Hermes ritual and other thoughts
I doing very well with remembering to do my Hermes ritual on the fourth, this is now the second time in a row I've remembered to do so (and as an often lazy ritualist, this is a big deal for me :-)). Not so good with the other stuff, I didn't do the Noumenia again a few nights ago. Got home later then I thought I would, went to check my email and then got caught up in tracking down a few things online for a friend; by the time I was finished it was too late. Oh well, next month.
The ritual went very well. I'd bought a few new things for the altar, got a new libation glass and I had to rearrange several things in order to fit it in, so the set up was a little different this time. Used the usual script, which I'm feeling a strong desire to revamp a little; I'd used someone else's ritual as a model and copied a lot of their words in directly, though the original was for Aphrodite so the Hermes specific stuff in the ritual all came from me. I want to keep the stuff in that I wrote, and change around the rest, the things that aren't mine. When I first wrote that I had absolutely no ritual experience, but now I'm becoming gradually more used to things, developing my own style my own way of doing things, I should have a ritual script that reflects this. Though since I have several other projects I'm working on, a fictional novel I'm trying to get back into, a hymn to Dionysos I have partly written and am a little stuck on, I don't know when I would get to it.
I found myself really looking over my shrine as I was sitting there, looking over all the images I have set up, and was just struck by this sudden intense feeling of love for Hermes. Have you ever had a moment like that? "Wow, I just love this god so much, I love everything about him!" It is a very unusual emotional state for me to be in. It made the whole ritual that much more pleasant. :-)
I had a few questions for Hermes, since much has happened since last I met him in ritual. I wanted to ask him how I should handle the other shrines coming in (I bought a small table for Dionysos last weekend, Persephone is getting my other bureau). One of the things I believe Hermes wants me to do for him is to create a temple in his honor in my home, something along the lines of Thista's temple of Artemis, that I keep open to the public. This is a long term goal of mine that I may be able to start putting into motion in a year or so when my family will have to move out of the home we're living in now. The immediate plan right now is to find a multi-family home, so my sister, boyfriend and baby can have their own apartment and, if we're lucky enough to find one with three rooms, I'd have my own place as well. This is assuming we can find a place that's in our price range and isn't in fucking Lawrence (for those of you who don't live in Massachusetts and don't know what I'm talking about, Lawrence is a ghetto, I wouldn't want to drive through that shithole let alone live there). But if things work out well, I'd have a lot more room to start setting up a real temple, and it would be much easier to open a space to the public (however small that public might be) when I'm the only one living in that space.
But for now, Hermes' temple is most of my bureau in my bedroom (everything but the very edge on either side, I still need some space of my own), and on October 2 of last year I had the whole area christened (to coin a phrase) as the Hermaion (which I'd read on theoi.com was a word meaning "temple of Hermes"). So this left me a little confused when I started thinking about where Persephone and Dionysos were going to fit in. Will their shrines be their own, separate area? I plan on keeping the anniversary of the temple inauguration as a festival to include a thorough cleansing and rededication ceremony; if Persephone and Dionysos' shrines are to be considered completely separate from my temple of Hermes, can they be included in that festival? Should they have their own shrine cleansing days? How would that affect how and when I choose to set things up for them since the festival day is the anniversary, I'd have to plan things out much more carefully?
Anyway, I'll get to the point. I did a divination while I was there with Hermes, allowed thoughts to come into my brain. The message seems to be that Hermes doesn't mind sharing his space with Dionysos and Persephone, doesn't mind them having their small shrines within his overall temple. The powerful certainty that came into my mind then was that my worship of Dionysos and Persephone is in no way a separate thing, but is actually a part of my devotion to Hermes. This probably makes sense, being as how my other two gods are ones that are very closely related to him.
So very well, one temple with two small subsections. At the very least until I figure out and develop a better relationship with my two new deities, then who knows something might change. Good, this will be more convenient for me, I'll be the keeper of one temple, only have to keep one anniversary festival date.
It is definitely time that I start doing a little more for Hermes on an every day basis. One of these days very soon now I plan to walk down to the store and pick up a few things to be used as offerings; a bottle of spring water, honey, olive oil. Any other suggestions from people out there? Nothing that needs to be refrigerated preferably, it'd be much easier if I could just keep everything in a box in my room.
In Sannion's really good new essay on how to start out in our religion, he mentions setting aside some time one and one time for you and your gods. This is what I want to start doing, what I've tried to start multiple times unsuccessfully. My biggest problem I think is that I try to help myself remember to do the ritual (and it is always a ritual I plan out, maybe that's a second mistake) is by tying into either my morning or bedtime routine. Problem with that is I'm a zombie when I wake up, and a zombie when I'm ready to go to bed; my brain's on autopilot so even if I remember to do something, I don't get anything out of it because I'm just going through the memorized motions without really paying attention.
Maybe it would be better to simplify things. Maybe the daily observance should include a libation with a quick prayer, then either a short meditation or an appropriate activity. I wonder if it would be appropriate to dedicate my writing to them, my fictional writing along with whatever devotional writing I might do? I feel all the more strongly now that Dionysos is my creative muse, he's responsible for the images and ideas that come to me, Hermes helps me find the words to describe these images and to give a voice to the people who live in my brain. That would be good for me if I could do that, maybe then I could really get this novel off the ground, or at least write enough of it to determine if it can get off the ground.
Of course when I think about things like daily devotions, I have Hermes in mind. But I have two other gods now, not patrons (or at least not that I know of) but they have surfaced and I should give them some attention and try to build something with them and see where things go. I spent two years with only one god though, my practice is only now expanding out, and I'm still a little unsure of how I should go about things. Should I just stick with Hermes right now with the day to day stuff, since I know he is my patron and I know he wants a lot out of me, focus on Dionysos and Persephone on their respective days of the month, at least for right now? Should I focus much more on Dionysos and Persephone since I don't know them? And can I do that without putting Hermes on a back burner, since he has gotten irritated with me before when he thought I was leaving him out?
I thought I'd put the question to those of you here. How do those of you with multiple patrons, or at least multiple gods that play an active role in your regular spiritual life, how do you decide how you divide your time between them? I'm sure I'll eventually find my own rhythm here, it took me a little while to get used to having one god around, now I just need to get used to having more than one around. Until then, suggestions and personal anecdotes could be helpful.
The last thing I want to mention here is in regards to names. I pick Chiron as an online name a long time ago, for no special reason other than that its a name I really like, and with my later becoming a Hellenic Polytheist, the name seemed an even more appropriate choice. But as my relationship with Hermes began growing, even before I called him my patron, I'd been thinking I should find something else to signify my devotion to him.
I know of course that this is nothing necessary to my religion, but something I always felt I should do nonetheless. I have no particular love for my given name; I suppose as women's names go it fits me better than just about anything else would have. Nicole isn't one of those pretty, flowery, overly feminine names, its short and blunt, and it doesn't have a meaning like "beautiful" or "gentle" or "princess" or some shit like that. I don't love it but I can live with it; if my mother had named me Ashley I would've had it legally changed on principal (I could never stand going through life being called something like that). So as far as my religious life goes, I'd be happy to be rid of it and find something that suits me better.
I know there were certain names one could take in ancient times indicating their belonging to a certain deity, were there names like that for Hermes? I figure there are a few people here who would know better than me. Of Hermes' epithets the only one that has really jumped out at me as a possible title for myself is Kerykes, "herald". For some reason that's always the one that really jumps out at me. I was thinking about possibly trying it out for a while, see how I like it.
Much for me to think about. :-)
The ritual went very well. I'd bought a few new things for the altar, got a new libation glass and I had to rearrange several things in order to fit it in, so the set up was a little different this time. Used the usual script, which I'm feeling a strong desire to revamp a little; I'd used someone else's ritual as a model and copied a lot of their words in directly, though the original was for Aphrodite so the Hermes specific stuff in the ritual all came from me. I want to keep the stuff in that I wrote, and change around the rest, the things that aren't mine. When I first wrote that I had absolutely no ritual experience, but now I'm becoming gradually more used to things, developing my own style my own way of doing things, I should have a ritual script that reflects this. Though since I have several other projects I'm working on, a fictional novel I'm trying to get back into, a hymn to Dionysos I have partly written and am a little stuck on, I don't know when I would get to it.
I found myself really looking over my shrine as I was sitting there, looking over all the images I have set up, and was just struck by this sudden intense feeling of love for Hermes. Have you ever had a moment like that? "Wow, I just love this god so much, I love everything about him!" It is a very unusual emotional state for me to be in. It made the whole ritual that much more pleasant. :-)
I had a few questions for Hermes, since much has happened since last I met him in ritual. I wanted to ask him how I should handle the other shrines coming in (I bought a small table for Dionysos last weekend, Persephone is getting my other bureau). One of the things I believe Hermes wants me to do for him is to create a temple in his honor in my home, something along the lines of Thista's temple of Artemis, that I keep open to the public. This is a long term goal of mine that I may be able to start putting into motion in a year or so when my family will have to move out of the home we're living in now. The immediate plan right now is to find a multi-family home, so my sister, boyfriend and baby can have their own apartment and, if we're lucky enough to find one with three rooms, I'd have my own place as well. This is assuming we can find a place that's in our price range and isn't in fucking Lawrence (for those of you who don't live in Massachusetts and don't know what I'm talking about, Lawrence is a ghetto, I wouldn't want to drive through that shithole let alone live there). But if things work out well, I'd have a lot more room to start setting up a real temple, and it would be much easier to open a space to the public (however small that public might be) when I'm the only one living in that space.
But for now, Hermes' temple is most of my bureau in my bedroom (everything but the very edge on either side, I still need some space of my own), and on October 2 of last year I had the whole area christened (to coin a phrase) as the Hermaion (which I'd read on theoi.com was a word meaning "temple of Hermes"). So this left me a little confused when I started thinking about where Persephone and Dionysos were going to fit in. Will their shrines be their own, separate area? I plan on keeping the anniversary of the temple inauguration as a festival to include a thorough cleansing and rededication ceremony; if Persephone and Dionysos' shrines are to be considered completely separate from my temple of Hermes, can they be included in that festival? Should they have their own shrine cleansing days? How would that affect how and when I choose to set things up for them since the festival day is the anniversary, I'd have to plan things out much more carefully?
Anyway, I'll get to the point. I did a divination while I was there with Hermes, allowed thoughts to come into my brain. The message seems to be that Hermes doesn't mind sharing his space with Dionysos and Persephone, doesn't mind them having their small shrines within his overall temple. The powerful certainty that came into my mind then was that my worship of Dionysos and Persephone is in no way a separate thing, but is actually a part of my devotion to Hermes. This probably makes sense, being as how my other two gods are ones that are very closely related to him.
So very well, one temple with two small subsections. At the very least until I figure out and develop a better relationship with my two new deities, then who knows something might change. Good, this will be more convenient for me, I'll be the keeper of one temple, only have to keep one anniversary festival date.
It is definitely time that I start doing a little more for Hermes on an every day basis. One of these days very soon now I plan to walk down to the store and pick up a few things to be used as offerings; a bottle of spring water, honey, olive oil. Any other suggestions from people out there? Nothing that needs to be refrigerated preferably, it'd be much easier if I could just keep everything in a box in my room.
In Sannion's really good new essay on how to start out in our religion, he mentions setting aside some time one and one time for you and your gods. This is what I want to start doing, what I've tried to start multiple times unsuccessfully. My biggest problem I think is that I try to help myself remember to do the ritual (and it is always a ritual I plan out, maybe that's a second mistake) is by tying into either my morning or bedtime routine. Problem with that is I'm a zombie when I wake up, and a zombie when I'm ready to go to bed; my brain's on autopilot so even if I remember to do something, I don't get anything out of it because I'm just going through the memorized motions without really paying attention.
Maybe it would be better to simplify things. Maybe the daily observance should include a libation with a quick prayer, then either a short meditation or an appropriate activity. I wonder if it would be appropriate to dedicate my writing to them, my fictional writing along with whatever devotional writing I might do? I feel all the more strongly now that Dionysos is my creative muse, he's responsible for the images and ideas that come to me, Hermes helps me find the words to describe these images and to give a voice to the people who live in my brain. That would be good for me if I could do that, maybe then I could really get this novel off the ground, or at least write enough of it to determine if it can get off the ground.
Of course when I think about things like daily devotions, I have Hermes in mind. But I have two other gods now, not patrons (or at least not that I know of) but they have surfaced and I should give them some attention and try to build something with them and see where things go. I spent two years with only one god though, my practice is only now expanding out, and I'm still a little unsure of how I should go about things. Should I just stick with Hermes right now with the day to day stuff, since I know he is my patron and I know he wants a lot out of me, focus on Dionysos and Persephone on their respective days of the month, at least for right now? Should I focus much more on Dionysos and Persephone since I don't know them? And can I do that without putting Hermes on a back burner, since he has gotten irritated with me before when he thought I was leaving him out?
I thought I'd put the question to those of you here. How do those of you with multiple patrons, or at least multiple gods that play an active role in your regular spiritual life, how do you decide how you divide your time between them? I'm sure I'll eventually find my own rhythm here, it took me a little while to get used to having one god around, now I just need to get used to having more than one around. Until then, suggestions and personal anecdotes could be helpful.
The last thing I want to mention here is in regards to names. I pick Chiron as an online name a long time ago, for no special reason other than that its a name I really like, and with my later becoming a Hellenic Polytheist, the name seemed an even more appropriate choice. But as my relationship with Hermes began growing, even before I called him my patron, I'd been thinking I should find something else to signify my devotion to him.
I know of course that this is nothing necessary to my religion, but something I always felt I should do nonetheless. I have no particular love for my given name; I suppose as women's names go it fits me better than just about anything else would have. Nicole isn't one of those pretty, flowery, overly feminine names, its short and blunt, and it doesn't have a meaning like "beautiful" or "gentle" or "princess" or some shit like that. I don't love it but I can live with it; if my mother had named me Ashley I would've had it legally changed on principal (I could never stand going through life being called something like that). So as far as my religious life goes, I'd be happy to be rid of it and find something that suits me better.
I know there were certain names one could take in ancient times indicating their belonging to a certain deity, were there names like that for Hermes? I figure there are a few people here who would know better than me. Of Hermes' epithets the only one that has really jumped out at me as a possible title for myself is Kerykes, "herald". For some reason that's always the one that really jumps out at me. I was thinking about possibly trying it out for a while, see how I like it.
Much for me to think about. :-)