How Do We Practice Polytheism In Times Of Great Distress?

As I start to write this post (and may not, thus, finish it before this day ends where I’m at), it is March the 17th.  On my own liturgical calendar, this is one of the most packed days of the year, with four different festivals in four different (but not mutually-exclusive, thankfully!) cultures and/or practices.  (For those playing along at home, it was the Roman Liberalia, the Irish Anglonnfhled [“Hero-Feast”] of Cú Chulainn, the Thraco-Graeco-Roman Kottytia, and the Tetrad++ic Birth of Pancrates of the Tetrad++.)

On various occasions over the past near-twenty-years that I’ve been observing one or more of these festivals on this date, it has been a rather major occasion.  On some of the best of them, I’ve been in the presence of friends, colleagues, and co-religionists celebrating an amazing day filled with Deities and Their devotion; on some of them, other things have prevented major observances, but these occasions have been marked in at least some fashion or other; on still other occasions, the rumblings of quite awful things have begun to appear as cracks have formed in various matters that I had assumed were “stable” before that.  Thus, on a day that is traditionally one of great revelry and parties–at least in the U.S. and in Ireland (the two places I’ve lived the most!), we are currently in a worldwide situation in which the requirements of “social isolation” and “social distancing” (which should REALLY be called “physical distancing/isolation”!), it behooves us all to pause and reflect on what is realistic, what is preferable, and what is possible.

I spoke with various friends, colleagues, and co-religionists today about the situation, and all of us were in “triage” mode, as it were, for some reason or another.  Being one of the non-elderly but extremely at-risk individuals in the COVID-19 pandemic, since I have multiple underlying conditions–any single one of which could make what is just a bit of severe flu for many people quite dangerously deadly–I am having to be especially careful with how I conduct myself in public, if at all, and what I am doing at-home to reduce the risks of infection.  Many other transitions I’ve had to endure in this process over the last week have not been too difficult, since my “for-pay” work easily translates into a work-at-home situation with little to no trouble.  However, the very moment that the orders came down to self-isolate last week made me suddenly become my most contrarian self, wanting to just run outside naked and get in a hot tub with anyone I meet or some such stupid thing that might be fun for a moment but which could have potentially deadly aftermaths.

Thus my recent consideration of “small/trivial things” and what the Deities think of them was not entirely a theoretical matter of theological consideration.  The twenty-second difference of washing one’s hands now might literally mean life or death for one of us or for someone we know and love…and that is no exaggeration, sadly.

The virus can last no more than nine days, at least according to the most recent scientific reports, on a surface…and you have no idea if the person who stocked the shelves where you just bought forty packages of toilet paper coughed all over them and was carrying the virus, or if the person who just paid in dollar bills before you at the store that you are then getting change from those same bills might have had them in their hand when they reflexively moved their hand up to their mouth when coughing, even though they didn’t think they were carrying the virus but in fact were transmitting it at that very moment…sadly, the possibilities are endless.

Given the focus of this blog, and my frequent self-reflexive theological questioning, I always have to ask not one question that seems to have been making the rounds (i.e. where are the Deities in all of this, which is to say, “Which God did this/is doing this to get back at which humans for what infractions?”–in other words, some of the most foul and misguided applications of theodicy that can be imagined, and which we have tended to criticize and condemn roundly when done by other religions in relation to other things!) but instead the following:  what can we do to make the Deities a part of how we respond to this crisis?

Various people in my wider network of colleagues have posted prayers, made suggestions on how to use the time of self-isolation for further study and so forth.  This is all excellent and important and one should absolutely investigate those possibilities and read (and use!) those prayers.  But, what about how we actually conduct our rituals and devotional activities?

Like so many things in polytheism, this is not an “either/or” matter, it is a “both/and” one.  What I mean to say with that statement is that this is not a situation where we should completely forget about our devotions and how we do them in favor of the immediate survival needs dictated by practicality and science.  Do not mistake what I’m saying here:  ABSOLUTELY pay attention to those as if your life and the lives of other people depend upon them, because they very well might.  However, in looking after your own mental health (which is starting to be addressed in some sectors) and your own spiritual health (which I’ve heard absolutely no discussion of whatsoever in public discourse at this point), remember what it is that sustains us as polytheists:  not chatting to our polytheist friends on BaceFook and InstaTwit, not reading ancient texts we’ve never had time to or brushing up on our Latin, and not doing virtual tours of museums we have only heard about and likely couldn’t visit even if there weren’t worldwide quarantine and travel ban protocols in place, but instead PRACTICE, the actual DOING of our religious rituals and devotional activities in which we are directly interacting with the Deities with Whom we have relationships.

We may not be able to do these as well or as fully or in any way as ideally as we may wish at this time, or even as much or to the same extents as we have become accustomed to doing for any variety of practical reasons at the moment.  Rather than lamenting that we cannot do what we would prefer and therefore doing nothing (which happens FAR TOO OFTEN!), we need to do something, and to keep doing something because our spiritual healths absolutely depend on this, and our mental and even physical healths may also reap tremendous benefits from doing so.

While there are no hard-and-fast rules for everyone and anyone in how these matters may impact what we’re doing and how we’re doing it, I would offer the following things just as potential sites for further reflection to keep in mind as we go forward.

1.  Never let the PERFECT be the enemy of the GOOD.  This is one of the best pieces of advice I ever received in my life, and I am sad that it did not actually occur until sometime between 2012 and 2015, via my friend, colleague, and co-religionist Dr. Edward Butler.  This is something which has much wider potential applications than our polytheist practices during these difficult times, and in fact is something we should keep in mind at all times when doing any and all of our religious work and our spiritual activities.  But especially now, spend as little time as possible in regret that we cannot honor our Deities to the full extent that we might prefer and that They certainly deserve, and get down to doing what you can when you can to the fullest extent you can under whatever your individual circumstances may be.
2. Pay especial attention to physical offerings at this point.  Physical offerings are a long-standing vexed topic, but this would be an ideal opportunity to consider them more fully than you may have done before, and to perhaps even consciously take up the practice of giving them more assiduously than you may have done hitherto.  When some essentials are becoming difficult to obtain (and are likely to become even more so in the weeks and months to follow), how much more blessed and holy are these things that we do have to offer?  When water is being used to a much larger extent by all of us, and is being polluted in ways we’ll only realize six months to a year from now (think of all the bleach, hand sanitizer, and even just larger amounts of soap are being washed down drains in every household now which may impact our oceans and rivers even more dramatically than all else we’ve been doing as a species before now, and how much more of that water we’re using on a daily basis simply to maintain optimal virus-limiting measures…!), how much more does it mean to offer a half a cup of clean water to our Ancestors on a regular basis?  If you obtain food offerings from your local stores especially to give to your Deities, would options that have more packaging–which is often a non-optimal choice in times that are safer–be more prudent to use now that we are unaware of the risk of infection from handling something that the exterior packaging of which might be compromised?  Think of these things as thoroughly as you are able to under your own circumstances, be that much more thankful that you have these resources to obtain in the first place, and also consider how your offerings are disposed of after their offering and if it might be worthwhile to discuss with your Deities what potential arrangements can be reached in relation to the offerings which may be of greater benefit to you and your local communities.
3. Consider what “sacredness” is.  What things that are “holy” or “sacred” mean, at least in Indo-European languages, is that they are “set apart.”  Ideas of awe, respect, and even power inherent in some words, ideas, beings, places, or things is a part of what many of us consider to be “holy” or “sacred” now, and are much more highlighted in some cultures than in others, but on their most literal levels, the terms in quotation marks previously are terms that mean things are special, set aside, and are intended to be exclusively for religious/spiritual/devotional usage.  One does not build a sewage plant on temple grounds (unless one is an ancient Roman engineer involved with Cloacina!), generally.  So, as you do your practices, consider what physical things you are coming into contact with frequently.  Are. you handling particular objects a lot, and are you washing your hands adequately before you do?  Have others handled these objects in timeframes that might involve them becoming infected unknowingly?  Are there items that you sometimes use in sacred spaces or for sacred purposes that are also used for more everyday purposes, and does the latter have to be the case?  As an example, I have various reusable shopping bags, and occasionally I will use one of these to transport some items that get used inside my Shrine that also get used outside of it (e.g. the laptop computer I’m writing this on; various notebooks on divination results; etc.), or that are coming from outside but will remain inside (e.g. food offerings; new divine images and implements, etc.).  While having such a dedicated transitional carrying device was not something I had thought of previously, I’m now implementing such a protocol, so that my blue reusable UCLA shopping bag is now going to be EXCLUSIVELY used for transporting things in and out of the Shrine, and not for everyday mundane shopping, taking potluck items to parties in the future (and I say that in full confidence that such things will happen again in the future!), and so forth.  “Sacred” means “set apart,” so don’t hesitate to make some things for dedicated purposes in relation to your practices to avoid contamination and keep your sacred spaces and items clean (both physically in general as well as in the sense of non-infected) as well as holy.
4. Prioritize your practices.  As mentioned above, don’t get lost in the shuffle and the stress of all that needs to be done and forget to do your practices, or move them to a lower level of urgency.  If you didn’t have time in the morning before going to work to pray, now you may have it whether you like it or not since you won’t be going anywhere on a set schedule (if such a thing applies to you if you’re working from home now and had not been previously).  A few moments of meditation in the presence of your Deities before you read the latest updates on the internet about casualty rates and such would not go amiss, and perhaps make it a “requirement” that the former always precedes the latter so that you can go into that fraught informational environment with greater serenity and equanimity and calm than you might have had otherwise.  Set aside time to pray not only for the protection, safety, health, well-being, and blessings upon your family and friends, as well as your medical providers, emergency response personnel, those who provide necessary services (e.g. store clerks, pharmacists, infrastructure maintainers, etc.), and any others (up to and including–yes–even political leaders whose wisdom and good counsel and guidance by the Deities can always be prayed for, even if they are of a different party than you or if you are non-political yourself!), but also to be thankful for each of these people in your life, and also communicate your thanks and appreciation to them as frequently and as courteously as possible in this time of additional stress as a matter of religious ethical obligation.  If you did not have regular prayers or practices that you did either on a daily basis previously, or in relation to certain matters (e.g. leaving the house, doing particular activities, etc.), consider adding one or two in order to bring your devotional relationships and the presence of your Deities and other divine powers into your everyday activities more obviously at this fraught set of moments.  Anything like this can and will help your spiritual health, and could very well help you in all sorts of other secondary ways as well.
5. Spiritual health is a part of. your health as much as mental and physical health.  Much of what has been said previously supports this premise, so anything which furthers it is positive!  These things are often intertwined and can have excellent knock-on effects for each other.
6. And finally:  When in doubt, divine!  Use divination to find out what is not only the most important matters for your own time and attention at present, but also what your Deities’ priorities are for you.  It may surprise you how much you and Them may be on the same page about certain things; but if you are not utterly sure of this in the first place, do remember that you can (and should!) always ask!

The above is not comprehensive, it’s only a starting-point for you to consider.

The oft-used “Keep Calm and Carry On” sign and message from Britain during World War II, whether or not it was “real” or not, is not a bad thing to think these days in general; this may not be the Blitz, but various leaders have described it as a “war” at this point, and the actions we have to take under these circumstances certainly are analogous to that.  What I hope to have outlined here, though, is that “Carry On” is not just something that we should keep in mind about our general daily existences and lives under these altered conditions, but also our spiritual practices and religious devotions.  Modify as necessary, of course, under consultation with your tradition’s elders, your colleagues and co-religionists, and your Deities, but by no means stop them, delay them, or eliminate them under any circumstances.

A Break With Protocol…

As many of you may know, I truly hate to do this sort of post here that is not a “theological question,” but I think the gravity of the situation somewhat demands it.  One could say these are all calendrical matters, and two of them certainly are…

First off, today is the 1944th Dies Natalis of Divus Publius Aelius Hadrianus Augustus, our own beloved Emperor Hadrian..  As he was born in the same numerical year (minus 1900!) that I was, I feel this is an important thing to mark…and as this blog re-started around this time last year, that’s also a noteworthy thing.  So, from here on out, this blog will share its Dies Natalis with our great Emperor!

Second, tomorrow is Robert Burns Day–also his Dies Natalis in 1756–which is being celebrated all over the place.  We had an event to this effect yesterday at my college, and it was wonderful–we had vegan haggis (honestly the best haggis I’ve yet had, and I’ve had the “real” kind, haggis Chinese dumplings, and vegetarian haggis previously!), and the traditional tatties and neeps but mixed together (which is called “clapshot” in some places), which was also extremely tasty.  Depending on logistics, I may attend a formal Burns supper next weekend as well which was postponed due to bad weather last week.  I have been a bit sick lately, but still managed to sing six songs and read two poems at our celebration yesterday!  And now I have a few images of Burns, one of which will probably be the first of hopefully many in my Poet’s Shrine (or, failing that, one in the Scottish section of my Celtic Shrine…divination pending in either case).

And finally, on a sad (and further Insular Celtic, as it concerns one of the most famous sons of Wales) note, I was very upset to hear yesterday that Terry Jones of Monty Python fame had died earlier in the week on January 21st.

The above photo, from one of the segues in the Monty Python’s Flying Circus episode “Full Frontal Nudity,” has been one of my favorite brief bits of the show for a while because of the way Jones looks at Chapman in that moment before the above happens…you are a very lucky person if you find someone who looks at you in that way!  Graham Chapman happens to be the only other of the original Pythons who has died, and in fact he was been a Sanctus in my Antinoan practice for some time.  I’m not sure if Jones will be as well, but in any case, the two of them are probably having quite a laugh wherever they are now.

I note this here not only because I’m sure many of you share my grief on this matter, but also because Jones is the only one of the Pythons thus far that I’ve met in person.  This was at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI, where he spoke at one of the sessions in 2008.  I went over an hour early to the event to see if I could catch him as he came into the building, and was able to do just that.  I waved at him when he came into the building, and he nodded at me with a smile on his face as he surveyed his surroundings.  He went off toward the restroom (as he had just come from the airport), and then on his way back to the lecture hall, I asked him for an autograph and spoke with him for a moment.  He was warm, friendly, very funny, and very self-effacing, but also immediately respectful of me and my knowledge simply on his sight of me (which has particular reasons behind it that I won’t get into now!), but given his own scholarly accomplishments and skills, this was superlatively flattering!

I know he was suffering from a particular form of aphasia that prevented him from being able to speak for the last several years, and this must have been absolutely torturous to him since he was a gifted communicator.  But no matter what, I wish him every blessing on his onward journey, much peace and strength to his bereaved family and friends, and that all of the Deities of Wales and the many other places that he honored with his attention will support him in his next phases, and may he be remembered and honored upon the Earth forever!

 

A (Friendly!) Winter Holidays Devotional Challenge/Contest…!?!

Being that we’re in the midst of Saturnalia at the moment, and amongst the many functions and meanings of this festival is that it is a cathartic “festival of reversal,” for just this post I’m going to change things up slightly, with potential implications for a future post falling outside of Saturnalia that will follow-up on what is mentioned here in a particular manner.

Without further ado, let me get to it.

Yesterday, my planned multi-part and multi-tradition/pan-polytheist Winter Solstice ritual did not occur, mainly due to lack of participation (i.e. none of the people I invited were able to come), so I was on my own.  When the last of the expected attendees dropped out, I was in the thick of writing one last potential piece to use for the ritual; I finished writing it, and used it in my ritual later, and I actually think it got into the proper spirit of the subject far better than I had expected, for a variety of reasons…

Some of you may remember back to, lo, those days of yore in which I would write a few contrafacta around this time of year, re-purposing various (mostly) traditional Christmas carols and hymns into polytheist versions of such appropriate to my own practices.  The great advantage of this is that people generally know the tunes, even though getting people to sing them correctly with the new words is often a task unto itself (!?!).  As I was looking through some of my old compositions of this type trying to figure out which ones to use in my ritual yesterday and throughout Saturnalia, I realized I had forgotten which tune I had used for one of them, and so had occasion to look back at the old blog and see if there was a clue there.  Alas, there was not, so instead I went to a list of traditional Christmas carols and tried to figure out which one it might have been.  The answer was not difficult to discern, luckily; but as I perused this list, I saw a number of songs that I had not yet used.  Some of them I had considered using before but didn’t because they simply didn’t crystallize with a clear idea for me over the last few years, but others I had not considered using.  Two of these in particular were ones that are a lot more like folk songs, and I suspect they may have had their origins as such at some stage–after all, one of the songs associated with Christmas for many people is “Greensleeves,” which was a love song Henry VIII wrote for one of his mistresses, and even though the lyrics were changed to make it into a Christmas hymn, people still call it “Greensleeves” at this time of year (which may be the root of the “romantic” Christmas song that so plagues the radio airwaves of the last fifty years…who knows?).  To slightly paraphrase a W. B. Yeats poem’s title, these types of composition are often occasions of writing new lyrics “for the sake of the tune.”

The two songs in question were “I Saw Three Ships (Come Sailing In)” and “The Holly and the Ivy.”  Both have such thin connections to Christmas, it seems, that a spider’s web looks like the pillar of the universe in terms of its thickness, but this makes me suspect all the more that they’re originally folk tunes, and they have that sort of sound anyway.  I had only heard the first verse of each of these previously, and once I had the full lyrics in front of me, that thin-ness of connection seemed all the more obvious.  (While I’m not making a scholarly argument for their folk origins, I am certainly claiming that they “feel” like they probably are!)  As such things easily lend themselves to changes in lyric, I went in that direction, and was happy to have done so after a hiatus of at least three years of doing such publicly on my old blog (though I’ve written one or two since then that I have not shared, that will be in a forthcoming publication collecting all of these together which I’ve had in the work for over three years as well!).

The one for “I Saw Three Ships” was fairly obvious to do, and involved a great deal of just “reversing” what was already there.  The result was, well, somewhat obvious, but nonetheless perhaps appropriate to the context and occasion.  I went back-and-forth on “The Holly and the Ivy,” and struggled with it because I was attempting initially to make it connect to Brumalia and therefore Antinous via the ivy, and was trying to make “holly” into “grape-vine,” and it wasn’t really gelling correctly, so I decided to leave it off.

Then, in the course of doing things yesterday, the idea started to germinate once again…

And, I realized that the holly connection is quite obvious to another figure associated with the day involved:  Cú Chulainn!  Just to confirm my suspicion, I went back to Táin Bó Cúailnge‘s first recension and checked to see how often holly appears in it, and it is mentioned by name far more frequently than any other tree I could think of (though some unspecified trees, branches, and types of wood are also mentioned far more frequently than I think all of the individual types of tree/plant combined), which made its usage that much more apt.  From there, it went in the direction it did, and I’m not only pleased with the result, and think that the final composition far outstrips the original thinly-Christmas-based version, but in and of itself it is a good piece, with parts of it even sounding very much like they could have come from at least medieval Irish, if not older, traditional lore.

I will give both songs here before I propose what this post is mostly dedicated to, which you can guess from the title…!

I Saw A Boat

I saw a Boat come sailing in
At Solstice-tide, at Solstice-tide
I saw a Boat come sailing in
At Solstice-tide in the evening.

And of what sort was that fair Boat
At Solstice-tide, at Solstice-tide
And of what sort was that fair Boat
At Solstice-tide in the evening?

It was the Boat of Million-Years
At Solstice-tide, at Solstice-tide
It was the Boat of Million-Years
At Solstice-tide in the evening.

And Who was on that Boat so fair
At Solstice-tide, at Solstice-tide
And Who was on that Boat so fair
At Solstice-tide in the evening?

It was the Boy Antinous
At Solstice-tide, at Solstice-tide
It was the Boy Antinous
At Solstice-tide in the evening.

And Who was with that Boy this eve
At Solstice-tide, at Solstice-tide
And Who was with that Boy this eve
At Solstice-tide in the evening?

It was dear Nyx in Aspects Three
At Solstice-tide, at Solstice-tide
It was dear Nyx in Aspects Three
At Solstice-tide in the evening.

And what to us bring forth did She
At Solstice-tide, at Solstice-tide
And what to us bring forth did She
At Solstice-tide in the evening?

The Sun Unconquered borne did She
At Solstice-tide, at Solstice-tide
The Sun Unconquered borne did She
At Solstice-tide in the evening.

And what the Sun—now born—does see
At Solstice-tide, at Solstice-tide
And what the Sun—now born—does see
At Solstice-tide in the evening?

The Earth in splendrous form He sees
At Solstice-tide, at Solstice-tide
The Earth in splendrous form He sees
At Solstice-tide in the evening.

And what now shall we sing for He
At Solstice-tide, at Solstice-tide
And what now shall we sing for He
At Solstice-tide in the evening?

We sing Him praise and thanks, do we
At Solstice-tide, at Solstice-tide
We sing Him praise and thanks, do we
At Solstice-tide in the evening!

 

The Holly and the Oak-Tree

The Holly and the Oak-Tree,
When they are both full-grown—
Of all the trees that are in the woods,
The holly loves the Hound.

O, the hum of distant battles,
And the barking of the hounds,
The playing of the merry harp:
These three are the best sounds!

The holly bears a blossom
As white as fallen snow,
And Dechtine bore Ulster’s Hound
All the paths for us to show.

O, the hum of distant battles,
And the barking of the hounds,
The playing of the merry harp:
These three are the best sounds!

The holly bears a berry
As red as any blood,
And Dechtine bore Ulster’s Hound
To bring the Cronn to the flood.

O, the hum of distant battles,
And the barking of the hounds,
The playing of the merry harp:
These three are the best sounds!

The holly bears a sharp thorn
That pierces flesh and skin,
And Dechtine bore Ulster’s Hound
So that poet’s words may begin.

O, the hum of distant battles,
And the barking of the hounds,
The playing of the merry harp:
These three are the best sounds!

The holly bears a hard bark
As bitter as the gall,
And Dechtine bore Ulster’s Hound
So that heroes in fear pall.

O, the hum of distant battles,
And the barking of the hounds,
The playing of the merry harp:
These three are the best sounds!

The holly grows in bushes
As thick as any wall,
And Dechtine bore Ulster’s Hound
So that kings may feast in the hall.

O, the hum of distant battles,
And the barking of the hounds,
The playing of the merry harp:
These three are the best sounds!

The holly’s wood burns hottest
So that smiths may swords adorn,
And Dechtine found Ulster’s Hound
On Solstice-tide in the morn.

O, the hum of distant battles,
And the barking of the hounds,
The playing of the merry harp:
These three are the best sounds!

The holly’s barbs were sharpest
When the Hound fought in the Táin,
And Dechtine found Ulster’s Hound
At Newgrange on the Boyne.

O, the hum of distant battles,
And the barking of the hounds,
The playing of the merry harp:
These three are the best sounds!

 

So, there you have those…!

AND NOW (at last!)!

I had so much fun doing this, and was so pleased with the results, that I want to share my joy a bit with all of you in several ways.

1.  First, I want to invite all of you reading this to make your own compositions about the holidays around this time of year, using some Christmas carols as your template, but putting in genuine lore and such related to your own particular tradition’s Deities, the dates involved, the rituals concerned, and so forth!
2. Then, obviously, USE THEM!
3. But, also, SHARE THEM!
4. And in relation to the latter point, share them with me in what will be a little contest between now and Dies Cista Deorum (December 26th), running through midnight of that particular date, which will then be judged by me (and a little divinatory help!), and the top winner will receive a poetic commission by me of up to 50 lines on a polytheism-related topic of your choice!

So, there is my suggestion!  While one should, of course, pour one’s best efforts into this endeavor since it is ultimately for the Deities, this is also intended to be friendly, even though one can have some rivalries in it.  Challenge someone you know to come up with their own, and suggest the song they have to use, for example, and then reciprocally allow them to do the same with you and see who generates the more interesting results–chances are, you’ll both come up with something very intriguing!  (I was going to issue this as a challenge to particular individuals, but I didn’t want to potentially impose on them if they didn’t want to do so from the start…!?!)

And, please, for the love of all the Deities and all that is holy and decent, try to stick to traditional Christmas carols and hymns, not the toxic wasteland of “Christmas songs” that are only such because they have the word “Christmas” in them that are being played endlessly in coffee shops, stores, and other public places these days.  I honestly heard the only Queen song I absolutely cannot stand in this context the other day, which I believe is called “Thank God It’s Christmas,” which was a true low in their illustrious career.  While I have done this type of thing with The Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York” (which many in Ireland consider the best Christmas song ever, and many Americans consider the worst!), please let us not see any versions of “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” as that might make me vomit so profoundly that you may get sprayed wherever you happen to be reading my responses…

[And I know some of you particularly contrarian individuals will take that in itself as a challenge, so if you do, it better be fuckin’ good!]

There we are!  I await your results with great anticipation!

FELIX DIES FUNDAMENTORUM ANTINOI! And, Is “Fact” or “Fable” More Important in the Context of Hero/ine Cultus?

[Just to let everyone know:  this is one of the LAST of the questions I currently have on-file for this series.  I can certainly generate more of my own, based on things I’ve been asked or matters about which people–whether those from other religions, fellow polytheists, or whomever-might-be-concerned have asked ne directly, or have raised in their writings or in their demeanor and reactions to polytheist religious phenomena or articulated positions–but it would be great to respond to more of these that are direct from readers who might like or be interested in what I have to say about these matters.  So, by all means, send in further questions, ask them in comments here, use the Contact page/form to get in touch with me, or feel free to e-mail me at aediculaantinoi (at) hotmail (dot) com and i will see what we can do!]

A few hours ago, I finished my Foundation Day ritual for the 18th time.  Sadly, this is one of an increasing number which I spent alone (like about the last three as well), but it was also a great improvement on last year’s because I was actually in my Shrine, and not laid up in a bed with a broken leg in another town, as was the case on this day in 2018.  Foundation Day, amongst other things, is also the day that I formally consecrated my Shrine in my apartment in 2015, so it is a big occasion, both for the historical cultus of Antinous, the modern organized practice (which began in 2002), and for all sorts of other reasons and in a variety of ways…!

It’s also a great occasion to be answering the following question:

What matters more in hero cultus: the stories and beliefs held about a person’s life or the actual history of a person’s life? An example would be Zoroaster.  If our ancestors considered him to be a magician in a lineage that includes Orpheus and Pythagoras, does that matter more than the fact that we know he probably would not have viewed himself that way? 

This is an interesting matter, and there are two ways to think about it, based on which sort of Hero/ine one is dealing with:  the Hero/ines of Greek myth, or the Hero/ines of Greek history.  In the former case, every time a new poet turns their hand to the retelling of a myth, nearly anything can happen, and can then also be influenced by cultic activities in terms of how the Hero/ine’s life is described, or such descriptions can lead to novel cultic practices as well.  This is the case for Achilleus, for Orpheus, for any number of other Hero/ines who had shrines in the Ancient Greek world.

The Hero/ines of Greek history, on the other hand (aren’t you all glad I’m not one of the Hekatoncheires–my explanations of almost all things would of necessity be even longer, then!), enter into a bit of a grey area.  Firstly, are these individuals actual people who really lived, or have their historical origins become so obscured by stories about them that such factual realities have retreated into the background entirely?  Such a situation, I believe, exists for one particular Hero from another religion that is very well-known, and yet too many people speak of the details of his mythic narratives as if they were historical and demonstrable facts when this is most certainly not the case:  namely Jesus the Nazarean.  It is entirely possible, I think, that he never had any earthly existence at all, and there is increasing interest in such a viewpoint amongst certain scholars (who tend not to be involved in the religion he ostensibly “founded”!), and there is nothing at all wrong with that being the case in my view.  Zoroaster is another of these:  some Zoroastrians put his historic origins back to over 10,000 years ago, which is highly unlikely (despite their attempts to claim this), and it seems possible that whatever group of Magi organized the reinterpreted ancient Iranian polytheistic system into the dualist system with which we are all familiar afterwards may have had him more as a legendary founder than as an actual historical personage.  If he was historical, then he is essentially the innovator of the Avestan language, and that is demonstrably later than Sanskrit, which means that he cannot be older than 5,000 years, and in fact is probably more recent even than that.  But, Zoroastrains can believe whatever they want to about him!

As for us polytheists, how do we sort these matters?  Remember, with Hero/ine cultus, the most important thing to remember is always that it is not the actual life of the Hero/ine that matters, but instead their death.  If they were human, they had to have died somehow, and most often that death is remarkable in its circumstances in some way, whether because of its particular manner (e.g. drowning, struck by lightning), its particular contextual circumstances (e.g. the first to die in some incident, dying in a particular sacred location or while something was being constructed, etc.), and so forth.  They may have had a noteworthy life in various ways, and legends and myths can be attached to that, and will tend to be with the greater profile of the Hero/ine concerned, but the most important thing is their death.

This then begs the question:  is the tale of their death factual or exaggerated and made more “heroic” in order to feed the Hero/ine’s further renown?

Let’s take the example of Sappho.  We know some details of her life, her relatives, some of their deeds and so forth, but one of the things about her that is remarkable (apart from her amazing poetic skills!) is that she was said to have leapt off a cliff into the sea, thus meeting her death in a manner that many Greek Hero/ines and occasionally formerly-mortal Deities (e.g. Palaimon/Melikertes and Ino/Leukothea) also did.  Did she actually speak with Orpheus’ head or have his lyre?  Probably not literally, and yet that is as much a part of Sappho’s story as any of the relatively scant historical details we know of her, and it accounts for some of the aspects of the culture of Lesbos as well as the particular strengths of Lesbos’ most famous daughter.

And, since this is me, and it’s Foundation Day (or, at least, it’s still Foundation Night, the seventh of the nine Sacred Nights of Antinous from the 24th of October to November 1st), let’s talk about Antinous!  Like Herakles and the Dioskouroi, as well as Palaimon/Melikertes, He was both a Hero and a God depending on where one encountered His cultus, and He definitely started out as a historical human, so we’re at least on more firm territory, in certain respects, with Him than with many others.

We know the date of His birth, and the most likely place of it, but not the exact circumstances of it.  (It has been argued that because His birthdate on November 28th is given in cult calendars along with the birthdates of Deities like Diana, that therefore we should discount it…but, the calendar of Lanuvium outside of Rome and a calendar on papyrus from Egypt agree on the date, and there is no definite connection between the two locations, so it is pretty certain we know the correct date!)  We also know the rough date of His death, but again, not the precise reasons for it:  only that He drowned in the Nile, no matter what caused that drowning.  About the only other things we know about Him were that he was Hadrian’s lover, and that the two had a lion hunt in the year before He died.  That particular event was of semi-epic proportions, it seems, and inspired a great deal of mythologizing after His death…but, we may well ask, what if it never happened?  What if Pachrates of Heliopolis just made the whole story of the Lion Hunt up, and because Hadrian liked it the details first given form there were proliferated and continued in other later texts and traditions?  What we know for certain is that there were red Nile lotuses in Egypt before Antinous’ time, it’s just that they weren’t particularly identified with any Deities or Hero/ines before the initial writings in Antinous’ cultus in the years immediately after His death.

Where myth is concerned–whether myths about Hero/ines, Deities, Ancestors, or really anyone (!?!)–proliferation is the norm rather than the exception, and so expansions and “exaggerations” and reworkings, revisions, and creative insertions and innovations will come up all the time.  If they didn’t, one would begin to suspect that some artificial force is maintaining a “canonical” check on anything that doesn’t fit with the “approved narrative,” and that’s monotheist nonsense, not something that has ever really flown well or at all amongst polytheists.  (Many Deities require many stories, including stories that actively conflict with or even utterly contradict one another!)

But what about when historical facts can be known in relation to historical human Hero/ines?  Even if there are facts involved, myth is far more powerful, and far more true.  The difference between a fact and a myth may simply be how one interprets the fact:  a tree falls, but was it because of the wind, because someone chopped it down, because a gigantic bull ran into it, because of an earthquake or a flood, or because any of those other things could have happened but a Deity was behind it, or any number of other possibilities?  Take any random fact about your own life, dear reader:  are you interested in architecture because you had a childhood friend of the family who was an architect that used to give you graph paper and old blueprints to look at, or because Seshat would become your patron Deity one day…or both?  And if you are lucky enough to be heroized after your death, what will those who follow your cultus have to say about things?

So, what I suspect is the case more often than not is that fact and fable always blur when it comes to Hero/ine cultus, and even with the sheerest and most materialistic facts, there is the possibility of myth and a mythicizing tendency lurking just under the surface, waiting to spring forth like a geyser if given the chance to spout.  It’s the Liberty Valance effect:  “When legend becomes fact, print the legend.”  Without a doubt, legend is almost always more interesting than facts, and even when the facts are “stranger than fiction,” even putting it in those terms demands that fictionalization be the background against which things are taken seriously.

There’s no escaping it…and, from my perspective, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that!

Why Celebrate Ancient Holy-Days?

In the calendar, you can see that today is an occasion noted as Mundus Cerialis Patet.  There is a handy link on that date to the Wickerpede’s page on the Mundus Cerialis, which was a semi-circular pit in Ancient Rome that was opened on a few occasions during the year–August 24th, October 5th, and November 8th–and into which offerings were made.  As the pit and its covering was considered an entrance to the Underworld, as overseen by the Earth-Goddess Ceres, this was one of several days on which the collective dead of the Romans, the Di Manes, were honored and were essentially thought to be allowed free access to the mortal world.  In one sense, it was a “holiday” for the dead to visit this world.

I have some of my own peculiar and idiosyncratic interpretations of this date and its significance in terms of some of my own practices that are involved in various Mystery traditions, Eleusinian spirituality, and Antinoan matters, but those are not the focus of the present inquiry; I only note them here as a backdrop for the question “Why celebrate ancient holy-days” and the potential answer to that question for anyone who does so:  namely, “Because I want to.”  Here at P.S.V.L.’s Theological Questions, though, we try to go for answers and explanations that go slightly beyond the obvious, at least most of the time, so here we go in that endeavor for the present question!

One could well ask this question in relation to this matter in particular, because there is no longer a Mundus Cerialis, we don’t even know where it was in Rome, and I do not personally have any kind of approximation of one myself in my own Shrine or anywhere else near me or where I regularly do ritual.  As this is not something that is strictly tied to seasonal matters, there isn’t any local analogue I can reasonably use to adapt this festival into my immediate geographic and seasonal context.  While there are many modern polytheists who probably venerate Demeter and/or Ceres, there are very few who have a specifically Eleusinian-based practice, and probably fewer still who combine those things into Roman dates and contexts for an added significance.

But one reason I wanted to address this question today is because the last question was prompted by a holy day (actually, a series of them!) that is of more recent vintage, i.e. about 2003 or so.  When one innovates modern festivals, or attaches significance for modern practices to a historical date that is known from ancient sources but is celebrated in a different manner, one is engaging in an organic process of meaning-construction.  A need is perceived for something, and so ritual actions are chosen and dates are selected to have a particular meaning that is symbolically-charged and puts a person into a landscape and a timescape of belonging to a larger world order, cosmic harmony, and ideal relationship with one’s surroundings in a Deities-filled universe.  Sometimes, these spawn out of actual experiences that are taken as especially important when they uniquely occur in the lives of modern practitioners or communities of practitioners.  These and other processes are perfectly fine and are understandable quite easily by most people, just as anniversaries (of marriages, engagements, or even first dates or first meetings, foundations of schools, companies, towns, or countries, or of the release of books or films, etc.) also grow organically when some seemingly ordinary date takes on more significance for a person or group of people.

Likewise, seasonal markers are important, and are easily understandable by most (but note, not by all–on which more in a moment!) people.  When the beginning of Spring occurs, it is easy to understand why one might want to celebrate the returning fertility of the earthly landscape with rituals, symbols, and celebrations that highlight these things.  It would be foolish to celebrate the fertility of the earth in the dead of winter when there is a foot of snow on the ground, for example.  This is why adapting these festivals, especially when they are either ancient festivals, secular celebrations, or holidays in other religions (the way that certain aspects of secular and religious Easter often get incorporated into Vernal Equinox festivals by polytheists and pagans), to one’s local landscape and seasons becomes important, and if one is following traditions that have close seasonal ties from one geographic region but one lives in another (as for those European-tradition-following polytheists who live in Australia, for example), takes on an even greater importance in those circumstances.

But not everyone understands why this is, and I have an example of that from my own life.  I was at an interfaith event in Ireland back in about 2004, and I was on a panel along with a Muslim and a Catholic.  Sadly, while this event’s planned portion went quite well with each of our own statements and a brief period of discussion between the panelists (as we all knew each other and at that point respected each other), the question period which then took up most of the event’s remainder featured people from each of these religious groupings in the audience asking questions to people of the other religions on the panel that were intended to critique or “expose” the (perhaps “apparent” to the people asking the questions?) stupidity or irrelevance of that particular religion.  A pagan used the occasion to ask the two monotheists about their ostensible Deities’ megalomaniacal tendencies, and a Muslim did ask me about the nature of my Deities in order to point out that these were just clever djinn (with the implication that I’m therefore dim-witted!) that were succeeding in confusing me and deluding me away from the reality of Allah’s “true” godhead.  But, the very first question that was asked was asked by a blank-faced Christian woman, who wondered why it was necessary or important to have particular festivals at particular times of year celebrating, for example, fertility.  I explained that it wouldn’t be sensible to celebrate a fertility festival in the late Fall or dead of Winter, and she seemed entirely non-plussed by this.  Even though explaining to her (which I didn’t, and thought I probably should have later) that it would be non-sensical in her religious context to celebrate Jesus’ birth in August, or to have an Easter observance during November because the “birth of light in darkness” doesn’t make sense in the Summer and a festival of “resurrection of the Son/Sun” doesn’t make sense in a time of year when the days are getting shorter and the leaves are falling from the trees might not have helped her to understand the question better because these are “seasonally appropriate” symbolically to the European and western Asian climate and symbolism, I thought that should have been obvious.  One of the problems, particularly of the more Protestant traditions (and this woman was a Protestant) is that there has been a deliberate attempt to de-ritualize things as much as possible, which takes a lot of the symbolism and ceremony out of these larger holy days in Christian tradition, so that an Easter service and a Christmas service might not appear that much different in its accoutrements to any other Sunday.  This kind of “more transcendent” theological viewpoint that occurs when one de-ritualizes and de-immanentizes a religious practice makes it seem that one’s message is “more universal” and available at any time of the year, on the side of advantages, but then loses any and all grounding and physical reality as a result.  The appeal of and even need for such a grounding is something that is essentially outside of the perception of both necessity and utility for many who participate in these more transcendental, ostensibly universal, and generally monotheistic religions.

But as this post is not intended to be focused on pointing out the faults of these other theological systems, let us return to our main discussion!

I certainly highly value anything which carries on the traditions that were followed by our ancestral customs, even when I am not directly or genetically related to the ancient Romans (at least in any certain fashion, but who knows?).  The spiritual lineages to which I belong and to which I attempt to adhere put a value on these things, and part of my job as a person who practices with a reconstructionist methodology is to look at these things, get to know as much about them as possible, and find their significance in my own life, and even if it takes effort to “force” them to be significant for me, that effort in and of itself can be very valuable.

It can sometimes be difficult to do this, because religion is inextricable from culture, and culture is inextricable from landscape, and the importance of the latter is something I touched on above when it comes to seasonal festivals.  But what about a day like this day of the opening of the mound/world of Ceres, which happens several times a year that don’t seem to be particularly seasonally-linked, and which is also dependent on a very particular type of civic shrine which no longer exists?  There is no analogue, as I stated above, to the Mundus Cerialis where I live, and to imagine what such a thing might be (other than, perhaps, a semi-circular shrine to the veterans of a particular war, for example, of which there is one in the town about 25 miles from here that I used to live in, but which I have no ready access to any longer without forward planning!) without creating it myself is difficult, nonetheless things are possible for such a day.

As this would be one of the days where the Di Manes are given offerings, making this one of a variety of annual Ancestor-honoring festivals is certainly not a bad idea, and making the focus on the communal rather than just personal Ancestors might not be a bad idea, either.

But, with that additional detail of this being in essence a “vacation-day for the Dead,” these dates might have a potential further analogue in the Irish quarter-day of Samain in late October/early November.  It is said that the “veil between worlds is thin” during that holy tide, and that the Ancestors may visit and be more easily accessible on those days.  In older Irish practices, it seems that one of the things that was done to not only acknowledge this but to “give space” to these returning Ancestors was that people did not venture out after dark, lest something potentially dangerous, insanity-inducing, or even deadly befall them.  So, today, I decided very consciously not to venture out past dark, no matter for what seemingly important, pressing, or sensible reason.  I’m kind of glad I did, because there have been some odd winds blowing, quite literally, that have sounded to me like they are not just the “regular” sort of winds that blow from time to time everywhere.  Perhaps something larger is going on this night which I might not have appreciated if it had not been this particular night…who knows?

So, to put it briefly, I think celebrating festivals that have been given to us through our lineages from the ancient world is a useful and important thing, not just for its own sake or because it is what our Ancestors-of-lineage used to do (though those are both also perfectly good and fine things!), but because looking at these and taking them seriously in our own modern contexts and finding their potential continued significance for us is important, and an excellent way to exercise one’s devotional and ceremonial creativity and the ever-unfolding puzzle of finding the significance of oneself and one’s own life circumstances in the ever-developing process of the cosmos and our endless dance of devotion with our Deities.

Why Celebrate Failure?

In the calendar I follow for devotional purposes, today is the Festival of the Lion Hunt (Venatio Leonis), the first part of a two-day festival which takes place at this time of year, during the end of the zodiacal period of Leo and the beginning of Virgo.  This date commemorates the historical lion hunt of Hadrian and Antinous, involving a ferocious lion from Mauritania that was ravaging the desert west of Alexandria during the imperial visit in c. late 129/early 130 CE.

While the basis for this event is historical, it has been highly mythicized, and many of the fragments of surviving devotional texts related to Antinous from the ancient world deal with this event, including the epic poem of Pancrates/Pachrates, the hymn written on the accession of Diocletian, and the sculptural tondo that is now on the Arch of Constantine.  Further texts that allude to this in some way will be mentioned, perhaps, in a post tomorrow that details the second part of this particular two-part festival.

Though “two guys killed a lion” is not a headline that would draw too much attention today–and given the endangered nature of lions, it might in fact get a great deal of criticism if not garnering total outrage (and rightfully so!)–what is the significance of the festival for modern people?  What it has been since the inception of it in the earliest days of modern organized and research-based Antinoan devotion is a time of year to reflect on the past twelve months and to see in what things, ways, places, and events we had experiences of failure.  The reason for this is because in the lion hunt poem by Pachrates, what seems to have been detailed is that Antinous tried to kill the lion Himself in His desire to impress Hadrian, and in His general youthful vigor and enthusiasm.  Hadrian, wanting to test the Boy’s mettle, allowed Him to do this.  Antinous successfully struck the lion, but was not able to kill it with that one successful blow, and the lion then counter-attacked against Him.  It is possible that Antinous was wounded in this instance, and at that threat to the Boy’s life, Hadrian sprang into action and finished the lion off, thus saving Him from the disaster of His earlier failed attack.

[There’s a particular song I associate with this day:  the “Hopper Dance” performed by the Empire Brass ensemble.  Imagine the general opening theme of the song as the announcement of the hunt, the French Horn solo as Antinous’ attack and failure, the Trumpet solo Hadrian’s rejoinder, the percussion and base lines as mostly the lion trying to have its comeback, and then the finish of the song; notice the thunder at the beginning and end of the song as well, which I take to be the Deities Who were involved in this whole thing having Their say in the matter as well!  Listen to how the French Horn and Trumpet play together at various points, particularly in the “chorus,” and carry different parts of the overall melody…it’s quite beautiful!]

A day to meditate upon our failures and take stock of what we have left undone and what we could do better–in essence, an Antinoan polytheist’s Yom Kippur!–doesn’t sound like something that appeals to people very much.  (The sacrament of confession, which involves something similar [though more judgmental in its case!] is not the one that most Catholics like to take part in and isn’t the most popular of the seven sacraments, after all!). Indeed, I’ve heard some pagans really rail against the idea of this festival entirely, and the more New Age-y and (I hate to say it, but it’s true!) Californian they are, the more they are against it.  “But there isn’t really such a thing as failure, there’s only missed opportunities,” or any number of other similar platitudes that refuse to accept the idea of failure abound when this subject is brought up.

I have a tremendous problem with that, if you can’t tell, and it is this:  there is no lesson better and often more quickly or effectively learned than one which comes through the experience of failure.  In my own experience, a spectacular failure is something which happens in a new endeavor or some novel incident once, and then never happens again (though there are also repeated failures on certain things that I’ve also experienced because I have not learned the lesson deeply enough or properly on the earlier instances!).  The only way to learn and to grow is to admit and take responsibility for the failure, and thus an honest failure is far more useful than a dishonest success in the form of trying to redefine something as “Well, this wasn’t a failure, it was just _______.”  No, sometimes failure really is failure and nothing else, and just as the first step to recovery is admitting one has a problem, so too the first step in learning from failure is to fully admit that failure occurred.

This is also something that I tell my students all of the time, particularly when they do bad on their first papers or quizzes, and then immediately come back to me saying “Can’t I retake this?”  One of the reasons I tell them they can’t is because, in many cases, they then know what the right answers are, so if it is a quiz it’s not really doing anything other than allowing them to erase their initial bad grade (which they probably got because they didn’t study properly, didn’t read the questions fully or correctly, didn’t follow the directions or even pay attention to them, etc.) for a good one as if nothing happened.  I’m much more in favor of the “growth mindset” approach, which understands that one might not be perfect or even good at something at the start, but that with further effort and attention, one can improve…and that’s not a bad thing!  Who started out running marathons when they were non-walking infants, or picked up War and Peace as soon as one knew the alphabet?  Learning comes in fits and starts, and it is a step-by-step process, and therefore should be embraced.  Failures and other sorts of mistakes should not be dwelled upon too much, but they must be acknowledged in order to make progress.  When I explain this to my students, and also say that I’m more concerned with how they’ve improved over the course of the quarter than that they started with perfection, they soon see that it is possible to come back from an F initially to an A at the end, as long as they devote themselves to better study.  (Too many never do improve, sadly…but that’s another matter!)

I recall my 20th high school reunion, which took place five years ago, and how many people actually reported that their failures in life taught them far more than their successes.  Yes, there is pain, sadness, lost opportunity, and many other negative, upsetting, tiresome, and troublesome things to deal with where failure is concerned; and yet, the taste of success is that much sweeter when one has had the sour taste of failure before it.  Going right to the sweetness and never knowing its opposite can cause one to become complacent with the sweetness, so that even greater sweetnesses are not noticed or appreciated when they then arrive.  It could be said many other ways, but I think the picture I’m trying to paint here has emerged well enough for you to see and appreciate its overall image as well as the subtle contours and shades within it…yes?  😉

So, we who are human are going to fail at things, and shouldn’t be afraid of doing so.  We who are polytheists know that our Deities are also fallible and not utter perfection, and have had experiences where this might have occurred, as well as knowing many mythic narratives which also illustrate this point.  And those Deities Who used to be human are, therefore, going to have these sorts of experiences of failure in spades in comparison to their always-divine colleagues.  Thus, with Antinous, marking the only major event in His life we know about with any certainty–apart from His birth (which we know happened, and roughly where and when, but not much else about) and His death (which we know where and when it occurred, but not much else about, too!)–is an incident of failure on His part tells us a great deal about Him and how He can better relate to us.  We often want to assume that our Deities only value us when we are succeeding at things and accomplishing them, but when we often most need our Deities to be with us is during these experiences of failure, to sustain us and inspire us to continue on, and thus in acknowledging that Antinous, too, failed in an important moment, we see how we can reciprocate our favor and support for each other.  We do not abandon Antinous because He wasn’t perfect, and likewise when we aren’t perfect He will also not forsake us.

So, for those reasons and many others, we have to acknowledge and confront and take responsibility for our failures, and even if we don’t do that adequately when they do actually occur, this is a moment in the year when we can do so very purposefully and intentionally.  By doing so, we then try to release them, and even though we may still remember the occasions, and see how they have impacted us (and others) and what emerged from them that might have been positive, with any luck some of the sting of those failures is reduced overall.  There is nothing worse than to be caught up in a negative cycle of regret about a particular event of failure, and that is what this festival tries to do on a yearly basis.

But the transformation of the remnants of failure into the flowers of success does not come until tomorrow…

What Role (if any) do Secular Observances Play in a Religious Calendar?

In many places in the U.S. and across the globe, Pride is being celebrated now, or over this weekend we’re about to have.  The actual date of the riots at Stonewall was June 27, 1969 (though I’ve seen some recent news articles and such say that it is the 28th…?!?), but that is a side-issue for the moment…what I want to focus on here is why and how this particular historical event, tied to the “official” and “recognized” emergence of the LGBTQQIA+ liberation movements and organizing toward ensuring legal equality is recognized on a religious calendar like the one I maintain on this website.  There was no specifically “spiritual” significance to the date, and (to my knowledge–please correct me if I’m wrong!) no noted presence of polytheists, invocation of polytheistic Deities, or anything else on that date.  Therefore, in a religious practice, why attach any significance to such a date?

The reasons for this in the specific case of my own practices are varied, but I’ll try to summarize them here as simply as possible.

Partially, this is something that has been on my liturgical calendar since my earliest time as an Antinoan.  As a specifically queer practice, the date of the Stonewall riots is an important one in the overall development of the modern queer consciousness and queer visibility.  Without Stonewall, what I am doing here, and have been doing with this since 2002 (and within academic work for several years before that), would not have been possible.

So, in a certain sense, it’s something I’ve been marking for so long that to no longer do so–even if my practice might have shifted in other ways since–seems needlessly exclusionary at best, and potentially harmful at worst.  I have not been given any indication by Antinous that this part of my practice “needs to go” (and He is not remotely afraid to indicate clearly when such things need to happen in my own devotional relationship with Him!), and thus it is still here, and quite happily.

But, I think that this reflects something else which I think is “a good thing” overall, despite many people likely disagreeing with me on this.  Namely, I think it is positive for one’s religious sensibilities to extend outside of the “specifically religious” dimensions of one’s life, and to infuse as much of life as possible with the beneficial things that result from it.  I try not to draw too strict lines between what is “merely personal” (as religion is often understood, and in fact which the wider American culture seems to prefer, especially if one’s religion is not from the dominant hegemonic monotheisms!) and what is “political,” not only in the sense of “politics” around governance, laws, civil rights and liberties and such, but also anything and everything involved in more-than-one human getting along with and interacting amongst other humans.  My religious sensibilities infuse how I do my paid-work job, what places I choose to shop, how I dress and act in public, and much else besides.

No, I don’t always say that I’m doing any of those things for religious reasons (especially if no one asks!), and I certainly don’t bring my religion up frequently with others (especially if no one asks!), and I am also quite averse to sectarianism and isolationism based on my own religious practice and affiliations (which means I am associates with, and even friends with, those whose religions differ a great deal from my own, or of those who have ideas outside of specifically religious matters that don’t agree with my own even if their religious practices might share some similarities, etc.).  But, that doesn’t mean that my religion isn’t there when I interact with these people, working in its own ways through me to direct my behavior, encourage me toward things that are positive rather than negative, and much else.

If I am in any way taken as someone who is a representative of particular Deities, then it is incumbent upon me to try and represent Them in ways that are to Their credit, because people can and do and will judge me based on my actions, and may then think poorly of my Deities because of my own actions.  I get that, and even though I think it should be understood that people can act well or poorly entirely independent of their Deities and we shouldn’t hold Deities responsible for the bad behavior of Their devotees (and I include Islam, Christianity, and other religions in that estimation as well, which I know a lot of pagans and polytheists don’t), nonetheless I know it is something that people do.  Unfortunate, but there we are.

Antinous has taken up the cause of queer liberation–for ALL queer people, not just one particular gender or sexual orientation or subculture or demographic–very obviously and prominently in the modern practice of His devotion as I have become familiar with it, and therefore it behooves me to do likewise whenever and wherever possible.  That doesn’t mean that anyone in these communities gets a “pass” on their own bad behavior, as there is much to critique–including the frequent phenomena of misogyny amongst gay men, problems with sexual assault and harassment, discrimination against bisexuals by monosexual queer people, the problems of assimilation versus authenticity in movements toward liberation, racism, ableism, classism, ageism, look-ism, cisgendered queer transphobia, the fact that the “LGBTQQIA+ community” as a singular and united entity is largely an illusion (which is why adding letters to the acronym is necessary and good, despite appearing to fragment the appearance of unity in the eyes of those whose understandings are less nuanced), and a hundred other problems–but in terms of the general movement toward legal and social equality for all of these different types of people, that is something I will (and have!) always stood for and worked to advance.

If acknowledging the spiritual significance of Stonewall and Pride is a part of all of this, if for no other reason than that many of the founding activists of the movement are now Ancestors standing with us who are carrying this work forward, then I say it should be for as long as those Ancestors are acknowledged and honored, and that is as good a reason as any…not to mention a reason that is sufficient unto itself.

I could go on much more, but I think that essentially answers the question for the moment.  Any “strictly secular” event or phenomenon can take on a greater spiritual significance under the right circumstances; some seem to do it better than others, depending on the spiritual system involved, but I think the principle is worth highlighting even if all of its exercises aren’t as skillful or as meaningful for some people as others might be.

Why Celebrate Holidays?

Today is Sunday–a day on which many polytheists might be saying, “So what?  I’ve got a day off work…big deal!”

Today is also Easter Sunday–a day on which many pagans and polytheists might be saying, “So what?  I wish tomorrow would come, so that all of this Easter candy will go on sale and I can pay 50% of what I would today for cheap chocolate crap!”

But for a number of devotees of Antinous, today is an important day, the Megala Antinoeia.  In our yearly calendar, this is roughly the third-most-important day of the year (after Foundation Day, October 30th, and the Natalis Antinoi, November 27th).  The significance of this day is manifold, and didn’t emerge until a few years of my own Antinoan devotional practices had passed.  Originally, it was the Roman festival day of Parilia, a festival involving amongst other things the herding of goats between two fires for purification purposes (similar to what is attested about the Irish Beltaine on May 1st with cattle!), and which was formerly a kind of “foundation day” for Rome itself.  During the time of Hadrian, the festival was redefined as being in honor of Venus and Roma and the grand shared temple he had constructed for these two Goddesses, and it took on a greater significance for Romans from then onwards during the Imperial Period.  It was later revealed that astronomical alignments at both Hadrian’s Villa and the Pantheon were made so that sunrise on this day would illuminate particular places at these locations, thus confirming the special significance of this day for Hadrian himself, and for his particular circle; thus, it seems that this would have probably had some significance for Antinous Himself while He was still living, as well as Hadrian.  It was then chosen by us modern devotees as the date to mark the inauguration of the period of Antinous the Lover, the date of the festival of the Bear Hunt, and also the time when the Megala Antinoeia sacred games would be held.

As the Christian Easter is a “moveable feast” (and the history of determining this date is a lengthy and interesting one!), it is never entirely certain when it will be on a given year with any regularity.  While doubtless the Megala Antinoeia has occurred on a Sunday between 2004 (when we first began to mark this particular date for the holiday) and 2019, to my knowledge it has never been on a date coinciding with Easter Sunday as well, so this is a rather unique occasion, and one on which it might be worthwhile to stop and consider why it is that particular festivals are celebrated on particular dates.

There is an ongoing debate/discussion in some pagan circles regarding when particular festivals should be held, if at all.  While the Solstices and Equinoxes can be pinpointed more exactly now than they ever have been in the past, the quarter-days that fall in between these astronomical markers in the annual solar cycle of the Earth are not-quite-as-exact.  The Irish custom of celebrating them on the 1st of February (Imbolc), May (Beltaine), August (Lugnasad), and November (Samain), often plus the night preceding these because of the Irish practice of beginning a day with the sundown of the previous day, has been adopted in generalized pagan practice (mainly due to the assumption that “Wicca” is a “Celtic religion,” unfortunately!), but as these dates are not precisely within the “middle” of the times between the Equinoxes and Solstices, it has been seen as somewhat arbitrary to have done so.  There has been a drive to distinguish these dates from their “true” dates based on rather random assumptions about astrological times (when the sun is at such-and-such degrees of Scorpio is the “true Samain,” etc.), but this is entirely modern in origin and has nothing to do with the practices of ancient peoples.  There are some standing stone monuments that mark these quarter-days as equally as the solar dates, and there are even some such monuments in the southwestern region of Ireland that only mark the quarter-day sunrises/sunsets of the dates corresponding to Samain and Imbolc, in fact (and along their modern solar dates rather than any assumed astrological calculation)!

There is precedent in having these dates fall within a timespan of usually two weeks before and after the date concerned, which is especially the case for Imbolc (in a time period known as Faoilleach, “the wolf-month,” which used to refer to February in Ireland and is now January in Scotland), Lugnasad (in a period known as Iuchar, “the dog-days,” which is now July in Scotland), and Beltaine.  There is a record in some literary sources for a period known as the “Thirds of Samain” in Ireland, with these three thirds being comprised of the three days before Samain, the three days after, and Samain itself.  Thus, some people who observe these festivals now approximate them to the indicated calendrical “firsts” of their respective months, but locate them on an adjacent weekend in order to have the proper amount of time and freedom to fittingly celebrate them, with the understanding that they are primarily dates of seasonal significance and therefore anytime within the “general season” of two weeks before and after their taking place will suit them equally well to hold one’s official marking of the occasion and performance of the rituals.  If that works for one and one’s co-religionists, that’s fine!

With particular dates, though, which are not necessarily tied to the general seasonal flow of things, celebrating them on “the day itself” becomes more important.  Certainly, in my own practice, this is the case, and thus whenever possible I try to hold the specific dates (particularly in terms of Antinous-specific holidays) on the date itself.  Just as many people celebrate their birthdays on the day itself (though increasingly some people reserve their larger parties for convenient adjacent weekends these days, and likewise with their children!), it is often important with particular dates like Foundation Day and Natalis Antinoi to go on the date itself, particularly since Foundation Day is a date from which larger reckonings of time are determined and thus its exact occurrence is important to likewise recognize.

But why else might one do this, not only in particularly polytheist occasions but also more widely with an approach to holy-days more generally speaking?  I would argue that it is an effort very much along the lines of making material offerings, and it certainly also falls into line with doing rituals generally, which is that it has the practical and significant function of making the Deities more present in the world and in one’s own life.  If making offerings is a way in which physical objects are made full of the presence of divine beings, and likewise keeping shrines, altars, and temple spaces is a way of consecrating larger spaces to divine presences, then keeping holidays and observing them on their exact dates (or at any time, really!) then makes these periods of time holy for one’s Deities.  From smaller objects, spaces, and times, then Deities can begin to “spread out” and impact–almost by contagion!–those things around them in physical time and space.  It isn’t as if Deities are entirely limited to acting in the objects, times, spaces, and persons with which They have become involved or who have dedicated themselves to Them, though it is certainly easier to start from such a base that is regularly strengthened in that manner.  A particular holiday might have marked a certain event in which the Deity did something significant, made an important epiphany, or dedicated to some purpose, but then remembering that moment and attempting to rekindle the impacts of it on that occasion in the future doesn’t mean that the Deities-in-question will then likewise show up “on-demand” on those occasions (unless they want to!), but either the anticipation of such or the consciousness that They had done so previously can then make the lead-up and the aftermath of such events that much more infused with significance and the possibility of recognizing the impact of said Deities on the lives of Their devotees.  From these occasions, further roots can reach out into further events more distant in time from the holy-days concerned, until the presence of one’s Deities can then potentially infuse every day, and every moment.

Taking those times to deliberately cultivate such an awareness of divine presences and interventions is not only practice, but an occasion of “recharging” one’s divine interaction potential batteries, so to speak, so that these can occur more easily and frequently outside of such times.  But, one should never put the cart before the horse and simply “assume” that because Deities can operate whenever They like, that therefore They will, and that particular dates thus fall into obsolescence or can be ignored with impunity.  If “everything is holy,” then nothing is holy; and if every day is a holiday, then there is no such thing as a holiday.  While it is tempting to assume that one’s own mystical prowess and fitness makes this possible from the get-go, let us be realistic:  these kinds of feelings take time to develop, these senses take much effort and trial-and-error to cultivate, and to simply think that just because Deities can that They will and have done so, simply because one wishes that it were so, is to make the mistake that so many beginners in spiritual practice make, with polytheism and with many other religious systems and styles.  Intellectual understanding is not the same thing as spiritual experience, and the difference is not only monumental and palpable when it actually occurs, it is essential to know this distinction in order to have useful discernment.

To use a metaphor that is quite outside of my own level of comfort:  this is the difference between working on strength training regularly by working out and lifting weights and doing other such exercises on a regular and reasonable basis, and having a random adrenaline rush during an accident that allows one to lift a car off an injured person.  Yes, the latter is possible, but if one aspires to having that sort of strength at all times, it is better to make the regular effort (with all of its potential tedium and consumption of time) rather than to rely on the possibility that when the essential situation arrives, that one will be able to manage both the adrenaline and the physical necessities required to do amazing things.