Wednesday, August 29, 2007

The Power of Music

All I need is
The Rhythm Divine
Lost in the music
Your heart will be mine
All I need is
The look in your eyes
Viva la music
Say you'll be mine

"Rhythm Divine" by Enrique Iglesias. This music may be about love but it can also be about music and its power. Somehow it reminds me of Apollo and how it takes over all our being when he wants. I can't quite remember who was the ancient poet that focused so much on this, I believe it was Pyndar, that even said that Apollo's music even has power over Zeus, casting sleep over the eagle when He wants. I believe that is this power that makes Apollo so powerful and even equates the bow with the lyre and makes Apollo patron of Spirit.

Besides, this can be a great way for Apollo to gain lovers in a way that may seem involuntary: we can't quite control ourselves or our emotions when music meddles with them!

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Apollo is home!

Heed him! Do you not see?
Do you not recognize the light
Pouring from the windows
Like a violent stream?

Heed him! Do you not feel?
Do you not smell the golden perfume,
Isn't an ever burning flame
Inside you dancing?

Ah, ripples in the lake,
The palm trees waving;
How can't you recognize him
In the wind that blows doors apart?

Away evil! Out with miasma,
Cleanse your soul,
For the ground noisily trembling
Announces the Lord has come!

Golden! All is gold;
Feel the wind in your face,
Open your temple houses,
For Apollo is home!

See the flames stirring,
Listen to the sweet sound of the bow
And sing Ie, Ie Paion!
It is him who comes singing!
Ie, Ie Paion!
See him coming fair and pure
And all together do sing
In your houses and altars
Ie, Ie Paion!
Welcome Lord!
Welcome Apollo!


Poem I wrote to invoke Apollo at the begging of mystic rituals concerning His being (namely my Kyklos Apollon Ritual) and the revival of His cult. The poem is inspired in what I consider to be one of the most beautiful hymns and certainly the best to call for Apollo, though I am a little biased because it was when I called for Apollo with this hymn that I first felt him answer and fell Him by my side and inside me. I speak of the first lines of Callimachus Hymn to Apollo:

How Apollo's laurel sapling shakes!
How the whole temple shakes! Away, away with the wicked!
It must be Phoebus kicking at the door with his fair foot.
Do you not see? The Delian palm nods gently,
All of a sudden; the swan sings beautifully in the air.
Bolts of the doors, thrust yourselves back.
Keys - open the doors! For the God is no longer far away.

I especially like the last "Keys - open the doors! For the God is no longer far away." It fills me with awe and seems so very fit to the revival of an Ancient religion!

PS: the translation is found in Kerenyi's Apollo - The Wind, the Spirit and the God and I don't know who is the translator

Friday, August 24, 2007

Apollo God of Magic, Shamanism, Poetry, Oracles...

No update for over a month! Shame on me, shame on me! It's not that I have been so filled up with work that I can't find time to update, in fact I have no work at all and that has caused me to slowly but steadily descend into... laziness, I guess. I have been doing just regular worship activities (daily devotions, monthly ritual to Apollo and Asklepios and a few small devotions here and there) and have been searching about Zeus on my new books. I have also written a review for Ancient Greek Religion by J.D. Mikalson for Amazon, which you can find here.

I am now reading Greek Divination A Study of its Methods and Principles by W.R. Halliday. So far I have seen ltos of Principles and few Methods but it still makes me think. Evidence I have come up with in that Apollo is a God of Medicine-Men, Shamans, Magicians and the likes (without much detail):
  • The most obvious is that he is God of oracles;
  • He often possesses and chases people, just like magical/divine/mana power;
  • He requires purity and it is widely known that purity is also required to perform magical, healing and divining actions;
  • He killed the serpent Python and goes through a series of tests, purifications and evolutions, just like shamans have to, like magicians do and like oracles were portrayed doing (the first that comes to mind is Tiresias);
  • He is Hekatos, the far darter and the one who strikes from afar, an epithet often found in magicians who strike their enemies from afar;
  • He has a magic wand, the laurel, which comes ready with a mythical story of its acquisition;
  • He is God of music and poetry which have probably originated in magical incantations and are still a part of many rituals;
  • Inscriptions regarding magic and oracles most often feature him and also his brother Hermes;
  • He has a very dark side and a light side, just like the magical powers (mana) can be used for good and bad alike.
I'm sure I will come up with a lot more and probably I will eventually have enough material to write a small essay.

It is good that the book makes me think about this, but I wish it had more practices...