JesiBeads' Friends

Keeping up the Christmas tradition
Years ago I met Tony on AOL. Every year on Christmas he would read William Burroughs' The Junky's Christmas. Because I liked the story, and the tradition, I began posting it in my journal on Christmas eve as well. Here we are again on this most magical of nights, and I hope everyone - new friends and old ones, the pampered and the strung-out, the faithful and all the rest of us - are having a wonderful, miracle-filled time.

A sense of accomplishment
2010 is the year that I am going to seriously pursue my writing as a holy vocation, and I'm getting an early start on that. I just submitted two new poems - one about Hermes and Dionysos to Eternal Haunted Summer and the other about Dionysos and the Labyrinth to the Circle Sanctuary Magazine. I wonder if they'll get accepted. They were both in very different styles, the Circle piece much more personal than the other. While only one of those is a potentially paying gig, it'll be nice to get my name out there since I'm working on building up my resume.

Over the next week or so I'm going to compile a list of Pagan publications and other magazines that might potentially be interested in my stuff so that I can begin shopping my work around. (If anyone has any recommendations I'd love to hear them!) This is going to require some hardcore dedication and a complete reevaluation of how I approach the craft of writing, but honestly I can't imagine myself doing anything else even close to as rewarding as this. I've been talking about it for years, and yet only ever put in a half-hearted effort in the past. Things are different now. I'm committed. I'm excited. And I'm going to do this.

An attempt to explain what I mean by Dionysian Sacred Kingship
So, for a while now I've been talking about this grand article I intend to write about Dionysian Sacred Kingship. At this point I'm thinking I may just have too much to say to do a single article, and instead may try to put together a book exploring this and related themes. However, since I won't be tackling that for a while, I figured I'd go ahead and share the notes I've cobbled together, which should give you a rough idea of what I mean by this. You can find them loosely organized in the previous three entries.

Basically, the general thesis of my argument runs as follows: In ancient times the role of the King was essentially twofold: on the one hand, the King was viewed as the defender and arbiter of the community’s laws and a promoter of its culture and civilization. Secondly, and more importantly, Kingship was a sacred, priestly office which had responsibility for the proper performance of certain ancient rites connected with the fertility of the land and ensuring the blessings of the gods for the populace. Naturally, Kingship was early on connected with the god Dionysos who was both a culture-bringer and a deity of vegetation and fertility. Many myths highlight Dionysos’ relationship with assorted monarchs, both favorably and antagonistically. (Interestingly, after the dramatic plays ceased to tell the story of Dionysos exclusively, the tragic hero was almost always a King.) Later on the King was even viewed as the earthly embodiment or representative of the god Dionysos. This aspect was especially prominent for the Hellenistic Kings and the Ptolemies in particular, who frequently represented themselves as the ‘Neos Dionysos’ and modeled their Kingship on his mythical precedents. I also intend to explore how the King, like many Dionysian figures, is essentially an outsider figure, and when we consider the excesses to which they are prone these are almost always the inverse blessings of the god.

more on mumming
[See my recent post on mumming for Turbe for the background to my interest and plans.]

Update: thanks to a really timely tip from

lupabitch (thank you!), I found a local supplier of various animal pelts, and was able to buy a great rabbit skin for a mask, and am working out all the other elements of a fairly traditional geros costume for our Dionysian mumming. I also bought a fox face to be part of my Wild Hunt mumming costume (which we'll be doing on Thursday night - two mumming sessions this year!).

I read the chapters on mumming in The Origins of Drama in Scandinavia and found via the bibliography an enticing list of books on mumming, all but one of which are apparently held in our local university library (that library is amazing, one of the great perks of living here), so will hopefully be going there soon to pick those up.

I was reading my New Favorite Book Ever, Lavondyss by Robert Holdstock (and a huge thank you to

droops for suggesting this in a comment awhile back, it has meant a great deal to me), and there's a part where they're discussing the mumming plays that take place in the girl's town, and how they echo actions that have their origins in real, magical rituals, and he says something great:

"The land remembers. Men dance and chant, they fight with sticks, and one rides among them on a hobbyhorse, striking them with a bladder filled with pebbles.... we don't forget, we just forget why. There is no magic left in the festive practices of Oxford, or Grimley, or wherever - the Morrismen and Mummers - no magic unless the mind that enacts the festival has a gate opened to the first forest."

(this is especially for you,

gallows_queen)

While a part of me suspects that there is *some* power to rituals even when the people doing them have lost the memory of the meaning, I do agree that there's a big difference between that and when they're done with intent, awareness, and an openness to the otherworlds. That is something important for me to keep in mind during these upcoming rituals.

I don't really know what to expect with these, and that's kind of exciting.

Greco-Egyptian quote of the day #22
The fasces emblem explained
“Scilurus on his death-bed, being about to leave eighty sons surviving, offered a bundle of darts to each of them, and bade them break them. When all refused, drawing out one by one, he easily broke them; thus teaching them that, if they held together, they would continue strong, but if they fell out and were divided, they would become weak.” – Plutarch, Sayings of the Kings and Commanders 174f

Sharing the wealth
My last post reminds me of a promise I made to a dear friend. He asked how I kept abreast of current archaeological and historical findings, and I mentioned that I follow a long list of interesting blogs which I promised to share. So here goes:

AWOL - The Ancient World Online
Bread and Circuses
Classics in contemporary culture
Egypt then and now
Higgaion
Ketuvim
Letters from Hardscrabble Creek
Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean
rogueclassicism
Talking Pyramids: Ancient Egyptian Pyramids
Thoughts on Antiquity
What's New at LacusCurtius & Livius
What's New in Papyrology
The Wild Hunt

There's also a number of great religious, magical, and philosophical blogs that I follow (as well as some comic book and pop culture ones) but these are essentially the more educational ones.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? I'm always on the lookout for something neat.

Attention Celtophiles
This may be of interest to some of the folks on my f-list.

I have AWOL on my Google Reader, which is a compendium of open source and public journals having to do with the ancient world, and one of their latest posts was about e-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies. Just skimming the topics, it seems like there's a lot of good stuff there.

Pimpin' ain't easy
The editors of Eternal Haunted Summer have requested that I pass this on. I am an obliging sort, so here goes:

The debut issue of Eternal Haunted Summer, an ezine dedicated to Pagan poetry, short fiction and reviews, has launched. :) This first issue includes pieces from both new and established authors, with poems and stories celebrating Aphrodite, Apollo, El, Hermes, Herne, Kali, Odin, Skadhi and many others.

Please spread the word, and many thanks to those who contributed. :)

http://www.eternalhauntedsummer.com

Rex mortuus est
I had a very peculiar dream this morning. It was long and detailed and so I shall only share the more outstanding elements of it with you, dear readers.

Basically, it began in the home of King Agamemnon, where I was a noble at the court. I seduced Queen Klytaimnēstra (who apparently resembles a statuesque Nordic supermodel, go figure) and convinced her to kill her husband. We made love right there, next to the body and covered in his flowing blood. Afterwards we ran off and apparently found some way to gain immortality, because the second part of the dream took place centuries later in contemporary New York.

News had just reached us of the death of Biggie Smalls, which we and a cabal of our close associates had arranged. To celebrate, the cabal - consisting of Nas, Jay-Z, Sean "P-Diddy" Combs, Kenye West, Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans, and Lil Kim - all proceeded to have an orgy. In slow and excruciating detail.

It was at this point that I awoke, horrified. Note that I wasn't the least bothered by the mixture of bloody and erotic imagery, or even the thought that I was capable of orchestrating the deaths of two powerful and influential men. No, far from it. But the idea of having an orgy with the likes of them - and that such things exist somewhere deep inside my brain - put me in a cold sweat.

A lovely concept
I just read that the motto of the library of Alexandria was psukhēs iatreion, "a place of healing for the soul."

I like that.

Arsinoe Dhul-Qarnayn?
This is pretty cool. Around 27 million years ago creatures that were basically a cross between an elephant and a rhinoceros roamed Egypt, Ethiopia and other parts of the Middle East. Scientists named them Arsinoitherium after ... you guessed it ... Arsinoe Philadelphos! You can read about it here.

Confession of a Dionysian Mummer

erl_queen and I will be going out mumming twice during the holiday season. First with

gallows_queen on Christmas eve, and then alone on New Year's. (You can see

erl_queen's wonderful post about her plans for it here, including some great pics that inspired the creation of her new costume.) Well, I've been thinking a lot about this and to get in the proper mood I decided to write the following:

Confession of a Dionysian Mummer
I roam where midnight Zagreus roams,
through the maze of empty streets
and homes still with slumbering souls inside.
No other mortal dares venture forth at this late hour,
but I am hardly alone on my desolate way.
The wind whips through skeletal trees made barren by winter's harshness,
and in the distance I hear the awful cry of crows,
shredding the night's silence like a veil torn in two.
Strange things lurk in the shadows,
misshapen and wild-eyed.
The thirsty dead and spirits of the land long forgot,
loosed to revel on this eve
that's stretched across the old and new years,
yet belongs fully to neither.
Dangerous are they,
and eager to snatch the unwary,
dragging them down beneath the loamy soil
never to be heard from again.
All this is true, yet I have no fear
for on this night I am one of them.
I wear a mask of crude animal pelts to conceal my face,
and tattered clothes like a revenant's worm-eaten shroud.
Around my waist are strung noisy bells,
and I beat an old drum and sing a drunken song
taught to me by the ancestors.
My steps are fleet as I dance through the streets,
and the frenzy of Lusios drives me on to unknown places.
Tonight I am a creature of the hunt;
not human, but a wild beast in feigned man-shape
or so it would seem to any unfortunate who strayed across my path.
But I howl and I growl and I stamp my boots
to make sure that that won't happen -
for who would dare approach such a mad thing as I?
This roaming with the ghosts and elder gods
is a rite primordial and full of deep magic.
I could try to explain to you why we do it
and have done it since the dawn of time,
but if you don't already know
and feel it down in your bones and soul,
you never will,
and better by far for you to hide
safe in your snug little bed on this night.
And pray, o gentle man,
that the spirits don't find their way into your dreams,
riding upon the frightful steeds of Nyx,
lest you fail to wake and greet the glorious morn
of our new year.

Greco-Egyptian quote(s) of the day #21
Three lovely quotes by Plato about poetic inspiration and something else

"The poet is a light and winged and sacred thing, unable to create poetry unless he is first inspired by the god and out of his wits, with no reason in him any longer." - Plato, Ion 534b

"He who arrives at the doors of poetry without the madness of the Muses, thinking that he can be a good poet thanks solely to his skill, remains incomplete, and the poetry of the sane poet is eclipsed by that of the mad." - Plato, Phaedrus 245a

"When a poet takes his seat on the tripod of the Muse, he cannot control his thoughts. He's like a fountain where the water is allowed to gush forth unchecked." - Plato, Laws 4.719c

Since this is the year that I have committed myself to writing as a holy vocation, these quotes are strongly upon my mind.

And here's a final quote, also dear to my heart, but not by Plato.

"Bacchus, by you I swear, I shall bear your boldness. Lead on, begin the revel. You are a god: govern a mortal heart. Born in the flame you love the flame love has; and again bring me, your suppliant, in bonds. Really you are deceitful and unbearable: while you bid me hide your mysteries, you would now bring mine to light." - Meleager, Palatine Anthology 12.119

Longing for Dionysos
When I lower my head that final time
I pray my soul will be carried away
to that land I've visited so often before.
I've walked through its shady culverts in dream
and tasted the pure water that flows
from the hidden grotto in daylight visions.
I know this place better than any other -
Nysa is more my home than any land I've ever set foot on before.
All I have to do is close my eyes
and the thick smell of pine trees and damp soil fills my nostrils.
If I listen closely enough,
I can hear the soft sounds of bare feet playing through the delicate grasses,
as ancient nymphs collect flowers for garland crowns
and the mad-women dance with snakes in their hands.
Sometimes the memory of the god's own wine
is strong upon my tongue,
so strong that my vision blurs,
my heart begins to race,
and I am fully drunk
just from the thought of him.
Oh my beloved, my king, my god -
I yearn only to be near to you,
to spend eternity in your joyous company,
to lift my proud head, crowned with your ivy,
and feel your praises pour out of my mouth in inspired verse,
like the river of wine that spills from the foot of your throne,
flooding the earth and making the world green with new life.
I long to dance beside the lusty satyrs,
to dance the dance of limitless intoxication
which knows no weariness,
that never comes to an end.
I ache to gaze upon the beauty of your well-chosen bride,
Ariadne whose flesh shines more brightly even
than the lovely wedding-crown of stars you placed upon her fair brow.
She knows the singular pleasure of resting her head in your lap,
of feeling your lips pressed to hers in a kiss
whose power was so great that it triumphed over death,
raising her up from the house of shadows and dust
to sit ever by your side as your queen.
O! Just to look upon one so lucky would fill my heart with boundless joy!
So when my time comes, O merciful Dionysos,
do not forget me,
but cause the music of your merry band to play even louder,
so that I can find my way sure-footed to the place of your birth,
the mountain from which you rule the hearts of all
who bear the sign of your mysteries engraved upon their soul.

I have been conscripted into the war on Christmas
Well, folks, it's getting to be that time of the year, so I figured I'd post some of my favorite Yuletide links.

To start off with, we've got The Darkness (remember them?) singing Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End) and Tay "Chocolate Rain" Zonday's Christmas Star. What? You're looking for something a little classier? Or sexier? Or Weezer?

Enough with the music.

Here's a look at Marvel Comics' 8 greatest holiday specials. (There's not just one, but two killer robot Santas!)

Here's Cracked's guide to holiday movies.

Here are some rather strange Christmas ornaments.

Here's Glenn Beck talking about his Christmas Sweater. (*sniff, sniff*)

And remember, kiddies, Santa Claus is a Black man.

Lastly, I would like to leave you with a little holiday story written by yours truly back in the good old days of 2003. It's something I like to call Careful what you wish for. [Note: Don't read if you're Christian, Wiccan, or easily offended.]

And now for these commercial messages ...
I was initially going to wait until the unveiling of my new website and blog, but since I've had a couple people ask me about this recently, I figure I'll just go ahead and make the announcement.

Yup. My books have been successfully moved from Bibliotheca Alexandrina to my new personal publishing line Nysa Press and are now available for purchase. Although I am going to post some of the more important pieces about Greco-Egyptian polytheism on the new site, a lot of the material that was previously on Neos Alexandria will only be accessible through the books. They are substantially the same as the old ones, the only difference being the swanky new logo and a few minor corrections here and there. (I take self-publishing very seriously, and think it's rather unprofessional to repeatedly make drastic changes to a book. However, this was a unique circumstance.)

The Balance of the Two Lands: Writings on Greco-Egyptian Polytheism on Createspace and Amazon.com
Echoes of Alexandria: Poems and Stories on Createspace and Amazon.com
Gods and Mortals: New Stories of Hellenic Polytheism on Createspace and Amazon.com

I get a larger cut of the proceeds from Createspace, so it's best if they're purchased from there, but lots of folks like Amazon and have gift cards, and hey, I'm not going to complain so long as folks are buying copies of my books. Even better if it's multiple copies!

However, I really would appreciate it if folks who have bought the books in the past or read the material on the website would take a couple moments and leave a review over on Amazon. It really does help boost sales and the appearance of respectability. And, going the independent, self-published route, I can use all the help I can get.

Speaking of which, if anyone likes what I'm doing and have to say and is in a particularly generous mood, but either doesn't have the money to buy my books or already has copies of their own, you can always give me a couple bucks through PayPal. Personally, I hate even saying that. Feels too much like begging. But a friend recently said that they felt it was important to help support the artists whose work they appreciated, but often didn't know how. Well, here's a way to do that, but please please please don't feel obligated to. Merely commenting on the stuff I write is support enough. However, for those who'd like to do a little more here's a nifty little button to click:

Holy fuck
I wish I could be more articulate and witty, but holy fuck is about all I could manage after coming across this little gem:

Eternal Unicorn Star Circle

They are, apparently, some kind of Pagan group located here in Oregon. I haven't been able to deduce anything further about them because of the horrifying Twilight image that graces their page, which is pretty much Kryptonite to me. Really, this group is like everything I hate all rolled up into one tidy little package. So very convenient.

How did I come across this, dear readers? Well, I've spent the last hour or so tracking down local resources since I intend to apply myself seriously to writing, education, and outreach over the next year. Networking is an essential part of that - if people don't even know you exist, how are they going to be interested in your "product" - but ya know, this doesn't exactly give me hope.

Joyful surprise
So, a little bit ago I went outside to enjoy the night air and clear my head. On the way back I figured I'd stop and check my mail, since I haven't done so for a couple days, and found a package from

primaldog waiting for me. It contained a very special gift, a lovely Dionysian necklace made of leopard hide and ancient Egyptian faience beads. In addition to that there was a little note that was deeply touching and inspirational and it nearly brought tears to my eyes. I am overcome with gratitude to

primaldog for your kindness and generosity, and to Dionysos for this reminder that I am his and he looks out for me. I shall wear the necklace with great pride.

Greco-Egyptian quote of the day #20
“There was a huge temple in one of the villages which housed a very famous idol, though in reality this image was nothing but a wooden statue. The priests together with the people, working themselves up into a bacchic frenzy, used to carry it in procession through the villages, no doubt for the ceremony to ensure the flooding of the Nile.” - Historia Monachorum in Aegypto 8.25

Christian group launches new attack on Christmas commercialism

"In the past four years, Advent Conspiracy churches have donated millions of dollars to dig wells in developing countries through Living Water International and other organizations. McKinley likes to point out that a fraction of the money Americans spend at retailers in the month of December could supply the entire world with clean water. If more Christians changed how they thought about giving at Christmas, he argues, the holiday could be transformative in a religious and practical sense."

"A movement like the Advent Conspiracy is countercultural on two fronts - not just fighting the secular idea that Christmas is a month-long shopping and decorating ritual, but the powerful conservative notion that the holiday requires acknowledgement from the nation's retailers to be truly meaningful."

I really wish there were more Christians like this in the world. This is what they should be focusing on during this season - not whether or not the cashier wishes you "Merry Christmas" (instead of "Happy Holidays", god forbid), but if they are truly living out the messages of Jesus in their lives. It's sad that this idea is "countercultural" even within Christianity.

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