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Khernips

Khernips, or Lustral Water, is a mixture used in Hellenic Polytheism to ritually wash away miasma. It is not hard to make, and is an incredibly rewarding addition to any ritual.

To make it you’ll need a few things on hand:

Fresh water (I use tap water, but if you can manage spring water is even better)

Sea Water (if you don’t have this, you can use a sea salt and water mixture)

Dried herbs (I sometimes don’t have access to herbs, and just use a lit match)

A lighter/match

Bowl

Towel

So to make it, you mix together your fresh water and sea water, and then you light your herbs and drop them in. Some people use incense opposed to matches or herbs as well.

“When throwing in the lit item, one can utter ‘Xerniptosai’ (pronounced ‘zer-nip-TOS-aye-ee’) which translates as ‘Be purified’.“ Source: Baring the Aegis

After you’ve finished preparing it, you can choose to ask one of the Theoi to bless it, especially a water/sea related Theos. Then you wash your hands in face with it, and dry off.

— excerpt from invisible women by caroline criado perez

Have you written a general guide about khernips? All I do is extinguish a wooden match in water because snuffing a flaming brand has been referred to in mythology, but some people on Tumblr have very different ideas like incorporating all kinds of herbs or mixing ashes into it. I'd love to read your take on what was done in antiquity.

I haven’t, but I can! Because the concept of khernips is so linked to ritual purification–because khernips is the method through which we become ritually clean–we will also discuss the practice of katharmos and the notion of ritual pollution: miasma. 

Within Hellenic practice, miasma describes the lingering aura of uncleanliness in regards to a person or space through which contact is made with the Gods. Miasma occurs whenever the space or person comes into contact with death, sickness, birth, sex, excessive negative emotions and bodily fluids. It also comes from a lack of contact with the Hellenic Gods. Not the actual acts of dying, sex and birth cause miasma but the opening up of the way to the Underworld (with births and deaths) as well as contact with sweat, blood, semen, menstrual blood and urine pollutes us. Miasma is an incredibly complicated and involved practice and it’s often misunderstood. The most important things to remember about miasma is that it holds no judgment from the Gods, and that everyone attracts miasma. It’s a mortal, human, thing.The practice of purification is called katharmos (Καθαρμός). The process of katharmos is elaborate because the process not only involves the physical but also the emotional, mental and spiritual. In modern practice, it usually starts with a shower, but this is not a historic necessity. Step two is the preparation and use of khernips. Beyond the practical, there is a large mental component to katharmos. It means leaving behind negativity, worry, pain and trouble before getting in contact with the Gods. The greatest barrier in understanding miasma and katharmos, to me, is our modern frame of mind. On the one hand, we know too much about personal hygiene, about the human body and about science as a whole, on the other hand religion has become something separate from life in general. As a result, we colour ancient Hellas with our ‘hygiene brush’. Secondly, not everyone has faith, our society does no longer revolve around it, and as a result, we–as modern religious people–struggle for a mindset of simple, all-encompassing, unquestionable worship. There might be a few remnants of ‘Original Sin Thinking’ lodged in there as well.

After a lot of research into the workings of miasma, I have come to the conclusion that miasma is linked to distraction. Anything that takes your mind off of the Gods during ritual can be considered miasmic. For example, the ancient Hellenes agreed that murder causes miasma (when not committed as part of a war, soldiers were not tainted with miasma for killing their enemies), but only once other people became aware of the fact that you had committed an act of murder. As such, if you were exiled and you travelled to another town where no one knew what you had done, in essence, you were not miamic to the rites and people around you. We all incur miasma, every single day of our lives. It has nothing to do with sin, shame or guilt. Miasma is a consequence of living. We breath, make decisions, come in contact with others, and along the way, we become too human–for lack of a better term–to petition the Gods. The divide between the purity and cleanliness of the Theoi and our human mortality and imperfection keeps us away from Them. Miasma is not about being physically dirty, although that is a part of it, and katharmos is not about becoming physically clean, although that is a part of it as well. Katharmos is devotional. It not only helps you get in a ritualistic mood, it prepares the room and your body for it. Even if you do not understand the use, it’s a vital part of Hellenistic worship.

Khernips are the traditional way to cleanse yourself from miasma. As far as basic information goes, khernips is created by dropping smoldering incense or herb leaves into water. When throwing in the lit item, one can utter ‘xerniptosai’ (pronounced 'zer-nip-TOS-aye-ee’) which translates as ‘be purified’. Both hands are washed with khernips and you can wash the face as well. The vessel holding the khernips is called a khernibeionas (Χερνῐβεῖον). 

Artwork has taught us that khernips was often applied just outside the temenos, with hands being washed in a bowl or water poured out of a jug while the supplicant washed their hands. The water was collected from a moving source of water, which could be a natural spring, a river, or even the sea. Moving water was considered sacred, and often viewed as an extension of the body of a stream/river/sea God(dess). For my video tutorial on how to prepare and apply khernips, go here.

As with anything concerning miasma, most books on ancient Hellas and/or Hellenic religion don’t mention khernips at all, or under a synonym. As with miasma, I am going to assume this is because the evidence of its existance is so flimsy besides a resounding 'it was used and important’. My rather vast collection of scholarly material is silent on any details beyond the basic information already provided. As such, I am forced to speculate based upon what I know. Personally, I tend to mix tap water with sea water into a large vessel from which I take a measure every evening to use throughout the day. I drop the smoldering firebrand (a match when traveling, a bit of burning wood or herbs when home) into the measure poured our, not the vessel itself. So, in short, I prepare the base in advance but the actual mixture on the spot. I only use one measure one day, after that, I dip it out onto the earth and replace it with a fresh batch before my evening rituals.

Khernips is important, and it’s important they are properly prepared, but in the large scheme of things, I feel it’s more important you actually perform the ritualistic motions without a specific part of it than skipping it altogether. So, no, you can’t make khernips without dropping something smouldering in, but that doesn’t mean you can’t wash before ritual and improvise a little. Drop herbs into the water and wash with that, drop essential oils in it, if you don’t have herbs. Find something to make the water special, and then use it to cleanse yourself. Just go through the motions and focus on the rites ahead. That is its function and it should be used as such.

“i will fall in love with you, over and over again”

“don’t tell me you’re not the same person”

(sorry just a sketch 😔)

everyone thinking this persons a vampire but they’re just autistic.

‘you hate sunlight???’

‘yeah im super sensitive to it it gives me headaches’

‘but you hate garlic??’

‘mmh it gives me acid reflux, i have a bunch of gastrointestinal issues’

‘but- you only drink that weird red liquid!! which is obviously blood!!’

‘i have really bad sensory issues, that beetroot smoothie is the one of the only things that i can eat ://‘

‘YOU SLEEP. IN A COFFIN.’

‘….its comfy’

zeus to me is a god who feels and loves so deeply and emotionally, but is constantly forced to be in a position of impartiality, fairness, and wisdom that sometimes directly contradicts the thing he is feeling. and that to me shows not only how loving he is but also how capable he is. zeus is a good king because he cares, and he's a good king because he's know when to put his own cares aside, even if it's hard, and it is this constant struggle for him that makes him so compelling to me <3

What I find interesting about Adrien's new room is not only how empty it is (duh), but that we know thanks to episode 5, Werepapas, that Adrien's old room very much is still there and fully furnished:

And mind you, its even more colorful of a kid's dream bedroom as before. On its own, there is nothing here that visually implies that the problem is that Adrien wasn't allowed to express himself in his room whatsoever. Even if there were limitations, he clearly got to break free from the colorless museum that was the Agreste Mansion.

So clearly, that's not the main problem at hand.

And this comes with interesting implications, especially because Werepapas also confirms to us that the Agreste Mansion having a new design is not just a thing we are supposed to accept as it is now because of the new story arc and art style (the way we are most likely supposed to not question why Marinette's home looks different). The flashback explicitly shows the Mansion in its old design while in the present time it's in the new design (I don't have ideal images to show that off right now, sorry):

So the Mansion having been renovated happened for real in the story. It's diegetic.

BUT, we already saw that Gabriel's office hasn't been changed, same as Emilie's old room:

These are all information we got thanks to "Werepapas" and it puts the ending of "Climatiqueen" into perspective when Adrien avoids going home and instead starts running away because that's what feels right to him in that moment:

It all amounts to what I can't imagine as anything else but immense pressure to deal with your grief while also getting no fraction of closure with eveything awful that happened to you in that home because that very home was your prison and now.. changed... but not entirely because all the main rooms that caused you so much pain are still there, but it's muddy because you don't know how to feel about anything, especially because they are now all that's left feeling FAMILIAR in your home, so no shit you're drawn to them:

I gotta be honest. The way the Mansion is being shown as this mixture of completely new and everything painful still being there as mementos already hurts me as a viewer. I can't imagine what Adrien must be feeling.

And that manifests best in his rooms. Cause, yeah, it's not just A room Adrien can't decide on, he has TWO rooms because he's that conflicted:

Clearly part of him WANTS to start anew and forget the pain of his old room by moving into a new one, but at the same time, Adrien's old room is still THERE. Untouched. He can go back there anytime and how often or little as he likes.

Adrien's new room isn't furnished yet and of course the first instinct is to say "well, Adrien is a blank slate right now, he has to figure out what he even wants!" and that's not wrong,

But I do wanna raise the question of if Adrien truly WANTS to leave his old room or if he isn't just forced to live in a home right now where it's impossible for him to get closure with the past and move on from his pain to make something better out of it, so he tries to avoid everything as much as possible while also CHANGING as little as possible.

He wants a new room but can't bring himself to even relocate his bed because that would mean he officially moved out of his old room. And that would be yet another big change on top of everything else already.

Or does he even want a whole new room in first place or is his home just such a merciless mixture of unfamiliar new and painful old memories that he can't turn his old room into something new the way he would rather prefer?

Because he wants SOMETHING new, thats clear. But his home changed so much too after everything he already lost that he's not ready to change his old room as well, so he tries to preserve it cause that's all he can do to hold onto some of the past to retain some familiarity he can hold onto, even if it means he can't actually LIVE in the room he wants right now?

Or does he genuinely not want to ever go back into his old room, but he isn't allowed to make peace with the past and that keeps him from dissembling his old room because then it would truly feel like he lost pretty much his entire childhood home on top of everything else in such a short span of time?

Don't get me wrong, I totally agree with people's instinct being "Adrien's room is empty because she doesn't now yet what he wants". But the way Adrien literally runs away from his home at the end of episode 1 because it feels natural to him to avoid going inside is a bit more than just "Adrien doesn't know what he wants".

That house is a mixture of unfamiliar shiny new and painful memories attached to everything old that remained, and no one gives him the information he needs to deal with ANY of that because it would make THEM uncomfortable to face his feelings and that's deemed more important apparently.

I sure as fuck would be running too

I’m just going to leave this here

LISTEN UP AGAIN KIDS STOP REBLOGGING THIS FUCKING GARBAGE POST. IT IS 100% FUCKING BULLSHIT AND CAN AND MOST DEFINITELY WILL LITERALLY KILL. DO YOU NOT SEE WARNING LABELS THAT SAY “DO NOT INDUCE VOMITING”? THEY AREN’T FUCKING AROUND. YOU CAN FUCKING BURN THEIR ESOPHAGUS BY CAUSING VOMITING, CAUSE CHOKING, DROWNING, OR MAKE IT WORSE! AGAIN DO NOT FORCE ANYTHING DOWN ANYONE’S THROAT. THEY. CAN. DROWN. IF SOMEONE IS LOSING CONCIOUSNESS ALL THE CHIT CHAT IN THE WORLD WILL NOT PREVENT IT AT THAT POINT THEY ARE IN SERIOUS DANGER. “Buuut i don’t wanna take them to the hospital!!!” WELL SUNSHINE GLAD YOU’D RATHER HAVE A DEAD FRIEND THAN A LIVING ONE BUT YOU’RE IN LUCK CALL FUCKING POISON CONTROL. THEY ARE NOT THE COPS. THEY WILL HELP YOU. AND IF THEY SAY GO TO THE FUCKING HOSPITAL YOU GO TO THE FUCKING HOSPITAL. NO EXCUSES. 0. NONE. I have seen this shit cross my dash SO MANY TIMES so PLEASE fucking reblog this and prevent some well meaning idiot from accidentally killing someone they love!