Beauty of Shrines

💗💗💗 my mannnn :)

this is my pouch for hermes / mercury! i meant to use it specifically on mercury days (wednesday) but ive been keeping it with me everywhere tbh and i love it.

- i’ll probably change the picture of hermes because of the little alamy logos but i like it for now

- i have orange stones because those are his main color, and the pouch is yellow because i feel like that makes sense for him too

- i keep dice in there, seem to be classically associated with hermes

- finally i have a few sentimental hotel room keys, as the guardian of movement and travel it made sense to include.

- i also offer him my weed sometimes in the pouch and he hasn’t gotten offended by it but i keep checking in because it’s a bit unorthodox.

- on the other side of the pouch i have another orange stone and a picture of mnemosyne, i closely relate the two and also worship her on wednesdays.

this is the main pouch that i use, but i also have a red one for ares and athena [[trying to combine both aspects of them for my personal temper]] and a yellow one that im planning on dedicating to apollo. but i definitely want to make one for venus and artemis and probably more in the future!

Kathiskos for this month.

Life has been wildly busy. This is all I have managed to do between night shift, finals, and clinicals. Gods help me.

With frankincense burning, I mean this Orphic hymn more than ever. I am living proof that the gods are full of understanding when our lives get so busy that we can’t keep up.

OK, so, the beautiful mermaid statue arrived and I love it. I placed it on my altar for Damgalnuna. I don't know if it will be her representation, obviously it is completely ahistorical.

I love that there is even detail of the disrupted water around where her fins dip into it.

Damgalnuna is the Lady of the Abzu. The Abzu is the vast expanse of water lying below the Earth that is the source of all fresh water. It is the abode of Enki Lord of the Abzu, her husband. So a mermaid doesn't seem disrespectful to me...tho the skulls are a bit off.

I kind of love it for her. We'll see how I feel when I dedicate it; maybe—hopefully—she'll let me know (i.e UPG).

The mermaid is for Damgalnuna, below her is a replica of a historical artifact of Enki, her husband. (ignore the kitchen shelves in the background)

I did have to rearrange my altar a bit and am not sure if I like the rearrangement entirely but everything still fits respectfully.

Rearranged altar August 11, 2026:

I wrote this last year. I came up with it on the spot during ritual, and wrote it down.

(Disclaimer: There's no actual evidence that Dionysus birthday was ever celebrated on or around the winter solstice. Trust me, I checked. But I am choosing to celebrate his birthday on the winter solstice anyway.)

Ritual setup: An altar laid out with the Toys of Dionysus, statues of him, candles, fake ivy, grape agate, and a chalice of wine. I also had a thyrsus on hand.

Toys of Dionysus: A top, a ball, a bullroarer (noisemaker), astragaloi (dice or jacks are fine), a pinecone, an apple (ideally gold), and a mirror.

(The pink tube thing is my bullhorn. You spin it and it makes a whistling sound.)

Last year I began this ritual with Aristides' Oration. This year I might begin with Jack Grayle's invocation to Dionysus from The Hekataeon. Pick your favorite invocation!

Liturgy below:

O holy Noumenia! The beginning of a new lunar month, the renewal of life and of light. With the rising of each cycle of the moon, and the dawning of the sun each morning, we are blessed by all-shining Helios and Selene with the opportunity to begin anew, growing and arising from our pasts. As the flowers and fruits of the earth have their phases - not blooming constantly but each according to their season, not remaining wilted and drained but returning to life again and again - so too do we. I have felt as if I am withering lately, but as I was giving offerings and hymns to the blessed gods today, I was struck by this idea of a sort of eternal renewal. In a related vein, I've been thinking about a specific quote from Disco Elysium lately - "After life - death, after death - life again."

Apollo Proopsios statue is on the cards shelf, these 3 shelves are a mini shrine for him.

O Divine Father,

Lord of Chaos, Lord of Ma’at,

Fearsome Son of Nut and Geb,

I bring to you offerings, I bring to you my adoration!

Foremost Protector of the Barque,

Anoint us with your light and power,

So that we may be blessed with your might

So that we may be blessed by your glory!

May we bring you strength, just as you strengthen us.

May we bring you peace, just as you soothe our anger.

Ignore the stuff on the windowsill lol

Sometimes I feel like I’m doing too much with it, but then I continue feeling drawn to add more haha

I’ve always had an absurd collection of shells and it’s the perfect place to keep them. I wish that I could display them a bit better though

I had surgery a couple of days ago and I'm waiting for some test results, and life has felt quite heavy and challenging this week. So I'm going to do a bit of leaning into the light today. I'm going to have a day where I do no work or tasks and instead I'm going to make sure I spend some time amongst flowers and trees, encouraging my mind and body to recuperate for a while. I'm wishing you all some respite from your cares and tasks, and if needed, perhaps to feel a little lighter in your heart xx

Here's my altar dressed for the day.