I am happily participating in the #DevotionalArts2021 challenge created by Michelle Simkins! I decided to do it one week at a time because I'm a little swamped with things to do. Here's the first week's prompts and what I wrote for each one!
Day 1: “Prayer”
Hestia Polyolvos I call, the firstborn of Kronos and Rhea, beloved Olympian, caretaker of every hearth and altar. Hear me, kind Hestia, shining one, first and foremost among the household Gods! As is your right since time immemorial, I offer to you this first creation, a hymn and prayer in love and reverence. May your gentle gaze continue to bless us and our homes.
Day 2: “Love”
Ὦ, δύναμι ἀμαιμάκετε…
Inscribed in gold and silver
Honeyed and caressed
In everlasting bloom
Resplendent in glorious light
Born of desire and beauty
Matured through bittersweet pain
Walking barefoot through thorny paths
Trembling in blind fear
Of a mind assaulted by storm-clouds
But evermore rejuvenated by a single drop
Of such divine ambrosia
Of such succulent nectar
That truly deathless part of humanity
Nourished by you
O, love, divine and mortal, ever dying and resurrecting
In hearts, souls, and minds,
Ὦ, πολύμορφε, πολυτίμητ’ ἀγάπη.
Day 3: “Offering”
An offering is a precious thing. Even if its material and monetary value is negligible, an offering is precious. A proper offering is a sacrifice, however small. It is a gift and a nourishment for the Gods and Spirits we so honor. I offer my prayers and hymns, my writings and drawings, my rituals and magics. I offer grain and water, wine and honey, bread and olive oil, flowers and stones, blood and fire and pain and time. Never have the Gods rejected an offering given in love and reverence. Giving offerings is among the holiest of practices.
Day 4: “Devotion”
One word
but a myriad,
wondrous layers of meaning.
Devotion.
Divine duty.
Holy purpose.
Devotion.
Heartfelt ἀγάπη.
Commitment.
Devotion.
Transcendent relationship.
Devotion.
Privilege and labor of initiates and priests.
Lifelong journey.
Devotion.
Day 5: “Promise”
I have made many promises in my life as a polytheist. Some I have broken, some I have upheld, others I have honored above and beyond. I will make many more promises in the future. From a devotional polytheist perspective, promises are powerful bonds with our Gods. Promises should not be made lightly (though they aren’t as binding or strict as vows and oaths). Sometimes Gods can let us dissolve a promise, especially if it’s one made in error or if seeing it through would cause more harm than good. However, more often than not, I have experienced the Gods requiring us to honor most promises made, even the “bad” ones. Usually, this results in lessons; painful but important lessons. Responsibility is important and promises are sacred. Be careful what promises you make and to whom you make them.
Day 6: “Transformation”
He danced a slithering dance, swaying back and forth like a serpent before the altar. The only light came from the flames of the candles on the altar, which were arranged in a sacred pattern. He whispered secret names and uttered holy phrases. His serpentine dance became wilder but his mind had long lost contact with his body. In the soft glow of the candles, in the soothing darkness of the shadowy room, under the consecrated veils, unaware of his fervent dance, he saw the mythic cave and the Titan who opened its tartarean gate. Primordial water gushed forth and in the dimly lit room, fresh, cold water poured in a glass chalice. He continued to whisper the secret names and holy phrases. In soul-flight, he sought the obscured light. At last, he found it! The light entered the waters and the world was rejuvenated. Water purified and merged with light wet his parched mouth and throat, and he returned to this world, like a seed bursting in spring with budding life, renewed and reborn, filled with divinely blessed potency.
It was done. It had begun.
Day 7: “Ritual”
A Triskelion-Inspired Rite of Liminality
This ritual is meant to confer a liminal state to a place, as a preliminary step to advanced invocation, for the purposes of theurgic communion and henosis with the divine. I have removed certain Triskelion-specific elements, such as certain consecrated tools so this ritual is actually unfinished and shouldn’t work very well as-is. Instead, it is meant to act as an example for the necessary framework such a ritual would exhibit and it should be thoroughly adapted to the practitioner’s needs and Gods.
Materials:
Three white candles
Incense & censer (frankincense, styrax, or any herbal incense with lavender will suffice)
A key
Preparation & Process:
Have the ritual space be clean and prepare an empty surface, such as a desk, small table or other similar place. Put the key in the middle of the surface and the three candles in a subtle arc behind it, as if they’re surrounding it on the side across from you. Place the censer with the unlit incense in front of the key, on the side closest to you.
Purify yourself and the space in your preferred manner.
Say a hymn or prayer to the deity you will be invoking afterwards.
Start lighting the candles while saying:
O, holy light, transformative flame, pierce through the obscuring mists and reveal the presence of the Gods.
Light the incense and say:
O, smoke, winding like a serpent, made sacred with flame, fill this room and body with the subtle aether of the Gods.
Take the censer and move it clockwise so the smoke propagates throughout the room. Return it to its place and say:
Full is now this hall of the Gods with the blessed scent! They are and walk among us.
Take the key and raise it above the censer and candles so it is entangled in the smoke and reflecting the light of the candleflames. Say:
ASKEI KATASKEI ERON OREON IOR MEGA SAMNYER BAUI (3 times)
PHOBANTIA SEMNE
Keybearing Mistress of the Crossroads, World-Spanning Queen, Initiatrix and Guide, Liminal One, You Who Treads All Realms, Keeper of the Secret Names and Goddess of Mysteries, bless this place! Make it as your sacred Crossroads, make it an in-between space, a place fit to receive the full presence of Gods!
AKTIOPHIS PHERSEPHATTA SELASPHOROS
Open the Gate, Sunder the Veil, Break open the Tartarean Doors!
Rouse the land-daimons and the wind Gods!
Unite the deathless, Elysian Olympus and the fruitful, Chthonic Earth!
In your many Names, O Nameless One,
Protogonos, Titanis, Krataia,
this place is now found nowhere and everywhere.
It is not of Land, Sea, or Sky, yet it dwells in their midst.
Your touch rends space!
Your voice connects all realms!
Your power shapes the center!
I am a vessel, an instrument of your force, O Great One, and through me, with your power, this space is now a Crossroads between the worlds of Mortals and Gods!
So it is, so it is, so it is!
Your working space is now consecrated and transformed into a liminal realm. Continue with whatever theurgic rituals and invocations you have planned. Once you are finished and you want to restore the space to its original state, do this:
Snuff out the candles and say:
The holy light is gone. This Crossroads is darkened.
Remove the censer and incense and say:
The divine aether is gone. This Crossroads is emptied.
Remove the key and cover it with a cloth or inside a box or other safe place. Say:
The sacred omphalos is gone. This Crossroads falls apart.
Close your eyes and say:
ASKEI KATASKEI ERON OREON IOR MEGA SAMNYER BAUI (3 times)
PHOBANTIA SEMNE
O Nameless One, O Great One, You who transformed this place into your Crossroads!
Return it to its former state!
This Crossroads has neither Light nor Aether nor a cornerstone.
It crumbles away.
Your power recedes.
Your voice falls on deaf ears.
Your touch becomes but memory.
And this realm becomes as it was before, a place upon mortal Earth,
a place upon the Land, under the Sky, by the Sea.
This Crossroads exists no more!
It is done, it is done, it is done!
Perform any additional closings and give any offerings you have. The rite has ended.
