Part II of POST-Reconstructionism...

"Vetting" our deities?
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Please see my previous post for the explanation of the context for this material.  
A downloadable PDF of the form below is linked HERE...

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Hmm, let's see, where did we leave off last time?  Oh, yeah...

...WHAT ?

YOU SAY WE SHOULD BE 

"VETTING" 
OUR DEITIES - ??

( Damn straight... )

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P o s t - R e c o n s t r u c t i o n i s m

 a new (?) vector for Neopagan Druidism

Part II

EHUMERIZATION is a term for the intentional religious action, or accidental folk-process, in which a heroic or otherwise legendary character from the lore of a people becomes elevated from the status of remarkable mortal-being to that of a deity or exalted spirit, worthy of religious veneration.

SO, using the following (IMO, not unreasonable) form, how do you think the following candidates would fare if vetted for their actual historical or contemporary qualification as a "deity" ?

EXAMPLE CANDIDATES - a mix for comparison:

Zeus; Demeter; Hermes; Herakles

Cernunnos; Lugos; Taranis; Ogmios 
In Dagda; Mannanan; Brighid; Lugh; Cuchulainn

Rhiannon; Arianrhod; Cerridwen; Taliesin; Merlin

Odin; Tiw; The Norns; Freya; Thor; Balder

I intentionally mixed up the list of sample deities to include a lot of "sure things" layered with some who are not. 

Let's see... there's:

1.) the "Sure-Things"

- plenty of evidence of being worshipped as deities in the ancient world. 
(Greeks, Romans)

2.) the "Certain, but without surviving lore"  

- (Romano Gaulish is a good example)

3.) the "Certain, but sources expurgated"

- only surviving lore transcribed by Christian clerics and historians, living roughly contemporary with their sources (Norse, Germanic)

4.) the "Likely, but sources expurgated"

 - only surviving lore is heroic, no one is referred to as a deity, written by Christian clerics many hundreds of years afterward. (the entire Irish corpus)

5.) the "Speculative, literary"

- based on isolated texts of heroic material referring to none of its characters as deities 
( Welsh (Mabinogion))

6.) the "Speculative, folkways"

- based on active folk traditions collected over the last 500 years.

Yep, I'm not ashamed to admit for myself and the rest of us that to a greater or lesser degree we're playing-out a big Druid-"Field of Dreams" operation.

SO... let's coax them out of that cornfield.

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THE FORM:

VETTING OF DEITY-CANDIDATE

for

FORMAL CONTEMPORARY EHUMERIZATION

1.) Name of candidate spirit/character

2.) Region / culture(s) involved

3.) Estimated time-range this spirit/character was venerated (years BCE/CE)

4.) Estimated time this spirit/character fell out of ongoing formal/public worship.

5.) Did this spirit figure as a character in specific heroic (or other) ancient lore?

6.) Did this individual appear in multiple stories; or in multiple sources?

7.) Was that lore primarily “heroic” lore, telling the stories of a great mortal’s life, or when and to what degree did it contain esoteric elements implying the character was in part or wholly supernatural? Give examples.

8.) Have archaeologists discovered clear evidence of shrines or temples and/or offerings made, or dedicated to the veneration of this spirit/character?

9.) Does the historical record give us mention of worship at shrines or temples, or celebrations dedicated to this individual as an exalted spirit worthy of veneration?

10.) Were said sources writing in a time contemporary with or closely-to the time of said worship? Were the sources quoted relatively friendly-to their subject or could their writing be seen as libeling them as savage, deluded or un-civilized?

11.) MITIGATING FACTORS…

In the case in which the candidate does not do well in light of 1-10 above, give compelling reasons for why our organization should collectively agree to elevate this candidate to the stature of a spirit worthy of veneration (i.e. “worship”) at our public rites.

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CONCLUSION:

On the weight of the above and/or the following scholarly source and reference materials, we the undersigned feel confident this candidate either was formerly worshiped as a deity, or (see #11,) should by now qualify for religious veneration at the status of “deity” or “exalted spirit”…

SIGNED:

DATE:

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REFERENCES:

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The SOLAR APOSTASY

GREAT, GLORIOUS, GOLDEN SUN…

So obvious it’s

as if invisible.

This most brilliant blind spot

in human experience,

this most profoundly absurd

irony in all of our lives…

The Sun,

upon which are we

utterly dependent

for our sustenance

and very existence

yet to which, 
somehow,

we remain

utterly unthankful.

After all,

it’s only

“a thing.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- e.o.p.

POSTULATE:

“The Sun is worthy of our veneration.”

Right?

Oh? Perhaps you personally don’t venerate “things”?

You only venerate “spirits” – beings with whom you can interact?

That’s your choice.

Regardless though, many of us who are inspired to the point of worship by the Natural World actually become comfortable with worshiping* “things” too and not just spirits… Things like places, mountains, springs, rivers, trees, The Sun, The Earth, The Moon, etc.

[ * “worshiping” / “venerating” / “ritually giving honor-to” (-whatever) ]

When you think about it, the Sun is at least as-worthy, if not more-worthy, of our veneration than is the The Mother (a.k.a. the Earth Mother / Mother Nature). Without the Sun, the Earth would be utterly irrelevant and, of course, there would be no “people” to perceive it anyway. Astronomers’ origins-theories posit the Sun as parent of the Earth; or at the least, related to the Earth as a vastly superior sibling. How is it that we modern pagans are so easily worshipful of the Earth as being "more than just a thing", yet not-so with the Sun?

Hmm… Is The Mother Herself a spirit (a being), or a “thing”? It could very legitimately be said that everything that exists, from subatomic particles to beings themselves, are processes rather than "objects"… Object; thing; spirit; being? Where does “you” fall on that spectrum? Are you really “you” to anyone else in the world than you? Even unto yourself, are you anything more than a selectively groomed set of memories and idiosyncratic reflexes? It seems, my notion of “you” is simply a representation; a model I’ve constructed of you through which I filter new perceptions, which I attribute to my sustained model of “you”. In that sense, outside of yourself, you are mainly composed of me; yeah, over here: you exist over here…

Well, back now to that most astonishing thing in our world which we spend 99% of our lives managing to not even notice (the ADF "Two Powers" convention not withstanding), it remains that there -are- two great poles of existence for humans and other living creatures:

--THE SUN ABOVE --

and

-- the EARTH BELOW--

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But why then is the SUN continually excluded from

any sense of primacy in our Neopagan symbol systems ?

The roots of our apostasy *

Don’t you dare start reaching for Reconstructionist “scholarship” at this point; the REAL reasons afoot are more modern, psychological and illogical than anything to do with our understanding of the ancient world. 

Unfortunately, getting Neopagans to admit to their true motivations can be like nailing jelly to a tree... and yet, from my point of view, it requires no psychic ability to read their patterns of reflex and cultural conditioning. 

Yes, yes; of course, you are not like them. You are not driven by such transparent and trivial patterns of reasoning. Androphobia, patriphobia and deeply conflicted familial relationships have no bearing on the formation of your system of spiritual symbolism whatsoever? Ok…

And so concludes the current preamble to the actual essay;  
the essay itself is linked HERE...

Sun salutation by Earrach / photo by Lassair