A Greek Sets Medusa's Story Straight With New York

I saw the latest political and social statue to be unveiled in Manhattan recently, sparking news coverage from the New York Post and other outlets. A statue dubbed Medusa was erected, with a sword in one hand and the severed head of a man in the other, dubbed Perseus. This design, apparently, was done to represent the Me Too movement. 

As there are those of us, many of us, who still worship the Greek Gods and follow ancient Greek religion, this story naturally made its way around online Hellenic groups for all to see, including myself. At first, I thought about ignoring it, but later realized that it warrants a response from a Hellenist as well as an American man.

I've done posts on the story of Medusa in the past, mainly concerning the idea of the vilified rape victim she is often portrayed as, pointing out that so many people don't realize that this version of the story isn't Greek at all, but Roman. It was not said that she was turned into a Gorgon. It says she was born among the Gorgons, of which there were three. They were winged spirits. 

In Hesiod (the Greek version), it never says she was raped by Poseidon, or raped at all. It never even says the sex took place in a temple, which was said by Romans to be the reason for her punishment. It says in the Greek Theogony that Poseidon laid with her in the spring flowers. That's it. Then it immediately talks about her destruction by Perseus. There is not a single word of rape, a temple, or being unjustly punished for it. 

Again, I will say, Medusa was NOT a rape victim in Greek myth, which by the artist's own admission, is what the statue is based on in Manhattan. I would also like to add that Gorgons aren't always portrayed as destructive or chaotic in Greek religion. Their images are used as well for protection. Alexander the Great wore one on His armor. 

In the Goodness of the Gods,

Chris Aldridge.

Hesiod: Reconsider Before Calling Him A Woman-Hater

When it comes to ancient Greek religious literature, for some reason, I have always found Hesiod to be one of my favorites. I suppose the love I have for the Archaic Period and the mysteries therein contribute to the admiration. I enjoy many of his philosophies and stories about the Gods, including his guidelines for living a happy and productive life. However, not everyone shares my sentiment. Pointing out seemingly very negative things he said about women in his writings, some modern female Hellenists I know of have chosen to shun him completely in their life. I think we should take a closer look at Hesiod before making such assumptions, though.

Firstly, we must acknowledge the fact that Hesiod's original work and the work we have today, is probably not 100% identical. Quite likely, throughout the ages, the works were edited or changed in certain amounts to conform to the time periods it passed through. So we don't actually know if everything we read of Hesiod today is actually what he said entirely. 

The main contempt some Hellenistic women today is an incredibly small part of his writings, not even constituting 1%, which says that a man is a fool for trusting women because they are "after your barn" and nothing more. However, this is not what Hesiod actually said, at least not in every translation. In some, it says, "Do not trust flatterers." From Hesiod's perspective, the only flatterers he would have known of would have been women, because heterosexuality is the most commonly exhibited courtship, just as a woman would mostly know men as being the flatterers. Hesiod may have simply been saying to not allow lust to endanger you. 

When hearing the idea that Hesiod was a woman-hater, not only do I bring up this idea, but also the fact that he said that a man "finds no greater treasure than a good wife." 

In the Goodness of the Gods,

Chris Aldridge.

The Shrine That Wouldn't Fall

I often spend time thinking about all the ways the Gods have either intervened or proven themselves in my life and my family's. In fact, I have written blogs and books on the topic. However, when we think about the big miracles of life, we tend to forget the small things that the Gods used to comfort and strengthen us. 

In late 2014 through late 2015, my family and I lived in a small apartment in a very small village nestled in the western Illinois hills called Elizabeth. Our residence was on main street. In fact, we lived in Elizabeth until 2018. There were pros and cons to the town. On the good side, it was safe, quaint, had a surprisingly vibrant spirit, the people were very nice, and the countryside was breathtaking. On the bad side, utilities were very high and there were virtually no employment prospects. Your best bet was to open your own business, which we actually did for a short time, although it didn't turn any profit. We mainly stayed for the superb school district my son attended. 

The apartment we had was advertised as an apartment with a storefront, but it was actually an office space that we managed to make into a living area. In our living rooms, we would normally erect our family shrine in the apartments and homes we rented before we bought our own property in 2019. We did the same with the apartment in Elizabeth. The structure itself was made of solid wood and stood about 7 feet in height. It had a top chamber for statues and a lower chamber for an altar, plus a storage cabinet on the very bottom. All of our main statues and altar tools were placed on it. The biggest problem with the building was that it wasn't entirely structurally sound. The upstairs neighbors had a leaking problem with their pipes, and water would drip down and stain our ceiling in certain places. Although, we never expected what would happen when we returned from vacation in April of 2015. 

During our absence, the leaking from upstairs must have worsened. Our living room ceiling collapsed, leaving water and slushy debris everywhere. When I walked in, I thought I was stepping in milk and graham crackers all over my floor. The collapse got all over everything and soaked the carpet. One thing it never touched, however, was the shrine. There wasn't a single scratch or drop on it even though it was right next to an area where the ceiling fell. Mostly everything in that living room had been slammed, but the shrine was still there, just as beautiful as it was when we left. We didn't have much in the way of material at the time, and I think the Gods knew that the shrine was our most prized possession. But also, to me, the event demonstrated the fact that the Gods have never, and will never, be taken out of this world or this universe. For many centuries, haters have tried, but ultimately failed. 

In the Goodness of the Gods,

Chris Aldridge.

How Do I Tell If It's A God, Mental Illness or Something Else?

Throughout human history, and even today, the Gods speak to us in a variety of ways. But such a claim isn't always perceived in our time as being something normal, when in fact it very much can be. Many years ago when I began seeing a psychiatrist for my depression, I mentioned to her that the Gods give me comfort and that comfort helps me battle the depression. She wasn't hostile or disrespectful, although at one point during the conversation, she asked, "But you don't hear Gods talking to you and telling you to do things, right?" I replied no, because that was the truth. The Gods have never spoken to me in a human-like voice, as my wife or a friend would. The Gods have spoken to me through my emotions, instincts, dreams, and at times, omens. I think this is probably the way they communicate dominantly with most people. Can the Gods speak to us with a human-like voice? Of course, because they can do whatever they want, but perhaps these days they refrain from it because they don't want someone being locked up for insanity when they're not. In the old days, people understood that the Gods are real. Today, many people have been taught that there's no way a sane person could hear a Deity. It's just not the case, however rare it may be.

But what if someone does indeed hear voices talking to them, claiming to be Gods? And what if that person is of sound mind, or at least appears to be? What do we make of it? How do we know it's a God talking to us or if we may be having mental health issues? For that matter, what if it's neither? Is there something sinister, like a haunting or a spirit with negative intentions? To me, the answer is simple. If it's a God talking to you, they're not going to instruct anything bad or harmful, because the Gods are always good. The Gods aren't going to tell you to kill yourself, cut yourself, hurt another innocent person, or anything which is negative or filthy. Miasma (pollution) is not of the Gods.

I think back to the ancient proverb, "If the Gods do evil, they are not Gods." Meaning that if something or someone is telling you to do evil, or is doing evil, they are not Gods, even if they claim to be. So to my mind, that's how you know. It's understanding the difference between good and evil, negative and positive, and the nature of the Gods themselves. Therefore, if you do hear a voice(s) driving you to do the bad things I have talked about, you should probably seek mental healthcare and spiritual counseling from your clergy. A good dose of both will do wonders for you.

In the Goodness of the Gods,

Chris Aldridge.

The Cult: Modernly Misconstrued

When most people today hear the word cult, they immediately think of those like Jim Jones and David Koresh.

But when we look back to the ancient historical concept of the cult, we see a far different picture. A cult was simply a private group of worshipers who practiced apart from the mainstream society. The Mystery Rites of Eleusis, for instance, would have been a cult, but they were just a private Order, dedicated to the understanding and preservation of a specific sacred knowledge. They believed in the same Gods as everyone else even, but they were still set apart. A cult is therefore just that, a group or religion outside the mainstream society. One might even argue that all minority religions are cults because of this definition, but minority would depend on the kind of religious society one lives in. In a Muslim country, for instance, Christians would be a cult, whereas in the United States, they wouldn't be. The early Christians of Rome were most certainly a cult. 

I'm not suggesting that people should join openly known cults. This post is merely about historical honesty and examination. In my own religion, there were numerous cults throughout history, but I have always shied away from that word in any context because of the modern stigma, even when I am just talking about historical record. So I want people to understand that some of the things we think of now as bad, were never meant to be that way. For instance, the swastika predates Hitler and the Nazis and goes back to many ancient cultures, even ancient Greek ones, as a symbol of motion and flow. But you can't use it today because of the Nazi stigma and the great harm that has been done to people under its banners. I think it's important we understand that humans can take anything and make it good or bad, it all depends on them, and I think understanding this will make us better thinkers. 

In the Goodness of the Gods,

Chris Aldridge.

Preordained Death: Feelings of Fate

The ancient Greeks, to a good extent, believed in Fate, as is evident in their mythologies and religious beliefs. Homer, the ancient Greek Poet, once said that no one can send Him into the Underworld until it is His time, but that when it is His time, nothing can stop it either. So the question begs, are our lives preordained in the sense that we have a time to live and a time to die? I talked with my wife about this idea briefly last night. I myself have always believed the words of Homer concerning the situation, but through philosophy, I think I have been forced to add something onto it.

I do think that most people will not die until it is their time. How many brushes with death have people had and missed it? There are lots of people in the world today who should be dead, but they're not. So it's clear that there was an aversion to the end of their lives at that point. However, we must also consider another fact. Nature always has anomalies. So when we ask ourselves, can someone die before their time? In some cases, the answer would have to be yes. Because if people couldn't die before their time, the Gods would not acknowledge such a thing as murder. A human life could not be taken unjustly if no one died until their time. So the fact that the opposite is true, shows that not everyone will make it to their destined time, whether it be because of murder or a natural cause of death. However, I do not think that's the norm. I think the vast majority of us will not die until our time, or for that matter, experience anything we are not supposed to.

But at the end of the day, I know the Gods are good, and along with Homer's words, I live my life in a state of comfort.

In the Goodness of the Gods,

Chris Aldridge.

From Apollon: Why Is Covid-19 Here?

As a priest, I have thought long and hard on our present medical situation. Of course, I am referring to the spread of Covid-19 or the Coronavirus. Even though it's actually a small plague in historical comparison, it was still enough to put significant pressure on our society and way of life, and sadly kill thousands of people. Equally important, more people have recovered than died. It's also true that we all have a time to go and a time to live, regardless of the circumstances.

But the question on my mind, is probably the same one that's on the minds of all theists, and that is simply, "Why is this happening?" There were times when I would go out to my sanctuary at night to pray to Apollon (the God of healing, prophecy and plague), and basically plead with Him for an answer. 

"O' Apollon, son of Zeus and Leto, God of the sun, mighty Healer, enemy of evil, please hear my prayer, and free us of this plague. Tell me what to do. What do I tell people?"

Normally, the Gods answer my prayers through my feelings. For instance, if the answer is not to worry or that things will be ok, I will feel an unconquerable wave of peace come over me. In this case, I again felt an easy presence, telling me to tell people to be resilient. But yesterday, I asked the question again. Only this time, I used something called an oracle book, in which you ask a question in a meditative state and then open it. The page you turn to is your answer. I am no oracle, yet I knew the Gods can talk to anyone they choose. Although, at first, I didn't put too much stock in the book itself until I asked Apollon to tell me something about the plague, and flipped to a page with a story so compelling that I could not deny it was from the God. Keep in mind, this was the first time I had ever used this book, so I did not know any of the entries or even the pages to find them on. I didn't even realize the kind of oracle book it was until I finally took time to read the description.

On 157, I read a story about a man who survived a Nazi death camp. The moral of the story was that human beings, sometimes, need challenges to strengthen their will to live, to generate, as the page describes, "aliveness." Do we have something to live for? The answer is up to us, basically.

Of course, it's not to say that the Nazis were a necessary evil, that would be absurd at best and psychotic at worst. They were the disease, the plague that needed to be wiped away. Humanity would have certainly been just find without them. So we should not interpret the story teller that way. I think the core of his message is that if humanity is determined to prevail over evil, they universally will. We may not be able stop the evil or the plague from coming, and it may end up being able to take life at the start, but we can decide to fight back. That's the message. If we had chosen to not fight the Nazis, they would have won. Likewise, we have to be determined to fight Covid19.

I never thought of it this way, and indeed, most people don't. But what if the reason for this disease is to strengthen our will? What if, from time to time, humans need to be asked, "How bad do you want to live?" in order for them to keep living? Is it possible that we need to be toughened like an immune system? Apollon gave me the same answer He did in the sanctuary that night, resilience. I suppose this can mean many different things to many different people hearing it.

One thing I have learned since becoming a Hellenic Polytheist and a philosopher is that the world and the Universe is anything but cut and dry. Things are not as simple as our perceptions, and there is more than just your own personal needs and wants at play. Humans don't understand this because they are very prone to arrogance, and so we tend to establish "truths" about the Universe based on our immensely limited perceptions. This impairs our ability to see beyond our noses and understand the things that are being taught to us. The worst thing we do on a regular basis is fail to realize we are not the center of everything, but rather a spec suspended in a sun beam. I'm not even saying that I myself have the complete answer here. It's possible Apollon only gave me enough of a glimpse necessary at the time. Is it even possible for a human to have the capacity to fully understand things? Perhaps not, but based on our history, there is one thing I do know. There is no obstacle we cannot overcome.

Remember, I encourage everyone to honor their state's quarantine and safety guidelines and laws always, for this too is part of your dedication and resilience.

I pray for all nations and all people, knowing that a world of heroes will make it through.

In the Goodness of the Gods,
Chris Aldridge.

Source: Sutphen, Dick, The Oracle Within, Pocket Books, New York, New York, 1991. Print.