for my mistress

My kinda UPG sideblog dump. 25+, queer, hellenic polytheist.

[elefsina]

My name's Medeia. I'm 28 years old, and I use any pronouns.

Religiously, I am a Hellenic recon polytheist for both personal and ancestral reasons. I am also a traditional folk witch, and honor the Folk and nature spirits in a more local practice; with roots in Italian/Celtic folklore. As I am multi-ethnic and have roots in multiple places this makes perfect sense to me. I however do not believe a certain ethnicity is necessary to connect with either of the above.

My view of the gods and spirits is very personal, and this blog is mainly meant as a (for lack of a better word) corkboard full of knicks and knacks I like and use to stitch my practice into some kind of coherent blob.

As a Hellenic polytheist and human being, I follow the concept xenia and thus welcome anyone except those who do not welcome others - racists, white-supremacists, and the like - who will be blocked. Terfs are NOT welcome.

P. S. This is a sideblog!

PSA: this blog will no longer be active.

[littlestpersimmon]

Apolaki Wept. (click for high res.)

Apolaki, the sun god of the Tagalog and Pangasinense folk of the northern Philippines, was said to have wept in great sorrow at the suffering of his people during colonial rule.

[sioltach]

this website lets you listen to the sounds of all different forests around the world 

[theoxenia]

The worshipers of Dionysos acknowledged his presence in the raw flesh of wild beasts as well as the goblet of wine, in the phallus concealed in the liknon (a winnowing basket that may be used as a cradle for a baby), and also (among the Orphics) in the immortal human soul. Thus, one who was confronted with the presence of Dionysos and possessed by him might feel his power variously: in ecstasy, in inebriation, in sexuality, in spiritual bliss. Such a person became one with Dionysos, and in fact might be called Bacche (feminine) or Bacchos (masculine) after the god himself.

The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook of Sacred Texts, edited by Marvin W. Meyer

[theoitheoitheoi]

You are loved by the Gods. Every part of you is loved and will always be, no matter what you do.

[ssilkmoth-deactivated20250717]

Sator Square on the left side of the Siena Cathedral, Italy

[stormbornwitch]

The practise of witchcraft is just that; a practise. As much as I love the acceptance that accompanies the modern discourse of 'if you call yourself a witch, you're a witch' it rings hollow to me.

You actually have to do witchcraft to be a witch. This then causes some practitioners to debate: 'Well, what qualifies as witchcraft?'

A quote I really resonated with is from Roger J. Horne's 'Folk Witchcraft: A Guide to Lore, Land & the Familiar Spirit for the Solitary Practitioner' and it discusses the almost scientific approach folk witches must use in order to personalise and develop their practise.

"Get used to experimenting, revising, then experimenting again. This is part of our craft. When you find something that works particularly well for you, write down an outline of the process you used."

This very act of researching and learning from folklore and history, creating your own correspondences, connecting to the spirits of the land, crafting your own spells and rituals - that is the work of a witch.

[artssie]

The Last Days of Pompeii (1864) by James Hamilton

[ilions-end]

i've noticed just how often achilles' dragging of hector's corpse is framed mostly as an act of extreme disrespect, or only some brutal show of triumph. personally i think that's underselling both achilles' intention and what the trojans must be thinking as they watch it happen.

hector's corpse is divinely protected so it can't be damaged by the greeks after death; all that effectively happens in the iliad is that his body gets dirty. but under normal circumstances (and i'm not gonna impose realism on mythology, but the iliad is famously detailed when it comes to bodily trauma), the physical reality of dragging a corpse along stony ground for miles would be severe disfigurement and dismemberment. first the skin would wear off, then soft tissues, then extremities would start to detach. i think the iliad's original audience would be aware of that as an intended outcome.

achilles (who doesn't yet know that hector's body has been granted divine stasis) doesn't just want to parade his enemy's corpse around, he wants to tear it apart ("i only wish that this fury inside my heart would drive me to carve you to pieces and eat your flesh raw..."), he wants it to not resemble a human anymore. he wants hector's blood and flesh to circle the city of troy. he wants to make it impossible for hector's family to gather the pieces of him to cremate and that way hector's spirit won't find passage into the underworld. that's what the gods are preventing from happening, they're not just keeping the corpse pretty for priam to pick up later.

[glossc1]

ACHILLES STRIKES!

[portalibis]

Ceres searching for Proserpine, ca.1780s by Johan Tobias Sergel, 1740-1814, Nationalmuseum, Sweden

[petaltexturedskies]

Alex Dimitrov, from "Love" in Love and Other Poems

[homunculus-argument]

Grave offerings and burying the dead with tools and goods is actually such a deeply human thing to do. It's not really even necessarily about how much you believe in a literal afterlife or them taking the tools with them. It's also just going Wait, I'm Not Done Taking Care Of You, let me make you one more pair of socks so your feet won't be cold when you go wherever it is where I can't follow.

[mournfulroses]

Fyodor Dostoevsky, from a story featured in "The Diary of a Writer," published in 1873

[stephenearp]

From the past again

[0fficelady]

Collection

[auroradiation]

Little Apollo shrine.