Wine, milk, and flour

Grandpa haggling at the fish market.

I finally colored this little guy

Protestants making shit up to try and "prove" whatever shit they decided to hate on was secretly Satanic.

German nationalists making shit up trying to "prove" that Christian holidays had no connection to anything Jewish.

People failing to understand that European converts to Christianity retained many of their old customs and traditions, because Jesus being Lord doesn't mean there's no dragons in that there lake or that the plant lore everybody knows is all bunk.

Persephone and Demeter

Winter comes

11: Hades and Persephone in Sicily

“Already in the sixth century, Pindar (Pyth. 12.1-2) described Akragas as the “seat of Persephone,” and by the first century, Cicero (Verr. 2.4.106) could remark that all Sicily was sacred to Demeter and Persephone.”

“In the Greek West, Kore/Persephone herself was sometimes the more prominent partner of the two, and played an important role in the social construction of marriage and the rites leading to adulthood for women and men. In keeping with Kore’s significance as the archetypal bride, the western colonies saw the core of the myth as the theogamy of Persephone/Kore and Hades, rather than the reunion of Demeter and Kore after the latter’s abduction, which was the focus of the Eleusinian Mysteries.”

Ancient Greek Cults: A Guide by Jennifer Larson.

We shared about our practices. We both just lit up when we started talking about our deities, like we had both been waiting for someone to ask. I told her about the deities I worked with in the past and who I am currently working with. We couldn’t seem to stop talking to each other. It was like talking to my online pagan and witch friends.

We immediately understood everything the other was saying. We talked about our clairsenses and how our deities communicate with us, the signs they gave wanting to connect with us, our altars, our personal experiences with them, and more. She kept saying how she never meets anyone who does deity work. To anyone else, our conversation probably would have seemed crazy. But I have never felt so seen and heard.

The wildest part was that my (very rare) name was also her middle name. What are the odds? Not in my small commuter city!

I wanted to ask for her number but didn’t know if it would have been too forward of me. I want us to be friends, or at the very least, for us to meet again.

I realize now, hours later, that I need community. I crave connection. Talking to someone in person about your practice, someone who just gets it when no one else around you knows who you truly are, was such a fulfilling experience. It really put things in perspective for me.