Everyone blushes a bit at mention of Baldr, because even in the presence of his name, which alone carries the reputation (let alone his strong and bold and shining presence itself), living in an age of shame, one's best deeds themselves seem to shrink from what suddenly and obviously seems possible, what to say of those times one acquiesced to the worst ... It is not that Baldur holds us to an impossible ideal, for then he would be cruel to an incapable being, no, it is far worse than that. It is that in the presence even of his name we remember, at first dimly, and then ever more clearly, how sold down the river our own sense of possibility has become, and how much more we could be, not only for ourselves, but for the world, if we would dare to believe in the good inside of us and all things, and defend that for the treasure it is. Baldur defends that gold, the true gold, that treasure-ore that held up to the warmth of the sun, in truth and light, may slowly, gradually, beautifully shed its slag and come into its own ; and in his time here, held his sword high against any who would tarnish this process. Instead he escorted the gradual, steady, forward-looking and daring untarnishing of world, its progressive unfolding and blossoming into its treasure-nature. In his presence we feel, my God (O Bright and Boldest God!), how cravenly I have been before the world's cynicism, how far I have bowed before the idols of moral cowardice, because all that is commonly declared impossible in the human soul is, gasp and weep and pull oneself up to see, normal. It at least once was in the presence of such bravery, which boldened one, encouraging and coaxing one to dare the deep goodness within self and world, and raise the sword to match that high bar. So naturally, in the face of such uncommon confidence, such realized goodness never doubting, one feels some chagrin, even for whatever good one has eked.

I want to encourage a little more rigor in the evaluation of passed relationships. It is mental and emotional laziness to focus solely on the sour, and to fail to adequately appreciate and assimilate the lessons we were gifted in the relationship. The Gods put us in situations which provide opportunities for growth and learning, and relationships are not to be evaluated in terms of their pleasures alone, but often in terms of the productivity gained by their challenges. That a relationship has proven unsustainable does not mean it was unproductive. It is likely the other person stretched you in new ways, and gave you eyes to see things in a way you never did before. If not, the fault may often lie in the mirror more than in the other.

I hate to burst anyone's bubble in nuclear family-worshipping America, but the family is not the primary social organization of Homo Sapiens. It is, rather, the band, and the tribe. In other words, Aristotle was right : man is the political animal, the animal that lives in the polis, the level of social organization that transcends the family and which requires complex interaction of people from different lineages.

This is really important to emphasize, because first of all, it represents actual social organization amongst our ancestors and everyone else on the planet, with the extended family clan-band, organized into local, clan-interacting tribes ; and secondly, and far more relevantly, because it was the fascists in the last century who were the big "family values" folks, with the Christian Right following closely in their footsteps.

No, I'm not telling you to hate your mother and father. Au contraire. Your mother and father are links in much wider chains. Pick up a textbook, for example, on Australian Aboriginal kin terminology, and realize that complexity in social organization is the particular genius of humanity, as humanity. Looked at in this anthropological way, Aristotle was correct, at one level, even though the "polis" as a literal burg or town is not the only way of creating this trans-family organization. The polis was, in many ways, an advance over agrarian ways of life, which for all their idylls, had many disadvantages. Anyone who has studied the agricultural revolution and the dislocations and cripplings this created for humanity, in addition to its advances, understands this, as important human elements lifted up into expression by the hunting-gathering way of life were left behind for more settled ways. Anyone who is not familiar with these studies had better come up to speed : let's get with it, folks! Mannaz is a critical rune, so catch yourself up with what scientific anthropology has discovered and compiled about our species. Moreover, the contradiction of agrarianism, with its settled mentality, stifles one of the most important energies relative to our spirituality : wod. In fact, many anthropologists believe that the pastoralist way of life was subsequent to agriculture, as a reaction to its oversettled ways, as people packed up with a few goats or sheep and allowed themselves to wander again. (Pastoralism also has its own contradictions. There is Fire and Ice in everything, and the key is to find the right balance.)

The disadvantages of the agricultural revolution are important to understand, because it is that revolution that ultimately generated the dynamic between the cities and the countryside, because cities are, in part, places that people flock to to escape from the boredom and dulling of their human potential to be found out on the farm and in plantations. (It's far more complex than this, and, I want to make this clear, farm life has a great deal to offer, particularly when a native nobility provides a microequivalent of some of the cultural advantages of the polis in their courts and halls.) Slavery is primarily a feature of agricultural peoples.

Any time the vast complexity of human potential is blunted by a social system, that social system is ultimately headed for revolution of some kind, even if that takes thousands of years, because there is an evolutionary imperative to developing all the gifts the Gods gave us. While it may be true that the Australian Aboriginals refined and developed our particular human talent for social complexity to a savant pitch, there is no doubt that the genius is common to us all. There is a yearning inside humans to reach out to their potential. This is why isolated family farms, cut off ages ago from larger tribal connections, will not satisfy everything in everyone, and why they will produce movement towards cultural centers where the possibilities for interaction are much greater. Tribal forms can provide many of these satisfactions without the need for literal cities, but the interactions and the satisfactions they provide must be present.

It may seem obvious to common sense that families are the basic unit from which the species reproduce and from which we have emerged, but reality is often counterintuitive to our common sense. In fact, a study of our closest biological relatives, the primates, indicates that reproduction happens within the context of the band, with male-female bonding a relatively transitory phenomenon, perhaps becoming perennial in some instances. The family as a coherent male-female pair with children exclusive to them is an emergence out of this matrix. The family is, therefore, not primary, but subtractive from the primary social matrix. We can see, therefore, that there is nothing wrong with families, as they provide certain kinds of satisfaction we enjoy, so long as they are not cut off from the larger band and tribal organizations.

This is evident in "home schooling", which has many perks to recommend it, but one of its drawbacks has often been an impoverishment of social contact amongst people so raised. (Not to mention that, let's face it, so much of this movement has simply become a way for regressive Christian Rights to resist coming into the 20th century : yes, I said the "20th" century, because they are a far distance from the 21st. Public schools, for all their imperialist indoctrination, and yes, that needs to be resisted, at least teach people the basic facts of modern life, and, more importantly, they provide (however messed up these may be at times) significant social contacts.) Don't think so? Talk to people who were raised in home schooling and then went to a real school, and what it's like to actually have friendship circles now, and how goddamned stifling a confining family life can be. (Readers familiar with my style will understand how dialectical I am, and that I push provocation to overcome rigid thinking at the same time the core legitimacy is affirmed ; I support home schooling, conditionally, and find it has many interesting possibilities to offer. Many succeed, although many don't, in overcoming these contradictions.)

If Aristotle is right --- and he is, albeit modified from an ethnological level, which shifts the terrain to kinship complexity, and corrected of its citystate-imperialism --- then emphasizing the family is just not going to do it, because, a) the human spirit reaches beyond this level of organization to something more complex, interesting, and satisfying, and b) it is not the evolutionary unit of human survival, and thus does not satisfy the requirements for social cohesion necessary to sustain us over eons of time.

Thus, it is the extended family (ie., the clan or kindred) and the theod which should be emphasized. No, and with all due respects to the lofty formality of the theodists, the theod doesn't need to be organized as an Anglo-Saxon tribal kingship, but a social contract of some kind between extended families is the idea. And, let's get more real : a theod is simply an organization corresponding to people who share the same language, and thus, it expands out to embrace the nation itself. (No, for Gods' sakes, I am not encouraging nationalism, but inter-national indigenism that takes up the human potential developed in the primal matrix and attempts to raise it to higher levels, without distorting its proportionality. So far, "civilization" has produced lopsided images ; which doesn't mean it won't, with some intelligence and democratic input, eventually succeed in raising things to a much higher level, in a way that corresponds to our innermost potential, and which doesn't distort the innate proportionalities of that potential.)

Put concretely : question your neolocal-supremacism. Look at Mexican families, for example, where children and grandchildren often live under the same roof as their parents, along with aunts and uncles. Those households are extended family households. In a certain sense, they are a collection of families as we understand them in the nuclear sense. And they offer many advantages. So : do you make fun of people who live with their parents, who live with their grandparents? Do you support and understand those who choose to affirm the extended family system, or do you automatically assume there is something wrong with those who do not choose neolocalism (the anthropological word for the situation -- a minority-choice in the history of humanity, by the way -- when people leave their parents' homes to go live on their own)?

Mannaz : the ways of humanity. They are complex, but ultimately satisfying to learn and to fulfill.

A wizard goes beneath and beyond. A wizard has penetrating sight, and sees through. A wizard assimilates and grasps learning(s) at a much deeper and less literal level than most. A wizard is comfortable with contradictions and riddles.

For these reasons, most people can't trust or understand wizards. They are strange to them. They may love them, if they feel their benefit, but they don't essentially "get" them. A wizard remains inscrutable.

It is a different kind of path, one that trusts dreams, one that reads at the dream level and thus experiences texts at a richer depth and breadth. Part scholar, part philosopher, part naturalist, part oneiromancer, part riddler, part poet, part necromancer, and part conjurer, they ponder, they posit, they interconnect their intuition and their intellect, coming to trust the wisdom of the former and the brilliant intensity of the latter, and the rich intergrowth between them. A wizard lingers after dreams in the dark and coming light, pausing before the day's demands to let the wisdom of dreams have at least its half-sway. The wizard has less certain knowledge than illuminating puzzles in which a deepening confidence develops, akin to knowledge. In fact, it is a kind of knowledge. A wizard often pores through books, surrounded by them, even immersed in them. Books layer the complexity, giving the mind grasping-points from which to bring up insights from the depth into articulation.

Most people who get involved in a belief system expect loyalty to it at its literal level, for that is what they grasp. A wizard grasps its wisdom and thus can enter into it with passion and erudition, and yet never be fully "of" it. Wizards have this mercurial quality of betweenness. They are thus suspect to those caught in literality and particularly superficiality. Their betweenness gives them a liminal quality that can evoke projection on the part of others regarding all their fears of liminal spaces, including traumas that have occurred in this space. The wizard must carefully sidestep these inevitable projections, never identify with them (ie be caught or caught up in their spell), and instead, allow each person to dispel their own bad enchantments in time. Needless to say, a wizard must aim at the highest integrity, willing even ascesis in its service, but all along with the savvy to remember that "no good deed goes unpunished", in the sense that that which people do not understand, they fear, and that which they fear, they actually misunderstand.

The wizard fails to conform not out of rebellion but out of a deeper loyalty and service to holy powers generally unrecognized, and as such, simply can't be bothered with much of the ordinary drivel. A wizard must be willing to intellectually explore dangerous places to gain knowledge. This "Faustian" imperative is balanced by its loyalty to the deep that keeps it attuned, rather than seeking the vainglory or manipulation of the surface-world. A wizard is a free thinker and a free spirit, whose thoughts can go anywhere, wandering the universe with the mind, even descending into the dark dales beneath the mountains to retrieve the mead absconded by monsters. The search is for wisdom, whose wells of bright, deep sadness refresh the world, and the wizard seeks to refresh the world through such conjuring.

Because of all this, the wizard must declare allegiance to powers deeper than those acknowledged by the usual loyalty-politics, which the wizard, however sympathetic, stands outside of. A good folk recognizes, however it may spook them, that a wizard serves deeper imperatives, and stand aside, out of the wizard's way, letting the work be done, glad when they can get benefit. But much is obvious to the wizard's eye that is not to the ordinary, and the wizard ought become accustomed to the bafflement and misunderstanding that will often result. Some will confuse the wizard, because of the conjuring, with wizardry's close counterfeit, the con artist. Sometimes there seems but a hair's difference, but the wizard is always in service, to something awesome and wise, that is sought for benefit, for general refreshment, while the con man is only in service to himself, utilizing illusions not to riddle and illuminate, but to manipulate. The wizard uses tricks as devices to evoke deeper truths (and sometimes to evade the dangerous projections and prejudices of the uninitiated), not to defraud. The integrity a wizard represents is mandatory, even if it is an inscrutable one, even if at times it partakes of the tricksterish.

A wizard can hold positions that seem contradictory but are not because the wizard either knows their deeper connection, or trusts it will unfold with time and further investigation. This trust of hunches, though not infallible, becomes a good guide for the wizard. The wizard because of all this is transideological, transcultural, transsystematic, and this slipping in and slipping out quality of transcendence can be quite unnerving to those secure in one worldview and paradigm alone. The wizard juggles paradigms at will.

A wizard gives strength to what serves life, to the degree and for the time that it does serve life, and thus may have many irons in the fire and several horses in the race. Many partial systems bring out truths more whole than they can fathom, and thus are useful (in the beneficial sense) articulators and movers.

Only a culture that has a word, unweird, which means unlucky, as the Anglo Saxons did, can fully understand and appreciate the importance and significance of having wizards, who are riddlers, shamans, poets, mystics, druids, and philosophers all mixed into one, without entirely being any of them. A wizard is very special, but a wizardless culture might not know it.

Wizards are likely to be characters, slightly eccentric, erudite, arcane, baffling, good natured with a strange edge of the sinister, which is simply the echo of the peril the wizard risks for knowledge, perhaps with a dash of the curmudgeonly or crabby, yet generous, filled with good will, and a genuine, careful, non-naive love for all creatures in their special faults.

What good is a wizard, you may ask? Someday you might have the joy of knowing that, if you build milieu welcoming to them. When you grow that flower, the wizards will come to taste the nectar, and your culture will then feel rich, flavored, grounded, and suffuse with the magic of the ordinary, whereby the miraculous beauty hidden in all things unfolds its grey garments in exquisite indulgence for all to see. Then the spirits will dance, the spirits in trees and rocks and meadows, and the ordinary at last will achieve its fitting synthesis with the extraordinary. This could be yours.



See also this on wizards.

George Lakoff and his research on the universality of metaphor shines an interesting (and unintended) light on the fundamental metaphysical basis of human thought and speech.

George Lakoff and his research on the universality of metaphor shines an interesting (and unintended) light on the fundamental metaphysical basis of human thought and speech.

A reader comments on our recent article on Spiritual Evolution:

The behavior of "Swami" Kriyananda is really astonishing: He goes to an Eastern society, is welcomed into their religion, defiles their Holy Orders with gross sexual misconduct and then attempts to teach "the savages" that their traditional doctrine of the cycles must be stood on its head! And on what evidence? On the evidence of the "obvious superiority" of Western technical civilization! The arrogance is truly beyond all belief!

A reader comments on our recent article on Spiritual Evolution:

The behavior of "Swami" Kriyananda is really astonishing: He goes to an Eastern society, is welcomed into their religion, defiles their Holy Orders with gross sexual misconduct and then attempts to teach "the savages" that their traditional doctrine of the cycles must be stood on its head! And on what evidence? On the evidence of the "obvious superiority" of Western technical civilization! The arrogance is truly beyond all belief!

"Spiritual evolution" is one of the key notions of the "New Age" movement. We examine this deceptive and anti-traditional doctrine.

"Spiritual evolution" is one of the key notions of the "New Age" movement. We examine this deceptive and anti-traditional doctrine.

I have read about Eckhart Tolle and his philosophy. Apparently many people find it appealing. However, something about it is disturbing to me. Would you please comment on whether his ideas are compatible with the Deanic/Filianic Faith or not and why. Thank you, Rev. Madria Georgia Honored Madria Georgia, we cannot claim to be in any way experts on the writings of Herr Tolle, although we have encountered the name before and done a little research. Essentially the work seems to be rather similar to many New Age writers who take bits of the more "airy" aspects of world traditions and stick them together to make something new. While this is in itself a little dangerous, by far the worst part of the New Age is not the bits it collects, but the "glue" it uses to stick them together, which invariably turns out to be modern individualistic ideas, post-Freudian "psychology", Darwinist evolutionism projected onto a supposedly "spiritual" plane etc., etc. Alarm bells should immediately ring when we read (on Herr Tolle's official website) that:

"at the core of Tolle's teachings lies the transformation of consciousness, a spiritual awakening that he sees as the next step in human evolution."

This is one of the key "fingerprints" of New Age error - the notion that humanity is "spiritually evolving" into a higher phase, when in fact, in spiritual terms, humanity in the late Kali Yuga has never been at a lower ebb. This adoption of the modern progress/evolution superstition (and when a biological theory and a social ideology are mixed together, as they are in most people's minds, as though they were somehow the same thing, one can only speak of superstition) and then re-packaged as a "spiritual truth" we know we are dealing with one of two things: unfortunate error or deliberate charlatanry.

I have read about Eckhart Tolle and his philosophy. Apparently many people find it appealing. However, something about it is disturbing to me. Would you please comment on whether his ideas are compatible with the Deanic/Filianic Faith or not and why. Thank you, Rev. Madria Georgia Honored Madria Georgia, we cannot claim to be in any way experts on the writings of Herr Tolle, although we have encountered the name before and done a little research. Essentially the work seems to be rather similar to many New Age writers who take bits of the more "airy" aspects of world traditions and stick them together to make something new. While this is in itself a little dangerous, by far the worst part of the New Age is not the bits it collects, but the "glue" it uses to stick them together, which invariably turns out to be modern individualistic ideas, post-Freudian "psychology", Darwinist evolutionism projected onto a supposedly "spiritual" plane etc., etc. Alarm bells should immediately ring when we read (on Herr Tolle's official website) that:

"at the core of Tolle's teachings lies the transformation of consciousness, a spiritual awakening that he sees as the next step in human evolution."

This is one of the key "fingerprints" of New Age error - the notion that humanity is "spiritually evolving" into a higher phase, when in fact, in spiritual terms, humanity in the late Kali Yuga has never been at a lower ebb. This adoption of the modern progress/evolution superstition (and when a biological theory and a social ideology are mixed together, as they are in most people's minds, as though they were somehow the same thing, one can only speak of superstition) and then re-packaged as a "spiritual truth" we know we are dealing with one of two things: unfortunate error or deliberate charlatanry.

Annalinde Matichei wrote the following as part of a discussion on worshiping the Daughter in the form of Kuan Yin: This is an interesting question. I have a statue of Thousand Hand Kuan Yin as my main Altar-piece. Do I "worship Kuan Yin"? What would that mean? I do not see her according to Buddhist doctrine - though I do believe that she refused Deity until all being was saved "even to the last blade of grass" - which is just another way of putting the Daughter's Taking on of Fate that we celebrate at Luciad (the Feast of Lights). I certainly do not believe she was the daughter of a king who was murdered and freed the souls from hell as some legends state, but I do believe she is the Daughter of the One Queen of the Universe, who descended into Hell, died and was reborn and freed the souls from Hell. I would not especially refer to Her as Kuan Yin, but I would not be averse to calling Her that either. This is not like modern Pagans who say "I'm working with Bast this week" - I do not believe that deities from different traditions are separate entities, like the people we meet on the street. They are simply different ways of seeing the same Universal Truth - and of course I believe that a lot of patriarchal accretions are highly misleading. And having said that, is there something different about seeing the Daughter through this statue rather than, say, a Marian one? I think there is. It has a special quality of contemplative purity. She is in perfect repose, while her "thousand" arms (actually 24 on this statue, but figuratively a thousand) so clearly and beautifully represent her all-saving omnipotence. They also help us to be free from the "humanism" of the Christian perspective, in which everyone is a "historical figure" and of the pagan perspective (which I have never inclined to, but is in fact just a natural outcropping of modern individualism) that "Deities" are individuals, pretty much like people. So this statue represents Dea - and in particular the Daughter - under a very particular aspect, stressing certain of Her Divine qualities, because as humans we can't see them all at once. To me in particular it represents repose, purity and Unacting Action ("Earth moves, but Heaven is still"). As for names, I am not inclined to give personal names to Dea. The Scriptures once mention the name Inanna (which is just a universal Name of the daughter) but other than that She is never referred to by a name in the whole narrative. To me using the Name Quan Yin would tend to localize and historicize the statue (even though I love the name!). This is not a statue from some part of Telluria of some particular figure in some particular tradition. This is a universal statue of Dea in Her Daughter form, in perfect repose and perfect compassion.

Annalinde Matichei wrote the following as part of a discussion on worshiping the Daughter in the form of Kuan Yin: This is an interesting question. I have a statue of Thousand Hand Kuan Yin as my main Altar-piece. Do I "worship Kuan Yin"? What would that mean? I do not see her according to Buddhist doctrine - though I do believe that she refused Deity until all being was saved "even to the last blade of grass" - which is just another way of putting the Daughter's Taking on of Fate that we celebrate at Luciad (the Feast of Lights). I certainly do not believe she was the daughter of a king who was murdered and freed the souls from hell as some legends state, but I do believe she is the Daughter of the One Queen of the Universe, who descended into Hell, died and was reborn and freed the souls from Hell. I would not especially refer to Her as Kuan Yin, but I would not be averse to calling Her that either. This is not like modern Pagans who say "I'm working with Bast this week" - I do not believe that deities from different traditions are separate entities, like the people we meet on the street. They are simply different ways of seeing the same Universal Truth - and of course I believe that a lot of patriarchal accretions are highly misleading. And having said that, is there something different about seeing the Daughter through this statue rather than, say, a Marian one? I think there is. It has a special quality of contemplative purity. She is in perfect repose, while her "thousand" arms (actually 24 on this statue, but figuratively a thousand) so clearly and beautifully represent her all-saving omnipotence. They also help us to be free from the "humanism" of the Christian perspective, in which everyone is a "historical figure" and of the pagan perspective (which I have never inclined to, but is in fact just a natural outcropping of modern individualism) that "Deities" are individuals, pretty much like people. So this statue represents Dea - and in particular the Daughter - under a very particular aspect, stressing certain of Her Divine qualities, because as humans we can't see them all at once. To me in particular it represents repose, purity and Unacting Action ("Earth moves, but Heaven is still"). As for names, I am not inclined to give personal names to Dea. The Scriptures once mention the name Inanna (which is just a universal Name of the daughter) but other than that She is never referred to by a name in the whole narrative. To me using the Name Quan Yin would tend to localize and historicize the statue (even though I love the name!). This is not a statue from some part of Telluria of some particular figure in some particular tradition. This is a universal statue of Dea in Her Daughter form, in perfect repose and perfect compassion.

Many devotees of Dea are familiar with the names of the Seven "Planetary" Janyati. However, many of us have also heard mention of other Janati. I would imagine that there are many Janyati whose names we do not know. However, I would be interested in seeing a list of the names and characteristics of some of the other Janyati whose names are known to Aristasians. Thank you, Rt. Rev. Georgia B. Cobb The Seven Great Janyati are of course the primary ones, but there are several others. While we do not have an exhaustive list, some of the more important are: The three Werdes: Sai Maia, Sai Werde and Sai Kala, said to be daughters of Sai Thame. Sai Herthe Janya of hearth and home. Sai Annya the Janya of fire - very important in some forms of Deanism. Sai Ouranya Janya of the sky - often seen as an "emanation" of Sai Thame. Sai Vaya the Spirit as Wind or Breath - sometimes conceived as a Janya.

Many devotees of Dea are familiar with the names of the Seven "Planetary" Janyati. However, many of us have also heard mention of other Janati. I would imagine that there are many Janyati whose names we do not know. However, I would be interested in seeing a list of the names and characteristics of some of the other Janyati whose names are known to Aristasians. Thank you, Rt. Rev. Georgia B. Cobb The Seven Great Janyati are of course the primary ones, but there are several others. While we do not have an exhaustive list, some of the more important are: The three Werdes: Sai Maia, Sai Werde and Sai Kala, said to be daughters of Sai Thame. Sai Herthe Janya of hearth and home. Sai Annya the Janya of fire - very important in some forms of Deanism. Sai Ouranya Janya of the sky - often seen as an "emanation" of Sai Thame. Sai Vaya the Spirit as Wind or Breath - sometimes conceived as a Janya.

Let the world teach you how to be old ; let death teach you how to be inevitable, unstoppable, inextricably woven into the heart of things. Life is a frightening adventure of peeling back fear to reveal treasure and grandeur, if we will dare to step out from our petty, little hovels from time to time and listen to what the widelands say in their breadth and depth. This world was shaped by divine hands out of the remains of monsters. All reduces to formidable miracle. The tough places are the learning places : stop to listen, for hints whisper in the cracks. We begin pimpled geeks struggling to learn maturity from a world of elders. Let the world peel your geekdom and age you into a masterpiece, a sculpture of time, with all inessentials carved away. An opportunity awaits. Urd offers choices.

There is a certain bleak inevitability to the Northern way that superficially has gloominess and grimness to it. But beneath this is great joy, and endless faith in life's powers. The hands of Urd the Great hold us all, and this is a deep, loving inevitability mediated by the Gods and our gambles. Beneath the flavor of bleakness lies the hope. There are smiles hiding in hidden crevices.

You must find the Gods and bring them together. They have left their traces deep within the sinews of the world, but within the world, to surface-eyes, and minds scarred by the axe, they appear to be in contradiction in the tangle of complexity. To have faith in them, you must find them, every one, within the world, and bring them together as a pantheon in your mind and heart and soul. They are already pantheoned in the macrocosm ; to find faith, you must bring them together beyond contradiction in the microcosm.

The High Feast of the Epiphany of God the Daughter falls on the 12th of Herthe (6th of January). Surely worshipers of Our Mother God "borrowed" this from Christianity? No indeed - it is exactly the other way about. Learn more about the Feast of Epiphany here.

The High Feast of the Epiphany of God the Daughter falls on the 12th of Herthe (6th of January). Surely worshipers of Our Mother God "borrowed" this from Christianity? No indeed - it is exactly the other way about. Learn more about the Feast of Epiphany here.

Herthe 11th (January 5th) is Duodecima - the Twelfth Day of Nativity. Herthe 12th (January 6th) is the High Feast of the Epiphany, popularly known as Princesses' Day. Epiphany, the showing-forth of the new-born Daughter of Dea is often called Little Nativity, and is one of the most joyful and important festivals of the year. Read more about it here.

Herthe 11th (January 5th) is Duodecima - the Twelfth Day of Nativity. Herthe 12th (January 6th) is the High Feast of the Epiphany, popularly known as Princesses' Day. Epiphany, the showing-forth of the new-born Daughter of Dea is often called Little Nativity, and is one of the most joyful and important festivals of the year. Read more about it here.

From an Aristasian blog: We had a wonderful Herthedi Service today! Honored Raya gave one of her inspired talks that really suddenly made it clear to me how the Day of Sai Herthe fits into the mystical journey that is the Year. We really should try to record these Services, as honored Raya says so many wonderful things that are nowhere to be found in Elektraspace or anywhere else. On the other hand, maybe it is part of the magic that these things are shared with the Family, with those who choose and make the time to be present and part of the Sacred Event. It is hard to summarize what honored Raya said as it was so inspired - but she was talking of the Star Fairy coming down the chimney, and of how in the Motherland folks take this kind of "legend" on a very serious level, whereas in Telluria, even religious people don't think there is anything very important about such "peripheral" traditions as opposed to Scriptural religion. Honored Raya said that many Tellurians would consider that taking these charming "folk" stories seriously is the sign of a less sophisticated people, but honored Raya said that it is in fact the sign of a more sophisticated people. A people that sees beyond the childish literalism of "it did happen or it didn't happen" to the much deeper spiritual truth that lies beneath the surface of the narrative. She explained how Nativity is about the Divine Light descending vertically from the spiritual realm to the manifest cosmos - entering the House, which is the world, through the vertical chimney (cheminée, camino - way) into the heart or hearth and thence as radiant light and warmth into the world/soul. The Day of Sai Herthe is, in a certain sense, the same Event seen from the perspective of the World, or House. In the Motherland - certainly in those places that follow the Fire Temple tradition (such as Rayapurh and Novarya), Sai Herthe's day is the only day of the year in which the sacred house-flame (from which, in more traditional times, every hearthfire, candle and lamp was lit and every flame that cooked food) was allowed to go out. It was ritually re-lit by a flame taken from the sacred Temple Fire. Thus the kindling of the World-hearth from the Spirit-hearth is enacted in the microcosm of the home and the great Event of the Coming of the Light is actualized on the domestic level. The "new year" element of the festival, although our actual New Year is three months away, lies in the fact that the home-fire is extinguished and re-lit at this time, the only time in the year, and so a new cycle begins (and, interestingly, the death and rebirth of the light in the home is an obvious reflection of Eastre, the true New Year).

From an Aristasian blog: We had a wonderful Herthedi Service today! Honored Raya gave one of her inspired talks that really suddenly made it clear to me how the Day of Sai Herthe fits into the mystical journey that is the Year. We really should try to record these Services, as honored Raya says so many wonderful things that are nowhere to be found in Elektraspace or anywhere else. On the other hand, maybe it is part of the magic that these things are shared with the Family, with those who choose and make the time to be present and part of the Sacred Event. It is hard to summarize what honored Raya said as it was so inspired - but she was talking of the Star Fairy coming down the chimney, and of how in the Motherland folks take this kind of "legend" on a very serious level, whereas in Telluria, even religious people don't think there is anything very important about such "peripheral" traditions as opposed to Scriptural religion. Honored Raya said that many Tellurians would consider that taking these charming "folk" stories seriously is the sign of a less sophisticated people, but honored Raya said that it is in fact the sign of a more sophisticated people. A people that sees beyond the childish literalism of "it did happen or it didn't happen" to the much deeper spiritual truth that lies beneath the surface of the narrative. She explained how Nativity is about the Divine Light descending vertically from the spiritual realm to the manifest cosmos - entering the House, which is the world, through the vertical chimney (cheminée, camino - way) into the heart or hearth and thence as radiant light and warmth into the world/soul. The Day of Sai Herthe is, in a certain sense, the same Event seen from the perspective of the World, or House. In the Motherland - certainly in those places that follow the Fire Temple tradition (such as Rayapurh and Novarya), Sai Herthe's day is the only day of the year in which the sacred house-flame (from which, in more traditional times, every hearthfire, candle and lamp was lit and every flame that cooked food) was allowed to go out. It was ritually re-lit by a flame taken from the sacred Temple Fire. Thus the kindling of the World-hearth from the Spirit-hearth is enacted in the microcosm of the home and the great Event of the Coming of the Light is actualized on the domestic level. The "new year" element of the festival, although our actual New Year is three months away, lies in the fact that the home-fire is extinguished and re-lit at this time, the only time in the year, and so a new cycle begins (and, interestingly, the death and rebirth of the light in the home is an obvious reflection of Eastre, the true New Year).

A Filianic blogger writes:

I say "Nativity" and not "Post-Nativity" thoughts, because it is still Nativity. Please do not think that when the first day of Nativity has passed all that magic Nativity Snow is just plain ol' snow snow. It isn't. It may be inconvenient at times, but it is still the Snow of Nativity.

Nativity lasts until the Feast of the Epiphany. Not all of it may be holiday and merrymaking (though in some parts of the Motherland it is), but all of it is the most magical season of the year. Carols are still in season and two important festivals lie ahead in the next two weeks.

The great Midwinter Festival of the Birth of the Light has always been a twelve-day season at its core (in fact it has often been much longer - its penumbra beginning in the fall and not fully ending until Luciad, the Feast of Lights, six weeks after the Solstice).

The one-day Christmas was a Victorian invention, made in a world where the wheels of industry and commerce must not be allowed to stop for more than the briefest period.

The oft-stated perception that the season "starts earlier every year" is almost a drift back to the older tradition. It is commercially driven, of course, but as stated in our recent article on Nativity, even commerce cannot help but reflect the powerful pull of the Universal Event called Nativity.

What has remained as a Victorian heritage, though, is the dead-stop on Boxing Day (Masquiday in Aristasian tradition) - though even this is in some places giving way to an extended holiday or semi-holiday from Nativity to the Day of Herthe (Christmas to New Year). It is not, however considered, at least in Protestant countries, "still Christmas".

For Filianists, it is very definitely still Nativity until the Epiphany. It is a magical, beautiful season. A time for continued celebration and a time when the subtle world and the physical world are very close.

A happy continuing Nativity to you all.

Hail to the Princess Who is born and Whose glorious showing-forth we still await!

A Filianic blogger writes:

I say "Nativity" and not "Post-Nativity" thoughts, because it is still Nativity. Please do not think that when the first day of Nativity has passed all that magic Nativity Snow is just plain ol' snow snow. It isn't. It may be inconvenient at times, but it is still the Snow of Nativity.

Nativity lasts until the Feast of the Epiphany. Not all of it may be holiday and merrymaking (though in some parts of the Motherland it is), but all of it is the most magical season of the year. Carols are still in season and two important festivals lie ahead in the next two weeks.

The great Midwinter Festival of the Birth of the Light has always been a twelve-day season at its core (in fact it has often been much longer - its penumbra beginning in the fall and not fully ending until Luciad, the Feast of Lights, six weeks after the Solstice).

The one-day Christmas was a Victorian invention, made in a world where the wheels of industry and commerce must not be allowed to stop for more than the briefest period.

The oft-stated perception that the season "starts earlier every year" is almost a drift back to the older tradition. It is commercially driven, of course, but as stated in our recent article on Nativity, even commerce cannot help but reflect the powerful pull of the Universal Event called Nativity.

What has remained as a Victorian heritage, though, is the dead-stop on Boxing Day (Masquiday in Aristasian tradition) - though even this is in some places giving way to an extended holiday or semi-holiday from Nativity to the Day of Herthe (Christmas to New Year). It is not, however considered, at least in Protestant countries, "still Christmas".

For Filianists, it is very definitely still Nativity until the Epiphany. It is a magical, beautiful season. A time for continued celebration and a time when the subtle world and the physical world are very close.

A happy continuing Nativity to you all.

Hail to the Princess Who is born and Whose glorious showing-forth we still await!

Nativity has not ended, but what has ended is Astraea, the Star-month. We are now in Herthe, the Hearthfire-month.

In Astraea, the Star-month we look upward and in Herthe, the Hearth-month we look inward. Nativity is the Northern Gate of the Cosmos through which the Divine descends to earth. This is reflected in the Star Fairy coming vertically down the chimney into the heart(h) of the house, and of course by the birth of God the Daughter into the world of manifestation.

During the month of Astraea, the Divine is a star in the heaven-world, about to descend. During the month of Herthe She is born in our hearts and present in the heart(h) of our sacred households where She is born on the last Star-day.

Interestingly also is that the Feast of the Conception of the Daughter (Astraea 11th) is exactly a month from the Feast of the Epiphany, or showing-forth of the Divine Child (Herthe 11th/12th).

Especially fascinating in this context is that this is true only in terms of the Filianic calendar, even though Christians celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (of Mary, not of Jesus) on the same day (December 8th/Astraea 11th).

Nativity has not ended, but what has ended is Astraea, the Star-month. We are now in Herthe, the Hearthfire-month.

In Astraea, the Star-month we look upward and in Herthe, the Hearth-month we look inward. Nativity is the Northern Gate of the Cosmos through which the Divine descends to earth. This is reflected in the Star Fairy coming vertically down the chimney into the heart(h) of the house, and of course by the birth of God the Daughter into the world of manifestation.

During the month of Astraea, the Divine is a star in the heaven-world, about to descend. During the month of Herthe She is born in our hearts and present in the heart(h) of our sacred households where She is born on the last Star-day.

Interestingly also is that the Feast of the Conception of the Daughter (Astraea 11th) is exactly a month from the Feast of the Epiphany, or showing-forth of the Divine Child (Herthe 11th/12th).

Especially fascinating in this context is that this is true only in terms of the Filianic calendar, even though Christians celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (of Mary, not of Jesus) on the same day (December 8th/Astraea 11th).

We are taught to fear fanatics, as if our own cynicism were not as deadly, as if passion and determination and stubborn steadfastness, not to mention force at times, were not necessary to break through inertia and stagnation and achieve progress. As if thinking bold and acting audaciously did not please our Gods. As if thinking small could sustain us, as if dwelling in the remains of disappointment could nourish us. As if there could be heroism without high ideals, and without sacrifices for those high ideals. As if drive and direction were not necessary to transcend, and fully enter becoming.