Une statue de Minerve sur le Monument Magenta, Bologne (1863).

Statue of Minerva on the Magenta Monument, Bologna (1863).

Janus is a beautiful deity to be your first Roman deity because, as the gate-keeper of Olympus, he is the one who permits the prayers of mortals to enter and to be received by the immortal gods. Janus presides over doorways (januae) and archways (jani), and, by extension, all beginnings and endings, and especially the opening and closing of religious rituals. The month of January is dedicated to him.

Traditional offerings to Janus include dried bay laurel leaves, especially for incense, simple bread, honey, wine or grape juice, and the buds of Capparis spinosa, the caper bush, a perennial plant commonly found in the Mediterranean countries, East Africa, the Pacific Islands, Central Asia and Australia.

It is common to pray to Janus at the when leaving home and returning. The prayer can be very simple: “Greetings, Father Janus! You are the beginning of life and life’s labors. Keep me safe this day, and protect my family and my home.” When you return home: “Greetings, Father Janus! You open and close doors. Thank you for keeping me safe this day, and for protecting my family and my home.”

Prayers are typically offered to Janus at the beginning of the year and the month (known as the kalends), and when starting a new job or any new project.

I’m going to suggest Vesta, goddess of the hearth and home, as a good second Roman deity to venerate. She is often invoked at the when lighting incense and/or a candle at the beginning of formal worship, and at meals.

Some resources for Religio Romana (also known as cultus deorum and Roman Polytheism):

How to start practicing private rites

Simple Daily Home Rites and Prayers

Kalends rite for Janus

I have several posts about Janus on my blog here.

Calendars of Roman Festivals:

http://www.novaroma.org/calendar/index.html

http://romanpagan.blogspot.com/2014/01/roman-calendar.html

http://www.musesrealm.net/rome/festivals.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_festivals

http://www.unrv.com/culture/roman-festivals.php

Paganism

I’m really new to almost everything in this branch, so I really want to follow people who post good and accurate information about various ancient religions, I really want to study them and eventually workship some gods/goddesses, so like or reblog if you post about:

> Paganism

> Greek/Roman mythology

> Norse paganism

> Slavic paganism

Any comment about good books or resources are very welcome.

Hi there, I'm a Roman pagan! I highly recommend @hearthglow and @honorthegods as a beginning point for our end, as they have lots of resources and info. Check out the people they reblog from and chat with, they’ll usually be cool! I also have a directory to help folks find some of the other blogs in the community. 

To get you started on resources, An Introduction to Roman Religion by John Schneid is kind of the intro text that everyone recommends. Nova Roma and Roman Republic are decent places to go to get info, although the actual practices they do may or may not be your style. Also check out ADF - I’m linking to a Roman thing but they do all sorts there.

As with the other paganisms, you do unfortunately have to be wary of white supremacists. Honorthegods semi-frequently posts stuff about what to watch out for, so that’s a useful thing to check out.

janus:

o god of the dual heads

who faces both my future

and my past,

o god of the closed door

tightly locked by some

primordial force,

o keeper of the doors of time,

through which human

triumphs parade,

o god of this saving door

which opens, unbound,

when others close,

you have saved me.

for you have lead me to this door

newly found. it blinds me,

for i have walked so far at night,

and now this door frames purest light.

“The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.”

- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6:6.

Question: Did Romans wear socks with sandals

Question: Would Romans wear togas made of modern microfiber fleece 

Those are the sock of a people that Wore Socks With Sandals in my personal and completely unprofessional opinion.

I also firmly believe they would embrace microfiber fleece because who wouldn't want a soft fuzzy toga suitable for those cozy winter days!

November - Feronia In ancient Roman religion, Feronia was a goddess associated with wildlife, fertility, health and abundance. As the goddess who granted freedom to slaves or civil rights to the most humble part of society, she was especially honored among plebeians and freedmen.

birth of venus, revisited 

venus feels more green and flower-y than ocean-y, so i wanted to try making something that would reflect that 

please do not tag as aphrodite or reblog to hellenic devotional blogs 

p0rn blogs dont touch 

sun, moon, and stars 

(but not in that order bc sirona’s is a different shape and looks better in the middle) 

left-right: apollo, sirona, diana 

Resources for Trans and Nonbinary Witches and Pagans

This is the start of a summer-long project I’m taking on to create a substantial list of resources for trans and nonbinary witches and pagans. The same information can also be found here on my blog if that formatting works better for you.

Please take a look at what I already have and let me know if:

I’m doing my best to gather and screen resources, but this is the sort of project that’s hard to do without community involvement. I will also be posting updated lists throughout the summer as well as updating the list on my resource page so please feel free to check in and see if new resources should be added.

Thanks for your help and I hope you find this list useful 💙  

Books:

Gender and Transgender in Modern Paganism - Circle of Cerridwen Press

Hermaphrodeities - Raven Kaldera

All-Soul, All-Body, All-Love, All-Power: A TransMythology -P. Sufenas Virius Lupus

Double Edge: The Intersection of Transgender and BDSM - Raven Kaldera

Queer Magic: Power Beyond Boundaries - Lee Harrington

Casting a Queer Circle: Non-binary Witchcraft - Thista Minai

Trans & Nonbinary Friendly Pagan & Witchcraft blogs:

@northern-seidmadr

@ecletic-pagan-enby

@magickalmeanderings

@chinese-trans-witch-boy

@witches-ofcolor

@genderwitchcraft

@nbwitchthings

@transtarot

@lokeanwelcomingcommittee

@fangwitch

@transguypagan

In Person Trans & Nonbinary Friendly Pagan & Witchcraft Groups:

Spirals (College group: UMass Amherst)

Lavender Magick (Seattle, Wa)

Hampton Roads Pagan Meet Up (Norfolk, Va)

Star City Pagan Social Meetup (Roanoke, Va)

Our Lady Of the Earth Sky (Redmond, Wa)

Hogtown Hearth (Gainesville, FL)

Articles:

A Non-Binary Beltane

Beyond the gender binary in pagan practice

Queer and Trans Identities in Pagan Mythology

How Witchcraft is Empowering Queer and Trans Young People

Online Trans & Nonbinary Pagan Groups:

Trans and Nonbinary Pagans Amino

Trans Pagan Facebook

Rainbow Pagans Facebook  

Nonbinary, Trans, Intersex and Queer Pagans Facebook

Trans and Pagan Facebook 

— Charles W. King, “The Organization of Roman Religious Beliefs” (2003)

Important to remember how much doctrinal infighting amongst reconstructuonist pagans is very much a biproduct of Christianized culture and not actual paganism.

The Diana Masterpost

(Disclaimer: As ever, I will begin with primary and secondary source material, touch on both official and inferred correspondences and then end this masterpost on a personal note. I am by no means a trained scholar so the linked texts below may be not considered the best translations. This guide has been compiled via the below sources to the best of my ability. Praise Diana!)

→ Primary Texts

→ Secondary Texts

→ Epithets and Titles

→ Holiday

Nemoralia or the Festival of Torches, is held between August 13—15, or the ides of August. According to C. M. C. Green, this holiday may be appropriate for the celebration of Diana Trivia, as it is possibly a metaphor for Diana’s descent into the underworld on the first day and the subsequent return to take her place in the sky on the third.

Associations & Offerings

Personal Thoughts & UPG

Diana is the soft touch on your shoulder in the wake of grief and heartache. She is the support you need when you feel othered. Her gaze is wisdom and empathy, implacable yet burning with conflagration of the stars. She heals through listening, keeps secrets and supports the descent into darkness. Diana never turns from evil, whether to absolve or condemn. She is the Moon, a vessel of cycle and rebirth, the eye which opens and closes, the thread that weaves between the flesh of secret and truth.

As Queen of the Sky, she is mother-of-pearl and splendor; activity, constancy and rich joy. Diana offers silverlight, rendering the “night as day.” She is the hour just after twilight as the moon crests to its height, where people still traverse the streets, their voices lower and softer somehow. She is laughter over drinks, late night talks with friends and connection. She is a guide, a visceral reliance upon intuition, inciting the special and rarefied moments in life with an unparalleled softness. Diana is magic; her smile is a mirror for us to see what is possible. She is the protection that lends us our strength.

In the woodland she is a glory, a queen amongst nature and her bow is the swift undoing of both animal and man. She does not fight openly, but hunts her prey with relentless focus—and knows these games respect no sovereign power. She abides the rules of nature yet known how to transgress them; enjoys games of wit while knowing them as diversion and not truth. She respects the honorable hunt but exacts a price from the wicked in blood or spirit. There, beyond the boundaries of civilization she rules, turning hunter to hunted—whether with a bow or a mask, a curse or a picket sign.

Diana enforces responsibility for crossroads are liminal. They must always end in choice. She is the dark whisper of midnight and the descent into the underworld. Diana is the shadow over the sun; cold fury, swift retribution and grasping bones, a hundred arms dragging the soul down to meet the frigid waters of justice. She lives on the edge of the known world wrapped in night silk, eyes like obsidian buttons, burning with hearthfire at the core. There, she keeps a solitary cauldron and a book of secrets sub rosa, eclipsed in the new moon and bathed in abyssal water.

Diana is celestial and earthbound, domestic and wild, order and chaos. She is the change of the flesh and the constancy of the soul, showing us that beneath between life and death all remains fixed to an immutable core.  She is protection and vengeance. She is sovereign and natural; constructed and crude, a reflection of the poetry of the earth.