I think I've been visited...

[Ariste]

So maybe this sounds completely crazy....I'm not even sure if this thread belongs here, or new pagans, or dreams.

I was in the tub last night, reading something unrelated. I think i was kinda scanning through the rituals section in Green Witchcraft actually. I don't read rituals and spells real closely yet. Anyways i put my head back and closed my eyes for a second. When I did I was standing/floating in darkness. Artemis and Apollo were in front of me. They smiled, Apollo reached out and touched my stomach. Then I opened my eyes and they were gone. Then I cried for like 20 min for no reason. (other than possible the pregnancy hormones) It was sorta just a flash and they never spoke.

I don't know if I drifted off for those couple seconds or what it means if anything. I did realize that I've rather subconsiously named both my children sorta in honor of Artemis and Apollo. Well Tana's middle name is an epithet for Artemis...and that was rather less subconcious. I have always felt a draw towards Artemis since I was a small girl. Not sure why. I picked Delphine as a middle name for the daughter I carry now because I thought it sounded pretty with Kitiara, and it gave her the initials KDM (my initials before I married were KMD) But I suppose since it means "from Delphi" it is sorta a tribute to Apollo.

So anyways, do you think it means anything? or did I just drift off or do I have an overactive imagination all the sudden? Has anyone else had an experience like this? I'm so confused...I don't now if I'm supposed to do something or what.

[RainInanna]

Have you tried meditating and asking them?

Or doing research on them and ritually letting them know you would welcome a relationship with them?

[Ariste]

No, I'm still so much in the learning process...Mostly what I've been doing lately is reading everything I can get my hands on. I've never really meditated...it's pretty hard for me to get through just totally relaxing/grounding. I have a really short attention span. (ADHD) I definitely haven't done any rituals yet. I'm actually still really confused about the gods/goddesses being different entities or different aspects of one entity. And if you're supposed to use/worship/whatever all the pantheons or just one or what. I mean it would make sense for gods from the greek pantheon to visit because that's the only one I know well. When I was about 8 years old I got my hands on a copy of the Odyssey. I've been addicted to Greek/Roman Mythology ever since. When I pulled myself together and got out of the tub I did quick grab my mythology book and quick read up on Apollo a little. Like I said Artemis has long been a favorite of mine so I know her pretty well.

Honestly though...2 Greek Gods was the LAST thing I would have expected to see when I closed my eyes. It just caught me completely by surprise.

[RainInanna]

Then I think you're doing things exactly the way you should. You may be interested to learn more about Hellenism and consider doing rituals, giving offerings to them, or learning what other people do to work with them and try it too. The worst that can happen is that you learn something and get some spiritual experience, the best that could happen is that they do want to build a relationship with you. Either way I think it would be meaningful and worthwhile for you.

Sounds pretty exciting to me!

[Fiamma]

I wouldn't rule out the possibility that they've showed up. Though I find it quite curious that Apollo would be the one to touch your stomach...I'm sure you know that Artemis is associated with childbirth. The names may be their direct influence, or may be a result of your longstanding love of the mythology....and that may very well be a result of their influence. Either way, it seems they've at least given you some inspiration there. My own experiences with Artemis ended several years ago, but Apollo is an absolute constant. It's a fairly common thing for people to worship them simultaneously, though I've not heard too many stories of them putting in joint appearances.

How this all sounds to me is like it means something to you but you're not really sure what at this point. The most important part, I think, is that it means something to you.

I know that meditation is difficult for you, but you might want to give it a shot, I know that it can be difficult for me though, in the last few years I've gotten a lot better at it with constant practice...I've found though, if any of the gods want your attention, and you make some effort, they often will find a way to make it go more smoothly than it otherwise would. I was first able to meditate successfully when I tried it with music. I found an instrumental piece that has a very simple repetitive melody, put it on some headphones with the volume just loud enough that I couldn't hear outside sounds, and set it to repeat the same track over and over again and what I did was sort of "attach" my thought to the music, and concentrate on that so that I wasn't trying to just clear my mind and then get distracted by stray thoughts. Within a few repetitions of the piece, I found myself in a fairly deep meditative state, with relatively little effort. so somethign like that might help (The music I used by the way was Vangelis's Hymn.)

Another suggestion is to get in there, get your hands dirty with some actual worship activity. Try making some offerings. Water, wine, honey, barley, olive oil and incense are all very traditional and common offerings for Greek deities. Give them some time and see if anything comes up.

Another possibility from all this may be not that they've shown up directly because of you...but because of your children. It was Apollo who touched your stomach, carrying the baby bearing a name that references him. And your other daughter has the name referencing Artemis.

You may try asking them, do they want you to be doing anything in particular. It never hurts to ask them to give you some indication.

By the way, I think this thread is just fine here. I see no reason to move it. It's a post in reference to deities, so you picked a good spot :-)


So maybe this sounds completely crazy....I'm not even sure if this thread belongs here, or new pagans, or dreams.

I was in the tub last night, reading something unrelated. I think i was kinda scanning through the rituals section in Green Witchcraft actually. I don't read rituals and spells real closely yet. Anyways i put my head back and closed my eyes for a second. When I did I was standing/floating in darkness. Artemis and Apollo were in front of me. They smiled, Apollo reached out and touched my stomach. Then I opened my eyes and they were gone. Then I cried for like 20 min for no reason. (other than possible the pregnancy hormones) It was sorta just a flash and they never spoke.

I don't know if I drifted off for those couple seconds or what it means if anything. I did realize that I've rather subconsiously named both my children sorta in honor of Artemis and Apollo. Well Tana's middle name is an epithet for Artemis...and that was rather less subconcious. I have always felt a draw towards Artemis since I was a small girl. Not sure why. I picked Delphine as a middle name for the daughter I carry now because I thought it sounded pretty with Kitiara, and it gave her the initials KDM (my initials before I married were KMD) But I suppose since it means "from Delphi" it is sorta a tribute to Apollo.

So anyways, do you think it means anything? or did I just drift off or do I have an overactive imagination all the sudden? Has anyone else had an experience like this? I'm so confused...I don't now if I'm supposed to do something or what.

[Fiamma]

I'm actually still really confused about the gods/goddesses being different entities or different aspects of one entity.

I wouldn't be too concerned about this at this point. A lot of people aren't really sure, and there are a number of intermediate points between absolute hard polytheism and absolute monism. While I don't personally agree with anything besides hard polytheism, I do believe that in time, the gods show you how they want you to see them, individually and as a whole.


And if you're supposed to use/worship/whatever all the pantheons or just one or what.

Well, there are a LOT of pantheons. I think that it would be unreasonable to even try to worship every one of them. Heck...trying to worship every deity in a single pantheon is a rather ambitious project, when you consider how many pantheons have hundreds or thousands of deities. Unless you're constantly just offering general worship to "The gods of (insert culture here)"...and then, that doesn't really afford much opportunity to develop personal relationships with any deity, though some people actually do that. There is for example, the Hellenic group Elaion who bascially believe that it's improper to favor one or a few deities in the pantheon over the others. (It stands to be be noted though that they seem to focus mostly on the "big twelve" and are something of a minority niche amongst Hellenics. )

I mean it would make sense for gods from the greek pantheon to visit because that's the only one I know well. When I was about 8 years old I got my hands on a copy of the Odyssey. I've been addicted to Greek/Roman Mythology ever since. When I pulled myself together and got out of the tub I did quick grab my mythology book and quick read up on Apollo a little. Like I said Artemis has long been a favorite of mine so I know her pretty well.

Honestly though...2 Greek Gods was the LAST thing I would have expected to see when I closed my eyes. It just caught me completely by surprise.

They often do take people by surprise. I know how that goes...I was taken completely by shock a few weeks ago when Dionysus showed up in rather...dramatic fashion. Despite the fact that it generally makes a lot of sense for a follower of Apollo to encounter Dionysus as well, I had no real reason to think that such a thing would be happening. And then one night "Hi! Guess who!"Yeah, they seem to have great fun doing things like that.

So if you haven't seen these already, here are some REALLY good pages on Artemis and Apollo (I love the image of Artemis with the swan on this page)

http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Apollon.html
http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Artemis.html

[Fiamma]

Then I think you're doing things exactly the way you should. You may be interested to learn more about Hellenism and consider doing rituals, giving offerings to them, or learning what other people do to work with them and try it too. The worst that can happen is that you learn something and get some spiritual experience, the best that could happen is that they do want to build a relationship with you. Either way I think it would be meaningful and worthwhile for you.

Sounds pretty exciting to me!

Yup, good idea. Here are some links for some further info. And of course, there's always here. :-)

http;//www.theoi.com
http://sponde.com
http://www.winterscapes.com/sannion/
http://www.winterscapes.com/
http://www.tahiera.org

[Ariste]

I dunno. I would say Apollo was more in the forefront, It seemed more like Artemis was just there...watching. It kinda felt like an introduction..though whether to me or Kit, I'm not really certain. Maybe Artemis came along for the ride, or since I'm more comfortable with her? I've never seen her like that before, but as a girl I used to dream of her often, though I always dismissed them as just dreams. Or maybe I've just finally gone completely off my rocker? I'm still not sure. Thank you for all the links. It will take me some time to get through them. Whatever it was I'm a decidedly unsettled now lol.

[aluokaloo]

what a beautiful experience ariste. well alot of people can't resist touching or rubbing a pregnant's woman's belly, so maybe the gods couldn't resist either. :lol: on a serious note, perhaps Apollo was showing how pleased he was that you had given a name in direct connection to him, the best way i say to find out what deities want is to ask them yourself. hmm what deities want? sounds like a great name for reality tv. :D

[Nitefalle]

I agree with Fiamma that They may be there for the purpose of your child, especially as Apollo touched your stomach but didn't say anything else. Perhaps He is claiming her? Or letting you know that that's the direction she'll start with? As everyone else suggested, I would just try and meditate with both of them and ask what that meant, or for further clues (sometimes the gods want us to do the leg work).