Black Cat's radar is in working order. More times than not, I sit down to write and he's right here, looking to see if there are any edibles - and to look at me as if he is a poor, Dickensian starving waif asking, "Please, Ma'am. A scrap, a morsel of food is all I ask..."
______________
Now that it's a bit later and Black Cat has found a scrap of food in Kuma's bowl (read: it was half full,) I guess I can write.
John Beckett and Galina Krasskova had articles today about honoring and loving fearsome and savage gods. They ask why anyone would want to do so - why not just focus on the positive and beautiful aspects.
I agree with their reasons. When we reject certain aspects because they make us uncomfortable, it stunts our relationship with Them. That's not to say it's not terrifying when our gods show their more awesome sides. It most definitely is. Sometimes it comes, not in a big act, but in the smallest thing.
I lost my great aunt in a tornado several years ago. It was truly a terrible storm and it could have well earned the epithet 'Eye of Set' (in fact, one man who survived the storm with a broken leg was quoted, "The Lord grabbed my leg and kicked my ass.")
It was hard for me to believe that this wonderful, funny woman had died in such a horrible, terrifying way. In my grief, I asked Set that night why - why did this happen to her?
I'm not entirely sure what I was looking for but if I was looking for comfort, I didn't get it. I was deeply grieving my loss but in response to my question was the completely dispassionate, what-the-fuck-is-it-any-of-my-concern answer, "Sometimes, things just are."
It was one of the few times I understood the phrase, "my blood ran cold." It was a reminder that the gods are not human, even if they can sometimes pass. We humans also forget ourselves and act like we are the end all, be all and occasionally we need reminders that we are so not.
After I began to get over my grief and think about the answer I received, plus my daring to ask a storm god why a storm took my loved one, I started to respect Set even more. In that one, toss-away answer, I caught a glimpse of the terrible awesomeness of this god. Plus, there are multiple layers in that one answer. Sometimes, it is the direct answer that is the most helpful, more than any platitude, no matter how well meaning it is.
Getting back to the original point of all this, why not just focus on the positive and beautiful? Because when you reject the parts you don't like, you saying that you can't accept that deity in totality, or at least as much totality as we measly humans can comprehend.)
Showing posts with label pagan articles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pagan articles. Show all posts
Monday, July 06, 2015
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
30 Days (or so) meme: Why I am Pagan
Well, I figured it's high time I joined in the 30 Days meme. That's me - join in after everyone else had done it and moved on. Plus, it's hard for me to talk about my beliefs. Faith is such a personal, private thing.
So...I've got the headphones on and Voltaire's singing Oh Lord. Let's rock this thing, shall we?
Day 1 - Why Paganism?
Short answer? It's one of the few faiths I explored that allowed me to be myself. It also allows for the mystery of the world to be real, without excusing it as simply being an illusion.
When I was a kid, we went a nearby Cumberland Presbyterian church. Except for my grandmother, we weren't a very religious bunch. Church was just Something You Did. I remember Sunday School could be interesting - the older kids would start talking to the teacher about the latest horror movies they've seen or something they did during the week. Surely, we worked through the lessons but I don't remember them.
I do remember some of the mystery of the church. I remember at Easter when the "juice and crackers" were passed around. The preacher would talk about how they were the body and blood of Jesus but whenever I saw them, they'd change back into crackers and grape juice. I also remember constantly looking up at the sky because I had been told "God is watching you!" It was like always being under the gaze of a third parent was way more stern than my mom or dad. He'd send me away forever just because he didn't like something I did.
When I hear about seeing the world as a child would, this is what I think about. Never did catch a glimpse of that guy that was always watching, either.
I started questioning things when I was about twelve. My parents had divorced two years before and my dad was going to a Southern Baptist church. I did. Not. Like. It. AT ALL. There was no mystery. No wonder. Just a bunch of people who came to See and Be Seen. Oh yeah, there was some guy standing up front talking about how we were all wrong too.
This was also about the time I began walking the woods behind our house after school. I couldn't wait to get home every day because I had a good three hours before my got home from work and I could go looking for a mystery. I would have at least one cat journeying with me, usually more. The trees were my friends. I once followed the path of a turkey vulture flying overhead and found a spot I had never visited that was very sacred and magical. The pawpaw tree growing through a pile of rocks was a faery mound. Where did the water in the spring come from and were there caves in the bluffs at the top of the hill? Where would they go if I found them? What lived in the woods besides the cows and deer? (I longed to catch a glimpse of Bigfoot but hoped I wouldn't too.) The world was alive and full of joy.
This is why I'm Pagan. Now, not only the world but the universe is alive and full of joy. The sky is full of bright, distant stars but it is part of the body of Her as well. The sun is not simply a flaming ball of gas but it is also Ra on His Barque, protected by Set and Khnum as it travels through the Underworld at the end of the day. At the same time, I sit vigil every Yule so the Sun will rise.
Someone has to. If the world forgets its stories, it forgets its reasons for being alive. Life just becomes drudgery, a ceaseless routine of colorless chores. I don't want that to happen on my watch, mister.
So...I've got the headphones on and Voltaire's singing Oh Lord. Let's rock this thing, shall we?
Day 1 - Why Paganism?
Short answer? It's one of the few faiths I explored that allowed me to be myself. It also allows for the mystery of the world to be real, without excusing it as simply being an illusion.
When I was a kid, we went a nearby Cumberland Presbyterian church. Except for my grandmother, we weren't a very religious bunch. Church was just Something You Did. I remember Sunday School could be interesting - the older kids would start talking to the teacher about the latest horror movies they've seen or something they did during the week. Surely, we worked through the lessons but I don't remember them.
I do remember some of the mystery of the church. I remember at Easter when the "juice and crackers" were passed around. The preacher would talk about how they were the body and blood of Jesus but whenever I saw them, they'd change back into crackers and grape juice. I also remember constantly looking up at the sky because I had been told "God is watching you!" It was like always being under the gaze of a third parent was way more stern than my mom or dad. He'd send me away forever just because he didn't like something I did.
When I hear about seeing the world as a child would, this is what I think about. Never did catch a glimpse of that guy that was always watching, either.
I started questioning things when I was about twelve. My parents had divorced two years before and my dad was going to a Southern Baptist church. I did. Not. Like. It. AT ALL. There was no mystery. No wonder. Just a bunch of people who came to See and Be Seen. Oh yeah, there was some guy standing up front talking about how we were all wrong too.
This was also about the time I began walking the woods behind our house after school. I couldn't wait to get home every day because I had a good three hours before my got home from work and I could go looking for a mystery. I would have at least one cat journeying with me, usually more. The trees were my friends. I once followed the path of a turkey vulture flying overhead and found a spot I had never visited that was very sacred and magical. The pawpaw tree growing through a pile of rocks was a faery mound. Where did the water in the spring come from and were there caves in the bluffs at the top of the hill? Where would they go if I found them? What lived in the woods besides the cows and deer? (I longed to catch a glimpse of Bigfoot but hoped I wouldn't too.) The world was alive and full of joy.
This is why I'm Pagan. Now, not only the world but the universe is alive and full of joy. The sky is full of bright, distant stars but it is part of the body of Her as well. The sun is not simply a flaming ball of gas but it is also Ra on His Barque, protected by Set and Khnum as it travels through the Underworld at the end of the day. At the same time, I sit vigil every Yule so the Sun will rise.
Someone has to. If the world forgets its stories, it forgets its reasons for being alive. Life just becomes drudgery, a ceaseless routine of colorless chores. I don't want that to happen on my watch, mister.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
The septagram - part one
(This is part of a series I'm writing for another site. I'm hoping posting it here will inspire me to finish it soon. I'm having trouble fitting some of the modern uses into this and will hopefully post them when they're done.)
Most Pagans are familiar with the pentagram. An outgrowth of this symbol is the septagram, a star with seven points. It is also known as the Faery Star, Elven Star, Elven Star of the Seven Sisters and acute heptagram. There are representations of it found in mathematics, paganism and even the subculture called Otherkin.
A Smattering of Math
Mathematically, the septagram is called the acute heptagram ("hepta-" being Greek for seven.) It belongs in a class of shapes called star polygons. They are usually represented by a fraction composed of prime numbers. In this case, the heptagram is known as a 7/3 star polygon. This simply means seven points are spaced evenly around the circumference of a circle and when drawn, the straight lines are connected at every third point. However, it is theoretically impossible to accurately draw a septagram with only a pencil and a straight edge, unlike the pentagram. Where the interior angles of a pentagram come to 36 degrees (180 degrees divided by 5), the interior angles of a septagram come to about 25.714 (180 divided by 7.)
Why seven?
There are as many reasons the number seven is sacred as there are people. One theory is it may have come about from the number of planets that could be observed in the ancient sky. It could also come from the seven observable stars of the pleiades, also called the Seven Sisters, or those seven stars that every child learns in the night sky called the Big Dipper. Another theory says the moon is responsible. It changes phase every seven days - from new to crescent, half, full and back to new again.
A Smattering of History
One of the oldest representations of the septagram is linked to the seven planets. It comes from the Hellenistic (circa 323 BC to about 146 BC) world This was a time of expansion for the Greeks, whose influence was felt from Italy to Egypt, the Middle East and Asia. During this time, the seven day week was widely adopted and each day was associated with a planet. The planets were placed in a counterclockwise circle in the order of the apparent speed of their travels across the sky, from Moon to Saturn. If a line is drawn from the point representing the Sun, not only does it form a septagram but also shows the days of the week in correct order.
The septagram makes another appearance during the Renaissance as an alchemical symbol. Usually seen reversed, or upside down, it was used to represent the seven recognized metals: lead, tin, iron, gold, copper, mercury and silver. Again, each metal was associated with one of known planets. It was also a depiction of the seven steps of the alchemical process: calcination, sublimation, solution, putrefaction, distillation, coagulation and tincture. Black (or "nigredo") was considered to be the starting point. As Saturn was the slowest moving planet in the sky, lead was considered by many alchemists to be the prima materia, or base material. With each step, impurities were supposed to be removed from the lead until all that was left was gold.
Upcoming posts: Modern uses of the Septagram and explorations into the meanings of the seven points - sun, land, water, magic, wind, moon and connection.
Sources (includes sources for info on some modern use as well):
Seven point star
Weisstein, Eric W. "Star Polygon." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource.
Weekday heptagram
The Metal - Planet Affinities - The Sevenfold Pattern
The Heptad, 7 from Numbers, Their Occult Power and Mystic Virtues, by W. Wynn Westcott, [1911]
Sublime Lead: The Biography of a 5000 Year Toxic Love Affair, Chap. 6 -
The Honeymoon: Lead and Alchemy: Decoding Chemistry Within the Imagery (pdf file)
an essay on the seven pointed star, by magpie
Blue Star Beliefs
Occult Rock
What Does the Star Mean?
Most Pagans are familiar with the pentagram. An outgrowth of this symbol is the septagram, a star with seven points. It is also known as the Faery Star, Elven Star, Elven Star of the Seven Sisters and acute heptagram. There are representations of it found in mathematics, paganism and even the subculture called Otherkin.
A Smattering of Math
Mathematically, the septagram is called the acute heptagram ("hepta-" being Greek for seven.) It belongs in a class of shapes called star polygons. They are usually represented by a fraction composed of prime numbers. In this case, the heptagram is known as a 7/3 star polygon. This simply means seven points are spaced evenly around the circumference of a circle and when drawn, the straight lines are connected at every third point. However, it is theoretically impossible to accurately draw a septagram with only a pencil and a straight edge, unlike the pentagram. Where the interior angles of a pentagram come to 36 degrees (180 degrees divided by 5), the interior angles of a septagram come to about 25.714 (180 divided by 7.)
Why seven?
There are as many reasons the number seven is sacred as there are people. One theory is it may have come about from the number of planets that could be observed in the ancient sky. It could also come from the seven observable stars of the pleiades, also called the Seven Sisters, or those seven stars that every child learns in the night sky called the Big Dipper. Another theory says the moon is responsible. It changes phase every seven days - from new to crescent, half, full and back to new again.
A Smattering of History
One of the oldest representations of the septagram is linked to the seven planets. It comes from the Hellenistic (circa 323 BC to about 146 BC) world This was a time of expansion for the Greeks, whose influence was felt from Italy to Egypt, the Middle East and Asia. During this time, the seven day week was widely adopted and each day was associated with a planet. The planets were placed in a counterclockwise circle in the order of the apparent speed of their travels across the sky, from Moon to Saturn. If a line is drawn from the point representing the Sun, not only does it form a septagram but also shows the days of the week in correct order.
The septagram makes another appearance during the Renaissance as an alchemical symbol. Usually seen reversed, or upside down, it was used to represent the seven recognized metals: lead, tin, iron, gold, copper, mercury and silver. Again, each metal was associated with one of known planets. It was also a depiction of the seven steps of the alchemical process: calcination, sublimation, solution, putrefaction, distillation, coagulation and tincture. Black (or "nigredo") was considered to be the starting point. As Saturn was the slowest moving planet in the sky, lead was considered by many alchemists to be the prima materia, or base material. With each step, impurities were supposed to be removed from the lead until all that was left was gold.
Upcoming posts: Modern uses of the Septagram and explorations into the meanings of the seven points - sun, land, water, magic, wind, moon and connection.
Sources (includes sources for info on some modern use as well):
Seven point star
Weisstein, Eric W. "Star Polygon." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource.
Weekday heptagram
The Metal - Planet Affinities - The Sevenfold Pattern
The Heptad, 7 from Numbers, Their Occult Power and Mystic Virtues, by W. Wynn Westcott, [1911]
Sublime Lead: The Biography of a 5000 Year Toxic Love Affair, Chap. 6 -
The Honeymoon: Lead and Alchemy: Decoding Chemistry Within the Imagery (pdf file)
an essay on the seven pointed star, by magpie
Blue Star Beliefs
Occult Rock
What Does the Star Mean?
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