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October 19th, 2009
11:46 am - Mapping the Otherworld
 I have recently become very interested in the notion of otherworld maps. Part of this is a desire to understand my own initiatory journey, and to use them as a method of "comparing notes" to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) druidkirk and others who have or will go through this initiatory experience. You'd be surprised, though, how complicated it can be to actually locate a map of the otherworld.
I spent some time (about three weeks, actually, at this point) seeking out and examining maps of the otherworld. Many are drawn on the drums used to send people into ecstatic trances, and depict the upper and lower worlds. It is interesting to me that the lower world often seems "deeper" than the upper world is "high". This could be a trick of the egg-shaped drums that one often finds, or it could be that the drum is a reflection of this deeper underworld.
It interests me that there is a notion in almost all of them of a center space, and also a notion of that axis mundi that cuts through the center. Most often, we find an otherworld divided into three parts, which fits nicely with our IE way of looking at things in ADF.
 What interests me particularly, though, is the notion of a lowerworld map from Native Americans (seen at left). I particularly like the story Dr. Goodman provides in her Ecstatic Trance: New Ritual Body Postures: A Workbook about an oil company in British Columbia who were negotiating with a Native American tribe for the location of a pipeline. They brought in a map on elk skin that covered the entire conference room table, and described the locations thusly: "Up here is the home of the souls of the dead. There is the path one has to follow. This is the wrong path, and over here is the worst path. Over there are all the animals. All this has been discovered in a dream." (Goodman, 76) It reminds us that no matter how modern or how developed, our landscapes can still be overlaid with sacred landscapes in bold ways.
Through these thoughts on maps of the worlds beyond, I find myself reflecting upon the Orphic tablets that guided souls to the Greek underworld. These were basically elaborate sets of directions, telling you where to go and what body of water to drink from. One reads:
You will find a spring to the left of the house of Hades,
And standing beside that [spring] is a white cypress.
Do not approach closely to the spring.
You will find another, flowing cold water
From the pool of Memory, and before it there are guards.
Say: "I am a child of Earth and starry Heaven,
But my lineage is heavenly [alone]. You must see this yourselves.
I perish and am withered with thirst. Give [me] quickly
The cold water flowing from the pool of Memory."
And they themselves will give you to drink from the divine spring,
And thereafter you shall reign among the other heroes." (Lincoln, 51)
There is a notion here that perhaps we can understand the ways beyond life, the paths that must be traveled, before we reach them in that final journey. Trancework seems to be the key to reaching those places in advance, to making the paths well-traveled before one encounters old age and death for the first time. It also seems to me that those who can travel those paths are obligated to help others know and understand the signposts along the way.
There is something different about the cosmos now in my mind. It is not the same as it was three weeks ago. I think that this is part of why I am so interested in the way these otherworlds fit together: not only is the cosmos inhabited by a greater number of spirits that I can perceive, but it is also differently accessible than it was before. I find myself thinking on it almost like a game of "Chutes and Ladders," at any given time, you may end up ascending or descending in new and interesting ways.
 So far, I have seen only the world below, not the world above. I was thinking about it this morning, though, and as I watched Usas give way to Surya, I remembered a petroglyph I found a picture of once, and found myself thinking, "Truly, if there is a way to the heavens, it is accessed most reliably through the appearance of dawn upon the horizon."
I am very interested in spending time exploring and cartogrifying these other worlds, though I doubt I will do too much actual production: I'm more the "student" type than the "producer" type, I tend to think. What I really am excited about, though, is the notion that we can draw these maps, compare our notes with others who have been to these places, and find ourselves adding to our own collective experience as a result.
Sources
- Goodman, Felicitas and Nauwald, Nana. Ecstatic Trance: New Ritual Body Postures: A Workbook. Binkey Kok Publications : Holland. 2003.
- Lincoln, Bruce. Death, War, and Sacrifice. University of Chicago Press : Chicago, IL. 1991.
- Nauwald, Nana. Flying With Shamans In Fairy Tails and Myths. Binkey Kok Publications : Holland. 2003.
Current Location: Souteast of Disorder
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "Son of a Son of a Sailor", -JB
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July 15th, 2009
11:12 am - Heartbreak and Joy: D025 & the Episcopal Church
Yesterday, the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church here in America passed D025, acknowledging that the Episcopal Church ordains partnered gays and lesbians. The newscycle is caught up in other things right now, so this isn't even a blip on the screen.
Some know that I follow the Episcopal Church pretty regularly recently, ever since the consecration of Right Rev. V. Gene Robinson and election of Right Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori as the Presiding Bishop and a Primate catalyzed schism and dissent in the Church. American churches have switched affiliations to join Communions across oceans, and bitter fights have arisen in the American courts about what to do with property owned by those churches. Strange systems of "complementary bishops" have arisen for folk who can't deal with bishops they don't have faith in, the Anglican Primates have failed to come up with good solutions to both gay and women bishops, and the whole thing is seeing some pretty nasty responses.
I watch the Archbishop of Canterbury and wonder what he's thinking of all this.
The measure was able to pass primarily because the more conservative members of the Episcopal Church have affiliated with other parts of the Anglican Communion, and are no longer part of the Episcopal Church in America. In other words, they took their balls and went home, and this freed up the House of Bishops to move on this topic without their votes.
I watch with deep interest, because I look at things like D025 and wonder at the bravery of the Bishops who voted for two-to-one it: they did so knowing full well that it could end in a break from the Anglican Communion. I can imagine the heartbreak and joy that they experience with this vote. . . for all they try to downplay the importance of this vote, saying that it simply affirms that openly gay bishops can be consecrated, and that it does not say that they will ever confirm an openly gay bishop in the future, they know that this is not how the Communion will see it. This heartbreak must temper the joy they feel at embracing the civil rights they feel LGBT persons deserve. It is freedom and fear, all bundled into one great emotion.
I also look at those congregations that left the American Episcopal Church, and I wonder how they feel, knowing that their exit may lead to a break in communion. I imagine that they question the decision, that they feel that they are partially responsible for any break that may occur. I suspect that they also feel the thing we all know is true: they're isolating themselves and becoming part of a great minority that will eventually lose the fight to keep rights away from same-sex couples. I cannot imagine what the feeling is among those congregations: not only have they chosen a losing side in this battle, but they have lost the war by refusing to work with others of differing values. . . and potentially destroyed or seriously disabled the Anglican Communion as a whole.
Only time will tell how things go from here. My conjectures of a break in Communion are just that: conjecture. But I know that it's a real fear among Anglicans. It may yet happen.
Today, the House of Bishops is expected to take up the question of blessing same-sex unions. I wonder how, exactly, that will go, as well.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "Door Number Three", -JB
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February 12th, 2009
09:33 am - Magical Girdles and Herculean Labours
Some may recall that I located a reference to a Roman military belt that is fitted with gold plates depicting the deeds of Hercules in a German text. I have had a thing for the Twelve Labours since I found statutes of eight of them at the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna in 2005.
Well, I've located the plates and, indeed, they're clearly Hercules (as a matter of note, I prefer the name "Heracles," but this is a Roman belt, after all. . .).
Clearly depicted are Cerberus (who I prefer to call "Spot"), the Stag, and the Girdle. I don't believe there's enough of the lower-left piece to figure out which one it might be, though since the guy holding the club doesn't appear to be wearing a lion skin, perhaps it's the Nemean Lion (a Labour that would make sense on a soldier's belt).
I can just imagine the feeling of power this soldier must have felt, wearing this belt into battle. It was like he was enacting the mythic drama of Hercules, and I suspect that the belt also reminded him that the duty of being a soldier was not without labour and work, as well, but that even the most basic task could be heroic, if done by the right person. It's a fabulous piece, and I wish more if it were still intact.
I love my library system here at OSU.
( Pics from Vienna behind the cut )
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "Rancho Deluxe", -JB
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September 10th, 2008
06:35 pm - Ooh, a reason to check out a book written in German. . .
 Apparently, there is a Roman military belt that is fitted with gold plates depicting the deeds of Hercules, found in a Germanic cemetery at Kemnitz. And I'm pretty sure there's a picture.
I think I can find it in the following source:
Geisler, H., 1973: Ein Adelsgrab auf dem germanischen Urnengräbergeld bei Kemnitz, Kr. Potsdam-Land, Zeitschrift für Archäologie 7, 279-298. So, of course, I've ordered it from the library.
I'm really curious to see how it looks, to find out how it was done. I certainly hope that there are pictures of this thing.
Yeah, these are the kind of things that excite me.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/smile.gif) calm
Current Music: "Volcano", -JB
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September 9th, 2008
02:38 pm - Midnight Flame Festival, 2008
 Last weekend's Midnight Flame Festival was pretty darn awesome. I grabbed some photos (okay, a lot of photos, mostly of fire, oddly enough). This entry has a short sampling :)
I really like this festival. It's come to mark the end of my own festival season, and for those of you who either are Norse or just kind of like the Norse gods, this is the festival for you. It's a heavily Norse-leaning festival (moreso than Trillium or Desert Magic, which both seem to skew that direction), and it's just a lot of fun.
One of the focal points of the festival is this pretty awesome little tradition of burning a hollow log, which gives a pretty excellent effect for several hours. You can see it below this paragraph. We sumbled the night away, raising toasts to the Kindreds, and then offered boasts, toasts, and oaths for ourselves. My own boast (carefully worded) was that the Clergy Training Program is nearing completion. Finally. There's a light at the end of that long, dark tunnel.
Flip's boast, however, was that he would submit his Dedicant Path documentation before the next Midnight Flame Festival.
Now, we get to bug him (gently) until he actually submits it!
I love going up to this festival. It's a load of fun, really. It's quiet, laid back, and pretty simple, but then, what more do you need? I'll be back at it next year.
A toast to the two Groves who host it!
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/sad.gif) hungry
Current Music: "When Salome Plays the Drums", -JB
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August 15th, 2008
11:27 am - Making a Special Triptych
Last night, I spent a couple of hours making something that I'd like to share with everyone: a triptych.
Now, because this is me, you know this is not going to be just any triptych. No, I created a triptych based on one of my favourite myths, a sort of little portable Pagan shrine or altarpiece.
My triptych is the story of The Original Snub.
( For more, including a picture detailing the items on the panels, read on. . . )
Why, yes: this little triptych will be for auction at Summerland next Saturday.
Not preregistered for Summerland? Get Pre-Registered! Today is the last day to pre-register!
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Smart Woman (In a Real Short Skirt)", -JB
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August 9th, 2008
08:39 pm - New rune aetts just appear sometimes . . .
Perhaps the most interesting thing about creating a set of rune dice is the new aetts that are created:
 I love carving these things. Working with divination tools in new, interesting ways always brings things into a new perspective.
Of course, I've never bought the three aett system: after all, why eight? The Norse had a base-12 number system, anyway. Six-rune aetts, eight-rune, twelve-rune, and twenty-four rune aetts are all about as likely as any of the others.
Of course, when I write about six-rune aetts, I'm gonna get blasted to Hel by most everyone who's studied runes even a bit.
Crazy that, no?
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "The Captain and the Kid", -JB
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July 30th, 2008
05:24 pm - Vision? Yes, I have that now.
MJD, grade 4 |
Yesterday, I received new glasses. While this is not really an earth shattering point for most people, I would point out that approximately 1.5% of my LJ friends have ever seen me wear glasses. The first two are red_sput, my brother, and whitmanschild, the LJ friend outside my family who has known me for the longest (and still, for some reason, subjects himself to reading my blog). These are the only two people who have ever seen me regularly wear my glasses in public. withak53 is the only other person on this list who has seen me in my glasses semi-regularly at any point.
I ceased wearing glasses in 1993, when I received my first contacts. I very rarely wore them outside my house until college, when I stopped wearing them completely in front of other people.
In fact, for eleven years, only the women I have actually had sex with have seen me in my glasses. By some freak accident, they all have. Of course, given the low number of women I've slept with (no, I'm not giving that number out, but I'll bet you know it), I suppose it's not all that surprising. (This makes for an amusing litmus test: "So, seen chronarchy wear his glasses?" "Oh, yeah. . ." *porn groove music plays in background*)
Until today.
Now, lest you think that me not wearing my glasses is just some sort of vanity, let me assure you, it is totally not. How can I prove this? Simple. Just look at the state the damn things are in:
Yep, that's what they look like today.
While I'm proud to have finally found a good use for the coefficient of static friction as applied to corrective lenses (sounds like a paper topic. . .), I have to admit that they were nearly unwearable. Still, I am the kind of guy to persevere. As a result, I might mention the timeline of these glasses.
- They pretty much looked like that, gunk-wise, when I got to OSU my freshman year (1997). By then, they were already at least three years old, possibly as much as five years old.
- I lost a variety of screws (not that kind) the first three years of college, replacing them on occasion, but rarely from necessity: more out of a sick desire to keep the glasses limping along.
- The paperclip was the first thing to be added, in 2000. The screw was stripped out, and so replacement wasn't an option. I bent the crap out of a paperclip and chopped it down to size in the OSU's Fencing armoury using some of the handy tools there.
- The other leg went in 2003. That leg just flat out broke, leaving me with no way of repairing it short of getting new frames. But I was a Boy Scout, and so went through my workbench looking for some way to do a round lashing, but thread wouldn't cut it. So electrical tape it was, and to maintain the length, I used a toothpick as a splint.
- Finally, one night while watching Garbage on PBS' Soundstage, (July 6, 2006) the right lens finally popped out. The screw stripped, I tried soldering it back into place a couple of times, but settled on fishing wire as the best bet. This particular break pissed me off, because Shirley Manson is feckin' hot, and thus I naturally really wanted to hear and see the television.
And that's how the glasses got into this state.
So, really, I can't be blamed for not wanting to wear them. They constantly fell off my face and were really only good enough to get me from the sink to bed, and possibly to read a bit. Still, I persevered.
For years, Tina had been bugging me to get new glasses. I don't blame her. I'd have bugged me too. So this year I finally did.
Maggie picked out the glasses, and now I'm wearing them. In public. Mostly because I can rely on them to stay on my face. And the prescription is not old enough to drive.
And let's face it: glasses rock.
So, without further ado:
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "First Look", -JB
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July 22nd, 2008
02:48 pm - Wondering Why We Ever Go Home: Greece, 2007
Thar be Centaurs!
YARRRRGH! |
So, from the trip I took 15 months ago, I've finally gotten all the journal entries posted.
See the "greece" tag for all entries related to Greece.
I haven't made a post yet about how the trip itself went. Sure, I hinted at it, and I did post all the fully unedited entries from the trip (some of the grammar is atrocious, but I left it entirely unedited), but I didn't really talk a lot about the entire thing.
While I might write a bit more over time about what I saw and did, and while I might post some more pictures, for now, those of you who didn't get a chance to read all of it might find it cool to slip back through the old entires.
Sights I missed:- The ghostly reenactment of Marathon that occurs each night
- The plain of Marathon itself
- Sparta
- The theatre at Epidaurus
- Delos
- Olympia
- Brauron (sorta: I was there, but not "there", ya know?)
- Wherever the "Centaurs this way" sign led
- Tasting "The Liquid Food Experience"
- The Cave of St. Dionysus on Mt. Olympus
- The monestary of St. Barabra
Clearly, I must return.
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The monasteries at Meteora | The monastery of St. Barbara | A view of Mt. Olympus from Dion
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Son of a Son of a Sailor", -JB
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July 16th, 2008
08:17 am - Wondering Why We Ever Go Home: Greece, 2007
Dawn breaks over the sea
looking down from Olympus |
Journal Entry 17
04/05/07
12:51 PM
Olympus, dawn to dusk
Here in the sun, gazing down Olympus to Litichoro and the sea far below, gazing down the same paths Far-Seeing Zeus gazed down from his throne. After six hours of hiking from the parking lot at Prionia, through occasional 2.5 foot deep snow drifts, I am in love with this mountain. The winds and the air and the sunlight all are simply amazing.
And here I sit, my offering to Zeus beside me, knowing that I need to offer for his favour. The weather is only part of it. There is also the fact that cortigiana nor I fell and died.
Now, it's six hours down, so it's time to offer and head back down.
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Throne of Zeus: First Glimpse | The far peaks of Olympus | Throne of Zeus: Closer
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Far peaks | The Throne of Zeus | Throne of Zeus
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First snow encounter | How deep is it? | It's Mazi-crotch deep!
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Vampire goats! | See him staring? | A bird at the shelter
We saw some wildlife, and even a Yeti! I swear!
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Throne from the shelterhouse | View down from the shelterhouse | View to Litichoro and the sea
This is what far-seeing Zeus sees from his throne. . .
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Music: "Jimmy Dreams", -JB
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July 14th, 2008
02:46 pm - Wondering Why We Ever Go Home: Greece, 2007
View from my hotel room |
Journal Entry 16
04/14/07
9:30 PM
Across the street from Oiko Domh
Night in Litochoro
I really like this town. There's something about the breeze blowing down from Olympus and the cool night air, combined with the friendly people and the adventure that awaits me at dawn. Even the punk kids are friendly.
The information I've gathered from various people about the climb is not favourable, though. Each person I meet informs me that we cannot make this climb tomorrow.
The weather, they say, will be beautiful. But I should go to the sea instead of the heavens.
The views, they say, are breathtaking. But I should only go as far as we can drive, and abandon the trail.
I look skilled and fit, they say, but I should not over-estimate my abilities.
This interests me, because I know that all these people are just wishing me the best, and I know that every new adventure incurs risk. Seeking the Olympian Gods most of all.
I need my sleep tonight, but the excitement has given me wanderlust.
Essentials for the Adventurer:
map, compass, guidebook, fedora and
a key to a room at the Hotel Aphrodite
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: "The Hangout Gang", -JB
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12:55 pm - Wondering Why We Ever Go Home: Greece, 2007
 Journal Entry 15
04/13/07
5:45 PM
Awaiting the Sunset at Sounyo
While viedansante and zylch take photographs (including one of me squinting into the sun), I merely sit with my back to Poseidon's temple and await the sunset.
Had I scheduled like everyone else, tonight would be my last night in Greece. Olympus, though, is calling me back. I expect to see the summit in two nights, around this time.
Right now, I find myself hoping to see the sunset as the God Poseidon saw it 2,500 years ago.
viedansante (best travel partner ever)
and myself in front of
the Temple of Poseidon
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The sign at Sunyo | Temple of Poseidon | Temple of Poseidon
6:30 PM
While awaiting sunset, I strolled down to the water's edge to make offerings. Then zylch and I enjoyed a Two Powers meditation on the rocks.
Before me was the light on the waters, shining brightly already. There was no need for more than a few breaths, and I was gone into the Powers.
I focused my attention on the waters at the edge of the earth rather than those "dark, magnetic waters" we Ohioans seem to need to focus on. The noise of the waves on the rocks, the shining sun on the water before me, and the sudden increase in activity from the sea all moved me into a complete trance quickly.
The sea had been calm before, just a moment earlier. Now waves rose high, and crashed more violently, as I called out to the waters.
The sun came down hotter than before, and the reflection of the sun on the waters became a reflection of the sun on me.
Deep within me, the Powers combined, and a shining flow was created.
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Sunset I | Sunset II | Parting Shot
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: calm
Current Music: "Turnabout", -JB
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April 22nd, 2008
04:05 pm - Trillium 08 in pictures
Some pictures from Trillium:
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Help for Mormons | Trillium's Fire | A cool road sign
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sleepingwolf stirring the shit | juxtaposem stirring the shit
(much shit was stirred at Trillium this year!)
juxtaposem and me at Fish Hatchery Road
Check out my hair!
(picture taken primarily because of the name
of the road, and singingwren's fondness for it)
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "On a Slow Boat to China", -JB
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February 1st, 2008
04:14 pm - New office
I entered my new office this morning, and took a picture of it (because everyone needs to have a picture of their office, right?)
( see my new office )
But the best part, of course, is not what the desk looks like (the clutter that's on it is work left over from my predecessor, who did all he could to ensure that he didn't leave work unfinished, but was just overwhelmed. . . only the white mug and the blue pen are mine), or the old-school pencil sharpener, or the bookshelves, or even the window, but rather what else this office comes with:
( The best feature, which I have never had in an office before )
Eventually, this office will look more like it's "mine," but until then, I have a lot of paperwork to go through and finish/fix.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: optimistic
Current Music: "Livin' It Up", -JB
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January 24th, 2008
09:42 am - Thoughts on music (and much more), late at night
 Yes, I am fishing for musical suggestions!
Please pontificate!
Late last year, I started seriously getting back into punk. I have particularly enjoyed Social Distortion for a variety of reasons, and I'm looking for more suggestions. Really, though, I'm looking for any sort of favourite music you may have, in any genre.
Anyone who knows me knows that I really, really like music. I particularly like two kinds of music: music that is well put together, and music that tells a story. When these two things come together, I can listen quite repetitively (some say obsessively) to the same music many times over and never tire of it.
Also, on a related (but not quite obviously so) tack, there is nothing sexier than a woman playing a cello. Not because she is beautiful, and not because she's playing the cello, but because, when I watch a woman lost in the music, the melody flowing through her instrument and her soul, it is something I could watch forever and never tire of. This may date back to the first redhead I was ever interested in, but I don't think that's the case. I have a feeling that it has more to do with the warmth and beauty of stringed instruments, the vibrance of the women I have known who have drawn their fingers lovingly and longingly across the strings, and the beauty of their passion for their instruments. It really doesn't matter what the instrument is, really: cello or bass, violin or harpsichord. And, as Jimmy once sang, "There's somethin' so feminine about a mandolin."
( More about women, music, bubblegum country, and Hank Williams spinning in his grave )
Anyway, the point of this long ramble has been thus: If you have any suggestions about music, be it one song or a certain band's entire discography, please let me know. I'm in the mood to broaden my musical horizons yet again. Be forewarned: I have no access to iTunes, so it's gotta be out in hard copy somewhere, or on a free internet radio site, or available on YouTube in some form.
My suggestions to you are these:
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: "Simply Complicated", -JB
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January 6th, 2008
11:20 pm - I look pretty good in ink. . .
Today, while giving a talk on Druidry at a Unitarian Universalist church in Reynoldsburg, I got quite the surprise:
( Clicky! )
I've never been line-arted before (is "line-arted" a word? Hell, it is now), and certainly never in under 30 minutes!
Damn good job, too, I have to say. I don't look that good in real life!
(for those wondering, yeah, my hair just started brushing the tops of my shoulders in the shower this morning. . .)
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: "Nautical Wheelers", -JB
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December 13th, 2007
04:13 pm - Wondering Why We Ever Go Home: Greece, 2007
 Journal Entry 14
04/13/07
2:30 PM
Eleusis
It is here, according to myth, that the earth opened to swallow Persephone. Today, you see cars as you look out from the shadows, but now, in the spring while Greece is in full bloom among the ruins of Eleusis, the mystery reenacted here makes perfect sense.
The top of the cave is covered in cactus, and the flowers, small yellow ones that look like black-eyed susans without the domestic violence, spread around the floor. Of course, the metaphor in that last sentence is silly, but it's the best way to describe them. Considering this spot is where the traumatic rape of Persephone took place, it is rather refreshing to see a lack of black eyes and violence.
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Plutonion, with zylch and viedansante | Plutonion sign and site description
This is, mythically, where the rape of Persephone took place.
On the balance, for such a violent event, Eleusis and this cave are now very peaceful. I'm listening to chirping birds, doves, and the breeze: these are the dominant sounds of this place, not the far distant breaks of trucks, motorcycles tearing through town, and cars honking at lazy landscapers.
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Modern Eleusis viewed from the Plutonion | One of the pits next to the Plutonion
Yes, this place is beautiful, calming, and full of hope for the time ahead. It is spring.
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Lesbian Stones! | The Telesterion | Telesterion steps
Bonus!
The Temple of Artemis at Brauron
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "Tampico Trauma", -JB
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December 12th, 2007
05:39 pm - Wondering Why We Ever Go Home: Greece, 2007
 Journal Entry 13
04/13/07
Rhamnous
Mr. No Shoulders & the Temple of Nemesis
The temple of Nemisis is not far from the sea. The site is covered in graffiti, everything from initials to drawings that look like poor scrimshaw, but the temple is beautiful despite this. It is one of the few ruins one can climb on, probably because they hope that shoes and butts can eventually smooth out graffiti.
I made an offering here to Nemisis, asking that she be there for someone, should she be needed. But my larger offering went to Themis, because I know she is needed.
The temple of Themis is unmarked, so I made my best guess about which temple was hers. I asked her to accept this offering if it was her temple, and to accept its spirit if it was not. Themis is sorely needed.
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Temple of Nemesis | Temple of Themis
The two temples are next to each other
Down by the sea, I had a staring contest with Mr. No Shoulders, who I sat down next to for a short time. Mr. No Shoulders won, of course, as he always does. I don't know my Med. snakes, though, so I didn't know him from asp nor cornsnake, so Mr. No Shoulders and I just stared at each other, him enjoying the sun, and me enjoying the breeze from the see.
It was an amicable solution.
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Rhamnous' site map (Gk & Eng) | View to town from the Temples | The town from up on the hill
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Music: "Fins", -JB
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November 29th, 2007
11:11 am - Wondering Why We Ever Go Home: Greece, 2007
 Journal Entry 12
04/12/07
11:15 PM
The House
Hot Water
Hot Water is. . . ineffible. For several mornings, we have spent our showers in achingly cold water, and for the past six days, I have managed exactly one hot shower.
My body feels cleaner, and my spirit as well. While I've managed to soap, wash my hair, and rinse off every day, it has always left me feeling dirty, even fresh from the shower.
Now, after my first warm shower since the morning after I arrived, I feel clean and (possibly) even attractive again. More importantly, I don't feel like I shouldn't approach some of these temples. I feel purified. zylch said her shower was "The best shower I ever had that didn't involve sex!"
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The Roman Agora and Athens Acropolis
Temple of Hephestos beyond the altar of Ares | Turtle! | The Acropolis from near Hadrian's Library
Today, I arrived at the temples of Ares, Athena Nike, the Olympian Zeus, and several others. I made offerings and enjoyed some meditative time on the Acropolis in Athens (where they have a strange rule that you cannot take "obscene pictures", which becomes extended to not allowing you to take photos that have people in them in the museum. In other words, you'd better not pose with your favourite statue.)
Detail from the hem of Athena's robe
Acropolis museum
Gigantomachy
I have been making small offerings of coins at most of these temples, but the offerings have been mainly for others. These are not really my deities, and my belief in them is complicated.
That's the interesting thing about our practice. I don't need to believe in a deity to do the proper or appropriate work for them. I really don't think that it would insult a god (though it seems to bug the shit out of the gods followers).
But it also gives me the chance to do work for others, work I couldn't do if it were belief that was more important than practice.
So I leave each site in Greece, knowing that my offering, though left for someone other than me, has been accepted. I always walk away feeling that I have done the proper thing, that I have taken the right action.
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Two views of Athens, and one "Way of Hermes" sign
From the Areopagus to the Agora | From the Acropolis to the sea | The Way of Hermes is over there
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Athenian War Museum: Thermopylae 1942 poster | WTFTentacles? | Athenian War Museum: coolest mace/club ever!
Note: the tentacle sticker was found on the Areopagus
But with a flask of whisky, a paint roller, and tentacles:
How can you really go wrong?
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: "A Thousand Steps to Nowhere", -JB
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October 2nd, 2007
09:01 am - Newsworthy mention of the Grove
On page 2 of this week's Outlook Weekly paper, you can find a mention of the Grove and our role in Pagan Pride Day:
(View the paper in nifty flash and zoom or .pdf)
Of course, I have also cut out and uploaded the entire mention behind the cut (not a large mention, but I'm extremely pleased with it), but I still recommend going to look at the whole paper. I'm very, very proud of my Grove to have gotten mention in the Outlook Weekly. Very proud.
( Grove goodness behind the cut )
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: "Jolly Mon Sing", -JB
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