Red wineIronA fire kept burningA meal set outside in winterThe first cut of wood
Invocation Approach
Tone
Blunt and strong
Address
BoreasNorth WindThracian Lord
Relationship
The wind that does not slow for you
Warning
He was prayed to by a city that wanted him weaponised
Resonance
Sailors winter workers those who need a storm to pass
Symbols
NorthWingsConch shellSnowThe stallion
Mythology Summary
Boreas is the north wind, son of Astraeus and Eos and the most violent of the four brothers. He carried off Oreithyia, daughter of the Athenian king Erechtheus, to Thrace, where she bore the winged Boreads, Zetes and Calais, and their sister Chione. The Athenians credited him with wrecking the Persian fleet off Cape Sepias in 480 BCE and gave him a shrine by the Ilissus and a state cult, which is unusually formal footing for a wind. His Roman counterpart is Aquilo.
Modern Practice
Boreas is called on for a storm to break, for a thing to be carried off and ended, and in winter work that treats cold as a force rather than a mood. The practice is outdoor and unsoftened: make the offering into the wind and do not expect it to be gentle.