Lots of Thoughts- Nature of the Gods; the Morrigan; Projects; Heroes.
March 4th, 2010I don’t know when I started thinking specifically on this subject, but I woke up this morning with some well-defined (well, at least for me) thoughts and I thought I’d share them.
I consider myself a hard polytheist; I always have. The gods, to me, are decidedly distinct individuals- except when they’re not. Someone on TC said (I’m having a bad brain moment and can’t recall who, or in what thread) that true Kemetic recons can’t really be hard polytheists, what with all the historical syncreticisms of deities within their own pantheon, their own culture. How does a hard polytheist reconcile the concept that the gods are distinct individuals, and then approach an entity like Amun-Re, or Het-haru-Sekhmet, or Bawy (Heru-Wer and Set)? For me, it comes down to this: soft polytheism is when people decide that two gods are the same person; a hard polytheistic Kemetic is just acknowledging when the gods decide they are the same person.
But I’ve also been struggling with how this works, exactly. How do two gods decide they are one, how does one god decide they are two? How can they be each other and themselves at the same time? It’s one thing to say, “well, they said so, so I’m going with it,” and really internalize the idea, which in the end is what I think that TC member was really talking about. And this morning (as I was thinking about the Morrigan, oddly enough- actually, not that oddly, but I’ll explain that train of thought derailment later) a possible answer occurred to me.
Do you ever have a situation you have to deal with, an act you have to perform, that before it happens you need to stop and put yourself in another mental head space, another frame of mind? You have to force yourself to think differently about the world, or the situation, or a person, or whatever- your reactions in that head-space are different than they would be if you hadn’t taken that moment to yourself. Now, what if your normal head-space and that special head-space existed at the same time? They are separate, aren’t they- because they have a different frame of reference, and their actions may be different- but they are linked, they are the same, because they’re both you. When it comes to the gods, I don’t think that Sekhmet is merely a head-space of Het-haru, or vice-versa; more that they are each other’s head-space. They recognize that shared point of view in each other, and being gods, they are capable of being themselves and each other at the same time when it suits them.
The reason that this came to me when I was thinking about the Morrigan is because, well, the Morrigan is tricky. All gods are tricky, of course, but the Irish ones are especially so, since we have such little primary information for them, and the Morrigan I think more than any other, because no one can seem to agree if she is one entity, or several smashed together, or several working under a specific title, or what. I have long been of the opinion that she was her own entity, and not just because I’m a hard polytheist. I’ve been wondering lately, though, if the Morrigan could be a little like Sekhmet- only instead of punishing those who go against ma’at, the Morrigan deals with issues of sovereignty. And extrapolating from the related experiences of TC members who belong to the Morrigan, along with mine, she punishes those who do not respect the personal sovereignty of those that are hers, while at the same time pushing those that are hers to acknowledge and respect and understand their own sovereignty. After all, “the Morrigan” is a title- it’s used as a name now, for that specific, avenging head-space, but it could imply that there’s a name buried under there, a Het-haru who revels in the joy of personal sovereignty. What her name is, I don’t know, but I’d like to find out, as I think that knowledge could enrich my relationship with the Morrigan.
Ever since I reconciled the idea of Heroes into my path, as belonging with the Dead, I’ve have been thinking on them more frequently. I haven’t worked out exactly how my practical relationship with them will work or what it will entail; my daily prayer to Kassandra asks her to speak to me, but the others… I’m just not sure. I feel the same pull to them as I do to Kassandra, but I’m not sure what they have to teach. There is Briseis, trophy of and potentially beloved of Achilles during the Trojan War; Tiy and Nefertari, the only Egyptian queens to be deified in their lifetimes; Iseult, Irish princess, wife of King Marc and lover of Tristan; Sadbh, the mother of Oisin by Finn, transformed into a deer; and to my surprise, Maggie Brown, better known to history as the Unsinkable Molly Brown, Titanic survivor and activist. I think I need to spend some time getting to know them better; I know Maggie & Kassandra’s story best of all of them, which is probably why I feel closest to them. As with everything else on my path, I have a lot of reading to do.
I don’t recall if I mentioned, but I removed most of the holydays from my calendar- right now there’s just the First Day, the Last Night, the beginnings of each of the seasons, and the solstice/equilux vigils. I was fumbling with how to properly observe them, and falling back into my old “just don’t do anything” behavior, which is not something I want. So the majority of my holydays are off the calendar for now. I intend to add them back in, one at a time, as I figure out exactly what each one means to me and my practice, and how to properly express that meaning through ritual. Instead, I’m observing my cycle- three days for each of the gods, the spirits and the dead. Here and there I’ve been a touch lapse, but for the most part I’m doing well.
I’ve also settled on a project to work on for each of my Many; for some of them the connection is more obvious than others. For Athene, I’m working on embroidery; I more associate her with weaving, but she appreciates any simple thing done well, and I’m hoping to do that. For Brighid, I’m working on a beaded tapestry idea; I’m still not sure if it’ll work, but I think the idea is getting there. For the Dagda, I’m working on my harp- I’m getting back into the habit of tuning her every day, and I’m going to try teaching myself how to read sheet music with flash cards. For Hekate, I’m studying herbalism, starting with some very basic and useful plants. For Hermes, I’m going to the gym regularly. For Het-haru, I’m learning calligraphy. For Inpu, I’m working on those holydays and rituals. For Lugh, I’m relearning French. For the Morrigan, I’m working on my divination deck. And lastly for Set, I’m tearing apart my room to get rid of all unnecessary, unused, unwanted crap so I can have some idea of order in here.
I think I’ve babbled enough for one morning!
Juni // Kat