#thargelia6

So today and tomorrow, May 18th & 19th, or in the Hellenic calendar Thargelion 6th & 7th in the 4th year of the 699th olympiad, mark the festival Thargelia which honors Artemis and Apollo. 

Due to the ongoing pandemic I was at my parents home and couldn’t freely or to full extend celebrate Thargelia, however I still tried to do as much as possible, without a real celebration or libation. 

So on the 6th of Thargelion, Artemis day I

- Started the day by undergoing catharsis or cleansing, took a bath, put on fresh clothes, took out the trash, to cleanse myself of miasma. 

- I couldn’t fast due to eating with/at my parents, but instead I avoided every unnecessary food or drink, so I only ate and drank during lunch and dinner when I had no other option. 

- In the afternoon I put on some symbolic clothing and jewelry that portray deer, which are associated with Artemis who is also named the huntress goddess.

- Then I wrote down two things I wanted to get rid off on paper, representing the pharmakoi or scapegoates, and ripped those to ward bad energy concerning these points off. 

* Due to the ongoing pandemic and Thargelia being associated with warding off illness, I wrote illness down as one of the things that I wanted to ward off.

* For the second pharmakoi, last Thargelia I wrote down self doubt about choices regarding the future. Through the past year that has indeed become less however it’s still not fully gone, well the doubt about choices is kinda gone but regarding future work I just really want a specific job and a lot of future choices depend on that so that’s why this year I wrote down ‘not working at my dream job at ...’ to cast out, in order to channel positive energy towards that goal and ward off negativity and unluckiness regarding getting that job. It sounds a bit selfish maybe but since it’s like a second part to the pharmakoi from last year it’s also about personal growth and asking the deities to help me on that part, it’s not like directly asking them for the job. 

Anyways so that were my two pharmakoi for this year.

- Then I recited some prayers/hymns. I did it in a weird order, which was kinda wrong but it doesn’t matter that much, but next year again I would like to just do it in the numerological order since it makes much more sense, I don’t know why I didn’t do that this time. 

* I started with reciting Orphic Hymn 34 to Leto, then Orphic Hymn 36 to Artemis (two versions of that hymn) and Homeric Hymn 9 and 27 to Artemis.

Thargelion 7th marks Apollo’s day, so then I will

- Cleanse myself (catharsis) and put on fresh clothes.

- Listen to a song called ‘Apollo’ to honor him. 

- Recite Homeric Hymn 21 to Apollo and Orphic Hymn 33 to Apollo.

- This is also a day to spend with family so I’ll go with my mom to the grocery store to get some nice foods, break ‘the fast’ during lunch and make a nice dinner with her.