So, as I have tried to meditate on him, on the one God in our pantheon that is, perhaps, best known of all to those who do not worship him, I have come to understand a few things. All of this personal gnosis, of course, as is this whole blog...
One, that the king of Gods is like a conduit. That we perceive him as king, law giver, and ruler because, in a way, he actually does these things. He is the conduit between the divine sphere, eternal and infinite, with the mortal world, which is limited, finite, and temporary.
That his effect on the world is to cause turmoil. I suspect all the Gods, if they manifest too strong a presence in our mortal universe cause turmoil and chaos. That is to say, they are the pebble thrown into the still pond, or perhaps boulder. But that Zeus' effect is of such that it throws our atmosphere into turmoil, and hence why we associate him (and his manifestations in other cultures and religions) with the storms, the lightning, and the rumbling thunder.
That Zeus, along with the other Gods, is indirectly responsible for life. That the Gods affect the universe in such a way that their very presence is partly what we refer to as natural forces and that those natural forces, interacting as they will under the confining and limiting influences of the universe in which they exist, are responsible for spawning us.
I have not touched upon this, I don't think, but it is part of how I have come to understand the Gods, and through this idea that Zeus is a conduit, it made more sense to me. We tend to think of Gods as beings capable of doing anything, and while that may be true, it is also relative. The gods can do anything, but in relation to the tools at their disposal. The Gods can't turn me into Superman because our universe does not allow for that possibility. In a universe that allows for such a possibility, though, they certainly could, and maybe in one of those universes, they have. Our universe, and every universe, then, is guarded, if you will, by the power of Zeus, by the laws governing its nature, and the Gods are limited, perhaps due to the intervention of Zeus, by the laws the law giver puts in place.
I have also learned to be careful. Personal gnosis is an important part of our evolving religious system, both as Hellenistai and as Pagans, but it is important to not become so arrogant in my personal revelations that Im refuse to listen to others, and perhaps in this, Zeus has been most helpful, for rule is not about being a tyrant, but about hearing what is necessary and acting wisely.
Zeus is often portrayed as something of a tyrant, but I am convinced that is simply not the case.
In the coming week I want to try to explore that, to think on what it means that Zeus, as conduit and King, is not a tyrant, but rather a kindly emperor who allows us our dominion over ourselves, and the freedom to act according to our own conscience and will. But kindly emperor should not be confused with soft touch.
place upon my altar a gift
an offering from your heart
and I will see it
place upon my altar a prayer
words true and heartfelt
and I will hear them
but place not upon my altar your rage
not your bitterness offer me
for these I will punish
place upon my altar your hopes
desires benefiting the many
these I may grant you
place upon my altar your dreams
though strange they may be
these I will consider
but place not upon my altar your south
laziness of heart, body, and soul
with these you will but fail
place upon my altar your questions
queries heat and small
the answers are already within you, so seek them out
I am the Sun, ever living, from your perspective
Ever bright, to your sensitive eyes
I destroy, but I also infuse life with energy
I am the Moon, ever changing, as far as you can tell
Always beauteous, to your longing sight
I illuminate the darkness, but with borrowed light
I am the Earth, broad and strong, sure foundation of life
Ever fruitful, in all your long memory
I bring forth the grass, the trees, the fruit you eat
I am man, ever chaotic, warrior by spirit
Ever seeking, explorer at heart
I am the child of Sun and Moon and Earth, admirer of Stars
Happy day!
The Sun so high
Gone up far North
Happy day!
The season changed
Hot and humid
Happy day!
The year half done
Helios riding high in his golden chariot
Blessed be he, the son of Hyperion, who illuminates the world with his divine light!
I have a request to make of you. It won't take much effort on your part, it will just require you to care a little bit.
If you have a Web Page, a Blog, a YouTube account, a Google+, Tumblr, Instagram, EyeEm, Twitter, a Mailing List, Community, or Forum, I would like to ask you to add something to your pages. Maybe just a monthly reminder to your followers or a tweet once in a while reminding people that suicide is not the answer and that there are people out there working to help in whatever way they can.
Include, if you will, these links:
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
1-800-273-TALK (8255)
http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
Veterans Crisis Line
1-800-273-8255 Press 1
http://www.veteranscrisisline.net/
Suicide.org
http://www.suicide.org/
Includes Hotline numbers by state http://www.suicide.org/suicide-hotlines.html
and get the word out. Hell, all you have to do is copy and paste this. It's easy.
OK, I'll make it even easier, just include this on a page, up front and center
Suicide is never the answer
http://iskios.com/suicide/index.html
Zeus, like so many Gods, goes on adventures in our myths. His adventures often include some poor virgin princess from somewhere that will be hounded by Hera at some point, but this is not always the case. Zeus travels, often making himself into a soldier, a king, a general, or some beast or other.
On one such journey, he and Hermes wander the world in search of good people. He seeks, but does not find, upstanding people who uphold the holy laws of the Gods, laws which are different from our own today, but which often resonate. Hospitality was a sacred law among the ancient people of the Mediterranean, and Zeus was, as were many Gods of that region who could, possibly, be identified with him, a God of Hosts.
Unlike in our modern world, it was considered a breach of divine law to, essentially, be a bad host. The law broken in Sodom was not homosexuality, but a breach of hospitality, for YHWH was the Hebrew God of Hosts, and to deny someone shelter was seen as the sign of an immoral person. The story of the birth of Jesus, for example, shows us a place, Bethlehem, in which people had become isolated and selfish, denying Mary a place though she was in great need. You are not shown this simply as a way to show you her suffering, but to show you that the world she lived in had become "evil" by turning its back on this divine law.
In the story of the Birth of Apollo, Leto is denied a place to give birth. She has, at this point already given birth to Artemis, who is with her and now must help her give birth to Apollo on Delos, the only island that will have her. Again, the Goddess and her two divine children would grant this island great honor and make it sacred, for they upheld the divine law.
Zeus, the God of Hosts holds us to this, that in one way or another, we must, in essence, help each other. Shelters and homes are not just sacred to Hestia, but to Zeus as well, for his is the will, the power, the divine law that requires us to offer aid to those in need, shelter to those traveling through our cities.
One might argue, of course, that this is not something we can do today, and I suppose in much of the civilized world this is true. Our cities are so vast, the numbers of people so large, that it becomes impossible. But we can help by making sure that shelter and inviting hospitality is available. That we do to assure that the homeless are housed, the sick cared for, and those in need, for whatever reason, have somewhere to turn.
But Zeus as Traveller is also a watcher of men. He is here with us, everywhere we are, watching as we do unto each other that which we would never want done to us. He is the conduit to Olympus, he who regulates the divine powers, and perhaps, he who assures that divine gifts are not handed out to the worst among us.
But let me remove myself from all of that and get to the term Traveller itself. For most of us who follow a path under the Shadow of mighty Olympus, the God of Travelers is clearly Hermes, and this does not change that. Hermes is he who travels between the worlds, the messenger, the guide, but it is a mistake to assume that the universe is cut up into neat little departments and then assigned to particular gods and only to them. Were that the case, the Gods would be such simple things. Zeus, the king, the lord of hosts, husband, father, thunderstorms. Boom, done!
But, alas, no such luck for us.
No, Gods receive titles and attributes from man, because we see them in different ways, we receive their blessings in different ways, and we seek them out in different ways. Zeus, the King of the Gods, is one who was worshipped all over the Greek world, and beyond by many names and in many forms, and as he made his way, he touched upon the religions, the cults, the myths of many people, each one imprinting upon his legend a slightly different form, for when he came, he left behind something new in his wake, as he travelled, he spread divine law and justice, among these that greatest of divine laws, hospitality.
By strength of will, I fight
My sword arm is weak
My body is broken
But Athena is there at the heart of me
She will not let me fall.
By strength of force, I fight
My fingers yet hold the sword
My body still feels pain
But Ares is there at the heart of me
He will not let me admit defeat.
By strength of duty, I fight
My hands ache
My body shuts down at the end
But Zeus is there at the heart of me
He reassures me of my victory
By strength of character, I fought
My memory will live on
My body will be given honor
But Hermes is there to guide me
The the shadowy lands below
By nature's eternal dictate, I pass beyond
My arm is strong again
My body feels no pain
But Hades is there to welcome me
To the land of the ever shining Sun
I have 13 minutes to write this, to try to sum up what I feel about Zeus at this point. I am not done with him, but I want to sum up what I feel as I write, as I am right now, so that I can move forward and explore some aspects of the God that are of particular importance to me.
Zeus is, for lack of a better expression, God. His very name means God. Not the God that is all things, that is not where my religious beliefs lie, but rather, he is the God that the Abrahamics refer to, the one who is being invoked when I say O My God, and the one whose presence is felt in all of the strange and sometimes maniacal rantings of the Abrahamic Religions.
Zeus is not that God, not in the sense that he condones or expects the zealotry of the Christians and Moslems, but his influence is felt by them and they mistakenly see him as being the one and only.
Zeus is vast, which is saying something for a God, as all Gods are vast beyond our ability to comprehend, but Zeus is vast and permeating. Like the sky which we use to symbolize him, he is everywhere. We walk through him, breathe him in, feel on our faces as the wind blows. He is there between and within us . So ever present is he that we are never, ever, out of his influence.
Zeus is sovereign, and as I have already alluded to, I believe it is because he is like a medium through which all other Gods act. He is like a buffer between us and them, between the blinding and dangerous fires of divinity and the delicate senses of mortality. He is like a king, because he doesn't just rule and mandate, but mediates between many powers. Like a king who must control the power, ambitions, and needs of his court, he is the hand that rises and stops an action that could destroy, or allows another that can create.
As a deity, Zeus is not only ever present, but eternal, as are all the Gods, but he is also one of the Gods who I believe has, from time to time, incarnated in the world. Was it as a human being, an eagle, a bull? I cannot tell you those with certainty, but I believe this incarnation has given him the power he holds, because it has made him the medium of contact between disparate powers.
We adore and honor him for his protection, and in doing so acknowledge and help maintain his place in the hierarchy of the divine.
If there is one God among the Hellenic pantheon that can be said to be like the Hindu “God", or the all encompassing “God" of the Jews and Moslems, it is Zeus.
If there is a title or epithet available, odds are Zeus has been referred to by it at one time or another. Underworld? Yup. Heaven? Yup. Wisdom? Yup. Healer? Yup. Odds are he has the title.
But we should remember too that if you try hard enough, you can ascribe many seemingly odd titles and epithets to almost any of the Olympian gods, so to the ancient Hellenes it was not at all odd that a deity would have so many titles, some of which might contradict each other.
It is important to remember that the titles of the gods are signed to the gods as a result of perceived action, and Zeus, being perhaps the most widely worshipped of the Greek gods, would, over a period of two thousand years, have accumulated a huge variety of them.
So, s I sit here and think about Zeus, and how he fits into our religion, the answer is he fits in everywhere.
The rising sun gives us peace of heart.
A reminder that life continues.
A reassurance that the world turns.
That all is as it should be in the cosmos.
The rising sun touches our souls.
A reminder that life is a gift.
A reassurance that light conquers dark.
That even the longest night comes to an end.
The rising sun touches our skin.
A reminder that divinity lives.
A reassurance that we are never truly alone.
That even at our loneliest, someone watches over us.
To many, the changing of the seasons, the thunderstorm, the earthquake, the hurricane are manifestations of divine power. Many, to this day, believe that a storm happens because a deity has willed it into being. Now, I know that is false. Not that it is impossible, but that in general it is false. The Gods do not punish us with plagues, bad weather, earthquakes, or other relatively catastrophic events. After all, a hurricane will kill a lot more innocent bystanders than it will some few who transgress upon the good will of the Gods.
But as Winter turns to Spring here in the Northern hemisphere, I am reminded of certain Gods, some are brought to mind because my calendar has festivals in their honor listed there, but others are brought to mind by the way the world itself changes. The way the air feels more alive, the earth feels softer, and the trees are almost glowing from within with all the potential for growth they are about to embark upon. Gods like the Kore, Dionysos, and Aphrodite come to mind with alarming ease, because among their many aspects, attributes, and acknowledged powers are the imbuing of nature with growth and beauty.
But Zeus too comes to mind, because his is a power through which all these things are brought to bear.
Oh, yes, I know the logical reasons for the changing seasons, the evolutionary adaptations that have given plants and animals the ability to time their life cycles this way, but these things are symbols, reminders, and clues to the nature of beings far more expansive in their existence than anything we can imagine. And so we take our cues from nature, we Pagans, and we allow nature to remind us of the many ways in which the Gods have made themselves felt in our world, past and present, because by being so reminded, we retain some semblance of our true natures, our connections to the world that birthed us, and we give thanks.
So, blessed be you all with the many gifts of the Gods, and may you enjoy this Tempus Vernum, την Άνοιξη, and may you feel the blessings of Zeus upon you, your life, and your garden, as the Spring rains bring life.
Come come, Dawn
Lady of the rosy skies of morning
Usher in the morning
Shoo away our fears
For in the darkness of night
In the absence of the Sun
Man has many things to fear.
Come come, o Eos, who holds the keys of heaven.
Come come, o Aurora, who the Romans did call
Come come Ushas, your name far in the East
Grant us above all else, self realization
And the willingness to see the truth before us.
There is a moment, every morning, when the sun is about to rise
The earth takes a breath
The night bids farewell
And the gates of heaven are wide open
It is a moment afforded every man
To look upon the world
And search within himself
And find the light hidden within him
There is a moment, every morning, when the sun rises to blinding glory
Each man is made visible
His light once again hidden
And the public face is all we see
It is a moment to wonder
To ponder your being
And decide to not be who they want
But the man you were meant to be.
…I'd like to touch on an aspect of the Gods, Zeus and Aphrodite in particular, that is often spoken of but is seldom explored because I think it creates an uncomfortable feeling among Pagans who have had to deal with the universalist aspects of divinity as taught by the Abrahamic religions.
The aspect I am talking about is referred to as "Heavenly" or "Higher" among those who have explored Aphrodite and her aspect of Ourania (her title derived from the same word that gives the protogonos Ouranos his name). This is an aspect of a higher order of being, of potential and possible transcendence rather than immanence in nature and the affairs of mankind.
Zeus, as king of Gods and men, is also seen, at least by philosophers and such, and one can assume (Though if I were a scholar I would never do that without corroborating facts) that the average Greek probably didn't see the Gods as simple super-humans, but as beings of transcendental power and awareness. That the Gods were worshipped throughout "Greece" and that the Greeks believed that the Gods of foreign people were their Gods in different forms indicates that the Greeks did believe their Gods had transcendental and omnipresent properties.
But, my worship is not about what they did, but about how what they may have done informs my world view and my relationship with the Gods, and I have come to believe, for quite some time now, that the Gods are truly universal and that the idea of aspected divinity, that being divinity that can and does appear differently to different people, cultures, and religious systems is the correct form in which to accept the Gods.
Aphrodite has many aspects, of course, but the two that seem to bookend them all are Porne and Ourania. Now, there is no dogma in Greek religion, but these two aspects of the Goddess that seem to be in opposition to each other to our modern way of thinking, are also fairly common ways to see the Gods. The Gods are often said to have Olympian and Chthonic aspects, two aspects which seem to be in opposition to each other, but which to me always speak to a universality in the power of the Gods.
Zeus Pateras, Zeus Olympios, etc., speak to Zeus as a heavenly deity. As a father god, as a god of the highest places (Olympic referring to the highest place or state of being) he is also a God who is everywhere and can always hear your prayers, so, is he not then a universal being? Omnipresent?
It is aspects such as these, omnianything really, that sometimes make Hellenistoi nuts, because while some philosophers seem to agree that the Gods were universal this way, what we know about Hellenic ritual and practice seem to indicate that the Greeks did not believe this, but rather that Gods could be localized. Thus, Aphrodite Ourania and Aphrodite Porne, both aspects of this goddess that were everywhere in nature all at once, are troublesome.
So, perception makes a God aspected, as the perception of Zeus as "earthy" makes him Chthonios, but that is excluding the will of the deity, and so I have to ask myself, are the aspects of divinity merely human perception and interpretation of the Gods, or do the Gods consciously (if such a term even applies to such beings) decide to be seen this way?
I can't answer that, I will not pretend to know the will of the Gods, but I do believe that there is a will at work when a deity who is sought out is believed to have intervened is doing so because he wishes to, and that these aspects are therefore part of their nature, a nature which is vast and hard to put into categories, but which can be gleaned through a study of their past actions and the myths that grow around them.
In this argument, and I admit that my arguments are often meandering things, so I will try to stay on topic here and make an actual point.
LOL
It is noted, for this is not some sacred revelation I have just had and am imparting on humanity, that religious myth, of most religions, seems to reflect many aspects of cosmology and other philosophical sciences (physics, for example). That is to say that when reading creation myths, for example, they often speak of occurrences in times so ancient that no man could have ever witnessed it, and yet often, the myths themselves speak, in metaphorical terms, of things that science seems to indicate actually happened. No, not the same way they happened in the myths, remember, metaphor, but did happen none the less.
Because I am currently trying to focus on Zeus, let us use him as an example.
According to myth, in the beginning there was chaos, and while the word chaos has survived today, and currently means disorder or a disordering, in the myths themselves they seem to indicate a gap (like the Ginnungagap of the Norse Myths) which in a way is an indicator of nothingness. From the nothingness come certain "gods" who are named things like night, darkness, aether, light, earth, and attraction (Nyx, Erebus, Aether, Hemera, Ge, and Eros) and there is something to be said for this, because as we look back into the beginnings of the universe we see the nothingness, the darkness, the sudden light, the formation of matter and gravity, and so here there seems to be an instinctive, or perhaps revealed, knowledge if the beginning of things.
But then the earth gives rise the the sky, again, factual in a geological history sense. Together, these two, under the influence of eros, being the gravity that binds them one to the other, give rise to the ocean, the mountains, etc. It is during this divine age that what we know as the Earth is made into something similar to what we know today, a world of water, raining skies, varied landscapes, etc. Eventually the darkened skies clear, and the Titans are released from their imprisonment, and so they see the Sun for the first time, for Kronos is a much more tumultuous being than Ouranos, not the starry sky, but perhaps the cloud heavy sky of the primordial earth. Here, the same forces become more refined, they are Titans rather than Protogonoi, but the Titans are wild, gigantic creatures. Brutal forces of nature rather than the gentler forces we know today.
Eventually, this Titanic Age gives way to the Olympian Age, and it is here that we meet Zeus. Zeus, the new Sky Lord, Zeus, the storm, the lightning, the thunder god. With him, the children of the Titans, in many ways, nearly indistinguishable from the Titans except that these beings seem to be more subtle, smaller, more down to Earth. It is as if the divine power that began with the Protogonoi has spread itself out into the cosmos, becoming more diffuse, more subtle in its power. One might even say that as the universe itself expanded, so did these beings. But here on Earth, the aspects of these beings, these Gods, that have shaped and given form to our world have also been experienced by the very life that has come into being here.
In myth, it is not 100% clear who or how life is created, is it there when Zeus ascends to the throne of heaven, is it created by the Gods, that is, by the forces they unleash on the world, or is it brought into being even later, by the death and resurrection of yet another of Zeus' children, Dionysos? Whatever the case may be, we do know this, that earth, sky, and sea were all fundamental in the formation of life, and thus its creation. That the very air, the fluid of the ocean, the elements of the earth, and the spark to fuse them to chemical life from lightning were all part of how it happened, and Ge, Poseidon, and Zeus are all part of how it happened.
That Zeus, the Sky Father, is the great King of Heaven is not at all surprising then, as man dwells upon the Earth, cultivates it. Man may sail upon the sea, fishes from it. But man lives in sky, walking in it, taking it in and letting it out at every moment, and so he is there, the Father we live within, part of him in a very real way. Could the being we know as Zeus, then, be female? Sure, the Egyptian story has Earth as male and Sky as female, it is essentially irrelevant, these are beings of eternity, beings who lived long before there was such a thing as gender, for even gender is essentially an accident of chance.
Yet as we ponder Zeus, his coming into power, the great war that shaped the very world, we must also ponder the nature of his myths, and those of all the Gods, with a much keener eye, to understand that within them there is truth, sometimes subtle, sometimes blunt about where we came from and how, and the only real way to understand that is to view them through a mind that can correlate the myths with science and observation, so that we can understand a fundamental reality about the relationship between man and god, that we must put into it as much as we take out of it. Not just read myth and take them at their word, but seek to make sense of them.
Zeus is not literally the sky, but it is his power that makes the sky what it is, and as you breathe it in, remember him and the stories that can guide you to wisdom.
