Blessings Darlings!
How many of you are familiar with Odysseus' trip to the underworld?
It was a necessary stop on his way home (he needed the advice of a
shade there). But first he had to be told that he had to, uh, go to
Hades. He had to buy a goat, to sacrifice once he got to the part of
Hades he was traveling to. He had to drag the dang goat along as he
traveled.
Ever smell an adult male goat that you are keeping REALLYCLOSE quarters with?
He had to find the entrance to Hades. He had to take the path
downward. He had to cross the river Styx (and pay the gatekeeper there).
He had to travel thru' different parts of Hades, to find where the
shades he wanted to chat with were. Once there, he had to sacrifice the
goat, and only let those shades that he wanted to speak drink the
blood.
Then he had to get out ... the same way he came in.
This, my darlings, is a pretty typical entrance to Occult Studies. It
is a trip that you need to do work on before you even KNOW that you need
to take the trip. Once on the trip, there are gates, and gatekeepers.
It is fraught with challenges and dangers.
It . Is . Not . 'Inviting' .
The path exists in equal parts to purify and to screen folks out.
To not let you enter the mysteries unless you are worthy, unless you have already started the Great Work.
Yes, the outer court information and rituals of Wicca are out there and available to all. Those are not the Mysteries.
Yes - no one can 'keep you from the Gods'. But that doesn't mean that a
group, and certainly an egregore, is going to accept you if you don't
make it thru' the screenings/gates/past the gatekeepers.
Here,
this link explains why another religion, Judaism, makes it hard to
convert, which rather explains why this protects their egregore:
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/248165/jewish/Why-Do-Rabbis-Discourage-Conversions.htm
Frondly, Fern
Showing posts with label paleopagan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paleopagan. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Covens vs Paleopagan practice
Blessings Darlings!
Many Pagans operate within covens or other small groups. Such groups can be intimate. But are they 'traditional'? I suppose it depends on what part of paleopaganism you look at.
CELTS
Yeah, the Celts had Druids. They had their own training and such. We don't know much about how that worked out. But after training, they were out in the communities 'Druiding' - doing legal stuff, mediating between the people and the Gods, teaching history and other lore, etc. The villagers would have their own tales, shared by elders. They'd do their own folk magic, interpret drops of cream in water, etc.
No small group structure - everything was pretty much village wide or individual. No 'cities', no group cultus.
GREEK
Here we have cities, and with cities we can have Temples for different Gods and Goddesses. But even with different temples ... people poured their libations to Hestia in their home, and the entire city went out to the temple for the high day of the specific God/dess.
Again, no small group structure. Not even a 'coven full' of priestesses at the average temple.
Were there some groups? Yes. Lupercalia had some group in charge of the sacrifice, and they weren't 'full time' priests (some were politicians as I recall). And the Elusinian Mysteries were not done by everyone, but the experience was totally individual.
WITCHES
Were there some folks who did magic outside of the bounds of the Druids/temples/dominant paradigm? Sure. The Greek and the Celts did not look positively upon them. They were VERY much on their own, no structure, no group worship - they were probably magic only, not a different religion.
WHERE DID THE COVEN IDEA COME FROM?
As near as I can tell ... it was invented by Christianity. Maybe they got 13 members as a 'bad reflection' of the Last Supper, just like the Black Mass is a 'bad reflection' of the Mass. I don't see it anywhere before being mentioned in the Malleus Malificarum, tho' I admit I've not looked that hard. Certainly that's where the phrase "You cannot be a witch alone" comes from, which so many witches/pagans take as 'law' now.
SO WHAT?
So nothing. Just a train of thought about what the ancients did vs what we look to do today. They did it all alone or with the entire area. We focus on small groups (okay, except for ADF which was formed specifically to provide entire area public ritual ... and even their groves tend to 'choose' who gets to be a full member of the grove, tho' not the denomination).
Frondly, Fern
Many Pagans operate within covens or other small groups. Such groups can be intimate. But are they 'traditional'? I suppose it depends on what part of paleopaganism you look at.
CELTS
Yeah, the Celts had Druids. They had their own training and such. We don't know much about how that worked out. But after training, they were out in the communities 'Druiding' - doing legal stuff, mediating between the people and the Gods, teaching history and other lore, etc. The villagers would have their own tales, shared by elders. They'd do their own folk magic, interpret drops of cream in water, etc.
No small group structure - everything was pretty much village wide or individual. No 'cities', no group cultus.
GREEK
Here we have cities, and with cities we can have Temples for different Gods and Goddesses. But even with different temples ... people poured their libations to Hestia in their home, and the entire city went out to the temple for the high day of the specific God/dess.
Again, no small group structure. Not even a 'coven full' of priestesses at the average temple.
Were there some groups? Yes. Lupercalia had some group in charge of the sacrifice, and they weren't 'full time' priests (some were politicians as I recall). And the Elusinian Mysteries were not done by everyone, but the experience was totally individual.
WITCHES
Were there some folks who did magic outside of the bounds of the Druids/temples/dominant paradigm? Sure. The Greek and the Celts did not look positively upon them. They were VERY much on their own, no structure, no group worship - they were probably magic only, not a different religion.
WHERE DID THE COVEN IDEA COME FROM?
As near as I can tell ... it was invented by Christianity. Maybe they got 13 members as a 'bad reflection' of the Last Supper, just like the Black Mass is a 'bad reflection' of the Mass. I don't see it anywhere before being mentioned in the Malleus Malificarum, tho' I admit I've not looked that hard. Certainly that's where the phrase "You cannot be a witch alone" comes from, which so many witches/pagans take as 'law' now.
SO WHAT?
So nothing. Just a train of thought about what the ancients did vs what we look to do today. They did it all alone or with the entire area. We focus on small groups (okay, except for ADF which was formed specifically to provide entire area public ritual ... and even their groves tend to 'choose' who gets to be a full member of the grove, tho' not the denomination).
Frondly, Fern
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
