When you mention the phrase "Minoan flower," most people immediately think of lilies. Yes, the saffron crocus was very important to the Minoans - in their religion, their art, and their economy - but somehow lilies have taken the spotlight. And with good reason.
They're beautiful, for one thing. Just look at that image above! It's a portion of the Spring fresco from Akrotiri, showing a typical springtime scene of red lilies blooming and swallows returning from their winter migration to Africa. These are probably wild Turk's cap lilies (Lilium martagon) which are native to the Mediterranean.
I'm delighted to share that my latest novel, Leap! A Love Story, is now available in both paperback and ebook format.
This is my second Minoan-themed historical novel, the first one being The Last Priestess of Malia. Last Priestess is set at the end of the Minoan era, during the Mycenaean occupation. It provides a deep look into Minoan religion and culture, but it's a pretty heavy book.
If you look closely at the Ariadne's Tribe logo above, you might see something different about it compared with earlier versions (besides the addition of some lovely lilies from a fresco found in the Minoan villa at Amnisos, that is).
The difference? We're now just Ariadne's Tribe - we're no longer using the phrase "Modern Minoan Paganism."
I'm delighted to share with you that the newly revised and expanded second edition of Ariadne's Thread is now available!
The first edition, published 10 years ago (wow, has it really been that long?) was the inspiration for the creation of the Facebook group that evolved into the beautiful community that is Ariadne's Tribe.
Over the years, I've written a lot about the Minoan family of deities. But I realized I haven't written about one of the Mothers - not the Three Mothers whose realms are land, sky, and sea, but a fourth goddess whose realm is the cosmos itself.
In Ariadne's Tribe, we call her Ourania. Some of us also call her Starweaver. She is the Great Cosmic Mother of our family of deities.
How do we know what Minoan religion was like? By looking... literally... at the artifacts they left behind.
We can't read what the Minoans wrote in their own language using the Linear A script. And the early form of Greek that the Mycenaeans wrote using the Linear B script amounts to little more than bookkeeping records from the Mycenaean occupation of Crete in the century or two before the Minoan cities were finally destroyed.
Some of the deities we have relationships with in Ariadne’s Tribe were easy to find because they were still well known not just in classical times but all the way up to the present – Rhea, for instance, and Dionysus, and Eileithyia. Others were a bit harder to identify, but our research led them to us eventually. Therasia is one of those.
But some deities were even more hidden and took us longer to find. I want to talk about three of those today and introduce them to you.
Thesseli
You should post on Substack too, where you won't have to worry about being deplatformed or kicked off the site for your views. (Also, I've archived th...
David Dashifen Kees
I feel it necessary to state, unequivocally, that anti-trans points of view are not an essential part of Paganism. As a trans Pagan myself who helps ...
