30 Days of Deity Devotion: Day 7

On Devotional Practices

I'm certain that Greek reconstructionist groups are doing something different than I am in the worship of Artemis. I don't know for certain what they are doing as I have experienced a strange diffidence toward learning about it. Someday I will, but I'm not interested in re-creating anything. I am interested in creating a new practice - something fitting to these times and to the place in which I live. Something that feels right to me.

Here are some of the devotional practices that I have created or that I use:

Yoga
I have created a special Yoga class just for Artemis.

Hiking
I dedicate my hike to Artemis whenever the moment feels right. I have also created a method of devotional hiking in which distance is tracked and prayers are offered at regular intervals.

Hunting
I have a whole set of rituals that I follow when it's time to hunt. I like to prepare myself with meditation, a ritual bath and a light fast. I have found a quick dedication prayer to say and also a longer bowhunter's prayer. Of course my bow and arrows are also consecrated to Her service as well.

Archery
I pray to Artemis when I practice archery. Some days I dedicate the practice to her. I'm working on creating a formal devotional archery practice.

I find myself getting more and more devotional this year, when in the past that was not at all my focus. Interesting! I have lots more ideas, too.

What do you practice that is specific to Artemis?

30 Days of Devotion: Day 4

Or, Our Heroine Breaks the Rules To the Surprise of No One

So the 30 Days of Deity Devotion format wasn't working for me. It was essentially asking me to regurgitate facts. In this information age, what's the point? Go to the library or consult the Google.

No, today I want to talk about archery and hunting season. Deer season starts next Saturday, September 13. I am, of course, in a fever of anticipation. Here in North Carolina, archers have their very own hunting season before anyone else gets started. This is my favorite time of year. Just before Mabon, harvests are coming in, summer is ending and fall seems both tantalizingly near and impossibly far. Today, for example, it's approximately eleventy million degrees outside.

But still. The magic of the bow and the allure of the hunt work powerfully upon me. It doesn't matter how hot it is, how many bug bites I will get or how busy I am. It doesn't matter that this year, I truly have nowhere TO hunt. It's almost hunting season!

I've gotten a fair amount of practice in this summer, mostly while teaching students. A few times, I have gotten out with peers to bend the bow. I belong to a traditional archery club - they have several
hundred acres of wooded land and a whole passel of 3-D targets. In August, I took second place in the women's division*. My favorite hunting buddy and I shot together for four hours one afternoon. Fantastic training in a beautiful place with good company. A new archery buddy invited me to a BBQ, at which we took a walk down by the river for some stump shooting**. Not too shabby!

Fist-sized group shot with my longbow.

Meanwhile, I finally broke down and bought myself a practice target. There's a lot of backstory to this fact, but it's not important here. I'm so excited to be able to shoot whenever and wherever I want! It's a dense foam block rated up to crossbow. More than enough stopping power for my bows. This week I'll be sure to practice every day.

But what does this have to do with deity devotion? Everything, when you're a priestess of Artemis. I truly don't know how other people's Artemis-centric traditions work, but in my tradition…skill with a bow is mandatory. The practice of hunting is mandatory, though harvesting an animal is optional.

Practicing these skills is an embodied form of devotion. I choose that word, embodied, deliberately. One of the things that drove me batty about the religion of my birth (Catholicism), is that it is so dis-embodied. I have no interest in denigrating that faith, but I think it's safe to say that deep down, the church fathers wish we didn't have these messy, demanding vessels of sin (by their lights, not mine). Especially us dangerous female bodies!

Artemis, though, she's fully embodied. It's hard not to be when your main activities are hunting, shooting bows, exploring the wilderness, sporting with nymphs and kicking it with Dionysus. She is also into music and dance. This isn't some theoretical, discorporeal deity you're dealing with here. This Goddess can run as fleetly as any deer all day and dance and play the lyre all night.

As of now, there are seven days to hunting season. Seven days to train. Seven days to purify my spirit so that I may be prepared for what, to me, is a truly sacred time. A time when normal rules don't apply. It helps that I live in an area where nearly everyone is crazy for deer hunting. I may be the only one who is performing a sacred devotion when I hunt, but they needn't know that. All I have to say around here is "I can't come, it's bowhunting season", and all is forgiven. This is the one time of year that I'm totally justified in my endless wandering through the woods. That I don't stand out when I have to stop at the gas station in knee high boots and camouflage clothing. That no one takes it amiss when I jabber on with buck fever.

This is the time of year when I feel most myself. This is Artemis's time.






*Don't get me started on the fact that they HAVE a women's division. Let's not go into feminism and human rights today, it's too hot. I'll just say this: I don't like it.

**Using blunted arrows to hit random targets like stumps, leaves, discarded bottles, etc.

Dreams of a Coven

I have a dream of a coven to be. One that, at present, exists only in my heart. Much as I love my coven of wonderful witches, there is something else I want to do. Something I want to create. An adventure that has not yet begun. An idea growing within me that simply will not be silent.

I want to create a coven that is focused on Artemis and Pan. This group will welcome members of both genders (perhaps even youths), and we will worship and celebrate a balance between Goddess and God. The mission of the group will be to celebrate and nurture balance of body, mind and spirit.

Here are some of the things I envision us doing as a group:

• Celebrating the 8 Sabbats and 13 Esbats
• Special festivals for our patrons 
• Meditation
• Camping and backpacking (exploring lakes, rivers, mountains, forests)
• Yoga
• Pranayama (breathing exercises)
• Chanting
• Drumming and dancing
• Archery practice
• Woods skills (survival, fire, leave no trace camping, edible plants, etc)
• Star mysteries
• Hunting (with bow or camera)
• Walking meditation
• Periodic silence practice
• Music
• Energy healing

The only thing I lack at this point is members. I've got a dream, I've got a vision, I even have a place for us to gather...but no people. Are you out there? 

I call to you in the name of Artemis of the Peaks, Lady of Wild Beasts, Silver Huntress of the Moon.

I call to you in the name of the Great God Pan, Goat-footed, God of the Hunt.

Come to me, brothers and sisters. Let us go together into the wilds. Let us dance and drum, let us sing, let us live free!

So mote it be.

Winter Pagan Fitness Challenge: Weekly Update 3

This week I committed to rehabbing my sleep schedule, and I was successful. I did really well with my self-care routine for the majority of the week. Fitness, not so much. But most categories were really good until this weekend. I got some truly awful personal news, and I'm still reeling from it. The Track & Share app has become more and more helpful. Now I'm at the point of being able to look at a couple of weeks of graphs, and it's already instructive. Imagine the benefit of months worth of data!

Fitness - I practiced archery. The only other progress to note is that I ordered a new martial arts staff.

Diet - I did pretty well this week. Starting to see a pattern that I do ok when I have my regular routine going during the week, then it falls apart on weekends. One cheat day is ok, but two is a bit much. Will have to think about what I can do to improve this trend.

Air - I did some pranayama this week! I began a routine from Ayurvedic medicine, and it included a reminder for pranayama, so that happened a few times. Good stuff. Some communication issues this week that were very challenging. I think we chanted OM at yoga class, need to add in chanting to my daily practice.

Fire - Yoga practice was good this week. Practiced music two days. Got a few supplies for an upcoming art project. Still can't find a group Yoga class to attend. I've now researched all the options in my area and none fit my needs. I may try a class with an instructor I attended a massage class with, even though it's described as flow yoga.

Water - Another tough week emotionally, on two different fronts.

Earth - Sleep was good this week and it's amazing how much it improved my mood and energy levels. Even though I know how important sleep is, I got trapped in that harmful cycle! Went to my first doctor's appointment. Still waiting to hear about lab results, but everything was normal overall. Sad news was that I was forced to see my weight expressed in numbers. It was higher than I thought. Fresh inspiration for this challenge, let me tell you! This was the category I put my goal of Ayurvedic practices into - this is the week I began experimenting with them. I'll post about that separately next week.

Spirit - Much better week for meditation, devotionals and gratitude journal. 

Link to original Winter Pagan Fitness Challenge post for those who want to catch up.

Archery and Artemis

Archery is in my blood. My parents were both archers. Dad was the Deerslayer, a traditional hunter of great sensitivity, and Mom was an Olympic archer and instructor. I learned to shoot a bow almost as early as I learned to walk. We were also an outdoorsy family. Along with archery, we camped, hiked and foraged for wild foods.

From an early age, I wandered the woods. I wasn’t the sort of little girl who played with doll houses. Instead, I built houses for the fairies. I didn’t have an Easy Bake oven. No, you were more likely to find me in the woods, mixing up “potions”, riding my Huffy or reading a book. So it’s no surprise that as an adult, my greatest love is to wander the wilds, climbing mountains and fording streams…just to see what is around the next bend. Simply to breathe the pure air, be with the trees and allow the peace of nature to seep into my soul. More than that, wilderness represents freedom. Out there, I am myself. Pure, inviolate. Untrammelled by societal pressures and roles. No cellphones, no watches, no to do list beyond the daily necessities of shelter, food and fire when appropriate.

In recent years, I have rebooted my family tradition of bowhunting. What a joy – my love of the wilderness combined with my love of archery! My hunting style is very traditional and ethical. I hunt using only traditional equipment – longbow, recurve or horsebow. No compound bows. Wood arrows that I make myself. No artificial scents or other technological aids. Just me, the woods, a stick and a string. I hunt mostly whitetailed deer now that I am living in North Carolina. Even so, I go for does. They far outnumber the bucks, and there are plenty of trophy hunters here. I’m not interested in bragging rights; instead, I hunt to feed myself and my family. No more ethical animal protein exists than that one has hunted, butchered and cooked oneself.

Each summer, I begin to prepare for the fall. I check my gear, making repairs or additions as necessary. I step up my archery practice, being sure that I can hit exactly where I aim for a quick and humane kill. With each breath, each preparatory task, I am performing an act of devotion. When fall finally arrives, I hunt with a deep reverence for my prey and I express profound gratitude for their sacrifice. I am deeply connected to my food. I am enmeshed in the cycles of life.

And so I begin the Pagan Blog Project with Artemis, Lady of Wild Beasts, Lady of the Wilderness, Deer Shooter. When I learned who She was many moons ago, I realized why I never feel alone in the woods or on a lonely mountaintop. She's been with me all along.

Io Artemis Koryphaia!