I wonder if the "fixing" of them was a side-effect of Romanization and post-Romanization. Rather than pegging the festival to an actual event, e.g. the literal first grain harvest or the blooming of...
Type: Posts; User: Louisvillian
I wonder if the "fixing" of them was a side-effect of Romanization and post-Romanization. Rather than pegging the festival to an actual event, e.g. the literal first grain harvest or the blooming of...
5th edition is just about the most balanced thing I've seen in an RPG. It's very well-constructed--a pared-down 3.5e but not making the same mistakes that 4e did when it attempted that very thing....
I'm a moral relativist, philosophically, so I recognise that the ethics I practice and/or believe in are derived from a particular history and context, and aren't universal. I've absorbed some social...
To be all the way honest, I don't believe in psychic abilities. I believe in magic, as a genuinely supernatural phenomenon. I think that most 'psychic' stuff is a snarled attempt to explain magic via...
Different ones at different levels. At a formal level, the Dii Consentes and the various Roman triads occupy a fair amount of attention, and I venerate certain Roman and Greek gods at various points...
The closest you'll find is a couple of Roman Recon groups, like Nova Roma or Respublica Romana. They are oriented towards reviving Roman culture inasmuch as they can in modern day, in addition to the...
I'd have to assume that it can be chalked up to one of two things:
1) it's just later artists conflating the two conflicts.
2) her alliance with the Olympian order, as established in the Titan war,...
I've been long interested in Hekate's role in Greek myth, and what ancient beliefs about her have been lost to time. The imagery of what we may presume is her on the Pergamon altar is rather...
It's not that peculiar. Wicca, while being implicitly polytheistic, does not have to be. In Wicca, ritual actions are most important, not specific beliefs.
Point of fact, a non-theistic viewpoint...
As mentioned by others here, the oak tree is often associated with strength, power, and lightning. It often comes to be associated, then, with sky gods in Europe. Zeus, Thor, Perun, Jupiter, and...
In my belief, there are various kinds of gods and spirits. Not all of whom have discrete form and character, or at least personality.
The Romans did not often ascribe anthropomorphic form and...
I've had similar issues come up. Christians have tried to press at my underlying panentheism as indicating that I'm "really" a monotheist. Atheists tried to push at my subjectivism and scepticism as...
My main altar and shrine area, in my apartment, is literally my fireplace. It's not quite cold enough to justify having a fire roaring in the fireplace, so the wife's letting me use the stone area as...
At the more benign end of the spectrum, the phrase implies that the person claiming to be a "natural born witch/pagan/magician" was simply born into a family that has a tradition of practising those...
The Liberalia and the Athenian Dionysia, both celebrations regarding Bacchus, typically occurred in the mid-March to early-April timeframe. And both somewhat relate to Spring as Dionysos is a god of...
Of interest to those in this thread: a new organisation had recently formed, not explicitly as a counterweight to Nova Roma, but essentially so. Roman Republic consists (so far) of mostly expats from...
Candles are used pretty widely by me. I use them to represent the presence of the gods, especially Hestia. When I'm not burning incense as an offering, I use candles to kick-start flames for burning...
Not exactly, no. Not in the sense that the Abrahamic religions do. But the Greeks in Antiquity thought of certain texts as being important reflections of the gods and their stories, and of their own...
No belief is "compulsory" in any pagan religion, so far as I know. Nor, really, in any religion outside of a theocracy where "compulsory" can be enforced. "Strongly encouraged and expected" maybe, in...
They way I've always seen it--your personal spirituality can be whatever you want it to be; address the gods or whatever beings you address in whatever manner you feel is appropriate or sufficient....
If it's burnt offerings, I collect the ashes and remains in a small container. At the new moon, I dedicate the offscourings to Hekate and go and bury them at a crossroads. Libations are poured onto...
I think of a 'ghost' as being the spirit of a deceased person which is able to reach past the boundary between this world and the next. They are perhaps an impression left by the person, or perhaps...
Depending on your perspective, it could just be a matter of scale.
On the other hand, I can understand a distinction where a god has a creative power over reality or nature, whereas a spirit is the...
My understanding was that most religions actively practice divination--just under a circumscribed and controlled set of circumstances. It's not done willy-nilly or by just anyone. Experienced priests...
I like to think that I'm trying to be "reasonable" about my beliefs. I still retain my sceptic's mind. I might have a vague sense of "That could be thing," but until I see it or otherwise perceive it...