Goat’s Milk and Honey

Hail and take pleasure ,O Dionysus, child of Semele with the beautiful looks. There is no way I could have my mind disconnect from you as I put together the beautiful cosmic order of my song.

Demeter and Persephone Terracotta Made in Myrina, NW Asia Minor c. 180 BC

I call to Polyhymnia, blessed one, daughter of Zeus and wise Mnemosyne, I call to you, goddess whose gift it is to glorify the holy, to grant us faith, to inspire us in all devotion, to fire our souls with love for the gods. Polyhymnia, sustainer of hope, yours are the words of reverence, the heartfelt call to deity; yours is the spark of divine ecstasy. Polyhymnia, exalted one, I pray to you, goddess, I honor your gifts.

Many are beginning to think and talk about celebrating Samhain. Samhain is a cross-quarter day, occurring between the equinox and solstice. Accordingly, true Samhain is not until November 7th, and we are lucky this year because Samhain occurs during the lunar phase that corresponds with the season that Samhain ushers in (Late Autumn) and the element it embodies (Earth). You may choose to wear red and brown to align yourself more closely with the earthly power. I strongly suggest waiting until the 7th to celebrate the religious rite of Samhain.

Mercury Carrying his Caduceus. 1776. Francesco Bartolozzi. Italian 1725-1815.

Under Ceres’ Sacred Tree by Francisco Pradilla Ortiz

Invocation to Apollon I call to Apollon, radiant and beautiful god, son of fair Leto and lightning wielding Zeus, brother of swift-footed, true shooting Artemis. In ancient Delphi you lent your wisdom to all, in Delos and in far-off shrines your words did sound; across the land, in all the provinces, Phoebus, were temples raised in your name, did men and women gather in your honor, wreathed in sweet flowers, words of prayer upon their lips. Many loves were yours, bright Apollon, and many noble sons and daughters; father of kind Asklepios, your healing hand can cease the most poisonous of plagues. Apollo, we see you in beauty–in art and in song, in the perfection of numbers, in the words of poets, in the drive towards truth. Apollo, I call to you. Link

Satyre et Bacchante James Pradier c. 1830

Pan by moonlight By Léon Spilliaert

I call upon you, the many muses of the arts, the nine daughters of Memory and the loud thundering Zeus, blessed with sweetest song,who've inspired and guided my every hymn and sang praise of the shining deathless ones, For it is my turn now to sing adoration of you. Hear me, O Kalliope, eldest of the nine Mousai,who sings the tales of Gods and brave heroes; O Kleio, of vast knowledge, who guides us through the present with lessons of the past; Melpomene, who, spinning the fate's thread, weaves tragic tales falling to hubris and love; Joyous Euterpe, who gently guides the hands of lyrists creating most beautiful melody; Rose-crowned Erato, dearest friend of lovers,who, with Love, inspires deep passion in poets; Most lovely Terpsikhore, of the beautiful dance that blesses all that you touch as you waltz; Ourania, who knows every inch of the celestial globe, showing us the future through the stars; Rosy Thalia, whose is comedy and merryment, causing laughter and joy everywhere you go; Polymnia, dear muse of the hymnal and prayer, whose song is of the glory of the golden Theoi : Come to this sacred place, carefully decorated with garlands and offerings made in your honour, perfumed with sweet smelling roses and incense, come, O dear Mousai, and listen to my hymn of praise and devotion for you. 𝐄𝐈𝐒 𝐌𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐀𝐈, @erosienne | Tumblr (22.06.08)

"So let us start from the beginning with the theologians and apply our proofs about [Hephaestus] to the tradition we have received. That he belongs to the creative [i.e., demiurgic] series, and not to the life-giving or conserving ones, or to some other, the theologians show by leaving a tradition of him in the role of a blacksmith who applies the bellows, and basically as a ‘worker of crafts’. These same people also show that he is a fashioner of sensible things, not of psychical or intellectual deeds. For his manufacture of the mirror, his bronze, his being lame, and all such things, are symbols of his productivity in the sensible realm. Moreover, that he is a maker of all sensible things is clear from the same sources, who say that he was carried from Olympus above all the way to earth, and who make all the receptacles of the encosmic gods ‘Hephaestus-wrought’. So if we claim that this is so, then this god would be the overall fashioner of the entire bodily construction. He gets the gods’ visible dwelling-places ready for them in advance, contributes everything required for the single harmony of the cosmos, provides all the creations of bodily life, and uses forms to give coherence to the intractable and dense nature of matter. That is the reason why he is also said by the theologians to be a smith, as being a worker of solid and resistant materials, and because the heaven is brazen insofar as it is an imitation of the intelligible, and the maker of the heaven is a smith. He is said to be lame in both legs, because he is the demiurge of the final phase of the procession of reality – that being bodies – and because he is no longer able to advance to another stage [because bodies are the last stage]. ... He is cast from above to the earth, because he extends his creative activity through the whole of sensible substance. Whether people speak of ‘natural’ or of ‘spermatic principles’ one should attribute the cause of all of them to this god. For what nature produces by sinking down into bodies, is also shaped in a divine and transcendent manner by this god, setting nature in motion and using it as a tool for his own creative activity. For innate warmth is Hephaestan, introduced by him for the making of bodies. So our account traces the universal cause of things that come to be back to this god." Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Timaeus 142.20 - 143.24

Statue of Hermes with Dionysos. 420 BC.

Jupiter by Ire (commissioned)