Category: festivals

Khairete!

Today at Temenos Oikidios, we celebrated the Khethonion for the first time.  As with our previous ritual, this is a modern creation that we developed in order to a) ensure that all the Theoi and Theai are given Their due and b) to fill out our ritual schedule.

The ancient Greeks would not have held a festival such as this due to belief that it would be dangerous to attract the attention of the Kthonoi.  To make clear our intent in worshiping Them, Hiereos Peregrine Ursano wrote an invocation especially for the occasion specifying that we are thanking Them for all They have done for our ancestors.

Offerings were split into traditional (onions, celery, mint, parsley) and modern (sausage stew, mushroom-onion palmiers, pumpkin pie, cupcakes, and fresh vegetables).  The divination was done through reading candle wax dropped into the libation of sparkling cider, and the message was, “That which is hidden will be revealed.”

Our next festival will be the Anthesteria, on February 10.

Until next time, may the blessings of the Gods be with you.

Khairete,

Today at Temenos Oikidios, we celebrated the Kheimonia, our winter festival that combines several ancient and modern Hellenic festivals: the Pompaia, the Maimakteria, the Dendraia, the Rural Dionysia, and the Haloa, as well as incorporating homage to Hera Chera, Hermes Taxidoros, and Apollon Iatros.

We opened with a grounding meditation centered around where and how we find warmth in the winter months. We invoked Hestia, Hermes, Poseidon, Demeter, Hera, Zeus, Dionysos, Pan, and Apolon using Hearthstone’s In Praise of Olympus.

Thusia was a freshly baked and warm loaf of white bread, and theoxenia was slow-cooked pork with root vegetables and rum balls.

Our divination was Nemesis:

“Concerning that which you intend, make haste; all will be yours afterward. Those things that until now brought you sorrow, will be directed to your advantage, says the god. Be at peace, there is no evil ahead for you” (Dervenis, 2004, p. 125).

In the Haloa tradition of striving to make Demeter laugh, we finished out the festival with a round of the game Rotten Apples.

Our next festival will be the Olympieia on January 13, 2019.  Until then, may the blessings of the gods be with you!

Dervenis, K. (2004.) Oracle bones divination: The Greek I Ching. Rochester, VT: Destiny Books

Khairete!

Today, we celebrated the Panaia,

and part 1 of the Dendraia.

We each took turns reading prayers to Pan from In Praise of Olympus and sections of the Homeric Hymn to Pan.

As is customary, Hiereos Timotheos did a reading for the Temenos using the oracle bones.  What came up was Dionysus Bassareus:

“One lone six, one three, and three ones fall:
Be in no hurry to harvest the buds of the vine, nor the summer figs,
nor should you prepare your [fishing] weights for the line,
for you will lie heavy in the waves.
Your obligation lies elsewhere, and it eludes you.

Our thusia was freshly-baked bread, and theoxenia was spicy lamb couscous, herbed cheese and olives, carrot salad, kale salad, and cornbread, with desserts of sticky buns and apple pie and libations of retsina, and both hard and soft cider.

We then decorated Pan’s tree while people received individual readings.

Our next festivals will be

Oracle of the Bulls, led by Hiereos Terentios online, 11/16 at noon EST.

Synkomidia, a harvest festival to Demeter and Gaia, 11/25 at 2pm EST.

Until then, may the blessings of the Gods be with you!