Category Archives: Home of the Ancestors

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Home of the Ancestors – Interview with Eric Hill – Hellenic Polytheism

In this episode of HotA, Julian sat down with Eric Hill to discuss the basics of Hellenismos (Greek polytheism) and the philosophy behind the practice.  Eric discussed the importance of both having ritual and philosophy in balance as well as the analogy of the Tripod of Hellenic polytheism.

Some Resources

Baring the Aegis – http://baringtheaegis.blogspot.com/

THIASOS PHOIBOS on FB: – https://www.facebook.com/groups/111597138867254/?fref=ts

A Beginner’s Guide to Hellenismos by Timothy Jay Alexander

Question for this episode

The proposed question for this episode is: If one feels no connection whatsoever to blood ancestors, how does one go about creating a relationship? Please post your responses on the Home of the Ancestors Facebook page  or email them to paganmusings@gmail.com. You can of course post your responses and comments directly to this blog by clicking “comments” below.

On our last show I proposed the the Question: “Briefly, how do you honor your Ancestors?” Here are some of the responses:

Phil from Pagan Musing Podcast Channel Wrote:

I have a wall-altar to my ancestors. I gaze upon it daily and meditate about their influences on my life. I also spend some quiet time with myself and my ancestors when things are getting out of my control. Asking them what it is I should do to get a handle on things again.

Ash Ashtore from Facebook writes:

Due to the fact that I work in retail and my time is pretty erratic right now I really don’t have a daily practice in place right now. Most of my practice revolves around the group high days I participate in. Song brings me closer to the devine than anything else and honors my ancestors in a major way because I was surrounded by song and words during my childhood. My mom’s apple pie and Chocholate eggs both make appearance in what I bring to the potlucks after ritual. These actions bring memories with them that I can then share and cherish even when the people who showed them to me are long gone. In the future I would love to bring some of these aspects into my daily life. SImple things like a daily prayer or meditation might be a good way to start a daily practice. Honoring the ancestors might also be a simple twist of this simple start, I could sing the prayer before I meditate, for example. I’m just beginning so simple is best.

Crystal from Facebook writes:

Using practices,Teaching my kids the ways of my people an Keeping their ways alive an install respect for the earth an all that is on it

Music

  1. Issac Bonewits – We Won’t Shave Any Longer
  2. Acoustic Ocean –Under the Starlit Sky – Chimes of the Spirit

Bonus Feature

The lyrics to “We Won’t Shave Any Longer”, just for fun:

We have trusted no man’s razors, we have nicked and cut ourselves.

We’ve been stung by all the aftershaves upon the drugstore shelves.
And our patience and endurance from late puberty till now
Have given us the strength to make this vow:

We won’t shave any longer, our beards are stronger than before.
We won’t shave any longer, our beards are stronger!

We have shaved away our stubble and have scraped away our skin.
We have cut and hacked and sliced and diced and raised an awful din.
And on every weekday morning we’d be bloody nervous wrecks
Sticking wads of toilet paper to our necks!

Now the ladies too have suffered in their armpits and their legs,
Just to wear those pantyhose that come in little plastic eggs.
But we think it’s time to tell them that we Pagan men don’t care
If they throw away their Zipwax and their Nair!

Through the ages many faces have arisen and have gone.
And the male ones all looked better with a beard and mustache on!
So the time has come to throw our styptic pencils on the floor,
And refuse to wreck our faces anymore!

[2 choruses]

Words by Jeff Kalmar & Isaac Bonewits, �1990, 2001 c.e.
Music by Gwyddion Penderwen (“We Won’t Wait Any Longer”)

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Home of the Ancestors Ep 2 – Introduction to Household Practice

On this second installment of Home of the Ancestors, your host Julian Marcus introduced the Home of the Ancestors Household Practice as well as empathized the importance of Ancestor veneration. While BTR decided to be stubborn, I was able to recover and move on to the main topic at hand.

The proposed question for this episode is: Briefly, how do you honor your Ancestors in your practice? Please post your responses on the Home of the Ancestors Facebook page  or email them. You can of course post your responses and comments directly to this blog by clicking “comments” below.

On our last show I proposed the the Question: “What does it mean to you to have a home of the ancestors?” Here are some of the responses:

Megan on Facebook writes:

I still keep to some traditions even if I don’t fully embrace their origins. For example, I still say the prayer that my great grandmother and great aunt taught me to say when you pass a graveyard or funeral. Even when it makes people stare, lol! I keep a crucifix above by doorway even though some people are put off that I would have it and a gay pride flag in the same room. Mostly it’s the little stuff.

Keren on Facebook Writes:

Vesta the Hearth Cat

Vesta the Hearth Cat

Last week I learned my cousin was admitted to a hospice. My first thought was to hunt for a photo of her so I could honor her and how her life touched me. Hunting through bins of old photos, I came upon two letters. One from my Dad to his Dad (Poppy) when he was 20 years old and another from Poppy to my Dad eight years later. My Dad’s letter was full of drive, determination, independence — the know-it-all attitude of anyone in college, telling their parents to “Lay off, I know what I’m doing.” Reading how he stuck to his dream of working in radio broadcasting, even to sacrifice a summer off, helped me understand why my Dad pushed me to succeed. I also recognized a familiar stubbornness. The second letter, from Poppy, was quite revealing. Poppy died when I was barely two years old and reading his kind, supportive words to my 28 year old father showed me I had not fallen too far from the tree. Poppy believed in his son, then a newly minted father, to take the risk and go out West for his career. He even admitted to having always loved the Pacific Northwest — it’s people, the countryside and the beautiful Pacific Ocean; an ocean I was drawn to just as deeply. I found a connection I did not realize existed. In that moment, I knew my Poppy as the person he was….not merely a story. What it means to me to have a Home of the Ancestors, at least in this aspect, is to reach through time and discover there are more threads connecting you to long lost relatives and how they have an affect on who you are…..more than you originally believed.  

Jaymi on FB Writes:

I’m not sure what it means to have a home of the ancestors, because I am adopted. However, I imagine that a home of the ancestors would be a place to communicate with those who have gone past, and honor the linage of where I came from. That said, as an adoptee… I imagine that this home could contain anyone I feel a kinship to.

Other Info from the Show

Worth noting is the mentioning of Teo bishop and his leaving of ADF and the Solitary Druidy   He writes:

“The thing is, this is my life. This is me, right here, trying to be human.  And I think my biggest challenge in being a part of ADF was that I didn’t feel like there was anyone really speaking to the challenges of being human. In a devotional religion, the emphasis is placed over there, not in here. The things that cut deeply for me, that are real and sometimes really difficult for me — things like compassion, despair, forgiveness, hope, kindness, patience, honesty — I don’t feel like we spend any time talking about these things. I think we experience these things, but they always feel secondary to “right relationship.”

You can read the full story here: http://www.bishopinthegrove.com/archives/on-leaving/

Music Played

  1. Frenchy and the Punk – Steampunk Pixie – Hey Hey Cabaret 
  2. Blackmore’s Night – Play Minstrel Play – Shadow of the Moon
  3.  SJ Tucker  – Cheshire Kitten – Mischief 
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Home of the Ancestors – Premier

HotA logo - PBeckley

Click image to listen.

The Home of the Ancestors premiered on the Pagan-Musings Podcast Channel on Wednesday the 5th of June 2013 (click the image to the left to hear the archived show). Host Julian Marcus started out the series by telling his listeners some of what to expect, and not to expect.

HotA is a series about ancestral religions, ancestor worship, honor our ancestors and how you can incorporate such traditions into your own religious and spiritual practices. The concept idea started out as a show about Hellenism and Greco-Roman practices. As Julian and RevKess brain stormed and discussed and planned how the show would be formatted, Julian decided that expanding the concept to embrace multiple faith paths would be the better way to go. It will also prompt Julian to expand his own education on the general top of ancestor religions.

Unlike other programs on PMPChannel, HotA will be under an hour most episodes. Julian is putting something else different into the show format… Homework for the listeners. Not the kind that gets graded, but a question or simple project for the listener to answer or do. He asks that those who do these little assignments either email him or message the show page on Facebook. These activities will get the listener involved in he production of the show.

With a long list of potential interviews and contributors, a month oracle (starting in August) and view points from and about a variety of religious and spiritual practices, HotA is going to be a fascinating addition to PMPChannel.

You are invited to tune in live every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month at 9pm Central/7pm Pacific on the Pagan-Musings Podcast Channel.

Links

Music

  1. Spiral Dance – Magick – Magick
  2. Wendy Rule – Guided by Venus – Guided by Venus

You can listen to Home of the Ancestors and all the other Pagan-Musings Podcast Channel programs on BTR, iTunes and Stitcher, or use your favorite podcatcher.