Life changes us as we go through it, day by day and year by year. Sometimes those changes fall under the umbrella of Big Official Life Changes that we already have rituals for in the modern western world: graduation, marriage, funerals.
But sometimes those changes don't have common, expected ceremonies associated with them. I've filled in some of those gaps in the pages of Ariadne's Thread, providing rites for coming of age, welcoming a new child into the family, blessing a new home, and more.
If you follow my Youtube channel, you'll know that one of my projects is a series of storytime videos - reading aloud from my own books and some of my longtime favorites by other authors. This time, I'm reading from my most recent novel, The Last Priestess of Malia, a work of historical fiction set in Minoan Crete.
The story centers around a young woman who dedicates herself to the temple and the gods in a time of great chaos and upheaval at the end of Minoan civilization. Though the later parts of the book get into some really heavy stuff that's also unfortunately relevant to our current world (sexism, racism, greed, conquest, xenophobia, colonialism), the earlier parts are largely about the main character's struggle to be "a real priestess" - whatever that means. If you've ever wondered when you're going to feel like you know what you're doing, you'll be able to relate. ;-)
Ok everyone, with the help of my lovely and talented boyfriend, I made ... something. I thought it would be fun to start a vlog on pagan subjects. By doing this, Im probably (ultimately) going to invite internet trolls and fiery internet pagans into my life to either ridicule or inform me what Im saying is wrong, but as my mormon mother would say, "to hell with it!"
I wanted to make something informative, but funny and edgy. I figured I would start out simple, a book review/report. I went with Ronald Huttons Triumph of The Moon because its (somewhat) a respected authority on the topic of contemporary paganism/wicca/witchcraft. Its been up for one day and Iv allready been so graciously informed that my book choice was less than stellar and that I should have chosen a different book. The winds of change and opportunity are swift.
Alright, there is good news, and bad news. The good news is that I figured out how to kill the weird zoom thing the camera did. The bad news is that I only discovered this on the second day of shooting this video. Also, the first day, it was this sunny-but-cloudy day, so the camera had a bit of trouble with the light. Therefor, the first minute is a bit rough but after that, it gets lots and lots better. Next time will be perfect (and also better lit).
Alright, so on to the video tutorial. In the spirit of the Deipnon and Noumenia we have just celebrated, I am going to show you what to do with, and how to prepare, a kathiskos. As I will explain in the video, the kathiskos is a small jar filled with foodstuffs which is stored from the Noumenia (first day of the lunar month) until the Deipnon (last day of the lunar month) in a shrine to Zeus Kthesios. It's purpose is to protect the pantry.
Back on my own blog, I asked my readers what they would like to read from me. I was wondering what they came back for and if I was somehow not filling a void I hadn't even thought of. As it turns out, my readers were pretty happy, but they would like to hear more about my personal practice. I can understand; I am not good at talking about that, so I rarely do. As a result of that feedback, I made two videos about Hellenic basics: preparing and using khernips, and pouring libations.
For both these videos goes that the way I do it, may not be the way everyone does it. It's the basic steps that matter most. So without further ado: here's a video of me preparing and using khernips, and below, a video of me pouring libation. Sorry about the quality, my phone seems to have some trouble focussing. I promise any future videos will be stable.
Erin Lale
Fellow faculty at Harvard Divinity School posted an open letter to Wolpe in response to his article. It's available on this page, below the call for p...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. The Wild Hunt has a roundup of numerous responses on its site, but it carried this one as a separate article. It is an accoun...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. This one is by a scholar of paganism. It's unfortunately a Facebook post so this link goes to Facebook. She posted the text o...
Erin Lale
Here's another link to a pagan response to the Atlantic article. I would have included this one in my story too if I had seen it before I published it...
