Author: caveofseilenos
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The Long Way Home
12-13 September 2022. Returning to Athens, then Home. We managed to get a pretty good night’s sleep. Most of the hard packing work was done last night, so we were left with cleaning up the last-minute stuff in the morning, which we did after a trip to the restaurant for breakfast. Afterwards, I went to…
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Learning to Bow Out Gracefully
5 February 2025. On Retiring at Imbolc On February 1st, I retired after a 44-year career working in the fields of emergency management, risk management, and security/anti-terrorism for multiple Departments and Agencies of the US government. Actually, I missed the 44-year mark by a month. So sue me. This is the first time that I’ve been…
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The Temple of Diktynna
11 September 2022. The Sanctuary of the Cretan Artemis We all had a decent night’s sleep last night, waking up around 8 am. My CPAP battery bank lasted just long enough to get through the night. We cleaned up before heading to the restaurant for a light breakfast and to recharge respective phones and battery…
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Milia Mountain Retreat
10 September 2022. An Oasis in the Mountains of Western Crete We took the E65/90 from Chania through Kolymvari to Kissamos. From there, we turned southeast on Palaia Ethnike Odos 90 to the village of Kaloudiana where we turned south onto Epard. Od. Kaloudianon-Chrisoskalitissas. Continuing on through the Village of Topolia, we skirted the Topolia…
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On the Road to Kydonia
Iraklio to Chania. 10 September 2022 We arose fairly early and packed our stuff (well, the things which we hadn’t already packed last night – something that I do with an almost religious fervor). Aaron and I went to pick up the rental car from the overnight garage, which cost me about €50 if I…
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The Labyrinth of King Minos (Part 5)
8 September 2022. The Palace of Knossos. We stopped back at the Airbnb before heading down to the old Venetian Port to catch a cab back to Nikos Kazantzakis International Airport. There, we picked up the Enterprise rental car that I had reserved for the remainder of our Cretan adventure. It was a BMW SUV…
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The Labyrinth of King Minos (Part 4)
9 September 2022. Iraklio, Crete In my last post we had just finished up our sprint through the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion. We then dashed across the old town center of Iraklio to a lunch date with Paul and Michael P.’s friends, Ivars and Lisa, at Peskesi. Lisa’s niece, who worked at the restaurant, arranged…
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The Labyrinth of King Minos (Part 3)
9 September 2022. Iraklio, Crete. This is the third and final tranche of photos from the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion. Up to this point, I’ve focused on the Minoan & Mycenaean civilizations. I certainly have a few more photos on that topic that I’ll be sharing herein, but I’m going to finish up in the…
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The Labyrinth of King Minos (Part 2)
9 September 2022. Iraklio, Crete. This blog post covers the second tranche of photos taken at the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion. The object shown above is the so-called Chieftain Cup found at the Minoan palace of Agia Triada. Archaeologist Robert Koehl has argued that this chalice represents a homoerotic same-sex rite of passage, perhaps associated…
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The Labyrinth of King Minos (Part 1)
9 September 2022. Iraklio, Crete It was quite late when we finally got to bed last night at our Airbnb in Iraklio. Therefore, we felt justified to sleep in today. Even Paul, who is not known for letting the moss grow when sightseeing is afoot, slept in a bit. Our digs for this stage of…
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Mother’s Day, Sans Mom
7 May 2024 A belated Happy Mother’s Day to all. This was a very sad one for me, as it is the first one spent without my own mother. Normally, I would call her in the morning and wish her a good day, and then we would gossip a bit. Nothing major. Work. Family. Gardening.…
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Magic in the United States Interview
7 May 2024 Twelve years ago, I published Bull of Heaven, the biography of Eddie Buczynski, a gay man from New York City who was influential in the early days of contemporary Paganism in the U.S. Bull of Heaven wasn’t just Eddie’s biography, but also the biography of the New York occult community up to…
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Happy Beltane
1 May 2024 “Oh, don’t tell that foolish priest our deed, Who’s burned our books and kin; “But – we’ve fucked in field and wood and weed, A-conjurin’ Summer in.” – Yours truly, with apologies to Rudyard Kipling Contemporary Pagans celebrate the cross-quarter festival of Beltane on or about May 1st (the evening…
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Welcome Spring
Anthesteria 2024 Today, February 4th, is the cross-quarter day between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox. This annual festival is known by some spiritual paths as Candlemass or Imbolc, Oimelc or Brigid’s Day. In my practice, this is the Anthesteria, or Festival of Flowers, and it is linked to the awakening of Dionysos and…
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Art, for Gods’ Sake
Ιο Διονύσου! I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the Pagan-inspired creations of talented artists from around the world. Life in these trying times would be so much less beautiful without their contributions. Three artists who I have chosen to highlight in this post have provided very different interpretations of Dionysos that have touched…
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The Thessalian Witches (Part 3)
8 September 2022. Aigai/Vergina and the Macedonian Royal Tombs From the Archaeological Park of Dion, we headed south on Epar. Odos. Katerinis – Limena Litochoriou back to the E75 highway. From there, we headed north on the E75, sweeping up the west coast of the Themaic Gulf. The largest city that we passed was Katerini,…
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Happy New Year
1 January 2024 Sorry that this post is a bit late. I wanted to put out the Dion post first because it’s been so long since I produced a write-up of the September 2022 trip to Greece. I have to admit that I am more than happy to see the backside of 2023. As I…
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The Thessalian Witches (Part 2)
8 September 2023. Olympos and the Archaeological Park of Dion We returned to the Airbnb after our trip to Cheiron’s Cave and loaded the rental car. Turning the car around, we waved goodbye to our hostess, and drove to a nearby mini market for road supplies. On our walk to the market, I pointed out…
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Βίος Θάνατος Βίος
29 October 2023. Life Death Life. Sorry for the long periods between posts. This has been a very trying year. My mother had been battling esophageal and stomach cancer since just before my trip to Greece last year. This past July, five years and two weeks after she lost her husband of sixty-two years, she…
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Pray for Greece/Protect our Climate
POLITICO illustration / Getty Images / iStock This has been a very trying 2 months for Greece. First, the people had to deal with record temperatures. Then parts of the country were hit with record wildfires, many of which may have been caused by arsonists. Finally, large areas – particularly Thessaly – have been hit…
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The Thessalian Witches (Part 1)
8 September 2023. Kheiron’s Cave We all had a decent night’s sleep after a really long, full day. We packed up everything early in order to be ready to head out on the road. Another full day on the agenda, go figure. Our first task was to figure out where Chiron’s Cave (Σπήλαιο του Χείρωνα)…
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A Word About the Passing of Pat Robertson
Or “How to Piss Off a Priest of Dionysos” Normally, I don’t spend a lot of time pissing on people’s graves (or in them, if they haven’t yet been covered up). When someone nasty has passed on, it’s usually enough to breathe a sigh of relief, or maybe allow oneself a small dollop of satisfaction.…
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Piling Pelion on Ossa (Part 2)
7 September 2022. Journeying to Thermopylae and Milina, Thessaly. Upon leaving the Korykian Cave, we headed north again, this time on Eparchiaki odos Gravias-Fthiotidas until we reached the village of Gravias. From there we got on the E65 and headed northeast through the mountainous region east of the Asopos River gorge until it intersected with the…
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Piling Pelion on Ossa (Part 1)
7 September 2022. The Korykian Cave. We headed east from Delphi and the Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia on Route 48 (EO Livadias Amfissas) back towards the upscale skiing village of Arachova. As I mentioned in a previous post, Arachova is a lovely community. It has a beautiful view of the Pleistos River valley, with well-kept,…
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Delphi (Part 4)
7 September 2022. The Delphic Sanctuary (Part 2) In my last post, we had made it as far as the Sacred Way just below the Temple of Apollo. The bus crowds were hot on our heels, having made their obligatory run through the archaeological museum before heading to the sanctuary itself. Fortunately, we were still…
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Delphi (Part 3)
7 September 2022. The Delphic Sanctuary (Part 1) After our tour of the Archaeological Museum of Delphi, we made a quick pit stop and loaded up on water. While we focused on relics and sites, Michael P. had decided to concentrate on the Cats of Greece. He found a very pretty white one right outside…
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The Acropolis of Athens
Here’s a bonus blog post on the acropolis of Athens. I thought that I’d share some of the absolutely wonderful videos that have been produced on Greek history. The ones I’ve chosen touch on three temples which stand on the Athenian acropolis – the Temple of Athena Parthenos, the Erectheion, and the Temple of Nike…
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Delphi (Part 2)
7 September 2022. The Delphi Archaeological Museum (Part 2). Continuing on through the museum from where we left off on the last post, we entered Room 4, where the gold and silver artifacts found during the sanctuary excavations are displayed. Frankly, I’m surprised that anything survived at all, given how often the sanctuary was looted,…
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Delphi (Part 1)
7 September 2022. The Delphi Archaeological Museum (Part 1). Last night’s sleep at our Airbnb, Delphic Horizons, was completely restful. I can’t recommend this provider enough for their accommodations and hospitality. A couple of us had a light breakfast from the well-stocked larder. I would like to have tried the olives from our host’s father’s…
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On the Road to Delphi (Part 4)
6 September 2022. Chaeronrea to Delphi. From Thebes we headed west on Route 3. The magnificent massif of Mount Parnassos loomed on the distant horizon as we drove towards the village of Chaeronea (photo above). As I noted in my previous post, Chaeronea was the site of a significant battle between the forces of the…
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On the Road to Delphi (Part 3)
6 September 2022. Ancient Thebes of the Seven Gates. On leaving sacred Eleusis, we drove out of Elefsina on the E962 heading north. Well, north-ish, because once we left the coast of the Saronic Gulf the land became hilly as the road began to wind its way up through the eastern edges of the Kithairon…
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On the Road to Delphi (Part 2)
6 September 2022. The Sanctuary of Eleusis, Elefsina, Attica. “To Meter Antaia [Demeter]. Basileia Antaia [Demeter], of celebrated name, from whom both men and Gods immortal came; who widely wandering once, oppressed with grief, in Eleusis’ valleys foundest relief, discovering Persephone thy daughter pure in dread Aides, dismal and obscure. A sacred youth while through…
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On the Road to Delphi (Part 1)
6 September 2022. Kerameikos. Last night when we returned to the Airbnb from dinner, we busied ourselves packing as much stuff as we could in preparation for our car trip to Delphi today. Upon awakening, we packed the remainder of our gear so that we would be ready to depart immediately for the airport upon…
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Medea & Other Friends I Made in Athens (Part 6)
5 September 2022. Part 4: The Greek Agora. Exiting the grounds of the new Acropolis Museum, we headed west on Dionysiou Areopagitou Street, and then northwest on Apostolou Pavlou. Our goal was the Athenian Agora, located northwest of the Acropolis. Along the way, we saw several excavated homes from the Roman era on both sides…
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Medea & Other Friends I Made in Athens (Part 5)
5 September 2022. Part 3: The New Acropolis Museum. It was a short walk from the exit of the South Slope of the Acropolis to the new Acropolis Museum. One of the neat things about this museum is the exposed archaeological excavation that is located beneath the site and displayed so gracefully with a combination…
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Medea & Other Friends I Made in Athens (Part 4)
5 September 2022. Part 2: South Slope of the Acropolis. In my previous post, we had just finished a tour of the Acropolis and were getting ready to head down to the South Slope. I should pause here to discuss the state of the walking surfaces on the top of the Rock. As shown in…
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Medea & Other Friends I Made in Athens (Part 3)
5 September 2022. Part 1: The Acropolis. What a difference a decent night’s sleep makes! Today’s journey is to the Acropolis, the new Acropolis Museum, and the Greek Agora. I woke up after Paul came back from an early morning jaunt to the Acropolis. He was the first tourist there this morning when it opened.…
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Medea & Other Friends I Made in Athens (Part 2)
4 September 2022 (Continued). When last I wrote, we had just walked around the perimeter of the Roman Forum. At this point, hunger and thirst were battling with exhaustion. I had brought a liter of water with me but had drained it fairly quickly in the heat. We ended up at the intersection of two…
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Medea & Other Friends I Made in Athens (Part 1)
3-4 September 2022. To Athens with Love. Impending big events are often not conducive to getting a good sleep on the previous night. This trip was certainly no exception. Despite my efforts, it was a rocky night. I may have gotten 4 good hours in. At best. It was akin to a kid trying to…
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Making a List…
2 September 2022. Finalizing the packing. I’ve been traveling for business for the better part of four decades, so to say that I’m an old hand at it is somewhat of an understatement. Airline travel in particular I have long considered to be a royal pain in the dupa, and that was before 9/11. My…
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It’s All Greek
Four weeks ago today, I and three traveling companions (Paul, Michael P., and Aaron) were flying back from a ten-day trip to Crete and mainland Greece. For those of you who know me, you understand what a big deal this was. I hadn’t been on an actual, non-working vacation since 1999. And other than a…
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Coming Out Day 2022 – Hello
Today is National Coming Out Day (NCOD), a day that has been set aside annually in October to increase the visibility of members of the LGBT community in order to combat stereotypes, encourage openness and discussion of issues relevant to sexual minorities, and to normalize the place of LGBT individuals in society. NCOD started in…