"I am Rev. Michael J Dangler, of Three Cranes Grove, ADF, a local Druid fellowship. We have always felt it was important to celebrate Pride, for we are all Children of the Earth Mother. Whether we believe were formed from clay and given life by the breath of a deity; made up of the elements of the periodic table; or born directly from the Mother herself, we all share our one Earth Mother. As we prepare to depart, we will ask for blessings from our Earth Mother this day. Thank you for coming to this service, and thank the organizers for holding it. It is our tradition, though you need not follow it, to kneel and touch the ground as we call out to the Earth."

Earth Mother, your children call out to you.
You uphold us as we move through life, with each step we take.
Let every step we take upon you today in pride and unity
Be a step toward justice, understanding, and love.

Let us follow the footsteps of our Ancestors
Who blazed trails long before us and fought for what was right.
Let us hear the blessings of the Nature Spirits
Who play among the trees and upon the wind.
And let us go forth with the strength of the Shining Ones
The deities we follow and love.

Earth Mother, mighty Kindreds,
Bless our steps this day, and uphold us even in adversity.

Children of the Earth,
Go in peace and blessings:
This service is ended.

seamus_mcnasty

seamus_mcnasty

Today dawns the last of all dawns that have been
And the first of all dawns that will be.
Clothed in light, she appears in the east
Awakening man and beasts and lighting the fires of sacrifice.
Beloved of heaven, Usas unveils the treasures hidden by darkness,
Distributing them to all the pious who make sacrifice.

Usas, you have awakened me to the last dawn and the first,
And though each glimpse of you wastes my life, it prolongs it yet again.
Bringer of wealth, breath of life, warder against evil:
Let this be the first of many days I greet in your blessed light.

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

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?

Ancestor Prayer

When you were born,
The earth became your body,
The stone became your bone,
The sea became your blood,
The sun became your eye,
The moon became your mind,
The wind became your breath.

When you passed to the Otherworld,
Your breath became the wind,
Your mind became the moon,
Your eye became the sun,
Your blood became the sea,
Your bone became the stone,
Your body became the earth.

When we were born, you did the same for us:
You called forth the earth and rocks;
The sea arose and the sun descended;
The moon shone down and the winds sang.
For those who come after, we shall do as you did for us
When we are gone, we shall do as you did before.

Ancestors, we honour you.

"Bone to stone, stone to bone:
Never end, always change.
Breath to wind, wind to breath:
Rising up, crashing down.
Eyes to sun, sun to eyes:
Ever seeing, always knowing."

Universal Spirit Prayer:

You who are without name
You who are without gender
You who are without form
Spirit which exists in all Creation

We, the Children of the Earth
Call out to you
And ask that you bless this work and our lives.
So be it.

O Earth Mother, ever bountiful and always full of life, we thank you.
To our Ancestors, who learned and taught us how to reap the bounty of the land, we thank you.
To the Spirits of Nature, green-kin and animal-kin who gave their lives that we might live ourselves, we thank you.
To the Shining Ones, bestowers of bounty and providers of blessings, we thank you.

You inspire me.
I remember you.
I know your story.
Sleep in blessed rest.
Your duty is done.

I stood on the burial mound where two hundred and ninety-eight Spartans (and many other Greeks, forgotten in time and multi-million dollar films) lie buried, surveying the landscape.

A lot has changed in 2,500 years: the sea is now over a mile from the Hot Gates, and a road runs a bare 30 meters from the edge of the wall that once ended in the Aegean.

But the topography is unmistakable.

The mountains to the left are obviously impassable, and it is obvious why the God-King Xerxes himself felt so powerless against them that he did not force his army to march over them before the traitor revealed the trail.

Looking out across the same view the Greeks must have seen, it is easy to understand why this pass seemed like an ideal place to meet the Persians (and years later the Romans and the Germans). To men as tough as the Spartans, trained from age 7 (or before), this was obviously the best place to kill the troops of the Eastern God-Emperor: there was nowhere for the enemy to hide.


View from the burial mound
to the north and west along the coast
The modern site does not have many maps: initially, we could find none. From the top of the Greek burial-mound, though, there was a trail. Hoping to find the old wall, I started down it with zylch.

While we could no wall (only a flower truly caught my eye), we did get a startling view of the mountains as they must have looked so many years ago: the road and the roofs of houses were gone from our sight, and even the sound of traffic was dampened.

We later discovered that we had traveled for a short time on the traitorous goat path, left ingloriously undefended by the Phoicans.

When we returned to the burial mound, I was disappointed to have not found the wall. Still, I look some time to offer and pray to the dead buried beneath me.

And on my descent, there it was.

In what appeared to be a construction site, 100 meters from the base of the mound, I saw the wall. As I wondered how I could possibly have walked by it, I pointed it out with excitement to zylch, and convinced her to come with me.

I came up to it, stood on it, and looked around it. The wall is obviously reconstructed, but its position is obviously correct, as are its formation and size.

Here stood the men who I have held in awe and reverence for twelve years. Here they brushed out their long hair, singing as they were surrounded by certain death. Here, they fought over the body of a king descended from Herakles, fated to die that Sparta may live. Here, at this wall, Western warfare was defined.

Here, the Spartans were obedient to their laws.

And now, we had to go. Next stop: the oracle that doomed either a city or one of her kings. Delphi.

The Phocian Wall

The sky was darkening and the sun was setting over Stavroities, and we had gone as far as we could. I knelt on the side of Olympus, greatful for the amazingly clear weather, the ease with which we found ourselves back on the trail, and the good omens we had found.

Our first good omen was the eagle we saw gliding from branch to branch while on the main trail. I knew we were being watched over at that point.

The second good omen was the woodpecker we heard while we were lost. It was the sound of his beak on the tree that gave me a knowledge that we would be okay.

The third good omen was another woodpecker who sounded as I made an offering of thanks and hope for a second good hike at the highest point we had reached. As I prayed the third line, the woodpecker responded for the Gods:

For clear skies,
for keeping the rain off our backs,
for a safe journey on your mountian,
Olympian Zeus, be praised.
Look with favor on us as we return down,
look with favor on us as we return back up.
Olympian Zeus, be praised.

There, I left an offering of a two Euro coin with an eagle on the reverse (after checking the correspondances with zylch, our resident Hellenist in our party of three), and made an offering for viedansante as well. I gave zylch a two Euro piece for an offering as well, this one with Europa and the bull.

After we made our offerings, we started back down, and reached the parking lot in a quarter of the time it had taken us to do our entire round trip (3 hours).

• Practice my ASL
• Work on my book

tesinth

tesinth

tesinth

1. Reply to this journal entry.
2. E-mail me or use the form on my website
3. Call me and let me know you'll be there.

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I reach deeply within myself;
   seeking, searching.
My eyes turn inward and see deep;
   seeking, searching.
My fingers reach out, feeling forth;
   seeking, searching.
My ears are open, listening;
   seeking, searching.
My nose sniffs for any sign here;
   seeking, searching.
My tongue tastes the sweet nectar now;
   seeking, searching.
Here it is, within me, calling;
   seeking, searching.
Here I am, to greet it, hold it;
   seeking, searching.
Here we are, together, tightly;
   holding, knowing.
Inspiration, I call to you;
   hold me, know me.

Esus, guide me to cut the right branches, to cut them the right length, and to cut them with the knowledge that I have to.

• a) name of deity
• b) title/attribute of this deity (i.e. "horse goddess", "sky god", "red-head hottie")
• c) your name, pseudonym, or identifying category (i.e. "MJD" or "A child of the Earth")
• d) Mythological feat by this deity
• e) Cosmological place of this deity
• f) Action you have done for this deity - optional
• g) Request you have of this deity - optional
• h) word or phrase for ending a prayer