Hymns and Prayers of a Polytheist Household

Literature & Fiction

Krasskova, Galina

Lewis, H. Jeremiah

Poetry

Independently published

Once, the city of Alexandria stood at the crossroads of the ancient world: its culture was a fusion of the best of all that had come before, and yet also something completely different, more than just the sum of its various parts. It was individualistic, ecumenical, cosmopolitan, creative, intellectual, and steeped in a deep mystical religious yearning. Today we call this system of belief Greco-Egyptian polytheism, and while a great deal has changed since the Hellenistic era, it remains a beautiful, powerful and meaningful religion for an increasing number of people today. Lewis explores the long history and contemporary manifestations of Greco-Egyptian polytheism. In this new collection of essays - many of which appear here for the first time - he provides overviews of the system, information on theology, ethics, and the afterlife, as well as material on domestic worship, ritual forms, and the things considered necessary to begin practicing Greco-Egyptian polytheism today.

The Balance of the Two Lands: Writings on Greco-Egyptian Polytheism

Religion & Spirituality

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Alexandria in Egypt began as a dream. It would go on to become one of the most powerful and prosperous cities the ancient world had ever known, the home of dreamers whose dreams would change the course of human history. Among those for whom the city of Alexandria is still a powerful symbol of all that is best and noblest within the human heart is contemporary Greco-Egyptian polytheist author H. Jeremiah Lewis. And in this new collection of his poetry and short stories, he celebrates his undying love for the incomparable city of dreamers and the immortal gods and famous historical figures who once walked Alexandria's fabled streets. This book provides a unique glimpse into the religious life of a man dedicated to a rich multicultural pantheon drawn from Greece, Egypt, Rome and the Near East. Within you will find hymns used in actual worship, poetry on a variety of themes, imaginative retellings of ancient stories, and modern myths set down for the first time.

Echoes of Alexandria: Poems and Stories

The gods are still around: that's the refrain that sounds throughout each of these stories. Although the roots of the faith stretch back to ancient Greece, Hellenismos continues to grow and adapt, offering inspiration and answers to the perplexing questions of life's mysteries for many individuals today. And that is what these stories are about - what it's like to practice Hellenismos today. What it feels like to recognize the presence of the gods around you. To discover the mystery of the divine, the power of love, the joy of life, the pangs of grief, the struggle with doubt, the loneliness that comes with belonging to a minority faith. You can read all about ancient Greek religion in hundreds of academic tomes - but none of them will tell you what it's really like, from the inside. The only way to do that is to hear our stories, in our own words. Stories of gods and mortals.

Gods and Mortals: New Stories of Hellenic Polytheism

Who is Dionysos? There are as many answers to this enigmatic question as there are people asking it. For a significant portion of his life H. Jeremiah Lewis (perhaps better known by his religious name Sannion) has struggled to understand the ways and nature of this elusive ancient Greek deity of wine, vegetation, madness, drama, liberation and much else besides. In the course of his study and explorations he has produced an immense body of writing which has been gathered together in this unique volume for the first time ever. In addition to learning about Dionysian history, mythology, symbolism, and methods of worship both ancient and modern, the reader will gain a first-hand glimpse of what it's like to know and love a god as strange as Dionysos. Of special interest to Dionysians and occultists, this volume sees the first publication anywhere of a new oracular system involving the myths, symbols and associations of Dionysos with a concise explanation of how to use it.

Ecstatic: For Dionysos

The recitation of hymns during festivals, temple rites and domestic cultus is an ancient part of Hellenic and Italian religion. Collections of hymns circulated under the names of some of the greatest poets – Orpheus, Mousaios, Homer, Pindar, Theokritos, Kallimachos, Proklos and the emperor Julian to name just the best known. And now there are the Hymns of Sannion. This corpus of 31 poems honoring the god Dionysos in his multitude of forms is being published as Thunderstruck with Wine so that contemporary polytheists (be they of his own emergent Bacchic Orphic tradition or not) will have another devotional tool at their disposal. These hymns can be read in their entirety in one sitting or spread out with one read each day of the month. These aren’t just poetry filled with lovely imagery and sentiment – they are Keys that open the Labyrinth, letting Dionysos and his mad retinue through into our world. Use them accordingly and carefully.

Thunderstruck with Wine: the Hymns of Sannion

H. Jeremiah Lewis takes us on a guided tour of the divine nursery--a museum as much as a theatre--where we see as both exhibits on display and actors on stage the Toys of Dionysos. The labyrinthine corridors of their associated imagery and the intoxicating panoply of their legacies in ancient, medieval, and modern literature and philosophy are deftly explored via the marshaling of a great variety of sources. Amongst those contributing to this discussion under Lewis' curation and direction are Homer and Hesiod, Plato and Proklos, Aristophanes and Athenaios, Sophokles and St. Paul. We hear the maddening music of the Tarantists, the sweet strains of the raving Mainades, and the perplexing melodies of the Harlequinade even as we hear the voices of latter-day philosophers and scholars, poets and psychologists contribute to the complex choral dance of the Mystery, the Play, and the Mystery Play that is the Toys of Dionysos. We meet a cast of theological thespians which includes the obvious--Dionysos, Ariadne, and Orpheus--as well as the unexpected and nearly-unknown, who dart on and off stage, lead the chorus or dissolve into it, step forward as fully-fleshed out figures or exit as stock characters entangled in the strings of the deus ex machina, dripping with their own gore. The beating, bloody heart of the Starry Bull tradition and its place in the wider complex of Bacchic Orphic religiosity is on proud and potent display between these covers. Do you want to play?

Spirits of Initiation: A Study of the Toys of Dionysos

New Age & Spirituality

The Starry Bull tradition is a contemporary expression of Bacchic Orphism with roots in mainland Greece, Crete, Southern Italy, Asia Minor and North Africa. At its heart lies passionate devotion for Dionysos, God of drunkenness, madness, ecstasy and deliverance. Within the pages of Tending the Bull, readers will discover how to pray, tend a shrine, make offerings and a myriad of practices to deepen one's awareness and connection with this powerfully intoxicating and liberating deity. Additionally, author H. Jeremiah Lewis weaves in threads of history, philosophy, cosmology and eschatology so that readers will understand not just how to worship correctly, but why. Although written for adherents of the Starry Bull tradition, especially those who wish to become boukoloi, there's plenty that will appeal to Hellenic polytheists, neopagans and other curious outsiders.

Tending the Bull: A Tradition of Dionysian Devotion

Who are the Dionysian Dead? To begin with, they are not like the ordinary dead. They never went to the house of Haides. They don't hunger. At least not for the things that the dead are normally hungry for: blood and holocaust meat and honey and milk and oil and shiny baubles and the other things that it is pious and proper to offer the deceased. You see, the Dionysian Dead have been revived through union with their Lord; they draw sustenance from the wine that flows eternally. They burn like the fiery stars of black heaven. They want for nothing - except beauty. They are strange ones, these dead of Dionysos. Warrior kings and mad-women and clowns and spider-bit prophets from the desert; transvestites, snake-hipped maniac poets and priestesses with blood-stained hands. All the ones who stopped being entirely human well before they stopped breathing. Come meet these Heroes and Heroines, and through them gain a deeper understanding of that most complex and contradictory of Gods, Dionysos. From Ariadne and Orpheus to Friedrich Nietzsche and Jim Morrison, they span the realms of history and mythology, and have danced with the God from antiquity right through the modern day. And now they have been accorded an honored place in the Starry Bull tradition of Bacchic Orphism.

Masks of Dionysos: Getting to Know the God Through His Heroes and Heroines

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