Tips for Daily Practice & Ritual II

To answer Thy Druid's question let me say before I begin to provide more ideas and tips to use for daily practice … LOL … is I don't do these all personally nor do I do each tip I offered everyday. I do a few of these for the most part when I can like the morning and evening prayer with the lighting of incense as an offering with a small amount of meditation. It is really hard for me to meditate I have a hard time to be still or quiet. I find that group meditation works best for me so I am still learning how to meditate alone! What I would like to do is change things up and follow a Ancient Greek/Athenian Calendar in pray to different deities and make offerings to different deities on specific days of the month. If you try to follow a Hellenic/Greek Ancient Pagan Ca lander for example you try to show your respects to different Gods/Goddesses on specific days and take into consideration lunar cycles as well. Now one does not have to be that technical unless you want to be a 'recon' (Reconstructionist) and there is nothing wrong with that but I personally don't want to be so regimented that I can't enjoy myself or celebrating my spirituality.

But to provide you with an example of what I mean lets take this month which is June, also known as Hekatombaion (an epithet of Apollon, alluding to his role as accepter of sacrifices). tTo me this fits because it marks the time of Midsummer and the Sun God shines at its fullest here and enters the stage of death and rebirth. The Ancient Greek/Athenian Calender begins in the middle of the month, or rather the time when the new moon surfaces, in this case June 24th hs to July 22nd. So this month the new moon is scheduled for the 23/24 these days you would pay homage to the Greek Goddess Selene and make offerings to her. And over the next few days are sacred to other Gods/Goddesses. To continue with June I will illustrate further here:

June 24/25 = Agothas Daimon (your favorite spirit personifications you choose, in Ancient Greece these were house spirits and Gods, Hestia and Zeus would qualify here too!) New Moon

June 25/256= Athena

June 26/27 = Aphrodite, Heracles, Hermes and Eros

June 28/29 = Artemis

June 29/30 = Apollo

June 30/ July 1 = Poseidon & Theseus

Other ancient festivals celebrated .. this ancient month would be:

June 26-27: Aphrodisia -- The bathing festival of Aphrodite and Peitho (Persuasion). First the temple was purified with dove's blood, then the altars were anointed. Finally the two statues were carried in a procession to the washing place.

July 4-5: Kronia -- A festival in honor of Kronos as a god of the harvest, portrayed with a reaping scythe. A huge harvest feast was held, where slaves were invited to dine with their masters. A sacrifice was also made to Artemis on this day in the deme of Erchia.

July 8-9: Synoikia -- A celebration of the Synoecism, the combining of Attika into one community. Every other year, it was celebrated for two days instead of one. On the second day, a sacrifice was made to Zeus Phratrios, god of the tribal brotherhoods (like clans). A sacrifice was also made to Athene in a formal manner. Eirene, goddess of peace, was also worshipped on this day.

July 20-21: Panathenaia -- The celebration of Athene's birthday, when gods and mortals feasted together. A vigil was held the night before the Panathenaic procession. At sunrise a sacrifice was made to Eros and Athene at the altar of Eros in the Academy, then a torch race brought the sacred fire to the altar of Athene. Every fourth year, the Greater Panathenaia was held, when a new robe was given to the goddess. A huge procession brought the robe to her statue in her temple, where it was placed on Athene's knees, and later stored in the treasury; she was officially re-robed during the Plunteria. Sacrifices were also made to Athene Hugieia (Health) and Nike. The three or four days following the procession featured contests of sport and art.

I also do something special during the Dark Moon also known as the period of the New Moon each month for Hekate since she is one of my patron Goddesses.

Now this is pretty specific and each Ancient Greek Athenian Month has different festivals to celebrate.

No I didn't really cover tips for daily practice other then what can be down on specific days of the month. I will continue this stream thought later since I need to be getting ready for work, but I could address offerings too that would be pleasing for each Greek God/Goddess as well. I hope this helps anyone who may be interested in Greek Pantheons.

BB ~ Bia' Aletheia

word count = 825