Nonsense from a Bear

This post is for the Hellenion online festival Khalkeia, taking place on Hellenion’s Facebook page today. Thank you to Alexeigynaix for putting the event in motion and running it.

For many in religious communities, strings of beads are a good way to guide your prayers and meditations. I personally like having the connection to the deity who you choose to honor with the beads and keeping that…

Miasma and Chronic Illness

In my Hellenic Polytheism, dealing with miasma is an integral part of my practice. Miasma is what I like to call the spiritual dirt that we humans collect from the everyday world and the mortal practices we do. Are you ill? Are you menstruating? Have you been around a birth? Have you been around death? Have you done mundane work? If the answer to any of these is yes, you have miasma clinging to…

The Epithets of Hermes

I recently found that my local public library has a community room available for use by non-profit entities for free, so I have begun to prepare to hopefully host the August libation to Hermes there. I decided to write a bit today in honor of the trickster.

Recitation of the Epithets of Hermes by Lyssa Little Bear

You are Hermêneutês, the translator.

You are Epimêlios, the Keeper of the Flocks.

Y…

In Memory of Grandma

My paternal grandmother passed away a week ago tomorrow. It was expected; she was quite old, in failing health, and the Friday before that I had learned that she had been not eating, drinking, and unresponsive to any stimuli. Despite it being expected, it still hurts, as losing any loved one does. My father’s side of the family wasn’t one I was particularly close to, especially after his own…