The Apollonian Hermetic Maenad

Every once in a while I get the mad, insane urge to create a modern day Hellenic mystical tradition. I think of how, given my background in studying and/or practicing in various modern day mystery schools and mystical practices, this could be doable. Could lead to things like Hellenic mystery schools down the road, even.

Then I remember the following:

1) Me creating such a trad alone is a recipe for disaster
2) Me creating ANYTHING in the Hellenic community is just asking to rebuild the pedestal and crank it up a few feet
3) Me with my schedule and life probably wouldn't have as much time to this as I would like

#3 would be solved by #1. #2 is inevitable. I can't sneeze without #2 happening.

I have ideas for a mystical tradition for Apollo. It involves a syncretic approach and is flexible in regards to training. It goes something like this: the goal would be union with an ideal, namely that of balance. How does one achieve that balance and where would that balance be reflected? Well, there's mind-body balance, energy balance, balance between yourself and the world around you, et cetera.

Here are the spheres along with suggested ideas for implementing each:

Mind-body: exercise programs, yoga, certain forms of meditation
Energy balance: Tai Chi, Reiki
Balance between yourself and the world around you: meditation, contemplation--specifically what they call "contemplative prayer"

Add in a healthy dose of Pythgorean and Neoplatonic philosophy and I think we have something here.

This is all shit I'm thinking about creating and implementing within the Inner Circle of the Order of Apollo. The more *original* practices such as various rituals, forms of meditation, et cetera we can come up with over the long run, the better. The idea is to learn what works in the spirit of attaining what we want and then as time goes on, be able to tailor it more specifically towards Apollo--and of course, be able to have something concrete to teach others.

Some practices, however, stand perfectly fine on their own. There is utterly no reason to create a "Hellenic" version of Tai Chi. Tai Chi is Tai Chi, period. I can see, however, eventually starting up an energy healing tradition devoted specifically towards consecrating yourself as a healer of Apollo and attuning yourself to that energy.

Things like this are why I am dangerous and need to stick to just writing vampire pr0n.

As part of Hercules Invictus, I'm in the process of starting up separate Orders of Apollo and Dionysos. I'm currently still working on the framework and ideas for starting out, but essentially it'll be for all types of devotees with optional subsets involving the gods' mysteries.

Each Order will initially focus on the worship and experience of the god through examining things such as Homeric and Orphic hymns, experimenting with various rituals to the god, and performing good deeds on behalf of each deity. Of course each Order will have different things to offer that are specific to the god, and in the end it'll be something of a combination study/ritual/worship group.

The idea will be that people who contribute to the Order can go on to experience the Mysteries if they so desire, or assist in developing further the curriculum and requirements for each Order. Either way only those who contribute will be counted among our ranks. I will not be requiring people to write books or get PhDs, but I will note if people join and sit around doing nothing while taking credit for just being in the organization.

If you have any interest in the above for either or both gods, please let me know either here or via email.

Edit: I'll be using the following public lists for each of the Orders until the first initiates for each have gone through the first stage:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Thiasos_Apollon

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Temenos_Dionysos

Once there are people who have gone through the first stage, I'll create a separate emailing list for each and will continue the first stage on these lists for anyone who is interested who wasn't able to do it before or wasn't on the list prior.