He was Creation's First Storyteller. To soothe a wrathful Goddess, ibis-headed Thoth spun tales of honor and greed, love and treachery, Gods and princes and pirates. Entranced, charmed, Her rage cooled, the Goddess returned to heaven. Order was restored. And so it is in His name that we dedicate this collection. Here, modern Pagans and polytheists continue that ancient tradition, weaving stories of creation and loss, death and rebirth, humor and courage, transformation and destruction. From the banks of the Nile to the icy north, from modern-day Kansas to far future alien worlds, these tales...

Alternate history. Apocalyptic. Biopunk. Cyberpunk. Dystopia. Ecological. Far future. Feminist. Gaslight. Lost world. Marxist. Military. Parallel world. Planetary romance. Space opera. Space western. Steampunk. Superhero. Time travel. Utopia. As a genre, science fiction is difficult to define. So, perhaps the best definition is also the broadest: science fiction as a genre deals with imaginary, but plausible and logically constructed, worlds in which the implications and consequences of cultural, environmental, and scientific change and innovation are explored. With its limitless potential...

Metalsmith. Fire-Tamer. Forge-Master. Bronzeworker. Weaponsmaster of the Gods. The Lame One. The Ugly God. Friend of Humanity. He is Hephaestus, the Divine Craftsman. Patient, stout-hearted, and clever, he is the Master of all Metals, the Holy Engineer. Celebrated for his wondrous creations, he is also pitied and teased for his lameness, his unsightly appearance, his estrangement from his family, and his marriage to lovely Aphrodite. But Hephaestus is not a God to be underestimated or ill-used -- a reality understood by his modern devotees. In the pages of this anthology you will find poems,...

Demeter. Ancient and modern devotees alike know Demeter to be a complex Goddess. As demonstrated by the poetry, essays, short fiction, and artwork collected in this anthology, she is a Goddess of many guises. Some devotees see her as an aspect of the Great Goddess, the source of all creation. For others, She is part of a fluid trinity, encompassing the phases of a woman's life and the cycles of the year. Some experience Demeter as identical to the Roman Ceres, while still others consider them distinct entities. Some honor her as the Mistress of Good Green Growing Things, Lady of Herbs and...

Devourer Lady of Perfume She of the Ointment Jars Mistress of the Crowns Queen of the Sky Who Rules Over All the Gods Bast is a complex Goddess of many names and many forms. She is sometimes a cat, sometimes a woman with the head of a cat, sometimes a woman with the head of a lion. She is both fiercely maternal, and wrathful. She is compassionate and sensuous, but also savage and grim. She is both huntress, and protector. As her devotees past and present attest, She is a Goddess of great beauty, great warmth, and great terror. A Goddess truly worthy of our devotion. Dua Bast

Poseidon. Amphitrite. Nereus and the Nereids. Triton and Tethys. Iris and the Graeae. Proteus and Styx and Medusa. They are of the sea, and more than the sea. They are the primordial ocean from which life arose, and which continues to sustain the world. They are the saltwater in our blood. They are storm and wind and tide and crashing waves. They are glorious beings of water and salt and light, avengers of injustice and providers of bounty. They are fathers and mothers and lovers. They are wrathful and exuberant, compassionate and wise, quixotic and impulsive and shrewd. They are Powers most...

The Horae. The Charites. The Mousai. They are the Horae: Goddesses of time, spring growth, new buds and first fruits. They oversee just laws, right conduct, and peace. As above, so below: the orderly progression of the seasons is mirrored by the order of a society in balance with the will of the Gods. They are the Charities: Goddesses of beauty, charm, elegance, and deportment, who watch over all the finer things in life; that which makes the human condition bearable, and civilization truly civilized. They are the Mousai, or Muses: Goddesses who inspire poets, dancers, dramatists, comedians,...

She is the Foam-Born. The Myrtle and the Rose. Lover, Warrior, Mother, and Creatrix. Aphrodite and Venus are complex Goddesses. The same may be said, of course, of any Power. When it comes to Deities associated with love or sex, though, too many fall back on caricature when trying to explain or understand such Beings: they are all lusty bubbleheads or consumed with materialist desires, or, worse, frivolous and cruel, given to playing with human hearts for their own amusement. That is not Aphrodite, nor is it Venus. Rather, they are Goddesses of immense power and deep passions, who can be kind...