The Song and the Flame

That’s how I feel about the discussion concerning Hellenic reform on TC right now. Torn.

On the one hand, I feel like I must be making a complete fool of myself. Here I am, an utter newbie, with little research into scholarly or primary sources under my belt, and I’m running around poking my nose into everything. I feel so underqualified and, well, foolish. I feel like I must be saying such stupid things. This is why I’m often a little slow to speak up on matters relating to my actual religion there; I’m just not confident about my own knowledge and experience base. I know what overeager newbies are like, and I don’t want to be that, and I feel like I’m being it anyway.

On the other hand, I have to do something. I have to. I cannot sit here and not do anything (or not do much, at least) any longer. And I don’t think I have all the tools I need to construct the practice I want to have, so I’m looking to this discussion to help me out with that. As such, I feel like I have to try to help keep things moving along. I cannot let this stall. There are bits of information I need, and lots of them I don’t even probably know what they are yet, so it’s not like I can just up and ask, “So what about this? How do I do that? When should this happen?” Because I don’t know what to ask, exactly. And I feel like I need to contribute, somehow. Even if my contributions are embarrassingly newbie.

*sigh*

…always takes longer than a single person making decisions, of course. (Well, and especially when most of the committee is better-informed than the single person.) Things are moving a little slowly at the Cauldron. The first Sunday of April, when I’d said I was going to start doing minor festivals on my own, looms only a few days from now. I need to make a decision: Wait for the group to talk it through, or go ahead and start as planned?

It’s so tempting to put it off, since this Sunday is also Palm Sunday and therefore the day we’ll be getting together with my mother’s family, and therefore will be a busy day already. Then next Sunday is a repeat, but substitute his mother’s family. But I have this horrid feeling that if I put it off any longer, it’ll keep getting put off. I’ve done nothing on this for a bit because I’ve been “waiting to see”. I need to do something.

Sunday. Thorough cleaning of both shrines. Candles lit. Prayers/hymns and libations to Apollo and Hestia. Maybe to Zeus. It’s been spring-stormy here, and I am going into the month I’m to honor Him. Some reading about Zeus. Look through the links I found earlier, and drag out Burkert, to start with, and see how far that gets me.

My list is notably devoid of primary source material, other than the Hymns. I feel bad about that, but while I kind of know some of Who was involved with what (some), I’m not sure exactly where to look or whether it’s even appropriate to, say, just read select passages from an epic or something (out of context, on their own) to try to get a better feel for a deity.

OK, it looks like the Hellenic Recon Reform project is finally about to get rolling at TC, so I’m going to back off on my efforts here for a bit and see what happens there.

On today’s menu, an assortment of somewhat smaller things. Which Sunday of the month to use for major festivals, a method for keeping Hestia’s fire “lit”, and fleshing out the already fairly fleshed-out idea I had about minor festivals.

Which Sunday. I’m torn. If I’m doing cthonic-deity-honoring stuff at the end of the month, that could overlap with the last Sunday. On the other hand, I don’t know much about some of these deities or have a good feel for who They are, so if I try it on the first Sunday I’m going in blind, which I really don’t like the idea of. In the middle just seems like an odd place, although something like the third Sunday of the month could strike a balance between allowing for research time and avoiding overlap, I guess.

Do I hear any better suggestions? No? OK, third Sunday it is.

Hestia’s flame is an issue because I know it should be burning at all times, but I am just really, really super uncomfortable with leaving an open flame unattended all day, especially with the cats roaming around. I could see substituting an LED candle, once I get one; it wouldn’t even have to be one of the fancy out of stock ThinkGeek ones, since I wouldn’t ever be blowing it out. Until then, though, I need some other solution.

I was going to look at the Cauldron Flamekeeping Cill’s stuff for inspiration, but after finding it I’m not sure it’s going to help. The suggestions there seem geared mostly to either carrying the flame around with you (the point in this case is to have a hearth flame going, and I’m not the hearth) or doing something special for a single day at a time rather than long-term.

Best I’ve got right now is a night light or some sort of visualization. Neither seems quite right. The night light because there isn’t a place convenient to my Hestia shrine to plug one in and there’s not a place near an outlet convenient to have the shrine. (Mostly because I will want to light a candle sometimes, and there are cabinets above all the outlets in the kitchen. Open flame under wood doesn’t seem wise.) The visualization thing, visualizing the flame burning even when it’s not… I dunno, it just seems weird and like it doesn’t fit. It may have to do for now, though, until I can come up with something better.

Minor festivals. I think for right now basically what I had lined out before seems like a good idea. Make it a shrine-cleaning day to begin with; dust everything off, replace candles where needed, give offering bowls a thorough washing, etc., etc., etc. Once that’s done, light candles at the shrines and make libations at each. That would be Hestia and Apollo, the only two shrines I’ve got right now and at the moment the most important deities for me personally to honor. Also make an offering/libation to any other deity whose influence has been felt in my life that week. A little bit of reading or study seems appropriate as well, perhaps reading bits of primary sources or personal or scholarly writing about whichever deity is being honored that month. And I should do some sort of cleansing of myself before I start.

I have been, incidentally, implementing changes as I make decisions here. I think I will hold off on the major and minor festivals and begin them in April. This is going to be a little bit of trial-by-fire; we have family reuinions both of the first two Sundays of April (Palm Sunday and Easter) and will probably be baking all morning in preparation. But there will be pauses in the baking while the bread rises, and there should be time in the evening after we get home. It will, it must, get done.

A list of some resources with information about Hephaestus for me to refer to in honoring Him in December. Currently, primary source material, mythological information collections, online temples and personal things people have written. Probably very incomplete. Additions and corrections are welcome, particularly scholarly works and primary sources offline or on.

Theoi: Hephsistos
Compendium: Hephaistos
Encyclopedia Mythica: Hephaestus

Homeric Hymn #20
Orphic Hymn #65
Hymnodia: Hymns to Hephaestos

A list of some resources with information about Athena for me to refer to in honoring Her in November. Currently, primary source material, mythological information collections, online temples and personal things people have written. Probably very incomplete. Additions and corrections are welcome, particularly scholarly works and primary sources offline or on.

Theoi: Athena
Compendium: Athene
Encyclopedia Mythica: Athena

Homeric Hymn #11, 28
Orphic Hymn #31
Hymnodia: Hymns to Athena

A list of some resources with information about Demeter for me to refer to in honoring Her in October. Currently, primary source material, mythological information collections, online temples and personal things people have written. Probably very incomplete. Additions and corrections are welcome, particularly scholarly works and primary sources offline or on.

Theoi: Demeter
Compendium: Demeter
Encyclopedia Mythica: Demeter

Homeric Hymn #2, 13
Orphic Hymn #39
Hymnodia: Hymns to Demeter

Hellenion: Demeter: the Elusive Goddess

A list of some resources with information about Dionysos for me to refer to in honoring Him in September. Currently, primary source material, mythological information collections, online temples and personal things people have written. Probably very incomplete. Additions and corrections are welcome, particularly scholarly works and primary sources offline or on.

Theoi: Dionysos
Compendium: Dionysos
Encyclopedia Mythica: Dionysus

Homeric Hymn #1, 7, 26
Orphic Hymn #29? 44? 46? 52?
Hymnodia: Hymns to Dionysos
Temple of Dionysos: Prayers and Hymns to the God
wildivine.org: Ancient Hymns to Dionysos

Temple of Dionysos
Thiasos Lusios
Sannion: The Paths to Dionysos
Sannion: Dionysos is Alive and Well and Kicking Ass in a Rock Band

A list of some resources with information about Artemis for me to refer to in honoring Her in August. Currently, primary source material, mythological information collections, online temples and personal things people have written. Probably very incomplete. Additions and corrections are welcome, particularly scholarly works and primary sources offline or on.

Theoi: Artemis
Compendium: Artemis
Encyclopedia Mythica: Artemis

Homeric Hymn #9, 27
Orphic Hymn #35
Hymnodia: Hymns to Artemis
Temple of Artemis: Prayers

Temple of Artemis

A list of some resources with information about Apollo for me to refer to in honoring Him in July. Currently, primary source material, mythological information collections, online temples and personal things people have written. Probably very incomplete. Additions and corrections are welcome, particularly scholarly works and primary sources offline or on.

Theoi: Apollon
Compendium: Apollo
Encyclopedia Mythica: Apollo

Homeric Hymn #3, 21, 25 (w/ the Muses)
Orphic Hymn #33
Hymnodia: Hymns and Devotions to Apollon
Prarie Sun: Poetry, Hymns and Prayers
Kyrene: Prayers and Hymns to the God
Todd Jackson: Poems for Apollo

New Apollon
Prarie Sun Temple of Apollo
Temple of Apollo
Sannion: Coming to Terms with Apollo
The Oracle of Delphi and Apollo’s Inner Light