"What's up you freak polytheistic bitches here in Nueva Granada, New Nihon, and specifucally Luna, who have to listen to this rotten show lagging 14 minutes and 12 seconds within the current placement. Not to mention you monotheistic bastards back on Terra — may the Computer have mercy on your souls.

Anyhows, this is Bro Jogan Live, and today we have a very special guest on the show. You all know him. He is the brain behind Post-Memetic Trade & Finance, the Sovereign Martian, and other interplanetary hits. His latest manual, Automythopoesis: How to build your Personal Pantheon, has hit the STR, crashing all nodes, and stirring up quite the controversy with billions of Marsies trembling in their Neo-Hellenistic magnetic boots. So hang on to your gravity accelerators, ladies and gentlemen of the Free Martian Cities, I welcome…Professor Dr. Maximilian Toxopeus III. APPLAUSE. May Athena continue to shine bright on you, my fellow."

“Thanks for having me again, Bro. As you know, I'm not much of an Athena cultist these moons anymore, but nevertheless I accept her blessings."

"Yes, and this is exactly why the citizenry wanted you on the podcast. They claim that with your latest publication you have now completely turned your back on Mount Olympus and all of its deities and have become a traitor to the Neo-Hellenistic faith. Let me read out some of the comments here. Toxopeus is a heretic, an anti-hellenist and a witch doctor. May Zeus zap him with his lightning bolts for his outrageous deeds. Uhm, what else? Oh this one almost didn’t pass the filters: May Charon leave him behind on the other shore. And finally: Cast him in Tartarus. All in all some pretty spicy comments. So what is your reaction to all of this, Professor?"

"Well, it is true about that Mount Olympus thing. I can see the volcano from my backyard, so indeed I turn my back on it daily. However, with regard to those other comments...what can I say? They are just trolls. And if that's their final verdict, then I must conclude that they haven't read my book at all, or have otherwise completely misinterpreted it. Automythopoesis means self myth creation. It doesn't exclude any deity from any polytheistic tradition, but just expands the ‘personal pantheon’, as I call it, with self-found entities of any type. Animals, spirits, jinns, kami, whatever. You add it. The only condition for deity addition or deletion is that the practitioner should contemplate whether the connection to the entity is genuine or not. A personal belief system tailored to the individual rooted in honesty and freedom."

"But Professor, can't you understand this is highly upsetting the citizenry? The polytheistic faith is one of the cornerstones of Martian society. Many pride themselves with adopting the Greek system that is more inline with modern mytho-neurological research. Also, many struggled for decades escaping the info-hole on Terra which only promoted the primitive monotheistic mindset ignoring most parts of the human brain. Why now do you want to rob us from our beloved Gods?"

"If my book is upsetting, then I did a good job. Again, I'm not taking away anything. As I clearly expounded in Chapter 4: BYO. Religiosity, the practitioner can freely invent and borrow one's own deities. If a citizen wants to suffer like Prometheus for a couple of years, rageout on their husband like Hera, or spend the weekend drunk, gossipping, and envious with the Maenads in some wine bar on Musk Street, then I'm all for it. To be fair, I think the Neo-Hellenists should do more of that dark work as they tend to focus too much on the Zeuses, Aphrodites, and Herculeses. I don't want to delve deeper into that tangent, as I have it covered under SCT in Chapter 14: Solo-Cultist Tendencies. But my main point remains: the practitioner should scrutinize one's own genuine relationship to all entities. This is the real cause why, as you say, the Hellenists are shaking in their magboots. They want a turn-key religious solution, not do any work, and just unconsciously copy somebody else's imagination. The Hellenistic faith is in no way defined. Who knows how many gods have been lost across the centuries. I argue that any automythopoetic addition is probably naturally filling up those divine holes in our brains, or at least fill a gap within..."

"Sorry to interrupt, Professor, but we have a live caller. Tell us your name, citadel, cult, and question, please?"

"Hi this is Jacky, from New Nihon, Mars of the local Dionysus cult. Bro, can you hear me?"

"You're live, Jacky. Ask the Prof your question."

"I don't really have a question. Just wanna say Mr. Toxopeus is a real jerk. I'm actually calling from Musk Street. Wanted to say me and the girls are doing live libations. We'd rather drink it ourselves, but Toxopeus is a wine ignoramus, and we pray Dionysos shall send the Maenads on him. Toxopeus can't take our divine right to get drunk and PARTAAAAYYY!" Beep! Beep!

"Wow! What do you have to say about that, Professor?"

"Well, frankly, this is a great exemplar of SCT and the broader social anxiety the citizenry faces with the ongoing fragmentation of the believe-o-sphere. They fear they'll lose their social groups which they are highly attached to. But as more citizens will go on the automythopoetic journey, we obviously shall shift to a more fragmented religious landscape. In which Jacky will have less fellow devotees, and Musk Street will need to pivot into a different industry. But the ones that stay shall be more real, hard-core, and genuine solo-cultists. Whereas the rest of the girls can explore the BYO mythic field. There might be gods with only a single devotee — very intimate, very private. Furthermore, practitioners will arise who'll have a completely unique pantheon. On the other side of the spectrum, one can solely have borrowed deities, though I’d encourage people to discover at least one entity for themselves. And any practitioner can decide to build a public shrine for wider adoption if they believe others can benefit from their mythic fantasy."

"Thank you, Professor. That was very interesting. We're unfortunately going to have to cut the emission short as a meteor storm is approaching and the shield will be raised. Quick plug on where people can download the book and find you."

"They can access me on the STR under mars.toxopeus.ng. Luna can send requests locally to citadel21.com/vol20. I also have a hard copy available, like this one I brought for you, Bro."

"Holy Hephaistos, is that a stainless steel cover?"

"Beryllium alloy, actually. Laserbeam-resistant, hence quite suited for the low time-preference Martian who wants to endow this down the family line."

"Bet you it can't handle arrows. I hunt with the Artemis cult on Wednesdays down at Muskwoods. Got a 90 pound bow in my speeder. What about it?"

"You may try. It won't go through. Bet you a hundred sats."

"You're on. Ok, that's it for this emission, Marsies. Buy the book now. Proceeds still go to Luna and the Nihonese effort to liberate archival nodes on Terra to make barbarous Earth polytheistic again. Thanks for listening. May Athena shine..."