To celebrate this festival, on the first day, pour a wine libation, read the Homeric Hymns to Artemis (9 and 27) and the Orphic Hymn (36) to Artemis, and offer prayers to her. It is also a day to undergo catharsis, so it might be appropriate to undertake a ritual fast (abstaining at least from animal foods) and bath and other forms of purification for yourself. Before hand, clean house, carry out household trash and any food that is stale or no longer pure or fresh (good fridge-cleaning opportunity!). On your altar, place some of the “first fruits” of your region, especially cereal gains, if available (you can plant and grow some in a small pot in the last fall or winter so as to have some available for this festival).
Around sundown, either reuse the eiresione created for the fall Pyanepsia or create a new eiresione and prepare a panspermia (mixture of beans or grains and beans with vegetarian broth). The eiresione was, in ancient times, a branch of olive; if this isn’t available, use some other domestic, fruit-bearing species. Decorate the branch with strands of white wool (like the branch carried by suppliants) but also with “first fruits” (which might vary, depending on what area you live in). Shafts of green wheat in one area and tree fruit in another. You can add little containers of oil and honey, too. Another food item to buy or create is called “manna bread” to represent the thargelos (see above). “Manna bread” (available in many health food stores) is a non-baked loaf made of sprouted grains.
This is a particularly communal festival, with family if possible. If children are present, have them carry the erisesione and recite, with your help: ‘Eiresione brings / All good things / Figs and fat cakes to eat / Soft oil and honey sweet / And brimming wine-cup deep / That she may drink and sleep.’ If no children are present, anyone can do this. Whether child or adult, they ask for treats from others present. On this second day, honor Apollo with a libation of wine, read the Homeric Hymns to Apollo (3 especially, also 21 and 25) and the Orphic Hymn to Apollo (34) and even the Orphic Hymn 35 to Leto. If a burning sacrifice is possible, burn the Eiresione and offer some of the panspermia and manna bread. At the festive meal afterwards, eat the panspermia and manna bread. Provide stalks of oregano and other seasonings for each person to season the bowl of panspermia as they wish. Some of the panspermia can be retained to sow into your gardens or fields. If no burning sacrifice is done, compost the eiresione and panspermia or put in a respectful location where nature will accept it.
(Taken from: Thargelia – Hellenion where they also have a sample ritual provided at the bottom of the article.)
Happy Rural Dionysia! I meant to make a proper post Sunday but instead have taken to just doing more private practices this year around as I'm very busy and am not to the book much. I will eventually probably share all my docs after I take a hiatus for research purposes and rest. Tonight is the full moon though, so I wanted to remind anyone to do a little something if they needed the reminder! Have a wonderful day, night, and so forth. I think I have an old post for it but here's some links that have more resources for y'all to research through.
“True freedom lies in a power to decide, to constitute the problems themselves. And this ‘semi-divine’ power entails the disappearance of false problems, as much as the creative upsurge of true new ones."
― Gilles Deleuze, Bergsonism, trans. by Hugh Tomlinson and Barbara Habberjam (New York, NY: Zone Books, 1991), p. 15.
Are you welcoming Spring by yourself? Here's an easy ritual you can perform alone to celebrate the balance of light and dark at Ostara.
Ostara (or Oestre) is a Pagan holiday celebrated around the March equinox (approx. March 20–23 in the Northern Hemisphere) marking the official beginning of spring, a time of balance, fertility, and renewal. It symbolizes the return of light and warmer weather, featuring traditions like decorating eggs, planting seeds, and honoring the goddess Eostre.
Key Aspects of Ostara:
Ostara is often considered a time for balance, bringing together the light and dark, and setting intentions for the coming growth season.
Significance: It is one of the eight sabbats on the Wheel of the Year, celebrating the victory of light over darkness. Represents the spring equinox when day and night are of equal length, moving toward longer days.
Origins: Rooted in Germanic tradition, honoring the goddess Eostre (or Ostara) of spring and fertility.
Symbols: Eggs (representing new life), rabbits/hares (fertility), spring flowers, and the color green.
Rituals & Traditions:
Egg Decorating: Decorating eggs with symbols of intention.
Planting: Starting gardens or blessing seeds for the new season.
Nature Walks: Connecting with the awakening earth.
Spring Cleaning: Cleaning the home to remove winter energy.
Feasting: Eating seasonal greens, nuts, and egg dishes.
Ostara is often considered a time for balance, bringing together the light and dark, and setting intentions for the coming growth season.
It also marks Noumenia for that month and Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Hypatia of Alexandria (who was martyred by a Christian mob in March 415).
Further reading which might interest you:
The Origins and Practices of Holidays: Ostara, Holi, and Purim
The Wiccan Calendar: Ostara (Spring Equinox)
How to Celebrate Ostara: The Spring Equinox
Whatever you're celebrating, I hope it's wonderful! And I hope all who celebrated the Lesser Mysteries enjoyed themselves!
Are you welcoming Spring by yourself? Here's an easy ritual you can perform alone to celebrate the balance of light and dark at Ostara.
Ostara (or Oestre) is a Pagan holiday celebrated around the March equinox (approx. March 20–23 in the Northern Hemisphere) marking the official beginning of spring, a time of balance, fertility, and renewal. It symbolizes the return of light and warmer weather, featuring traditions like decorating eggs, planting seeds, and honoring the goddess Eostre.
Key Aspects of Ostara:
Ostara is often considered a time for balance, bringing together the light and dark, and setting intentions for the coming growth season.
Significance: It is one of the eight sabbats on the Wheel of the Year, celebrating the victory of light over darkness. Represents the spring equinox when day and night are of equal length, moving toward longer days.
Origins: Rooted in Germanic tradition, honoring the goddess Eostre (or Ostara) of spring and fertility.
Symbols: Eggs (representing new life), rabbits/hares (fertility), spring flowers, and the color green.
Rituals & Traditions:
Egg Decorating: Decorating eggs with symbols of intention.
Planting: Starting gardens or blessing seeds for the new season.
Nature Walks: Connecting with the awakening earth.
Spring Cleaning: Cleaning the home to remove winter energy.
Feasting: Eating seasonal greens, nuts, and egg dishes.
Ostara is often considered a time for balance, bringing together the light and dark, and setting intentions for the coming growth season.
It also marks Noumenia for that month and Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Hypatia of Alexandria (who was martyred by a Christian mob in March 415).
Further reading which might interest you:
The Origins and Practices of Holidays: Ostara, Holi, and Purim
The Wiccan Calendar: Ostara (Spring Equinox)
How to Celebrate Ostara: The Spring Equinox
Whatever you're celebrating, I hope it's wonderful! And I hope all who celebrated the Lesser Mysteries enjoyed themselves!
"The Festival of Aphrodisia is an annual festival in honor of the goddess of love and beauty from Cyprus and Attica. The festival originally occurred during the month of Hekatombaion; however, the festival has been moved to February 14th for the modern worshipper. To celebrate Aphrodisia, one might go on a date with their love(s), cook a special meal, volunteer at your local retirement home, or practice self-care. To honor Aphrodite and Eros, one can offer them incense and flowers (including red roses) and, of course, aphrodisiacs including chocolate and strawberries."
For further information:
-Aphrodisia - Wikipedia
Also, The Symposium by Plato would be a great read in honor. I'm currently wrapping up my reading of the Yale University Press version and I highly recommend it. It has a wonderful section-by-section breakdown. This is said version: The Dialogues of Plato, Volume 2 The Symposium by Plato Translated by R. E. Allen
Here's some fun random shares that also are on brand for the topic.
“Eros is an interweaving; logos is the capacity for differentiation, clarifying light; eros is relatedness; logos is discrimination and detachment.” ~ C. G. Jung, The Secret of the Golden Flower, p. 117
There was also a cool online book club I attended last year I thought I'd link along with the book we read. Bataille_Georges_Erotism_Death_and_Sensuality.pdf
I am very interested in the book: The Sacred Conspiracy: The Internal Papers of the Secret Society of Acéphale and Lectures to the College of Sociology by Bataille in particular. If anyone's read it, please feel free to rant about it. I also am curious about Histoire de l'œil (Story of the Eye).
The group wasn’t exactly my cuppa, but it was still helpful in developing my own direction in work, which is what matters most and why I always stay open to experiences, even and especially those far different from not just my own but also what it is that I am “seeking” to find. Because it’s there that sometimes new desires for experiences or ideas we could have never fathomed are born.
This site has a lot of interesting texts so I'll just link this section for today.
Texts on sacred sexuality, tantra, fertility religions, and the spiritual aspects of sexuality. Browse 129+ texts in this comprehensive coll
Have fun vibing out in any way that feels right today. Just live it up, loving life! <3 I’m really embracing my Dionysian side today with this chaotic post, but I wanted to do something in honor of the day, even if it’s last minute here. I’ve been researching and celebrating so much in my own time, which is why I won’t be making as many detailed posts frequently. But I look forward to ones I have planned in the future here and on the main.
That said, I did make a little jot for the research I’d been working on the other day, and it touches on Eros and Death (Thanatos), so I’ll link that as well since most only saw it when it was just me ranting about the research and not this version.
💬 55 🔁 113617 ❤️ 117795 · On Death and Meditations on Death · I used a similar mosaic in my "save the classics" PowerPoint teheheheh. Just
A Roman festival in honor of Dionysus. Though originally the month-long prelude to Saturnalia, many now celebrate it on the Solstice. One can drink mulled wine, decorate with pine branches, take solstice baths, and rewrite Holiday carols in honor of our god!
Keep Bromios in Brumalia!
Information quoted directly from the Hellenion calendar event:
I'm including that reddit since I find it also helpful. Not enough spoons to make a proper post to better enjoy my own season so, have fun doing your own research for this one.
Here's my old quick post for Saturnalia as well. I've since researched it a lot and just have to sit down with it all when I have some time to make a proper post.
Also wanted to share this amazing album I found after losing. (My favs are the Dance of the Bacchantes and The Invocation.)
I'm redecorating a corner to my room finally more exclusively to Dionysus. I also plan to do my first drawing of him. I've done two of Apollo but only like one of them. I'll share them all when I finish the Dionysus one and finish redecorating. Please feel free to share anything at all you're getting up to!
A Roman festival in honor of Dionysus. Though originally the month-long prelude to Saturnalia, many now celebrate it on the Solstice. One can drink mulled wine, decorate with pine branches, take solstice baths, and rewrite Holiday carols in honor of our god!
Keep Bromios in Brumalia!
Information quoted directly from the Hellenion calendar event:
I'm including that reddit since I find it also helpful. Not enough spoons to make a proper post to better enjoy my own season so, have fun doing your own research for this one.
Here's my old quick post for Saturnalia as well. I've since researched it a lot and just have to sit down with it all when I have some time to make a proper post.
Also wanted to share this amazing album I found after losing. (My favs are the Dance of the Bacchantes and The Invocation.)
vaporwave
areudirty
kianamaiart
dededos
janainaart
blakekathryn
pixelskylines
dailybridgerton
