Comments for Songs From The Wood

Comment on Hellenismos A No-Go by Zoe

Zoe — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:00:18 +0000

oh, somehow I missed that, but I admit I skip huge swaths of the Cauldron site.

Comment on Hellenismos A No-Go by Kullervo

Kullervo — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:56:49 +0000

I had an unfortunate start on The Cauldron, and have since decided that it is a place I could not be less interested in, for a variety of reasons. The whole “prove you’re not a n00b before we let you in” vibe just utterly stinks, and they have some quirky rules that are easy to violate by accident.

Comment on Struggling With Samhainn by Zoe

Zoe — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:23:12 +0000

And coincidentally, it also can be conceptualized as the threshold between fall and winter, which in Greek Mythology is the time when Persephone leaves her mother Demeter and goes to reign in the underworld with her husband, Hades. Demeter’s grief at the loss of her daughter inaugurates winter, when plants turn brown and die and the earth goes cold, and it stays that way until Persephone returns in the spring, bringing with her the rebirth of the living world.

Actually, no. In places like California or Hellas, the barley and wheat is planted in the autumn, the winter rains feed the grass, and then the harvest is in May. The summer heat with no rain is what drive Persephone (at Skira in June) underground. In Mediterranean climates no green thing can grow in the summer w/o a lot of irrigation.

The reunion of mother and daughter is Septemberish. You can thank bad Victorian translations by Northern European’s in ivory towers for the confusion.

An easy to access book on the subject is Reif’s “Mysteries of Demeter”. The ritual scripts might bug your recon pals, but the calendar chapters are academically tight. (They have the calendar stone from the temple, and the dates are clear)

ANYHOW, I am just pointing this out because this is one of those truths that is not really “universal” but “location-location-location” and I am in the camp that suggests you listen to the land spirits, your local county ag, see if any hippies in your area have an organic garden store, and try growing a pot of your own wheat. Then see what Demeter has to say to you.

-Zoe, full of wacky ideas

Comment on Struggling With Samhainn by Zoe

Zoe — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:14:56 +0000

Subterranean is your dwelling place, O strong-spirited one,
A meadow in Tartaros, thick-shaded and dark.
Chthonic Zeus, sceptered one, kindly accept this sacrifice,
Plouton, holder of the keys to the whole earth.
You give the wealth of the year’s fruits to mankind,
And to your lot fell the third portion, earth, queen of all,
Seat of the gods, mighty lap of mortals.
Your throne rests on a tenebrous realm,
The distant, untiring, windless and impassive Hades,
And on dark Acheron that encompasses the roots of the earth.
All-Receiver, with death at your command, you are the master of mortals.
Euboulos, you once took pure Demeter’s daughter as your bride,
When you tore her away from the meadow and through the sea.
Upon your steeds you carried her to an Attic cave, in the district of Eleusis,
Where the gates to Hades are.
You alone were born to judge deeds obscure and conspicuous.
Holiest and illustrious ruler of all, frenzied god,
You delight in the worshiper’s respect and reverence.
Come with favor and joy to the initiates. I summon you.

Comment on Hellenismos A No-Go by Zoe

Zoe — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:13:21 +0000

If I had started out with “reading Tim Alexander’s forum a lot” meep! no kidding! I don’t think I would have gotten into Hellenic Recon for more than 5 minutes. I certainly wouldn’t have ended up elected as the president of Hellenion.

Your post has taught me there is a downside to the rest of us avoiding TJA like the plague

So far I like this forum
http://www.ecauldron.net/forum/index.php?board=60.0

and Hellenion is looking at getting one going – we realized we had self selected ourselves into a group that likes private email lists, but that seems to be excluding a number of people! So we have the tech for
http://www.hellenion.org/forum/
but haven’t figured out how to drive the vibrant content.

Comment on Our Shrine To Hestia by Heather

Heather — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:00:14 +0000

Jethro Tull and Hestia, two of my favorites!

Comment on Our Shrine To Hestia by Melia Suez

Melia Suez — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:20:48 +0000

I’ve done something similar before. I think she is just happy to be in one’s home, that she doesn’t fret about the flame issue.

Comment on Struggling With Samhainn by Jonathan Blake

Jonathan Blake — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:35:55 +0000

OK, how about reocities.com?

Comment on Struggling With Samhainn by euandros

euandros — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:09:12 +0000

I’d love to give it to you, but I didn’t write it so I can’t

However, I know Sassafras Grove wrote that one. Why don’t you hit up Earrach (who I believe is the Senior Druid of that Grove) at info@sassafrasgrove.org and ask him for a copy?

Pax,

Euandros

Comment on Struggling With Samhainn by apuleius platonicus

apuleius platonicus — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:57:33 +0000

Orphic Hymn to Pluto (Thomas Taylor’s translation from the Greek):

PLUTO, magnanimous, whose realms profound
Are fix’d beneath the firm and solid ground,
In the Tartarian plains remote from sight,
And wrapt forever in the depths of night;
Terrestrial Jove, thy sacred ear incline,
And, pleas’d, accept thy mystic’s hymn divine.
Earth’s keys to thee, illustrious king belong,
Its secret gates unlocking, deep and strong.
‘Tis thine, abundant annual fruits to bear,
For needy mortals are thy constant care.
To thee, great king, Avernus is assign’d,
The seat of Gods, and basis of mankind.
Thy throne is fix’d in Hade’s dismal plains,
Distant, unknown to rest, where darkness reigns;
Where, destitute of breath, pale spectres dwell,
In endless, dire, inexorable hell;
And in dread Acheron, whose depths obscure,
Earth’s stable roots eternally secure.
O mighty dæmon, whose decision dread,
The future fate determines of the dead,
With captive Proserpine, thro’ grassy plains,
Drawn in a four-yok’d car with loosen’d reins,
Rapt o’er the deep, impell’d by love, you flew
‘Till Eleusina’s city rose to view;
There, in a wond’rous cave obscure and deep,
The sacred maid secure from search you keep,
The cave of Atthis, whose wide gates display
An entrance to the kingdoms void of day.
Of unapparent works, thou art alone
The dispensator, visible and known.
O pow’r all-ruling, holy, honor’d light,
Thee sacred poets and their hymns delight:
Propitious to thy mystic’s works incline,
Rejoicing come, for holy rites are thine.

(from here: http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hoo/hoo22.htm )