paganzach

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Happy pride month ❤️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Not a typical pride month illustration, just me wanted to represent my community in my own way 🥰❤️

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I truly believe that if you’re going to engage with Greek mythology then you have to put the moral purity aside. None of the characters are going to behave according to our modern sense of morality or ethics. So you either have to get over it OR you have to be willing to dive deeper into the narrative and research the context. Instead of saying “Zeus is clearly a predator” ask yourself WHY are there so many stories about Zeus having babies with mortal women? What’s the significance? Dive deeper into the story and realize the location is ALWAYS mentioned and focused on. See that the child that was conceived typically goes on to do world changing things such as founding a new kingdom…a kingdom that’s usually related to the location that the narrative kept focusing on….huh I wonder why? Perhaps maybe these stories are not about how Zeus likes to get his dick wet (forgive my bluntness Big Poppa! 🙏🏻) but about kingdoms and royalty wanting to link their beginnings to the King of Kings himself??? Maybe????? Possibly??? But I’m just guessing 🤷🏻‍♀️

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Ill be entirely honest, I'm confused by those that know that the new temple of Zeus and Pan was opened by a violent antisemite ultra-nationalist and are somehow saying things like "they're terrible but at least we have a temple and hopefully more will open!"

We do not have a temple.

WE do not have a temple.

Those of us that aren't Greek do not have a temple.

This is not a "win."

And to hold these values while building a temple for Zeus, the god of foreigners, you're ridiculous, and you're lame.

Zeus is not in that temple, he worships in an empty box.

[paganzach]

new year new mountain goats

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I'd like to think that when we die, we never die alone. I believe that Thanatos waits beside us, there to hold our hand as our souls leave our bodies. I believe that Hermes takes our other hand, guiding us from this life to the next. I believe that Charon sits us down on his boat, transitioning fully from the world of the living to that of the dead. I believe that when we enter through Haides' gates, even then, we are not alone as we're accompanied with other souls - maybe some people we know, and others we don't. And when I take my rest in the Fields of Asphodel, there'll be other content souls, resting amongst the flowers beside me as we spend our afterlives in peace within King Haides' beautiful kingdom.

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May Dionysus Androgynous look after my trans brothers, sisters, and siblings who need it the most right now. May He bless you with the comfort of knowing you're not alone and the ability to remember how much strength you truly possess. May He grant you a glimpse into the memories of the millions of trans souls who came before us, as we have always existed, and remind you of how incredibly resilient our community has always been.

Hail Dionysus, the Great Liberator! May He break the chains that bind us all and ignite the spark of revolution within our hearts. 💜🍇🥂🏳️‍⚧️

[paganzach]

Nazis will never be welcome in paganism. They have no space in our communities, we will have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to nazis. You have no right to the cultures, gods and religions you hijack to spread your disgusting ideologies. You will find no refuge or comraderie amongst pagans.

Reblog to let nazis know they’re not welcome here.

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[paganzach]

Hot take but you can’t learn about paganism without also learning about white supremacy and how it uses pagan religions to push hate group agendas all over the world today. If you don’t learn about the connections between the two and how it operates, your ignorance enables white supremacists to keep on doing it and using it to recruit others. People in our community who do nothing and stay silent are literally a part of the problem, there is no opting out whatsoever. Divorcing the two makes the issue repeat itself over and over and over again.

It’s not hard to include this in your research and stay aware. It’s the bare minimum.

[paganzach]

Casual Curse for Bigots

Inspired by the douchebag who saw fit to put a neo-Nazi (oh sorry, “alt-right” -eyeroll-) propaganda flier under my wiper at the market today.

May the hateful hands that forged this Have their own hatred turned back to bite them May their own teeth bite their slanderous tongues May their own bile choke them May their own spite confound them May the harm they do be visited upon them a hundred times And a hundred times again Until enlightenment finds them Or death takes them

Tear the flier into pieces, dispose of it in a public waste receptacle, and spit after it.

[paganzach]

"Of Madness and Men"

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A god whose beauty shines like no other,

Both externally and deep within,

A god who makes the outcast his brother,

Indulging in revelry and sin,

He gifted us pleasures of theatre and wine,

And told us to embrace indulgence,

We spoil ourselves, "what's theirs is mine",

And embrace our disobedience,

The God who taught us what diversity means,

Humanity's one true Savior,

With ivy leaves, he crowns kings and queens,

He frees us from our labor,

Praise Dionysus of grapes and good spirits,

Let's hold hands around the bonfire,

We'll push on well past our mortal limits,

Our bodies will beg us to retire,

To drink of his blood and eat of his flesh,

We'll lose our minds in divinity,

To find clarity in madness and comfort in mess,

The thrice-born holy Trinity.

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"Why am I this way?" A little goat asked Dionysus. "I desire the wrong things, the wrong way of life. I am imperfect."

"Nothing is perfect," Replied the God, "Not even the Gods are perfect. You are beautiful in your imperfection."

"But the things that I hope to achieve, the desires I long for - all of these things are wrong and evil! I am evil..."

"Are these things truly wrong, or were you told that they were?"

"...I was told that they were, but that doesn't change that I am evil, I am wrong."

Dionysus put a hand on the goat's back with a sigh. "If pleasure is evil, then I'm happy to be wrong."

The goat looked at the God with surprise. "Why?"

"Life is so short," Dionysus began, "It is a precious thing - something to cherish and savor, like a fine wine rich in flavor. Why spend your life caring what others think is evil and wrong of you when you can be living your best life, happy and away from them?"

"I see," Said the goat, "Then am I not evil?"

"If every opinion were a fact, you would be. But that's not how things work, no matter how certain people are of their opinions. You are not evil; you were only labeled as such."

"I am not evil." The goat stared ahead at the rising sun, "I am perfect in my imperfections."

[paganzach]

Divine Gods, for the blessings and good favour you have bestowed upon us, we are eternally grateful and we ask that you, in your endless mercy and benevolence, continue grant us more in the new year to come.

Khairete.

[paganzach]

my heart is literally shattering

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Crazy to think that by now, Dionysus should have transitioned from a god of ecstasy to one of social refinement and polite gatherings if it weren't for ancient Greek religion losing its prevalence.

And I mean that Dionysus, as a god who promotes madness and disinhibitions, is what's left of a time when wine was our strongest alcoholic beverage, a time of maenads and symposiums. Nowadays, we have liquor (spirits), far better for getting drunk, and beer, as the always cheaper alternative, so in a "let's get drunk moment," wine isn't picked. That way, the beverage has been left to the sophisticated: culinary connoisseurs, elegant dinner parties, wine enthusiasts, elites, and intellectuals.

And if that's our perception of wine, shouldn't that also be the dominion of its god?

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the whole thing abt hermaphroditus specifically resting hermaphroditus is that ur supposed to walk around it and think 'oh pretty woman.... wait. PENIS???' which in our day at least dabbling in transmisogyny, if im being gentle. bc in our modern minds, that's a trans womans body. we know there r women who look like this. dare i say most ppl in the world know that there r women who look like this, even if only in theory, even if they dont consider them women.

however that was not the case in ancient times. before hrt and gender affirming surgeries, trans women didnt look like that. to them it was not a trans woman's body, it was an intersex body, and afaik someone being this "visually" intersex is EXTREMELY rare. it was so rare, they never even heard of anyone who looks like this irl. so rare and unexplained, so "unnatural" to the way they see the world, that it might as well be mythological. a figure that exists due to cosmic events, not bc of the inherent diversity of human biology.

its just so crazy to me that to the ppl who worshipped her n painted her n drew her n the original intended audience could only conceptualize her as an otherworldly mythical figure and to most ppl today who r even somewhat involved in popular culture or the trans community shes just like. a normal woman. we look at her and go 'yeah this celebrity/my friend/my girlfriend/i look like this'. isnt it amazing??

anyways i was in palazzo massimo today and they had a resting hermaphroditus properly placed within the space thank GAWD so here she is

[paganzach]

Nazis will never be welcome in paganism. They have no space in our communities, we will have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to nazis. You have no right to the cultures, gods and religions you hijack to spread your disgusting ideologies. You will find no refuge or comraderie amongst pagans.

Reblog to let nazis know they’re not welcome here.