Harmony of the Branches

I see my paths laid out before me. I see the high road and the low. I see the desert and the ocean, and all the ways that I might go.

Potential stretches forward with each decision I might take. It leaves me longing for the surety of a route without mistakes.

But such does not exist, for I’m alive and breathing, and with life comes always risk; that’s why a choice is needed.

But I know myself, as my Lord knows me. And I’ve sewn myself within His Mystery. Each decision that is mine leads, inevitably, toward Apollon’s own design.

In this, w/We exist in harmony; my Lord as Composer, my life as symphony. Though the freedom to choose remains my own, He reveals the avenues I might choose to roam.

I see my paths laid out before me. I see the darkness and the light. I see the gravel and the gravestone, and I see the mirror’s calm respite.

To these ends, I will not falter; I shall tread these winding ways, and in the end they will be conquered, though endless be the maze…

…of life yet lived before my very eyes, calling me to wander to recieve my waiting prize: that which I have wanted, whatever it may be, first was wanted by Apollon, and placed here just for me.

— Columbine, Aegletia, Day 3, 2022

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Day 3

*Celebrating Artemis and the unbreakable bond between the Holy Twins.

**Celebrating the freedom of being in harmony with Apollon.

Aegletia, Solo: Artemis

“Artemis”, by Heather Arenas. Click image to be redirected to artist’s website.

At your kitchen/dining room table, or a small altar with space for offerings of sweets– perhaps prepared by you, or purchased for this occasion– set the stage with comfortable ambiance. Place a representation of Artemis opposite you, across the table, and surround it with small gifts. Flowers and semi-precious stones will do nicely. Tonight you will be inviting Artemis over for a quiet and reverent evening.

Have two glasses for wine, or other fruit-based beverage (also cool water and a couple of cups/glasses) available. One for Artemis on Her side of the table, and one for you. Take your seat, and clear your thoughts.

Begin by recalling in your mind the things that you admire about Artemis, be it Her courage, Her tenacity, Her equal caring across all species– perhaps her tending to the young and vulnerable. Whatever it may be that sparks your love for Her, bring those thoughts to the forefront. Now, as your mind is brimming with personal admiration for our magnificent Goddess, begin to hum, sing or otherwise melodically vocalize this loving energy.

It is good to allow the melody to come naturally, but it is also appropriate to compose something beforehand, if you desire. Vocal prowess has no bearing here, as the goal is to get Her attention in an enticing way, using this vehicle of Her Brother’s domain, with which She is familiar and disposed toward.

When you are certain you have Her attention, begin calling Her by name, and/or relevant epithets. Ask Her to join you for a relaxing evening with sweets and wine, or whatever your choice of offerings and libations may be. When She arrives, and you feel Her presence in the space, thank Her for joining you, and explain that tonight is for spending time and getting to know one another better. Simply, a nice leisurely conversation, and listening, should the Goddess feel inclined to impart any wisdom or advice. And while this evening is not meant for heavy petitioning, it is a good time for asking Artemis for advice on understanding and pleasing Lord Apollon, as She knows Him well, and may offer perspectives that you have, as yet, not considered.

Be sure to spend an equal, or greater than equal time in discussion/contemplation of Her concerns and domain, as well. Though the Aegletia festival is dedicated to our Lord, remember that this day and evening is set aside for Artemis.

During your conversation, feel free to partake of some if the sweets and wine, while of course serving and pouring for the Goddess first. Be a good host and tend to your Guest diligently. You may also plan some other type of entertainment for Her. If you are in any way artfully inclined, you may offer to produce a work in your chosen medium for Her. You may begin this work as the evening progresses, with the goal of finishing and offering it to Her formally, at a later date, if it isn’t completed by the end of your night together. Or, you may decide to partake of another’s art, sharing the time with Artemis. If you go this route, let it be something that you yourself are unfamiliar with. Even if She is already aware of it (as is likely– she is a Goddess, after all), She may enjoy your unfamiliarity, and the opportunity to witness you experiencing something new.

As your evening draws to a close, thank the Goddess once more for Her presence, and make a final libation of cool water (be sure to drink some yourself), while promising to take Her words and wisdom to heart. Clean up any mess from the table, but leave all offerings and libations to sit, until morning.

May Artemis be praised! Hail Artemis!

Khaire! (or, Blesses Be!)

— Columbine, Aegletia, Day 3, 2021

Evocation of Artemis, for Aegletia

“Birth of Diana and Apollo under the palm tree of the island of Délos”, by Alexandre-Denis Abel de Pujol.

Artemis of the Wilds, we invite You in, Mistress who ensures good health through the culling of the herds!

We invite You in to sit at our table, and to be served on this joyous occasion, that which we have prepared in feast for Your honor, and the honor of Apollon, Your Brother!

Come now, if You please, to sit in comfort and merriment, to lounge within His sway, and to bless us also with Your enduring grace, O Artemis who mirrors our Lord’s light in the darkness!

First, were You born beside the river, causing no pain to Your Mother, such is Your power; then did You, infant still, deliver Apollon, our Shining Lord, beneath the fronds of the palm, whose shade cooled dear Leto during Her ordeal!

Nine nights did She labor, and nine are the nights of the Aegletia! Nine nights did you remain by Her side, and for this and all Your other glories, we honor You, as You are!

Artemis, You are blessed, and we, made stronger by our love for You! Artemis, who is in eternal compliment to our Lord, may You receive our thanks as You recieve these libations, and partake of this meal, laid out before You in reverence!

Hail Artemis! Hail Mother Leto! Hail our most glorious Lord, Apollon!

Columbine, Aegletia, Day 3, 2020

The Brides of Apollon: Reflections of Artemis for the Apollon-Artemis Unity

“Diana, the Huntress”, by Guillaume Seignac.

The unity of Apollon and Artemis, quite easily explained by those orphic hymns which call Misa (clearly derived from the name of Artemis as a daughter of Demeter) as the double Euboleus (Apollon as the swineherd son of Demeter fulfilling his character elsewhere in connection with this mysteries as a herder/leader and of a nature parallel to that expressed by Diodoros Siculus as the chorus-leader of Dionysos/Osiris) expresses the nature of Apollon and Artemis as deriving from the same source…mythically the womb of Leto. As such Apollon and Artemis have naturally reflecting features of their domains, which likewise carries over into a great number of shared or closely related epithets. Though they have distinct functions and personalities, they are inseparable and cosmically linked for that even as Artemis drives the prey in her hunt, Apollon receives what she had hunted. Thus establishing a never ending pattern of energy and the effect of the energy under control. Artemis hunts forth, and Apollon destroys. Even in their cult centers it is difficult to find the presence of one without the other.

Of course the masculine-feminine dichotomy is presented here a bit different than it has been presented with other such cases in which you have myths of a divine source being separating into another, usually the case of a male separating himself into a female. She is still part of him, and he is still part of her, but they are at the same time separate. Usually in such cases when this arises in which you have a male and female deity of the same source they will be bonded together in a marital or procreative relationship. However in the myth of Apollon and Artemis these twins fall into a different relationship that follows its cultural expression. Romans seemed to have attempted to modify the tones of the relationship a bit in the retelling of the story of Orion in which Apollon, jealous of the relationship between his twin and the hunter, tricked his sister into shooting him in a contest. Yet such jealousies in regards to the twins rarely crop up, though they are quick to defend each other and act for each other, as Artemis struck down Coronis.

Yet, there is something that ties into their relationship that reflects a reaffirmation of their unity in a vein similar to the procreative elements, and that lies mostly on the part of the maidens loved by Apollon. This is particularly the case when we see his first love, Daphne. This nymph was for all intensive purposes identical to the nature of Artemis. She too was a huntress who hunted with a band of fellow nymphs throughout Peloponnesius. Likewise, the wife of Apollon, Kyrene is also a double for Artemis in her persona and character. She too is a huntress/shepherdess who disdains the womanly arts to tend to the wilds. In fact, she was so closely associated with Artemis that she was said to have been given dogs by the goddess for her hunt. Of course there are figures who are less like Artemis with whom Apollon carries on a brief affair, but these two maidens figure prominently in his myths in Hellas, and Kyrene is the only marriage that he has had in myth, with full honors by the gods via the presence of Aphrodite creating for them their marital bed.

For Artemis there is a case, retold my Apollodorus in his the Library, in which according to an alternate version of the story of Callisto that the maiden was seduced by Zeus not in the form of Artemis, but rather in the form of Apollon. Herein we have the form of Artemis being replaced distinctly by that of Apollon. That Callisto would permit herself to be embraced by Apollon in substitution for Artemis suggests that the lines are easily blurred between what Artemis is doing, and what Apollon is doing and that for one of her followers to be embraced by Apollon was of quite a different nature than the same action being performed by another god.

I would like to reiterate that this post is not intended to say that Apollon and Artemis are one and the same in all ways, but rather that they are a male and female components of a whole for which we see too Apollon also called hunter like his twin, and Artemis as Despoina carrying on her lap the staff, likely of the kind which a shepherd would use that is aligned to the staff of Apollon Karneios. So they dance together in their cosmic actions. They do not need to be procreative, and in fact it is not necessary for their actions. Apollon is the destroyer at the boundary/gate, Artemis is the nurturing lady of the portal/doorway the huntress who drives forward all things through life. They do not need to be procreative together to do their parts harmonically as twin lights of the same function. Just their unity is brought home between the points of their twinship, and the character of the bride of Apollon. It is merely illustrated in this fashion through myth.

— Lykeia

Belonging

I belong to Apollon– the prize of my Lord.  He sees me, He knows me.  I yield to His word.  Who I am, what I am, are extensions of Him.  I walk this world primly, and am bound to His whim.

And yet, no greater freedom have I found, anywhere.  For I pursue my own goals with the utmost care.

I belong to the Prince.  Aegletes, Lykeios.  Phosphoros, Telchinios.  God of sunset and wolves.  Of stars and tornadoes.  None of these can ever be tamed.  So it is with myself.  I alone hold the reigns.

And yet, I am compelled to do as He pleases, for my head and my heart embrace all of His reasons.

I belong to Despota, the one who is Master.  He who becomes the unyeilding disaster.  His will becomes mine, and for it I’m grateful.  His eminent knowledge spares me from what’s hateful.

And yet, I am human, and sometimes can be hurt, but Apollon knows all, and rends lies in the dirt.

I belong to the God with the serene smile.  But make no mistake.  With Him, life is a trial.  In all that I am, and in all that I do, He pushes and moulds me ’til I acknowledge His veiw.

And yet, through His shaping I am made better– more whole.  For such is the fate of the untempered soul.

— Columbine [Aegletia, Day 3]

Thoughts of Artemis

I have to be honest.  Artemis terrifies me.  I don’t know why.  Maybe it’s because I’ve never really tried to have a relationship with Her and I feel like that may cause Her to dislike me.  I know that She looks at me harshly sometimes, but that’s on me.  There are many things which I could improve upon just to satisfy Her Brother more, and She knows that, and probably would rather I change my behavior than continue on not doing what I should to please Him.  But that’s only one possible reason.

In my youth, I spent a lot of time with Hekate, but none at all with Artemis.  I know that many of Their attributes intersect, and I wonder if the things I could have been learning from Artemis at that time were actually being taught by Hekate.  It could be, though I do recall having sort of a passing interest in Her, that was due mainly to the general Pagan scene in my area, which was very much rooted in Goddess Spirituality.  Artemis was always very popular in those communities.  However, it never really went anywhere. I probably just didn’t know enough about the authentic Artemis for Her to be interested, especially since I was so thoroughly steered away from Reconstructionism at the time.

[I am not a Reconstructionist now, by the way, and I never have been.  But, if I had not been so put off by the (probably exaggerated) stories I’d heard from other Pagans, it probably wouldn’t have taken so long for me to find my way to Polytheism.]

But what excuse do I have now?  Well, none actually.  I get a little shaky and apprehensive when I acknowledge that fact, because it means I have to do something to initiate and maintain a relationship with Her.  And She’s still terrifying, but you know, when it comes right down to it, all the Gods and Goddesses are terrifying.  So, what exactly is it that keeps me from delving into Her lore as readily as I delved into Apollon’s, or Dionysos’, or Zeus’?

I don’t have an answer yet for that.  When I remember my younger years, especially those before I became a teenager, I can clearly see similarities between myself and Her.  I was wild thing, at least in my own mind.  I had a very strict mother, who didn’t put up with many of the things my sister had gotten away with before me.  But deep in my heart, I felt more like some beast living its life free in the mountains.  Oh, how I wanted to live a life like that!  To be alone, and to roam one’s habitat without any expectation other than that of survival…

Of course, looking back on it from the perspective of an adult, I can see how terribly naive I was.  I wouldn’t have lasted an hour, let alone a day, trying to subsist by myself in any fashion, anywhere.  And indeed, Artemis is not alone. She may be free, She may be Her own Person, She may never, ever have to depend upon Anyone, but She is far from alone.  And I doubt She would even want to be.

All of this is what’s been churning in my mind today, as we welcome Artemis into our homes for the third day of Aegletia.  I know She has arrived here, because I very much feel like these thoughts were not instigated by me.  Up until I awoke this morning, I hadn’t given all that much thought on how I would personally try to relate to Her today.

Certainly I’d devised some activities to share with my daughter, but that’s about as far as it went.  There were no elaborate offerings planned, just some nice words and a quick prayer as I crawled out of bed.  There was no desire for meditating on Her nature, because as I’ve said before, She’s terrifying, and She’d already been too close for comfort by having haunted my dreams last night.  But, that could never be enough, could it?  No.  I don’t think so.

And that is why I have written the following brief prayer to show Her honor. Though I doubt I will have any kind of deep interaction with Her in the near future, what with my wimpiness when it comes to Her energy, I can begin to scratch at the surface of things unsaid, and things undone.

~

Brave Artemis, who did not shy away, even as the pangs of childbirth swept over Her Mother, I honor You, who with deft hands only just born, delivered the Light of the World into the world.

Confident Artemis, so sure of Her prowess, who did ask Her Father to sanction Her enviable freedom, I honor You, who roams the wild woman spaces, collecting the free maidens and keeping them free.

Loyal Artemis, who loves Her Brother beyond knowing, I honor you, who by some versions released the arrow which pierced the heart of unfaithful Koronis, thus protecting the Bright One’s honor.

Fierce Artemis, who, along with Her Brother, destroyed an entire clan for their offensive insult toward Their Mother, I honor you and the drive to mete out justice.

Artemis, I thank you for all that you do to keep the Cosmic Order.  I thank you for the strength that you provide to women in need; all those who seek for your guidance.  I thank you for the protection of the young, those like my own child, who know you well.  And I thank you kindly for the light which you reflect, that of your dear Brother, shining magnificently upon this world.

Hail to you, Beloved Artemis!  Hail and Praise!

— Columbine [Aegletia, Day 3]

Realizing How to be His

I often find myself wondering why I don’t feel as if I’m Apollon’s. I don’t feel particularly Hellenic, or much like an embodiment of the Delphic Maxims. I’m often disappointed at my behavior, especially my love of wasting time and over indulging in sweets. I don’t do many formal rituals, I don’t give many offerings, and I don’t really pray that much. I feel like such a waste.

Which often leads to purification. Tonight was a bath of salt and peppermint, meant to give me yet another “fresh start.” And it actually did, but in a way I didn’t expect.

As I came out, I realized something that should’ve been obvious to me from the beginning.

Being His is a daily choice. It’s a choice I have to make every hour, every minute, every second. It isn’t some big, flashy moment of clarity, or His presence, or a bracelet on my wrist. It’s the choices I make and how I choose to bring Him into this world. It’s whether I choose to bring Him into this world. If I want to be my Lord Apollon’s, and I want to live with Him and in Him every day, I must make that desicion every day.

At first, I panicked thinking that it would be impossible, that I would have to watch myself constantly. And yes, it will require more self-discipline on my part. But in the end, He’s leading me. He leads me through that intution I constantly ignore, the intuition that I know is alignment with Him. If I can just listen to that little voice, His voice, I can be His. It’s only a matter of whether I choose to.

I’m beginning to believe this is how I might follow Him this winter, to His abode far away. And how I might keep Him in my heart and soul, closer than ever.

— Atalanta [Day 3]

Dare You?

I have come now to gather you; all My lovely little swans.

In July, hear My whisper.  It teases your ear with sweet, unbending promises. And My arm circles you, and My hand rests upon your chest, above that beating heart.

Shhh…  I’ll not harm you.

There is a Land far from here, far from what you know, wherein I will spend the longs months.  You may accompany Me, if you dare.  How many of My blessed ones would dare?  How many?

In August, I begin to tire of this world, and of the way it distracts you from Me.  My grip is hard.  I take you in the dark.  I drain you.  I dismantle you.  I make you a part of Me.  And you enjoy this.

In September, I am cold and aloof, and I begin my withdrawal.  There is very little left, except: “Come with Me?  Would you dare?”  Some of you answer: “I will.”  I only want the ‘I wills’.

Now, in October, I am seen once more.  I come in the frigid wave of air accompanying Autumn storms, like the hurried fangs of the Wolf. I am upon you, and I say again:

Come with Me.  Do not hesitate.  Come with Me.  Do not be afraid.  Come with Me.

Do you dare?  What will you do?

~

This is a messaged channeled through me, by our Prince, Apollon, to whomever it may be for.  Ultimately, only you can be the true judge of that.

— Columbine [Day 3]