Death from a Roman Perspective

Mercury by Caraglio (1526)

Ancient Romans tended towards to a wide array of afterlife possibilities, as to which see Roman Beliefs Regarding the Afterlife. For an exploration of the major Roman deities of death see Dis Pater and Proserpina, Hecate in the Roman Tradition – Trivia of the Crossroads and The Nature of Mercury. Localised deities of death include:

• Benevolent spirits The Di Manes are protecting, or at least friendly, spirits of the dead. Suitable offerings to Di Manes include salted grain/wheat, bread/wheat soaked in wine and violets, incense and wine. Some Di Manes may be ancestral spirits, in which case they may be known as Di Parentes and worshipped as such. Alternately, offerings for their well being in the after-life may be made. “The Roman house itself was the centre of family and private religion. In richer and middle-ranking houses a common feature was a shrine of the household gods – now conventionally known as a lararium … these shrines contained paintings or statuettes of household gods and other deities; they might also include (in a wealthier house) commemoration of the family’s ancestors”: Beard et al at 4.12. Between 13 February and 21 February ancient Romans traditionally honoured their dead, especially the ancestral dead; this was the Parentalia. On the final day ritual offerings were made at family tombs. See Ovid’s Fasti, especially the entry for 21 February, for more. Ancestor veneration can extend to Gods as well, for example, the family of the Julii claimed divine descent from Venus and so worshipped her as a divine ancestor.
• Lares and Penates According to one school of thought the Lares (protecting spirits of place), and/or the Penates (protecting the household provisions or stores-cupboard), are also protective ancestral spirits. On the other hand, it may be that the Lares (and the Penates) are without ancestral connection, but are instead animistic spirits of the land (and in the case of the Penates, the food stores) on which the household of a family rests. Ancient Roman sources suggest conflicting ideas about the original nature of the Lares and the Penates (as regards whether or not they are ancestral spirits), but attributing ancestry to the Lares and/or Penates may make sense if a family has lived and died on the same land for generations. In Germanic polytheism we know that people buried in burial mounds were thought to become spirits connected with the land, and it is possible that ancient Romans shared a similar view of their own dead, in which case the Lares could be both ancestral spirits and spirits of place. Whether or not these ancestral spirits of the land are capable of being ritually moved to lands unconnected with where they once lived is open to interpretation. On the other hand, the famous story of Aeneas fleeing Troy with statues of the Penates suggests that the family Penates, if not the Lares, can be moved from one region to another.
• Malevolent spirits The Di Manes stand in contrast to Lemures, also called Larvae, who are malevolent spirits of the dead. Suitable offerings to propitiate Lemures (and ritually ask them to leave your residence) include black beans. See Ovid’s Fasti (9 May) for more on expelling unfriendly ghosts from a property.

Roman Pagan Beliefs

Fresco of Diana (image by Mentnafunangann)

The massive historical and cultural imprint that Rome has on Europe means that Roman history and culture is familiar to most Westerners and so the Roman way to the Gods is a language that is easily understood. Often it is said that Roman polytheism is based on what you do, and not on what you believe, but obviously no-one would practice unless they were at least open-minded as to certain beliefs. In Roman polytheism there are no commandments prescribing the morals by which you must live, there is no holy text in which you must believe, and there is no institution that can claim to represent the Roman Gods. Rather, Roman polytheists work towards a state of Pax Deorum (peace with the Gods), meaning a harmonious relationship with the Gods and the universe at large. Certain perspectives tend to be associated with Roman polytheism, including:

• It is better for religious rites to be performed in a manner that are more or less in keeping with how it was done in ancient Rome. This might include covering the head during prayer, not stumbling over words, and making appropriate offerings. For more see Pagan Prayer, Pagan Offerings, Incense Offerings, Head Covering and Menstruation and Ritual Purity.
• Afterlife beliefs that are varied and may be considered eccentric by some, such as open-mindedness towards the possibility of the dead getting stuck in one of the various places in Hades (and the consequent need for dead bodies to have a coin in their possession so they can pay for passage to another place), that offerings can effectively be made to the dead, the possibility of afterlife punishment for only the very worst of people (Tartarus), and perhaps an afterlife reward for those who were brave in battle (Elysium), as well as reincarnation, and so on. For more on this see Roman Beliefs Regarding the Afterlife.
• Inspiration from ancient Greco-Roman philosophy, including Epicureanism (see more at Epicurean Polytheism), Stoicism (see more at Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations) and Neoplatonism (see more at Julian the Apostate).
• Appreciating that ancient Romans had a completely different conception of the cosmos (by which I mean the earth, the sun and the stars) which necessarily influenced their spiritual ideas. Many ancient Romans believed that space was composed of aether where Gods lived, and that Earth was fundamentally lower in the hierarchy of the cosmos. This lent itself to ideas about the inferiority of the material realm and a spiritual orientation that was vertical. For more on this see Greco-Roman Cosmos.
• A distrust of any form of religious expression which seems to slide into superstition (e.g., hypervigilance regarding omens or excessive fear of the Gods), for more on this see Superstition.

Major Roman Deities

Bust of Antinoous (image by Nguyen)

A more complete list is available at A Long List of Deities.

Aesculapius

The domain of Aesculapius is that of healing medicine. Suitable offerings likely include replicas of the part of the body healed, incense and wine. For more see Aesculapius – God of Medicine.

Antinous

The domain of Antinous is that of youthful masculine beauty and sexual allure. Suitable offerings include incense and wine, and wearing white may be optimal.

Apollo

The domain of Apollo is light, healing (and disease), music (especially stringed instruments), poetry, archery and prophecy. Suitable offerings include laurel, traditional Roman cakes / pastries (especially in nines), incense and wine. For more see Apollo – God of Healing, Music and the Sun and The Hyperboreans and Their Connection with Apollo.

Bacchus

The domain of Bacchus is wine and the vine, as well as libations, liberty, religious intoxication and madness. Suitable offerings include honey, traditional Roman cakes / pastries (especially in with honey poured on them), incense and wine. For more see Bacchus, the Liberator.

Castor & Pollux

The domain of Castor and Pollux is that of camaraderie and strong friendship, particularly the kind forged in war; commonly associated with sailors and men of the cavalry who travel far and wide, thus also patron Gods of sailing, travelling and horsemanship. Suitable offerings may include wine and incense.

The Other Website is Gone Now

I've managed to get myself locked out of the sister website I set up at romanpagan.wordpress.com. After nearly a week of trying to get back in it looks unlikely that I will be able to restore my access, so I asked the WordPress team to make the site private (this is the most control they would allow me to exercise) in light of the some of the content there being personal in nature. While that site mostly just copied and repackaged content from this blog, some of the content did not appear here. I have copies of most of that material on my computer and will turn them into posts on this blog very soon. 

So if you are wondering what happened to that website this is the story.

The advantage of the WordPress site was it had great drop-down menus to enable quick navigation of content. Please check out the Labels / Index of this Blog on the left-hand side of the screen if you want to navigate through content in a similarly thematic manner.

'The Three Fates' by Rothaug (circa 1910)

Written by M' Sentia Figula (aka Freki), find me at neo polytheist

The Teenage Years of a Gen Z Male

A picture of my young cat

I just really needed to get this off my chest …

First year of high school

Hoping to keep my son (let’s pretend his name is Rasmus) amongst friends in the local area I went against my better instincts and enrolled him in the local government high school when the time came. Had my husband (Rasmus’ father) still been alive I think he would have made a better decision, but he was dead, we were grieving, and I wanted as little upheaval in Rasmus’ life as possible. This is one of my greatest regrets in life. The first year seemed to be fine. Though his grades were average, Rasmus had plenty of friends and the school was close by. I remember on his first day of school a very tall, somewhat overweight, Aboriginal girl looking at him with moonlit eyes. Later Rasmus told me she walked home from school with him every day – even though it was not on her way.

Blood-brothers

In the second year of high school everything started to go wrong. Rasmus’ grades dropped, he started wagging, some of his teachers told me they thought he was very bright but that he didn’t apply himself. He had a new best friend, another boy who, like him, had lost a parent and was part Scandinavian, part Brit – let’s pretend his name was Erik. Erik and Rasmus became like brothers for a few years. I liked Erik very much, and obviously I sympathised with him deeply. He had a low level rage about him that channeled itself in rebelliousness. I always had the feeling he would be the most normal boy in the world if he could just get a hug from his mum, but she was dead, and so the low level rage smouldered. One day he was pulled into the principal’s office and apparently he slammed the door in her face. She wasn’t injured, but she was a very short feminist and so she interpreted this as an act of violence. Erik was an overgrown child, he was well built for his age, he didn’t know his own strength yet (because it was so newly acquired), but the short feminist didn’t care about that. Personally, I never experienced any behaviour problems with Erik, but he knew I was on his side. I’m sure he could sense not only my goodwill but also my affection. He got none of that from the principal. She kicked him out of the school and Erik was never able to go to a normal school again. He spent the next few years in a school for boys with behavioural issues because no other school would take him. Erik’s dad moved to the other side of Sydney around this time and so this tight friendship gradually loosened and Rasmus lost his greatest ally at school.

Hell in Buddhism

Hell Courtesan by Kawanabe (1870s)

In Buddhism the lowest and most miserable form of existence is hell (naraka). Most living beings are susceptible to repeated visits to hell, unless they are ascendant Buddhists who have attained the state of non-regression (avaivartika).

Getting to Hell

In Theravada / Nikaya Buddhism it is taught that beings experience hell as a karmic consequence of wrong conduct, which have their origin in wrong views:

“Just as, when a seed of neem, bitter cucumber, or bitter gourd is planted in moist soil, it transforms any nutrient it obtains from the soil and the water into a fruit with a bitter, harsh and disagreeable taste, even so is it for a person of wrong view. For what reason? Because the view is bad [Bodhi at 214-15].”

Views that are particularly wrong include not believing in karma, not believing in rebirth, and not believing there are good and virtuous people “who have themselves realised by direct knowledge and declare this world and the other world” (Bodhi at 158).

Wrong actions that lead to hell include killing living beings, inflicting violence, mercilessness, being a thief, speaking falsely, and speaking in a way that harms others. There are also wrong actions that are sex-specific – for men this involves having sex with underage girls, or women who are engaged or married to another, and for women this means being a terrible wife. There are three kinds of ways to be a terrible wife:

• The slayer-wife – “with hateful mind, cold and heartless, lusting for others, despising her husband; who seeks to kill [her husband]”.
• The thief-wife – “when her husband acquires wealth [through his work or trade] … she tries to filch a little for herself”.
• The tyrant-wife – “the slothful glutton, bent on idling, harsh, fierce, rough in speech, a woman who bullies her own”.

These three types of wives “will be reborn deep in hell” (Bodhi at 122-123).

What is Enlightenment?

Drawing on a Bodhi Tree Leaf (18th century)

When I first embraced Buddhism I, like many Westerners, read a bunch of books which were mostly of the Theravada tradition. After years of dipping my toe in that tradition (and finding I really didn’t like mindfulness meditation terribly much) I gradually moved over to Mahayana Buddhism. It was the practices of Mahayana that drew me in (chanting mantras), and then the community which I found myself pulled into. I read Mahayana literature as I transitioned but I did not entirely understand how fundamentally different the Theravada and Mahayana perspective on enlightenment was until relatively recently. Still less so did I understand the differing views amongst the Mahayana schools. I had an idea in my head that Mahayana Buddhists essentially have the same view of nirvana as the Theravada, with the difference being that Mahayana Buddhists seek to delay their own enlightenment so they can bring other beings to enlightenment, ie, to be a Bodhisattva. My understanding was not wrong, but it was shallow and confused.

Bodhisattva literally means “enlightened being”. It is the ninth realm within the context of the ten realms of reality.* It is a state characterised by compassion but I have found that the goal of living compassionately can be a little frustrating. Compassion for compassion’s sake lacks focus, and for an introvert such as myself it does not come easy. I need a loftier goal, or a purpose around which compassion can orient itself. That goal is Buddhahood – the tenth and ultimate state.

Buddhahood is a state in which the true aspect of all phenomena, or the true nature of life, is realised. Reality is perceived, ultimate truth is understood.

“The Mahayana … emphasises the realisation of dharma, and de-emphasises nirvana [the cessation of suffering] … The Mahayana came to regard the essential Buddha not as a human being, but as the omnipresent truth (dharma) manifest in all things. To emphasise this distinction, Mahayana Buddhism refers to the dharmakaya or “truth-body” of the Buddha [Reat at 53] …”

Truth is Enlightenment and the Buddha is Truth

There is an ancient sutra which records the historical Buddha saying “whoever sees dharma sees me”. Mahayana Buddhism drew out this teaching, so that as dharma is equated with truth, so too is the Buddha. The Buddha is thus not merely a historical man but an eternal and omnipresent truth.

“… In early discussions of the true nature of the Buddha, especially regarding the person of the Buddha to whom one goes for refuge … the term dharmakaya seems to have been coined to refer to the corpus … of the auspicious qualities (dharma) of the Buddha, including his wisdom, his compassion, his various powers, etc; it also referred to the entire corpus (kaya) of the Buddha’s teachings (dharma). In the Mahayana, the term evolved into a kind of cosmic principle that was regarded as the true nature of the Buddha and the source from which his various other forms derived [Buswell & Lopez at 246] …”

Gluten Free Restaurants and Cafes in Sydney

I've been tracking gluten free restaurants in Sydney for years and the list on my phone is now so long I thought I may as well publish it online. 

A Rainbow Lorikeet (by Sardaka)

Sydney, Inner City

Wholegreen Bakery Cafe (Australian)

257 Clarence Street, Sydney 
Mon-Sat: 8am-3pm; Sun: closed (totally GF)

The Rocks Cafe (Australian)

99 George St, The Rocks

Mon-Sat: 7.30am-9pm; Sun: 7.30am-5pm

Loftus Lane Cafe (Australian)

Shop 3, 38-42 Bridge St, Circular Quay

Mon-Fri: 6.30am-3pm; Sat-Sun: 8am-3pm

Eastbank Cafe (Australian)

61-69 Macquarie St, Circular Quay

Mon-Sun: 11am until late

Opera Bar (Australian)

Sydney Opera House, Lower Concourse, Sydney

Sun-Thurs: 11am-12am; Fri-Sat: 11am-12.30am

The Orient Hotel (Australian)

89 George St, The Rocks

Mon-Thurs: 11am-11pm; Fri-Sat: 10am-2am, Sun: 10am-10pm

Canvas Restaurant (Australian)

140 George St, The Rocks

Wednes-Sun: 11am-4pm (exy)

Kiln (Australian)

Lvl 18, 53 Wentworth Ave, Sydney

Tues-Wednes: 5.30pm until late; Thurs-Sat: 12pm until late (exy)

Theeca (Australian)

1 Burton St, Darlinghurst

Mon-Sun: 7.30am-2.30pm; Thurs-Sat: 5pm until late 

The Palace Tea Room (British, does Devonshire Tea)

Lvl 1, Queen Victoria Building, Sydney

Mon-Sun: 9am-5pm 

My Christian Larp

A sculpture outside St James' King Street, Sydney

In 2024 I developed an interest in Christianity (which I wrote about here). I read the Gospels three times. I read the rest of the New Testament once. I listened to a bunch of podcasts. I studied a bunch of websites. I read a couple of books. I bought some icons (of St Mary and St Olga) and tried praying in front of them. By 2025, after visiting a bunch of Orthodox churches and finding each of them focused strongly on specific cultural groups (Russian, Greek, Assyrian, etc), I developed the view that I should look into Anglo-Catholicism, which is a movement within the Anglican communion which emphasises a return to catholic practices and theology sans the Pope. The main draw card was ethno-cultural. It seemed to me that most churches revolve around ethnic identity so Anglicanism looked like a good fit. The experiment didn’t go well and perhaps I really should have known better, not least because when my interest in Anglo-Catholicism started I had a highly unusual dream wherein the Virgin Mary spoke to me and she said just one thing: “the Anglican church is a desert”.

Visiting Anglo-Catholic Churches in Sydney

Sydney has half a dozen or so churches that align with Anglo-Catholicism (at least that is my understanding). I visited most of them and my experiences were as follows: