they're saving them from something horrible. I understand that, I really do... but if you're going to try to convert people? Take the time to actually get to know someone, take the time to actually have a conversation with them - talk with them, not at them. Don't spam. No one likes spam.

Imbolc and the Coming of Spring

There are some who celebrate Imbolc as the beginning of spring, but where I am, we are firmly still in the middle of winter. Like many places in the US, we got hit with a ton of snow yesterday, and it's snowing again today - which is not unusual for this time of year. Everything is covered in snow and ice, nothing's growing.

There's really only one sign that warmer weather is coming - in NH, we now have an hour and a half more sunlight each day. It may not seem like much with the snow and freezing temperatures, but for me it's a welcome reminder that spring is coming.

Until then, while I still try to get outside on the warmer days, there are a lot of cold and icy days where I'm forced to stay inside (especially after hurting my back recently - slipping on ice and re-hurting it is a chance I can't afford to take). I've been keeping busy organizing shelves, decluttering my supply cabinets, and doing all the little things I probably won't want to do when the weather is warmer. It's not always the most exciting work, it can be slow and frustrating at times, but it needs to be done - and the quite time around Imbolc is often the perfect time to do it.