In ancient times, the ideas about how the world was formed, how it takes shape, what land was in relation to the sea, etc., were all far more fanciful than any we might believe today. From lands that grew out of the sea at the behest of a goddess in need of a place to birth her children to lands that floated on the seas.
That conception of the relation between the sea and the earth gives fair mythological basis for another of Poseidon’s well known aspects, that of “Shaker of the Earth.”
The Gods is said to sing an entire city state, a nation, into the sea in Odyssey when the God became angry that the people had willfully aided the mortal he had decided to punish for his crimes against the God. This is an aspect of the god as Earth-Shaker.
The idea that the Sea God is also the Earthquake God is not that odd when one considers the notion that the land floats upon the ocean or that the Sea encircles the earth as if in an embrace, and that the god can cause the earth to tremble by his motion or by his squeezing the earth.
Strangely enough, however, Poseidon was not, mythologically, married to an Earth Goddess, but to a Sea Goddess. Might this embrace of the earth be something a kin to a mother/son relationship? A child throwing a tantrum at his mother’s knee? Perhaps such an idea is “sacrilegious” or disrespectful, but on a mythological level it is worth pondering, for in many ways, Poseidon was often shown to be a petulant being. One who was a wee bit fickle and a tad bipolar.
In pondering Poseidon, I think I must use him as a means to understand that inner child that is petulant, turbulent, and often unwilling to accept the actions of others as theirs to own and therefore wanting to lash out at them in order to release the anger within myself.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Rivers... Continued
When talking about Poseidon as a God of Rivers, we can only use the idea of Poseidon, not so much the ancient sources as a guide. The reasons, as I have already said, is that the people will use their local representations and their personal ideas about what that god is or is not when describing the river deity.
So, for example, the main river that goes through the town I live in is called the Great Miami River, which is a tributary to the Ohio River, which is a well known and rather major river in this part of the U.S. This river, the Ohio, is also a tributary to the Mississippi River, perhaps the most well known river in all of the U.S. This River, the Mississippi, of course, empties into the Gulf of Mexico, which is part of the greater Atlantic Ocean which, of course, is part of the great World Ocean, since the oceans of the world are a single contiguous mass of water, the divisions of which are man made.
When one thinks of a river in this way, one is struck by the unity of it. Waters that fall from the heavens, some absorbed into the Earth, are released into streams which flow into small rivers which flow into large rivers, etc. Is the divine divinity of fluidity then not also thus diversified?
These are aspects. And aspects can be of more than one deity, just as rivers can have more than one name, as the Amazon River is not called Amazon by the natives who have not assimilated into the Spanish and Portuguese cultures which inhabit the lands that surround it. Poseidon too must be called by peoples all over the world by those names with which they are familiar.
This river, the Great Miami, then, is a local aspect of the god, a local epiphany of the great Lord of the Seas, God of the Waters.
This aspect of the Water God has many aspects of its own. Rivers are life sustaining features of the land we live on. Without them, life as we know it would either not exist, or be so different as to not be recognizable. In this aspect, then, the river is a giver of life. As a means of transport, rivers have been indispensable in the history of man kind, and as such, this aspect of the god is also a bringer of civilization. In the same aspect, he is also a god of commerce and, further, assisted in the spread of man kind from his humble beginnings in Africa to the entire world, in which the god's oceanic aspects was also instrumental.
But rivers are also treacherous things. Many a life is lost every day world wide, drowned in the waters of strong and powerful rivers which are so often underestimated by humans who too often grow complacent with their presence. In this aspect, the Water God as River God is also a taker of life, and in this way a balance is struck.
The River God, who I see as an aspect of the Ocean God who is an aspect of the great God of Fluidity, is instrumental in the life of man, and as such, man has always venerated him in some way or another. Throughout history rivers, lakes, and springs have all been venerated as Gods, spirits, eve, in post Christian times, as sacred sanctuaries to Saints and Angels.
The veneration of the waters that give life, help us spread out into the world, and allowed for commerce to flourish in ancient times is, then, not only understandable, but a necessary aspect of human interaction with the divine world and how that world interfaces with our own in the epiphanies of the Gods.
So, for example, the main river that goes through the town I live in is called the Great Miami River, which is a tributary to the Ohio River, which is a well known and rather major river in this part of the U.S. This river, the Ohio, is also a tributary to the Mississippi River, perhaps the most well known river in all of the U.S. This River, the Mississippi, of course, empties into the Gulf of Mexico, which is part of the greater Atlantic Ocean which, of course, is part of the great World Ocean, since the oceans of the world are a single contiguous mass of water, the divisions of which are man made.
When one thinks of a river in this way, one is struck by the unity of it. Waters that fall from the heavens, some absorbed into the Earth, are released into streams which flow into small rivers which flow into large rivers, etc. Is the divine divinity of fluidity then not also thus diversified?
These are aspects. And aspects can be of more than one deity, just as rivers can have more than one name, as the Amazon River is not called Amazon by the natives who have not assimilated into the Spanish and Portuguese cultures which inhabit the lands that surround it. Poseidon too must be called by peoples all over the world by those names with which they are familiar.
This river, the Great Miami, then, is a local aspect of the god, a local epiphany of the great Lord of the Seas, God of the Waters.
This aspect of the Water God has many aspects of its own. Rivers are life sustaining features of the land we live on. Without them, life as we know it would either not exist, or be so different as to not be recognizable. In this aspect, then, the river is a giver of life. As a means of transport, rivers have been indispensable in the history of man kind, and as such, this aspect of the god is also a bringer of civilization. In the same aspect, he is also a god of commerce and, further, assisted in the spread of man kind from his humble beginnings in Africa to the entire world, in which the god's oceanic aspects was also instrumental.
But rivers are also treacherous things. Many a life is lost every day world wide, drowned in the waters of strong and powerful rivers which are so often underestimated by humans who too often grow complacent with their presence. In this aspect, the Water God as River God is also a taker of life, and in this way a balance is struck.
The River God, who I see as an aspect of the Ocean God who is an aspect of the great God of Fluidity, is instrumental in the life of man, and as such, man has always venerated him in some way or another. Throughout history rivers, lakes, and springs have all been venerated as Gods, spirits, eve, in post Christian times, as sacred sanctuaries to Saints and Angels.
The veneration of the waters that give life, help us spread out into the world, and allowed for commerce to flourish in ancient times is, then, not only understandable, but a necessary aspect of human interaction with the divine world and how that world interfaces with our own in the epiphanies of the Gods.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Rivers
The God of the Sea is, by force of his dominion, the God of all of the Earth’s waters. All that is fluid on the Earth and moves and shapes the world that contains it by it’s power. The oceans, the seas, the lakes grand and small, the rivers and streams and even the great glaciers whose movements shape the world so profoundly.
For the ancients, rivers, lakes, streams, springs, etc. each had their own attendant deities. A river God is a very local God, contained by the very river that he is responsible for. The nymphs that inhabited wells and springs were also thus localised and contained by the nature of that which they represented. In my theological view, these are all representations of two specific things. One is the human acknowledgment of the rivers as sources of life without which human existence would be extremely difficult if not impossible. The second is a more abstract concept in the religious ideologies of polytheistic religions, and that is the concept of apsected divinity.
The concept itself is fairly simple. The idea is that a deity can manifest to a people, or person, in a variety of forms, and that those forms are often, perhaps even always, dependent on the people’s or person’s ability to comprehend it. A being who has never seen the vastness of the ocean or a large sea may not have the conceptual ability to see the deity as vast and powerful, rather, he may only be able to identify such a deity with what he is familiar with, a river or small lake or ven a pond or spring. So this person, or these people, may only see the God of the Seas as a God of River X or a nymph of the local springs which are so important to their survival.
The Greeks adopted a form of address that often, if not always, took into account this aspect of their religious system. Gods were often named with epithets that gave an inkling of what that aspect of the deity was to them. How they perceived and called upon that deity until such a time as their view of that deity was expanded.
Poseidon was known by many such epithets, and here are some:
◦ Basileus: This means King or Lord, and Poseidon was very much a king.
◦ Asphalius: He who secures safe voyage.
◦ Epoptes: Watcher or overseer. This is a protective aspect.
◦ Gaeochus: Holder of the Earth or he who bears the Earth in his hands.
◦ Ennosigaeus: Shaker of the Earth, in his aspect of God of Earthquakes.
◦ Phytalmius: He who nurtures plants. A sign that he was associated with more than Sea Water.
◦ Laoites: Of the people.
◦ Patrus: Father. Esecially when seen as father of the clan.
◦ Hippios: Of horses.
◦ Prosclystius: He who dashes against, as when ships are dashed against rocks or when sea storms dash objects onto the shore.
There are many others, of course, and many of them can be found at Theoi.com, an excellent source of quotations about the Mythos of the Greeks.
I will continue this later...
For the ancients, rivers, lakes, streams, springs, etc. each had their own attendant deities. A river God is a very local God, contained by the very river that he is responsible for. The nymphs that inhabited wells and springs were also thus localised and contained by the nature of that which they represented. In my theological view, these are all representations of two specific things. One is the human acknowledgment of the rivers as sources of life without which human existence would be extremely difficult if not impossible. The second is a more abstract concept in the religious ideologies of polytheistic religions, and that is the concept of apsected divinity.
The concept itself is fairly simple. The idea is that a deity can manifest to a people, or person, in a variety of forms, and that those forms are often, perhaps even always, dependent on the people’s or person’s ability to comprehend it. A being who has never seen the vastness of the ocean or a large sea may not have the conceptual ability to see the deity as vast and powerful, rather, he may only be able to identify such a deity with what he is familiar with, a river or small lake or ven a pond or spring. So this person, or these people, may only see the God of the Seas as a God of River X or a nymph of the local springs which are so important to their survival.
The Greeks adopted a form of address that often, if not always, took into account this aspect of their religious system. Gods were often named with epithets that gave an inkling of what that aspect of the deity was to them. How they perceived and called upon that deity until such a time as their view of that deity was expanded.
Poseidon was known by many such epithets, and here are some:
◦ Basileus: This means King or Lord, and Poseidon was very much a king.
◦ Asphalius: He who secures safe voyage.
◦ Epoptes: Watcher or overseer. This is a protective aspect.
◦ Gaeochus: Holder of the Earth or he who bears the Earth in his hands.
◦ Ennosigaeus: Shaker of the Earth, in his aspect of God of Earthquakes.
◦ Phytalmius: He who nurtures plants. A sign that he was associated with more than Sea Water.
◦ Laoites: Of the people.
◦ Patrus: Father. Esecially when seen as father of the clan.
◦ Hippios: Of horses.
◦ Prosclystius: He who dashes against, as when ships are dashed against rocks or when sea storms dash objects onto the shore.
There are many others, of course, and many of them can be found at Theoi.com, an excellent source of quotations about the Mythos of the Greeks.
I will continue this later...
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Poseidon
The wheel turns. The walk along the path I have chosen to walk these last months has not been arduous, but it has placed a few challenges before me. It started with Hestia, virgin goddess of the hearth, and moved to Apollo, the Lord of Light, Music, and Artistry. From there to Hera, Queen of Heaven, and now to one of the three ruling deities of our pantheon.
Myth tells us that after the great war in heaven, the Titanomachia, the Olympian Gods were victorious and the three brothers, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades drew lots to decide who would rule what part of the world. To Zeus fell the heavens and mighty Olympus. To Hades fell the gloomy Underworld which would for ever more bear his name. And to him who is now to be my focus, Poseidon, fell the sea and all the wonders therein.
Poseidon, like Hera and Hestia, is one of the Kronides, the children of Kronos in our mythos. His place as the ruler of the second kingdom, the fluid kingdom that is always in motion, always changing, places him closer to us in many respects than Zeus. His place in the pantheon as Sea God places him all around us, and by means of the sea, the people of the earth were both separated and in time able to once again connect to each other. And so the Greeks, who’s tribes made their way onto the Greek mainland soon found themselves in contact with other people, many living as part of large powerful cultures, such as Egypt and the Hittites, who were related to them in the grand scheme of humanity through the Indo-European migrations, and lesser yet closer cultures, such as the Minoans, who would leave their indelible marks on the culture of the people who would one day come to call themselves Hellenes.
Religiously, Poseidon is very much a kind of father figure. His presence is a vast one, like the Sea itself, and in so being it creates a sense of awe that one can easily equate with the feeling one gets from one’s father. A feeling of a figure that is both protective and punishing at the same time. Even in the earliest extant works of the Greeks, those of Homer, we see Poseidon as an elder God, a God who is feared for his power, and a God who is willing to punish with great and disastrous effect those who will not abide by his laws or dictates.
But what does this mean in the grand scheme of things religious? Does it mean that Poseidon must be obeyed without question? Is Poseidon truly to be feared, or does he simply demand respect? What, in the end, is the difference?
Before continuing, I want to either introduce, or perhaps reintroduce, my idea of the structure of the cosmos as a religious concept. The universe is like an onion. The ten dimensions of the universe are layered as an onion, and we exist as part of the third dimensional plane, this means that we partake of the first, second, and third dimensional planes. The Gods exist as part of the 11th and 12th dimensions, which are actually a single dimensional plane which is a transformative dimension. The universal balance is maintained by the entropic forces leaving through the South pole and as they travel through this divine dimension, they are transformed and once again enter. This happens at the smallest levels of our cosmos s we perceive size.
Poseidon represents, in many ways, this fluid interchange of energies. This fluidic aspect of nature is part of his domain, and it is a transformative power. Ask anyone who has never seen the ocean how it feels to stand on its shore for the first time. How it feels to bear witness to its power, both subtle and abrupt. It is a feeling of transformation.
Poseidon, according to myth, did not start out this way. He was the son of Kronos, the sky god, king of the cosmos, lord of what would later be called Olympus. But his domain was not decided by his nature, it was decided by lots. In other words, Poseidon became what was necessary for his domain to function. He became a transformative power rather than simply being that from the beginning of things. In other words, again, he was himself transformed by the needs of his function in the cosmos.
This leads me to a fundamental difference between me and what is probably the majority of the Hellenistic and Pagan communities, and that is that I do not really think of the Gods as manifestations of particular aspects of nature. I don’t think of Poseidon as actually being the sea, or Helios as actually being the Sun, or Ge as actually being the Earth, but rather, I think of these aspects of nature as epiphanies or objects that inspire the epiphanies of the Gods. The sea is not Poseidon, but it inspires an epiphany of the God. It inspires us to feel his presence near us.
Yet the God can also be present in other things, all depending on how you associate the world around you with him. Thus that traditional epiphanies of the God, the sea, the horse, the earthquake can also be accompanied by boating, the joy of riding a horse, or the heroism of people coping with the disaster of an earthquake. Or perhaps you see Poseidon in a different light, as the sea-storms, what we call Hurricanes. What does the Hurricane symbolize to you in relation to Poseidon, and why?
Poseidon stirs.
The Earth shakes.
Boulders fall into the sea.
Poseidon awakens.
The sea quivers.
The waves crash onto the shore.
Poseidon walks.
The trees tremble.
The leaves shaken from their stems.
Poseidon rests.
The ocean calls.
The waters reflect the Moon
Poseidon angered.
The land crumbles.
The hearts of men tremble.
Poseidon is merciful.
The sea breeze blows.
The ship reaches the far off shore.
Myth tells us that after the great war in heaven, the Titanomachia, the Olympian Gods were victorious and the three brothers, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades drew lots to decide who would rule what part of the world. To Zeus fell the heavens and mighty Olympus. To Hades fell the gloomy Underworld which would for ever more bear his name. And to him who is now to be my focus, Poseidon, fell the sea and all the wonders therein.
Poseidon, like Hera and Hestia, is one of the Kronides, the children of Kronos in our mythos. His place as the ruler of the second kingdom, the fluid kingdom that is always in motion, always changing, places him closer to us in many respects than Zeus. His place in the pantheon as Sea God places him all around us, and by means of the sea, the people of the earth were both separated and in time able to once again connect to each other. And so the Greeks, who’s tribes made their way onto the Greek mainland soon found themselves in contact with other people, many living as part of large powerful cultures, such as Egypt and the Hittites, who were related to them in the grand scheme of humanity through the Indo-European migrations, and lesser yet closer cultures, such as the Minoans, who would leave their indelible marks on the culture of the people who would one day come to call themselves Hellenes.
Religiously, Poseidon is very much a kind of father figure. His presence is a vast one, like the Sea itself, and in so being it creates a sense of awe that one can easily equate with the feeling one gets from one’s father. A feeling of a figure that is both protective and punishing at the same time. Even in the earliest extant works of the Greeks, those of Homer, we see Poseidon as an elder God, a God who is feared for his power, and a God who is willing to punish with great and disastrous effect those who will not abide by his laws or dictates.
But what does this mean in the grand scheme of things religious? Does it mean that Poseidon must be obeyed without question? Is Poseidon truly to be feared, or does he simply demand respect? What, in the end, is the difference?
Before continuing, I want to either introduce, or perhaps reintroduce, my idea of the structure of the cosmos as a religious concept. The universe is like an onion. The ten dimensions of the universe are layered as an onion, and we exist as part of the third dimensional plane, this means that we partake of the first, second, and third dimensional planes. The Gods exist as part of the 11th and 12th dimensions, which are actually a single dimensional plane which is a transformative dimension. The universal balance is maintained by the entropic forces leaving through the South pole and as they travel through this divine dimension, they are transformed and once again enter. This happens at the smallest levels of our cosmos s we perceive size.
Poseidon represents, in many ways, this fluid interchange of energies. This fluidic aspect of nature is part of his domain, and it is a transformative power. Ask anyone who has never seen the ocean how it feels to stand on its shore for the first time. How it feels to bear witness to its power, both subtle and abrupt. It is a feeling of transformation.
Poseidon, according to myth, did not start out this way. He was the son of Kronos, the sky god, king of the cosmos, lord of what would later be called Olympus. But his domain was not decided by his nature, it was decided by lots. In other words, Poseidon became what was necessary for his domain to function. He became a transformative power rather than simply being that from the beginning of things. In other words, again, he was himself transformed by the needs of his function in the cosmos.
This leads me to a fundamental difference between me and what is probably the majority of the Hellenistic and Pagan communities, and that is that I do not really think of the Gods as manifestations of particular aspects of nature. I don’t think of Poseidon as actually being the sea, or Helios as actually being the Sun, or Ge as actually being the Earth, but rather, I think of these aspects of nature as epiphanies or objects that inspire the epiphanies of the Gods. The sea is not Poseidon, but it inspires an epiphany of the God. It inspires us to feel his presence near us.
Yet the God can also be present in other things, all depending on how you associate the world around you with him. Thus that traditional epiphanies of the God, the sea, the horse, the earthquake can also be accompanied by boating, the joy of riding a horse, or the heroism of people coping with the disaster of an earthquake. Or perhaps you see Poseidon in a different light, as the sea-storms, what we call Hurricanes. What does the Hurricane symbolize to you in relation to Poseidon, and why?
Poseidon stirs.
The Earth shakes.
Boulders fall into the sea.
Poseidon awakens.
The sea quivers.
The waves crash onto the shore.
Poseidon walks.
The trees tremble.
The leaves shaken from their stems.
Poseidon rests.
The ocean calls.
The waters reflect the Moon
Poseidon angered.
The land crumbles.
The hearts of men tremble.
Poseidon is merciful.
The sea breeze blows.
The ship reaches the far off shore.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Concluding my time with Hera
My time with Hera has come to an end, and I am a bit confused by her. Of course, I am fairly confused by all the Gods in one way or another, but Hestia is a difficult deity to get a handle on in the scheme of things because the Greeks laid out a fairly rigid domain for her, yet ne that could be interpreted to include almost all of the other domains in one way or another.
We think, today, of love and marriage as being indellibly linked, yet in their time, the Greeks did not necessarily think this way. Surely we know there were stories of the romantic entanglements that gods and mortals alike fell into, but marriage itself was so often a matter of familial duty that one has to ask, are we doing it wrong?
Hera forces us to look at these things in ways that also force us to sometimes consider whether marriage, her domain, is one we even want to continue to foster in our current society. After all, it no longer serves the same function in society that it once did. But marriage is not going anywhere, and recent developments lead us to believe that marriage is expanding to a whole new function in society, one that is part of an elite class. Do we really want that?
But if our current definition of marriage is one that Hera has absorbed into her realm, then love, Aphrodite’s domain, becomes entangled in her domain as well.
As Queen of Heaven, her domain becomes entangled with almost every other domain except, perhaps, that of Hades and Persephone. She commands, as Zeus does, and she is a warrior, as Athena is, a protector of cities, as many of the Gods are, and a Great Goddess in her own right.
As a Great Goddess her role in Greek society, and in our modern revival of Hellenismos as a religion divorced from its parent culture, was one that also brought into the Hellenic cultural environs traditions and ideals that predated them. She brings with her a certain earthy quality that is not like that of Demeter, but more of a type that is of the people. Hera, as Great Goddess, is the very spirit of the people, and she binds them together not only in marriage, but as a society, as a culture, and with her guidance, the culture of the Indo-European Tribes that migrated into Hellas were married with the indigenous people into a new family unit, the Hellenes.
For that, we owe her much, for without her we would not know the Gods as the Greeks knew them, and that would be a great loss indeed.
I now move on along the star pattern to Poseidon, and it may be a little while before I can make my first post on him. There is much to think over in him, and many new ways in which I must consider him and his place in our religion, so I will write and rewrite some of what I feel about him from the onset.
See ya soon...
We think, today, of love and marriage as being indellibly linked, yet in their time, the Greeks did not necessarily think this way. Surely we know there were stories of the romantic entanglements that gods and mortals alike fell into, but marriage itself was so often a matter of familial duty that one has to ask, are we doing it wrong?
Hera forces us to look at these things in ways that also force us to sometimes consider whether marriage, her domain, is one we even want to continue to foster in our current society. After all, it no longer serves the same function in society that it once did. But marriage is not going anywhere, and recent developments lead us to believe that marriage is expanding to a whole new function in society, one that is part of an elite class. Do we really want that?
But if our current definition of marriage is one that Hera has absorbed into her realm, then love, Aphrodite’s domain, becomes entangled in her domain as well.
As Queen of Heaven, her domain becomes entangled with almost every other domain except, perhaps, that of Hades and Persephone. She commands, as Zeus does, and she is a warrior, as Athena is, a protector of cities, as many of the Gods are, and a Great Goddess in her own right.
As a Great Goddess her role in Greek society, and in our modern revival of Hellenismos as a religion divorced from its parent culture, was one that also brought into the Hellenic cultural environs traditions and ideals that predated them. She brings with her a certain earthy quality that is not like that of Demeter, but more of a type that is of the people. Hera, as Great Goddess, is the very spirit of the people, and she binds them together not only in marriage, but as a society, as a culture, and with her guidance, the culture of the Indo-European Tribes that migrated into Hellas were married with the indigenous people into a new family unit, the Hellenes.
For that, we owe her much, for without her we would not know the Gods as the Greeks knew them, and that would be a great loss indeed.
I now move on along the star pattern to Poseidon, and it may be a little while before I can make my first post on him. There is much to think over in him, and many new ways in which I must consider him and his place in our religion, so I will write and rewrite some of what I feel about him from the onset.
See ya soon...
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Conclusion
Heraian religion is not something I am all that familiar with in terms of my knowledge of her cultus and civic festivals. Like Athena, Hera had very strong religious importance to the people of Greece, and like Athena, she was also seen as a Patron Goddess in parts of Greece, including the Argolid. Unlike Athena, however, Hera was not seen with kind eyes in the mythos of the Greeks, and this remains, to me at least, one of the great mysteries of ancient Greek myth.
Why, for example, do the myths of the Greeks show Hera to be an almost vile creature. A horrible nagging wife whose vengeance against anyone who dared intrude on her territory was, even by mythological standards, harsh and inhumane.
Hera is what many would term a “Great Goddess”, that is, a Goddess who appears to have been worshipped before her place in the mythos was set in a way that was very different from that which we come to know through myth. A Goddess who was preeminent among her worshippers and for whom a mate was a subordinate divine figure. Thus, as the culture of Greece changed during the Indo-European invasions and the Doric and Ionic migrations, her place as a preeminent deity was seen differently by the warrior culture of the Hellenes and the native peoples of Greece.
Neither is bad or good in its own, the two peoples simply saw the divine differently, wrshipped differently, and had a different cultural interpretation of the divine sphere. But the Greeks themselves continued to worship Hera and evidence shows that they held her in high esteem. Her worshippers offered to her, prayed to her, sought her out in times of urgency, and if the myths show anything it is that Hera is not particularly kind to humanity.
It is a shame that the mythos does not include greater detail about the actual beliefs of the people and focused instead on the later besmirching of her reputation by the often misogynistic poets like Homer and Hesiod, both of whom have left beautiful examples of their work while the every day worshipper did not.
But myth is not an absolute dogma, nor should it be, not in our religion, not in any religion. The mythos of the Greeks is, in our faith, the basis for the epithets and forms that the Gods took among them, but it is not dogmatic because we understand that myth is subject to human interpretation and manipulation. Myths, plays, philosophy, and modern scholarship in fields like anthropology, history, archaeology, and language give us much deeper levels of understanding of the nature of the ancient religious sphere, but the one thing it cannot give us is feeling.
That feeling of religious faith, piety, etc., can only really be achieved through personal exploration. One must experience the Gods to understand the Gods in a religious context, or, I should say, at a spiritual level.
Therefore, it is difficult for those of us who worship and pay honor to the Gods to offer explanations about what the worship of the Gods is like. We do not have an authority that tells us what we should be thinking and feeling about the Gods, nor do we have an authority that can accurately describe for us what our ancient forefathers were thinking and feeling either. That is simply something modern science is not capable of doing, and which, perhaps, it should never be capable of doing since it would remove that most important aspect of our religion, our personal gnosis, our personal interpretations, and our personal experience of they for whom the religion works.
You see, in spite of our assertions about ours being a orthopraxic religion, all religion is about feeling. All religion is about the heart and its need to understand that which is greater than itself and, in the end, that which can provide it with a feeling of belonging. The Gods are the heart of that religion. That which makes us all seek to be better people lies within us, and it is that self same heart, that self same spirit that believes and hopes, and it is there that we find them, it is there that we find her, Hera, Queen of Gods and Men.
Why, for example, do the myths of the Greeks show Hera to be an almost vile creature. A horrible nagging wife whose vengeance against anyone who dared intrude on her territory was, even by mythological standards, harsh and inhumane.
Hera is what many would term a “Great Goddess”, that is, a Goddess who appears to have been worshipped before her place in the mythos was set in a way that was very different from that which we come to know through myth. A Goddess who was preeminent among her worshippers and for whom a mate was a subordinate divine figure. Thus, as the culture of Greece changed during the Indo-European invasions and the Doric and Ionic migrations, her place as a preeminent deity was seen differently by the warrior culture of the Hellenes and the native peoples of Greece.
Neither is bad or good in its own, the two peoples simply saw the divine differently, wrshipped differently, and had a different cultural interpretation of the divine sphere. But the Greeks themselves continued to worship Hera and evidence shows that they held her in high esteem. Her worshippers offered to her, prayed to her, sought her out in times of urgency, and if the myths show anything it is that Hera is not particularly kind to humanity.
It is a shame that the mythos does not include greater detail about the actual beliefs of the people and focused instead on the later besmirching of her reputation by the often misogynistic poets like Homer and Hesiod, both of whom have left beautiful examples of their work while the every day worshipper did not.
But myth is not an absolute dogma, nor should it be, not in our religion, not in any religion. The mythos of the Greeks is, in our faith, the basis for the epithets and forms that the Gods took among them, but it is not dogmatic because we understand that myth is subject to human interpretation and manipulation. Myths, plays, philosophy, and modern scholarship in fields like anthropology, history, archaeology, and language give us much deeper levels of understanding of the nature of the ancient religious sphere, but the one thing it cannot give us is feeling.
That feeling of religious faith, piety, etc., can only really be achieved through personal exploration. One must experience the Gods to understand the Gods in a religious context, or, I should say, at a spiritual level.
Therefore, it is difficult for those of us who worship and pay honor to the Gods to offer explanations about what the worship of the Gods is like. We do not have an authority that tells us what we should be thinking and feeling about the Gods, nor do we have an authority that can accurately describe for us what our ancient forefathers were thinking and feeling either. That is simply something modern science is not capable of doing, and which, perhaps, it should never be capable of doing since it would remove that most important aspect of our religion, our personal gnosis, our personal interpretations, and our personal experience of they for whom the religion works.
You see, in spite of our assertions about ours being a orthopraxic religion, all religion is about feeling. All religion is about the heart and its need to understand that which is greater than itself and, in the end, that which can provide it with a feeling of belonging. The Gods are the heart of that religion. That which makes us all seek to be better people lies within us, and it is that self same heart, that self same spirit that believes and hopes, and it is there that we find them, it is there that we find her, Hera, Queen of Gods and Men.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Overpowered
The Gods are an overpowering presence.
Hera is an overpowering presence. A presence that inspires and frightens. Mythically, she is often like a "Mary" figure, but she is not, to me, such a figure at all. Perhaps only in the wide spread love of her is she like Mary. She was highly mistreated in myth, but the Greek people loved her. They had a sense of her that was very different from the texts that describe her, and this can be a problem in a religious sense because as separated from her worship as we are in the modern world, we have to rely on those myths to get a sense of her. That failing, we must rely on academic works which leave us with someone else's interpretation of her.
One of only a few stories from ancient times, and a Hellenistic one at that, is the Argonautika by Apollonius Rhodius. In it, Hera takes on a very different aspect from the vile shrew she is often shown to be in myth. She is helpful, and the Argonauts, especially Jason, seem to have a strong bond with her. The story itself is far more ancient than the source that tells it. of course, as Jason and his voyage are referenced in several places other than the Argonautika, but it is in this play that we see the role that the Queen of the Gods played in this expedition.
The Goddess Queen of Heaven is a creature that is both near and far, helpful and an impediment, and this is actually true of all the Gods, but with Hera and the character the mythos gives us of her, these become ever more pronounced. Like an Earthly queen, the Queen of Heaven demands a certain level of subordination to her will and power, but unlike a mortal Queen, it is not a matter of pride or entitlement, but of divine grace.
What do I mean by this?
The Gods are divine beings. To say they are superior to us is like say a man is superior to a virus. Sure, on one level it is true, but the virus exists on its own, in its own little world, at a level of existence that is, for it, like our universe is to us. That as a type of life the virus has managed to survive millions of years is testament to its inherent strength as a life form. The gods exist on a totally different level of existence from us, they are of the ultimate level, that 11th dimension, that divine world that encompasses all others within it. If the Gods notice us and take it upon themselves to act on our behalf, or to counter us, it is through their grace. A word that often has misleading interpretations in our modern world.
The grace of the Gods is manifest in all that we see around us. The Gods shower gifts upon the world all the time, and like a virus, we don't really take much notice of them. By Hera's grace, mankind knows the holiness of union with another human being. Of that bond of trust and love that allows two people to create a family and defend it against all ill will. It is not that procreation would be impossible without her, life does that as a matter of course, but her influence allows man to act in accordance with a higher level of emotion and spirit with regard to our young, to our lovers, and to our progenitors.
In realizing this, I am overpowered by her.
I admit, that at this time in my life I have given up on finding that bond. I have loved and lost in my life, but the truth is that I know that it is not something that will ever happen for me. In a sense, I am rejecting part of Hera's domain outright, but in another, I am acknowledging its importance and refuse to be one of these people who takes it far too lightly and rushes in to love and marriage simply because I feel a desperate need to be "married."
I am overpowered by her.
Hera is an overpowering presence. A presence that inspires and frightens. Mythically, she is often like a "Mary" figure, but she is not, to me, such a figure at all. Perhaps only in the wide spread love of her is she like Mary. She was highly mistreated in myth, but the Greek people loved her. They had a sense of her that was very different from the texts that describe her, and this can be a problem in a religious sense because as separated from her worship as we are in the modern world, we have to rely on those myths to get a sense of her. That failing, we must rely on academic works which leave us with someone else's interpretation of her.
One of only a few stories from ancient times, and a Hellenistic one at that, is the Argonautika by Apollonius Rhodius. In it, Hera takes on a very different aspect from the vile shrew she is often shown to be in myth. She is helpful, and the Argonauts, especially Jason, seem to have a strong bond with her. The story itself is far more ancient than the source that tells it. of course, as Jason and his voyage are referenced in several places other than the Argonautika, but it is in this play that we see the role that the Queen of the Gods played in this expedition.
The Goddess Queen of Heaven is a creature that is both near and far, helpful and an impediment, and this is actually true of all the Gods, but with Hera and the character the mythos gives us of her, these become ever more pronounced. Like an Earthly queen, the Queen of Heaven demands a certain level of subordination to her will and power, but unlike a mortal Queen, it is not a matter of pride or entitlement, but of divine grace.
What do I mean by this?
The Gods are divine beings. To say they are superior to us is like say a man is superior to a virus. Sure, on one level it is true, but the virus exists on its own, in its own little world, at a level of existence that is, for it, like our universe is to us. That as a type of life the virus has managed to survive millions of years is testament to its inherent strength as a life form. The gods exist on a totally different level of existence from us, they are of the ultimate level, that 11th dimension, that divine world that encompasses all others within it. If the Gods notice us and take it upon themselves to act on our behalf, or to counter us, it is through their grace. A word that often has misleading interpretations in our modern world.
The grace of the Gods is manifest in all that we see around us. The Gods shower gifts upon the world all the time, and like a virus, we don't really take much notice of them. By Hera's grace, mankind knows the holiness of union with another human being. Of that bond of trust and love that allows two people to create a family and defend it against all ill will. It is not that procreation would be impossible without her, life does that as a matter of course, but her influence allows man to act in accordance with a higher level of emotion and spirit with regard to our young, to our lovers, and to our progenitors.
In realizing this, I am overpowered by her.
I admit, that at this time in my life I have given up on finding that bond. I have loved and lost in my life, but the truth is that I know that it is not something that will ever happen for me. In a sense, I am rejecting part of Hera's domain outright, but in another, I am acknowledging its importance and refuse to be one of these people who takes it far too lightly and rushes in to love and marriage simply because I feel a desperate need to be "married."
I am overpowered by her.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
May
May has been a month of sadness.
Too many prayers have I laid at the altar of death.
Too many friends and family have gone.
Dear Susana, passed in pain, your children at your side.
Too many fond memories now haunt me.
Too many tears I have shed for you, dear aunt of mine.
Dear Mark, passed in loneliness, you tears of bitterness your only companions.
Too many times did I seek to help you.
Too many times was I rebuked as were we all.
Dear Trey, passed with friends and loved ones around you.
Too many times did I neglect your friendship.
Too many times did you make me laugh, if there can be too much laughter.
Dear Tim, though gone you are not, you lie in pain at death's door.
Too long have I not seen you, or your husband who sits at your side.
Too many prayers for you have I said to them who deal in life and death.
Let me deal with grace.
Let me deal with hope.
Let me deal with compassion.
Dear Zeus above.
Dear Poseidon all about.
Dear Aidoneus who hides underneath.
Bless those left behind in tears and longing.
Bless those left behind in sorrow and pain.
Bless me with the memories of their smiles and good hearts.
Too many prayers have I laid at the altar of death.
Too many friends and family have gone.
Dear Susana, passed in pain, your children at your side.
Too many fond memories now haunt me.
Too many tears I have shed for you, dear aunt of mine.
Dear Mark, passed in loneliness, you tears of bitterness your only companions.
Too many times did I seek to help you.
Too many times was I rebuked as were we all.
Dear Trey, passed with friends and loved ones around you.
Too many times did I neglect your friendship.
Too many times did you make me laugh, if there can be too much laughter.
Dear Tim, though gone you are not, you lie in pain at death's door.
Too long have I not seen you, or your husband who sits at your side.
Too many prayers for you have I said to them who deal in life and death.
Let me deal with grace.
Let me deal with hope.
Let me deal with compassion.
Dear Zeus above.
Dear Poseidon all about.
Dear Aidoneus who hides underneath.
Bless those left behind in tears and longing.
Bless those left behind in sorrow and pain.
Bless me with the memories of their smiles and good hearts.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
But...
But the incense burns and the prayers flow from me to her regardless of how small I often feel in her presence. The reasons for this are shrouded in a little mystery for me, because part of me wants to not recognize that part of how I see Hera is also part of how I was trained to see "God" as a child.
You see, I was brought up Pentecostal. Now, luckily, though my mother took us to church and prays to this day to all mighty God for my soul, she was never a zealous Christian fundamentalist type, so when I felt I no longer liked church, she did not try to force me to go. Eventually, she too gave up going, always claiming that she thought the majority of her fellow church goers were hypocrites.
The way I was taught to see "God" was as a distant yet ever present being who was watching every step you made and writing it all down to decide if you were good or bad, kinda like Santa Claus, but also that he was so vast, so overwhelmingly "other" that I was essentially just an insect in his presence.
Now, to contrast this, the Olympian Gods are vast, they are ever present, and they are amazingly "other" but unlike the version of "God" I was taught about as a child, they were also always accessible to the people. The Greeks had no holy writ that needed interpreting for them by an authority. Each household, each person, each city, each nation, could approach them. The head of the household, the father, husband, etc., bore the responsibility for much of the family's obligations to the Gods, but in essence, each person was responsible for his or her own relationship with the Gods. And these relationships were close ones.
Mythically, the Gods spoke with man directly, and while I don't actually believe that the Gods were walking up to houses for tea, I do think the mythic relationships between men and gods did represent a very real sense among the Greeks that when they prayed to the Gods, the Gods were listening. That they had a sense that the Gods were there, beside them.
This sense that the Gods were not just very enormous "others" was very appealing to me, and yet, there are some Gods, Zeus and Hera among them, who do give off that vibe of being so vast, so very much "other" that the relationships we build with them, or I should say I build with them, must always retain a certain distance.
Yet, Hera is to man a very powerful bonding deity, and as a result she is also there at our most intimate moments. When we realize we love someone and want to bond ourselves to them, Hera is there as much as Aphrodite. When we realize for the first time that a friend is a true friend, the kind of friend that will be with you forever, Hera is there too. And when a friend dies and you are left with that nagging feeling that you wish you had talked with him more, visited him more, or maybe told him you loved him more, Hera is there to help you deal with the loss of a bond that is beyond human comprehension.
I lost a friend this week. A friend I wish I had been better to. A friend I wish I had gotten to know a lot better. Now to deal with that...
You see, I was brought up Pentecostal. Now, luckily, though my mother took us to church and prays to this day to all mighty God for my soul, she was never a zealous Christian fundamentalist type, so when I felt I no longer liked church, she did not try to force me to go. Eventually, she too gave up going, always claiming that she thought the majority of her fellow church goers were hypocrites.
The way I was taught to see "God" was as a distant yet ever present being who was watching every step you made and writing it all down to decide if you were good or bad, kinda like Santa Claus, but also that he was so vast, so overwhelmingly "other" that I was essentially just an insect in his presence.
Now, to contrast this, the Olympian Gods are vast, they are ever present, and they are amazingly "other" but unlike the version of "God" I was taught about as a child, they were also always accessible to the people. The Greeks had no holy writ that needed interpreting for them by an authority. Each household, each person, each city, each nation, could approach them. The head of the household, the father, husband, etc., bore the responsibility for much of the family's obligations to the Gods, but in essence, each person was responsible for his or her own relationship with the Gods. And these relationships were close ones.
Mythically, the Gods spoke with man directly, and while I don't actually believe that the Gods were walking up to houses for tea, I do think the mythic relationships between men and gods did represent a very real sense among the Greeks that when they prayed to the Gods, the Gods were listening. That they had a sense that the Gods were there, beside them.
This sense that the Gods were not just very enormous "others" was very appealing to me, and yet, there are some Gods, Zeus and Hera among them, who do give off that vibe of being so vast, so very much "other" that the relationships we build with them, or I should say I build with them, must always retain a certain distance.
Yet, Hera is to man a very powerful bonding deity, and as a result she is also there at our most intimate moments. When we realize we love someone and want to bond ourselves to them, Hera is there as much as Aphrodite. When we realize for the first time that a friend is a true friend, the kind of friend that will be with you forever, Hera is there too. And when a friend dies and you are left with that nagging feeling that you wish you had talked with him more, visited him more, or maybe told him you loved him more, Hera is there to help you deal with the loss of a bond that is beyond human comprehension.
I lost a friend this week. A friend I wish I had been better to. A friend I wish I had gotten to know a lot better. Now to deal with that...
Monday, June 2, 2008
In practice
Putting the various discoveries I am making about the Gods and my relationship with them into actual practice is not something I can speak of as many others do because I am very much a solitary. There are no other Hellenistoi in this area that I can think of and for me to put my beliefs into practice as ritual has therefore become very simple.
Prayer, the burning of incense, the making of simple offering at the altars of the Gods, etc. are the core of all my practices. The blessing of my home with incense smoke while invoking the Gods is something I do when I am preparing to celebrate any festival through fasting or making special offerings, etc.
Putting my ideas on Hera into practice was something I had already done. Placing her altar at the entry way to my home, invoking my idea of her as a protecting goddess and offering to her there in that aspect. Making a statue of Hebe my representation of her, for I see Hebe as an aspect of Hera that represents the goddess' maiden aspect, an aspect that to me represents potential, both lost and to be fulfilled, and in reference to the ancient ways, an aspect that represents a certain sadness as women were so often treated with such disdain and with attitudes of ownership, and one has to wonder how Hera, the Goddess, must have railed against these attitudes among Greek men. Along with Hera, her altar includes an image of Mother Earth, who I do not see as an aspect of Hera, but who also represents here the chthonic aspects of Hera. Aspects that are often connected to death, war, and the defense of self at the expense of another and for another, as warriors did in the defense of their cities.
When I invoke Hera, however, it is usually as Queen of Heaven, and this is an aspect that requires more than the usual simplicity of an incense burning. It requires a certain humbling of the self. It requires putting oneself in a mindset that one might when meeting the Queen of England, except this is a Goddess, and while the Queen of England is just a human being like you and me, this is the Queen of Olympus, the Sky Queen, a deity. It causes awe in me to think of her, and this awe translates to a feeling that my practice is simply insufficient to her majesty.
Prayer, the burning of incense, the making of simple offering at the altars of the Gods, etc. are the core of all my practices. The blessing of my home with incense smoke while invoking the Gods is something I do when I am preparing to celebrate any festival through fasting or making special offerings, etc.
Putting my ideas on Hera into practice was something I had already done. Placing her altar at the entry way to my home, invoking my idea of her as a protecting goddess and offering to her there in that aspect. Making a statue of Hebe my representation of her, for I see Hebe as an aspect of Hera that represents the goddess' maiden aspect, an aspect that to me represents potential, both lost and to be fulfilled, and in reference to the ancient ways, an aspect that represents a certain sadness as women were so often treated with such disdain and with attitudes of ownership, and one has to wonder how Hera, the Goddess, must have railed against these attitudes among Greek men. Along with Hera, her altar includes an image of Mother Earth, who I do not see as an aspect of Hera, but who also represents here the chthonic aspects of Hera. Aspects that are often connected to death, war, and the defense of self at the expense of another and for another, as warriors did in the defense of their cities.
When I invoke Hera, however, it is usually as Queen of Heaven, and this is an aspect that requires more than the usual simplicity of an incense burning. It requires a certain humbling of the self. It requires putting oneself in a mindset that one might when meeting the Queen of England, except this is a Goddess, and while the Queen of England is just a human being like you and me, this is the Queen of Olympus, the Sky Queen, a deity. It causes awe in me to think of her, and this awe translates to a feeling that my practice is simply insufficient to her majesty.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Interlude...
I have recently had the experience of having to defend my faith. I normally don't care about doing such things, no faith in the world is any more or less ridiculous than any other. All religions put faith in things that seem, from a logical perspective, to be flawed or even comically stupid, and ours is no different, but it often strikes me as comical or stupid to hear Christians speak about other religions and the very points they use to bash another religion are seen in abundance in their own.
I was having a conversation with a friend and the subject of a fast I was undergoing came into the conversation. I said that I was doing the fast for several reasons, and when pushed about those reasons I said that part of it was to honor the Gods. It was like I had told her I had murdered a child.
What Gods? She asked. I told her. Why do you pray to idols? She asked. Why do you pray to a cross? I asked. What kind of God would demand that you starve yourself? She asked. What kind of God would demand that you not work on Saturdays and not eat meat on Fridays?
That sort of took the air out of the sails for a second, and then showing a level of knowledge about Greek Myths that I wasn't expecting, she said that she thought it was silly that I believed in mythical Gods that had children with mortal women and that had stories like Jason and Hercules.
Herakles, I corrected, and then told her that she was being a little hypocritical. After all, God impregnated Mary, Samson destroyed a temple, and Moses parted a sea. If you want to look at the religions of others and find fault, try looking at your own first to make sure you aren't just as "silly" as they are in your own beliefs.
Truth is that we all do it, we all find certain aspects of other's religious beliefs to be silly or ridiculous, but unlike Christians, who en mass might be considered a threat to the religious rights of non-Christians, I believe whole heartedly in the idea that we are all free to practice whatever religions we want or feel the need to follow.
I was having a conversation with a friend and the subject of a fast I was undergoing came into the conversation. I said that I was doing the fast for several reasons, and when pushed about those reasons I said that part of it was to honor the Gods. It was like I had told her I had murdered a child.
What Gods? She asked. I told her. Why do you pray to idols? She asked. Why do you pray to a cross? I asked. What kind of God would demand that you starve yourself? She asked. What kind of God would demand that you not work on Saturdays and not eat meat on Fridays?
That sort of took the air out of the sails for a second, and then showing a level of knowledge about Greek Myths that I wasn't expecting, she said that she thought it was silly that I believed in mythical Gods that had children with mortal women and that had stories like Jason and Hercules.
Herakles, I corrected, and then told her that she was being a little hypocritical. After all, God impregnated Mary, Samson destroyed a temple, and Moses parted a sea. If you want to look at the religions of others and find fault, try looking at your own first to make sure you aren't just as "silly" as they are in your own beliefs.
Truth is that we all do it, we all find certain aspects of other's religious beliefs to be silly or ridiculous, but unlike Christians, who en mass might be considered a threat to the religious rights of non-Christians, I believe whole heartedly in the idea that we are all free to practice whatever religions we want or feel the need to follow.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Hera, protector.
In my little Mantra to Hera, the penultimate line reads:
Κυρία προστάτισσα - Kyria prostatisa
This means Lady Protector, and in the mythos there is clear evidence of Hera as a Polias and Poliouchos type goddess the same way as Athena. These aspects are of the goddess in question as a protector of cities, protector of the people, and protector of the institutions of the people. But as is clear in the myths of Jason, for example, Hera is also a protector of Heroes, and by extension of humanity.
As persecutor of Herakles she is instrumental in the creation of his mythos, his legend, his fame into history. In a very real way she makes him immortal by making him the most famous of all the heroes of Greece even while she is said to detest him. In many ways, she purposely sets out to set him up as a hero for the people to admire, to worship, to adore and in so doing she sets about setting up a means for man to aspire to greater things.
In my home, when you walk in, the first thing you see is an altar to Hera and Gaia which has a statue of Hebe, who I see as the youthful aspect of Hera herself, and as cupbearer, as an aspect of protection and purity. I set it up there a long time ago, maybe as much as eight years ago, and always found that it was exactly perfect. That in a way, perhaps symbolically, Hera was there to protect my home, and as I have grown in my understanding of the Gods, and of Hera, it turns out I was right to place her altar there.
Σας ευχαριστώ, η κυρία μου!
Κυρία προστάτισσα - Kyria prostatisa
This means Lady Protector, and in the mythos there is clear evidence of Hera as a Polias and Poliouchos type goddess the same way as Athena. These aspects are of the goddess in question as a protector of cities, protector of the people, and protector of the institutions of the people. But as is clear in the myths of Jason, for example, Hera is also a protector of Heroes, and by extension of humanity.
As persecutor of Herakles she is instrumental in the creation of his mythos, his legend, his fame into history. In a very real way she makes him immortal by making him the most famous of all the heroes of Greece even while she is said to detest him. In many ways, she purposely sets out to set him up as a hero for the people to admire, to worship, to adore and in so doing she sets about setting up a means for man to aspire to greater things.
In my home, when you walk in, the first thing you see is an altar to Hera and Gaia which has a statue of Hebe, who I see as the youthful aspect of Hera herself, and as cupbearer, as an aspect of protection and purity. I set it up there a long time ago, maybe as much as eight years ago, and always found that it was exactly perfect. That in a way, perhaps symbolically, Hera was there to protect my home, and as I have grown in my understanding of the Gods, and of Hera, it turns out I was right to place her altar there.
Σας ευχαριστώ, η κυρία μου!
Monday, May 12, 2008
On the nature of Hera, continued... Conclusions and future ideas...
So, as I have sought to get closer to Hera I have been rebuffed. Hera has reminded me that she is not my friend, not my lover, not my mother. She is Queen of Heaven and the boundaries between us are rather absolute. Not that I cannot seek her out, mind you, but that I need to start showing some more proper respect toward her position and power. That I need to try to see the boundaries she has set for us and respectfully approach them rather than trample up to them like a petulant child.
I have learned to that Hera is not done with me, that while my understanding of her role has been somewhat clarified, my understanding of her underlying nature has not, and until I come to a better understanding of that nature I must continue my meditations on what she means to me and why.
Hera is not like Athena, who moves like wind through the world, touching and affecting almost everything she comes across in an almost playful yet always purposeful way. Hera is more like the wall that prevents the wind from toppling you. She is protector and avenger of wrongs because she sets the very boundaries that are a "sin" to trespass upon. Hers is a power beyond my current ability to comprehend, perhaps because I tread lightly when it comes to the Gods, or because I fear that running too far afield of the accepted forms will label me something I am not, an eclectic.
But if I am to approach the limits of my own understanding of Hera, I must also seek to push a little on the boundaries I perceive between myself and the Gods. After all, even with the enormous walls between us, between the mortal and the divine, we are all part of the same cosmos. We are all part of the whole that makes the cosmos run, and that being the case, perhaps I can claim a certain right to know. A certain right to understand even as I seek to understand the limits of that knowledge, for knowing the limits is in itself a form of knowledge.
Apollo tells us to know ourselves. Hera tells us to know our limits. Athena tells us to fight up to those limits even as Dionysos tells us to rage with our power, our grace, and our very beings against the status quo. Contradictions? I don't think so...
So, come the future, I must allow myself to perceive her with a certain eye toward what she wants me to see rather than what I want to see in her.
I have learned to that Hera is not done with me, that while my understanding of her role has been somewhat clarified, my understanding of her underlying nature has not, and until I come to a better understanding of that nature I must continue my meditations on what she means to me and why.
Hera is not like Athena, who moves like wind through the world, touching and affecting almost everything she comes across in an almost playful yet always purposeful way. Hera is more like the wall that prevents the wind from toppling you. She is protector and avenger of wrongs because she sets the very boundaries that are a "sin" to trespass upon. Hers is a power beyond my current ability to comprehend, perhaps because I tread lightly when it comes to the Gods, or because I fear that running too far afield of the accepted forms will label me something I am not, an eclectic.
But if I am to approach the limits of my own understanding of Hera, I must also seek to push a little on the boundaries I perceive between myself and the Gods. After all, even with the enormous walls between us, between the mortal and the divine, we are all part of the same cosmos. We are all part of the whole that makes the cosmos run, and that being the case, perhaps I can claim a certain right to know. A certain right to understand even as I seek to understand the limits of that knowledge, for knowing the limits is in itself a form of knowledge.
Apollo tells us to know ourselves. Hera tells us to know our limits. Athena tells us to fight up to those limits even as Dionysos tells us to rage with our power, our grace, and our very beings against the status quo. Contradictions? I don't think so...
So, come the future, I must allow myself to perceive her with a certain eye toward what she wants me to see rather than what I want to see in her.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
On the nature of Hera, continued... Her Avatars?
But Hera is the Queen of Gods. Her position in the divine hierarchy places her at the pinnacle of the cosmic curve. That, to me at least, says that unlike other divinities, her role in the balance between mortality and immortality is one best viewed from a distance. Unlike Zeus, whose strong chthonic aspects require him to have become Herakles, we see in that myth that at no time does Hera lower herself to becoming less than what she is, a powerful divinity.
Hera does not, under any circumstances, seem to become one with the mortal, rather she becomes part of how the mortal world works by imposing order upon it, an order that may require divinity to learn from it's own limitations in understanding. She opens the door between the mortal and the immortal, between the divine and the mundane, and Gods have walked through it to our world, to our level of existence, but she is not one of them.
When I speak of an avatar, I should make it clear that I do not mean epiphanies, but rather true mortal incarnations of a divinity in the mortal world. All Gods have epiphanies present in the world. These are moments in man's experience when we have experienced the Gods directly in some way. The sun as an epiphany of Helios, the moon as an epiphany of Selene, etc., and these are all things that have independent existence. The moon is not literally Selene, but it represents her. An aspect is different as well as it is a representation of a specific aspect of the nature of a deity. Hebe, as an aspect of Hera, represents the virginal and youthful aspect of her nature.
Hera is said to appear as mortals in the world, but unlike other deities, she is never said to bear the child of a mortal. She bears children on her own, and with Zeus, but never with a mortal.
To be continued...
PS: I should point out that I consider any child of a God to be a potential aspect of that God, and any mortal child born of a union between mortal and immortal to be a potential avatar of the divine figure.
Hera does not, under any circumstances, seem to become one with the mortal, rather she becomes part of how the mortal world works by imposing order upon it, an order that may require divinity to learn from it's own limitations in understanding. She opens the door between the mortal and the immortal, between the divine and the mundane, and Gods have walked through it to our world, to our level of existence, but she is not one of them.
When I speak of an avatar, I should make it clear that I do not mean epiphanies, but rather true mortal incarnations of a divinity in the mortal world. All Gods have epiphanies present in the world. These are moments in man's experience when we have experienced the Gods directly in some way. The sun as an epiphany of Helios, the moon as an epiphany of Selene, etc., and these are all things that have independent existence. The moon is not literally Selene, but it represents her. An aspect is different as well as it is a representation of a specific aspect of the nature of a deity. Hebe, as an aspect of Hera, represents the virginal and youthful aspect of her nature.
Hera is said to appear as mortals in the world, but unlike other deities, she is never said to bear the child of a mortal. She bears children on her own, and with Zeus, but never with a mortal.
To be continued...
PS: I should point out that I consider any child of a God to be a potential aspect of that God, and any mortal child born of a union between mortal and immortal to be a potential avatar of the divine figure.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
On the nature of Hera, continued... Life and Death
I said that the one boundary that Hera seems not all that concerned with was that between life and death. That there are others, like Hermes, Hekate, and our much beloved Persephone who are much more interested in that particular boundary. But the Gods all have an interest in this boundary in some way or another, and I think that the small interest in it that Hera seems to show is one between mortality and immortality, rather than life and death.
We already spoke of Herakles, whose name means Hera's Glory, and how in the mythos this great Hero of the Argolid became one of the immortals, an honor only paid him in all the mythos. Other beings in the mythos are spared death, set into the heavens as stars, made servants of the Gods on Olympus, etc., but none but Herakles is ever truly made a God. None but Herakles has the very mortality burned from his body and made from mortal to God.
Dionysos, for example, is never truly born to a mortal woman. He is, rather, born to a divine figure, be it Persephone, as some myths imply, or from the thigh of Zeus. Thus his form is truly divine right from the beginning.
In the myth, Hera seems to not just be torturing Herakles, but guiding him toward something. She is preparing him to ascend the bonds of mortality and become an immortal. She is preparing to raise him from the pit to the heavens.
My personal belief about this myth is this, that it represents a transitional period in the divine sphere. I think that the myth of Herakles represents a shift in the cosmic order, as the will and work of the Gods became more and more ordered and the shift in the cosmic fabric became more delineated between the mortal and the immortal. That lines became drawn and the Gods, traversing these lines, went forth into the cosmos and forged the links between these parts of the cosmos, and it is my belief that Hera and Zeus were instrumental in the firming up of the lines between the highest and the lowest levels of the cosmos.
Herakles must live, as a mortal, in order to transcend that line between mortal and immortal, he must establish that link between the two worlds so that the Gods themselves can traverse it. Being a myth, of course, it is made into a myth within the scope of humanity's world, and within that mythic system, we are lead to another boundary, that between life, death, and the immortal.
Unlike mortals, the Gods are not directly linked to death. They do not die. They cannot die. They must have little conception of death in any way that you or I could ever relate to, but they are aware of it. They understand its need and purpose in ways you or I cannot relate to either. We human beings, however, have an innate understanding of death because it is part of us. Every moment of every day we are dying. Parts of us are decaying and being rebuilt. Molecule by molecule we are in a constant state of flux, always changing, always being reborn, and, if you ask me, the Gods needed to understand this.
In order to understand that which was part of them, us, the Gods became us. They incarnated, some of them did, as mortal forms. Whether those forms were human or not is up for speculation, but I do think they did this and, perhaps, will do so again. The Hindu concept of the avatar, the hero of the Greeks, the Christos of the Christians, all point to the possibility...
To be continued...
We already spoke of Herakles, whose name means Hera's Glory, and how in the mythos this great Hero of the Argolid became one of the immortals, an honor only paid him in all the mythos. Other beings in the mythos are spared death, set into the heavens as stars, made servants of the Gods on Olympus, etc., but none but Herakles is ever truly made a God. None but Herakles has the very mortality burned from his body and made from mortal to God.
Dionysos, for example, is never truly born to a mortal woman. He is, rather, born to a divine figure, be it Persephone, as some myths imply, or from the thigh of Zeus. Thus his form is truly divine right from the beginning.
In the myth, Hera seems to not just be torturing Herakles, but guiding him toward something. She is preparing him to ascend the bonds of mortality and become an immortal. She is preparing to raise him from the pit to the heavens.
My personal belief about this myth is this, that it represents a transitional period in the divine sphere. I think that the myth of Herakles represents a shift in the cosmic order, as the will and work of the Gods became more and more ordered and the shift in the cosmic fabric became more delineated between the mortal and the immortal. That lines became drawn and the Gods, traversing these lines, went forth into the cosmos and forged the links between these parts of the cosmos, and it is my belief that Hera and Zeus were instrumental in the firming up of the lines between the highest and the lowest levels of the cosmos.
Herakles must live, as a mortal, in order to transcend that line between mortal and immortal, he must establish that link between the two worlds so that the Gods themselves can traverse it. Being a myth, of course, it is made into a myth within the scope of humanity's world, and within that mythic system, we are lead to another boundary, that between life, death, and the immortal.
Unlike mortals, the Gods are not directly linked to death. They do not die. They cannot die. They must have little conception of death in any way that you or I could ever relate to, but they are aware of it. They understand its need and purpose in ways you or I cannot relate to either. We human beings, however, have an innate understanding of death because it is part of us. Every moment of every day we are dying. Parts of us are decaying and being rebuilt. Molecule by molecule we are in a constant state of flux, always changing, always being reborn, and, if you ask me, the Gods needed to understand this.
In order to understand that which was part of them, us, the Gods became us. They incarnated, some of them did, as mortal forms. Whether those forms were human or not is up for speculation, but I do think they did this and, perhaps, will do so again. The Hindu concept of the avatar, the hero of the Greeks, the Christos of the Christians, all point to the possibility...
To be continued...
Monday, May 5, 2008
On the nature of Hera, continued... Boundaries
So, as Queen, or Empress, Hera establishes boundaries. Boundaries of law and order. Boundaries that both regiment how we act and feel toward each other and also guide us. When we speak of gentile behavior, of treating each other with the respect due our positions, we are talking about boundaries set down by Hera, because she, of all the Goddesses in our Mythos, seems to be the one that fights the hardest, most fiercely, and sometimes most viciously, to have her own position respected. She is Queen of Gods and Men, and you had better not forget that.
Think about the positions of heroes like Herakles and Perseus, both of whom hail from the Argolid. Perseus was destined to be a king in the Argolid, but Herakles was destined to rule the Argolid almost like a God. Zeus planted his seed in Alkmene, who was also a grand daughter of Perseus (some three or four generations removed) and promised that the first boy child born of the family of Perseus would rule over the lands. To Hera this was unconscionable, Zeus was attempting to usurp her influence in this land, the Argolid, which had for a long time seen her as the most potent of all forces, their Queen, their Great Goddess, and in doing so bring her low before her people. Zeus was attempting to usurp, if you will, the power of the feminine in a land founded by the descendants of his own seed.
This, to me, signifies in the mythos a time when the more matriarchal or matrilinear culture of the area was giving way to the overtly, and often viciously, patriarchal culture that would arise in Greece.
Now, Hera decided that she would hold Zeus to his divine promise, for he could do no less, and certainly not before her, and dispatched Eilytheia to prevent the birth of Alkmene's children, causing instead that a child of an uncle in the family of Perseus to be born first, and this child was Eurystheus, the King who would put Herakles through his labors.
Step one of her imposition of her place is set in motion, and then step two would follow as Herakles grew to vibrant manhood, married and had children. Hera placed in him a madness, and he murdered his own wife ad children, a crime for which he would seek absolution that could only be given through his virtual enslavement to Eurystheus.
Through his trials, Herakles would suffer, and it is through this suffering that Hera's place is set in stone among the people of the Argolid. She may not be pleasant to deal with, or one to deal with lightly, but she will set you in your place, and perhaps, in the end, allow you a transcendence. For at the end of his trials, when his life is at an end, Herakles would find his mortality burned from him in pain and despair and his immortal soul, which he gets from his father, and enters the company of the Gods and marries the goddess Hebe, who is, in most ways, just the young aspect of Hera herself (Herakles being an aspect of Zeus, one could say).
Hera sets both Zeus and Herakles in their places. Zeus should have known not to try to usurp the power of Hera among her own people. Herakles was a mortal, though a great hero, and never should a man attempt to think himself a god, even the son of Zeus (this is something Zeus boasts, not Herakles himself) and the boundaries between God and Man are to be respected, but so are the boundaries between man and woman, faher and son, mother and daughter, etc.
The one boundary that Hera does not seem overly concerned with is that between Life and Death, and that is likely a boundary set forth by another.
To be continued...
Think about the positions of heroes like Herakles and Perseus, both of whom hail from the Argolid. Perseus was destined to be a king in the Argolid, but Herakles was destined to rule the Argolid almost like a God. Zeus planted his seed in Alkmene, who was also a grand daughter of Perseus (some three or four generations removed) and promised that the first boy child born of the family of Perseus would rule over the lands. To Hera this was unconscionable, Zeus was attempting to usurp her influence in this land, the Argolid, which had for a long time seen her as the most potent of all forces, their Queen, their Great Goddess, and in doing so bring her low before her people. Zeus was attempting to usurp, if you will, the power of the feminine in a land founded by the descendants of his own seed.
This, to me, signifies in the mythos a time when the more matriarchal or matrilinear culture of the area was giving way to the overtly, and often viciously, patriarchal culture that would arise in Greece.
Now, Hera decided that she would hold Zeus to his divine promise, for he could do no less, and certainly not before her, and dispatched Eilytheia to prevent the birth of Alkmene's children, causing instead that a child of an uncle in the family of Perseus to be born first, and this child was Eurystheus, the King who would put Herakles through his labors.
Step one of her imposition of her place is set in motion, and then step two would follow as Herakles grew to vibrant manhood, married and had children. Hera placed in him a madness, and he murdered his own wife ad children, a crime for which he would seek absolution that could only be given through his virtual enslavement to Eurystheus.
Through his trials, Herakles would suffer, and it is through this suffering that Hera's place is set in stone among the people of the Argolid. She may not be pleasant to deal with, or one to deal with lightly, but she will set you in your place, and perhaps, in the end, allow you a transcendence. For at the end of his trials, when his life is at an end, Herakles would find his mortality burned from him in pain and despair and his immortal soul, which he gets from his father, and enters the company of the Gods and marries the goddess Hebe, who is, in most ways, just the young aspect of Hera herself (Herakles being an aspect of Zeus, one could say).
Hera sets both Zeus and Herakles in their places. Zeus should have known not to try to usurp the power of Hera among her own people. Herakles was a mortal, though a great hero, and never should a man attempt to think himself a god, even the son of Zeus (this is something Zeus boasts, not Herakles himself) and the boundaries between God and Man are to be respected, but so are the boundaries between man and woman, faher and son, mother and daughter, etc.
The one boundary that Hera does not seem overly concerned with is that between Life and Death, and that is likely a boundary set forth by another.
To be continued...
On the nature of Hera, continued...
So, now that you have a slight idea of my conception of Hera as a force for balance between the genders, between opposing forces that are more alike than we like to think, and as a force capable of enforcing that balance. However, it should also be implied by what I say that the Gods do not force us to maintain their desires of will in our world. Their power over nature itself is absolute, but their power over our will is not. They do not force us to do as they wish, they want us to want to do it for ourselves.
In my estimation, and perhaps as a way to help me connect to Hera, I have come to the conclusion that the best way to relate to Hera is on a somewhat impersonal one. Not as a friend or co-worker, but as an Empress of Queen. Why, you may ask is this? Well, because unlike some deities whose influence always seems so close, accessible, and personal, hers always seems to be a bit far away. Like Apollo, she seems to be more about watching and judging and guiding you lightly in the right direction rather than moving you to action, to passion, to madness.
Not that Hera is not a Goddess who can drive you to the brink, I think the mythos tells us that clearly enough, but if we really think about that mythos, is it really that she hates Perseus or Herakles or any of the other children of Zeus, or is it that those children of Zeus turn their eye away from her? Do they refuse to acknowledge her power? Do they refuse, willfully, to acknowledge the rights and power of women?
Hera, a Goddess, a feminine power, must stand up for her power in a world in which the term "god" is almost synonymous with masculinity. Where God is seen not as a potentially androgynous being, but as a male. As a male myself, I must admit to a certain bias toward my own gender in many things, which I suppose is perfectly natural, but as a modern man, a gay man, and a man who has experienced life as a minority in America, I cannot allow those biases to guide the way I treat women. I, personally, think this is why the pagan movement in America, and perhaps the world, are so much more likely to draw men who are liberal of mind when it comes to gender, more open to alternate ways of seeing gender and sexuality, and men who have an ability to respect the feminine power inherent in the world around us as well as the tumultuous masculine powers of sea and sky.
Hera seems to me like an Empress who rules, who creates a system of laws and rules that must be obeyed, but who does not really micromanage the Empire. She has her pet peeves, she requires obedience to certain rules and will punish those who do not follow them, but in general it is up to us to establish the ways in which we regulate ourselves, and to do so we must find her and establish some kind of rapport with her.
to be continued...
In my estimation, and perhaps as a way to help me connect to Hera, I have come to the conclusion that the best way to relate to Hera is on a somewhat impersonal one. Not as a friend or co-worker, but as an Empress of Queen. Why, you may ask is this? Well, because unlike some deities whose influence always seems so close, accessible, and personal, hers always seems to be a bit far away. Like Apollo, she seems to be more about watching and judging and guiding you lightly in the right direction rather than moving you to action, to passion, to madness.
Not that Hera is not a Goddess who can drive you to the brink, I think the mythos tells us that clearly enough, but if we really think about that mythos, is it really that she hates Perseus or Herakles or any of the other children of Zeus, or is it that those children of Zeus turn their eye away from her? Do they refuse to acknowledge her power? Do they refuse, willfully, to acknowledge the rights and power of women?
Hera, a Goddess, a feminine power, must stand up for her power in a world in which the term "god" is almost synonymous with masculinity. Where God is seen not as a potentially androgynous being, but as a male. As a male myself, I must admit to a certain bias toward my own gender in many things, which I suppose is perfectly natural, but as a modern man, a gay man, and a man who has experienced life as a minority in America, I cannot allow those biases to guide the way I treat women. I, personally, think this is why the pagan movement in America, and perhaps the world, are so much more likely to draw men who are liberal of mind when it comes to gender, more open to alternate ways of seeing gender and sexuality, and men who have an ability to respect the feminine power inherent in the world around us as well as the tumultuous masculine powers of sea and sky.
Hera seems to me like an Empress who rules, who creates a system of laws and rules that must be obeyed, but who does not really micromanage the Empire. She has her pet peeves, she requires obedience to certain rules and will punish those who do not follow them, but in general it is up to us to establish the ways in which we regulate ourselves, and to do so we must find her and establish some kind of rapport with her.
to be continued...
Sunday, May 4, 2008
On the nature of Hera
OK, so Hera is a goddess. She, that eternal spirit we call Hera, is a deity. Her divine nature is not something you or I could ever truly comprehend in its totality. But what about the nature of the goddess we worship as Hera is understandable. How much of herself has she allowed us to see in manifestation and epiphany.
For starters, Hera is seen in the mythos of the Hellenized world in several forms. As daughter of Kronos and Rhea, as a young goddess in love, as a wife, queen, and enraged and vengeful woman. These manifestations of our Queen are as much influenced by the way the ancients saw themselves, and women, as it is a reflection of the nature of the goddess revealed to them through centuries and even millennia of worship and contemplation.
In modern times we tend to look at the various forms the goddess takes in the mythos as aspects of her. We tend to see them as representations of a sublime nature that is interpretive. The youthful Hera is seen as virgin, and thus pure, the wife as dutiful, and thus devout, and the queenly avenger of wrongs as powerful, if frightening in her intensity. She can be seen, by modern neo-pgan parlance, as a virgin, mother, crone archetype, but one with a variation that makes her a little different from the more often invoked Hekate or Artemis.
I bring this up because we do not live in a world unto ourselves, and while I tend to think of our Hellenic religion as being fairly self contained, it is seldom if ever that, and the various ways in which our gods are seen by people outside our traditions can force us to take closer looks at our own ways of seeing them.
So, I am going to try to explain how I see the nature of Hera, and likely fail, as the concepts in my head are so often beyond my own ability to convey them that it makes me a bit angry.
First, a goddess or god is not a piece of statuary. Not a super-human being. Not a superhero or just stronger than us. A deity is an eternal being, one of several, that manifests in our world in a vast variety of forms. When you think of a God, think of a powerful person in your community. You know them from their speeches, their public appearances, and what others have to say about them, but do you really know that person?
Second, the manifestations of the Gods are open to interpretation. Imagine that same powerful person in your community and then picture that you have only allowed the words of others to form your opinion of them. Your view of him or her is likely skewed and your appreciation of their nature is misinformed and therefore only partly correct.
Third, the Gods are not interested in our petty quibbles. They are not there to give us lottery numbers or luck or even heal us from our ills, but they do, by their presence in the world and through our willingness to reach out to them, inspire us to help ourselves. We gather strength from our willingness to touch them, to meditate on them, and to let them in to our hearts. This desire and ability to reach out to powers beyond ourselves for help, even if it is just emotional support, is part of how we have always helped ourselves.
Fourth, the hierarchy of the Gods is one that is both reflective of our own society and nature (we are a tribal kind of species) and reflective of some kind of divine order that is both hierarchical and egalitarian at the same time. I think the idea that Zeus and Hera are King and Queen of Olympus is a reflection of a set of positions in the divine realm that is agreed upon, not taken by force. Zeus and Hera are "King and Queen of Heaven" because the divine realm requires them to be, because they are chosen to be by the totality of that realm, not strictly because of their nature. In other words, Zeus is King because he is worthy of that kingship, not because he is supposed to be king.
Fifth, Hera, as Queen of Heaven, is perhaps the most powerful force in human affairs. Humanity requires the kind of influence she offers. Requires the kind of loyalty to oaths and respect that Hera demands between the genders. It is a sad thing that man has, for so long, denied this and that only now do we see strides to attain the kind of equality of power and will that the Queen of Heaven has called on us to bring to the fore.
So, my interpretation of Hera is that as a force in human affairs, she has long demanded that the wives of the world stand up and take their rightful place as the equals of their husbands, not their property, and that man has long demeaned and denied this in the myths they told of her.
To be continued...
For starters, Hera is seen in the mythos of the Hellenized world in several forms. As daughter of Kronos and Rhea, as a young goddess in love, as a wife, queen, and enraged and vengeful woman. These manifestations of our Queen are as much influenced by the way the ancients saw themselves, and women, as it is a reflection of the nature of the goddess revealed to them through centuries and even millennia of worship and contemplation.
In modern times we tend to look at the various forms the goddess takes in the mythos as aspects of her. We tend to see them as representations of a sublime nature that is interpretive. The youthful Hera is seen as virgin, and thus pure, the wife as dutiful, and thus devout, and the queenly avenger of wrongs as powerful, if frightening in her intensity. She can be seen, by modern neo-pgan parlance, as a virgin, mother, crone archetype, but one with a variation that makes her a little different from the more often invoked Hekate or Artemis.
I bring this up because we do not live in a world unto ourselves, and while I tend to think of our Hellenic religion as being fairly self contained, it is seldom if ever that, and the various ways in which our gods are seen by people outside our traditions can force us to take closer looks at our own ways of seeing them.
So, I am going to try to explain how I see the nature of Hera, and likely fail, as the concepts in my head are so often beyond my own ability to convey them that it makes me a bit angry.
First, a goddess or god is not a piece of statuary. Not a super-human being. Not a superhero or just stronger than us. A deity is an eternal being, one of several, that manifests in our world in a vast variety of forms. When you think of a God, think of a powerful person in your community. You know them from their speeches, their public appearances, and what others have to say about them, but do you really know that person?
Second, the manifestations of the Gods are open to interpretation. Imagine that same powerful person in your community and then picture that you have only allowed the words of others to form your opinion of them. Your view of him or her is likely skewed and your appreciation of their nature is misinformed and therefore only partly correct.
Third, the Gods are not interested in our petty quibbles. They are not there to give us lottery numbers or luck or even heal us from our ills, but they do, by their presence in the world and through our willingness to reach out to them, inspire us to help ourselves. We gather strength from our willingness to touch them, to meditate on them, and to let them in to our hearts. This desire and ability to reach out to powers beyond ourselves for help, even if it is just emotional support, is part of how we have always helped ourselves.
Fourth, the hierarchy of the Gods is one that is both reflective of our own society and nature (we are a tribal kind of species) and reflective of some kind of divine order that is both hierarchical and egalitarian at the same time. I think the idea that Zeus and Hera are King and Queen of Olympus is a reflection of a set of positions in the divine realm that is agreed upon, not taken by force. Zeus and Hera are "King and Queen of Heaven" because the divine realm requires them to be, because they are chosen to be by the totality of that realm, not strictly because of their nature. In other words, Zeus is King because he is worthy of that kingship, not because he is supposed to be king.
Fifth, Hera, as Queen of Heaven, is perhaps the most powerful force in human affairs. Humanity requires the kind of influence she offers. Requires the kind of loyalty to oaths and respect that Hera demands between the genders. It is a sad thing that man has, for so long, denied this and that only now do we see strides to attain the kind of equality of power and will that the Queen of Heaven has called on us to bring to the fore.
So, my interpretation of Hera is that as a force in human affairs, she has long demanded that the wives of the world stand up and take their rightful place as the equals of their husbands, not their property, and that man has long demeaned and denied this in the myths they told of her.
To be continued...
Thank You
I just spent a couple days in hospital. I went in to the ER where I was treated for pneumonia and sent home. I was getting better until Tuesday, when I awoke unable to breathe, panicked, and hypoxic. I was lucky to have a friend who could rush me down, for I could not have walked the 2 blocks to the ER again.
This time I was quickly treated and further examined and admitted to the hospital. An acute Asthma attack had left my lungs a mess.
I, of course, turn to prayer of various types at times like this. I pray that I pull through, but also for the people I love who are so far away should something befall me, for I do not want them to feel guilt or undue hurt when I am gone.
But once the Gods saw fit to pull me through, with the help of the great nursing staff at Grandview Hospital, of course, I was prompted to write a thank you. The thank you to the nurses will be personal, to the Gods is as follows, hope I am not being too much of a drama queen...
You were there when I called to you.
You kept me from the darkness.
As I crawled to it on my belly.
You heard me when I prayed.
You kept me from despair.
When my mind was crazed with fear.
For this today I thank you.
O Lord of Light.
For this I thank you.
O Queen of Heaven.
When I needed breath, you sent it me.
When I needed solace, you sent it me.
When I needed companionship, you sent it me.
For this I thank you.
O Lord of Light.
Gracious Lord of Healers.
For this I thank you.
O Queen of Heaven.
Regal Lady of Vows.
This time I was quickly treated and further examined and admitted to the hospital. An acute Asthma attack had left my lungs a mess.
I, of course, turn to prayer of various types at times like this. I pray that I pull through, but also for the people I love who are so far away should something befall me, for I do not want them to feel guilt or undue hurt when I am gone.
But once the Gods saw fit to pull me through, with the help of the great nursing staff at Grandview Hospital, of course, I was prompted to write a thank you. The thank you to the nurses will be personal, to the Gods is as follows, hope I am not being too much of a drama queen...
You were there when I called to you.
You kept me from the darkness.
As I crawled to it on my belly.
You heard me when I prayed.
You kept me from despair.
When my mind was crazed with fear.
For this today I thank you.
O Lord of Light.
For this I thank you.
O Queen of Heaven.
When I needed breath, you sent it me.
When I needed solace, you sent it me.
When I needed companionship, you sent it me.
For this I thank you.
O Lord of Light.
Gracious Lord of Healers.
For this I thank you.
O Queen of Heaven.
Regal Lady of Vows.
Friday, April 18, 2008
The Companion of Sorrows
Contemplating the divine spirit of Hera is difficult for me. I am not likely to ever be married, not in this country, and I am not even sure that I believe in the concept of marriage itself. Family, yes, but marriage?
Yet as the Goddess of Marriage, Hera insists on pushing this issue. She is my companion of sorrows, because she constantly reminds me of the darkness that our society pushes on us with its constant and fantastical images of the happy marriage and the ever so happy yet ever so boring middle class.
Sure, part of that is that I have a sense of bitterness about how unfairly those of us who are different are treated. But there is more to it than that, and I think I am beginning to get a grasp on it as I contemplate her.
Hera does not push people to marry. That is not her deal. She demands that we be true to vows. She demands that we, not only as individuals, but as a society, take marriage seriously and treat it with due respect.
But for a person like me, that is not always an apparent possibility. After all, if I do not really accept marriage itself, what possible due respect is it that I am supposed to show it?
As a gay man, I do not even have the right to get married in Ohio, hell, I don't even have the right to take my shirt off in a club, believe it or not.
So, what? What is it I am supposed to be pushing for? Gay marriage, when I don't even believe in straight marriage?
Or is it deeper than that? Does part of me feel a true sense of loss at not being the marrying type? Am I feeling guilt at not settling down? It isn't exactly by choice, for while I do not believe in marriage per se, I do have respect for my relationships. I am no cheater. But I have yet to meet a man who can truly be said to want to be in a truly committed relationship, and I get it, we are men, and men desire the complex and erotic sensations of life, but men can have those and still be committed.
But my sweet companion of sorrows is pushing me in new directions even as I write this. Pushing me into more sorrowful contemplations on the state of my life, on the state of my being, on the state I live in and how its fundamentalist churning have turned it into an ever more inhospitable place for my kind.
Maybe it truly is time for a change. A change of scenery, a change of venue, a change of reality...
Yet as the Goddess of Marriage, Hera insists on pushing this issue. She is my companion of sorrows, because she constantly reminds me of the darkness that our society pushes on us with its constant and fantastical images of the happy marriage and the ever so happy yet ever so boring middle class.
Sure, part of that is that I have a sense of bitterness about how unfairly those of us who are different are treated. But there is more to it than that, and I think I am beginning to get a grasp on it as I contemplate her.
Hera does not push people to marry. That is not her deal. She demands that we be true to vows. She demands that we, not only as individuals, but as a society, take marriage seriously and treat it with due respect.
But for a person like me, that is not always an apparent possibility. After all, if I do not really accept marriage itself, what possible due respect is it that I am supposed to show it?
As a gay man, I do not even have the right to get married in Ohio, hell, I don't even have the right to take my shirt off in a club, believe it or not.
So, what? What is it I am supposed to be pushing for? Gay marriage, when I don't even believe in straight marriage?
Or is it deeper than that? Does part of me feel a true sense of loss at not being the marrying type? Am I feeling guilt at not settling down? It isn't exactly by choice, for while I do not believe in marriage per se, I do have respect for my relationships. I am no cheater. But I have yet to meet a man who can truly be said to want to be in a truly committed relationship, and I get it, we are men, and men desire the complex and erotic sensations of life, but men can have those and still be committed.
But my sweet companion of sorrows is pushing me in new directions even as I write this. Pushing me into more sorrowful contemplations on the state of my life, on the state of my being, on the state I live in and how its fundamentalist churning have turned it into an ever more inhospitable place for my kind.
Maybe it truly is time for a change. A change of scenery, a change of venue, a change of reality...
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Hera, the Companion
I lost a friend this week. Tuesday morning my good friend Hershal died in his sleep. A pleasant enough death, I suppose, and one I hope for myself when my time comes, but this reminder of mortality, of the fragility of life always forces me to take a good long look at the other side of the equation, the immortal, the eternal, and the divine.
Hera has proven something of a companion to me these last couple of days. I have sung her mantra in my head as I worked. It brought to mind that Hera, as Wife, is also a companion. She stands by you when you suffer. Supports you when you weep. Scolds you when you act a fool. And, of course, nags you when you don't listen.
I have been hounded by the many spirits that are associated with her, her many aspects and "angeloi". They remind me to be careful. To not allow myself to continue to fall prey to the demons that haunt me and force me to act, way too often, in a self destructive manner.
Hera has proven something of a companion to me these last couple of days. I have sung her mantra in my head as I worked. It brought to mind that Hera, as Wife, is also a companion. She stands by you when you suffer. Supports you when you weep. Scolds you when you act a fool. And, of course, nags you when you don't listen.
I have been hounded by the many spirits that are associated with her, her many aspects and "angeloi". They remind me to be careful. To not allow myself to continue to fall prey to the demons that haunt me and force me to act, way too often, in a self destructive manner.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Hera, Goddess
Hera, queen of Gods and Men. August Queen of Heaven. Goddess.
Hera, as a Goddess, was worshipped throughout the Greek World. Her place was cemented as Queen of Gods and Men in the mythos as wife of Zeus, great and victorious conqueror. But lo, behold that there is a quality to Hera that is often neglected when considering the reality of her Godhood, and that is that Hera also chose Zeus, he didn't simply stake his claim to her, she chose him.
Hera, it is said, refused Zeus as a mate. He was unworthy. Young, brash, and a little too violent, she saw him as beneath her, though he was, according to the Hesiodic myths, her brother, child of Kronos and Rhea just as she was. In the divine sphere, however, such relationships are essentially irrelevant, and they could often differ from myth to myth.
That Hera would consider Zeus unworthy is telling. Her stature as a divine being must be high indeed, and it is said that after three hundred years of turning down his advances, Hera finally gave in, falling in love with him and his persistence, for he caused a great storm and disguised himself as a disheveled cuckoo and endeared himself to her and then wooed her with great passion and vigor.
Hera, it seems, elevates the status of Zeus, making it possible for him to stand as equal to his brothers when they draw lots to partition the world. He wins the heavens and the earth as his right, and in doing so both he and Hera are elevated further to the roles they would be worshipped under.
But this is myth, and while myth is the means by which mankind relates the essentially unknowable or incomprehensible forms of the divine world, they cannot fully explain the nature of divinity and why it relates to us in such wondrous ways.
Hera is a goddess by her very nature, she is worthy of worship for another reason, and that is her influence of the cosmos and us, in particular. As Queen of heaven, she is part of the divine light. The divine power that enlightens and grants great purpose. Hers is a presence vast and powerful, and one that can be hard to grapple with because the Greeks themselves did great damage to her mythos and character. Unlike the much beloved Athena, the Greek poets seem to have taken great delight in maligning her, almost as if she represented something that threatened them. The power of woman, perhaps, or the need to be wary of their own treatment of woman.
When I meditate on Hera simply as a goddess, I am often surprised that I find myself at a loss for words. Because I do not know her as I should, though I offer her my prayers, and am thus left bereft of a capacity to understand her.
While that is not strange when considering a goddess, such being beings so hard to grasp, it is strange when considering one of the most powerful goddesses of the Greek world, and one who was worshipped throughout the whole land.
Hera, as a Goddess, was worshipped throughout the Greek World. Her place was cemented as Queen of Gods and Men in the mythos as wife of Zeus, great and victorious conqueror. But lo, behold that there is a quality to Hera that is often neglected when considering the reality of her Godhood, and that is that Hera also chose Zeus, he didn't simply stake his claim to her, she chose him.
Hera, it is said, refused Zeus as a mate. He was unworthy. Young, brash, and a little too violent, she saw him as beneath her, though he was, according to the Hesiodic myths, her brother, child of Kronos and Rhea just as she was. In the divine sphere, however, such relationships are essentially irrelevant, and they could often differ from myth to myth.
That Hera would consider Zeus unworthy is telling. Her stature as a divine being must be high indeed, and it is said that after three hundred years of turning down his advances, Hera finally gave in, falling in love with him and his persistence, for he caused a great storm and disguised himself as a disheveled cuckoo and endeared himself to her and then wooed her with great passion and vigor.
Hera, it seems, elevates the status of Zeus, making it possible for him to stand as equal to his brothers when they draw lots to partition the world. He wins the heavens and the earth as his right, and in doing so both he and Hera are elevated further to the roles they would be worshipped under.
But this is myth, and while myth is the means by which mankind relates the essentially unknowable or incomprehensible forms of the divine world, they cannot fully explain the nature of divinity and why it relates to us in such wondrous ways.
Hera is a goddess by her very nature, she is worthy of worship for another reason, and that is her influence of the cosmos and us, in particular. As Queen of heaven, she is part of the divine light. The divine power that enlightens and grants great purpose. Hers is a presence vast and powerful, and one that can be hard to grapple with because the Greeks themselves did great damage to her mythos and character. Unlike the much beloved Athena, the Greek poets seem to have taken great delight in maligning her, almost as if she represented something that threatened them. The power of woman, perhaps, or the need to be wary of their own treatment of woman.
When I meditate on Hera simply as a goddess, I am often surprised that I find myself at a loss for words. Because I do not know her as I should, though I offer her my prayers, and am thus left bereft of a capacity to understand her.
While that is not strange when considering a goddess, such being beings so hard to grasp, it is strange when considering one of the most powerful goddesses of the Greek world, and one who was worshipped throughout the whole land.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Note!
I am thinking I need to put my work on this site, meaning the prayers and little poems I write. Most of it is probably crap, but they seem to elicit positive responses, so I am going to start compiling these soon. Need to think about the best way to organize them and whether I should start a new sub site for them, as there are quite a few of them now...
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Connectedness...
In my search to understand myself through the way I relate to the Gods, I have come to understand that part of me always reacts in the opposite way to the realizations I come to. When I come to the realization that Apollo is a God of answers, I come up with inner questions. When I realize that Hera is a Goddess concerned with connections, I seek distance.
Why is that? Is this something normal to the human psyche? Is it something I have always done, and how has that affected the way I think and feel about the world around me?
It may take me an eternity to discover the reasoning behind this, but recognizing that I do it may help to prevent me from doing it in the future if I can manage to recognize it in the moment rather than in hindsight.
But, I do want to report on the Hera Mantra, which reads as follows:
Κυρία.
Ευλογημένη βασίλισσα.
Κυρία.
Θεϊκή θεά του γάμου.
Κυρία προστάτισσα.
Κυρία εκδικήτρια.
It has really turned out well. The words, when spoken, can take on a variety of rhythmic qualities. In a monotone it really pops, but if as you sing it you allow the words to dictate a rhythm, you will find yourself singing it rather nicely and it really seems to do what many of the Hindu chants do for me when I sing them.
Meditatively, the fact that this mantra has meaning for me, knowing the exact meaning of it as I do, makes the mantra all the more useful in working out my meditation and prayer.
So, now I must consider writing some more.
Why is that? Is this something normal to the human psyche? Is it something I have always done, and how has that affected the way I think and feel about the world around me?
It may take me an eternity to discover the reasoning behind this, but recognizing that I do it may help to prevent me from doing it in the future if I can manage to recognize it in the moment rather than in hindsight.
But, I do want to report on the Hera Mantra, which reads as follows:
Κυρία.
Ευλογημένη βασίλισσα.
Κυρία.
Θεϊκή θεά του γάμου.
Κυρία προστάτισσα.
Κυρία εκδικήτρια.
It has really turned out well. The words, when spoken, can take on a variety of rhythmic qualities. In a monotone it really pops, but if as you sing it you allow the words to dictate a rhythm, you will find yourself singing it rather nicely and it really seems to do what many of the Hindu chants do for me when I sing them.
Meditatively, the fact that this mantra has meaning for me, knowing the exact meaning of it as I do, makes the mantra all the more useful in working out my meditation and prayer.
So, now I must consider writing some more.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Hera and the connectedness of nature...
The blessed Gods are all connected. They act, react, and interact in such a way that they are all unified in a way that allows for the universe as a whole to exist properly. When Hesiod speaks of the creation of the world, he speaks of it in terms of a theogony.
He connects the origin of the Gods with the origin of nature, and later he relates the beginnings of mankind with a creative act by the Gods. In this sense, the universe is not created, but is, rather, the result of the Gods coming into being.
Among these Gods, Ge, Ouranos, Nyx, etc., come into being and as a result of that, the earth, the sky, and space itself were created to accommodate them.
To us, or I should really say me, this is a kind of indicator as to the nature of the Gods. That Ge is the Goddess of the Earth, that Ouranos was a God of the Sky, and Nyx was the Goddess of the Night. But that is a very human way to look at the Gods. That is an anthropomorphic way to view them, as if they take on careers of sorts, occupying offices the way a human being would.
But there is an underlying reality to the mythological views set forth by the ancient writers, and that is that the Gods do seem to take on very distinct interests in a variety of things. In my opinion, every God is capable of anything. Hera can cause a thunderstorm, impart wisdom, or manipulate fire. She is not a super-hero, she is a Goddess, but this Goddess seems to take a special interest in several things.
Civilization, city life, marriage, and the proper conduct of the married. She takes an interest in those things that bind humanity, both in a natural sense, and in the sense of propriety. Hera seems to dislike the breaking of vows, just as Zeus does, and she seems to hate the breaking of social rules and conventions that cause society to be overturned or harmed.
The connectedness of all natural things, however, is not necessarily something we automatically seem to connect with Hera, yet it does seem to be something she takes an interest in. If we look at marriage as the formation of a tribe, as mating, and as the formation of a unit meant to provide protection for the young, we see that marriage is a manifestation of a natural reality.
The marriage we think of as normal, though, may not be what she is truly interested in, but rather the maintaining of the order that allows for the unions that provide this sheltering and protection of the young. Thus, Hera is not interested in whether you have a monogamous marriage, or a polyamorous marriage, or a gay marriage, but rather in whether or not you are an honest member of that unit and maintain it in good faith so that it may, if needed, provide the use for which that unit is formed.
I honestly believe that Hera, as goddess of marriage, as goddess of unions, as goddess of the necessary connections between living beings, is interested in the fidelity of those unions, and by fidelity I don't mean monogamy, but honesty. If two people enter into a monogamous marriage or relationship, Hera is interested in both partners being monogamous because they have, in essence, made a vow to be monogamous. If they enter into a relationship that is not monogamous, she is interested in the honesty with which both, or the multiple partners, relate to each other to keep that relationship healthy.
In this sense, she also calls us out on our promises to friends, to family, to our society, because those too are vows that connect us one to the other. She is also, I think, connected to those connections between man and the natural world around him. Does he treat the natural world with respect, recognizing his place in it and seeking to treat it with proper reverence? And how is the social contract with nature to be kept, and how do we, as followers of the Gods who demand Xenia and Dike, properly convince the followers of a religion that reinforces the destruction of the world to stop and take a good look around?
I pray Hera grant me the wisdom to know how to do this...
He connects the origin of the Gods with the origin of nature, and later he relates the beginnings of mankind with a creative act by the Gods. In this sense, the universe is not created, but is, rather, the result of the Gods coming into being.
Among these Gods, Ge, Ouranos, Nyx, etc., come into being and as a result of that, the earth, the sky, and space itself were created to accommodate them.
To us, or I should really say me, this is a kind of indicator as to the nature of the Gods. That Ge is the Goddess of the Earth, that Ouranos was a God of the Sky, and Nyx was the Goddess of the Night. But that is a very human way to look at the Gods. That is an anthropomorphic way to view them, as if they take on careers of sorts, occupying offices the way a human being would.
But there is an underlying reality to the mythological views set forth by the ancient writers, and that is that the Gods do seem to take on very distinct interests in a variety of things. In my opinion, every God is capable of anything. Hera can cause a thunderstorm, impart wisdom, or manipulate fire. She is not a super-hero, she is a Goddess, but this Goddess seems to take a special interest in several things.
Civilization, city life, marriage, and the proper conduct of the married. She takes an interest in those things that bind humanity, both in a natural sense, and in the sense of propriety. Hera seems to dislike the breaking of vows, just as Zeus does, and she seems to hate the breaking of social rules and conventions that cause society to be overturned or harmed.
The connectedness of all natural things, however, is not necessarily something we automatically seem to connect with Hera, yet it does seem to be something she takes an interest in. If we look at marriage as the formation of a tribe, as mating, and as the formation of a unit meant to provide protection for the young, we see that marriage is a manifestation of a natural reality.
The marriage we think of as normal, though, may not be what she is truly interested in, but rather the maintaining of the order that allows for the unions that provide this sheltering and protection of the young. Thus, Hera is not interested in whether you have a monogamous marriage, or a polyamorous marriage, or a gay marriage, but rather in whether or not you are an honest member of that unit and maintain it in good faith so that it may, if needed, provide the use for which that unit is formed.
I honestly believe that Hera, as goddess of marriage, as goddess of unions, as goddess of the necessary connections between living beings, is interested in the fidelity of those unions, and by fidelity I don't mean monogamy, but honesty. If two people enter into a monogamous marriage or relationship, Hera is interested in both partners being monogamous because they have, in essence, made a vow to be monogamous. If they enter into a relationship that is not monogamous, she is interested in the honesty with which both, or the multiple partners, relate to each other to keep that relationship healthy.
In this sense, she also calls us out on our promises to friends, to family, to our society, because those too are vows that connect us one to the other. She is also, I think, connected to those connections between man and the natural world around him. Does he treat the natural world with respect, recognizing his place in it and seeking to treat it with proper reverence? And how is the social contract with nature to be kept, and how do we, as followers of the Gods who demand Xenia and Dike, properly convince the followers of a religion that reinforces the destruction of the world to stop and take a good look around?
I pray Hera grant me the wisdom to know how to do this...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)