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The God Apollon has directed many mortal paths: the shamanist magic of Abaris of Scythia and the rigorous scrutiny of Socrates; the prophetic frenzy of the Pythias as well as the traditionalist conservatism of Caesar Augustus; the intoxicating music of son Orpheus and the visionary spirituality of son Pythagoras; the metaphysical brilliance of Plotinus no less than the civic brilliance of Lykourgos of Sparta. Like them, we here walk many paths. It only begins to describe our diversity to say that we are Hellenist, Roman, Wiccan, or Shaman. This group is a home to us all, a place where, once a week, we can join in common cultus to Apollon, coming to Him for purification. This circle, this kyklos, is centrifugal by nature-spinning force outward from the center, flinging each worshiper toward his and her individual destiny. It is not, itself, a path; it is the thing behind a thousand paths. As the living God Apollon stands at the center of us all, so His most famous temple, the now-ruined Temple of Delphi, is once each week, at dawn on Sunday, our geographic axis. At that time-Delphi dawn-we may perform the brief, potent ritual delineated herein. We may perform some other gesture, perhaps as simple as a nod of acknowledgment, a quick libation poured from a cup. But for this one moment, as the Sun first shines upon the ancient columns, we are together. Even though we are few, and scattered across the world, we are in that one moment *together*, a great Kyklos in the light of Apollon. The Kyklos begun, let it be a beginning. .Ie! Ie Paian.
(Saturday, May 17, 8:12 PM US Pacific Time) * |
