Tag: Personal Pantheon

I woke to the Dreaming for the first time in a long time.

I was back in the cult-church of my youth. I felt the earth shake with every strike from orbit, heard the fire and damnation from the pulpit, read the news on my phone with shaking, terrified hands; recognizing, somehow, that this truly was the End. There was no final chapter, it was being written around us and the last time I’d Dreamed this had been 2010 in a run-down apartment as I watched the sky torn asunder and the earth split.

The cold weight of the veil hung heavy on my head and across my shoulders as I gripped my phone in hands going white and blue from effort and chill. My brother shook me, tried to snap me out and away to go do something, anything, but sit tamely by. I refused. Not out of piety or false modesty, but because I knew I was not yet ready to believe it. 

And so I sat, listening to the drone of people behind me as they stayed or left or ran downstairs in despair for coffee and soda and whatever creature comforts had been brought by the congregation. And I… stayed until it was finished.

The downstairs of the church had a stairway, a singular landing, and another few steps down to the basement floor. Plain white and grey “marble” tile, folding chairs and tables, and old accordion-style “walls” that could be dragged from the edges of the room to create classrooms, or meeting areas closed off from the rest of the area. A few were being used as impromptu praying circles, but for the most part the church had cleared by the time I went below.

It seems in Dreams there’s nothing left for me in this space; which makes sense since the Severing I performed, and the fact that I simply want nothing to do with this place any longer, even if I AM dragged back night after night. 

I took nothing from them, this time, save the knowledge of who was present and who was missing, and exited the church from below. 

I found myself in the parking lot, my small tabby in my arms as I ran along the lilac bushes for the cars, SCREAMING with everything I had for help. She made no move to bite or claw, knowing as I did that all the youths behind me had been torturing her. The leader kept approaching, hand held out demanding her return. I refused. He looked nearly apologetic as he kept coming, saying “But I have to.” I refused a third time, and the world went sideways.

I was back in the basement, cat nowhere to be found which didn’t feel strange. Jeff, Susan, and a few other shadowy figures stood around me, saying things like this was our final chance to do whatever it was we hadn’t yet. 

He referenced the local tattoo shop, and also “Who’s feathers say *static*…?” I knew he was referencing my tattoos even though I don’t currently have any with feathers. I was also granted an image of my next ink, the layout, and the words that will be encircling it.

I woke to the sound of an owl outside somewhere in the neighborhood. 

Watch Me Rise indeed.

asksecularwitch:

traegorn:

asksecularwitch:

traegorn:

asksecularwitch:

@traegorn

Actually, I have heard of the revoking baptism and reversing the lords prayer as a mechanism for becoming a witch. Especially in forms of practice that emphasize a hand in hand form with the Devil (in some sense christian in other senses not christian).

Just as I have heard about walking into the mountains with a loaded revolver and silver bullets to shoot the moon and cause it to turn red.

If its the first time you’ve heard of that form of initiatory practice for a witch, I am not too surprised though. I invested minor time in looking into alternatives to initiation as a witch. The shooting the moon one I learned from NWW i believe.

But the reversal and other things I had heard / read in some cases from the witch trails in Europe if I am not mistaken in memory of where I had heard that.

I mean, I really just hadn’t heard of it, and mostly I was just saying it didn’t represent my experiences. Like I’m still not convinced it’s a widespread thing.

But you have to remember —

  1. I have never been a Christian, and have probably only heard the Lord’s Prayer forwards less than a dozen times in my life.
  2. Admittedly I’m a Wiccan, and therefore most beginner books I’ve read came from this angle — and we like to avoid overt Christian references in our practices.
  3. My assertion that it isn’t widespread is not an assertion that it is an illegitimate practice.

Mostly I was just sort of surprised.

I think the majority of the stand offishness with regards to people not wanting anything to do with Christianity (in New Age books), is exactly the representation of denoucing any christian actions that people have had.

I’ve had a lot of conversations with other witches that most of them are converts from one form of Christianity or another. Some of them turned openly against the churches they belong to, some of them didnt feel it was necessary to renoucing those concepts because that wasnt the type or kind of Christianity they had. (Ie, they had a kind where you just needed to believe in Christ and thats that. Not a whole system which is literally tracking you and what your doing and what rites you have and have not been given).

People forget that Christianity is a mystery religion (baptism is a mystery) just like Wicca is (in your case).

Think about what you would want if you ever left Wicca. Do you want to break your Wiccan initiation rites? How would you do that?

To me, this concrete separation and cutting of ties is absurdly common and a discussion I have had with people across the years. I am just surprised that people feel so against the idea that people would come up with ways to do that.

I don’t think I’m remotely against it, but I can see why someone would be?

Like to require renouncing something arguably could be seen as an endorsement of its validity? Like I think that point of view comes from the idea that if a contract was never valid, it doesn’t need to be broken. Like having to overtly break it somehow means a part of the person still sees it as true?

The counter is obvious — that even a dedication to a faith a person now deems illegitimate was still a dedication a person made, and the need to overtly disconnect can be therapeutic and validating. But not everyone comes from that point of view.

It’s a complicated, deeply personal thing.

I think its a point of closure as well. It was valid for that person until that point, and now its over and done with in a way that finishes it up.

You are right that it is a deeply personal thing, but so is working anything related to yourself. If that particular tradition views it as important to close something down, to separate yourself from it permanently, then that is a deeply personal decision.

I think its wrong headed to just jump back from something and stamp your foot (not that you were but that other replies where) with things like how dare you do that and how dare that be a requirement for certain practices. /scoff without considering the obvious point of it.

Closure. An end. A place where you cannot return to.

In almost a way of sacrificing it for something else.

I can see that in that mindset. And I see it as respectful as well, in some ways. Like I respected this religion enough to profane the ties I had to it. If that makes sense? Not to go on my days with a did i/didnt i? Type of deal.

Am i still technically part of this religion i have not actively participated in for years? Etc.

That is, in some ways, why I personally performed a retrieval and severing before beginning in earnest with the Morrigan. (Couldn’t follow up this Samhain due to new health issues, there is always Yule, which was my six week consideration period last contract ANYWAY. Hem. I digress-)

I DID view the contract as made under duress and with very many faults indeed. I called individually on the members of my personal pantheon, asking their specific help and the loan of a few attributes per entity, and asked Morrigan/the Morrigans to bear witness. Since, in my view, I was going to do battle with a Deity on their own ground. In my opinion, asking the war deity; specifically a war deity connected to self sovereignty and vows; you’re engaging with to watch as I renounce vows and assert my self sovereignty is a little… on the nose, yeah?

 I brought my complaints and my wounds before the god I was forced to serve as a child, without consent or understanding, and compared what had happened to me, to what he claimed in his own book to be about. None of it matched up. And a god that allows his followers to be so vile to CHILDREN is not a god I want to follow. I cut those ties, declared my autonomy, renounced my baptism; which in my view was impeding my involvement with other pantheons via “I am a jealous god” “the indwelling of the spirit” “no other gods before me”; I renounced the fellowship, and promised not to seek them out nor reproach them for remaining under the aegis of the church if that’s their desired place. 

Not everyone needs to do that. Not everyone suffered the abuse I did. Not everyone feels the need to differentiate between parts of their life so strongly, and not everyone needs to make that separation that… distinctive. And, definitely, not everyone wants to approach the Throne of Heaven to have words with the Christian Trinity. 

Me? I was pissed off, traumatized, and had recently ironed out the source of that trauma. I wouldn’t necessarily say I was possessed of God-Killer Rage in that moment, but I was definitely pissed and feeling betrayed. I did what I thought was necessary, and in the instances of “I can TELL people are praying over me” chain-yanking have drastically increased. 

I call that a win.

“I come to bring Freedom, and not Peace.” 

The light around Them was blinding, as it usually is. I doubt very much that I have ever seen Omnia face-to-face, save once. The distracting after-image of glazed, blind-violet eyes and salt-white hands conceals Their next words- But they are still lingering like the sound of music when the singer has stopped, my head rings with it. 

They are a creature of the Grey, even more than I am. The in-between, the always-were and never-was. Humanity, in all its thousands of permutations, its never-ending change averaged into this face, this form, shifting forever beneath that ice-blue robe. White tinged blue like morning snow, dazzling forever when the light hits, with afterimages and impressions that are no more a lie than the Entity they conceal and reveal at once. 

If Somnium is my Patron, They are my Parent. A concert-harmony of Light and Dark, compulsion and free will, the rise and fall of the tides led by the ever-present moon and witnessed by the sun. Attended by as many stars and planets as the sky can hold, in all its glory.

Their presence is a firestorm, super novas and rebirth shattering the veil around Their feet and I, when did I fall to my knees? When did Omnia turn “She” and “Mother” in my mind…? That neutrality traded in one moment for the understanding that this, this is as it should be. Freedom, not Peace. Love, in intricacy and not complacency made more so by indolent, insolent demand for sameness. 

Omnia is all things. The Divine Parent. Loving Acceptance. Arms open wide to the universe, beckoning.

And here I am, at the feet, bathed in the glow of that acceptance, wrestling with my thoughts and the ride and fall of words that I cannot comprehend. The grey of the hearth is sharp beneath my knees, soapstone and silver falling from my hands. Distantly, I can hear the singing on the River’s edge and the many calling back and forth in song and dancing- 

The dreams of the night turning brilliant and blinding if only for a few moments. And it is the mundane that cling now more than anything, now that I am awake. The taste of chocolate in my mouth and the spark of heated metal against my skin… shaking them off and picking up the thread of the Dreaming is harder than ever. 

“Freedom, and not Peace. Autonomy, sovereignty, crowns on crowns, unbound and loosed, the world shaken to its foundations and rebuilt. Peace is not freedom, and it comes at the cost of will.”

Quick question, is there a Celtic pagan equivalent of “amen”? I’ve been struggling with how to end prayers.

bean-chaointe:

themodernsouthernpolytheist:

goneintheriver:

lordognar:

themodernsouthernpolytheist:

That’s an excellent question! I think it depends on what you’re goin for. There’s always somethin simple like Sláinte of that works for you. I use it occasionally myself.

Somewhere along the way, I also picked up “An beannacht de beannachtaí ar Na Trí,” which translates to “The blessing of blessings on The Three.”* Lots of times, I use this as an opener and closer, honestly. And I can’t for the life of me remember where it came from, but it’s served me well, I think. This is really one of those things that seems to be fairly personal in Gaelic Polytheism and many Pagan and Polytheist practices cause so many of us come from Abrahamic backgrounds and like that concrete ending, but also don’t wanna use a word so inherently tied to those traditions, even when they’ve long been absorbed into our various cultures.

I’d actually love to hear if anyone else has words or phrases they use to open or close prayer?

*I am by no means fluent in Irish, so if someone knows this isn’t accurate, please let me know.

Whenever I see a reference to like three and shit i get wary because Wiccans. Is it for the Morrigan?

I believe the Three refrences the Gods, Spirits, and Ancestors. (I know some people use the gods and ungods)

Ah, I didn’t think to mention that, but yes, “Na Trí” references the groups @goneintheriver mentioned. Which for me, “spirits” applies in the broadest sense of the term to include land spirits, The Fair Folk, etc. I use Na Dé Ocus Andé, too, but usually when I’m referencing non-explicitly-ancestral spirits. Just my own preference/distinction.

@lordognar, Irish myth and lore set a solid pre-Wiccan foundation for the use of three. Folks like Robert Graves took a few concepts that had attested historical precedent, such as the triplification of deities – usually goddesses but not always – found in Irish, Gaulish, Greek, and other sources, but then ran off the rails with those concepts (Maiden, Mother, and Crone are Graves’ interpretation of that triplification). Unfortunately it’s the…creative twists that get remembered most often. Three as a sacred number isn’t unique to Wicca, or even Irish polytheism, for that matter.

I start my prayers with, “[deity/collective name], [some epithets either general or specific], [body of prayer],”

and then end with a simple, “Beannachtaí, [deity/collective name].” I just leave it at that unless special circumstances require more.

I call/invoke/invite the specific discarnate entities I want to address to listen, and release or thank them at the end as appropriate. 

At Samhain last year, it was an invitation to the Morrigan to acknowledge our prior contract, and to talk with me for awhile about what this year might hold for me, and for us. At the end of time, I thanked Her for Her time and instruction. 

When working with my own Pantheon, I ask for the loan of certain attributes or traits associated with their more animal aspects and ritually return them when I have finished whatever work I am doing. (I take no responsibility for anyone attempting to invoke my pantheon or what happens if you try it whether you succeed or fail.)

Disce. (list of epithets) Please grant me (Her attributes) Send Your foxes at my back, who are the twins, Kenning and Cunning. May I be prudent in my word and deed, and speak truth.
(ritual goes here)
Disce. I thank You for your wisdom, and return to You the kenning and cunning you have lent to me, Twins of Understanding and Wisdom.

Morrigan, (epithets)  I ask that You (bear witness as I do the thing) (in the way You showed me) (for these reasons) 
(ritual goes here)
Morrigan, (maybe epithets) I thank you for (instruction) in (self sovereignty or something else) and in laying the boundaries as hedges about me (while I do the thing).

kaynarune:

“I am the forest,
I am an ancient.
I treasure the stag,
I treasure the deer.
I shelter you from storm,
I shelter you from snow.
I resist the frost,
I keep the source.
I nurse the earth,
I am always there.
I build your house,
I kindle your hearth.
Therefore, you people,
hold me dear.”

— Inscription found in a 17th century forester’s house in Lower Saxony, Germany  (via moonsiren)

Words. Just Words.

house-of-crows:

I can offer nothing but what is already in existence. I can do no other than to offer freely with my own hands what is, and has been, and could be… if you turn it THIS way…. if you dare to dream.

Words came first…

Out of darkness, igniting the velvet black. Breath of the Muse, Heart of the Source. Beginning the endless spiral of time and being. Inspiration sits at the heart of everything; begun from words. This is Breath.

Existence joined her hands, taking up the litany of creation.

In the new-formed light, calling for being and time. Dancing under starlight, bringing Soul and Spirit to join in Inspiration. This is the Heart.

Love and Acceptance stepped out of darkness.

A space for all, no matter their condition. It is not enough to breath, nor enough to survive. Here is reason for more. Here is kindness and compassion given flesh and bone. This is Love.

Life and All Living Things That Move, our Mother.

Knowing that a soul with the capacity for love is still not enough, formed bodies from the dust of the earth, from the water and the air. This is the Blood.

What is life and breath and love, without Reason?

Without logic to guide, and experience to temper. So comes the Mind, that governs.

Libra; Who Balances The Scales; who comes Knowing.

There can be no peace, no life, no living without war. Let philosophers dream of peace, theirs is a dead hope and a dying dream no matter how many times the Muse resurrects it again. This is Chaos, this is Passion.

How then, shall we heal after war and wounds?

In Innocence, that burns and cauterizes our injuries. That helps us with Existence to forget and forgive, given time. This is Gentleness, this is Peace. This is Home.

And in this world, from spark of Inspiration, to the passing of Soul and Spirit and Body and Blood…

In what is the point? Now sit at Her feet and listen, now shall you See and shall you Know. In Prudence will you be instructed, and begin to Understand.

And you shall find in the smallest of things your greatest lessons. In moments of quiet in the midst of war. In the sound of silence between. In the color clear will you begin to see what touches all mankind, and uponthis will you build your world.

In this is your inner peace. In this is your knowledge and your understanding grown. That in Heart and Soul, Breath and Blood, Love and Reason, Passion and Innocence…. will you find your
Home.

house-of-crows:

“Sleeping, like dying, delivers you from this world to the next- To rest in crypts and wake in gardens.” 

Quote by @musterni-illustrates, from this piece, art hammered out in about 45min by myself, and then refined by my tattoo artist. I’ve always loved the pen and ink style, and Amrit’s foreboding captions have been captivating me since the beginning of the Shitty Horoscopes series. I’ve known for around five years that I needed a Raven and Poppies tattoo to honor my Patron Deity, and the quote perfectly meshes with His function as an Underworld God dealing with Dreams and Death. After a Dream in 09-’13, a second member of my pantheon said this to me: Life is meant for Living, and to Die is to sleep in crypts and wake in gardens. 

It felt like an acknowledgement and an encouragement in one, so here is the commemoration of that moment in my skin, where it belongs. That Dreaming may be found here

#this is gorgeous#this is GORGEOUS#i am floored by this wow#i want this on my skin#wow#or at least as a phone case or backround

Hey friend~ Thanks for the nice words and the appreciation. That’s cool, and I’ve got no issue with it. But I need to make something real damn clear: this is my tattoo, and MY skin. It is a devotional piece inspired by another brilliant artist, and dedicated to the Gods I follow. The reason you like it, is because it has meaning, and it’s pretty. Guess what? A reputable artist can MAKE YOU SOMETHING that is unique, pretty, and has meaning. They can help you create YOUR OWN skin, without the need to steal someone else’s.

Putting a religious and devotional art piece on YOUR skin; when you do not acknowledge my Deities or serve them in any way, steals the meaning. It would be dead on you, not a living, breathing, work of art designed to connect me to Them more fully. 

I’ve spent five years designing this tattoo, even if the actual art itself took less than an hour. A reputable artist won’t put someone else’s art on your skin anyway, BUT. I’d really appreciate it if you kept that in mind, and just didn’t. It’s not respectful, and sure isn’t cute, thanks.

gladiatoroftheorists:

wodneswynn:

mediumsizedboy:

Any elder gods out there looking to trade mystic powers in exchange for loyal service in the physical planes? Asking for a friend

Mood

My boyfriend told me that this deal doesn’t work out well, so ima just say no?

@house-of-crows @almightyalmighty

it never works out. not in the way you intend it to, not in any of the contingencies, and nearly never in the way your fever dreams almost-kinda-sorta predicted.