I would like to start this reflection piece thanking my best friend, the ancient Greek God Apollo, for bringing me this far and keeping me strong enough to continue on this difficult journey. It's hard to believe how far I have come when I look back, and I see how much farther I still have to go. I am not a perfect priestess. I am not a perfect person. I have made a lot of mistakes along this way, however, it is hopeful that every misstep has not been in vain, and there will continue to be increase in personal understanding and properly directed power.
I have witnessed this fledgling community of open Hellenics go through some terrible things. There has been racism, there have been accusations of everything from irreversible ignorance to fraud and I just want to say at this point that it's time to look at ourselves and decide who do we want to be as a community.
Let me be the first to say I am not better than a teenage girl who has only just heard of Apollo saying that she can speak to him and that he answers back. I am not special when I put on a hood of a Pythian Priestess. I have done this for this long for only Apollo, because I was one of those young girls who saw and spoke to Apollo. If I had been doing it for myself, I would have quit along time ago. The community is extremely competitive, hateful, and can be incredibly annoying. I do this for Apollo who pushes me to be better than who I was, always stronger, always more aware, always more confident.
On the other hand, I am seeing a real push for real temples to be re-established, all over the world. Hellenism is once again in all the corners of the world ready to be reborn. It's going to take effort, my friends. It's going to take a whole lot of tolerance and patience and loving your brothers and sisters. Love them more than you tear them down. We were all once ignorant and hopeless, no matter how far we think we have come.
I pray the community will do nothing but become stronger, more visible, and more respected. Service to the Gods is a worthy cause, not an easy one, but can be very fulfilling one.
May Apollo bless us. IE PAEAN
No comments:
Post a Comment