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I don't support any social theory that says women aren't allowed to say no to men

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Look, we joke a lot, but really, "you were born evil, wretched, worse than the scum of the earth, and it took killing a god to make you salvageable, so now you'd better be grateful to that god and thank him 10,000 times a day for it and fill your thoughts with him 24/7 and abide by the letter of his every word, lest you suffer unimaginable torture for all of eternity" is a truly horrendous thing to believe about yourself and other people

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Its line guides me, this long, winding thread of memory.

Border Boy, Alberto Ríos

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Fantasia (1940)

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when I say Goddess, I'm talking about Life. another name is Nature: the Nature-of-all-things. another name, physics, Physica; meaning "the natural things". other names: Alchemy; Chemistry; Bios, "life, one's life, lifetime"; Quintessence. Divine Wisdom. The Universe. Container of every thing. Vitality. Electricity. Space-time. All of this is Goddess; female is the blueprint. The Great Mystery. The Great Power. The Great Cosmic Mother. all names to describe that which is indescribable, larger than large, deeper than deep, swirling and turning inside itself forever. What has always existed and always will exist.

She, that word referring to the female, is not peripheral, not minimal, She is central, essential, primal, primary. She is working all the time. The bedrock and the building block. I honor the female in myself by naming me Goddess, too. All women and girls are Goddess.

The forces of Nature are alive and at work within us; that's the divine spark; that's Life.

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friendly reminder that the Abrahamic God never actually said that Eve couldn’t eat from the Tree of Knowledge, he only told Adam not to eat from it (Gen 2:17). perhaps the entire reason the tree was in the garden in the first place was so that Eve could eat from it & become wise (why else would it be in the garden if no one could eat from it??) but Adam couldn’t be trusted with that wisdom, so when Adam ate from it, that’s when all hell broke loose. yes, Eve eventually found out about the command (that’s why she told the serpent “God said not to eat from it”), but who’s to say that Adam didn’t tell her not to eat from the tree bc he was jealous????? also a friendly reminder that Eve didn’t “deceive” Adam, he was deceived by the snake. Adam was literally standing right there when the snake starting talking to Eve (Gen 3:6: he was “with her”). so it’s either he was also deceived by the snake, or Adam is evil, because he allowed Eve to eat from the tree & didn’t stop her from doing it.

no. seriously. take a look at Genesis.

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The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.

~ Alfred Austin

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-Drawing Down the Moon by Margot Adler

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Oaths and Hellenic Polytheism

Here’s my short essay on oaths. If you find anything that needs correcting please contact me. 

Oaths Defined

An oath for the purposes of this essay is defined as a statement of fact sworn upon, ‘the head of Zeus’ or upon the River Styx*. The daimon of oaths, Horkos9, will be referred to as Horkos in this essay to avoid confusion between the two as in some text the daimon is referred to as simply Oaths.

There are two kinds of oaths that will be covered, the sworn oath and the unsworn oath. This essay will provide examples of both types of oaths, explain the consequences for breaking oaths, and finally, this essay will look at how classic oaths could effect and influence the lives of Hellenic polytheists in their current practices.

Oath Formula

An oath is given by swearing upon Zeus’s head, or by referencing the water of the river Styx. In the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, however, Hermes never explicitly voices his oath to Apollon instead Apollon outlines the oath and asks that Hermes nod his head to accept it or verbally swear it himself. When Hermes nods, both gods treat that oath like it was sworn verbally by Hermes.

Unsworn Oaths

Unsworn oaths, specifically the unsworn oaths of Hermes are taken from the Homeric Hymn to Hermes. These oaths sound like proper sworn oaths but the language used provides wiggle room for the trickster.

“But if you wish, I will swear a great oath by my father’s head, that I am not responsible, nor have I seen any other who stole your cows …”1

Fletcher, author of A Trickster’s Oaths in the “Homeric Hymn to Hermes argues that the use of I will instead of I do keep this oath from being a properly sworn oath7. The text supports this argument because the infant-god is not punished for ‘breaking’ this oath, because the Hymn is clear that Hermes did in fact steal Apollon’s cattle7.

It should be mentioned that unsworn oaths are mentioned as a warning. Attempting to hoodwink the gods with an unsworn oath is unlikely to end well.

Examples of Oaths

There are many examples of oaths in Hellenic texts.  Here are two examples.

Leto swearing an oath to Delos, “Now hear this, Earth and wide Heaven above, and dropping water of Styx (this is the strongest and most awful oath for the blessed gods), surely Phoebus shall have here his fragrant altar and precinct, and you he shall honour above all.”1

Calypso giving her oath to Odysseus “May heaven above and earth below be my witnesses, with the waters of the river Styx- and this is the most solemn oath which a blessed god can take- that I mean you no sort of harm, and am only advising you to do exactly what I should do myself in your place.”5

Breaking Oaths-Mortals

Epiorkia or perjury is the breaking of an oath. Epiorkia has consequences both for mortals and for immortals11. Horkos, who was mentioned above as the daimon of oaths, was the one who inflicted punishment upon perjurers. Horkos is described in Hesiod’s Theogony as one “who does more damage than any other to earthly men, when anyone, of his knowledge, swears to a false oath.”3

“Beware of all the fifth days [of the month]; for they are harsh and angry; it was on the fifth, they say, that the Erinyes (Furies) assisted at the bearing of Horkos (Horcus, Oath), whom Eris (Strife) bore, to be a plague on those who take false oath.”4

In Aesop’s Fables Horkos tells a man who hoped to avoid being punished for oath breaking, “You also need to know that if somebody intends to provoke me, I am accustomed to come back again the very same day.” This is in reference to the man wanting to escape punishment who had asked Horkos how often he came to punish oath breakers. When Horkos replied that we would return in thirty or forty years, the mortal thought he could escape the punishment, he was wrong2.  

Breaking Oaths-Deities

Hesiod describes what happens to the deathless gods when they break oaths:

“[When a god] is forsworn, [he] lies breathless until a full year is completed, and never comes near to taste ambrosia and nectar, but lies spiritless and voiceless on a strewn bed: and a heavy trance overshadows him. But when he has spent a long year in his sickness, another penance and an harder follows after the first. For nine years he is cut off from the eternal gods and never joins their councils of their feasts, nine full years. But in the tenth year he comes again to join the assemblies of the deathless gods who live in the house of Olympus.”3

HPs and Oaths

Oaths could very easily have a place in lives of Hellenic polytheists, if the polytheists are aware of the seriousness and weight of the oaths. These oaths invoke the Hellenic gods and daimons, and should not be taken lightly but with proper knowledge and awareness oaths are like any other promise with a slightly higher stake for breaking them.

Possible uses for oaths could be in oathing one’s self to deities and in marriage ceremonies. Both situations require commitment and sincerity and would have to be worded very carefully.

For example, when oathing to a deity the ritual language provided in The Homeric Hymns can be a good template to work from. It would be easy to craft an oath using similar language to the example oaths, like referencing the heaven and earth, adding in the deity of choice as a specific witness, as well as the water of the river.

Mentioning the solemnness of the oath is also a reoccurring pattern, even in oaths sworn on the head of Zeus, so that wouldn’t be remiss to mention.

Here is a mock-up of an oath.

“May the Heavens and Earth be witness to my oath, upon the water of the River Styx which flows, this most solemn oath, is given to…”

Keep in mind it’s just an example but it stands to reason that all oaths would follow that similar pattern.

*Something I didn’t really explore is the possible that there are two ‘levels of oath’ one sworn on the head of Zeus which is described by Hermes in his unsworn oath in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes as a great oath1. An oath on the water of the River Styx is described several times as the “the most solemn oath”1 that a deathless god can swear which seems to imply that that between the two oaths on made on the River Styx is more serious, than one sworn on Zeus.

Another example of swearing to Zeus instead of the River Styx is in The Iliad. Achilles swears upon his sceptre which is said to represent Zeus’ justice8, “…and swear it with a great oath- nay, by this my sceptre…”5

[1] The Homeric Hymns 

[2] Aesop, Fables

[3] Hesiod, Theogony

[4] Hesiod, Works & Days

[5] Homer, The Iliad

[6] Homer, The Odyssey

[7] Fletcher, Judith. “A Trickster’s Oaths in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes.” American Journal of Philology 129.1 (2008): 19-46. Web.

[8] http://mythagora.com/bios/zeusiliad.html

[9] Theoi.com

[10] Thür, Gerhard (Graz). “Epiorkia.” Brill’s New Pauly. Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and , Helmuth Schneider. Brill Online, 2015. Reference. 27 June 2015 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/epiorkia-e333010>

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The Goddesses created men only so we would have someone to sacrifice in situations of war or other great perils. Men were never meant to be more than that: thugs and pawns. It is time to right the wrongs of our kind-hearted but foolish ancestors who let men into their homes, attempted to domesticate malekind and teach him our ways of structure and reason. Surely by now we all can see he will not learn, for he does not desire it. He desires only what he was made for: destruction and violence, even if it is his own. He is too entitled and delusional of his own humanity to make for companionship as a woman might find in a cat or dog, and he is too barbaric and intellectually limited to make for companionship as a woman might find in another woman.

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Can we talk about the fact that cult psychologists and those who study the history of cults will always specify that “cult” has no hard definition? Because the more I learn about the way the most destructive cults operate vs the way that a lot of churches operate, the more I think the only reason they specify that is because invoking a true definition would also describe the Christian church (and other organized religions). They can’t say “hey this pastor and his congregation are a cult” because that’s “religious discrimination”. (I put that in quotes because Christians love to say how oppressed they are, saying genuine criticism is infringing on their freedom of speech and right to practice religion and as someone who grew up in it, I am so fucking tired of it.)

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Please stop calling us a homophobic slur, thanks 🌈