Hello everyone! I am Rosalie, a practicing pagan witch and a worshipper of Demeter! I couldn't find a lot of resources online about Demeter and Her modern day followers, so I decided to compile what I can find as well as attempt to make some resources of my own.
In this blog, you will find:
History
Her connection to other Gods (Persephone, Dionysus, etc)
Myths
Environmentalism
Art/Music
Devotional Pieces
Prayers/Hymns
Beginner's Guides
Aesthetics I think She would enjoy
And more!
If you have any ideas/suggestions, the ask button is here for you! Feel free to tell me any information you learn about Demeter, correct me on any mistakes, or just to simply praise Her!
If you want to follow me on my main, it's @lunarlyloved. In an effort to keep this place just about Demeter, any personal questions/concerns/general hate should go there instead.
Hello all! I’m back again with another epithet. This time, we are learning Demeter Amphictyonis. As always, feel free to skip the first part and go straight to the epithet meaning if you don’t want to read how I studied and found the answers!
As listed on Theoi.com, Demeter Amphictyonis is described as:
derived from Anthela, where she was worshipped under this name, because it was the place of meeting for the amphictyons of Thermopylae, and because sacrifices were offered to her at the opening of every meeting
The Research:
As usual, I did not know any of the names, so I did some digging. I knew Thermopylae and Anthela were places, so I started there.
Anthela was a city state located in Thessaly (Thessalia). Thessaly is a region of Greece, located below Macedonia, next to Epirus, and above Central Greece, with the Aegean Sea to the east. Mount Olympus is actually located in Thessaly! The hero Jason is also from Thessaly, and him and the Argonauts started their search for the Golden Fleece by leaving off the Magnesia Peninsula. And if you know any history, you’ll know the Persians invaded Greece, and they invaded Thessaly in 480 BC.
Thermopylae is another city that is very important to history. This is, of course, where the Battle of Thermopylae took place between the Greeks (namely Spartans, Thebans, and Thesbians) and the Persians. Thermopylae is also known for their hot springs, of which it was named, and the hot gates are considered an entrance into Hades.
Okay, so we familiarized ourselves with some of the places, but what are amphictyons? An amphictyony is a group of tribes that formed a religious, cultural, and political center. There were several leagues, but the one we will be discussing is the Great Amphictyonic League or the Delphic Amphictyony.
The Delphic Amphictyony were made up of the Aenianes/Oetaeans, the Boeotians, the Dolopes, the Dorians, the Ionians, the Phthian Achaeans, the Locrians, the Magnesians, the Malians, the Perrhaebians, the Phocians, the Pythians of Delphi, and the Thessalians. Formed after the Trojan war by Amphictyon, the League was tasked with protecting the Temple of Apollo in Delphi and the Temple of Demeter in Anthela. This league was the military defender of the cult of Delphi.
The league became super politically important. They had the power to protect its temples through punishment, including fines and even banishment, to actually starting wars. There were a set of rules about war, including not cutting off water or completely abolishing any member. Fighting over dominance of the temples was allowed though. They also organized religious festivals and the Pythian Games, celebrated in honor of Apollo at Delphi.
The league participated in a series of wars called the Sacred Wars. The First Sacred War last from 595 to 585, and was fought between the Amphictyonic League and the city of Kirrha. Kirrha was the harbor of Delphi that had been mistreating people going to and coming from Delphi. The city was defeated by the Amphictyonic League and the plains were dedicated to Apollo, Leto, and Artemis. This also marked the start of the first Pythian Games.
The Second Sacred War was between the Spartans and Athenian-backed Phocians around 440 BC. The Spartans defeated the Phocians and restored self-government at Delphi.
The Third Sacred War started in 356 BC, when the Phocians seized the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. In 346 BC, the Phocians lost the war and were cast out of the League, their votes being given to Macedonia, and resulting in the domination of Macedonia over Greece after the Fourth Sacred War.
Myth proclaims the founder of the league to be Amphictyon, who was King of Thermopylae and later ruled over Athens. He is stated to be the brother or son of Hellen, the common ancestor of all Greeks.
Well-known members include Plutarch, who worked as a manager and oversaw the Pythian Games from 107 to 127 and also served as a priest for Apollo at the Temple of Delphi. Another is Aeschines, which I encourage you all to research because his story is INSANE, but he served as an Athenian deputy.
Though the league has no official end date, it is considered over around the 2nd century, under Roman rule. It was replaced by the Panhellenion, a religious league of city states set up by Emperor Hadrian to recreate Ancient Greece when it was fighting the Persians. Hadrian was a philhellene, which meant he was fond of Greek culture and history.
The Epithet:
The Temple of Demeter Amphictyonis was an extra-urban (located far away from big city populations) sanctuary in Anthela, Thessaly and served as the center for the Amphictynoic League, where they met each spring. As Herodotus says:
“Further to the south, another river, called the Phoenix, which has no great body of water, flows from the same hills, and falls into the Asopus. Here is the narrowest place of all; for in this part there is only a causeway wide enough for a single carriage. From the river Phoenix to Thermopylae is a distance of fifteen furlongs; and in this space is situate the village called Anthela, which the river Asopus passes ere it reaches the sea. The space about Anthela is of some width, and contains a temple of Amphictyonian Demeter, as well as the seats of the Amphictyonic deputies, and a temple of Amphictyon himself.” Herodotus, Histories 7. 200
As we can see, this was an extremely important cult center to the Greeks! The Amphictyonic League had a lot of political and religious power. The league made sacrifices to Lady Demeter at the start of meetings, although I have not yet been able to find what kind (even trying to research on the databases allowed to me through college has not found any sources). If anybody could point me in the direction of more information, I will be so glad to update this and credit you!
That being said, what we do know is that Demeter Amphictyonis is a goddess of wine and friendship between nations. She had her likeness printed on a silver stater with a veil and wreath of grain, and Apollo was depicted on the reverse side, inscribed with the word AMΦΙΚΤΥΩΝΩΝ (of the Amphictyons).
Unfortunately, the temple has since been destroyed. It is believed to have no longer been in use around 4th century AD because of the persecution of pagans by Christians. What remains is being studied by archaeologists.
How to Worship:
How you can worship this epithet is similar to the first one in this series - if you’re in the region, want to pay homage to the region/history, or however you want to use the epithet in your practice. Personally, seeing as it is a very important epithet relating to a very politically powerful temple, I think it is an epithet that isn’t to be used lightly. On the other hand, Demeter Amphictyonis is a goddess of wine and merriment, so if you’re having an important event or really need to rock a dinner interview, you could ask her for help.
I think a great take away from this epithet lesson is that there is so much we just don’t really know about ancient history. So much information here is not available either because a) it is not available for free or b) it’s just not researched enough. I would make assumptions, but it is dangerous to do that when I’m not a qualified historian, and I don’t want to spread misinformation like that, so I only reported on what I do know from multiple sources.
Another take away is that there is so much to learn about Ancient Greece. Even just researching this, I learned so much more about history that I want to continue to explore! The betrayal of the Phocians? The Battle of Thermopylae? Even just researching this epithet has really shown me how little I actually know and how much is still waiting for me to see and understand.
If you guys would like me to do a series on Greek history, let me know! There is a TON of related history of the amphictyonic league, so I am more than happy to explore that with you! For now, please look forward to the next epithet for Lady Demeter!
Atacama Desert, in Alto Hospicio, Iquique, Chile. (source)
The textile industry is destroying the world. The industry is wasting massive amounts of energy and materials, and polluting the air, the ground and the water supplies. It overwhelmingly exploits it's labour and extracts wealth from colonized countries, especially in Asia. I assume we all broadly understand this, but I think it's useful to have it all laid out in front of you to see the big picture, the core issues causing this destruction and find ways how to effectively move forward.
The concerning trend behind this ever-increasing devastation are shortening of trend cycles, lowering clothing prices and massive amount of wasted products. Still in year 2000 it was common for fashion brands to have two collections per year, while now e.g. Zara produces 24 collections and H&M produces 12-16 collections per year. Clothing prices have fallen (at leas in EU) 30% from 1996 to 2018 when adjusted to inflation, which has contributed to the 40% increase in clothing consumption per person between 1996 and 2012 (in EU). (source) As the revenue made by the clothing industry keep rising - from 2017 to 2021 they doubled (source) - falling prices can only be achieved with increasing worker exploitation and decreasing quality. I think the 36% degrees times clothing are used in average during the last 15 years (source) is a clear indication on the continuing drop in quality of clothing. Clothing production doubled between 2000 and 2015, while 30% of the clothes produced per year are never sold and are often burned instead (source), presumably to prevent the returns from falling due to oversupply.
These all factors are driving people to overconsume. While people in EU keep buying more clothes, they haven't used up to 50% of the clothes in their wardrobe for over a year (source). This overconsumption is only made much worse by the new type of hyper fast fashion companies like SHEIN and Temu, which are using addictive psychological tactics developed by social media companies (source 1, source 2). They are cranking up all those concerning trends I mentioned above.
Under the cut I will go through the statistics of the most significant effects of the industry on environment and people. I will warn you it will be bleak. This is not just a fast fashion problem, basically the whole industry is engaging in destructive practices leading to this damage. Clothing is one of those things that would be actually relatively easy to make without massive environmental and human cost, so while that makes the current state of the industry even more heinous, it also means there's hope and it's possible to fix things. In the end, I will be giving some suggestions for actions we could be doing right now to unfuck this mess.
Carbon emissions
The textile industry is responsible for roughly 10% of the global CO2 emissions, more than aviation and shipping industry combined. This is due to the massive supply chains and energy intensive production methods of fabrics. Most of it can be contributed to the fashion sector since around 60% of all the textile production is clothing. Polyester, a synthetic fiber made from oil which accounts for more than half of the fibers used in the textile industry, produces double the amount of carbon emissions than cotton, accounting for very large proportions of all the emissions by the industry. (source 1, source 2)
Worker exploitation
Majority of the textiles are produced in Asia. Some of the worst working conditions are in Bangladesh, one of the most important garment producers, and Pakistan. Here's an excerpt from EU Parliament's briefing document from 2014 after the catastrophic Rana Plaza disaster:
The customers of garment producers are most often global brands looking for low prices and tight production timeframes. They also make changes to product design, product volume, and production timeframes, and place last-minute orders without accepting increased costs or adjustments to delivery dates. The stresses of such policies usually fall on factory workers.
The wage exploitation is bleak. According to the 2015 documentary The True Cost less than 2% of all garment factory workers earned a living wage (source). Hourly wages are so low and the daily quotas so high, garment workers are often forced through conditions or threats and demand to work extra hours, which regularly leads to 10-12 hour work days (source) and at worst 16 hour workdays (source), often without days off. Sometimes factories won't compensate for extra hours, breaching regulations (source).
Long working hours, repetitive work, lack of breaks and high pressure leads to increased risks of injuries and accidents. Small and even major injuries are extremely common in the industry. A study in three factories in India found that 70% of the workers suffered from musculosceletal symptoms (source). Another qualitative study of female garment workers and factory doctors in Dhaka found that long hours led to eye strain, headaches, fatigue and weight loss in addition to muscular and back pains. According to the doctors interviewed, weight loss was common because the workers work such long hours without breaks, they didn't have enough time to eat properly. (source) Another study in 8 factories in India found that minor injuries were extremely common and caused by unergonomic work stations, poor organization in the work place and lack of safety gear, guidelines and training (source). Safety precautions too are often overlooked to cut corners, which periodically leads to factory accidents, like in 2023 lack of fire exists and fire extinguishers, and goods stacked beyond capacity led to a factory fire in Pakistan which injured dozens of workers (source) or like in 2022 dangerous factory site led to one dead worker and 9 injured workers (source).
Rana Plaza collapse in 2013 is the worst industrial accident in recent history. The factory building did not have proper permits and the factory owner blatantly ignored signs of danger (other businesses abandoned the building a day before the collapse), which led to deaths of 1 134 workers and injuries to 2 500 workers. The factory had or were at the time working for orders of at least Prada, Versace, Primark, Walmart, Zara, H&M, C&A, Mango, Benetton, the Children's Place, El Corte Inglés, Joe Fresh, Carrefour, Auchan, KiK, Loblaw, Bonmarche and Matalan. None of the brands were held legally accountable for the unsafe working conditions which they profited off of. Only 9 of the brands attended a meeting to agree on compensation for the victim's families. Walmart, Carrefour, Auchan, Mango and KiK refused to sight the agreement, it was only signed by Primark, Loblaw, Bonmarche and El Corte Ingles. The compension these companies provided was laughable though. Primemark demanded DNA evidence that they are relatives of one of the victims from these struggling families who had lost their often sole breadwinner for a meager sum of 200 USD (which doesn't even count for two months of living wage in Bangladesh (source)). This obviously proved to be extremely difficult for most families even though US government agreed to donate DNA kits. This is often said to be a turning point in working conditions in the industry, at least in Bangladesh, but while there's more oversight now, as we have seen, there's clearly still massive issues. (source 1, source 2)
One last major concern of working conditions in the industry I will mention is the Xinjiang raw cotton production, which is likely produced mainly with forced labour from Uighur concentration camps, aka slave labour of a suspected genocide. 90% of China's raw cotton production comes from Xinjiang (source). China is the second largest cotton producer in the world, after India, accounting 20% of the yearly global cotton production (source).
Pollution
Synthetic dyes, which synthetic fibers require, are the main cause of water pollution caused by the textile industry, which is estimated to account for 20% of global clean water pollution (source). This water pollution by the textile industry is suspected of causing a lot of health issues like digestive issues in the short term, and allergies, dermatitis, skin inflammation, tumors and human mutations in the long term. Toxins also effect fish and aquatic bacteria. Azo dyes, one of the major pollutants, can cause detrimental effects to aquatic ecosystems by decreasing photosynthetic activity of algae. Synthetic dyes and heavy metals also cause large amounts of soil pollution. Large amounts of heavy metals in soil, which occurs around factories that don't take proper environmental procautions, can cause anaemia, kidney failure, and cortical edoem in humans. That also causes changes in soil texture, decrease in soil microbial diversity and plant health, and changes in genetic structure of organisms growing in the soil. Textile factory waste water has been used for irrigation in Turkey, where other sources of water have been lacking, causing significant damage to the soil. (source)
Rayon produced through viscose process causes significant carbon disulphide and hydrogen sulphide pollution to the environment. CS2 causes cardiovascular, psychiatric, neuropsychological, endocrinal and reproductive disorders. Abortion rates among workers and their partners exposed to CS2 are reported to be significantly higher than in control groups. Many times higher amounts of sick days are reported for workers in spinning rooms of viscose fiber factories. China and India are largest producers of CS2 pollution, accounting respectively 65.74% and 11,11% of the global pollution, since they are also the major viscose producers. Emission of CS2 has increased significantly in India from 26.8 Gg in 2001 to 78.32 Gg in 2020. (source)
Waste
The textile industry is estimated to produce around 92 million tons of textile waste per year. As said before around 30% of the production is never sold and with shortening lifespans used the amount of used clothing that goes to waster is only increasing. This waste is large burned or thrown into landfills in poor countries. (source) H&M was accused in 2017 by investigative journalists of burning up to 12 tonnes of clothes per year themselves, including usable clothing, which they denied claiming they donated clothing they couldn't sell to charity instead (source). Most of the clothing donated to charity though is burned or dumbed to landfills (source).
Most of the waste clothing from rich countries like European countries, US, Australia and Canada are shipped to Chile (source) or African countries, mostly Ghana, but also Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire (source). There's major second-hand fashion industries in these places, but most of the charity clothing is dumbed to landfills, because they are in such bad condition or the quality is too poor. Burning and filling landfills with synthetic fabrics with synthetic dyes causes major air, water and soil pollution. The second-hand clothing industry also suppresses any local clothing production as donated clothing is inherently more competitive than anything else, making these places economically reliant on dumbed clothing, which is destroying their environment and health, and prevents them from creating a more sustainable economy that would befit them more locally. This is not an accident, but required part of the clothing industry. Overproduction let's these companies tap on every new trend quickly, while not letting clothing the prices in rich countries drop so low it would hurt their profits. Production is cheaper than missing a trend.
Micro- and nanoplastics
There is massive amounts of micro- and nanoplastics in all of our environment. It's in our food, drinking water, even sea salt (source). Washing synthetic textiles accounts for roughly 35% of all microplastics released to the environment. It's estimated that it has caused 14 million tonnes of microplastics to accumulate into the bottom of the ocean. (source)
Microplastics build up into the intestines of animals (including humans), and have shown to probably cause cause DNA damage and altered organism behavior in aquatic fauna. Microplastics also contain a lot of the usual pollutants from textile industry like synthetic dyes and heavy metals, which absorb in higher quantities to tissues of animals through microplastics in the intestines. Studies have shown that the adverse effect are higher the longer the microplastics stay in the organism. The effects cause major risks to aquatic biodiversity. (source) The health effects of microplastics to humans are not well known, but studies have shown that they could have adverse effects on digestive, respiratory, endocrine, reproductive and immune systems. (source)
Microplastics degrade in the environment even further to nanoplastics. Nanoplastic being even smaller are found to enter blood circulation, get inside cells and cross the blood-brain barrier. In fishes they have been found to cause neurological damage. Nanoplastics are also in the air, and humans frequently breath them in. Study in office buildings found higher concentration of nanoplastics in indoor air than outdoor air. Inside the nanoplastics are likely caused mostly by synthetic household textiles, and outdoors mostly by car tires. (source) An association between nanoplastics and mitochondrial damage in human respiratory cells was found in a recent study. (source)
Micro and nano plastics are also extremely hard to remove from the environment, making it even more important that we reduce the amount of microplastics we produce as fast as possible.
What can we do?
This is a question that deserves it's own essays and articles written about it, but I will leave you with some action points. Reading about these very bleak realities can easily lead to overwhelming apathy, but we need to channel these horrors into actions. Whatever you do, do not fall into apathy. We don't have the luxury for that, we need to act. These are industry wide problems, that simply cannot be fixed by consumerism. Do not trust any clothing companies, even those who market themselves as ethical and responsible, always assume they are lying. Most of them are, even the so called "good ones". We need legislation. We cannot allow the industry to regulate itself, they will always take the easy way out and lie to their graves. I will for sure write more in dept about what we can do, but for now here's some actions to take, both political and individual ones.
Political actions
Let's start with political actions, since they will be the much more important ones. While we are trying to dismantle capitalism and neocolonialism (the roots of these issues), here's some things that we could do right now. These will be policies that we should be doing everywhere in the world, but especially rich countries, where most of the clothing consumption is taking place. Vote, speak to others, write to your representative, write opinion pieces to your local papers, engage with democracy.
Higher requirements of transparency. Right now product transparency in clothing is laughably low. In EU only the material make up and the origin country of the final product are required to be disclosed. Everything else is up to the company. Mandatory transparency is the only way we can force any positive changes in the production. The minimum of transparency should be: origin countries of the fibers and textiles in the product itself; mandatory reports of the lifecycle emissions; mandatory reports of whole chain of production. Right now the clothing companies make their chain of production intentionally complex, so they have plausible deniability when inevitably they are caught violating environmental or worker protection laws (source). They intentionally don't want to be able to track down their production chain. Forcing them to do so anyway would make it very expensive for them to keep up this unnecessarily complex production chain. These laws are most effective when put in place in large economies like EU or US.
Restrictions on the use of synthetic fibers. Honestly I think they should be banned entirely, since the amount of microplastics in our environment is already extremely distressing and the other environmental effects of synthetic fibers are also massive, but I know there are functions for which they are not easily replaced (though I think they can be replaces in those too, but that's a subject of another post), so we should start with restrictions. I'm not sure how they should be specifically made, I'm not a law expert, but they shouldn't be used in everyday textiles, where there are very easy and obvious other options.
Banning viscose. There are much better options for viscose method that don't cause massive health issues and environmental destruction where ever it's made, like Lyocell. There is absolutely no reason why viscose should be allowed to be sold anywhere.
Governmental support for local production by local businesses. Most of the issues could be much more easily solved and monitored if most clothing were not produced by massive global conglomerations, but rather by local businesses that produce locally. All clothing are made by hand, so centralizing production doesn't even give it advantage in effectiveness (only more profits for the few). Producing locally would make it much more easier to enforce regulations and it would reduce production chains, making production more effective, leaving more profits into the hands of the workers and reducing emissions from transportation. When the production is done by local businesses, the profits would stay in the producing country and they could be taxed and utilized to help the local communities. This would be helpful to do in both exploited and exploiter countries. When done in rich countries who exploit poorer ones, it would reduce the demand for exploitation. In poor countries this is not as easily done, since poor means they don't have money to give around, but maybe this could be a good cause to put some reparations from colonizers and global corporations, which they should pay.
Preventing strategic accounting between subsidiaries and parent companies. Corporate law is obviously not my area of expertise, but I know that allowing corporations to move around the accounting of profits and losses between subsidiaries and parent companies in roughly 1980s, was a major factor in creating this modern global capitalist system, where corporations can very easily manipulate their accounting to utilize tax heavens and avoid taxes where they actually operate, which is how they are upholding this terrible system and extracting the profits from the production countries. How specifically this would be done I can't tell because again I know shit about corporate law, so experts of that field should plan the specifics. Overall this would help deal with a lot of other problems than just the fashion industry. Again for it to be effective a large economic area like EU or US should do this.
Holding companies accountable for their whole chain of production. These companies should be dragged to court and made to answer for the crimes they are profiting of off. We should put fear back into them. This is possible. Victims of child slavery are already doing this for chocolate companies. If it's already not how law works everywhere, the laws should be changed so that the companies are responsible even if they didn't know, because it's their responsibility to find out and make sure they know. They should have been held accountable for the Rana Plaza disaster. Maybe they still could be. Sue the mother fuckers. They should be afraid of us.
Individual actions
I will stress that the previous section is much more important and that there's no need to feel guilty for individual actions. This is not the fault of the average consumer. Still we do need to change our relationship to fashion and consumption. While it's not our fault, one of the ways this system is perpetuated, is by the consumerist propaganda by fashion industry. And it is easier to change our own habits than to change the industry, even if our own habits have little impact. So these are quite easy things we all could do as we are trying to do bigger change to gain some sense of control and keep us from falling to apathy.
Consume less. Better consumption will not save us, since consumption itself is the problem. We consume too much clothing. Don't make impulse purchases. Consider carefully weather you actually need something or if you really really want it. Even only buying second-hand still fuels the industry, so while it's better than buying new, it's still better to not buy.
Take proper care of your clothing. Learn how to properly wash your clothing. There's a lot of internet resources for that. Never wash your wool textiles in washing machine, even if the textile's official instructions allow it. Instead air them regularly, rinse them in cool water if they still smell after airing and wash stains with water or small amount of (wool) detergent. Never use fabric softener! It damages the fabrics, prevents them from properly getting clean and is environmentally damaging. Instead use laundry vinegar for making textiles softer or removing bad smells. (You can easily make laundry vinegar yourself too from white vinegar and water (and essential oils, if you want to add a scent to it) which is much cheaper.) Learn how to take care of your leather products. Most leather can be kept in very good condition for a very long time by occasional waxing with beeswax.
Use the services of dressmakers and shoemakers. Take your broken clothing or clothing which doesn't fit anymore to your local dressmaker and ask them if they can do something about it. Take your broken and worn leather products to your local shoemaker too. Usually it doesn't cost much to get something fixed or refitted and these expert usually have ways to fix things you couldn't even think of. So even if the situation with your clothing or accessory seems desperate, still show it to the dressmaker or shoemaker.
If it's extremely cheap, don't buy it. Remember that every clothing is handmade. Only a small fraction of the cost of the clothing will be paying the wages of the person who made it with their hands. If a shirt costs 5 euros (c. 5,39 USD), it's sewer was only payed mere cents for sewing it. I'm not a quick sewer and it takes me roughly 1-2 hours to cut, prepare and sew a simple shirt, so I'm guessing it would take around half an hour to do all that for a factory worker on a crunch, at the very least 15 minutes. So the hourly pay would still be ridiculously low. However, as I said before, the fact that the workers in clothing factories get criminally low pay is not the fault of the consumer, so if you need a clothing item, and you don't have money to buy anything else than something very cheep, don't feel guilty. And anyway expensive clothing in no way necessarily means reasonable pay or ethical working conditions, cheep clothing just guarantee them.
Learn to recognize higher quality. In addition to exploitation, low price also means low quality, but again high price doesn't guarantee high quality. High quality allows you to buy less, so even if it's not as cheep as low quality, if you can afford it, when you need it, it will be cheaper in long run, and allows you to consume less. Check the materials. Natural fibers are your friends. Do not buy plastic, if it's possible to avoid. Avoid household textiles from synthetic fibers. Avoid textiles with small amounts of spandex to give it stretch, it will shorten the lifespan of the clothing significantly as the spandex quickly wears down and the clothing looses it's shape. Also avoid clothing with rubber bands. They also loose their elasticity very quickly. In some types of clothing (sport wear, underwear) these are basically impossible to avoid, but in many other cases it's entirely possible.
Buy from artisans and local producers, if you can. As said better consumption won't fix this, but supporting artisans and your local producers could help keep them afloat, which in small ways helps create an alternative to the exploitative global corporations. With artisans especially you know the money goes to the one who did the labour and buying locally means less middlemen to take their cut. More generally buy rather from businesses that are located to the same country where the production is, even if it's not local to you. A local business doesn't necessarily produce locally.
Develop your own taste. If you care about fashion and style, it's easy to fall victim to the fashion industry's marketing and trend cycles. That's why I think it's important to develop your personal sense of style and preferences. Pay attention at what type of clothes are comfortable to you. Go through your wardrobe and track for a while which clothing you use most and which least. Understanding your own preferences helps you avoid impulse buying.
Consider learning basics of sewing. Not everyone has the time or interest for this, but if you in anyway might have a bit of both, I suggest learning some very simple and basic mending and reattaching a button.
Further reading on this blog: How to see through the greenwashing propaganda of the fashion industry - Case study 1: Shein
You can always use the local almanac to know what is in season in your area in order to use the best seasonal and local ingredients! Let nature guide your culinary adventures and savor the flavors of each season! 🌞🌿
For the record, I would never knowingly use or share AI generated art in anything I post, so if you ever catch me doing so, it was an accident, and I'd like you to let me know so I can delete it.
Dear friends and practitioners, the gods will not punish you for simple mistakes. Trust me. It is not easy to anger the gods.
If you are not actively after them to insult and try hurting them, they do not care.
No, they will not punish you for not being productive either, in fact I think they actually understand. Life is hard, for me it surely is often. The gods will not be mad at you for forgetting to give offerings, pray, take care of an altar, ect. And I believe that each time life is hard, it’s best to try and do a bit of praying, nothing too grand, just muttering/whispering a little made up prayer or hymn to the gods. They will most likely listen.
So, again, just breathe. The gods are not mad at you, neither will they punish you.
Low energy Devotional Acts for when you don’t have a lot of energy (or time, or money, etc.) pt. 8
🌾Demeter🌾
- if able go on a walk and enjoy the outdoors doesn’t have to be anywhere fancy it could literally just be a walk around the block
- if you can’t go on a walk either sit outside for a bit or just open some windows for some fresh air
- play farming simulator (you think I’m joking but I’m not) or watch vids of ppl playing it
- watch documentaries or do a deep dive on farming and all the stuff that goes with it (maybe you’re wanting to know more about tractors, or farming techniques over the years, etc.)
- if able attend a farmer’s market or look into any that are in your area you don’t necessarily need to buy anything you could just go look around (I do that regularly)
- learn about the role of a farmer and what it’s like to be a farmer (I worked on a farm for a bit in high school and while I loved it I couldn’t do it as a living it takes a very special someone to do it) and look up ways you can support them
- learn about the native plants in your area
- watch foraging videos and learn about it (how to safely do it especially, if it’s something you wish to do at some point)
- if able support local farmers by buying their products (I know here in wi it’s not uncommon for farm stands to pop up this time of year and they sell all sorts of stuff for good prices! One in my town sells the best corn and for only $1 a piece which is perfect)
- point out cows, horses, sheep, goats, etc. while going by them in the car
- learn about homesteading and watch videos about it (though I will issue a heads up that some of these folks veer into uh….’crunchy’ beliefs so just be careful I guess)
- look up recipes you’re interested in trying, try to write your own recipe, or cook something using a family recipe/you’d own recipe if able
- enjoy a fruit, vegetable, or grain/bread product! Have some toast with jelly/jam! Have a salad! A fruit cup! The fruit/veggies can be frozen as well. It’s still that fruit/veggie.
- listen to a devotional playlist for Her
- listen to nature soundscapes
🦉Athena🦉
- learn your rights and by the gods I can’t stress this enough (if you rent learn your tenants rights, learn your workers rights, etc.)
- watch a war movie, show, or documentary (plugging Band of Brothers again because there’s some examples of excellent leadership and all that)
- read or listen to an audiobook about war (can be fiction or nonfiction- my personal favorite is Conversations With Major Dick Winters it’s great)
- listen to a devotional playlist for Her
- is there a weapon you’re interested in? Or maybe a style of combat? Or something else pertaining to combat? Read about it! Watch a video about it!
- if able pick up a handicraft of some sort: knitting, crocheting, sewing, etc.)
- if unable to do that watch tutorial videos for it (I can knit but can’t crochet to save my life but I love watching crocheting videos)
- read or listen to an audiobook about literally anything
- if you’re a student, and are able, do some studying
- or just watch documentaries or read articles and such about stuff that interests you
- if able play a strategy game if unable to do so look up videos for techniques for strategy games you like and pick up some new tricks for when you next play!
- if able do a puzzle (can be as simple or complex as you want)
- if able do something like a word search, sudoko, crossword, etc.
When beginning Hellenism, I was told to look and pray to epithets. I didn’t really understand and I feel like I still don’t, so I am here now to try and learn along with you guys about what each epithet means and how to pray to it. So, for our first installment, I have here the first epithet listed on Theoi.com: Demeter Achaea.
As listed on Theoi.com, Demeter Achaea is describe as the following:
a surname of Demeter by which she was worshipped at Athens by the Gephyraeans who had emigrated thither front Boeotia
I did not really understand any of those words, so I did some digging. I knew Athens, obviously, and the Gephyraeans had to be a group of people, but how was it all connected?
I will say this: I did some research and got a LOT of answers, mostly for things I didn’t ask for. It was all pretty interesting though, and I think Lady Demeter wouldn’t mind so long as I was learning something. First, though, I will warn you that my rambling is pretty entertaining, but if you just want the epithet and how to pray / what to use the epithet for, feel free to scroll to the bottom.
The Research:
So first I wanted to know what Achaea meant. I found out it is a region. I look up the region, and it is located in north Peloponnese, Greece’s southern peninsula. It is a mountainous region with major cities of Patras and Dyme. Patras itself is huge in Greek history, and one of the most important cities behind Athens (seriously, I could write a whole paper on the history of Patras itself). Dyme had Oebotas, the first Achaean to win the Olympic Games, but no one in Achaea celebrated him, so he cursed them to never have another winner. This curse remained until Sostratus of Pellene won, after Achaea built a statue to honor Oebotas in Olympia. It is also a region referenced in the Old Testament.
This is all very interesting, but it really did not answer any of my questions, mostly because it had nothing to do with Boetia, Athens, or Gephyraeans. This led me to research the Gephyraeans, and there is barely anything of note except that they are from Boetia.
Boetia is, of course, another region in Greece, styled as Boeotia. This is the region where Thebes was located. Boeotia is another region where a whole paper could be written about it, as it is the location of many myths and legends, such as the Theban Cycle, the Muses, Dionysus and Semele, and more. However, there is still not a lot on the Gephyraeans.
One thing I could find on Gephyraeans were Harmodius and Aristogeiton, who were lovers and assassins of the tyrant Hipparchus and are known as heroes for Athenian democracy (of course, there are lots of political drama but that is also it’s own page because the story is VERY very interesting). Herodotus mentions that they are Gephyraeans, which are Boetians of Syrian or Phoenician descent. However, Plutarch argues they are otherwise.
So, now we have some answers to our question. About Gephyraeans heading into Athens, I found this quote from Herodotus:
“It was in the reign of this Laodamas, the son of Eteocles, that the Cadmeians were driven by the Argives out of their country, and found a shelter with the Encheleans. The Gephyraeans were left behind, but were later compelled by the Boeotians to withdraw to Athens; and they have certain set forms of worship at Athens, wherein the rest of the Athenians have no part; these, in especial the rites and mysteries of Achaean Demeter, are different from the other worships.” Herod. v. 61
So it seems that the Gephyraeans, descendents of Syrians or Phoenicians, went to Athens and had a unique way of worshipping Lady Demeter. The Athenians had no part in this worship. However, why did they worship Demeter specificially? At first glance, it appears She has no hand in Achaea, but according to one of the myths, she does.
Triptolemus, an Eleusinian prince, was instructed by Demeter to spread agriculture and allowed him the use of her serpent-drawn chariot. This myth is incredibly interesting! For our purposes, Triptolemus went to Patras in Achaea. There He taught Eumelus how to cultivate corn. Eumelus’ son, Antheias, took the dragon chariot and fell to his death. Eumelus named a city, Antheias, after him.
So we have a geographic region, the group of people that used this epithet, and some myths connected to Demeter surrounding it. But as I was researching, I kept thinking, ‘I should probably look up what the word achaea means’. Not the region, just the etymology.
It took a bit of digging, rewriting, and stumbling onto questionable websites. I found a lot of sources for Bible naming websites, saying the origin was Hebrew and one even said African? I think I am safe in saying that these are inaccurate.
Finally, I found a Quora post, and though I would question secondary information, it was the best lead I could find. And in this I found the answer.
The Epithet:
Actually, no one is certain what achaea actually means. It is spelled Αχαΐα and is derived from Αχαιοί (Achaeans), the Ancient Greek tribe that settled in the region. Achaea is used specifically for this and this only. But what does it mean?
According to some, it is derived from the word αχος (achos) which means pain or distress. They were named after Achaeus, the founder of Achaea, who was born in a time of great suffering. Also, as written by Hesichius, Demeter was called Αχαία (achaea) because of her grief of losing Persephone.
In other circles, it is derived from the word αχαιαι (achaiai), which means “surf” and refers to the rocky coastline.
It is also worth noting that when Homer refers to the Greeks, he mostly uses the word “Achaeans”. The word is also older than ΕΛΛΑΣ (hellas), meaning Greece.
According to HellenicGods.org, the epithet Akhaia is used for Demeter’s grief for her daughter, but makes no mention of the Gephyraeans.
Long story short is, who knows? It is more likely the location and is something sacred to the Gephyraeans, but ancient etymology is hard to research since it is lost to time - it is, however, very interesting to look into these things. It’s sort of like connecting a puzzle.
What we do know is that there was worship and even sanctuaries dedicated to Demeter and Persephone in Achaea. All of this comes from Pausanias. He describes a sanctuary in Aegium dedicated to Persephone, and a connection from Zeus Homagyrios to Demeter Panakhaia. Also in Bura, there was a temple and drapery dedicated to Demeter. Additionally, there is a place near Pellene, but I thought it would be best for you to read it from Pausanias himself:
"About sixty stades distant from Pellene is the Mysaion, a sanctuary of Demeter Mysia. It is said that it was founded by Mysios, a man of Argos, who according to Argive tradition gave Demeter a welcome in his home. There is a grove in the Mysaion, containing trees of every kind, and in it rises a copious supply of water from springs. Here they also celebrate a seven days' festival in honor of Demeter. On the third day of the festival the men withdraw from the sanctuary, and the women are left to perform on that night the ritual that custom demands. Not only men are excluded, but even male dogs. On the following day the men come to the sanctuary, and the men and the women laugh and jeer at one another in turn.” Pausanias, Description of Greece 7. 27. 9
It is interesting to note that this last one held the Mysia festival, dedicated to Demeter Mysia!
How To Worship:
As it appears that this epithet is specific to a location, there’s probably not much you can do with this specific epithet unless you were:
In this region
Wanting to pay homage to the region/myths
Any other reason because I don’t control your worship, you do
That’s not to say anything bad about this epithet. It’s so interesting to learn about the culture, geography, and history of Ancient Greece. At the very least, I know a lot more now than I did at the beginning of this. Also, now I know more about Lady Demeter and Her connection to locations. Plus, isn’t learning more about Her the whole point?
We could take inspiration from this and make our own epithet about the region we all personally live in. For example (and not to dox myself or anything), I live in the Appalachia region. Appalachia is beautiful and has a long history. We are known for our spooky forests, cryptids, and religion, but I think the presence of mountains, forests, nature, animals, and more is a perfect place for Demeter worship. I think honoring her by connecting with nature and cleaning up the environment is a great place to start.
For you, maybe you live in a city or a desert. Is it not still Earth? You can honor Demeter with the environment around you. Grow a cactus, buy a fake plant, clean up trash, or pour your leftover water on grass or plants. Maybe you will pray to Demeter Achaea, or any other epithet, or one unique to you!
Thanks for reading, and if I got something wrong, feel free to correct me. I’d love to hear what you all have to say!
"5 reasons earth is worth protecting" "why we should save the earth" because we are no more inextricable from the earth than our cells are from our bodies. hope this helps
