On Hair and Offerings

In Ancient Hellenic Polytheism, men and women cut their hair to commemorate life changes. According to Burkert, these sacrifices usually happened when members of either gender reached adulthood. They “would cut their hair and dedicate it to some deity, a river, a local hero, or a god; the most pettily pretentious would even travel to Delphi to do so” (Greek Religion, 70).

A college graduation is a major life change. It marks the difference between unskilled and moderately skilled labor; an undergraduate degree, when put to good use, can result in fantastic real-world opportunities. On reading that section of Burkert, I decided to put off a haircut until I had attained that major life marker.

It took some time to decide which God(s) I should cut my hair for. Apollon made the most sense, as I offer him a lot of personal cultus. However, after reading Fritz Graf's Apollo, it seemed like offering hair to him was more appropriate for men. The modern world is decidedly different; gender equality makes many of the old distinctions obsolete. As I thought about this, I realized that my life change—the completion of an undergraduate education—seemed more under Athene's domain.

I decided to offer my hair to Artemis and Athene: Artemis for the end of childhood, Athene for the completion of my degree. Today, I went to a salon and had most of my hair cut off. It will be donated to the people who make wigs for the needy.

Hail Artemis and Athene, virgin goddesses!

I took the picture during my summer in DC; unfortunately, I don't have any self-taken images of Athene on my computer! ;_;

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Walking the Middle Path

Ethical postulates can never succeed in mastering the whole reality of nature and society; they achieve no more than partial clearings amid the impenetrable, chaotic mass; moreover, morality is always in danger of cutting off the roots of its own life. In ritual and mythology there is obviously a no to every yes, an antithesis to every thesis: order and dissolution, inside and outside, life and death.

- Walter Burkert, Greek Religion (p. 248)

Control yourself (Αρχε σεαυτου)
Cling to discipline (Παιδειας αντεχου)
Respect yourself (Σεαυτον αιδου)

- Delphic Maxims

“Know that all these things are as I have told thee; and accustom thyself to overcome and vanquish these passions: first gluttony, sloth, sensuality, and anger.”

- Golden Verses of Pythagoras

Polytheism provides multiplicity of belief and practice, a suite of diverse divinities with different ritual practices and spiritual language. Through ritual and worship, we honor the Deathless Gods and contribute to our personal human development. Self-empowerment is a pagan value because, through the pursuit of arete in our mental, physical, and emotional lives, we become idealized versions of ourselves capable of extreme courage and important contributions to society.

In a roundabout way, we can say that freedom and self-empowerment are Pagan (and Hellenic) values because they challenge us to examine tried-and-true ethical systems and ways of approaching divinity, to balance nomos arkhaios with modern culture, and to develop conceptions of the divine based on reason. To some—more explicitly, the people who run polytheism.net—this idea seems daunting, spawning claims that “although polytheistic systems provide flexibility and a relativistic lack of accountability, they often leave followers with no sense of ultimate purpose and no prospect for eternal hope.” Truly, freedom without self-moderation can lead to rampant sexual congress without emotional connection, overindulgence in food and drugs, and an abandonment of frugality, but this problem is not endemic to polytheism. Rather, it is a side effect of modern life and the conflict between Christian notions of morality and the postmodern concept of the self.

Self-empowerment is as much about setting limits and boundaries as it is about reaching for one's true human potential. It does not mean saying yes to every desire and temptation, and it does not mean abandoning the physical world in favor of an ascetic life. Everything must be taken in moderation. Opportunities to overindulge in good things have always existed and will always confront us. A great deal of liberation comes from the ability to say no to individuals and forces in one's life that damage us and prevent us from engaging with the Gods and with our own selves. Denial sets us apart from those who don't think about the long-term consequences of their actions, and it proves that we have retained integrity.

Hellenic Polytheism attracted me for its old feel for most of my teen years, but I didn't convert until I finally read Sallustius. Hellenic Polytheism also attracted me because it has a tremendously valuable ethical system that addresses the balance between indulgence and abstinence. We have the freedom to worship and the freedom to think—the former a Constitution-given right, the latter something that most Americans have stopped doing. The diverse ethical systems in the community, ranging from the Delphic Maxims to the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, provide different ways of addressing similar concerns (honor/duty, piety, temperance, and wisdom).

In Hellenic Polytheism, “man is left a sphere of freedom beyond the satisfied claims; for this reason law and ethics could develop among the Greeks as human wisdom, free and yet in harmony with the god; wise sayings and laws are engraved on temple walls, but they are always regarded as human endeavour, not divine revelation” (Greek Religion, 248). The idea of a solid, humanistic ethical system confuses Christians and others with divinely-given ethical codes. Indulging and making mistakes does not make us sinful or cursed in the eyes of the Gods, but in the eyes of the community—a human crime that must ultimately be judged by other members of our species. Divine regulations are but shadows, confined to situations and places in which one or more deities may have something at stake.

Learning to say no is frighteningly individualistic and contrary to a lot of things we have been taught, a word that many have stopped taking seriously. It is a human solution to human-caused problems in modern society and the environment. It means choosing moderation, not abstinence or indulgence, and embracing the courage to stand out from one's peers.

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Hermes Loves Digital Divination

It is my personal UPG that Hermes and the Internet are like strawberries and chocolate (and, from talking to people, I'm probably not the only person who thinks this way). For as long as I can remember, I have used dice and coin divination to inform my decision-making; after converting to Hellenic Polytheism, I found a coin divination outlined by Sannion at wildivine.org that made considerable sense to me.

Now, I am also incredibly bad at flipping coins. Flipping coins on the Internet with Hermes's good guidance brings together the best of two of his realms.

This is where RANDOM.ORG comes in. The organization

offers true random numbers to anyone on the Internet. The randomness comes from atmospheric noise, which for many purposes is better than the pseudo-random number algorithms typically used in computer programs. People use RANDOM.ORG for holding drawings, lotteries and sweepstakes, to drive games and gambling sites, for scientific applications and for art and music. The service has existed since 1998 and was built and is being operated by Mads Haahr of the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin in Ireland.

So ... if people already use a truly random service for so many things, why can't we add divination to the mix? ... especially since RANDOM.ORG has a section for virtual coins. More importantly, one can decide on the kind of coin. It currently offers six coins from the Roman Empire and one from the Bactria Indo-Sythican Greek Kingdom. One can decide the number of coins to flip as well, so you can use any coin divination system you feel comfortable with.

Personally, I'm 100% Bactrian.

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On Hyperborea, Deities, and the Book that Unites Them All

Individuals may remember that, once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away, it was ordained that a book about Apollon would be written as part of Routledge's Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World series. Little did any of us know that it would take so long to receive the data transmission from the Andromeda Galaxy.

Seriously. If you take one thing away from this post, make it this: never, ever trust release dates put out by Routledge. Ever.

Hellenic Polytheists—specifically those in love with Apollon—have awaited this book for a while. Many people had many questions about it. Would Fritz Graf acknowledge that people still believe in the deity? Would the representation of Apollon take the form of a broad sweep of the god's cultus or would it contain original critical work? And what, pray tell, took Dr. Graf so long?

I was not disappointed with Apollo. While Dr. Graf places Apollon-worship squarely in antiquity, and while the book is actually just a sweep of the god's cultus with some poetry analysis thrown in at the end, I do not bemoan the loss of the money I used to pay for this paperback. The information it yields is better, if slightly more biased, than that on Theoi.com (because, as we all know, scholars have very strong opinions that are seldom unbiased). When used with Burkert, I'm sure that it would provide a rewarding and interesting resource to use in ritual.

Some interesting things I learned—some of which raise more questions—are that the shout ié paián was used by men only because Greek exclamations are gendered; that Apollon can be considered an ecstatic god based on actual sources instead of UPG; and the extent of Apollon's involvement with the Dorians—especially the Spartans (43; 50; 137). Reading about Apollon helped me understand his connection with male youth, something strange to me as a female votary, and the time between childhood and adulthood. I found comfort and reconciliation in the tales of Hyperboreans and Dionysian ascendancy at Delphi, a reconciliation between two deities that have come to represent a binary opposition between reason and irrationality in modern society.

Anyone who gives Asklepios cultus may also want to read parts of this book. As Apollon's son, Asklepios receives no small amount of consideration in the chapters relating Apollon's connection to medicine—a fitting inclusion, as Asklepios received healing as his sphere of influence upon deification.

Dr. Graf provided little explanation for why the book was so late, so I will provide a hypothesis: as he needed to interview and refer sections to Apollon, the Hyperborean season being the only time Apollon deigned he could sacrifice to the volume's creation, the book proceeded more slowly than Dr. Graf and Routledge Publishing had anticipated.

So now for my ratings:

Layout - 5/5
Editing (Grammar, spelling, formatting) - 4.5/5
Content - 5/5
Readability - 4/5
Overall - 4.5/5

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A Reaction to Kirsch's God Against the Gods

If you like reading about Emperor Julian, you might like this book.

I began to read God Against the Gods in the basement of the Smith College library during thirty-minute breaks between classes as a reward for making progress on some of my papers, and I consumed much of it in the B-level room with the snack machines and whirring heating systems as people walked in and out for their paper-writing fuel. I read a chapter at a time, never checking it out because I needed to barricade my room against distractions, haunting the BL 200 section. The copy I secured afterward came from an Amazon.com used books associate; it contains a lot of notes for the first two chapters before the original reader fell silent or stopped reading. This is a sampling of what the previous reader underlined:

• “[M]onotheism insists that the other gods to whom worship is offered are not merely inferior in power or stature ... they are false ... even demonic .... there is but one God” (10).
• “To worship the wrong god ... is punishable by death” (10).

They underlined only the portions that describe the Christian world view, a summary of everything many polytheists find objectionable or even downright rude about intolerant monotheism. The original reader elaborated on his or her writings in the margins: “monotheistic approach to faith is cruel,” s/he says and—one of the most perplexing statements I think I have found in a used book—“This snobbism, this SUPERIORITY ATTITUDE → Repulsive!” Perhaps a fellow polytheist decided to vent at the naked portrayal of monotheism's flaws, but the individual could have been an irate monotheist. Some Internet reactions state that Jonathan Kirsch's arguments in God Against the Gods are anti-Christian; perhaps this reader, too, expected something that glorified monotheism at the expense of what came before.

“Anti-Christian” can sometimes be a synonym for “balanced and BS-free”; the arguments and ratings given by those inflamed people do not provide effective arguments against the book. In fact, any argument criticizing the book for sympathizing with polytheism makes it more valuable to me, and I agree with one of the book's goals: to highlight the struggles of the past with an aim to speak out against present-day extremist monotheism. “[T]he roots of religious terrorism are not found originally or exclusively in Islamic tradition,” Kirsch writes. “Quite the contrary, it begins in the pages of the Bible, and the very first examples of holy war and martyrdom are found in Jewish and Christian history” (3). As Kirsch develops his argument, he pits the intolerant monotheism against an open, tolerant polytheism, reflecting many opinions Pagan bloggers have made this month about the value of spiritual inclusiveness in our various pagan and polytheistic faiths. One-True-God exclusivity has no place in polytheism, even for mystery sects such as the Orphics, because all gods deserve some consideration.

The section of this book I found most enjoyable was Chapter Two: What Did Pagans Do? In fact, I recommend any individuals interested in understanding the polytheistic world view to check out these pages. Kirsch argues that most arguments about classical paganism are wrong. “The awkward and ironic truth is that the rituals against which the biblical authors rant and rave bear a striking resemblance to some of the approved beliefs and practices of monotheism as they are depicted in the Bible. What pagans did, as it turns out, was not so very different from what the pious worshippers of the Only True God did” (59). The assessments he makes—while some who believe that every folk magician is a Medea waiting to happen may disagree—are generally well-founded and illuminating.

And then the rest of the book happens. Reading it made me feel anger sometimes, but also horror and resentment. Towards the end, I felt despair at the death of Julian and anger at the person who killed him—most acutely at the Church, which flaunts his death, and the people who consider him a depraved person instead of the brilliant philosopher and defender of the old religion he was. The rise of monotheism seems so improbable and against reason, yet here we are today living in a world where people murder one another for believing in the wrong god and children learn intolerance from an early age. Monotheists, too, must feel uneasy and even angry when they read this because Kirsch does not give them the glory they found in the state-mandated history texts and Sunday sermons.

Layout - 4/5
Editing (Grammar, spelling, formatting) - 4.5/5
Content - 3.5/5
Readability - 4.5/5
Overall - 4/5

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