Colours of the Divine

 

White is for the Maiden, the Mother is throned in red,
White as pure as virgin snow; red as the sacred blood we shed.
The Crone is cloaked in deepest black, the keeper of the night,
Guiding souls by darkest moon, with wisdom as her light.

Yellow is for the Sun King, the Horned One is verdant green,
Yellow bright as summer's sun, green where forest growth is seen.
The King of Death wears deepest blue, the guardian of decay,
Cradling life within the void, as dusk consumes the day.

Black is for the Mother, white is for the Crone,
Black as rich and fertile soil, white as pale as bone.
Red is for the Maiden, a red as deep as fire,
Dancing 'neath the crescent moon, inciting life's desire.

Blue is for the Horned One, King of Death in yellow bright,
Blue as twilight’s quiet calm, yellow as a guiding light.
The Sun King stands in verdant green, life sprouting once again
Dancing where the earth is lush, in springtime’s joyous reign.

Red is for the Crone, black is for the Maid,
Red as the blood of sacrifice, black as night's cascade.
White is for the Mother, pure as the starlit tide,
Nurturing all with full moons glow, where magic does abide.

Green is for the King of Death, the Sun King dons the blue,
Green as moss on ancient bones, blue as skies anew.
The Horned One shines in yellow’s glow, a beacon in the field,
Life and death in balance held, nature’s cycles sealed.

Bakkhai on the Storm - A Radio Play (Euripides' The Bakkhai as put to the music of The Doors)

 

Bakkhai on the Storm

SCENE 1

(Darkness. A faint, crackling hum, like an old radio tuning in. The sound of wind, distant and whispering.)

DIONYSUS (whispering, distant at first, then growing closer):
Is everybody in?
Is everybody in?
(A pause. The organ hum deepens, a faint heartbeat joins it.)
The ceremony is about to begin...

(The hiss of static, voices murmuring, overlapping, neon lights buzzing to life)

DIONYSUS (soft, eerie):
The face in the mirror won’t stop.
The girl behind won’t disappear.
The phone is dead, the voice in the next room fades...

(Distant, distorted voices whisper incomprehensible phrases. The sound of a match striking. A sudden whoosh, fire igniting.)

Strange gods are coming... Savage heads, wild-eyed...

(A deep rumble, the crackle of fire, a distant, crowd cheering, chanting, laughing wildly.)

The Wheel of the Year – A Mystery Play

 

The Wheel of the Year – A Mystery Play

Characters:
The Goddess (she begins wearing a long white dress with a long white veil hidden under a long red veil)
The God (he begins wearing a pure white outfit)
The Narrator

Props:
Elemental Altars:
Candle x4, Cords (long!) x4,
Pieces of The Mantle x4 – each with Velcro to make a full cloak and covered in dead foliage and fruit
Incense and burner, The Goddesses’ crown
Fire Brazier, The Goddesses’ scepter
Water, The Goddesses’ necklace
Salt, The Goddesses’ belt

A Dream of Apollon

I dreamt last night,

Of hazel eyes

And the smell of bay leaves burning.

You knelt above me

Music in your touch

Playing upon me like on the strings of a lyre.

Blazing like the sun,

Your golden gaze drew me forward

Like a bloom searching for heat.

You tasted of honey,

Parting my lips with your tongue

And setting my flesh aflame with your kiss.

I dreamt of you,

Lying with me in a noon-warmed field,

As sunlight chased patterns over our glistening skin.

I dreamt of you

And woke with the warmth of sunshine

Clinging to my spirit

Memories of the Stag King – Ostara Ramblings

 

The snow falls and magic stalks the Young Stag

He lifts his head, smelling Nature stir

Too young for battle, to old to not attempt

He chases, never catching his quarry

The hunt becomes eternal, replayed in dreams and whispers and half-real remembered scenes

Young Stag becomes King Stag, forever searching for his first spring. 

Autumnal God

Blood, red upon the leaves of brown

And red leaves lie upon the ground

A crown of oak and berries wound

Upon His head held high and proud

His feet, firm upon the hallowed road

His cloak cast over the glades and fields

It’s shadow causing life to yield

And strength within the seeds to seal

And like the power that He wields

Be kept safe deep within the earth’s abode

Balance never does last overlong

Winter’s silence gives to summer’s song

And summer yields when winter’s strong

The Old God rules now and not the young

And the Young God shall be reborn from old

Lammas Sacrifice

 The corn is cut with a crescent blade
As summers strength begins to fade
The god fulfills the pact he made
For his sacrifice to end his reign

The scythe that brought the harvest in
Cuts his neck and cleaves his skin
Yet he offers it with a willing grin
For by his death shall life remain

His blood seeps thick into the ground
From his hands falls a golden crown
His fate to the fate of the crops is bound
As his strength is passed into seed and grain

Sun-King once, now ghostly pale
We send him off with a mourning wail
Yet too with joy, for his fate entails
That like the seeds he will rise again
 

Storm Crossed

(a poem for Zeus)

A deep-throated rumble stirs the heavens

And with a nod, the earth shakes

His storm grey gaze summons me

And I surrender.

I fall, as so many before me have

Into love, lightning-quick.

My will, my reason,

Brushed away by the barest hint of his lips against mine. 

Hellenic Prayer Beads and Prayers for Each of the Gods Represented

This is my set of prayer beads; each bead represents a deity in the Hellenic pantheon (and Inanna, who is Sumerian).

This is which deity each bead represents, starting with the bead symbolizing Hestia (Hestia,is always the first and the last)

Dionysus

Though known primarily as the god of grapes and wine, Dionysus or Dionusos is a god of many functions and forms.  He is the (semi-) respectable patron of the theatre and actors, as Greek drama developed out of the masked rituals and celebrations in which his life was acted out by and for his followers.  (In fact a mask was often used as an idol for this god, carved out of vine or fig wood).  In this guise Dionusos is a god of civilization and peace and community.   Dionusos is also the effeminate yet phallic, savage mystery-god who leads his followers – the wild maenads (the ‘raging ones’) – in blood thirsty festivals, ripping animals to pieces with their bare hands and dancing all night within the flames.  Dionusos is also a fertility god, worshiped along side Demeter; where she is the solid, receptive force of nature he is the liquid, active aspect.  Dionusos is a divine saviour who dies for mankind and is reborn, and through eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood humanity is granted eternal life in paradise.  Dionusos presides over communication with the dead, over euphoria, insanity, fear, liberation and intoxication.  Dionusos releases from the mundane and allows the breaking of society’s rules and through his intoxicating possession he grants his followers the ability to perceive the world from a divine point of view. 

Ares

Ares, handsome and cruel, often depicted carrying a bloodstained spear or sitting upon a throne in Olympos that was covered in the skin of men he had slain in battle was the god of war, raw masculinity and warlike frenzy.   Though counted among the ruling council of the gods, he had a very poor reputation among the Olympians and the ancient Greeks. Worshiped in places such as Sparta and Thrake, Thessalia and Thesprotia, he was hated by many of the city-states because of the blood lust and slaughter that he brought to mankind as he rode upon his chariot accompanied by Eris the goddess of discord and Enyo, goddess of slaughter

Hephaistos

Called the ugliest of gods, Hephaistos is the god of the forge and fire and patron of craftsmen and was often associated with volcanoes which were seen as great primeval work rooms in which treasures and miraculous devices were created.  In particular Mt. Vesuvius, which devastated Pompeii and Herculaneum, was linked with him. 

Hermes

One of the youngest of the Olympian gods, Hermes is the son of Zeus and the Pleide

Maia (who herself was a daughter of the Titan Atlas).  Hermes is a playful, free spirited god and very much a trickster; he represents the ability to put aside instant gratification for long-term gain.  Hermes was born within a cave in a mountain near Kyllene and as his mother slept after labour, before he was even a day old Hermes snuck from his crib and performed his first theft.  He came across the cattle of Apollon and took a number of the herd and putting boards on their hooves, drove them backwards to his home so that none would be able to follow their tracks.  Helios spied the infant god and reported to Apollon who tracked down the child pretending to sleep and mimicking innocence in his cradle.  Apollon demanded the cattle back but twelve were missing, Hermes had sacrificed one for each of the Olympians (at this time there were only eleven Olympians, Hermes was counting himself as the twelfth).  He had also created the lyre from the shell of a turtle and gut from one of the slaughtered cattle and the music it produced soothed Apollon into forgiveness.  

Apollo

The son of Zeus and the titaness, Leto; Apollo or Apollon is best known as god of the sun, and though he became this in late times (originally it was Helios who was the sun god) that is not what was meant when the ancients called him the lord of light.  Above the temple of Delphi, the seat of the prophetic cult of Apollon were written the words ‘Know Thyself’ and Apollon is the light that seeks out knowledge of the self: deep, rational, true meanings; the light that burns away the shadows and lies and reveals the very core of our Selves. 

Poseidon

As changeable as the sea that he rules over, Poseidon is a moody and sometimes dark god filled with an awesome depth of power and one who places great value on tradition.  Poseidon dwelt deep within the Aegean in a palace on the sea floor made of coral and gems and filled with all manner of treasures salvaged from shipwrecks.  He rode upon the waves in his chariot pulled by foam-white hippocamppi (horses with the tails of fish), brandishing his trident, the three pronged fish spear, and acompanied by dolphins and okianids –  the beautiful sea nymph daughters of Okeanos, an ancinet sea god.  Poseidon likely started out his existence as  a god of rivers and springs and fresh water, one possible source of his name is Poti-don – ‘river lord’ while another possibility is ‘husband of the distributor’ and could connect him to Demeter in early cult.   Poseidon is also known as the god of earthquakes (‘Enosides’ is one of his epithets meaning earth-shaker) and a bringer of madness (he was considered to be the source of certain types of epilepsy).  He is also the lord of horses; horses and the sea have a stong connection and it is not so odd that he would have dominion over both.  Both horses and the sea are forms of travel, carriers of communications and sorces of food (horse meat and fishing) both transporters of colonists (Poseidon  was also a patron of colonization) and in the ancient world horses and herds were and traded by ship.  One of the most famous pan-hellenic games was held in his honour, the Isthmian games held in Corinth and featured horse and chariot races. Sailors would pray to Poseidon for safe travel and calm seas and would often drown a horse in supplication.  Poseidon was also the guardian of navies, including the one of Athens even though the people of that city chose Athene to be their patron valuing her gift of the olive tree over his of a salt water spring.  Poseidon also lost patronage of another city to a goddess when Hera won Argos as her own.

Haides

Haides is the son of the titans Khronos and Rhea, and along with his brothers Poseidon and Zeus, is one of the Three Kings of the Greek Pantheon.  With their defeat over the titans the three drew lots and Haides received dominion over all things under the earth, including metals and precious stones, planted crops and of course the land of the dead – and the very dead themselves who inhabit it. 

Zeus

King of the gods and lord of the heavens, Zeus is considered the most powerful of the Olympians and indeed often considered the most powerful of all the gods. Born to the titaness Rhea, she hid the infant Zeus from his father Kronos who had devoured their previous children in order to prevent loosing his throne to succession as well as to take their powers as his own.  A swaddling wrapped stone was given to the titan-king and Zeus was hidden deep within a Kretan cave on Mt. Ida, there he was raised by a goat/nymph named Amalthea (whose horn became the Kornukopia) and protected by the Kouretes (or Daktyloi) who covered the infants cries with their dancing and by banging their spears and shields.  Other versions have Zeus raised by Gaia, or a nymph named Adamanthea who hid him by suspending him from a rope so that he hung between earth and sky and sea and not in any part of Kronos’ kingdom.