A prayer for Hephaestus + Digital offering
I sing of strong-handed Hephaestus who spends his days working in forges, whose keen eyes pierce through the darkness like a pair of blazing torches
Who found his way back to Olympus after being cast from heaven’s lofty height, going up as do the lava and ash a volcano shoots into the sky
Indomitable lord of Lemnos, you yourself are fire, vigorous and all-consuming, your wrath is dreaded and dire 
For no creature can hold you, yet your grip sears the soul with pain, entire cities turn to mountains of ash when drowned in the light of your domain
Trees pop and cackle when you blacken their trunks and pluck their leaves, there’s no limit to the havoc your red breath conceives
Yet as skilled as you are in destruction, you excel far more in matters of creation, and time after time you’ve blessed mortal minds with ideas of world-changing innovation
When metals are melted through your ardent will and they swirl in a hot and bubbly pool of incandescence you inspire humans into molding them to their will, overtaking their bodies with your much-generating essence
So that they may forge weapons to defend themselves against whatever dangers may cross their path and utensils to handle and share their food with ease and care, armors to remain unscratched in the face of harm and sparklingly lovely jewelry to wear
Every material is subdued through your mighty sway, all-taming, smoke-cloaked god who leads the craftsman’s way
Hard rock bends to your will when a sculptor chisels it away, your embrace softens unyielding iron and hardens supple clay
Thanks to you ground-born wood is cut into endless shapes and grainy sand is turned to glass when your wisdom partakes
For you’ve taught to men from all across the earth the skills and techniques needed to reshape the matter around them into items of new that’ll help them in their day to day
Thus you’ve made our lives easier and our existences happier, and wherein we once dwelt in caves and ate flesh cold and raw, because of you we now live in houses and cook our meals over your glow, a switch worthy of awe
You devise not just utility, but also beauty beyond measure; you prompt people into begetting art that may be unto all eyes a source of joy and pleasure
Sowing the world with hope and reasons to smile, with good cause are you married to soft-veiled Aglaia, a goddess most sublime
And for those who have trouble moving you have designed tools purposed to help them on their endeavors; you yourself are supported by many devices as you attend to your labors
For they call you club-footed on account of your limping walk, and in accordance you’ve invented marvelous machines to help you move around; wonderful wheeled tripods that go to a fro on on their own account, as well as gold-wrought maidens, beauteous and mobile, that hold you as you stand
Oh, sooty prince, famed for your skill, divine blacksmith of whom hammers and tongs are the thrill
Anvil-throned, renowned warmth-bearer, heed my words and listen to my prayer
Gift me with the wits to better my life step by step and to understand how to make the best out of any situation using what I have at hand
Cleanse me in your flames so that I may be rid of all that holds me back, melt me down and build me anew, forge a version of me that’s wiser and yet kinder too
Gift me with sword and shield so that I can stand my ground when needed, yet also with a mirror to remind myself and others of the unique splendor we’ve been given
Never cease to kindle the spark of creativeness within my heart, purest amongst the blessed, you who lives in art
romaincrisis
vaporwave
jacobvanloon
turnnoffyourmind
germansingergirl
kaledo-art
