Sunday, August 30, 2015

Sacrifices to Kourotrophos

Tonight, at sundown, we give sacrifices to Kourotrophos, Hecate, Artemis. They are connected through the title Kourotrophos. We pour libations, but do not take part. I hope that you all have a good one and I hope that your month was wonderful.

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Hymn to Helios

This is the hymn to Helios. Enjoy and I get this hymn from Perseus Digital Library.



And now, O Muse Calliope, daughter of Zeus, begin to sing of glowing Helios whom mild-eyed Euryphaessa, the far-shining one, bare to the Son of Earth and starry Heaven. For Hyperion wedded glorious Euryphaessa, [5] his own sister, who bare him lovely children, rosy-armed Eos and rich-tressed Selene and tireless Helios who is like the deathless gods. As he rides in his chariot, he shines upon men and deathless gods, and piercingly he gazes with his eyes [10] from his golden helmet. Bright rays beam dazzlingly from him, and his bright locks streaming from the temples of his head gracefully enclose his far-seen face: a rich, fine-spun garment glows upon his body and flutters in the wind: and stallions carry him.

[15] Then, when he has stayed his golden-yoked chariot and horses, [15a] he rests there upon the highest point of heaven, until he marvelously drives them down again through heaven to Ocean.

Hail to you, lord! Freely bestow on me substance that cheers the heart. And now that I have begun with you, I will celebrate the race of mortal men half-divine whose deeds the Muses have showed to mankind.

Eleusinia (2015)

Tonight, at sundown, is Eleusinia. If' I've done an entry for this then I'm sorry for repeating myself. It's a four day celebration of games held every four years. However, in this day and age, we do it every year. How I celebrate is by playing games. No matter if it's board games or games on the computer. I try and keep things competitive. We might not have the kinds of games that the Greeks had, but we have games.

I hope that you all have a good one and have fun.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Hymn to Earth, Mother of All

I believe that I've already written this down, but I decided to give it it's own entry. Enjoy and I get this hymn from Perseus Digital Library.


I will sing of well-founded Earth, mother of all, eldest of all beings. She feeds all creatures that are in the world, all that go upon the goodly land, and all that are in the paths of the seas, and all that fly: all these are fed of her store. [5] Through you, O queen, men are blessed in their children and blessed in their harvests, and to you it belongs to give means of life to mortal men and to take it away. Happy is the man whom you delight to honor! He has all things abundantly: his fruitful land is laden with corn, his pastures are covered

[10] with cattle, and his house is filled with good things. Such men rule orderly in their cities of fair women: great riches and wealth follow them: their sons exult with ever-fresh delight, and their daughters in flower-laden bands [15] play and skip merrily over the soft flowers of the field. Thus is it with those whom you honor O holy goddess, bountiful spirit.

Hail, Mother of the gods, wife of starry Heaven; freely bestow upon me for this my song substance that cheers the heart! And now I will remember you and another song also.

Monday, August 24, 2015

Forced to Budget Practice

The annual letter that 'lets you know how much money your landlord wants to suck out of you' came in and it's nearly $600.00. Yeah, you heard me right. We have to pay nearly $600.00 a month for rent. In the spirit of high rent I was thinking about ways to practice on a budget. This amount makes it clear that statues, even if my mother allowed more to come in, is clearly off the table. One of the blessed things about living where I'm at is that there's a Dollar Tree and a library nearby.

I'm thinking about running off images of the gods and taping them to cheap $1.00 candles. I'm already planning on buying candle labels and prayer cards this week. I'm going to be adding seven day candles as well. When the winter months come upon us they won't be lit so that I don't use them up. I'm getting the label that has all the gods on them. I'm going to be doing plenty of 'picking pennies off the ground and putting them in my pocket' during the winter months.

I'm going to be praying to the gods that this seasonal months will not be as bad as they are claiming that it will be. I know that the gods will be with me and I'm not worried.

Remember Pompeii, Once Again

Once again the time has come around to honor those that died on this date. This is the 1,936th anniversary of the destruction of both Pompeii and Herculaneum. It was a sad time and one that can happen anywhere at any time. The lessons that we have learned from this disaster has helped countless other countries that have these monsters. I'm going to be pouring libations to Hades, Persephone, and Hermes and doing a prayer.

I hope that you all have a good day and thanks for reading.

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Making My Space Simple

This post is hard to write for many reasons. One: I want my words to come out correctly and not in the area of bashing. I know that bashing others is something that most Hellenists don't approve of. Of course if it's the truth then it's not bashing. Early this week I had to make changes to my altar based on, once again, her dislike for statues. Sometimes I wonder if she's got bipolar or something. Not that I'm attacking those that have it.

For several months she says nothing about statues and then she watches some program and, once again, she doesn't like statues. This time around, however, she didn't say that they had to go. Just that statues get between you and G-d. I was thinking about how I could have a altar, or space, that wouldn't rile her up. I remember Baring the Aegis has a altar that doesn't have statues. She just has a box with a candle for Hestia. So I decided to do something like that.

I have a box, which I keep coins in, a candle holder with a homemade candle in it. Yes, I've gotten into making my own candles which I consider part of my practice, a picture that I got off the net from Pompeii, a candle sniffer, one of those lighters for candles that you use when the candle burns down into the container and you can't reach it, and an incense burner. I set it up and waited to see what would happen.

Glory to the gods, she said that she liked it. There were no statues, just things that I already had or things that I had bought this month. So I'm using the space and not having statues. I would like to note that she didn't tell me that I couldn't practice, just that she doesn't like statues. I consider the space to be much more simpler and a heck of a lot easier to clean up. So I'm going to keep it this way and I will admit, I happen to like it just as much as she did.

Note: I'm talking about my mother.