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Krishna Das tells the story of an important teaching he received from a fellow disciple of his guru, Maharaji: The disciple showed him with great ceremony an object hidden deep in a cupboard, wrapped in a dirty cloth. It was a small beat-up aluminum pot. The disciple unwrapped it and showed it off reverently. “Do you see?” he said. “You don’t have to shine. You don’t have to shine.” *
Three things stand out in my memory from my trip to the ancient city of Ephesus, City of the Moon.
The first, quite frankly, was the public toilet. Astoundingly, the row of side-by-side toilet seats—the ancestors were social people—looked exactly—exactly—like modern toilet seats.
But these were hand-carved from marble. Wow.
The second was the civic amphitheater. Here Saul of Tarsus—later known as “saint” Paul—was nearly lynched by an angry mob for blaspheming the city's patron goddess, the famously many-breasted Artemis (Diana) of Ephesus. Megálê hê Ártemis tôn Efesíôn! they chanted: Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!
According to the New Testament book of Acts, the mob was led by a guild of souvenir-manufacturers, cynically worried about loss of revenue. (Why do non-pagans find it so difficult to believe that we, too, might love our gods?) Unfortunately, in the end a conscientious city official intervened to save “Paul's” life.
During my visit to the theater, I had the pleasure of standing in the middle of the stage and chanting, in modern pronunciation, the chant of the ancients: Megháli i Ártemis tôn Efesíôn!
Indeed, as reputed, the acoustics were wonderful.
My third memory from the day is much more humble, but—in many ways—the most telling of all.
Supreme God: Woden, Frigg (Germanic); Jupiter, Juno (Roman); Zeus, Hera (Greek); Ra (Egyptian); Marduk (Babylonian)
Creator: Ptah (Egyptian); Anu (Babylonian)
From the depths of your imagination, you can create a water ritual of your own by invoking other water deities. By inviting the energy of water into your sacred space, you will find the words will flow into you as you fashion ceremonial language appropriate to that god or goddess.
You can create your own ceremonies and spells to call forth the power of water for psychic development, such as dream work, emotional balance, healing, creativity, joy, love and letting go.
Here is a pagan party plan which is wonderful for weekend evenings. You can add many embellishments such as important astrological or lunar happenings, but you should gather your friends or coven and celebrate life any Saturday night of your choosing. If the weather is warm enough, have the festivities outside. Otherwise, make sure to choose an indoor space with enough room for dancing, drumming and major merriment. Ask each of your guests to bring cake, cookies and sweets of their choice along with their favorite beer, wine, mead, cider or ale and sitting cushions. Place the offerings on a center table altar and light candles of all colors. Once everyone is seated and settled, the host or designated circle leader chants:
Gods of Nature, bless these cakes.
Every pagan knows that there are gods walking among us: seen, unseen, and (most often of all, I suspect), seen but unrecognized.
So how do you tell when that radiantly beautiful guy across the street, or the old woman that just happened to whisper exactly the right thing in your ear, is one of us or one of...Them?
According to the sages of India, there are three things to look for.
In the intellectual adventure that is modern paganism, we've reached a pretty significant milestone.
We've actually created a new literary genre: the theography.*
I'll define a theography as, broadly, a book about a specific god.**
Some contemporary theographies are anthologies, with contributions by various writers. Others are a single author's tribute to a particular god.
I'm reading one such now.
I'm enjoying the book. My relationship with my own patron being what it is, I'm always interested to hear what other people have to say about their relationships with theirs.
Every theography must balance traditional lore with contemporary experience, and this author does a good job of doing just that. The book is both well-written and entertaining, with hymns, stories, rituals, and a thorough bibliography. All in all, it's much what you would want from a theography: both informative and useful.
But something is missing here. It's not so much what is being said as what isn't.
