Seeker of Wisdom

Here's a doodle of my design of Dionysus, based on something I saw in Thebes

Me with lord Apollon!

Fuck yeah with all that Aphrodite energy!! 🙏🏻💖

He’s the sound of your heart beating, and lets you know you’re still alive.

He’s the courage to keep going, no matter what happens.

He’s the feeling of doing what you needed to.

He’s the feeling of not being afraid anymore.

He is Strength and Courage.

To me, Ares is energy. He's courage and He's determination. He motivates us to push through when we feel like we can't. He is the voice in our head which tells us to keep going. He's strength and He's perseverance, He's warmth and support.

When you fight for what's right, He's standing right there beside you. He pushes us to be the best, to achieve greatness, but He won't let us break. He's the older brother who watches you struggle so you learn and get stronger, but He still loves you and wants the best for you.

He's kind and He's gentle and there's so much to Him that I could never put in words. So don't write Him off because's He's the God of War.

So many people treat myths as factual accounts of events. I have never seen any literary scholar, anthropologist or historian make the claim that this was the way the ancients viewed their myths. It’s metaphor. It’s allegory. It’s symbolism. It’s a narrativised ritual. It’s artistic social, political, cultural commentary, instruction or expression. The claim that a myth should be interpreted literally is never made by serious researchers, because it

1) is inherently unprovable and unarguable, which renders it scientifically irrelevant.

2) it blocks off many more salient interpretations that can co-exist with other contradictory non-literal interpretations.

3) it does not seem consistent with the way myth was treated by storytellers and scholars of the time.

Myth is an inherently flexible medium. It’s beautiful and elegant in its manifold meanings. Stop trying to make it a literal account. It isn’t. Never has been. Do your research about the culture, the medium and the traditions you discuss, before making wild statements, before writing ahistorical retellings, or trying to cancel gods or the people who follow them, based on texts that were written (and before that orally handed down) thousands of years ago in a cultural tradition entirely different than ours.

STOP PROJECTING YOUR OWN LITERALISM AND REJECTION OF COMPLEXITY ON OTHER CULTURES.

It’s ignorant, it’s incurious, it’s incorrect and frankly disrespectful, racist and colonialist to insert your misunderstood notion of mythology in a culture that you have barely researched.

For thousands of years, people around the world have simply just, prayed and given offerings to various divine beings, regardless of personal devotions.

You can pray to Zeus for rain. You can pray to Hermes for a safe journey. You can pray to Apollo before a surgery. You can pray to Hestia when you move into a new place for a home blessing. You can pray to Athena before an important exam. You can pray to Artemis when your pet is at the vet's.

You can ask for a god's intercession at any time, for any reason, without worshipping them on a regular basis.

I'm so sorry for your loss…

The ancient Greeks and Romans loved their dogs a lot and although there aren't a lot of stories about dogs in ancient mythology, we've found a lot of graves and epithets written by grieving owners who had to bury their dogs. Here's an example of one:

"I am in tears, while carrying you to your last resting place as much as I rejoiced when bringing you home in my own hands fifteen years ago."

Here are the rest: (LINK)

Here's a bit more on how the ancient Greeks cherished and loved their dogs. Plato even called them the greatest philosophers because they knew the difference between good and bad people: (LINK)

"The dog was a companion, protector, and hunter for the Greeks and the spiked collar…was invented by the Greeks to protect the necks of their canine friends from wolves." Source: (LINK)

So as you can see, dogs were very important to the ancient Greeks and they memorialized their dogs too so it's okay to put him on your altar. It won't be disrespectful and the gods will understand.

Here are examples of what they'd often look like:

To talk a bit more about my own grieving experience as a Hellenic polytheist and grieving my dog I hope it's okay if I tell you a bit about my own little dog who I lost this past March:

Mourning a dog is so hard because their love for us is so sincere and pure. They love fiercely and protect us as much as they can even when they're so much smaller than whoever they are challenging (my dog was a tiny Maltese Poodle but boy did that dog loved to bark and try to protect me.)

His death came a lot earlier than we expected, he got early onset doggy dementia also known as canine cognitive decline, which is very similar to human dementia.

He began to forget who we were and his health took a nosedive a few months before he passed. We chose to put him down before he got to the final stage (seizures) because as someone who grew up taking care of someone with seizures, I knew he was going to be in excruciating pain. But because he also had dementia he didn't know who we were so I knew he'd be very scared and in excruciating pain with less than a year to live.

Two weeks before his final appointment he lived like a king. He ate all his favorite foods and treats, watched Hamilton everyday (his favorite character was George Washington) and we had the vet come to our apartment so he would be very comfortable since he hated going to the vet.

The Aftermath:

Mourning the loss of a loved one is hard and although we're all familiar with feeling sadness when we grieve, no one ever talks about the guilt and rage that might come over you during your grieving process.

I was angry at my gods

I didn't even know why, I just was. I was mad at them, myself, my spouse, my school, my neighbors, I just wanted to be left alone. But because I was angry at my gods, my Catholic guilt kicked in and I felt guilty for being angry with my gods. I was spiraling because I was trying not to be angry and trying so hard to be sad instead.

But that's when Apollo showed up and I had an honest conversation with him about the guilt behind how I was grieving:

He told me that anger is a natural part of the mourning period. Not everyone will grieve the same but being angry with your gods is normal because when we lose someone who we loved so much there will be a flood of emotions that we didn't know we would feel and forcing them to express in only a sad way keeps you from truly processing your grief. My anger was a part of my grieving process, and so was my confusion and denial of having lost my dog. This was all normal.

I was so overwhelmed with my feelings of rage, guilt, and shame that we left home for a week so I could be away from my altar, my gods and from finding the many dog bones my dog hid before passing.

I desperately needed a break from my gods and they understood.

They weren't upset with me. They knew how much my dog meant to me and how much I loved him, so we left and I was able to process my emotions outside of my home. Prior to this I never understood why people in shows and movies needed to go on a trip when they suffered a loss but after my dog passed I was overwhelmed with the desire to be in nature. To be with Gaia, to be with Demeter. (Two gods I don't normally work with but I desperately needed)

It's okay to go through your own grieving process as it comes. To accept your feelings as they are.

It's okay to feel angry when you're grieving. It's also okay to be angry at your gods because they understand you're grieving. And finally, it's okay to memorialize your dog in whatever way brings you the most comfort.

My dog's little box sits on my altar. He gets his treats and has an electric candle we make sure never turns off. I often mentally see him sitting on Ares' lap or playing fetch with Hermes. He hangs out with my gods and I know my gods don't hold my grieving process against me. They know losing a dog was hard for the ancient Greeks and it's still hard for their modern followers because losing someone who loves you so unconditionally and accepts you for who you truly are without judgment is the hardest thing to do. I wanted to share this with you so you can grieve freely and honor your dog in whatever form brings you the most comfort. The gods understand and they will grieve with you & be there for you.

I personally believe all dogs go straight to the Elysian Fields because dogs are our greatest heroes.

Hygiene is VERY hard to keep up with when you're very depressed or having a very hard mental health day but that's when you need your gods the most!

And I know it's because a lot of ancient priests insisted people needed to cleanse themselves before visiting the temples and communing with the gods (they even banned people on their periods, or those who were about to have a baby or those who just had a baby or were just dealing with a dead body, or had blood on them, etc.) but, as the keepers of the temples, that's because the priests themselves would have to clean up after temple visitors so it makes sense they'd want to ban the ones they thought could potentially make a mess and make extra work for them.

The Iliad shows us the gods were in the battlefield! They fought right next to soldiers being slaughtered and killed. They were next to bodies that have involuntarily released feces and urine! They've been around soldiers who hadn't properly bathed in months, possibly even years!

You're allowed to seek the gods when you're not clean.

You're allowed to seek the gods when you haven't gotten out of bed in weeks.

You're allowed to see the gods when you don't remember the last time you showered or brushed your teeth.

You're allowed to see the gods when you really need help.

You're allowed to see the gods when you need them.

Athena and Ares are in the battlefield surrounded by dying soldiers.

Artemis hunts

Aphrodite also has a war aspect.

Hermes picks up souls from literal dead bodies.

Apollo has an aspect that prepares dead bodies for funerary rights.

The gods are surrounded by the unclean all the time!

Please don't let the rules of disgruntled priests stop you from seeking help when you need it the most!

The gods won't be offended if you haven't bathed in weeks because of your terrible mental state! That's ableism! They just want to help you through it!

Please reach out to them regardless of your condition!