As someone who holds onto failure long after the event, the people and the time has passed, this is so important to remember. Ave ave Antinoe!
Near East prayer: Assyrian Prayer for the Dying
Bind the sick man to Heaven, for from Earth he is being torn away! Of the brave man who was so strong, his strength has departed. Of the righteous servant, the force does not return, In his bodily frame he lies dangerously ill. But Ishtar, who in her dwelling, is grieved concerning him, descends from […]
MOUNTAIN TOWNS. For most travelers, a trip to Ifugao starts and ends in Banaue Rice Terraces. View decks that offer a panoramic vista of the ancient staircased rice paddies are heavy with tourists all year round. Like most travelers, I’ve been to most of tourist spots in Ifugao during my first time in the Cordilleras. […]
Sayings of Sannion
Ἀποφθέγματα Σαννίωνως
Everything you do and everything you are is a choice. You are free. Choose wisely.
Make mistakes, as many as you can. How else are you going to learn?
This, too, shall pass.
Show respect to all things. Yes, even if they don’t deserve it. Manners aren’t for other people, they are for us.
Question everything. Especially if it comes from an authority.
Educate yourself, or others will.
You will never have it all figured out.
We all go a little crazy sometimes.
Often what is most feared is most needed.
Listen to The Doors. Jim Morrison was a prophet.
Love unguardedly. Hearts are made to be crushed.
You will die a thousand deaths before your time if you do not master your fear.
Find what you are great at and pursue it with a single-minded devotion.
It doesn’t matter if it’s hard and difficult and unpleasant. Do…
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Daily Prayer
I feel like I should get back into deeper practice of devotions to the Iluma. Even something as simple as burning a candle to Ba’lu Hadu (Baal Hadad)…it was enough to change my normal stewing into something better, whole. Even when I have been dry to the Iluma, They have not been so to me. And that is truly a gift.
Message of the Kahinu to my Natib Qadish community: May the gods guard you and keep you well.*
I would like to bring mindfulness and attention on the practice of a daily devotional prayer practice. Take a few moments and assess your engagement with making a devotional prayer daily. Do you make a prayer daily to connect to the Iluma, our deities, or to a few particular deities of the Iluma, or to one deity? Making a daily prayer of devotion is a practice during which you make time to focus on a deity or deities. It is a prayer in which you set aside time and focus on Them. Daily devotional prayer helps lay a foundation for good relations between ourselves and our deities.
It is easy to fall out of touch with people we care about; and often we have the opportunity to come back into communication with…
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What Decolonization Is, and What It Means to Me
Decolonizing is about reclaiming what was taken and honoring what we still have.
In this op-ed, Tina Curiel-Allen, a Xicana/Boricua poet, writer, and activist, explains decolonization for those who may not be familiar with the term or process. It is important to note that Tina is writing from California, in what is now known as the United States; her family comes from California, other parts of the U.S., and parts of Mexico. She is not attempting to speak for all peoples with regard to decolonization but rather for the community she is a part of, as well as the elders and teachers she says she’s fortunate enough to know.
To talk about decolonization, people need an understanding of what we are decolonizing from. Colonization is when a dominant group or system takes over and exploits and extracts from the land and its native…
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What can I do?
A lot of times, I feel like a single, lost pagan/polytheist, especially since the tradition I am trying to follow (Canaanite polytheism) often makes me wonder if I’m deluding myself. “Does any of it matter?” Despair is the path of least resistance. Hope sometimes takes work, but it causes more things to happen than despair.
All you can do is what you can do
One of my favorite stories about the Ptolemies comes down to us from the Roman author Claudius Aelianus who compiled his Varia Historia or Historical Miscellany in the middle of the second century of the common era. According to Aelian (1.30) Ptolemy Philometor had a young companion named Galestes with whom he was deeply enamored. Although everyone remarked on the physical beauty of Galestes it was actually his deep wisdom and gentle spirit that had won Ptolemy over. Galestes was always at the side of his king and the pair especially liked to go out riding and hunting together.
Well, one day they were out on an adventure when Galestes spotted some young men who were being led off to the executioner’s block. These were troubled times in the land of Egypt. It seemed like there was constant turmoil – wars…
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Do Your Job
I’ve been struggling a lot with anxiety and continuing on my polytheist path. But Hecatedemeter has often posted something right when I needed some answers. 🙂
Even when things seem grim, you are still the Witch of your place. And, as Granny Weatherwax once explained, “A Witch ought never to be frightened in the darkest forest because she should be sure in her soul that the most terrifying thing in the forest was her.”
So be the Witch.
When you salt the soup, salt health and savor into it.
When you plant the seeds, plant growth, prosperity, and wealth.
When you run water on your hands, come back into the presence of the Goddess.
When you see evil, bind it, hex it, return all of its energy to Mother Earth because, as we all know, “One thing becomes another, in the Mother, in the Mother.”
When you see beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence, guard them, grow them, strengthen them, for that is the charge of the Goddess.
If you’re…
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People of Prayer: A Call for Submissions for the Spring 2018 Issue of Isis-Seshat Journal
Signal boosting for those who are in the middle of (or are needing a reason for) writing or making prayers for their Gods!
Seeking Submissions for the 2018 Spring Issue of Isis-Seshat Journal on the Theme of “People of Prayer”–Deadline: Friday, March 30
If meditation is the act of listening to the Divine, prayer is the art of speaking. It’s an under-discussed topic in Polytheistic and theistic Pagan communities, which is unfortunate, as it really is the most basic component of establishing and sustaining a devotional relationship to one’s Patron Deity or multiple Holy Powers. Many people who “come home” to a Pagan spiritual path may have an aversion to prayer because they associate the practice with the undesirable (Abrahamic) religion of their upbringing, but there are ways to overcome the negative perceptions and conditioning related to former religious experiences so that one can have a thriving, judgment- and distraction-free prayer practice that sustains the spirit. Those are the issues I’d like to explore in the Spring 2018 issue of Isis-Seshat journal, a…
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Words from Ares: Courage, Caitlyn Jenner, and What It Means To Be A Warrior In Times of Peace
Thenea of her blog Magick From Scratch put the question of Caitlyn Jenner’s courage compared with a soldier’s courage to Ares, Greek God of war. She received this response, which hopefully put a lot of things into perspective for any who reads it. Thank you Thenea, and to Lord Ares!
Ares is a taciturn sort of fellow, but I showed him a meme going around with a picture of Caitlyn Jenner next to a soldier, and he had a mouthful to say about it. Often, when he does speak more than just a few words, his opinions are quite surprising.
For reference: projectile weapons, in ancient Greece, were considered a “coward’s weapon.” Correspondingly, Ares doesn’t think much of modern war, or guns.
Ares is not what you might call eloquent. In order to understand how I experienced this, you need to imagine a gigantic, ripped biker dude wearing bronze armor growling or yelling part or all of this.
Take this message for what it is: if you are fighting for acceptance, Ares thinks you are bad ass.
All courage should be rewarded.
It should be, and it isn’t.
When a soldier faces streams of cowardly bullets shot from behind the safety…
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Palms of Our Hands 