He fell asleep as Osiris and woke up as Serapis – that’s bound to take some getting used to. (King Ptolemaios I of Makedon was a high priest of the artists of Dionysos and a powerful magician, spinning enchantments like a spider that hunts in the night, all for the good of his people. He [...]
Posts Tagged ‘ptolemies’
The reverie of Arlecchino
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged alexander the great, alexandria, christianity, dionysos, egypt, greco-egyptian, greece, harlequin, heroes, holy fool, italy, magic, marcus antonius, mythology, osiris, ptolemies, serapis, spider on 05/25/2012 | Leave a Comment »
I am a very strict reconstructionist
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged aphrodite, dionysos, holy fool, ptolemies, religious practice on 04/30/2012 | 19 Comments »
My new hairdo is modeled on this passage from Herodotos: “Of gods they believe in Dionysos and Urania alone: moreover they say that the cutting of their hair is done after the same fashion as that of Dionysos himself. It is cut in a circular pattern, shaving away the hair of the temples.” (The Histories [...]
Vino nuovo in otre nuovo
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged christianity, dionysos, hermes, heroes, holy fool, italy, magic, nymphai, oracles, oregon, ptolemies, spider, writing on 04/30/2012 | Leave a Comment »
The verse which the taranta-kissed dominus Bacchus of liberty whispers in my ear is orgiastic, triumphal columns of letters marching with elephants, jugglers, actors, mobile shrines, wine-pouring statues and sixty foot phalloi through the city streets. Once you open the door and let them in the poetry runs around wild in your head like Lydian [...]
Have you ever had the realization
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged aphrodite, ariadne, dionysos, gods, hermes, heroes, holy fool, local focus polytheism, nymphai, ptolemies, spider on 04/27/2012 | 6 Comments »
Have you ever had the realization that your religion kind of creeps you out – and that’s why you like it. I mean, consider this: a god who was murdered as a baby and came back as a king bleeding wine prophetic spiders headless saints a vagrant magician who invents his own languages a whore [...]
Looking forward to attending this
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged arsinoe, dionysos, eugene, gods, hermes, ptolemies on 04/07/2012 | Leave a Comment »
Wednesday, April 11, 6:00 p.m. Downtown Eugene Public Library FREE On Wednesday, April 11, at 6:00, the Downtown Eugene Public Library will host an illustrated archaeology talk, “Passage and Perception in the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, Samothrace,” by Bonna Daix Wescoat. She is an Associate Professor of Art History at Emory University specializing in [...]
My spirit-song
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged alexander the great, christianity, dionysos, egypt, gods, heroes, holy fool, italy, julius caesar, local focus polytheism, magic, marcus antonius, persephone, ptolemies, religious practice, rome, spider on 04/05/2012 | Leave a Comment »
Ever since the onset of puberty our protagonist has lived with unfamiliar voices in his head, voices impossible for him to shut out. It has made him … a little strange. For instance, when the other children were out playing catch or tag or whatever it is children play these days (their iPods, mostly) he [...]
A song from the land of the midday sun
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged alexander the great, ariadne, christianity, dionysos, egypt, greece, hermes, heroes, holy fool, italy, magic, marcus antonius, mythology, nymphai, oracles, philosophy, pinocchio, ptolemies, religious practice, rome, serapis on 03/01/2012 | Leave a Comment »
Be warned – there is an equal mixture of lies and mysteries here. Act I: Ruminations of the illustrious actor Marco Antonio, innovator of the commedia dell’arte While waiting to go on stage in the piazza of the church of Saint Mark in Venice, Italy where are revered the relics of Alexander the Great, whom [...]
Looking forward by looking back
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged egypt, greece, kleopatra, marcus antonius, philosophy, plutarch, ptolemies, rome on 02/13/2012 | 1 Comment »
One of the most important functions of tradition is that serves as a point of reference which allows us to make sense of our own all-too-often chaotic and confusing lives by furnishing us with a rich vocabulary and a storehouse of symbols and stories from the past that can be used to explain and make [...]
Things are coming together in interesting ways
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged dionysos, haides, herakles, heroes, kleopatra, marcus antonius, mythology, ptolemies on 01/12/2012 | 2 Comments »
Enjoy the show. This is what we call: Literary mysteries. So, Dionysos is hypersyncretic because he’s the god of acting, right? Well, that got me thinking. For instance he dresses up like Herakles in Aristophanes’ The Frogs so that he can descend into the underworld. This katabasis scene can’t help but invoke that enigmatic passage [...]
My whole cosmology is contained in this video
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged aphrodite, dionysos, hermes, holy fool, music, ptolemies, religious practice, spider on 01/07/2012 | 5 Comments »
Eniatos marches in the train of Dionysos
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged alexandria, dionysos, egypt, eugene, festivals, greco-egyptian, greece, hellenismos, local focus polytheism, oregon, ptolemies, religious practice on 10/26/2011 | 3 Comments »
For a while now I have been unhappy with my religious calendar. The problem isn’t the festivals, which I find immensely satisfying (especially once I modified them so that they better reflected my shifting spiritual focus by removing a few that were no longer relevant, adding some others and tweaking a detail here or there.) [...]
On mission and martyrdom
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged anthesteria, christianity, dionysos, egypt, gods, greece, italy, mythology, paganism, philosophy, politics, ptolemies on 08/26/2011 | 4 Comments »
Recently Kenaz Filan has made a number of blog posts and left comments over at The Wild Hunt arguing that Pagans need to tone down the rhetoric and rethink how they deal with Christians and members of other faith communities. (For instance here, here, here and here with inclusive links to the relevant conversations on [...]
Wedding-night jitters
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged alexandria, egypt, julius caesar, kleopatra, marcus antonius, ptolemies, rome on 08/12/2011 | 1 Comment »
So this is to be my husband, she thinks as she watches him approach from the scented sheets of her bed – now their bed, by official decree of the Roman people and the conqueror, Julius Caesar. He looks ridiculous in the double-crown, perched precariously on his boyish brow. She hopes he has the sense [...]
The New Wine we were promised: I
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged alexander the great, alexandria, apollon, creative writing pledge drive, dionysos, egypt, festivals, gods, greece, hellenismos, herakles, heroes, jim morrison, kleopatra, marcus antonius, music, philosophy, ptolemies, religious practice, rome on 07/20/2011 | 8 Comments »
For Castus. Act One: Is everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin. I was recently asked to say a few words on a topic that is near and dear to my heart – hero cultus within contemporary polytheism. My literary patron (whose generosity is exceeded only by his wisdom) had some specific criteria in mind [...]
Amanda Blake interviews me about Ecstatic
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged alexandria, christianity, dionysos, ecstatic, egypt, greco-egyptian, greece, interviews, nysa press, oracles, ptolemies, religious practice, writing on 06/08/2011 | 7 Comments »
Greco-Egyptian author and the founder of the temple of Athena the Savior Amanda Sioux Blake has posted an interview she recently did with me coinciding with the release of Ecstatic which I am reproducing here. You can find the original at http://templeofathena.wordpress.com/2011/06/08/interview-with-sannion-about-his-new-book-ecstatic/ You recently published what is, I believe, your fifth book, Ecstatic. Can you tell us a [...]
Countdown to Ecstatic: Day Seven
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged dionysos, ecstatic, festivals, ptolemies on 06/03/2011 | 1 Comment »
“A very effective form of slander is the one that is based on opposition to the hearer’s tastes. For instance, in the court of the Ptolemy who was called Dionysos there was once a man who accused Demetrios, the Platonic philosopher, of drinking nothing but water and of being the only person who did not [...]
Contra Moses
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged alexander the great, anubis, aphrodite, apollon, christianity, dionysos, egypt, gods, hera, herakles, hermes, isis, judaism, pagan values blogging month, paganism, philosophy, ptolemies, zeus on 06/02/2011 | 18 Comments »
Christians and their ilk are fond of arguing for the superiority of their religion because it enshrines a legal code which they allege was handed down from the creator of all to Moses, the prophet of the Hebrews, while they wandered in the desert during their flight from Egypt. We Pagans find nothing extraordinary in [...]
Putting on a new mask
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged alexander the great, apis, dionysos, festivals, hermes, holy fool, italy, oracles, philosophy, ptolemies, religious practice, serapis, spider, willamette on 05/23/2011 | 17 Comments »
There is a reason why I recently set down the elaborate history and meaning behind the name Sannion and it wasn’t jut because of its antiquarian interest. I believe that when Dionysos bequeathed this name to me he was providing me with a spiritual blueprint to follow. Along the way important pieces of the puzzle [...]
Sannion is a dick and a fool
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged egypt, funny, greco-egyptian, greece, hellenismos, hermes, holy fool, italy, philosophy, ptolemies, religious practice on 05/22/2011 | 6 Comments »
My name is Sannion. I came by it through an accident back in 1999, but I no longer believe that there was anything at all accidental in my naming. The latest confirmation came just a couple days ago while flipping through a book on the decipherment of Linear B. The reason why I picked up [...]
The World of Ideas
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged dionysos, gods, greco-egyptian, hellenismos, hermes, holy fool, magic, mousai, oracles, philosophy, ptolemies, religious practice, spider, writing on 05/20/2011 | 6 Comments »
One of the central tenets of Hermeticism (in both its Classical and contemporary manifestations) is that the microcosm reflects the macrocosm. The macrocosm is the entirety of the world while the microcosm is man or better yet the mind or soul of man. Now while I honor both Hermes and Hermes Trismegistos (and their relationship [...]
