I won't lie, I'm a bit disappointed in Max Verstappen fans after Lando's win yesterday. A lot of people are discrediting Lando and McLaren in general. The fact of the matter is that Lando deserved that win.

Yes, it was a lucky safety car. But I think you all are forgetting Max's first win came in part because the Mercedes drivers took each other out. Are you now arguing that Max is a shit driver that doesn't deserve that win because it involved luck there too?

Lando is a fantastic driver and this win is long overdue. It might make you feel better to discuss what ifs but even if we do, that doesn't change the results, and it's honestly just incredibly disrespectful of the work the McLaren engineers put into the upgrades, the efforts of the strategists, and the solid drive that Lando put in.

An Essay on Historical Context and Oracles

Oh how to start this… Well, let’s put this simply: you cannot and should not divorce any gods from Their historical context and the religious practices that surround Them. If you want to draw from the past but update to the present, fine. But to ignore Their context is to do both the gods and yourself a disservice. We come to understand the gods better by understanding how They have been viewed and worshipped in the past. Through this, we can understand what is desirable in worship and what is not desirable. If you rip the historical context away, it shows that you view Them as a thing that you can control, to use as you will. You are acting as if you can make Them into what you desire Them to be, rather than coming to know Them as They are.

Now, I will be approaching this from a Hellenic perspective, so some of these beliefs will not apply to all religions. In Hellenismos, if you remember nothing else, you should always remember this: you are mortal, the gods are deities and thus above you, and to insinuate you are equal or know better than the gods is hubris. Hubris is the one thing that the gods consistently punish. But even if you aren’t involved with the Greek gods, let me be frank: if you’re worshipping something, this inherently places you lower in rank. To worship is to look up to, to acknowledge that something is more wondrous and powerful than you as a mortal. We worship the gods because They are beings more powerful than us and we love Them. We worship Them to show how much we admire Them, care for Them. We seek Their favor as we understand They can influence our lives. If one keeps this in mind, then to try to make the gods fit your own ideas should be abhorrent as it places you above the gods.

But I also dislike when people do this for another reason: it also claims that you know better than the hundreds of thousands of others who have worshipped a god in a certain way. It is self-absorbed and prideful to claim that you know a god better than others, both past and present. That you know better than any other person who was loved by these deities or received guidance from Them or worshipped Them. Nope, you are smarter than all of those people. You are a special person. It’s blatantly obvious when someone claims this that he wants to build up his self-esteem through this attitude.

Can someone be closer to a god than another? Absolutely. One easy example is devotees who choose to pursue deeper relationships with specific deities. But even if you are closer, to flaunt it or state that you speak for the gods as They really are, it’s cruel and disgusting. Cruel, because it can discourage those who aren’t as in tune with the less human. It rubs your perceived strengths in others’ faces, whether you intend to or not. Someone could lose their faith in part due to your boasting. It’s disgusting as it reveals a need for power, for respect, and even sometimes, for control. To be better than the masses, to impart upon them the “truth.”

Those who claim to have great power, such as being oracles, are often those who do not in fact have such powers or greatly exaggerate them. Because ultimately, they are boasting of them and trying to gain attention, not to use them. Those with true power often understand that it is not to be flaunted. That it is a great responsibility and should be used with great forethought and skill. Such power shouldn’t be used to try to dictate how others worship or act. Not to mention, if you are mistaken or wrong, you can lead others astray. The young or new are the most likely to fall for this because they don’t know better and will look for guidance. And to someone like this, a person claiming they speak directly to the gods are of course going to seem like the perfect authority figure. They will seem to be the perfect guide. And if this person is wrong, it can do far more damage than good.

Now to tackle the ultimate reason why I started this essay: to address the claims from @oracleforthegods and @oracleofapollo, but mostly the former’s claims. You have ripped the Theoi from Their historical context and from actual religious practices to mold Them into your own views. You’ve used your gifts not to serve as you claim but as a way to build up your own confidence and sense of self. When you’ve been shown to be flat out wrong, instead of apologizing and actually learning from those who have come before you, you’ve dug in your heels and tried to twist your own words to fit. “Well, I didn’t mean it like that. I didn’t explain it well. I’m not good with words.” Oh, honey, you were perfectly clear. That’s not the issue here. It’s that your lies were transparent, and your goals were clear. It’s that you’ve become drunk on your bloodline’s abilities. You’re more concerned with what you can do than with actually honing it or using it well. If you had tried to hone it, you might have gotten some facts right instead of having  to fit them retroactively to your narrative.

For instance, Aphrodite. Yes, She is a goddess of war. Not in the same way as Athena, and not as major an aspect of Hers, but still one of Her areas of influence. As people have pointed out, your words confused them on that. But instead of saying “Oh, I didn’t know that at the time” or saying that you needed to look into more, you tried to say “Oh… well, She’s not that way now. She hates war now.” Oh? So does She hate Ares now? In fact, I’d argue these epithets are still equally essential today. But rather than being a literal war, She’s a goddess of love and sexuality. Would it not be fit to say She would fight for those who are violated sexually? Not only does it tie into Her epithets for war, it ties into Her epithets of Apostrophia or “Averter of Unlawful Desires” and Symmachia “Ally in Love.” Specifically, Apostrophia was an epithet in Thebes that can also mean “expeller” specifically referring to the desire for sinful pleasure and lust. I view Aphrodite as an ally in that She will support you in all things relating to your love life including recovery. Not to mention, by your approach, it ignores that Aphrodite has deep ties to the sea as well. Because of Her birth, the Greeks also viewed Her as a goddess to seek for protection during sea voyages. An indication of this is that several of Her sacred places were in port cities. You have ignored historical context, and thus you have divorced Aphrodite from very vital and key aspects of Her cult and Her identity. Ultimately, it reveals that you in the end view yourself as an arbiter of what the gods actually can rule and through that attempting to control others’ religious practices.

Now while we’re on this discussion of epithets, let us discuss where most epithets came from. Many of them either refer to a place considered sacred to the god or even arose from a great deed the god did. For instance, Poseidon’s epithet Soter or “savior” arose because He saved Thessaly from the Persian fleet with a storm. The citizens then poured wine into the sea for Him, created a new cult around this epithet, and possibly even created the statue found off the Cape of Artemision as yet another thank you for all that He had done. To divorce Poseidon from this epithet would be to ignore an act of kindness from the divine. It would be to rob Him of worship. To ignore the epithets is to ignore the gods’ roles and contributions. It is to slight the divine and deny Them praise.

As to Apollon… oh, where to start. To lie about the god of truth? REALLY? Do you have a death wish? Let’s start with the “homophobia.” I already touched on this, but let’s delve a bit deeper into Hyakinthia as a festival. This festival is quite fascinating. For it actually begins and ends with mourning Hyacinth. Now, originally it was thought to be much longer, but the most well documented version we have is a three day festival that took place at Amyklai. This festival is in fact inextricably tied to the myth of Apollon and Hyacinth for it is all about Hyacinth’s death and rebirth. The Spartans would offer to the dead on the first day, a way to mourn Hyacinth. As one would with the dead, and is thus done in conjunction with Apollon as His male lover is struck down by His discus. Now, unlike most funeral rites, this was noted to be very solemn, with a lack of hymns, lack of flowers, and little food. Rather than rejoicing with a feast in the home as was more typical of funerary rites and other festivals honoring the dead; we see no feasting, rather just returning silently back to the house. A deep mourning is participated in as a city. The people mourn with Apollon at the loss of someone dear to Him. Then, the second day is dedicated to festivities. Hymns are sung to Apollon, and, in general, the day was solely praising Apollon for His glory. If we follow the myth, then this is possibly tying into the fact that Apollon transformed His lover into a flower. We rejoice not only at a great act of a god, but at the immortality of sorts bestowed upon the prince. Through Apollon, he is immortalized as a flower. This festival and myth are intertwined; one cannot participate in the festival without the myth to guide one. A festival that allows you to mourn with a god over His lost love. It is as with the epithets: unless one acknowledges the mythology here as accurate, one cannot then practice the religious festival with the proper intent. Yes, it can be seen as a festival of new summer growth, but we view it through the lens of mourning and rebirth from a deep love of a man. If you deny Apollon’s love for Hyacinth, you unravel the very basis of a religious practice. 

Also, if Apollon really hated this “lie” about His preferences so much, don’t you think He’d have let us know long ago when there was an entire festival about it? Strange how it only comes up now, and only from you. While almost every other person in the religion who has interacted with Apollon has gotten the vibe of bisexual (if we must place a human sexuality on a god… that’s a whole ‘nother can of worms though. For this essay though, we’ll play this stupid game and use human labels for His sexuality. If/when I tackle the stupidity of human sexualities for the Theoi, I’ll do it separately.). Seriously, there are entire posts of about devotees sharing experiences with Him. One of the most universal ones is the romantic and sexual interest in men and women.

But let us take a step away from the actual religious side of this issue for a brief moment. Imagine you have some person you know—an acquaintance—come up to you and start drilling you about your ex-lovers. Exactly how intimate were you two? How much did you love each other? Did you really love each other? How did you know you loved them? And so on, all questions that were far too intimate for the relationship you have with this person. Most people start getting touchy if you bring up this sort of thing out of the blue and way too casually. Why? Because in the end, it’s none of that acquaintance’s business whom you slept with, how long you slept with them, why you slept with them, etc.  Now add into that the baggage of sexuality and anyone will start snapping at you.  And if it’s a sibling spreading the talk of your dating life? Oh, boy, I speak from experience here: it’s instant anger. Now, on top of the already intrusive nature of the questions, there’s a violation of trust and privacy. But I’ve had a few art pieces that involved Apollon that I got specific directions from Him on what He wanted. (If you’re wondering how I knew: I had gut feelings, images in my head, tarot readings, and a touch of a manic state.) Guess what? He gets touchy any time love comes up, be it a male or a female. And if this has been happening for millennia? Yeah, I’d be testy too.

But also, your words are that Apollon will flip out if you bring up Him loving males. And then you wondered why that got interpreted as you claiming He was homophobic. Since you’re not able to connect the dots here, that type of anger is frequently seen from people who genuinely are homophobic if you suggest they’re at all interested in the same sex. They will flip their shit if you do that. As my one friend sarcastically framed your representation: “I’m not homophobic… I just… imitate it well?” You didn’t have to state it was a homophobic reaction for everyone to see what you were inferring. Your responses also didn’t dispel that either; rather, they reinforced what you had said. But I will agree with the one who said it wasn’t homophobic. He’s right. It wasn’t homophobia. If we’re going to assign gods human sexualities, then it wasn’t about Him being homosexual so it wasn’t homophobia. Since Apollon would fall into the bisexual umbrella due to male and female lovers by that standard, it was bi-phobic and smacking of bisexual erasure. Color me, the bisexual lady, not amused and pissed.

Let us also pretend for a moment that you had stripped cultural and religious context with a deity from another country like Japan or Africa. Would you still feel fine ripping the cultural beliefs from the god in order to worship Them? Or would you be balking at this as it’s abhorrent to ignore the roots of the god? Newsflash: if you wouldn’t do it to another culture’s gods, don’t do it to the Greek ones. They still have a culture attached to Them, and you are ignoring it because you are familiar with Them due to the huge influence the Greeks have had on modern governments. Heck, if you want an example of what would happen with something more ubiquitous like the Greek gods, try doing this with Jesus. Strip him of all his prophesies from the Old Testament and his lineage and see how well the Abrahamic religions take it. Just because you’re familiar with something doesn’t make it up for the taking and stripping of context.

Now, let us tackle oracles. I don’t know where you came up with this, but I’ll be frank: oracles aren’t the interpreters. A traditional oracle was only the mouthpiece. For instance, the oracle of Delphi would go into her trance, she spoke her prophesy, and then a priest—not the oracle herself—would interpret the message to the petitioner. Similarly, dream oracles were much the same. One would sleep, one would share the dream, and a priest or someone else would then interpret the dream. Reading the signs of birds could also done similarly. Share and then be told the interpretation.

So why is this? Why didn’t oracles do the interpreting? Simple really. To be an oracle, a mouthpiece for the gods, often involved going into a trance or manic state. Not only can it be difficult for the oracle to recall what they said while in that state, it can also be complete gibberish. Not only that, it imitates the gods. (Gee, it’s like you can’t divorce religious practice from Them…) Yes, any god was considered capable of passing signs along, but the most common was Zeus. Apollon, His son, then was gifted with the art of interpretation. The whole oracle to priest tradition imitates Zeus and Apollon’s relationship. It is a reflection of the divine.

But instead you’ve set yourself up as both mouthpiece and interpreter. Which… let me just say, your interpretations need some work since some of them are so false that it’s just ridiculous. Aside from the two I’ve already tackled here, there’s also Zeus. The god of family, of marriage, of fathers, of justice, of government. And you claim He looks for loopholes in the laws to exploit? He is the one whose main job is to uphold the order of both the mortal and divine realms. It’s not just inaccurate; it’s insulting to claim Zeus would do that. It ignores everything from actual festivals to hymns to mythology to cultural practices! It actively spits in the face of all that to say that Zeus attempts to flout the law.

But you’ve also claimed that you don’t take on the role of oracle for glory. Bullshit. To be an oracle is known to be one of the most well-respected positions in any religion. To have access to the divine is considered something to be revered. One need look no further than the Oracle of Delphi to see how much oracles were respected. To claim that title is to claim that glory for yourself. But you know the difference between the oracles I’ve mentioned so far and you? None of them claimed it for themselves. Most oracles were selected by others. It was an honor bestowed, not something they self-identified as. To claim it and spread it around reveals you desire the power and fame it will bring you.

Also, as I pointed out before, with the title of oracle being inherently understood as a position of power, to step into that role is to assume that mantle of responsibility. Oracles worked with the gods and priests to guide people when they needed it. To step into that role means you will be looked to as a leader. You owe those people honesty and knowledge. Not as you know it, but drawing from that, the past, the future, and everything between. To have done little to no historical research… it’s a disservice to the office of oracles, to the people looking up to you, and to the gods you’re “serving.” It’s like barely knowing a person but trying to sell their qualities to an employer or potential partner. You don’t know them well enough to represent them accurately. You’ve scraped the surface and gone “What I learned in high school about the gods is good enough.” Never mind that this doesn’t touch at all on how the cultic practices arose, why we call the gods certain names, what the gods desire from mortals, or any number of other things. Just a surface level understanding is good enough for you. It couldn’t lead to misinterpretations or anything.

But you know the other reason why I know that you are in this for the power? Because you two took a god bringing up someone and turned it into an excuse to try your hands at a witch hunt. Because I heard through the grapevine that the person might have powers like yours. But instead of reaching out to see if you could mutually share tips, you made a post trying to get your followers to seek her out off a vague description. I also know through the grapevine that you two also had a first name as well. Which gets real damn close to doxxing. Gee, it’s almost like you felt threatened, like you feared being revealed as liars, like you worried more about your loss of control and power than listening. It’s almost like you revealed your hand there but tried to cover it by claiming “Oh, I was told to do this.” The gods don’t need you to fight their own battles for them. If someone is truly pissing them off, they’ll deal with it. Trying to claim you have to intercede here infantilizes the deities.

In closing thoughts, I see you’ve had some… financial difficulties. A lot of big ones back to back: house issues, hurricanes, fraud, scammers, and insurance issues. Random thought here, hear me out… have you considered whether these are a sign? Because personally, I saw them and went “Oooh… yeah, I think the gods are mad.” Considering that the person you tried to attack is a devotee to several gods, that you spread false information about the gods, that you’ve been claiming a sacred title as yours, and that you’ve been treating the gods like They’re yours to shape as you will... well, it lines up a bit perfectly. If I were a god, I’d be pissed off at this point. The hubris you’re exuding is incredible. Heck, I’m not a god, and I’m pissed off enough to write an entire essay about your appalling behavior. Personally, that much bad luck would make me stop and ponder. But instead of that, you’ve been digging in your heels and making merchandise that borders on offensive. (Yeah, I saw that too. Color me not impressed.)