Hymns for the Winter Solstice

Orphic Hymn to Appollo

Come,

Blessed one, healer, slayer of Tityus, Phoibos, god of Lykoreia, god of Memphis, 

You I honor with splendor, You I invoke with my cry:

You grant wealth of seed, of plow, of golden lyre

Pythian,Titan, god of Gryneion, god of mice,

Slayer of Python, Dephian, 

Prophet,savage,light-bearing daemon,

Easy to love in your glorious youth,

Leader of the Muses, maker of dances,

Far-seeing archer, attaining your aim.

Bacchus and Didymeus and Loxias;

Holy one, lord of Delos,

Seeing all, and bringing light to our eyes,

Golden-haired, laying pure oracles bare:

Hear my prayer for humanity with a kind heart.

For you gaze upon all of this,

The immensity of the heavens and the rich-fated earth below;

Through the quiet gloom of the starry night,

You have seen the world’s roots, and you hold the limits of the cosmos;

Yours is the beginning and the end, what is and what will be.

All-blooming, you harmonize the world on the pegs of your lyre,

Traveling from the deepest reaches to the highest,

Setting the universe to the Dorian mode,

All living things you mingle and divide,

Setting a harmonious measure to the fate of men:

You mix up winter and summer both in equal measure,

Distinguishing the tones of cold and heat,

And then properly tuning the lovely flower of spring.

For this mortals have named you a renowned lord:

Pan, the two-horned god, who sends out crooning winds;

And thus you hold the seal of the cosmos.

Listen, blessed one, to the suppliant voice of the initiates:

Heal us and guide us through the long winter night

Orphic Hymn to Dionysus

I call upon loud-roaring and reveling Dionysos,

primeval, two-natured, thrice-born, Bakkhic lord,

savage, ineffable, secretive, two-horned and two-shaped.

Ivy-covered, bull-faced, warlike, howling, pure,

Divine victim, wrapt in foliage, decked with grape clusters.

Resourceful Eubouleus, immortal god sired by Zeus

On a secret bed.

Hearken to my voice, O blessed one,

breathe on me in a spirit of perfect kindness.

Conclusion

Brothers divine, we give to you libations. We give you, and you alone, so that our vision may be clear and our hearts, minds, and bodies be healed. We commit to the flames the obstacles that have held us back from the fullness of our lives. We also ask that you bless our desires and hopes for the following year. We pray that you lead us to new life as the season turns to spring.