21 December 2017

Dear all,

Today marks the winter solstice. This year the solstice falls in the intercalary month of Nekrodegmonion, which is, simply put, the month dedicated to the mighty dead and the sub-lunar Demiurgos. Yesterday was the lunar feast of Deuteroebdomo, which simply means “second seventh.” This feast is dedicated to the personal daimon, which you may also know as the holy guardian angel. This gives this year’s solstice an interesting set of symbols to contemplate, and, while these symbols may appear to be at odds with one another, they both enhance the overall spirit of the day.

On the one hand is the month of Nekrodegmonion, the Month of the Receiver of the Dead. Death, it seems, is all around us. And, of course, it is. We are all dying, albeit at different speeds. There is war, famine, disease, and a host of other threats to our lives. Some of us, such as myself, have a body out of sync with nature and so is trying to kill us a bit faster than everyone else’s bodies are trying to kill them. And, of course, they will eventually win. The world of multiplicity is filled with mortality.

And yet, the world is filled with Gods, their immortal munificence, their providence or grace, flows steadily to us, and around us, and in us. Built into the very fabric of the universe are the signatures, signs, and symbols of the divine. In this we are reminded of a different sort of death, that of initiation. Which brings us to “the other hand,” the lunar feast of Deuteroebdomo.

Deuteroebdomo is dedicated to the personal daimon, that grand and noetic being assigned to us from on high to guide our souls until they are no longer necessary and even brighter beings come to take us by the hand. It is the personal daimon who guides us in life and teaches us the ways of our true nature: that we are divine beings, lost in imperfect matter, which, too, is waiting to be reawakened and set to its proper order. All this speaks to the death of initiation, when the soul awakens and, remembering itself, strives to be what it truly is, both in this world and the next.

All of this well marks midwinter. It is a time of death and slumber, at least in the northern hemisphere, but there is also the hope of resurrection, reincarnation, and soulful awakening. Last night was the longest night of the year. Today, the light reawakens. Let us follow that light, so symbolic of the Good Itself, that we, too, may arise.

Blessings of the Divine, and the solstice, to you all.

χDionysios β

Diadochos,

Ekklesia Neoplatonismos Theourgia