When we moved here to Eugene Dver and I were both solidly Hellenic in practice and orientation and looking to grow some local community. For the first year or so we put a lot of our energy into outreach, doing more public festivals and hosting a monthly polytheist discussion group. Eugene is a wonderful place and the locals are a trip but our efforts in that regard … didn’t exactly bear a lot of fruit. We met a couple really neat people as a result of that, but mostly it was just freaks who came out. Like the couple who though vaguely pagan (in that way that anyone who is nominally “spiritual” but not Christian can be pagan) clearly did not understand that the meet-up was about polytheism and not polyamory. (Seriously, no. We’re not interested in swinging with you, no matter how many different ways you try and bring it up.) Or the dude who wanted to know if there was a similar group for agnostics. (What would they even have to talk about? Atheists, sure. Devout, sure. But people who don’t know? And their whole identity is based on not knowing? Talk about snooze-worthy conversations. And anyway, why would we be the ones to ask? Clearly we’re not agnostic!) And … even more weird and colorful characters, some of which we did our best to avoid afterwards. (Yeah plastic shaman — I’m talking to you!) Realizing it was a monumental waste of time we shifted gears and focused on our own private stuff. We kept the site up because it was a way for folks to contact us if someone worthwhile should happen to materialize (hey, anything’s possible!) and because it had some really good content up there. But the work both of us are doing has taken us in increasingly odd directions. We are still passionately devoted to all the gods and spirits mentioned there, it’s just that there’s so much else going on in our practice and spiritual lives that we no longer identify with the Hellenic label in any meaningful way. We haven’t updated the site in ages. And, frankly, some of the e-mails we get as a result of it are fucking weird. The domain name renewal has come up. We discussed and mutually agreed that it just doesn’t make any sense to keep the thing going any longer. So we’re clearing away the old to make room for the new and somehow announcing this on Mardis Gras, at the start of the lenten season, seems very appropriate. Letting you guys know now so that if there’s any information you want to scavenge from the site you can do so.
Requiescat in pace.
When is the site going down?
March 10
Got it, thanks.
Damn weird people, right? Just cause you’re not doing the status quo thing they think you’re into everything else.Seriously, though, I <3 Wildivine, particularly the Hermes section where I found 'devotional activities for Hermes' a long while back which was pretty useful to me when I found myself stumped in terms of creative devotional activities. I also found the coin divination with Hermes quite useful and have used it many times since. Anywho, thanks for that. Blessings.
Glad to hear it. Both of us will continue to write about the gods and spirits – we’ll just do it at our respective blogs.
You should ask my housemate sometime about the weird emails he receives. People send him all kinds of stuff — claims that they are Nephilim, picture of themselves naked with what appear to be severed feet in the background, announcements that they are divinely ordained by Odin to curse whomever they want, long and grandiose rambles about what mighty black magicians they are, and requests to come and do unspeakable things to our farm animals. Most of those get deleted unanswered.
Thankfully it’s not usually that bad …
I kind of wish it was, though. Be more amusing that way, at least.
Well that is too bad that you didn’t get the results you were looking for. However I do want to say I find the site very aesthetically pleasing so even if it will die at least if was beautiful while it was here!
Yeah, Dver is massively skilled.
Thanks for the warning! Maybe you could put up a page on the website too for anyone who doesn’t check this blog. I really loved that website, and it is still my favorite Dionysus resource in terms of all the info being in the same place, and the aesthetic is great. Is there a way of still contacting you to discuss polytheistic worship?
Oh, absolutely. Neither of us are stopping what we’re doing – quite the contrary in fact. We’re amping up for some big, intense stuff. It’s just the site wasn’t really reflective of who we are or the direction we’re heading in. Plus I’m always eager to talk about Dionysos or anything relating to religion, so shoot me an e-mail any time.
I remember stumbling upon Wild Divine ages ago; the many articles on Dionysus aided my own worship of him. Thank you and Dver so much for taking the time and energy to write and share with the public so many beautiful pieces on him and how to reverence him!
It’s a shame you didn’t get the outcome from the site that you were looking for; I expect so much more from my beloved PNW! I had no idea Eugene’s polytheistic community fell so short.
Best of luck in your future projects!
So glad to hear that the site proved helpful.
And yeah, it surprised us too. I gather things were a bit different in the past but apparently a couple years before we got here there were some major schisms and witch-wars and that destroyed what community there had been and made folks gun-shy of starting anything else up.
I hope you save most of those articles, Sannion. Wildvine, Neos Alexandria and Sannion’s Sanctuary are how I found out about you and your wonderful words. It helped bring me to Dionysos as well as Hathor. I would like to go back to those articles and re-read and reflect.
Well, most of my stuff can be found in my assorted books and a lot of Dver’s stuff was just posted to her blog. So it’s available.
I will miss Wildivine, it is a beautiful site and the information there has been extremely helpful to me. I’m looking forward to what you and Dver do in the future.
(On a side note – I encountered those exact same people working with a similar group in the SF Bay area. Spooky!)
More sad than spooky. I’m guessing those types can be found in pretty much any pagan community.
Thank you so much for the kind words. We put a lot into it and I’m glad it resonated with folks.
I would like to thank you for wildvine. Before I found Ar nDriaocht Fein, ADF, your website helped me really come to understand the mysteries of working with Dionysus. I am thankful for the resources and material that wildvine did provide. Wildvine helped inspire me when I was first found Dionysus, and really helped inspire me when working with his mysteries. If you wouldn’t mind I would like to leave a few links and resources for anyone who may come across this post and find themselves interested. (Note: some of the suggested reading is graduate level material and any information taken or borrowed should be properly cited. Lets give credit where credit is due.)
Website:
http://www.theoi.com
Suggested Reading:
Greek Religion. by: Burkert, Walter.Blackwell Publishing, Harvard press. 1985
Dionysos Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life. by: Kerenyi, Carl. Princeton Press. 1976.
Cool! And great recs!