Thank you for dropping by. If you are interested in joing the Delphic Oracle, then as we indicated on the hubpage for this ring, membership is limited to active participants in "a Graeco-Roman Soapbox", the ring's home mailing list, which you'll find the homepage for in the list of featured sites for this ring. Once we get to know you over there, we can start discussing the possibility of inviting you to join the ring. Don't misunderstand us, we do want new members, but we're trying to make this into a juried process and there's a lot more involved in that than just checking for code. We're going to be going through your site, reading your writings and discussing your application with you, on list, so there is a reason for this policy.

Pass_L is not accepted on this webring, because the presence of sites getting only a Pass_L hurts the navigation rating. That makes the ring less inviting to those passing through, meaning that fewer will take the time to travel the ring, and our member sites will see less traffic. That's not fair to our members. Also, a Pass_L fails to distinguish between the ring code being on a non-entry page, and, say, the ring code present being that for another page. This, we've already seen happen, with the result that the Delphic Oracle navbar wasn't appearing, and the ring was broken. The only way to distinguish between a good Pass_L and a bad Pass_L is by a time consuming, manual crawl through the sites with that rating, and if we see dozens of sites doing that, this job will become impossible.

This webring is, as we've said, under new management, and like any ringmaster, this one has his own way of doing things. Kyrene Ariadne, as we've indicated, allowed Pass_L as a rating, and while we're sure she must have had her reasons, we've firmly insisted on a change. Even so, we're not here to do the "bull in a china shop" routine. As far as we see this approach to be practical, we try to honor the traditional notion of somebody being "grandfathered in". There are a number of sites on this ring - no need to name names - which, if they applied today, would be rejected, because they don't fit in with the current focus of the ring. And there are ringmasters who, as they take over a new ring, will be very casual about tossing sites off of a ring, where they have been for some while, on that basis. They want what they want when they want it, and what they want to see is their visions made reality, instantly. That, as far as we're concerned, is just plain rude, and that is not how we're going to do business here.

The rules below are the ones that we're giving to new applicants to the ring. If you click on "join this ring", you'll see them. If, as you look over these rules, you start thinking "my site is a little too New Age, and is going to be deleted", what we're telling you is "don't worry about it". We're not going to throw you off of the ring over that, as strongly as we may disagree with your approach to the subject matter. Sites devoid of real Greek or Roman content, or which do legitimately preach hatred are another matter. Also, if you do have R rated material on a site already on this ring, we'll expect to see a warning page put in place, and the use of content tags in order to aid child protection filtering software. Something along the lines of

This markedly differs from what would seem to be the approach of Kyrene Ariadne, the founder of this ring, who wrote the following in the old desctiption for this webring:

" A ring for those sites with interest in Greek mysticism / philosophy / religion / mythology and / or those who worship the Graeco-Roman gods. Greek pagans are especially welcome and encouraged to join. Scholars of Graeco-Roman religion are equally as welcome. If you are eclectic, it doesn't matter, as long as there is some Greek! I'm trying to get people together with a common interest in the ancient Graeco-Roman world, including the mythology, history, and religion/philosophy."

Everything in that the emphasis of the ring has shifted. The first thing you probably noticed is Boucher's painting of Leda and the Swan (Zeus in disguise). While the story portrayed is perhaps not Zeus' finest hour, the picture is used with love. Much like the Asatruar, many of us, as Hellenists, see the gods as being family, in a sense, and a sign of one's love for one's elders is often a gentle amusement with their quirks and frailties. What is significant, in this choice of redesign, is that rather than focus on the works of man in the graphic (eg. pictures of temples), we're signaling a renewed emphasis on the gods themselves, in the religious aspect of this ring. (Obviously, this concern does not apply to our Non-Pagan members, who we're not asking to develop a devotion to the Olympian gods).

Not that we in any way scorn those works of man. But, I think that much of the mainstream of Hellenism has been lead off course in recent years. I think that some of us have forgotten why we're here, why it is that Hellenism has little common ground with the New Age. As somebody else (I forget who) once wrote, ancient Paganism differed from Neo-Paganism in three very important regards. Three hallmarks of the old faith that he found missing from its self-styled successors were:

In their obsession with the rigid ettiquette demanded by the self-styled American cultural mainstream, especially under Political Correctness, it is precisely these three things that some of us have allowed to fall by the wayside, in the name of not offending anybody. But worship, if it is to mean anything, must include a firm loyalty to the ones worshipped. When a New Ager utters some fashionable sound like "we are the gods", and in hearing the sacredness (or even the very reality) of our gods disputed, we find that we can't find the courage to firmly say "I disagree", because somebody might feel angered by that assertion, we are not showing loyalty. How can we be amazed if, in turning our backs on the gods over so petty a matter as short-term popularity, we find, one day, that the gods have run out of patience, and turned their backs on us?

We spoke of the need to symbolically place the gods before the works of man, and this is what we are referring to. Many, though they speak of their devotion to the gods, will set the expression of that piety to one side if a little heat comes their way, and far from being ashamed of this weakness of spirit, will convince themselves that civility demands this exercise in cowardice. Nonsense. Civility is that which allows us to work together, in a productive way, as we seek to live lives which are both pleasant and virtuous. There is no virtue to be found in placing the political works of man ahead of our relationship with those who would guide us, as we give those works purpose, in any legitimately religious context. As a certain much maligned former vice president once said, "religion is not a hobby".

Piety must come before Ettiquette, especially an ettiquette deeply rooted in a culture that Hellenism has no connection to, and, if truth be told, aside from the language, very few of us at this end feel much of a link to. This ring is not about "magick", it's about religion, yes, religion in the same sense that Judaism or Roman Catholicism are religion, deserving of the same respect, because the standards it holds its adherents to are just as high. Standards that we should stand up for with pride, and without fear, no matter how much irrational anger this may inspire in the narrowminded few. This ring is about tradition and philosophy, and how each is enriched by its seeming conflict with the other. It is about Greece and Rome, and all of the cultures which find their roots in them, and about the virtues that their peoples displayed, when they were at their best.

It is for this reason that no additional Wiccan sites will be admitted to this ring. Wicca is deeply rooted in a non-Mediterranean cultural tradition, one which meshes very poorly with those of Greece and Rome (and those cultures most deeply rooted in them). In our experience Wicca, by and large, promotes a belief in moral relativism, and has scarcely been supportive of piety in any real sense, reducing the gods to being nothing more than so many Jungian archetypes, dependent on us for their very existence. We and they can not travel together along our respective spiritual paths for the same reason that a traveller headed to Boston and one headed to San Diego can not travel together as they depart O'Hare : because we're headed in opposite directions, and if we try, we're going to get precisely nowhere.

Those Wiccan sites which are already on the ring will probably be allowed to stay, out of respect for the concept of being "grandfathered in". But this ring will be gradually sliding in a non-fluffy, less eclectic direction. Bad news in some eyes, good news in others. The good news comes to those who wanted to write something with substance and with an edge to it. As long as you write well, argue your points intelligently, and come from something truly resembling a Hellenic point of view, we're not going to care how politically incorrect you are. Remember the story of what happened when the Persian ambassador demanded soil and water from the Greeks, prior to the Persian war? He found himself thrown down a well, being told that he could find plenty of both at the bottom. The ancients were not afraid to offend, when they saw themselves as clearly being in the right, and we hope you won't be, either.

The emphasis is shifting away from mysticism, toward a more balanced valuing of both the rational and ecstatic aspects of faith. We would like to see more Philosophy on this ring. Like our predecessor, Kyrene Ariadne, we'll accept some eclecticism, but perhaps not quite as much as she would. We'd like to see a cultural coherence to the "eclecticism", what some would say would be more synchretism than eclecticism. For example, there actually was a Graeco-Egyptian synthesis under the Ptolemeys, and some might be interested in pursuing that. But if somebody throws together a random grab bag of deities from every pantheon she can find, binding it together with metaphysics a la Llewellyn, then this is not the ring for her. Aristotle, not Shirley MacLaine; cultural identy, not assimilation.

Did this answer your questions? The mailform above is available if you have any polite questions, but understand that policy is not open for haggling or debate. There are always other webrings, and to the best of our knowledge, this is one of only a few which have adopted nonfluffiness as policy, a policy which we will stand firm on, without compromise or apology.

Click here to re-enter the Delphic Oracle Webring. This page is being subhosted on the Almond Jar, homepage of the Shrine of the Sleeping Gods, while I try to figure out why the (expletitive deleted) it is, that navbars are periodically failing to display on some of our Geocities pages, at least according to some of our ringmasters. Obviously, until that problem is fixed, measures have to be taken to insure that the rings that this ring belongs to aren't getting shortchanged. (If you were wondering what "subhosting" was, the concept and its merits are explained simply (but in detail) on this page, over at Medius' Storage Shed).