Here are a couple articles on the Kalikántzaroi, from Explore Crete and Wikipedia. It is my personal theory that they are the same as the Kόboloi and Goblins mentioned as part of Dionysos’ Retinue.

Here are some artists’ renderings:

Galina posted about the Feast of Three Kings or Epiphany, which she feels should be paganized. In it she mentioned my having relevant sources. Here they are, especially the Pausanias and Pliny.

Julius Firmicus Maternus, De errore profanarum religionum 6.6
There was also another Liber in Thebes, a tyrant famed for his magical powers. Gaining control of the women’s wits by certain potions and charms, thereafter at his own sweet will he bade the frenzied creatures commit atrocious deeds, so that he might have crazed women of noble rank as accomplices of his lusts and crimes. Liber was caught by Lycurgus and hurled into the sea over a nearby cliff which formed an immense precipice with impassable rocks. And this severe punishment was designed to let the mangled corpse, long tossed by the waves of the sea, restore the errant wits of the populace to sanity and sobriety.

Homer, Iliad 6. 135 ff
Lykourgos once drove the fosterers of rapturous Dionysos headlong down the sacred Nyseion hill, and all of them shed and scattered their wands on the ground stricken with an ox-goad by murderous Lykourgos, while Dionysos in terror dived into the salt surf, and Thetis took him to her bosom, frightened, with the strong shivers upon him at the man’s blustering.

Scholiast on this passage: When he was pursued by Lykourgos and took refuge in the sea, Thetis gave Dionysos a kindly welcome, and he gave her the amphora, Hephaistos’ handiwork. She gave it to her son Achilles, so that when he died his bones might be put in it. The story is told by Stesichoros.

Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.26.1-2
Between the market-place and the Menios in the city of Elis is an old theater and a shrine of Dionysos. The image is the work of Praxiteles. Of the Gods the Eleans worship Dionysos with the greatest reverence, and they assert that the God attends their festival, the Thyia. The place where they hold the festival they name the Thyia is about eight stades from the city. Three pots are brought into the building by the priests and set down empty in the presence of the citizens and of any strangers who may chance to be in the country. The doors of the building are sealed by the priests themselves and by any others who may be so inclined. On the morrow they are allowed to examine the seals, and on going into the building they find the pots filled with wine. I did not myself arrive at the time of the festival, but the most respected Elean citizens, and with them strangers also, swore that what I have said is the truth.

Photios, Lexicon s.v. Hyês
‘Rain-bringer’. An epithet of Dionysos, as Kleidemos (says). Since [he says] we perform sacrifices to him during the time when the God makes it rain; but Pherekydes (3 F 90) says that Semele is called ‘rain-bringer’ and that the children of Dionysos are the Hyades . Aristophanes (587, 878 Kock) lists Hyês with foreign Gods.

Pliny, Natural History 2.106; 31.16
It is accredited by the Mucianus who was three times consul that the water flowing from a spring in the temple of Liber Pater on the island of Andros always has the flavor of wine on January 5th: the day is called the God’s Gift Day … If the jars are carried out of sight of the temple the taste turns back to that of water.

Plutarch, Quaestiones Graecae 36 
Why is it that the women of the Eleans, when they sing hymns to Dionysos, call upon him to come to them ‘with the foot of a bull’? The hymn runs as follows:

Come, O hero Dionysos,
to thy holy temple in Elis.
Come, with the Graces,
to thy temple by the sea,
with thy bull’s foot rushing.

Then they chant twice the refrain : ‘O worthy bull.’

Is it because some address the God as ‘kine-born’ or as ‘bull’? Or by ‘ox-foot’ do they mean ‘with thy mighty foot’ even as the Poet used ‘ox-eyed’ to signify ‘large-eyed,’ and ‘bully’ for ‘loudmouthed’?

Or is it rather because the foot of the bull is harmless, but the part that bears horns is harmful, and thus they call upon the God to come in a gentle and painless manner?

Wikipedia s.v. Epiphany
In England, the celebration of the Night before Epiphany, Epiphany Eve, is known as Twelfth Night (The first night of Christmas is December 25–26, and Twelfth Night is January 5–6), and was a traditional time for mumming and the wassail. The yule log was left burning until this day, and the charcoal left was kept until the next Christmas to kindle next year’s yule log, as well as to protect the house from fire and lightning. In the past, Epiphany was also a day for playing practical jokes, similar to April Fool’s Day. Today in England, Twelfth Night is still as popular a day for plays as when Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night was first performed in 1601, and annual celebrations involving the Holly Man are held in London. A traditional dish for Epiphany was Twelfth Cake, a rich, dense, typically English fruitcake. As in Europe, whoever found the baked-in bean was king for a day, but unique to English tradition other items were sometimes included in the cake. Whoever found the clove was the villain, the twig, the fool, and the rag, the tart. Anything spicy or hot, like ginger snaps and spiced ale, was considered proper Twelfth Night fare, recalling the costly spices brought by the Wise Men. Another English Epiphany dessert was the jam tart, but made into a six-point star for the occasion to symbolize the Star of Bethlehem, and thus called Epiphany tart. The discerning English cook sometimes tried to use thirteen different colored jams on the tart on this day for luck, creating a dessert with the appearance of stained glass.

In the German-speaking lands, groups of young people called Sternsinger (star singers) travel from door to door. They are dressed as the three Wise Men, plus the leader carrying a star, usually of painted wood attached to a broom handle. Often these groups are four girls, or two boys and two girls for the benefit of singing their songs in four-part harmony, not necessarily three wise men at all. German Lutherans often note in a lighthearted fashion that the Bible never specifies that the Weisen (Magi) were men, or that there were three. The star singers will be offered treats at the homes they visit, but they also solicit donations for worthy causes, such as efforts to end hunger in Africa, organized jointly by the Catholic and Evangelical-Lutheran churches. As a sign of gratitude, the young people then perform the traditional house blessing, by marking the year over the doorway with chalk. In Roman Catholic communities this may be a serious spiritual event with the priest present even today, but among Protestants it is more a tradition, and a part of the German notion of Gemütlichkeit. Usually on the Sunday following Epiphany, these donations are brought into churches. Here all of the children who have gone out as star singers, once again in their costumes, form a procession of sometimes dozens of wise men and stars. The German Chancellor and Parliament also receive a visit from the star singers at Epiphany

In Greece, Cyprus and the Greek diaspora throughout the world, the feast is called the Theophany, or colloquially called the Phōta (Greek: Φώτα, “Lights”) and customs revolve around the Great Blessing of the Waters. It marks the end of the traditional ban on sailing, as the tumultuous winter seas are cleansed of the mischief-prone kalikántzaroi, the goblins that try to torment God-fearing Christians through the festive season. At this ceremony, a cross is thrown into the water, and the men clamour to retrieve it for good luck. The Phota form the middle of another festive triduum, together with Epiphany Eve, January 6 (and eve of January 5), when children sing the Epiphany carols, and the great feast of St. John the Baptist on January 7 (and eve of January 6), when the numerous Johns and Joans celebrate their name-day.

The Feast of Epiphany includes many events which are perpetuating the ancient Greek customs. In the perception of the Greek people, Epiphany is “Great celebration Theotromi”. For some even regions of Macedonia (West) are the biggest festival of the year and each new garment “protoforoun the lights to illuminate.” But when dogmatic The Baptism of Christ symbolizes the rebirth of man having so great importance, which is why until the fourth century Christians celebrated New Year in Baptism of Christ on January 6.

Epiphany is the “water sanctification” the dive of the Cross in imitation of the Baptism of Christ. But in Greek ethimology, that Sanctification is the notion of expiation, purification of the people and the exemption from the influence of demons. The most recently this concept is certainly not strictly Christian, but has roots in ancient worship. In most parts of Greece sanctification for the first time (in those days) the eve of Epiphany called “small sanctification” or “Protagiasi” or “Enlightenment”. By protagiasi the priest turns all the houses and the Cross and one strand royal “sanctifies” or “brighten” (sprinkling) rooms of houses. The protagiasi is the effective means by which permitted in wild flight goblins except the lighting of a large outdoor fire. The Great Blessing however is the day of the Epiphany in the Churches in a special rig embellished upon which brought large pot full of water. Then, a dive of Cross Sea or nearby river or lake or the need to tank (as in Athens). Diving the Cross, according to popular belief gives the water cleansing and sanitizing capabilities. The inhabitants of many areas after diving run on sea beaches or along rivers or lakes and wash their agricultural tools and even icons. In common folk belief even the icons with the passage of time lose their original strength and value to the gain but again the holy water. It is this process not only exactly true survival of ancient beliefs. The ancient example Athenians had the ceremony (procedure) of known “Wash” as it was called at that carried “in procession” on the Faliro coast of the statue of Athena. There, they washed with salt water to cleanse from Fmoc and renewed the sacred powers of the statue. At Delphi the Theophania was an annual festival celebrating the return of Apollo from his winter quarters in Hyperborea.

Today, women in many parts repeating this ancient custom of washing the images but combined with other instruments of medieval and ancient magic. As the plate of Mytilene while the divers dive to catch the Cross women at the same time “getting a detaining (= pumpkin) water from 40 waves and then with cotton dipped it clean icons without talking to throughout this process (“dumb water”) and then the water is thrown out of the not pressed (in the crucible of the church).

The first Blessing of Epiphany, “the protagiasi or enlightenment” is the eve of the feast in the church. Then the priest takes one by one the houses with the Cross in his hand and sprinkles with one strand basil throughout the home. Old tradition of Crete, was the preparation of Fotokollyvon the eve of Epiphany. From Fotokollyva (boiled wheat with legumes) ate housewives but they gave and their animals for good health and good luck in their home.

The great sanctification is the day of the Epiphany on January 5. A large procession formed and takes the road leading to the sea or a river, maybe a tank. Confronting the cherubim behind the priests in their best vestments, after the authorities of the place and parapiso the crowd. In the cities the procession becomes richer with the music and the military faction. Once sanctification, the priest throws a cross in the water, thereby realizing the Blessing of the Waters.

Eleonora Cavallini, Achilles in the age of metal
Joey DeMaio’s lyrics imply a careful and scrupulous reading of the Iliad. The songwriter has focused his attention essentially on the crucial fight between Hector and Achilles, has paraphrased some passages of the poem adapting them to the melodic structure with a certain fluency and partly reinterpreting them, but never altering or upsetting Homer’s storyline. The purpose of the lyrics (and of the music as well) is to evoke some characteristic Homeric sceneries: the raging storm of the battle, the barbaric, ferocious exultance of the winner, the grief and anguish of the warrior who feels death impending over him. The whole action hinges upon Hector and Achilles, who are represented as specular characters, divided by an irreducible hatred and yet destined to share a similar destiny. Both are caught in the moment of the greatest exaltation, as they savagely rejoice for the blood of their killed enemies, but also in the one of the extreme pain, when the daemon of war finally pounces on them. Furthermore, differently than in the irreverent and iconoclastic movie Troy, in “Achilles, Agony and Ecstasy in Eight Parts”, the divine is a constant and ineluctable presence, determining human destinies with inscrutable and steely will, and, despite the generic reference to ‘the gods’, the real master of human lives is Zeus, the only God to whom both Hector and Achilles address their prayers.

And here’s an article about the Jólakötturinn from the Smithsonian.

#13: Elvis Presley – Blue Christmas

#12: Band Aid- Do they Know it’s Christmas

#11: Johnny Cash & Friends – Silent Night

#10: Greg Lake – I Believe In Father Christmas

#9: The Waitresses – Christmas Wrapping

#8: Lemmy – Run Run Rudolph

#7: Mariah Carey – All I Want for Christmas Is You

#6: Metallica – Turn The Page

#5: The Kinks – Father Christmas

#4: Jethro Tull – Christmas song

#3: Chris Brown – This Christmas

#2: Otis Redding – White Christmas

And the #1 best Christmas song is …

Bing Crosby & David Bowie – The Little Drummer Boy

Fight me if you disagree.

For those curious about what I meant here by the constellation of Bear King myths check out my posts Hunting the European Sky Bears, Beware rousing the sleeping bear and Bärensohnmärchen. 

And while you’re at it you might want to give these articles a quick read through, which discuss the presence of the Labyrinth in the Northern lands too: 

• Zavaroni Adolfo, Souls across the Labyrinth: Representations of Rebirth in the Bronze/Iron Age in Europe
• Angelo Fossati, Following Arianna’s Thread Symbolic Figures at Female Rock Art Sites at Naquane and In Valle, Valcamonica, Italy
• Joanna M. Lawrence, Phallic Representations in Bronze Age Scandinavian Rock Art: Contexts, Associations, and Interpretations
• Caroline Malim, Mazes, Minotaurs and Maidens: Evidence for the Cult of the Labyrinth and the Cycle of Life
• Umberto Sansoni, Alpine and Scandinavian rock art in the Bronze Age, a common cultural matrix in a web of continental influences
• wonderMondo, Stone labyrinths of Bolshoi Zayatsky Island

And for good measure, here’s a selection of links pertinent to the Starry Bear proto-tradition:

And if you want to get a better sense of what I mean by the folk level religiosity so often ignored by contemporary Heathen groups visit my other site eklogai | polytheist extractions, particularly this tag.  

I feel justified in referring to the Starry Bull as a tradition. We have multiple Orpheotelestai who have initiated folks in the double digits. We have a respectable body of literature, produced by myself and several others. We have schismed into multiple lineages (which mostly don’t speak to each other anymore.) There are several online groups run for and by members (even if I’m no longer involved so I can’t speak to how active or accurate they are.) Even folks who no longer consider themselves members are continuing the work they began while with us. I’ve started teaching classes again and the Hudson Valley Bakcheion will be holding regular meetings and public rituals in 2020 e.v., beginning with Lenaia for which 6 or 7 people have already RSVPed.

Starry Bear, on the other hand, I consider to have the status of proto-tradition. Although there are a couple folks I regularly discuss it with and have helped me tinker with some experimental ritual and mystical tech, it is still very much my own brain child and in need of a great deal of research and development. In fact I don’t think I’ve even attempted to explain what it is, with most of my writing focusing on the history of Greek and Northern contacts, the identification of Dionysos with Óðr and Freyja with Kírkē, and more briefly arcolatry and star-lore. Although these are fascinating subjects with  each requiring further exploration, I’ve really just scratched the surface as far as the Starry Bear is concerned. My hope is that in a year or three we’ll be in a position to start bringing others into it, so I suppose I should begin articulating my vision for the Starry Bear proto-tradition. 

In the past I’ve jokingly referred to it as Bacchic Orphic Heathenry, but that’s not too far off. One thread of it will concern the presence of Dionysos in Northern Italy, central Europe, Asia Minor, along the coast of the Black Sea, as well as Skythia and Hyperborea up through the Russian, German, Scandinavian, French, and English Romantic movements, and a little after. Orphic cults proliferated in this area – particularly in the present-day Ukraine – as well as groups such as the Kapnobatai, the Galactophagai, Pythagoreans and allied figures like Aristeas, Abaris, Hermotimos, Zalmoxis and Pseudo-Alexander, all of whom betray strong shamanic traits and practices. And a ton of stuff involving Medeia. I’m going to stitch all of this together into a form of bakcheia similar to but distinct from what we do in the Starry Bull. 

There are also three strains of Dionysiac myth I need to tease out. The first of these concerns a series of archaic myths and later folktales concerning a Bear King which I believe refer to him (especially when death and rebirth are involved or he’s attempting to woo a maiden, who in some versions turns out to be his sister.) Next there is his lost history as Óðr, some of which I’ve pieced together from allusions, puns and riddles in the Eddas and Sagas, folktales, fairy stories, superstitions and ballads as well as things I’ve gleaned from dreams, visions, divination, ritual encounters, inspired writing and UPG. And the third is continuations of the lore found in Medieval, Renaissance, Romantic, and more contemporary literature concerning both Dionysos and Óðr. (Not to mention other Greco-Roman and Heathen divinities.)

Next I want to flesh out my understanding of Dionysos’ relationships with the Germanic, Slavic, Baltic, and Celtic divinities. His friends and allies will then constitute the loose Starry Bear pantheon. As above this process will consist of research, dreams, visions, divination, ritual encounters, inspired writing and UPG. 

The next stage will involve a synthesis of core devotional practices largely drawn from the level of superstitions, fairytales, folklore and folkways, and even syncretic, quasi-Christian customs from these countries. The various branches of Heathenry have the higher stratum covered, so we’ll draw on lower level religiosity. Likewise I want to develop our own ecstatic and sorcerous techniques since there are serious problems with how a lot of folks do seiðr, runework and the like. 

Plus all the Black Sun stuff.

There’s a whole lot more to it, but that should suffice to give you a rough sense of what I mean when I refer to the Starry Bear proto-tradition – and how much effort it’ll take to bring this thing to the surface. 

Plato, Phaedrus 244de
Next, madness can provide relief from the greatest plagues of trouble that beset certain families because of their guilt for ancient crimes: it turns up among those who need a way out; it gives prophecies and takes refuge in prayers to the gods and in worship, discovering mystic rites and purifications that bring the man it touches through to safety for this and all time to come. So it is that the right sort of madness finds relief from present hardships for a man it has possessed.

From The Invocation of the Black Sun: Alchemy and Sexuality in the Work of Coil by Hayes Hampton:

Crowley envisioned the highest level of initiation as the point where man, having dissolved his individual humanity, resolves into god, or what Crowley called “Unity…above all division.” Thus, Crowley’s magical system aims at psychic alchemy, using the aspirant’s habits, proclivities, and even resistance to change as transformative material. In his most complete statement, Magick: Liber ABA, in a chapter entitled “Of the Eucharist; and of the Art of Alchemy,” he describes the later, more painful stage of the process: “just as the Aspirant, on the Threshold of Initiation, finds himself assailed by the ‘complexes’ which have corrupted him … so does the ‘First Matter’ blacken and putrefy as the Alchemist breaks up its coagulations of impurity.”

Here Crowley writes of the nigredo phase of alchemy, which he often symbolized with a black dragon, though traditional alchemical literature more typically symbolizes it with the symbol of the black sun. Coil adopted the black sun as their logo and as a frequent lyrical image, using a drawing from Crowley’s Liber Arcanorum which can be viewed as a visual pun: both sun and anus. As a glyph joining the nigredo with elimination of bodily waste, the black sun combines two of Coil’s major tropes: the fragile, contingent nature of the individual self and the exploration (and alchemical use) of forbidden or rejected materials and sexualities. Stanton Marlan, in The Black Sun: The Alchemy and Art of Darkness, looks in depth at the black sun’s relationship to the alchemical nigredo and its metaphoric eclipse of consciousness. The black sun, in Marlan’s summary, brings together “blackness, putrefactio, mortificatio, the nigredo, poisoning, torture, killing, decomposition, rotting, and death … a web of interrelationships that describe a terrifying, if most often provisional, eclipse of consciousness” –that is, the dissolution of the mundane self both desired and feared by the magician, and the confrontation with the “dark forces” he or she must master in order to evolve spiritually. These “forces” were understood by twentieth-century magicians like Crowley not so much as external, demonic forces but as psychological negativity: shame, guilt, fear, and disgust.

For Balance and Christopherson, the “dark forces” included psychological negativity in the form of gay self-hatred and puritanical body-phobia and also what is culturally constructed as physiological negativity: blood, urine, shit, and (gay) semen — the ultimate forbidden substance of the 1980s, worse than crack cocaine. All of these substances, Coil’s work insists, travel along the subterranean rivers of our cities and our psyches, poisoning us unless we transmute their subtle energies. Coil’s debut album, Scatology (1984), which John Balance called “alchemy in sound,” explores the psychic and bodily terrain of waste matter. “Literally,” Balance told an interviewer, “some of the sounds — shitting and toilets –were … raw noises. Wewere making good things from what is perceived as being basically, bad things; dealing with subjects other people wouldn’t touch such as rotting and death.”

The black sun logo, prominent on the album’s cover, serves as a visual reference to other lacunae, holes, and forbidden spaces mentioned in the songs or in the album’s extensive liner notes: “The Devil’s Hole” that Charles Manson told his followers awaited them in the California desert, Salvador Dali’s “Humanism of the Arsehole,” the psychic and corporeal depletions of vampirism, gluteal injections of antibiotics to cure STDs, and, most memorably,the shit- and piss-spattered setting of “The Sewage Worker’s Birthday Party.”

Inauspicious as each of these may be, each also contains the possibility of transmutation; as Scatology’s liner notes summarize, “It is about performing surgery on yourself – psychic surgery— in order to restore the whole being, complete with the aspects that sanitised society attempts to wrench from your existence.”

From Dead Kings and Saviour Gods – Euhemerizing Shamanism in Thracian Religion by Dan Attrell:

As the undisputed masters of healing herbs (according to the Greeks), the Thracians were no strangers to the shamanic techniques of ecstasy well known among other cultures of the steppe. Working from the texts of Posidonius, Strabo reported that the Mysians, a Thracian group from north-western Anatolia, possessed members of their society called both θεοσεβεις (“those who fear god”) and καπνοβαται (“those who walk in smoke”) who practiced strict vegetarianism and consumed nothing but honey and dairy products. This reference to the “walkers in smoke” may allude to the ecstasy achieved by mass cannabis consumption as reported by Herodotus among the Scythians. […] One Orphic bone inscription from Olbia dated to the 5th century BC reads “for Dion(ysos) and Psyche,” revealing the importance of a transcendent soul in connection with the Greek god of intoxication in Thracian territory. Another of these bone inscriptions containing the words “Βιος Θανατος Βιος” and marked with little “Z” pictograms (which might represent little orphic serpents) reveals the widespread and consistent nature of Dionysian symbolism reaching as far north as modern Ukraine. In the shamanic mystery initiations as practiced by the Orphic cults, near-death experiences and the use of dangerous doses of hallucinogenic plants went hand in hand. Whereas the Divine Bridegroom Sabazios (Dionysus) was primarily the god who presided over ecstasy and entheogenic intoxication, the Thracians held him in equally high regard as a dying-and-rising saviour god and a master over the souls of the deceased. Long before the introduction of alcohol, shaman exploited the ecstatic and oracular properties of hallucinogenic mushrooms (Amanita muscaria and various types of coprophilic Psilocybin-containing mushrooms); opium (Papaver somniferum); “jimsonweed,” “horsemad,” or “thornapple” (Datura stramonium); mandrake root (Mandragora officinarum); cannabis; deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna); and henbane (Hyoscyamus niger). The experience of death and the ecstatic evacuation of the soul from the body appears commonly in the Thracian funeral iconography on which is depicted the Tree of Life. To be in a state of ekstasis – that is, to stand outside the body – was to experience death itself.

From The Sacred Conspiracy by Georges Bataille

Beyond what I am, I meet a being who makes me laugh because he is headless, who fills me with anguish because he is made of innocence and crime. He holds a weapon of steel in his left hand, flames like a sacred heart in his right hand. He unites in one eruption birth and death. He is not a man. But he isn’t a god, either. He is not I, but he is more I than I: his belly is the labyrinth in which he himself goes astray, led me astray, and in which I find myself being he, that is, a monster.

Who are you? No, who are you really? Not what you do for a living, or how much you make, or what you own, or don’t own. Not what religion, or political group you belong to, not what hobby you have to take up your time. Not what your parents always wanted you to be, or who your friends think you are, or who you think you have to be when you’re around other people. But who you really are, deep in your core, in those dark, hidden parts of your being, those parts made of dream and fantasy and passion. Do you remember who you once were, before it all went wrong, before you made those compromises, before you started pretending to be someone else in order to fit in? Do you remember the way that it could have been, if only? Remember and be who you are. Don’t cheat the world of your uniqueness. As rough and imperfect as you are, there’s only one you in the whole world.

I don’t like talking about this: I am an intensely private man, except when it comes to religion – and I dislike giving my enemies cause for celebration. But I should probably mention this as it’s been impacting my life in a lot of ways, including here.

I have been struggling with three chronic ailments, and atypical symptoms that indicated a fourth. About 6-8 weeks ago those symptoms intensified to the point where I’ve spent nearly every day in excruciating pain. We’ve been to several doctors, eventually leading to a specialist in lyme disease who diagnosed and is in the process of treating me. I was warned that this would make things worse before they got better and that has indeed been the case. Because of the current opioid hysteria I can’t get anything effective to help manage the pain (particularly my joints, which seem always to be on fire) and alternative methods such as stretching, meditation, herbs, etc. have brought only minimal and temporary relief. And while this may be the worst it’s only one of several ailments I’m currently dealing with.

As you can imagine this hasn’t been great for my interpersonal relationships or mental health. I’ve had some pretty down days. Even contemplated suicide at one point. It’s been challenging keeping up with my correspondence, even when it’s about important religious stuff. And not just because I’m down so many spoons.

This illness has revealed some of the weaknesses in my spiritual life and practices, and created some new ones as well. I’ve had to face shit I just never thought would be an issue for me.

And you know what? I’m thankful for that.

Don’t get me wrong. This process has sucked. I wouldn’t wish it on even my worst enemies.

But in addition to bringing to light areas I need to work on it also showed me that even at my lowest, most hopeless point I love Dionysos. I will hold to him. I will do everything in my power to serve him. Even when I’m so caught up in pain and despair that I can’t see, feel or hear him. There were times I wondered if he had stopped caring about me, or worse that our whole history together had been a lie, a delusion. And I just didn’t give a shit. Dionysos is fucking awesome, whether he exists or not. I prayed to him. Made offerings. Read about him. Did what I could for his people. And whatever else I was able to, as I was able to.

And he’s made himself known to me in a bunch of small ways, and even helped when it got really bad. The fact that he hasn’t done more, and some random kledones I’ve received – later confirmed through divination – led me to believe that this was something I needed to go through, that it was in some way initiatory and so he could not interfere.

And that excites me because I think I know where this is leading. 

My goals for 2020 e.v. (Year Two of the Bakcheion)

• I want to get back into doing regular temple and priest work.
• I want to immerse myself in the festival-cycle and really connect with the different faces of Dionysos through the year.
• I want the festival-cycle to really catch on with others, especially our local group which is in the process of forming.
• I want to codify the system of soul-parts for the Starry Bull tradition, and develop esoteric practices around them.
• I want to learn the deeper mysteries of the Black Sun; I feel as if I’ve just scratched the surface.
• I want to flesh out the Starry Bear proto-tradition enough that I can start bringing others into it.
• I want to finish the remaining books listed here. 

Yes, I am aware that each of these could represent a lifetime’s work; I’ll feel good about myself if I accomplish even half of them over the next twelve months.

However, before Lenaia comes Foundation Day, during which it is customary to take the auspices for the upcoming year, as well as divine on more personal matters.

If you’d like your year read there are a number of methods you may choose from. I also have a comprehensive package deal involving six systems for just $88.00. If you’re interested, act fast – I’m only doing five of these bundled readings. Reserve yours today.  

Lenaia is coming up, and I’m excited. Not only does this kick off the Year 2 Bakcheion festival cycle but I’ve got a half dozen or so locals to celebrate it with this time. We’re going to have a symposion, followed by a masked procession through the city culminating in us calling Dionysos up from the depths by a waterfall, complete with offerings and an a cappella choral rendition of this:

How will you observe Lenaia? 

We live in a pluralistic and capitalistic society where the guiding philosophical principle seems to be the open market system. No one holds a monopoly on truth, and old ideologies which had taken for granted their close and long-standing relationship with the authorities are finding that they must now compete with a multitude of newer and older faiths in order to win the hearts and minds of the people of today.

Television evangelists recognized this fact in the early 1980s and began tailoring their message to the sensibilities of a broader audience, employing slick production values and charismatic talking heads who seemed less like manic prophets come from the Judaean wilderness and more like smooth Southern gentlemen hawking used cars as they espoused the Word of God. No longer was it sufficient to merely assert the truth-claims of the Gospel Message – now they had to sell the benefits of their religion and how it would positively impact the lives of the average man. Other religions followed suit – the extreme commercialism of McWicca as evidenced by the glossy-covered books with little substance to be found in most major bookstore chains, and the Kaballah centre’s attempt to market its red string bracelets and $5 bottles of Kaballistically blessed water to celebrities hungry for the next major fad are but two examples of this. (I could also mention $cientology in this context but don’t want to risk getting sued.)

Along this line of thought, one may naturally wonder how Hellenismos may compete in America’s open market on religion and what benefits may be had from accepting our faith.

In a word, what we offer is beauty. Ask the average person on the street what their first impression of ancient Greece is, and if they don’t answer toga-wearing homosexuals chances are they’ll mention the beautiful marble statues or the ruined temples with their impressive columns still standing two thousand years later. If the person that you’re interrogating happens to be of the better educated sort, they will probably mention the epics of Homer, the great dramatic works of Sophokles and Euripides, the philosophic dialogues of Plato, or the body of myths which has informed and inspired the great minds of Western art down through the centuries. The artistic is intricately woven into our conception of the ancient Greeks because it was a fundamental part of their world-view. Art is man’s response to the beauty and harmony which surrounds him, a way to make sense of his experiences and share them with his fellows. It is interesting to note that the Greek word for the universe – kosmos – not only implies order and stability – but also beauty and ornamentation. They felt, deep in their bones, the fundamental beauty of the world which surrounded them – the fiery hues of the sky as the sun began its decline into the west, a natural spring bubbling along through a forest clearing, the human body in repose – and they sensed something divine in all of this: a world, as Thales of Miletos said, full of Gods. The Gods could seem remote, dwelling far off on the distant heights of Mount Olympos, but more often the Greek experienced his Gods as immediate presences manifest in the natural forces which surrounded him – Zeus thundering through the dark storm clouds, Poseidon riding the ocean waves on his mighty chariot, Dionysos present in the ripe fruit of the vine, Aphrodite and Ares stirring up emotions within the heart, leading either to love or destruction. No Hebrew ever spoke of his God in this manner – his voice may come from the burning bush, but the author of Exodus is clear to point out that Yahweh is not in the burning bush. Yahweh is so far removed from his creation that Newton could speak of the world as a machine so efficient that it made God redundant – and it is but a short step from there to Nietzsche’s terrible and prophetic proclamation that God is dead.

And what has the world become, completely divorced from the divine? It is a bleak place, full of hardship and ugliness. Everywhere there is a profound sense of emptiness and loneliness. Look at the cities which surround us and define our existence so much of the time: they are dirty, monotonous, ugly things, oppressive and stifling in their greyness and uniformity. The spirit rebels at such surroundings, and so street youth take spray-paint cans in hand and desperately scrawl their names and cryptic symbols across the bleak facades in a futile attempt to break up the monotony, to proclaim that they were here, that their life mattered in some small way. But without any deeper connection to the wellspring of creation, to the world of imagination, all that they can manage is their petty territorial tagging. It only serves to accentuate the bleakness of their surroundings, the bareness of their spirits.

Look at the popular culture which develops from such an environment. Interchangeable rap lyrics which extol the virtues of getting drunk and wasted, of acquiring extravagant amounts of wealth and surrounding one’s self with shiny jewelry, tricked out cars, and booming sound systems. Women are reduced to bitches and hoes whose existence serve only to gratify the infantile and unimaginative lusts of gangtas. The broader popular culture is no better, dominated as it is by reality television whose contestants will demean themselves in order to win large sums of money, where celebrities are paraded about for no other reason than because they are wealthy and have celebrity.

Our culture lacks any deeper, defining morals, has no greater world vision, and allows itself to be manipulated and controlled by those who perpetuate the greatest atrocities in our name, with never a word of criticism, so long as our basic human needs are met, and the scoundrels can convince us that they are protecting our national security and traditional way of life. That seems to be what passes for the American Dream these days – a secure, if unfulfilling job, so that I can surround myself with things I don’t need, and watch amusing things on television until I finally keel over dead. No tough questions, no quest for deeper fulfillment or a richer relationship with one’s surroundings, no desire to accomplish great things and leave one’s mark on the pages of history.

Hellenismos stands in opposition to this by asserting the central value of beauty. Beauty is truth, a reflection of things as they authentically stand and also their relationship to higher powers and an exalted, visionary order. When one encounters beauty it changes the person, because beauty is attended by desire and we come to desire the beautiful, wanting more of it, no longer satisfied with that which is not beautiful. It compels us to follow it, to sacrifice the mundane and superficial in order to possess it, causes us to look within and make changes within ourselves in order to both be worthy of the beautiful and to better represent it, and we start to infuse our vision with it, causing us to behold the beauty that surrounds us, where before all seemed dark and depressing.

When we look at the things that the ancient Greeks considered beautiful, we see how important their religious world-view is today. As I said earlier, the Greeks were keenly aware of the beauty of their natural surroundings. When you value beauty you desire to preserve and ensure its continuity for future generations. You don’t pour your filth into rivers, pave over sacred groves in order to build parking lots, turn the air black and unbreathable out of carelessness and avarice. Instead you live in harmony with your surroundings, honouring its beauty as sacred, divine, as worthy of being cared for as one’s own beloved parents.

Regarding the human body as beautiful, the Greeks went to great lengths to ensure its healthiness and robust vigour. At the center of every city, even in colonies as far away as Turkey and India, was the gymnasium where men would come to work out. Even older people such as Sokrates made a point of visiting the gymnasium every day in order to stay in shape. Most festivals had their agon or competition in which races, wrestling, boxing, discuss-throwing, dancing, etc played an important role. Every four years men would travel from all parts of the known world, even calling temporary halts to wars, so that athletes could compete at the Sacred Games at Olympia – a tradition that has carried over – albeit modified somewhat – into the modern world. Science and medicine were highly valued in ancient Greece, the birthplace of rationality. Physicians, who considered themselves descendants of Asklepios, traveled from village to village or tended temples such as that at Epidauros, curing ailments, mending broken bones, and prescribing regimens of diet and exercise in order to ensure optimal health and the beauty of the body. These regimens were taken to an extreme at Sparta where the whole populace lived a disciplined, barracks-like existence, eating a thick black gruel, and spending their time training for war and perfecting the body – even the women, a thing unthinkable to the Athenians. While an extreme example, the Spartans were hardly alone in their veneration of the body and striving for its perfection. We see just how pervasive this ideal was in numerous statues of handsome young boys at the peak of fitness, the panegyrics praising successful athletes, and even in the lives of Greece’s greatest creative spirits: Plato, who was famous first as a boxer, and then as a philosopher, Aiskhylos who wished to be remembered primarily as a soldier and in fact made no mention of his career as a man of letters in his epitaph, and Sophokles, who composed his greatest tragedies at the age of 90. No wilting hot-house flowers, no sickly ascetics torturing their flesh in the deserts were the ancient Greeks! In fact, they had such veneration for the beauty of the human body that they could think of no better way to express the transcendent beauty of the Gods than to depict them in human form. For what in the world is more beautiful than man, the measure of all things?

But, of course, for the Greeks it wasn’t enough to simply make the outside beautiful and neglect what lay within. That would have been like offering a man an ornately sculpted golden chalice – filled with brackish water and mud. So, even as the young men trained their bodies in the gymnasia, their fathers were sure to place their minds and spirits under the careful guidance of tutors who would instruct them in poetry, music, philosophy and rhetoric. For the true man is one who is well-rounded, who could be just as comfortable at a dramatic competition as he was hanging out with his friends in the agora or carrying arms against the Persians. The Greeks excelled in the arts. Even today, Homer’s poems are unmatched in their beauty, complexity, and ability to stir the passions that lie deep in the breast and give wings to the imagination, allowing it to soar to the very heights of Olympos. The plays of the dramatists are still being performed, the vase-paintings and architecture of the period are still marveled at. This was the world that the Greeks surrounded themselves with, in which they lived and thrived. Aristophanes’ comedies were not simply mindless entertainment. They grappled with the same profound questions as Plato’s dialogues. They are peppered with all kinds of contemporary political and religious controversies. They are fond of sly word-plays, clever puns, and outright sophistry. And the ancient Athenians had no problem following along, and in fact thought those plays best which challenged their basic assumptions and really made them think hard about current issues. Imagine a modern playwright getting away with lampooning a popular political figure the way that Aristophanes does! And yet, for the ancient Greeks who saw the beauty in thought, who didn’t want to sit passively by, but be actively engaged with their art – it was the norm, not the exception.

Just as beautiful as a young boy athlete or a choral ode on stage were the ethical philosophies and law-codes of the ancient Greeks. Fundamental to both was the concept of harmony, of submission to a natural and transcendent world-order. The criminal is one who puts himself outside of this order, who is intemperate, unable to control his desires, thinks only of himself and never of how his actions will impact his neighbors or the larger community. Lust, avarice, wrath – these are all emotions which disturb the tranquil calm of the spirit and disfigure the body. One sees how truly aberrant these are when depicted by art – grotesque and tormented figures in stark contrast to the normal conventions of Greek art which are serene and elegant, the quintessence of beauty.

So, when a stranger asks, what benefit is there in adopting Hellenismos, what is the essence of your religion? answer him Beauty, and know that it is the sublimest of faiths, worthy of the greatest respect, infusing and ennobling all aspects of life, and that without this sense of the beautiful, existence becomes a travesty worthy of the greatest contempt.

 

For the last week or so I’ve been listening to a lot of the Kinks’ back catalog. I knew them mostly from their handful of hits and influence on contemporary and subsequent groups (including, apparently, The Doors.) They were one of those bands I wouldn’t turn off if they came on the radio, but also wouldn’t ever seek out on my own. (With the exception of “Lola” which is just a great song all around.)

Damn, I’ve been missing out. 

Appropriately enough it was their song “Death of a Clown” that kicked off this obsessive streak. 

Do you have a favorite?