Father Time

Father Time, celebrated even today at the New Year, is known by many names, including Saturn, hence the Roman winter celebration of Saturnalia where the "former" leader of the previous pantheon is honored. In Rome, his statue was bound for the entire year except on His festival.

Why was he bound? Symbolically stopping the passage of time and decay? Because he was of the old pantheon and had to be bound lest he seek revenge on his children who dethroned him? Saturn had done the same to his own father, Ouranos.


How interesting that a new religion took over yet kept the main festival celebration of the old religion. History does repeat itself.

In Roman mythology when Jupiter ascended the throne, Saturn fled to Rome and established the Golden Age, a time of perfect peace and harmony, which lasted as long as he reigned. In memory of the Golden Age, the Feast of Saturnalia was held every year in the winter at the Winter Solstice. During this time no war could be declared, slaves and masters ate at the same table, executions were postponed and it was a season for giving gifts. This was a time of total abandon and merry making. It refreshed the idea of equality, of a time when all men were on the same level. Christians adopted the feast and renamed it Christmas. When the festival ended, the tax collectors appeared and all money owed out to government, landlords, or debtors had to be accounted for. This is another side to Saturn and it's ruling sign, Capricorn: the settling of accounts.

Saturn was once seen as a God of agriculture and fertility- the one who planted and protected the seed. He is also syncretized with one of the oldest recorded Sumerian deities, Ninib, or Ninurta, another farming/fertile deity.


This came up for me today because of my current theatre gig: I am the keeper of time. I set the arrival time, I keep everyone aware of the time by calling it out every 5 minutes for the half hour before we begin. I time the show. I call the breaks and time them as well.


This has taken my meditations to the idea that a cast circle is a time outside of time. Very true. I've been on epic journeys which took days, yet picked up the flow of normal time just minutes later. Time is variable and flexible and in the eye of the beholder- We waste it when we don't have an immediate need for it, yet when we need it we never have enough of it! We're on the clock or off the clock, it flies, it drags... Is Saturn time itself personified?


As for my meditations on the blog today, I'm out of time for blogging and need to be on the clock in a flash! Today I'll leave off with a quick hymn to Father Time, asking for his patronage!

Theatricality

Last night's post was deeper than I had expected. I'm not ready to share my musings from last night's meditations as there's so much more to explore and I'm wiped out from tech tonight. Here is what I was going to post last night before things got deep: I adore Sondheim and I really like the play The Frogs. I blogged about The Frogs months ago, in the Spring, because it "stars" Dionysus. The opening number is called "An Invocation to the Gods of theatre" hence last night's mistaken blog title! Here is a concert version. It's very clever (Sondheim is always clever!) and includes instructions to the audience on how to behave!

Enjoy!

Invocation to the Gods of Theatre!

Tech week has started. How will that translate to the blog? This week I will be pondering the Gods of theatre! I had been planning to keep it on the light side tonight, but my meditations and research took me in a much deeper direction.

I've been reading more about Dionysus, patron deity of theatre, who is associated with Ariadne.  Clement of Alexandria, believed that certain rites of Dionysian mystery cults recreated the conception of Dionysus, particularly as the result of the union of Zeus and Persephone. This would be the first incarnation of thrice-born Dionysus, and a bull faced god, at that. Clement was a Christian and born around 150 ce, so his interpretation of the rites needs to be taken with a tequila bottle worth of salt. And maybe the tequila too.

Has anyone really explored the relationship between Ariadne, the Minotaur (bull head male body!), the labyrinth and Dionysus? I've explored the idea of Ariadne as an epithet and Persephone but have never really meditated on the part of the lore where Ariadne is connected to the Minotaur, to Dionysus a bull god and to Persephone.

This blog entry is brief, but it is just the seed of a deeper meditation I'm off to ponder. I hope you do as well and will add your thoughts in comments!

The Ancestor Effect

I'm in tech for my show this week, so blog topics will likely be short and to the point, so thanks to Rev. Vinnie Russo for sharing this link today! It's a quick read and not bogged down with lots of jargon.




The article, "The Ancestor Effect: Thinking about our roots boosts intellect and confidence,"  is about a series of studies done to determine the effects of meditating on ancestors. Turns out it gives us superpowerz! Not really, but it did improve the group's scores on IQ tests. The group also scored higher on "perceived life control" tests. It didn't have to be a far distant relative or even one who had passed: Pondering living ancestors worked as well.


My conclusion after reading this article: I'M A GENIUS!!!!!!!!!!! Well, yeah, but back to the topic:

This article doesn't say WHY it works that way. Does it activate a part of our brain that helps with problem solving functions? I think that we're tuning into our blood. We're waking up that connection to our source.

When I wake up in the morning one of the first things I do is a brief meditation on, and prayers of gratitude to my Patrons and Ancestors. This is also one of the last things I do before bed. Almost daily I light a candle from the hearth for an Ancestor or Patron. At least three times a day I am meditating on them. I'd say it's more than that because they are always given a thought when I blog at night or tune into the neutral channel during the day.

Again, the group that meditated upon their roots performed better on the test scores. They also scored higher on a test of “perceived life control.” In other words, those who considered their pasts said they felt more control over their life, career, and ability to best adversaries than those who did not.

Hear that, MENSA? Bring it! ;)

Let the good times roll...

Since this isn't a "Pagan 101" blog I haven't felt the need to post about how every single tradition currently associated with christmas was already a well establish Pagan tradition that the christians once railed against but eventually adopted. There, I just did. Actually, they did. I adore the annotated rant folks and wish they would rant on! Or at least update their old stuff!  Glad that was covered! However! I'm not going to let this stop me from posting about something fun.

I was writing a snarky post about how I plan to have a holiday party this year: It will include feasting, cakes, candy, alcohol, lights, decorations, hat wearing, gift exchanges and gambling. No, it's not to celebrate christmas." It's a Saturnalia party!

Most of the Saturnalia traditions made it into the general christmas traditions: The gift exchange, the stockings by the fire, the man with a long beard and flying mammal leaving gifts in exchange for an offering, the mistletoe, the chestnuts, the bells, even the hats. Don't forget "The Yule Log." They didn't even bother to change the name on that one...

What you don't hear about in the holiday songs is gambling! One of the many Italian traditions, at least Italian-American traditions, is gambling!

Here's how La Vigilia (christmas eve) went in my family:
We all went over to Aunt Mary's house (My Grandfather's sister, the eldest sister and matriarch of the family)
There was the antipasto, candy and snacks
The feast of 5 fishes... seriously, it makes my kinda nauseous to think about, but that was it, you don't eat meat on La Vigilia. But you do have 5 different fish courses and a pasta course with fish sauce. Happily, the deserts didn't include fish.
What a table full of sweets! Home made pastries, cookies, strufles, cakes, chocolate, and fruit and nuts too lol
After the gift exchange (which, when there were little kids at the celebration, included a man in a red suit with a long beard handing them out) the women would go downstairs to play pokeno and the men would be upstairs playing poker.

The tradition of gambling continues! I have no idea why this never clicked with me before. I've known both facts, that Saturnalia included public games (In my mind the whole of ancient Rome turned into Vegas for a week!) and that on La Vigilia but the neural pathway connecting these two things did not exist until now. Means I need more sleep. Off to do that now!

The Road Ahead

During my New Moon ritual (which is when the crescent appears. When nothing is visible it's the Dark moon), I asked a question and received an answer I wasn't entirely expecting. I felt a little silly because I should have been expecting it. It was more the form the answer took was unexpected:

The question was related to obstacles to my various goals. I received an image of a thought form of Ganesha stomp-kicking cinder blocks into dust! Right on the heels of that Was Papa Legba at the center of the crossroads, opening the way. On the heels of that was Mercury blowing past, clearing the air. The vision went on, showing many of the forms of my Patron from around the world and across the ages. Some of them I didn't recognize. That just means I have more research to do.

It was an interesting experience to see all of these different deities. Are they all avatars of the same archetypal energy? Are they like siblings- they look alike and are all in the family business, but are separate, independent individuals? Always interesting to contemplate that mystery, but sometimes you just have to get into the water instead of watching the tide roll in.

Tomorrow I plan to walk my labyrinth, meditating on how to open my own way. Part of that vision was meant to convey the idea that each of us has this power- to remove obstacles, to open the way, to guide through the darkness. We first need to remove the obstacles we have placed for ourselves.


I was contemplating all of this as I drove home today. It was a long drive. During one slow part of the trip with some traffic build up on the highway, a red tailed hawk did a slow glide across the road right in fromt of my windshield, eye level with me, and slow enough that I could count the red feathers on the tail. Wow! I took that as a sign that I'm on the right track, er= road. ;)

One obstacle I keep putting in my own way is a lack of sleep. Time to change that!

The Power Vested in me...

Today I was down at the DMV. I mean the old DMV, the current "marriage bureau." There's even a gift shop where you can buy "I got married in NYC" t-shirts or a baseball cap with a veil. It's where couples go to apply for and obtain a marriage license, and can even get married there. It's the same place where you apply to be a licensed officiant in NYC. The city has whole reams of red tape around who may and may not solemnize marriages. The civil rights implications are a different matter for a different time. I got all of my papers in order and headed down, waiting about an hour to be called. Once everything was handed over and filed, I got to sign a very large ledger. I knew that used to be done, but I figured these days, especially since it was at the old DMV, that I would be signing a screen with a stylus.

I was given a three page "how to" on filling out marriage licenses and all of the rules about returning said license. Also included was a sample ceremony which concluded with "By the powers vested in me by the State of New York..."

In the midst of the cold, gilded, former DMV, signing that giant ledger was very ceremonial. I felt like I had actually been vested with power.

I was tempted to ask if any of the couples waiting to be called wanted to skip the line and have me perform the ceremony right then! I didn't, I wouldn't have felt right! Than again, I'd be way better than this guy...