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We Pagans love our incense! That has been the case for a very, very long time. As you might expect, the Minoans also enjoyed incense, and plenty of it.
The fresco above is from the West House in Akrotiri. It shows a young girl adding what looks like saffron threads to an incense burner. We know she's a girl because of her unnaturally white skin. And we know she's not an adult because of her hair - it's shaved, with a few long locks, an indication of a person who has not yet come of age.
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For some time now, Ariadne's Tribe has been developing our own counterpart to the hieros gamos as it's known from ancient Mesopotamian, Greek, and Buddhist traditions and that's expressed in modern Paganism via acts such as the Wiccan Great Rite.
We wanted a concept and a practice that we could use in our rituals that would encompass the idea of communion with deity as well as connection with each other and with the non-human beings whose spirits also fill our world. And we wanted it to be inclusive, avoiding any kind of gender binary.
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I recently wrote about the idea that no one owns the gods, but traditions have rules to follow. In other words, no one can tell you how to experience the divine, but if you want to be a part of a named spiritual tradition, you have to practice according to their guidelines.
Practicing the outward, physical part of your spirituality according to a tradition's rules is called orthopraxy. The word roots literally mean "correct practice" or "correct action."
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How do we practice Minoan spirituality? What resources are available for people who are interested?
The most direct, comprehensive way to learn about Ariadne's Tribe practices is via my two books Labrys & Horns and Ariadne's Thread, both now in updated second editions. Labrys & Horns in particular is a how-to book for Tribe spirituality, and Ariadne's Thread expands on it with more information about the Minoans along with seasonal rituals and rites of passage. But if you don't feel like flipping through a book, there are other options for inspiration.
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Published by New Page Books, 2015
The Akashic Records: Sacred Exploration of Your Soul's Journey Within the Wisdom of the Collective Consciousness, by Ernesto Ortiz
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We're modern people, not Bronze Age Minoans. But in Modern Minoan Paganism, we do some things that ancient people would have found familiar. Among those is the presentation of offerings to the gods. We do this quietly on our home altars or a bit more loudly sometimes, in group ritual.
A while back, I wrote about the kinds of offerings we make to the various gods and goddesses - what they like and what they don't. But the way we make offerings, or more specifically, the kinds of containers we use for them, take their inspiration from the Minoans.
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I answered the phone. It was my brother-in-law. He opened the conversation with "Your country has gone mad." Which I know.He's absolutely right. And he has seen some crazy in his day in Northern Ireland during the thirty years of The Troubles. So how to not add to the sum total of crazy these days? The words sanctuary and refuge keep resonating with me. We speak of asylum seekers and refugees. Sanctuary is a safe haven, which in ancient times could be claimed in sacred space by those who were hunted. In this cultural climate of fear, where do you build a place of safety for yourself and for others? How can you build a sanctuary, which is also synonymous with a reserve, although in that sense it is used when talking about protecting nature or animals.
