{"id":8611,"date":"2017-05-31T10:54:54","date_gmt":"2017-05-31T16:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8611"},"modified":"2017-05-31T10:54:54","modified_gmt":"2017-05-31T16:54:54","slug":"something-so-ordinary-that-it-was-lost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8611","title":{"rendered":"Something So Ordinary That It Was Lost"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

From the Moongiant calendar<\/p><\/div>\n

I left for the Heartland Pagan Festival<\/a> at the new Moon, and the first time that I noted the crescent was Saturday night, as the Moon rose over the Pavilion where Tuatha Dea <\/a>was playing.<\/p>\n

So I made my usual gesture, which is just blowing a kiss to Her.<\/p>\n

But there used to be a different gesture that people used in Greece and elsewhere. I have asked several Classicists, but no one has yet told me what it was.<\/p>\n

From an old book on Neoplatonism comes this story of the philosopher Proclus<\/a> when he was a young man studying in Athens, which in the early 5th century was still a polytheistic enclave in the increasingly Christianized Roman empire:((C. Bigg, Neoplatonism<\/em>. Chief Ancient Philosophies (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1895), 319\u201320.))<\/p>\n

For life at that time no small courage was wanted. But Proclus did not lack resolution. When he paid his freshman’s call upon Syrianus [head of the Platonic Academy<\/a>], it was the evening of the new moon, and the old professor dismissed him rather curtly, being anxious to get to his devotions as soon as possible, and not knowing what manner of man he had to deal with. But happening to catch a glimpse through the window, he saw Proclus take off his shoes, and do obeisance to the crescent moon in the open street.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, Proclus made it clear that he, like Syrianus, was a devout Hellenic Pagan at a time when that was becoming riskier and riskier.<\/p>\n

One friend thought that the obeisance might be a raising of the arms, but what about the taking off of the shoes?<\/p>\n

Obviously this was once a commonplace gesture, like (in the USA) placing your hand on your heart when the national flag goes by at the beginning of a July 4th parade.<\/p>\n

Now no one seems to know how it was done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I left for the Heartland Pagan Festival at the new Moon, and the first time that I noted the crescent was Saturday night, as the Moon rose over the Pavilion where Tuatha Dea was playing. So I made my usual gesture, which is just blowing a kiss to Her. But there used to be a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[33,166,5,90],"class_list":["post-8611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-greece","tag-moon","tag-paganism","tag-philosophy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-2eT","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1152,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1152","url_meta":{"origin":8611,"position":0},"title":"Gallimaufry with Confusion","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 The latest weird search query to bring a visitor to this blog: \"Is New Mexico a polytheistic, monotheistic, or animistic religion?\" Hello? New Mexico is a state. No wonder that for years New Mexico Magazine has had a standing column on geographical confusion called \"One of Our 50 is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Gnosticism\"","block_context":{"text":"Gnosticism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=gnosticism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chascli-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0934223955","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":102,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=102","url_meta":{"origin":8611,"position":1},"title":"Some Updates","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 26, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"While I wait for some uploading issues to be sorted out, here are follow-ups to two recent posts. First, I mentioned on January 1 the book Nightmare Alley as possibly inspiring or prefiguring Anton LaVey's Church of Satan in the 1960s. I have now read Nightmare Alley, and the short\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":282,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=282","url_meta":{"origin":8611,"position":2},"title":"The Goddess is Back, and\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 9, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"The Goddess is Back, and She's Horny Waking the Moon, another unintentional Pagan classic, covers some of the same ground as Tartt's The Secret History. There is the university setting, the eccentric professor, the elite group of students, but then things take a different turn, down the road of conspiracy\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6327,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6327","url_meta":{"origin":8611,"position":3},"title":"New Moon, Pine Tree","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Some months I am so relieved to see the New Moon, and this is one of them.","rel":"","context":"In \"Moon\"","block_context":{"text":"Moon","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=moon"},"img":{"alt_text":"moonthrupine","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/moonthrupine.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7896,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7896","url_meta":{"origin":8611,"position":4},"title":"Magic in Philadelphia, Worshiping Game Characters, and a Holy Mountain in Scotland","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 If you live in or near Philadelphia, visit the U. of Pennsylvania museum for \"Magic in the Anciet World,\" an exhibit that \"explores some of the magical objects, words, and rituals used in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome.\" \u2022 When a Chinese grandmother left an offering at a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Celts\"","block_context":{"text":"Celts","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=celts"},"img":{"alt_text":"exhibitions_magic1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/exhibitions_magic1-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10422,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10422","url_meta":{"origin":8611,"position":5},"title":"A Festschrift for Ronald Hutton","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 28, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Magic and Witchery: Celebrating the Twentieth Anniversary of 'The Triumph of the Moon' will be published in September by Palgrave Macmillan. I love rolling the word Festschrift around, and if you are not used to it, this is what it means: \"In academia, a Festschrift\u00a0 (plural Festschriften) is a book\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/magic-and-witchery-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8611"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8615,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8611\/revisions\/8615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}