How does one become an Orpheotelest of the Starry Bull tradition?

Written by thehouseofvines

It’s pretty simple, really. First they have to complete Boukoloi (literally “ox-tender”) training (which consists of the material found in Tending the Bull: A tradition of Dionysian devotion, Masks of Dionysos: Getting to Know the God Through His Heroes and Heroines, Hunting Wisdom: A Bacchic Orphic Diviner’s Manual and Spirits of Initiation: A Study of the Toys of Dionysos, as well as a bunch of one-on-one training covering stuff not contained in the books.) They must receive their Toys initiation. And they must develop a strain of the tradition, which they are then responsible for cultivating and bringing others into. I’m condensing a lot into “one-on-one training” but that’s the gist of it. The whole process generally takes two to five years, and there are initiations and empowerments that must be performed in person.

12 thoughts on “How does one become an Orpheotelest of the Starry Bull tradition?”

  1. yeah. and despite what trash on Tumblr might say, you’re not a fucking elder if you’re twenty, or thirty, or even forty. You work and serve your Gods as well as you can and carry the lineage that has been dropped on your head to the best of your ability. Always, as in everything else we do, one strives to build a sustainable tradition, to be a living conduit to the Mysteries of the Gods that will keep one’s tradition vital and alive.

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      1. well, from what I’ve seen, people who are claiming that contribute nothing but discord and the gross chipping away at piety in their traditions. It’s really quite disgusting.

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          1. I’m just surprised anyone would even think that. That’s mathematically impossible! How would they possibly figure they were an elder in anything?

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            1. I generally go with “they’re impious and foolish and want nothing more than to destroy our traditions.” but stupid and full of hubris works too.

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            2. Well, according to the post I saw the person claimed to have been in Hellenic polytheism for a whole five years. On top of that they ran a couple Tumblr groups. Consequently they felt entitled to the term “elder” – which I guess means damn near everyone in the community is an elder. Neato!

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      3. I believe the tmblr people want to set themselves up as experts and have everyone filter through them. It seems that the usual suspects all have question and answer pages, who to read (or not) pages, and pages on various dribs and drabs of religion. It is very confusing.

        I remember studying courses of study for various Christian denominations. They laid everything out from a to z in order. Tumblr folks don’t do that, so learning any Polytheistic faith is difficult there.

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