The Gods are real. The Gods are many. The Gods are here. (--Kenaz Filan)
Religio Romana - Prayers for State - View - Imzy
Religio Romana - Prayers for State - View - Imzy
Following from yesterday's post about Capitoline equivalents -- which I'm still mulling -- does anyone else pray or make offerings with regard to State? For example, during my daily devotions, I make ...
imzy.com
I posted this over at my Religio community, but it occurs to me that it might be of interest here as well.
Do you have a civic prayer? How does your practice intersect with the state? Your politics?




*clicks to your post* That is a good prayer.
oh gods politics. /o\
(I should probably edit the comm rules to address the issue of politics in this comm. I don't think I can do that thing now, though, for reasons, not least being I'm upset over certain polytheist political discussion elsenets...)
I am recalling a certain thing from TWH the other day and similarly cringing.
Um. Breathe?
offers you fortifying drink and a cozy blanket
Dare I ask which thing?
:)
...tea sounds like a marvelous idea, actually. I shall go brew tea.
http://wildhunt.org/2016/08/column-heathen-worldview-and-presidential-politics.html
I remain neutral on (most) of the respondents' path-based choices, but spent a great deal of it lamenting the stickiness of certain media narratives' part in directing those choices.
Oh, that thing. I skipped it when it first came up in Feedly and then I forgot about it.
Yeah. Accurate.
Adagio Teas' "Chocolate" tea steeped for five minutes with a dollop of local honey and a splash of whole milk, and I was going to go libate a few sips' worth to Hestia and Athena and the Muses into the grass outside my patio but spiders continue to think my patio is their patio so I libated into the kitchen sink instead and that will just Have To Do.
Anyway. Silence Maestas's post on "Devotional Justice" explains how Maestas's polytheism and politics intersect (not politics in the sense of electoral politics, more in the sense of the feminist maxim 'the personal is political'), and it's a decent explanation of the same for me.
I mean, I've been a left-wing social progressive for a lot longer than I've been a polytheist (at least to know it), so one might reasonably think the political side takes primacy for me. I don't think that's actually so: sure, the political side is a thing of longer standing for me, but it also flows from a conviction that compassion, justice, and wisdom (in some order) are crucial virtues that we as a society are systemically and systematically failing to employ except on behalf of the lucky few. Well. Those three virtues seem to me to be Athena in a nutshell. Perhaps less so compassion than wisdom and justice, but anything Athena might lack in that arena, Hestia possesses. (And also I'm pretty convinced Athena specifically wants a left-wing social progressive to do the things She's asked me to do.)
So yeah.
The temptation to try and crawl through the screen and into your tea cup is enormous. On the other hand, I've got some reasonably good cold brew coffee here with a splash of vanilla soy. SO.
(I can't help with the spiders. I'm working on my fear of them, but we all have our boundaries.)
The post you linked is a Very Good Post Indeed. I think it's congruent with a lot of my experience, and what I've learned from other paths. It's hard to be your best self, to get the full benefit of what you're doing, or even make good choices over bad when you're under duress. Also, given that many polytheisms have traditions of hospitality and reciprocity -- to say nothing of stories of the gods masquerading as poor or displaced people -- it makes sense to try and enact change for those who are hungry, unhoused, or suffering.
What's always been curious to me is how the same belief system can be used to support very different politics. Christianity is such an obvious example -- how can someone who believes in Christ not believe in social welfare and safety net programs? -- but it's just as weird within polytheist and Pagan communities.
I have a friend who is a Theodish Heathen who is also an intersectional feminist who works tirelessly for social justice via groups like NOW and Planned Parenthood, and who leans at least as Left as I do. To contrast, consider Z. Budapest, whose work in the Dianic Wicca tradition is incredibly meaningful for people, but who is consistently vicious toward the transgender community.
It's a complicated thing. It's certainly led me to include Libertas and Iustitia as major players in my prayers and reflections, because the question for me seems to be how best to allow people to pursue their own paths according to their own consciences while also limiting harm when those paths conflict.
Sometimes I wonder if that's a thing which can only be an eternal work in progress.
Coffee good!
And it's so much easier to blame the poor for their poverty when they make bad choices such as prioritizing short-term pleasure or convenience over long-term health. You know? Even when the short-term thing is important to getting to where there's a long term for these choices to impact, and even when there is literally no available choice that will plausibly relieve the pressure of poverty so screw it let's go see Ghostbusters again.
"Eternal work in progress" sounds about accurate.
You had me at Ghostbusters.
...which I haven't seen the reboot once yet :(