Saturday, January 22, 2011

Revelations

It sometimes comes from nowhere, the realization of a deep seeded truth, and it is also sometimes surprising to realize that the God you were focussing on was not a God you expected this kind of realization from, but then you are reminded that, yes, you should have considered both, the God and the Truth from the get go.

 

In my current path of self discovery, I have taken it upon myself to try to focus my attentions on one deity at a time, not ignoring the others, mind you, but trying to focus, meditate, and write about that deity as a way to try to learn from it. To try and bring to mind the aspects of that God that are both relevant and revealing so as to grow and be made whole by the experience.

 

I cam to a realization today while at work, and it is one that was staring me in the face yet remained unrecognized all these many years. You see, I am an angry person. Tears of abuse as a child, abandonment by a father who I still believe never loved us, though he may regret that now, abuse by teachers, fellow students, and the obliteration of what was my self esteem and, worst of all, my ability to relate to others on a sympathetic level was part of what made me turn away from most people. What most of that left me with, however, was rage.

 

As a man, rage is a normal reaction to adversity. We men like to fight or argue our way through problems. We beat them up until they either give or defeat us. It is part of our nature. But often that rage, that anger, turns against us because we are not taught how to focus it in such a way that it becomes a useful weapon in our arsenal. We men go to war with life, you see, and in doing so we try to force life to conform to our will, but that seldom actually happens, so we are left with more rage.

 

While it is often the fact that as we grow we learn how to redirect it, too often the way we redirect it is at ourselves. And that is what I realized today. For all my anger at my Mother for the beatings, at my father for the same followed by abandonment, at teachers for failing me or not caring, for friends who never seemed capable of understanding me, or even current friends to whom I am simply a convenience available when nothing better is available, the person I am really most angry at is myself, and I have done everything in my power to destroy myself, and almost succeeded. Not until I found the Gods did I begin the slow healing process, and now, with this fallen into my lap, I am feeling as if the tables turn, only now I must start all over again, because I cannot continue to allow the past to rule me, but must learn to see the present with new eyes. Eyes intent on not hating myself, not for what I became at their hands, but because once it was done, I had the ability to move beyond it, but didn't. Because this, all of this, is now my own fault, not anyone else's, and so I must find a way to alleviate that anger, that rage, that self loathing and grow.

 

But why has Hephaestus been the one to bring this to my attention?

 

I thought about that earlier today, as I mentally chided myself in tones you would not use to a dog, and realized that the Myths of Hephaestus speak of a being who, by the standards of the people of those days, should have hated himself, should have felt shame, despair, and self loathing. He was ugly, lame, and rejected, yet he laid claim to his power, and once he did, he elevated himself to Olympus itself to reclaim his divine birthright.

 

It is a lesson I must now take to heart, and hopefully do so without torturing myself about it, because if I do that, I will only fail yet again.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Remember

Remember him, who was taken from us

Before his dream was realized.

Remember his words, his deeds, his kindness

That we may live the world he dreamed.

Remember to treat your fellow man as a brother

And your sister as your equal.

Remember to live a life of justice and fairness

Not of greed and intolerance.

Remember him and be made humble

And in the names of the Gods make a promise of love and care.

Remember him as your brother, your equal, your hero

And don't be sorrowful, for his dream lives on, and so do we.

________________

 

Remember to learn from history, and from the heroes who gave their lives to offer us a better world, and remember Martin Luther King Junior, a man, a brother, a hero to us all.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Light The Bright Torches

Light bright the torches and run

In honor of the bright god of the forge

And in her honor, who wisdom loves

An armor polished and bright bear with you

Hephaestos and Athena, Wisdom and craft, be forever linked

And in this land be welcome

For ours is a people in need of your gifts

 

Light bright the torches and run

In honor of the brothers three

Who dwell above, below, and between

Who set forth the mighty winds

And shake the foundations of the earth

And down below await the spirits of the dead

For ours is a people languishing in despair

 

Light bright the torches and run

In honor of divine love

Who sets to loosening the thighs of maidens

And in the hearts of men sets fires to burning

And in our minds lights the desire to be better

For the sake of love and lust alike

For our is a people long lost in selfishness

 

Light bright the torches and run

In honor of the blessed Earth

Mother and protector of all life

Whose languid soul inspires us to live

Who in our hearts lights the will to survive

And in our souls connects us one to the other

For ours is a people in need of brotherhood

 

Light bright the torches and run

In honor of all who have come before us

And who bled for our land and virtue

Remembering what they have left to us

And hoping, Gods willing, we leave behind us a better world

That our children live a life of peace

For ours is a people in need of hope

 

 

Sunday, January 9, 2011

This is Amphitrite

Lay low and look upon the surface of the sea

Watch as it moves near

The wave that seems so gentle, yet strong as an charging ox

 

That is her movement.

 

Sit in the sun and hear the sound of the sea

Listen as it seems to whisper

That sound so soft which builds to a maddening roar.

 

That is her voice.

 

Step into the tide and feel the cool waters  of the sea

Feel it as it softly embraces you

That feeling that gravity is now meaningless.

 

Those are her hands

 

Close your eyes and sense the spirit of the sea

That often forgotten and ever present being

That spirit which man once knew, yet whose name now seldom speaks.

 

That is Amphitrite.

 

 

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Not sure about this one, but...

...as I sat and thought about the Gods this weekend, I was drawn to some music, specifically, to a song from the 90s called "Love & Happiness" done by a musical/DJ group called River Ocean, which was essenatially just India and Louie Vega. The song, sung by Latina songstress India, who sings parts of the song in the Yoruba used in Santeria, calls to the Yoruba goddesses Yemaya and Ochun, who are also known by other names in different parts of the African diaspora.

 

7mosaico.jpeg

I was curious to gain more insight into the meaning of the song, though the invocations there seem very straight forward. What I found was details about two sea goddesses that, in many ways, are very similar to several of our own goddesses, especially Hera and Aphrodite. Now, Aphrodite is, of course, a sea goddess of sorts, as she was born of the foam of the sea itself, but the associations of these two goddesses as seen by the Yoruba, Brazilian, and Carribean people with marriage, love, wealth, children, connect them to many of our own.

 

Now, you know me, I hope, and you know I am not about to start praying to Yemaya and Ochun, as I am not the syncretic type when it comes to the Gods. Practices I may adopt, but not Gods, as I prefer to maintain a proper context in that realm because I do believe that context is actually very important to how we grow as spiritual beings. Without that context, I feel people are just grasping at straws or following the flavor of the month.

 

But it did get me thinking about something, and that is the sacred marriages of our religion. The Hieros Gamoi we associate with Hera and Zeus, or Hades and Persephone. Why is it we don't seem to have a similar view of this kind of sacredness when it comes to the third great Hieros Gamos, that of Amphitrite and Poseidon?

 

Amphitrite is an old goddess. She was said to have been among the greatest of goddesses, attending the birth of Apollo, yet she seems to be so rarely associated, in cult, with her husband. Is it that the marriage was seen as a forced thing, even by ancients, who saw their great sea goddess being subjugated under the heal of the patriarchal Poseidon? Or, perhaps, the cults of Amphitrite were already in such decline at the time that the myths were written about the marriage of these two that there was little to offer by way of worship and ritual about it?

 

The marriages of Gods are not always sacred affairs, at least not on a pan-Hellenic level, of course. The marriage of Aphrodite and Hephaestos is hardly one that yells "sacred" in the overall context of the Hellenic system, yet there must have been places where that marriage was celebrated with great reverence. Were it not so, the myths about its doom would not have been so popular.

 

I feel that we underestimate the role of Amphitrite, perhaps because she is, like Gaia, a vast figure who is sometimes hard to contemplate. Or simply because Hellenic and Roman writers were so quick to diminish her role to that of a simple personification of the sea, but I think perhaps we need to start paying more attention. Perhaps it is time that we established a Hieros Gamos celebration for Amphitrite and Poseidon.

 

When would such a thing have been celebrated, and what would have been the nature of it? Those are the questions now that I have to think about, because I could, of course, come up with a random date, but I would like to take into account a few things first, like, would such a celebration have been connected to the beginning of the sailing season?

 

Of course, any advice would be welcome, as I am serious about this. Establishing a celebration to honor the hieros gamos between Amphitrite and Poseidon.