[Editor’s Note: Chat got off to a late start because I was having tech issues. There may or may not have
been a panicked phone call made to Erin F in the process.]
[12/18/2014 10:07:46 PM] eupheme-butterfly: SO. Brave compatriots, we huddle around the oil-drum
fire of our internet connections tonight to discuss our next big Starry Bull ritual!
[12/18/2014 10:07:46 PM] eupheme-butterfly: The Kalends, occuring two weeks from today!
[12/18/2014 10:07:56 PM] Marybeth Boop: Hooray!
[12/18/2014 10:08:42 PM] Marybeth Boop: What are some good reading sources for those of us(me)
who have never celebrated (or heard of) the Kalends before?
[12/18/2014 10:09:21 PM] eupheme-butterfly: I'm trying to find some sources right now on how the
Romans celebrated the holiday. unum momentum~
[12/18/2014 10:10:03 PM] Marybeth Boop: So it's a Roman holiday? So this is one from the Italian side
of things?
[12/18/2014 10:10:11 PM] Marybeth Boop: (Take yer time!)
[12/18/2014 10:13:04 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Yeah. The Romans followed (eventually, at least)
followed a solar calendar with the same months we use--Ianuarius, Februarius, Martius, Aprilis, etc.--but
kept old holdovers of the lunar months.
[12/18/2014 10:13:27 PM] eupheme-butterfly: When the Roman calendar was still lunar, the first night
the crescent moon was visible in the sky was called the Kalends.
[12/18/2014 10:15:15 PM] eupheme-butterfly: And it marked the beginning of the lunar month. So,
when the Roman calendar went solar, it was just the -first day- of the new month.
[12/18/2014 10:16:33 PM] eupheme-butterfly: A-ha! Found a quote Sannion shared about it.
[12/18/2014 10:16:35 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Kalends (January 1)
What wickedness takes place during this feast; fortune-tellings, divinations, deceptions and feigned
madnesses. On this day, having been seized up by the furies of their bacchant-like ravings and having
been inflamed by the fires of diabolical instigation, they flock together to the church and profane the
house of god with vain and foolish rhythmic poetry in which sin is not wanting but by all means present,
and with evil sayings, laughing and cacophony they disrupt the priest and the whole congregation
applauds for the people love these things. (Richard of St.-Victor, Sermones centum 177.1036)
[12/18/2014 10:17:20 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Looks like it held a pretty strong grip on the population
of southern Italy even after Christianity became the official religion.
[12/18/2014 10:17:30 PM] Marybeth Boop: Silly priests.
[12/18/2014 10:18:05 PM] eupheme-butterfly: It also looks like it's centered on two things: 1) Divination
to see what the coming year would hold, and 2) Jokes, obscenity, and cacophony to drive evil spirits
away from the new year.
[12/18/2014 10:19:02 PM] Amanda Morris: okay. now I am here.
[12/18/2014 10:19:08 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Yay!
[12/18/2014 10:19:15 PM] Marybeth Boop: Hooray!
[12/18/2014 10:20:02 PM] eupheme-butterfly: I'll admit, this--albeit brief--description is better than
what I'd foreseen! I'd started getting a mental image of dour processional rites in which everything had
to be cleansed in order for the New Year to be vaguely okay.
[12/18/2014 10:20:40 PM] eupheme-butterfly: I'm also going to go take a look at the Hymnal to see if
Sannion included a blurb about the Kalends in there.
[12/18/2014 10:20:42 PM] eupheme-butterfly: BRB~
[12/18/2014 10:21:43 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Found it! "Ringing in the New Year with masks,
drunkenness, divination and obscene songs and dances."
[12/18/2014 10:22:25 PM] Amanda Morris: is this from Thunderstruck?
[12/18/2014 10:22:46 PM] eupheme-butterfly: This is from the Thiasos of the Starry Bull Hymn Book
that came out a whiiiiile ago.
[12/18/2014 10:23:05 PM] Amanda Morris: okay, I know what you're talking about now =)
[12/18/2014 10:23:06 PM] Marybeth Boop: Letting it loose can be veeeeeery cleansing.
[12/18/2014 10:23:31 PM] Marybeth Boop: (I guess sometimes literally too, if one overdoes it, but I was
thinking in terms of getting the gross emotional stuff out...)
[12/18/2014 10:23:35 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Yeah, agreed! Purge the crap of the old year to get a
fresh start with the new year.
[12/18/2014 10:25:36 PM] Marybeth Boop: I have to wonder if maybe the best way to do something like
this would be to go to something that is already happening for New Years and co-opt it with a mask and
some weirdness rather than try to do it at home alone...
[12/18/2014 10:25:47 PM] eupheme-butterfly: That's definitely an option, I think!
[12/18/2014 10:26:28 PM] eupheme-butterfly: (If we had Thiastai in NYC, I'd say go in Dionysian regalia,
carrying posters with labyrinths on them, and try to get on as many TV channels as possible.)
[12/18/2014 10:27:16 PM] Amanda Morris: aren't maskerade parties a big NYE thing? Imagine how cool
a Dionysian-themed maskerade would be =)
[12/18/2014 10:27:27 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Yeah, that would be awesome.
[12/18/2014 10:27:31 PM] Marybeth Boop: That would be badass.
[12/18/2014 10:28:03 PM] eupheme-butterfly: I already have plans (yearly tradition) with my best
friend...but our traditions involve drinking and watching movies with themes of catharsis in them
anyway.
[12/18/2014 10:29:16 PM] eupheme-butterfly: The last big festival we planned as a group was the
Hekatesia, back late August/early September or thereabouts, and what we ended up doing during our
planning was coming up with a very general layout of ritual, to be completed in whatever manner is
possible for each member.
[12/18/2014 10:30:26 PM] eupheme-butterfly: So let's try that. We all do our own thing for New Year's
Eve, sure--going to parties, staying in, whatever. BUT, we all have to do one thing that cements our ties
to Dionysos the Starry Bull.
[12/18/2014 10:31:11 PM] eupheme-butterfly: As for what that one thing is--let's see if we can come up
with that.
[12/18/2014 10:33:45 PM] Marybeth Boop: I was thinking masks for a minute. . . but now I am thinking
about the divination part...
[12/18/2014 10:34:28 PM] Marybeth Boop: What's the form of divination where you go to the market
with your ears plugged, and then unplug them and the first thing you hear is supposed to be your
answer?
[12/18/2014 10:34:39 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Kledones. They're holy to Hermes.
[12/18/2014 10:34:56 PM] Marybeth Boop: We could set some sort of intention *like* that, although
maybe not arrive at the party that way, necessarily.
[12/18/2014 10:35:03 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Right.
[12/18/2014 10:35:22 PM] eupheme-butterfly: I get what you mean--do that at some point when in a
crowded place, if possible.
[12/18/2014 10:35:35 PM] Amanda Morris: how interesting!
[12/18/2014 10:35:38 PM] Marybeth Boop: Wear a mask or some sort of common symbol, set an
intention to look for important messages from Them, and then forget about it and get happy and enjoy
time with people you maybe don't know.
[12/18/2014 10:35:56 PM] Marybeth Boop: Just brainstorming, I don't know if that sounds good to you
guys.
[12/18/2014 10:36:10 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Then wait for the important message to blindside you.
[12/18/2014 10:36:22 PM] Marybeth Boop: Exactly.
[12/18/2014 10:36:59 PM] eupheme-butterfly: I like the general idea: before plans are in place, set an
intention to listen/look for divine messages. Have divination tools on you if possible.
[12/18/2014 10:37:00 PM] Marybeth Boop: THe drinking and party partly to keep you from looking for
it(helpful for control-freak me...)
[12/18/2014 10:37:09 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Oh, I hear you on that.
[12/18/2014 10:37:49 PM] eupheme-butterfly: And then, wait EITHER for the message itself, OR for a
sign that it's time to pull out the divination tools and have at it.
[12/18/2014 10:38:06 PM] Marybeth Boop: That's a good thought too.
[12/18/2014 10:38:11 PM] Amanda Morris: I like the idea of lookign for a sign to use your tools
[12/18/2014 10:38:33 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Dionysos is good at letting His followers know when it's a
good time to use their tools ;)
[12/18/2014 10:39:53 PM] Marybeth Boop: HAHA.
[12/18/2014 10:40:01 PM] Amanda Morris: tee he
[12/18/2014 10:40:12 PM] Marybeth Boop: There may be a limit to how far one should take that in
public
[12/18/2014 10:41:16 PM] eupheme-butterfly: This is also free-form enough that those of us who don't
have parties to go to can still do something similar. Go for a walk, go see who's letting loose on NYE,
and wait for signs. Staying in? Enjoy your chat, offer your friends (and family?) divination if it strikes
you as okay. Unexpectedly sick and needing to rest? Put on a trippy movie with Dionysian elements and
trance out.
[12/18/2014 10:41:48 PM] eupheme-butterfly: (Or, y'know, set an intention, go to sleep, see what
dreams you have.)
[12/18/2014 10:42:12 PM] Marybeth Boop: Definitely.
[12/18/2014 10:43:08 PM] eupheme-butterfly: So there's one recommendation that just about anyone
in the Thiasos could hold to, even if they don't have divination tools. What were you thinking about
masks earlier, though?
[12/18/2014 10:45:49 PM] Marybeth Boop: Mostly the idea of wearing something that gets you out of
your own head and identity in public, which sort of led me to the other thing. Would probably work
nicely with the other thing if one were to choose to do it.
[12/18/2014 10:46:25 PM] Marybeth Boop: I have to admit that it makes me uncomfortable to think
about actually doing it, though, but that's 'cause I'm a wimp and hate drawing attention to myself.
[12/18/2014 10:46:34 PM] Marybeth Boop: (in public, that is)
[12/18/2014 10:46:56 PM] Amanda Morris: I know what you mean. but that can be part of it, you know?
masks and weirdness
[12/18/2014 10:47:05 PM] Marybeth Boop: Yeah, exactly.
[12/18/2014 10:47:23 PM] Marybeth Boop: Also, being in one's comfort zone all the time isn't
necessarily that healthy.
[12/18/2014 10:47:33 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Honestly, going outside of your comfort zone--on your
own terms, of course--is sort of a big part of Dionysian anything.
[12/18/2014 10:48:25 PM] Marybeth Boop: Yep.
[12/18/2014 10:49:29 PM] eupheme-butterfly: I actually need to find a way to ramp things up on my
end. The people I spend NYE with--my best friend and my husband--all know full well what my beliefs
are, so the challenge is going to be to find a way to get into that channel of weirdness in the middle of
NYE traditions we've been doing for years.
[12/18/2014 10:50:21 PM] Marybeth Boop: If you have a group of friends who'd be willing to do it for
the sake of silliness, I would totally do that thing you were talking about. I was honestly starting to think
about who I could recruit to go to a few bars in masks on my end.
[12/18/2014 10:50:35 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Hah! I love it.
[12/18/2014 10:50:53 PM] eupheme-butterfly: OH.
[12/18/2014 10:51:06 PM] eupheme-butterfly: That brings me to the other thing that needs to happen!
Because it's not JUST divination.
[12/18/2014 10:51:13 PM] Marybeth Boop: Yes?
[12/18/2014 10:51:24 PM] eupheme-butterfly: It's also singing bawdy songs and telling obscene jokes
and stuff like that. OBSCENITY!
[12/18/2014 10:51:32 PM] Marybeth Boop: I KNEW IT WAS ABOUT SEX
[12/18/2014 10:51:40 PM] Amanda Morris: hahah
[12/18/2014 10:52:09 PM] eupheme-butterfly: It's apotropaic: obscenity drives evil away, either
because evil's like "ew dongs no" or because evil ends up going "ahahaha these guys are awesome i'm
gonna go bug someone else"
[12/18/2014 10:53:54 PM] eupheme-butterfly: So get into dirty joke contests with friends, or make up
really lewd song parodies, or watch one of those pornos that's so bad it's funny (or an intentionally
funny porno? Do those exist?).
[12/18/2014 10:54:35 PM] eupheme-butterfly: I'm pretty sure Cards Against Humanity totally counts.
[12/18/2014 10:54:38 PM] Amanda Morris: um. yes. funny pornos exist. I know this because of reasons.
[12/18/2014 10:54:44 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Awesome!
[12/18/2014 10:55:35 PM] Marybeth Boop: I saw a preview of a BDSM porno based on The Craft. I wish
I could remember the title.
[12/18/2014 10:55:43 PM] Amanda Morris: omg
[12/18/2014 10:56:26 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Wait wait
[12/18/2014 10:56:31 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Pornos have previews???
[12/18/2014 10:56:34 PM] Marybeth Boop: Slut Craft. Not even as creative as it could have been.
[12/18/2014 10:56:38 PM] Marybeth Boop: (On some websites)
[12/18/2014 10:56:45 PM] eupheme-butterfly: (I am actually very uninitiated in terms of stuff like this)
[12/18/2014 10:56:59 PM] Amanda Morris: lmao
[12/18/2014 10:57:11 PM] Amanda Morris: yeah, big name production companies do trailers just like
other movies
[12/18/2014 10:57:21 PM] Amanda Morris: they either go on youtube or like, press release sites
[12/18/2014 10:57:23 PM] Amanda Morris: or on other pornos
[12/18/2014 10:57:28 PM] Marybeth Boop: But they even did the part where Fairuza Balk changes her
appearance to get with the protagonist's dude
[12/18/2014 10:58:11 PM] Marybeth Boop: Anyway.
[12/18/2014 10:58:14 PM] Marybeth Boop: Porn later.
[12/18/2014 10:58:25 PM] eupheme-butterfly: LMAO. I'm so sorry.
[12/18/2014 10:58:37 PM] Marybeth Boop: Haha, I was the one who ran with it.
[12/18/2014 10:59:16 PM] eupheme-butterfly: I was thinking of something in terms of the obscenity
part, but I wanted to run it by you guys. I think lack of participation could be an issue with this idea.
[12/18/2014 11:00:07 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Have a contest, maybe, to see who in the Thiasos can
come up with the most hilariously obscene thing ever. A song parody, or a story, or a series of jokes, or
a piece of art.
[12/18/2014 11:00:40 PM] Amanda Morris: omg yes
[12/18/2014 11:00:41 PM] eupheme-butterfly: To be judged by other members of the Thiasos (drunk, if
able to drink) on New Year's Day.
[12/18/2014 11:00:42 PM] Amanda Morris: that would be incredible
[12/18/2014 11:00:51 PM] Marybeth Boop: That would be fabulous, but based on your Thiasos chat
track record already, I'm 99.999 percent sure you would win
[12/18/2014 11:00:58 PM] Amanda Morris: hahah
[12/18/2014 11:01:09 PM] eupheme-butterfly: I dunno, Erin's the one who started the "I Will Survive"
parody last chat
[12/18/2014 11:01:28 PM] eupheme-butterfly: (BTW, on that note, if we want to celebrate Thiasplosion
annually, it's October 20)
[12/18/2014 11:01:30 PM] eupheme-butterfly: (I checked)
[12/18/2014 11:02:07 PM] eupheme-butterfly: ("This is the festival where whe celebrate how screwed
we are for joining up with a cult that has a labyrinth as its symbol and expecting things to be easy")
[12/18/2014 11:03:00 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Alternative to the obscenity contest (though I'd still love
to do that): Drunken Myths.
[12/18/2014 11:04:12 PM] Marybeth Boop: I think that should definitely be added in some form.
[12/18/2014 11:04:14 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Thiasos members get drunk (if able to drink) or
intoxicated in some other way and either video or audio-record themselves telling a really complicated
Dionysian myth.
[12/18/2014 11:04:29 PM] Marybeth Boop: And I think we could do both or mush them together, and all
of that would be awesome and fantastic.
[12/18/2014 11:04:42 PM] eupheme-butterfly: All of those mashed together is basically a Satyr Play
[12/18/2014 11:05:19 PM] Marybeth Boop: Which means we should do it, right?
[12/18/2014 11:05:23 PM] eupheme-butterfly: OF COURSE IT DOES
[12/18/2014 11:05:35 PM] Marybeth Boop: DRUNKEN YOUTUBE SATYR PLAY
[12/18/2014 11:05:41 PM] eupheme-butterfly: HELLS YES
[12/18/2014 11:05:51 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Even if it's just an audio-recording
[12/18/2014 11:06:11 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Of some slurring Thiastes trying to remember all the
details of Prosymnos
[12/18/2014 11:06:27 PM] eupheme-butterfly: It would be beautiful and worth it
[12/18/2014 11:06:53 PM] eupheme-butterfly: I think, between the two--the divination and the
obscenity--the one we should shoot for is the obscenity.
[12/18/2014 11:06:59 PM] eupheme-butterfly: (heh heh heh 'shoot for' heh)
[12/18/2014 11:08:14 PM] Amanda Morris: oh gee ^_^
[12/18/2014 11:09:09 PM] eupheme-butterfly: To be honest, I'm going to try to do both. 8D
[12/18/2014 11:09:52 PM] Marybeth Boop: Now, whether or not you do both simultaneously is up to
you.
[12/18/2014 11:10:46 PM] eupheme-butterfly: That would be a hell of a divination session.
[12/18/2014 11:11:00 PM] eupheme-butterfly: "Oop sorry I'm interrupting this Tarot reading for some
diCK JOKES"
[12/18/2014 11:13:59 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Do you think we should make the obscenity thing an
actual contest, or just have people post things here on Skype or on the Facebook channel or Wordpress
blog?
[12/18/2014 11:14:05 PM] Marybeth Boop: "The path to happiness is a long one. And hard.
Loooooong. . . and rrrrrreallly haaaard. . . "
[12/18/2014 11:14:13 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Lmao
[12/18/2014 11:14:48 PM] eupheme-butterfly: I'm trying very hard not to laugh and wake the kiddo.
[12/18/2014 11:15:01 PM] Marybeth Boop: We can maybe have people nominate their favorites and do
a FB poll without it being a huge ordeal, maybe?
[12/18/2014 11:15:06 PM] Marybeth Boop: A free for all is good to.
[12/18/2014 11:15:08 PM] Marybeth Boop: *too
[12/18/2014 11:15:58 PM] eupheme-butterfly: I'll bounce ideas back and forth with Markos and see
what he thinks--he's sort of our unofficial web master right now.
[12/18/2014 11:16:15 PM] Marybeth Boop: Sounds good. :)
[12/18/2014 11:20:47 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Awesome! So, on New Year's Eve, set an intention to
watch for signs for the new year. War a mask and go out somewhere to let loose for a while if possible.
Record some really horrendous dirty jokes or a drunken telling of a myth, and post it somewhere so we
can see (or hear, or read) it.
[12/18/2014 11:22:14 PM] Amanda Morris: sounds great. =)
[12/18/2014 11:22:29 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Awesome. Anything you guys want to add, or ask about,
or anything like that?
[12/18/2014 11:22:46 PM] eupheme-butterfly: (I didn't mean to cut you off, either, Marybeth!)
[12/18/2014 11:22:46 PM] Amanda Morris: no, I need to get go bed, but I was glad to come, if just to sit
in =)
[12/18/2014 11:22:56 PM] eupheme-butterfly: It was great having you in the chat!
[12/18/2014 11:23:11 PM] Marybeth Boop: No, I was just going to add that I was watching Dick In A Box
because there was a pause. Just being special.
[12/18/2014 11:23:23 PM] Marybeth Boop: Hooray!! :D
[12/18/2014 11:23:31 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Well I know what I'm going to go watch now!
[12/18/2014 11:23:51 PM] Amanda Morris: hahah. goodnight, everyone. take good care!
[12/18/2014 11:23:53 PM] eupheme-butterfly: (I should probably add, drunking silly obscene songs
would totally fit in with the theme)
[12/18/2014 11:23:59 PM] eupheme-butterfly: Night, Amanda!
[12/18/2014 11:24:05 PM] Marybeth Boop: (The Hooray was aimed at Amanda, but it counts for the
other thing too, I guess.) Goodnight!!!!
[12/18/2014 11:24:56 PM] eupheme-butterfly: I should probably head to bed myself. Take care, guys!