{"id":1338,"date":"2017-11-20T19:18:35","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T09:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/?p=1338"},"modified":"2018-01-24T13:30:48","modified_gmt":"2018-01-24T03:30:48","slug":"men-kata-theion-sacred-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/hearthwitchdownunder\/2017\/11\/men-kata-theion-sacred-month.html","title":{"rendered":"My Men Kata Theion or Sacred Month"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In Hellenism there are many annual festivals, as well as some that are observed every few years (such as the Olympics).\u00a0 But there is also the Men Kata Theoin<\/a>, or Sacred Month.\u00a0 This is where certain days of the lunar month are dedicated to certain specific deities.\u00a0 Some modern traditions also include the advice from Works and Days to decide what each day of the lunar month means outside of the Gods.<\/p>\n

My personal Hellenism, however, is all about adaptation \u2013 to Australia, to myself, to Hekatean needs, to my family, my region and my home.\u00a0 The usual Men Kata Theion is not really right for me, mostly because it honours many deities that just aren\u2019t a big part of my practice but ignores the deities who are part of my life.<\/p>\n

\"The
Image of incense, public domain from pixabay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Because of this I decided to forgo trying to observe the normal Men Kata Theion and have spent the past year and more trying to come up with my own personalised sacred month.\u00a0 Not every day has a specific ritual need to any specific deities \u2013 though these empty days may still include simple rituals to all of my Gods in general, and to Hekate specifically.<\/p>\n

Over a year it has taken to finally get this list together.\u00a0 The reason it took so long is both mundane and not so mundane.\u00a0 My year has been pretty busy, as evidenced by the several long periods where I haven\u2019t even done any blogging at all.\u00a0 I have gone through political wrangling regarding home education in my state<\/a>, I have dealt with impending homelessness and then almost actual homelessness (thank the Gods for my mother, and thank my mother for giving me and the kids a place to stay) and obviously I have moved house twice.\u00a0 So I have gone through periods of little no energy or motivation to research and divine for my sacred month, as well as periods where I just couldn\u2019t do anything because of lack of internet, lack of laptop and lack of time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The not so mundane is things like the appearance of deities in my life I wasn\u2019t expecting \u2013 Prometheus being the loudest one<\/a> to have taken not just a place in my religious life, but a massive place.\u00a0 From being barely a blip on my religious radar to becoming one of the three most important deities to me<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some of the deities I feel close to, or am most attracted to religiously speaking, also happen to be those who don\u2019t have a massive example of how to honour Them.\u00a0 Prometheus is one of those<\/a>, Asteria is another<\/a>. This increases the difficulty of adding Them to my monthly practices \u2013 not only do I need to figure out what days to honour Them, but how to honour Them as well.\u00a0 When you have little in the way of good, practical and fitting hymns to use and little in the way of symbolism and sacred items to use during ritual \u2013 well it definitely consumes a lot of time trying to figure it all out.<\/p>\n

I am certainly not done, there is more to go, more to figure out.\u00a0 But I now have a good enough starting point.\u00a0 I have used research of what resources I had available (ancient and modern), I have used intuition and feeling, logic and of course divination<\/a>.\u00a0 I also kept some of the original Men Kata Theion days, such as the Deipnon, Noumenia, Agathos and Oceanic days \u2013 because why reinvent the entire wheel when some of the parts function perfectly well?<\/p>\n

My Sacred Month<\/h2>\n

The traditional sacred month is split into three parts, or decads (ie. 10ish days per part). For my own month I have gone with a simple (though tedious) count from the new moon on.\u00a0 As well as key points, such the full moon and dark moon being on their rightful days, and some days work specifically around them.\u00a0 Day 1 is the new waxing moon, day 15 is the full moon, and the last day is dark moon of course.<\/p>\n

1 \u2013 Noumenia.<\/strong>\u00a0 New Moon, to Hekate, Hermes, Selene, Apollon, Zeus Ktesios, Hestia, Agathos Daimon.\u00a0 Traditional.<\/p>\n

2 \u2013 Agathos Daimon.<\/strong> To Agathos Daimon. Traditional.<\/p>\n

4 \u2013 Hermes. <\/strong>To Hermes.\u00a0 Traditional, 4 is sacred to Hermes.<\/p>\n

8 \u2013 Oceanic.<\/strong>\u00a0 To Hekate Einalian and Poseidon.\u00a0 Traditional.<\/p>\n

10 \u2013 Promethean.\u00a0<\/strong> Prometheus, Hekate and Medea.\u00a0 On the 10th shining of the moon, Medea collected the herb that grew from the blood of Prometheus (from Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica book 7)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

12 \u2013 Hephaistos.\u00a0<\/strong> To honour Hephaistos.\u00a0 Works and Days notes the 12th day as being a good day for hard work.<\/p>\n

15 \u2013 Full Moon.\u00a0<\/strong> Selene, Hekate and Artemis.\u00a0 Traditional and obvious, these are the three main lunar Goddesses.<\/p>\n

21 \u2013 Artemis.<\/strong> The 6th day is sacred to Artemis, this is the 6th day after the Full Moon.<\/p>\n

19 \u2013 Night.<\/strong> Nyx and Asteria.\u00a0 Works and Days marks this as a day that improves as it gets closer to evening.<\/p>\n

24 \u2013 Melinoe.<\/strong>\u00a0 Works and Days marks this as a day that gets worse as it gets closer to evening, so Melinoe it is (She who brings nightmares).<\/p>\n

29\/30 \u2013 Pre-Deipnon.<\/strong>\u00a0 Hades, the day before the Dark Moon.\u00a0 Because, it\u2019s almost dark moon, also the Works and Days marks it as an impure day \u2013 anything to do with the underworld is \u201cimpure\u201d as regards miasma, so it is fitting.<\/p>\n

30\/31 \u2013 Deipnon\/Hene Kai Nea.<\/strong> Hekate and the dead. Traditional.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I have not actually done the full month yet, since I have only just finished working out how I want it to be.\u00a0 So this, from November 19\/20, is the first month that I will try to do every single one of these days (not that it is really all that many) as well as doing my normal daily libations, hymns and prayers.<\/p>\n

I will also try to do a blog post for each of them!\u00a0 These posts won\u2019t be too personal, instead just my basic ritual outline, the rituals meaning\/reason for being, what I offer in terms of food\/libation\/incense\/candle colour and any hymns that I recite.\u00a0 Hopefully this will get me off my butt, back to doing regular rituals (I have had a little trouble getting into the swing of things since moving) and back to regular writing again.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wish me luck and pray for the diminishing of my laziness.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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