Interview on WITCHTALK

For those of you with an interest in the Seven Deathless Powers, that is the Seven Classical Planets which have governed the magic and myth of so many cultures throughout the generations all around the world, I will be speaking to KARAGAN at WITCHTALK Radio this evening about The Seven Wandering Stars & Magic.  More information can be found at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/witchtalk

If you join the interview live this evening you can join in the discussion in the chatroom and ask questions live whilst the interview is happening… I hope you will be joining us this evening, when I will be speaking from under the beautiful starlit sky here in Wales …

Here’s the Blurb:~
“The influence of the seven Wandering Stars, or Deathless Powers of the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn has shaped the development of magick for many thousands of years. Their influence can be seen permeating many of the modern Western Esoteric Traditions, who are the inheritors of the wisdom and knowledge passed down through the aged. From Ancient Sumeria, to the Greeks, The Romans, the early Qabalists, the medieval and Renaiisance Grimoire Magickians through to the Victorian Occult Socities, through to Wicca and many of the other modern pagan revivalist traditions.  Sorita d’Este is the author of 15 books related to western occultism, mythology and magick, with subjects spanning the Western Esoteric Traditions, including British Folklore, European Mythology, Qabalah, the Wiccan Tradition and Graeco-Egyptian Magic. She is however, above all passionate about the Seven Wandering Stars, or Seven Classical Planets, and their influence on magic and the development of mythology – and believes that it is an essential factor in successful magical practice.”

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/witchtalk

Girls, Gods and Trance

“Shivering, they say, my face did change to something less than mortal, yet more mighty and beautiful than my corporeal form.  Taller they say I stood with a voice which was not quite my own.  I simply gave myself wholly and gave myself utterly over to the words and inspriation of Leto’s glorious son.”
(Bolina Oceanus, in her essay “For Lo! Apollo is within me” published in Priestesses, Pythonesses & Sibyls)

My previous two blogs looked a little at the Goddess Artemis and how she was venerated by men, something which is often overlooked by those who are reinstating the worship of the old gods today.  Likewise, the worship of her twin brother Apollo provides us with some interesting challenges to modern perceptions of gender within a spiritual and magical setting.  In modern practices it is more often a female Priestess who will open herself up to an invocation of a Goddess into her for the purposes of trance and oracular work.  It is still considered rather avant-garde in some circles for a woman to open herself up for possession by a God (or indeed for a male Priest to have a female Goddess invoked into him).   But why should such a thing be considered innovative today when one of the most famous oracles of the ancient world involved the possession of a Priestess by a male God for the purposes of prophesy?

The Oracle of Delphi was home to the cult of Apollo, twin brother to the goddess Artemis.  These two deities were born to the goddess Leto, through a union with the king of the gods Zeus.  The story of their birth is one an epic one.  Leto is impregnated by Zeus, who is of course married to Hera, goddess of marriage, who was not at all pleased with the news that her husband was to father children with another goddess (yet again, as Zeus often got himself into trouble for fathering children with both mortals and gods!).   She forbade Leto to give birth on solid land and wherever the pregnant goddess went she was made to move on and denied the right to rest and give birth to her children.  In one version of the story Hera instructs the Python of Delphi, a giant serpent, to chase Leto and prevent her from getting rest.  In the end she finds refuge on the floating island of Delos, believed to have once been the body of the star goddess Asteria (sister of Leto) when she, in an effort to escape the advances of Zeus, flung herself into the ocean.  In alternative version we are told that Asteria was turned into a quail by Zeus, when she flung herself into the ocean, or that Zeus helped Leto by turning her into a quail so that she could reach Delos more easily.  Either way, the quail seems to be a key theme in this myth.

When Artemis is born, she then (as she is a god, of course) helps her mother to birth her brother Apollo – and the two would always remain absolutely loyal to each other and to their mother.  As soon as they reached adulthood, they started the process of killing many of those who brought dishonour upon their mother when she was looking for a place to rest and give birth to them.  The first to suffer at their wrath was the Python of Delphi, who had been guarding the oracle there for many years.   The Python, described as a giant serpent or dragon like creature was slayed by the arrows of the twins and Apollo took over the shrine at Delphi, and became the God of the Oracle.

It was said of the Oracle:

“The oracle at Delphi never would have been so much frequented, so famous, and so crowded with offerings from peoples and kings of every land, if all ages had not tested the truth of its prophesies.” (Cicero, On Divination)

In her essay “The Pythia”  Caroline Tully wrote that:~

“A regular Greek priestess’ sphere of influence reached only as far as the temenos walls of her sanctuary.  The authority of the Pythia, or the Priestess of the Delphic Apollo, on the other hand extended much further into areas such as religion, politics, warfare and overseas colonisation.  This was unusual not only for a priestess, but for a woman in what was predominantly patriarchal ancient Greece”.
(Caroline Tully, from The Pythia, published in Priestesses, Pythonesses & Sibyls)

It is clear from these examples that the Oracle of Apollo in Delphi was a very important one, and that it held a lot of power, and that likewise women who held the office of Pythia there, were valued and honoured members of society, whose position gave them a high office in many affairs.  What however is interesting and something I personally believe modern Pagans who do trance work with the gods might wish to take notice of is that arguably the most famous of the oracular priestesses of the ancient world gained their prophesy from a Apollo, a male god.  This was not considered unusual at all in the ancient world and there are examples which illustrate that the pythia did not just speak ‘for’ Apollo, but was actually speaking ‘as’ Apollo:

“The Pythia not only spoke for Apollo, as other priestesses might presume to do for the deities they served, but spoke as Apollo.  Ancient authors believed that she was fully capable for channelling Apollo’s words…”
(Caroline Tully, from The Pythia, published in Priestesses, Pythonesses & Sibyls)

What is described in terms of history and academic research by Caroline Tully, is described in modern experiential terms by modern day Priestess of Apollo, Bolina Oceanus when she wrote in the same anthology:
 

“Becoming a Priestess for Apollo and allowing him to speak through me has allowed me to be free in ways I never expected I could be, but with it I have also been given a great responsibility.  I have to speak his words and I am not allowed to interpret them for others…

I have worked in groups where it was my role to assume the form of a Goddess and enjoyed those rites greatly, though I often found that something was missing or not quite right.  It was only when I first experienced Apollo speaking through me that I gave the matter much thought and realised some very obvious things.  in the ancient magickal and religious practices there were always specific deities who had associations with prophecy, whilst others had specific associations with for example agriculture, love, war or wealth.  This makes for an interesting point to consider, is it all that polite (or for that matter safe!) to invoke deities into ourselves who have no interest in prophesy?)”

(Bolina Oceanus, in her essay “For Lo! Apollo is within me” published in Priestesses, Pythonesses & Sibyls)

So, how do you decide which deities you will allow to possess you for the sake of oracular work?  And how do you test your results?

The Temple of Apollo

 This blog was originally posted to www.sorita.co.uk and is (c) Sorita d’Este 2010

Blood on Her Altar

The idea that Artemis was only worshipped by women in the ancient world, which is a common one amongst modern pagans, is simply not true.  Men often played a role in ceremonies honouring her, though in a very different way and for different reasons from women.

In Sparta during the Roman period, young men had to undergo severe flogging on the altar of Artemis Orthia, the scourging would continue until the entire altar was covered in their blood.  This ritual flogging was known as diamnastigosis   (from diamastigô - ”to whip harshly”), and was a test endurance through which the men had to demonstrate their willingness and worthiness to be devotees and warriors fighting in the name this goddess.  

This particular ceremony is believed to have its origins in the discovery of the image of Artemis Orthia which was lost from a temple and then subsequently rediscovered.  The statue was found by two Spartan warriors, Astrabakos and Alopekos, who went insane when they found the statue.  The statue was then replaced in the temple, an altar set up and Artemis temporarily propitiated.  Then at a sacrifice honouring Artemis at this icon, groups of Limnatians, Kynosourians and Mesoans got into a quarrel, which developed into a fight during which several of the men were killed at the altar.  The Goddess was furious and killed the remaining men through a disease! 

The disease started spreading and the Spartans were understandably concerned and therefore consulted with an Oracle.  They were told that the only way in which they could appease Artemis and thereby prevent further spread of the disease would be to stain her altar with human blood.  Initially this took the form of human sacrifice on the altar, with the blood of the sacrifice being smeared on the altar.  But it was eventually substituted with the ceremonial scourging of young men as part of their coming of age, journey into manhood.   During the scourging a Priestess would hold the wooden image of Atemis, and if the image became heavy to her, it meant that the men scourging the boys were giving favour to a boy, maybe because of the rank of the child or because of his beauty.  If this happened then the Priestess would chastise the scourgers and make sure that the boy in question is scourged properly.

This combined with the use of ritual flogging as described by Xenophon as I discussed in my blog of yesterday and the mock sacrifice at the temple of Artemis Tauropolos in Attica demonstrate examples of where men were very much the centre of ceremonies honouring Artemis. 

As always I would love to hear your thoughts on this practice, you can respond here or at the original blog www.sorita.co.uk

For more info see: ARTEMIS Virgin Goddess of the Sun & Moon

Lets steal the cheese of Artemis!

When you think of cheese, its unlikely that the Goddess Artemis will be the first thing to cross your mind!  However, ever since chancing on a snippet about a ritual recorded by Xenophon when I was doing the research for my book ARTEMIS Virgin Goddess of the Sun and Moon some years back, I often find myself thinking of Artemis when I see one of those cheeses wrapped in red, as the red makes me think of the bloodshed which might have accompanied the “cheese stealing ritual” of Artemis!

In Lakedaimonion Politeia (2.9) we find a reference to this cheese stealing ritual in which two opposing groups of young men would contest some cheese, which would be stored on the altar of Artemis.  The first group would defend the cheese with whips and the second group would try to steal it.  This ritual seems to have been a variation of many others which would involve some form of fighting, violence and bloodshed on Artemis’ altars. 

In another example Euripides recorded a mock sacrifice which was performed at the temple of Artemis Tauropolos in Attica.  In this rite a man would have his neck scratched with a knife, so that blood was drawn.  We can speculate that this might have formed part of an initiatory rite, with the first of the blood being shed as an offering to Artemis.

“And institute this custom: when the people celebrate, as atonement for your sacrfice let them hold a sword to a man’s neck and cause blood to flow, for holidness sake and that the goddess have due honour.” (Euripedes)

For those of you who have undergone esoteric Wiccan Initiations will recognise the theme which runs through the above reference, something which again illustrates how the same practices which were found in the ancient world continues to be echoed in modern ritual practices, often with no recognition of the original and with the vague idea that our modern rites have all just been invented the other day.  But that is part of the illusion of the Moon!

For those familiar with the image of the goddess Artemis in modern paganism, the above might have raised an eyebrow as the examples noted involve MALE devotees, contrary to the modern idea that Artemis’ worshippers were all female!  Though it is true that the majority of her devotees were young female virgins, there are many examples of men who did devote themselves to Artemis too. 

Tomorrow I will draw again from the work I published in ARTEMIS to explore the idea of men as worshippers of Artemis a little more, and will also consider the role of male gods in her mysteries.  I would love to hear your thoughts about Artemis & Men, and of course Cheese – either directly here on my blog (www.sorita.co.uk ) or where-ever you are reading this!

A Fool in Haiti

Those of you who are regular readers of my blog will know that I don’t usually promote causes, unless I feel a particular affinity or passion for it.  When it comes to natural disasters, of which there are plenty, the magical and pagan communities usually issue (like all religious communities) a request for prayers and healing for the victims, but few people actually get up and do something about it which would inconvenience them or take up much of their time.

A Fool in Haiti is one of the rare exceptions.  Seani Fool, a facebook friend of mine, has decided to put his money, time and energy where his passion is and go and physically help with the work which is necessary to rebuilt a school in Haiti.   You can find out more about this project by visiting http://www.afoolinhaiti.me.uk/  – please make a small donation if you can, and even if you can’t afford to you can help by helping to raise awareness of his work by passing on the link to your friends, on your own blog or other social networking.