I was talking recently with another Feri initiate about a ritual being planned for Pantheacon. I was asked to help with calling in a pair of deities
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I don't work with "the Feri Gods" (tm) that much either, and neither does lupino. At the same time, I have no problem whatsoever with the notion that Ishtar, with her peacocks and morning star and general 'tude, bears some relationship to the Blue God that I don't quite understand. (That's what she tells me, anyhow.) Or that Ana might be the Morrigan, and so forth. I don't think we can appropriate them because I don't think we're in such total control of the relationship. I think the names of the Gods are whatever they're willing to answer to, know what I mean?
My problem? Er... I suppose it's a problem in the sense of a puzzle to figure out. Mostly it's a problem for me when I run up against people who have rigid expectations of what a Feri practice is supposed to be. I'm not having that problem with the people doing this ritual, BTW. It just got me thinking about all this stuff, and how my relationship to "the Feri Gods" has never been clear.
I think the names of the Gods are whatever they're willing to answer to, know what I mean? Yep, I think that's really where I come from too. The relationship between me and the Gods is where the rubber meets the road. The rest is just social convention.
Mostly it's a problem for me when I run up against people who have rigid expectations of what a Feri practice is supposed to be.
What sort of problem is that? Not knowing what to say? Knowing what to say but surmising that to express it authentically might create "an awkward situation"?
how my relationship to "the Feri Gods" has never been clear
Perhaps because you are having a real relationship - which happens to lack a convenient set of beliefs and ideas already for you to simply adopt. *cough* :) I don't mean that to be taken literally, but right now I haven't the time to discuss this weighty topic with the judicious hand it rightly deserves while also expressing my view that - for a lot of people, of any religious or spiritual path, it's just more useful to them to mold and adapt their inner selves to an outer structure that fits 'well enough' than to go rogue and blaze their own path through the wilderness of divinity.
What sort of problem is that? Not knowing what to say? Knowing what to say but surmising that to express it authentically might create "an awkward situation"? What I was referring to is a problem I have occasionally had in the past. It stems from the fact that Vanthi (the coven and line of Feri that I was trained in) tends to practice a form of the tradition that differs substantially from what a lot of people are currently doing. Because Vanthi is an old line that kept a lot of the earlier ways and inherited much of its lore from Gwyddion. Whereas some of the other lines adopted a lot of material from Gabriel Caradoc, and some of the newer material that Victor added in his later years, which Vanthi didn't adopt. The result is that our practices look and feel fairly distinct from some of the other lines of the trad. When people from those other lines come to see this, occasionally they have been surprised, and in one or two cases responded that they couldn't recognize our ways as Feri. Usually not a big problem, except in the rare
( ... )
---My opinion only-- *We have done this before*, most of us--- --Names are not the point. The "person" the 'flavors/images' are more important-- *Who* we Call, not *what* we call Them.
---What we call Feri is the remains of a tribal religion---the Gods call to us, we *remember them* from other times, we probably don't have the 'Original names', Any of us. --Go with what you know.
Once again, let me take a moment to say, "You rock".
:)
I am completely of the mind that there is no one set of Gods that comprise a "Feri Pantheon". That having been said, what I have termed the Infinitum is what most of the people in the Bloodrose-descended/influenced lines of Feri recognize as "a Feri Pantheon". I was taught that this particular cosmology was all-inclusive, and that each and every God and Goddess could fit in this model, which is based on the infinity symbol, and that each individual God/dess represented an aspect or reflection of the Star Goddess; of God Herself. With this in mind it is not difficult to recognize exactly what you are talking about above; namely that other names/aspects can (and will) be used to represent the same (or similar) energies/presences. My teacher used to refer to a "divinity complex", meaning that "The Blue God", for example, was a syncretic integration of those beings usually separated out such as Krishna, Dian y Glas, Eros, etc
( ... )
I was going to quote Victor on that, too: "All Gods are Feri Gods".
And when I was establishing relationship with Malik, I entered via Krishna...
My theory is that there are "God Complexes" from whom currents descend into Wales looking this way and India look that way, and China looking this way and Burkina Faso looking that way... So they have cultural differences, and perhaps a slightly different current flavor, but are the same "God Complex".
I thought you would be good calling the Ana and Arddhu because of your relationship with the Morrigan.
I see, that helps to make sense of it. Thanks for thinking of me. :) I told J'te that I wasn't up for doing this with someone I don't know, but I'd be a backup person if the other two that were asked to do it aren't available.
I think I had heard that idea before, that many Gods could be fit into the model. I imagine not all of them. I mean, where would you put Kirtimuka, the gargoyle who devours himself in dedication to Shiva? Or Bes, the ugly little Egyptian God who frightens away evil spirits from infants? It seems a little simplistic to say that any deity can be fit into this simple model. I dunno, it just seems like in order to do that you would have to 'streamline' some deities, ignore certain attributes in favor of others. So that's where I start to wonder if it becomes a form of cultural appropriation.
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I don't work with "the Feri Gods" (tm) that much either, and neither does lupino. At the same time, I have no problem whatsoever with the notion that Ishtar, with her peacocks and morning star and general 'tude, bears some relationship to the Blue God that I don't quite understand. (That's what she tells me, anyhow.) Or that Ana might be the Morrigan, and so forth. I don't think we can appropriate them because I don't think we're in such total control of the relationship. I think the names of the Gods are whatever they're willing to answer to, know what I mean?
Reply
I think the names of the Gods are whatever they're willing to answer to, know what I mean?
Yep, I think that's really where I come from too. The relationship between me and the Gods is where the rubber meets the road. The rest is just social convention.
Reply
What sort of problem is that? Not knowing what to say? Knowing what to say but surmising that to express it authentically might create "an awkward situation"?
how my relationship to "the Feri Gods" has never been clear
Perhaps because you are having a real relationship - which happens to lack a convenient set of beliefs and ideas already for you to simply adopt. *cough* :) I don't mean that to be taken literally, but right now I haven't the time to discuss this weighty topic with the judicious hand it rightly deserves while also expressing my view that - for a lot of people, of any religious or spiritual path, it's just more useful to them to mold and adapt their inner selves to an outer structure that fits 'well enough' than to go rogue and blaze their own path through the wilderness of divinity.
*shrug*
As if I knew anything... ha!
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Reply
*We have done this before*, most of us---
--Names are not the point. The "person" the 'flavors/images' are more important-- *Who* we Call, not *what* we call Them.
---What we call Feri is the remains of a tribal religion---the Gods call to us, we *remember them* from other times, we probably don't have the 'Original names', Any of us.
--Go with what you know.
Reply
:)
I am completely of the mind that there is no one set of Gods that comprise a "Feri Pantheon". That having been said, what I have termed the Infinitum is what most of the people in the Bloodrose-descended/influenced lines of Feri recognize as "a Feri Pantheon". I was taught that this particular cosmology was all-inclusive, and that each and every God and Goddess could fit in this model, which is based on the infinity symbol, and that each individual God/dess represented an aspect or reflection of the Star Goddess; of God Herself. With this in mind it is not difficult to recognize exactly what you are talking about above; namely that other names/aspects can (and will) be used to represent the same (or similar) energies/presences. My teacher used to refer to a "divinity complex", meaning that "The Blue God", for example, was a syncretic integration of those beings usually separated out such as Krishna, Dian y Glas, Eros, etc ( ... )
Reply
I was going to quote Victor on that, too: "All Gods are Feri Gods".
And when I was establishing relationship with Malik, I entered via Krishna...
My theory is that there are "God Complexes" from whom currents descend into Wales looking this way and India look that way, and China looking this way and Burkina Faso looking that way... So they have cultural differences, and perhaps a slightly different current flavor, but are the same "God Complex".
I thought you would be good calling the Ana and Arddhu because of your relationship with the Morrigan.
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Thanks for the supportive words too. :)
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;-)
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