The prayerbeads have sets of three large beads (black, blue, and white) for the three Horae. Between that, they have four sets of twelve beads. The first and last of these are beads representing the Twelve Principles of Clarity.

I feel odd calling them rules, because they are hard and fast “You must X” and “You must never Y”. They are areas of life where you can focus your spiritual discipline, areas where we tend to get screwed up.

We asked for inspiration on what would be appropriate “rules” and there were twelve gods who stepped forward. I think this was the start of the “everything seems to be in twelves here”, but at some point Raven noticed that they line up with the astrological Houses.

When we were initially working on the Order of the Horae project, Raven wrote up descriptions of what each of these rules might look like for a Pagan monastic order. I’ll link to each of them as I go through each one, but I’m a little ambivalent about it. This is stuff we wrote years ago for a project that never got off the ground, not stuff that has ever seen real-life application. This was at a time when Raven had received a terminal diagnosis, and we were both doing a lot of thinking about what I was going to do with the rest of my life. Fortunately, Raven is too stubborn to die just because the doctors tell him to.

The handful of other interested people have either gone their separate ways, or, like me, put this on the back burner. Whenever I look at that site, I want to edit the hell out of it, but it is hard to even know what to say. The subject came up a few weeks ago, and I realized that I’ve got a lot of raw emotions about it, a lot of anger and despair about our “imaginary monastery”. The next day, a friend who I’d never spoken to about the project, just spontaneously started talking to me about how she found inspiration in it, and that “something like that” is her “retirement plan”. I feel like that was a message for me, that something will eventually come of this, if only a handful of us doing our little thing together. So a lot of why I am writing here is to work through some of my feelings about this.

In the Name of Eirene, Keeper of Peace…

(I’m pretty sure this is either “eye-REE-nee” or “eh-RAY-nay”. I tend to say the latter. It is also spelled “Irene”, pronounced the same, just another way to attempt to write “Εἰρήνη”. I generally have a strong preference for whatever version of a god’s name doesn’t sound like and isn’t spelled liked a different familiar word or name. If I write it “Irene” I am going to say it “eye-REEN”.)

Writing these posts, I’ve actually been doing a tiny bit of research on these gods. Generally it doesn’t come to much, but the case of Eirene, again and again you see Peace portrayed primarily as a time of agricultural abundance. Hesiod’s Works and Days 212 explains that when rulers are honest and just, the land will prosper. Not in the obvious sense that men who aren’t off at war can stay home to tend to their livestock, and invading forces will not burn your fields. That is obviously bad for prosperity. But this was directly, in the sense that a peaceful society invites the blessings of the gods, especially Eirene, which makes the land fruitful. For “men who do true justice”, “The earth bears them victual in plenty, and on the mountains the oak bears acorns upon the top and bees in the midst. Their woolly sheep are laden with fleeces; their women bear children like their parents. They flourish continually with good things, and do not travel on ships, for the grain-giving earth bears them fruit.”

(As an aside, this is the second time this month, looking at classical Greek stuff, where I’ve seen sailing casually contrasted with harmony and abundance. The other was a reference to the golden age before written history, when men lived in harmony and and did not yet know how to sail ships. I can make some guesses about that, but at some point I should ask one of my Hellenic friends.)

The concept that keeps going through my head is, “Do what you must to maintain Justice, but always, always, return at once to the work of Peace.” And the work of Peace is not diplomacy or mediation or non-violent protest – those are tools of Justice. The work of Peace is what you do when you are not struggling to obtain Justice. It is work that sustains and nourishes. Till the fields, shear the sheep, delight in art and music. Through your own labor, sustain yourself on the abundant earth, and you will have no need to seek wealth by conquest. Eirene “honours a city that reposes in a life of quiet, and augments the admired beauty of its houses, so that they surpass in prosperity the neighbours who are their rivals.” “How far peace outweighs war in benefits to man; Eirene, the chief friend and cherisher of the Muses; Eirene, the enemy of revenge, lover of families and children, patroness of wealth. Yet these blessings we viciously neglect, embrace wars; man with man, city with city fights, the strong enslaves the weak.” (Quotes from Theoi.com.)

I hate to reduce plain statements to metaphor, but I’ve got nothing to say about politics on a national or international scale. I think about this in terms of a small community, and an individual’s relationship with the world. How we should not be so quick to set our work aside, and fight. How when it is necessary to act in the name of Justice, we should return to the Peace which is our natural state. Unless we are truly called to be Daughters and Sons of Justice, and make that our life’s work, we mustn’t identify ourselves by the battles we face. And those Daughters and Sons of Justice, remember that what they fight for is for the people to live in Peace.

In the Name of Dike, Keeper of Justice…

An 1886 representation of Dike Astraea from the Vermont State House, thanks to Wikipedia.

First off, there seem to be a a few ways to pronounce this name. I prefer “DEE-kay”, solely because I have trouble not snickering pronouncing it like “dicky” or “dykey”, but either way it is two syllables. She’s generally depicted as holding scales, but unlike many modern depictions of Lady Justice, she’s not portrayed blindfolded.

So, we’ve got Rules and Justice. How are disputes mediated? How are rules enforced? When are exceptions made?

This post has sat unwritten, on my todo list, for more than a week. I’m not quite sure where to go with it, and it winds up being mostly questions with no answers. But perhaps that is appropriate? In any case, I don’t want to get stuck here on #2 out of 60.

So, who has the authority to interpret and enforce rules? How much authority do they have? What actions are taken to restore Justice to a situation? What will be fair? What will be for the good of the community? What if those are very different things?

I think the hardest bit is how to restore Justice without breaking Peace. Or at least breaking only mindfully, for good reason. Whenever you bring up an issue of injustice, someone’s peace will be disturbed. It is easy to say, “Well, it must be done. Justice is more important.” but especially on the scale of a small community, that mindset can lead to endless bickering over what is fair, and who owes who what, and whose side are you on. When do we put our grievances aside, accept things as they are, and just try to live together peacefully? When do we decide the injustice is too much, and something must be done to set things right?

But what should be done? What actions will restore justice? I’ve often heard it said that when most people say they want justice, what they actually want is revenge. They’ve decided that the only way to restore balance is for the other person to suffer in proportion to the suffering they caused. Punitive justice, rather than restorative justice. But then, things that work wonderfully in small, close-knit communities can become appallingly unworkable on a larger scale. And the difference is even greater when you consider an entirely self-selected, voluntary community, as opposed to one you are born in and have few alternatives to.

In a small spiritual community, I would thing the balance of Peace and Justice would tend heavily towards Peace. I’m likely terribly biased in this, because my own spiritual path has lead me, again and again, away from advocating for my own interests, away from logical analysis of what is fair and who is obligated to do what. Again and again, it has lead me to forgiveness, to generosity, to accepting things (and people) as they are.

I suspect that has nothing to do with the inherent value of Peace rather than Justice, and everything to do with how spiritual growth pulls us out of our old patterns, whatever they are, to give us a more expansive view. I’ve never been reluctant to stand my ground. I can easily see how for someone whose default was to yield to whatever injustices were imposed upon them, to accept unwarranted blame in the interest of reconciliation, they could find enormous potential for growth in learning to advocate for themselves, to seek justice for themselves and others, to stand firm when told to “not rock the boat”. Either path can be done poorly, and either can lead to spiritual transformation.

In the name of Eunomia, Keeper of Rules…

We start, and continually come back around to, the gods the Order was named for. The Horae, or the Hours, are Greek goddess of both the cycle of the year and the natural order of society. I am not a scholar and Classical stuff is really not my thing, but you can read a good deal about them on the Horae on Theio.

Monasticism, in general, is a way of living day to day deeply in harmony with whatever your order sees as the foundational elements of their religion. Life is structured to cut away what does not directly serve that purpose, to remove the various compromises made by normal people of faith who have day jobs and family responsibilities. Each order carves a slightly different path in that regard, some focusing on the study of scripture, some on  charity, some on asceticism. When we initially developed the concept of the Order of the Horae, we had to decide where we would carve that path, knowing that this was only one possibility among many.

We talked to others who were exploring Pagan monasticism, and we quickly realized we were specifically not interested in a Pagan commune where everyone just sort of does their own thing, and does occasional rituals together. There is a place for that, but we were envisioning something more structured. Something with Rules. And yet, we felt that rules need to be kept in balance with other forces. That is really at the heart of polytheism – that powerful forces are balanced by other powerful forces, and that is what makes a coherent whole. So what are the forces that balance Rules?

It was this line of inquiry that led us to the Horae. Three Greek goddesses, Rules, Justice, and Peace, with the idea that all three are needed together, in balance. Well, you could philosophize for ages over the that statement, argue for or against each one and come to many different conclusions, but that isn’t what we did. We had already established that the foundational concept of this Order would be the turning of the seasons, the cycle of the year, so when we found this set of gods, linking the natural turning of the seasons to structured human world of an ordered society, we knew we had found our keystone.

So, we start with Rules, Eunomia. Not even specific rules at this point in the discussion, just the concept of Rules. The concept that we could come together to live in community, and decide that we want Rules in our lives, Rules that help keep us on our spiritual path and Rules that define our social contract. The concept that Rules are not merely a stifling cage we must fight our way free from. Paganism is, at this time, very much a counter-culture movement, full of rebellion and rejection of authority. A lot of people need that, and they thrive in that free-flowing, largely undefined atmosphere. The Order of the Horae is not intended to suit everyone. It is just defining a specific path, and that path involves Rules.

The line continues:

In the name of Eunomia, Keeper of Rules, Horae of the Upraised Hand, I am bound by the Law of the Universe.

There is more to say about the rest of the line, but I’ll get back to it when this line comes around again. This is enough for now.

I’ve again got a temp job where I basically babysit an empty office for 13 hours straight, so it is a good time to do some writing.

Some years ago, a few Pagans interested in monasticism brainstormed what an eclectic Pagan monastic system might look like. From that the concept of the Order of the Horae. A lot of thought and prayer went into it, but it remain a fairly distant dream. None of us are in a place in our lives where we could do something with this, but it is something that a few of us continue to hold in our hearts, as our retirement plan. 

One thing that came out of the Order of the Horae project was the Pagan Book of Hours, a large collection of short daily rituals. Another was the Twelve Principles of Clarity, a set of ideals for behavior and attitude. And one small piece was a set of prayer beads, that are a recitation of those principles as well as short prayers to each of the gods that we were inspired by in this project. For the past month, I’ve been reciting those prayers every night before bed, and since I do well with having structured writing prompts, I thought I would go through, bead by bead, and write about each one.