Last night I finally unpacked my second Dionysus statue–the one that went with me to Indiana and back–and dedicated the altar he now shares with Eros and Aphrodite. This is not their final home, but the vanity I wish to appropriate for this purpose is still full of heirlooms.
No, your eyes do not deceive you: that is a penis-shaped bottle opener front and center. I got it in Athens.
I like to be touched
For no reason,
Before we take off our clothes;
Before we are even alone.
A hand on my shoulder or arm,
A brush of your fingers against mine,
Reminds me that, first, we are friends.
I like to be kissed
Tenderly, then passionately.
Slowly by turns, and then hard.
My mouth, my cheeks, my eyes and ears.
I want your hands
On me:
Everywhere:
My face, and my arms,
Your fingers in my hair.
Play with my nipples,
My back, and my thighs.
Let your hair cascade
past your shoulders, falling
over me: silken caresses,
the smell of human and shampoo.
Kiss my wrists, my ribs,
My ears, my neck,
My fingers, and behind my knees.
Linger
on your favorite parts.
There is no part of my body
I do not want in your mouth.
I like to look at you
Beneath me, smiling;
To see you atop me
Taking your pleasure.
I like to be fingered
And fucked in the ass.
Penetrate me.
Claim me.
Leave your mark
for the world to see
or not.
I like to take turns,
On top and on bottom:
teasing and talking.
fucking and laughing.
I want you to tell me
what you need,
What feels good.
Teach me where
To touch you and how,
What not to do.
How many times can you cum?
There should be laughter
And love, whatever the flavor.
Pillow talk about verbs,
And the friends we both lust after.
And even if you can’t stay
until morning,
stay for a while, in the quiet,
so my oft-broken heart can believe,
though you’ve given no cause for doubt,
that you will still respect me
when you’ve gone.
A while ago, I split my giant altar up into a devotional space and a planetary working space. It was good for the planetary magic, but it actually made devotional work really difficult, as it greatly reduced my space. Offerings were spilled, gods were cramped, and it was pretty much less than ideal. So, shortly after coming back at the beginning of the semester, I started rebuilding again.
The fact is that planetary work is no longer a large enough portion of my practice to justify each planet getting its own mini-altar. So I’ve replaced that structure with a set of planetary boxes, inspired by Jason Miller’s Jupiterian cash-box, and reincorporated the shelves back into my primary altar, leaving only the end-table as a workbench which I can lift out of its corner and back in as needed.
As a part of that reconstruction, I finally—as I had been considering doing for some time—added Eros/Phanes and Aphrodite to the altar. You can see them in the box immediately below Dionysus at the apex.
It’s somewhat amusing, but it actually didn’t occur to me until more than then days later that I had framed the two as a divine pair: like the Witchmother and Kouros at the heart of the altar, like my natal genius and daemon, even like my familiar Tsu and the Cave Canem construct. Like I have considered pairing Hephaestus and Athena as gods ruling craft—or, alternatively, Athena and Hermes as gods of the mind.
It’s interesting how ideas linger. I have never identified as a Wiccan, never really believed in the duotheistic worldview. But all of my formative literature came from that perspective, and the asymmetrical balance of Wiccan altar construction has always appealed to me. I have consciously employed that aesthetic to various degrees at various times, but this is the first time I can recall having done so unawares. Unlike the Witchmother and Kouros, a fairly traditional set of complementary opposites—specifically set up, in fact, so that I might explore my relationship with those archetypes—they form a unified pair: dual expressions of the primal need that moves the world.
When I pour out my libations, I address them as “Eros/Phanes, Aphrotide: source and expression of desire.” So far they have been good to me.
