Pagan Deities and Occult Themes
Jupiter Dolichenus is one of the many new gods created when the Romans syncretized their deities with local deities they encountered as they expanded their empire. Unlike similar counterparts, this god became extremely popular beyond its region of origin, and his mystery cult was practiced, mostly by soldiers, across the empire. Mystery cults were very... Continue Reading →
When most people think about Medusa, they think about the story told by the Roman author Ovid in his Metamorphoses. He casts her as a priestess of Athena who was ravaged by Poseidon in Athena’s temple. As punishment for this sacrilege, Athena transformed Medusa into a hideous monster with snakes for hair and a gaze... Continue Reading →
Ouranos, better known as the Latinized version Uranus, was one of the very first gods to emerge from Chaos and forms part of the primordial group of gods alongside Gaia and Tartarus. He cruelly hid his children, leading one of his sons, Cronus, to castrate his father and usurp his role as ruler of the... Continue Reading →
Greek and Roman religion is often conflated as “classical religion” because of the similarities between the Greek and Roman gods. Many people describe them as the same god, with a Greek and a Latin name. But this is an oversimplification. The Greeks and Romans had a shared cultural heritage as Indo-European speakers, but the Greek... Continue Reading →
Janus stands out among the Roman gods as one of the few who do not appear to have Greek roots or an equivalent in the Greek pantheon. Janus is a complex god associated with beginnings, endings, and transformations, and as an extension of that, physical gateways. The ancient Romans believed that he controlled the gateway... Continue Reading →
In Greek mythology, the Telchines were the offspring of the primordial beings, probably born on the island of Rhodes, and in control of powerful magic. They initially used their magic to help the gods, creating magical weapons such as the scythe of Cronus and the trident of Poseidon. As their knowledge grew, they sought to... Continue Reading →
Aradia is a powerful goddess sent to earth to teach witchcraft in Charles Godfrey Leland’s 1899 book, “Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches.” Leland claimed that this was a genuine religious text used by pagan witches in Tuscany, which he later edited and published. Others support his claim, suggesting that she can be identified... Continue Reading →
When Julius Caesar rose to a position of such power in the Roman Republic that he could be declared dictator perpetuo (dictator for life), he was the king in Rome in all but name. But when people suggested he become rex, this resulted in backlash, as the Romans had hated kings since they expelled them... Continue Reading →
The Arval Brothers were a Roman state college of 12 priests traditionally responsible for the cult of Dea Dia, a goddess of fertility and growth sometimes identified with Ceres, at her sacred grove on the Via Campania. By the late republic, the priesthood had dwindled in importance, but was rejuvenated by Augustus (27 BCE-14 CE),... Continue Reading →
The Greek Magical Papyri are a body of papyri from Greco-Roman Egypt - mostly written in Greek but also Old Coptic and Demotic – that record magical spells from the era, dating from the 100s BCE to the 400s CE. They were not brought together as a collection of works in ancient times, but rather... Continue Reading →