Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Decoding the Sacred Language of the Ancestors: Preliminaries



What follows is a letter I wrote to a dear friend and fellow polytheist, regarding a systematization I have been developing for understanding the core behind the various polytheistic remnants we have from the Gallic, British, and Irish ancient past. I normally shun too much "systemic" thinking on matters as subtle as the unseen world, and for good reasons- but I think these exercises can have some usefulness when it comes to creating our own modern approach to the Gods and Goddesses. I will develop this material further, soon.

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Dear Grannia:

You should be happy and edified to know that I have, at long last, made my best strides towards "cracking the code", as it were, of the Ancestral Polytheistic language with respect to our people in Britain and Ireland, and to an extent further afield on the mainland. There is no doubt that all of these stories of Gods and Goddesses that we gain from the Ancestral traditions were parts of a sacred language, in which the powerful beings of non-human persons took on the role of "divinities" and operated in people's minds and lives. My project to unravel something of that special language has been a chief work of mine for years.

The native Ancestral understanding of "Gods and Goddesses" may well have been different from the Greeks or Romans, and indeed, we have enough evidence that the peoples of Northern and Northwestern Europe did conceive of the divinities as shape-shifters, as formless, or able to take whatever form they liked; they could (and did) appear as the rush of water under rocks, or as trees, or as the sun, or as the flight of birds. This is an important perspective to gain. To be fair, the Gods and Goddesses of Hellas were also known to take different shapes at times; but the prevailing attitude of anthropomorphism in Greece (and in Rome, at a much later date) implies a sort of evolution or change in conceptions of the divine as a whole- certainly a move towards the urban temple and the city-based institution of culture and religion which is outside of the true spiritual aesthetic of our own Ancestors.

I'll give you the short version now of the results of my project; I intend to write something more substantial on this later.

The "Roman interpretation" gives us some good clues, but I have discovered it is almost useless to really reaching out and discovering who the Gods and Ancestral beings are and were. I'm glad to have the testimony of the Roman pagans as they assimilated native Gallic and British Gods, as some of the information they give is useful- but their use in the reconstruction of true "pantheons" in the native sense is limited. Here are my conclusions, after all this time (some are different from my previous conclusions). It is hard to categorize something like a God or a Goddess, but in knowing that our attempts to categorize must be very provisional, we can. In truth, as I point out later, the Gods and Goddesses far transcend our desire to do as the Romans or Greeks did and put them away in cubby-holes. They spread out through the seen and unseen and enter into many aspects of life, just as we human do, over time.

The value of a scheme like the one I suggest here is only as a key for unlocking some of the twists and turns of the ancient Pagan cultures, as they became lost in the mists of time and behind the obscuring light of other cultures, and trying to focus on the key "compartments" of ancient life that can be just as important to us today, when we start to approach the Gods ourselves- and when we desire to do it from a more Brythonic, Gallic, or Gaelic perspective or aesthetic. The Gods are real, and these ancient ancestral cultures knew them in ways that were just as real. How they knew and what they knew can edify us today, if we allow it.

No modern writing is some sort of "revelation" of the ancient religion. All modern writings are attempts to gain some small measure of insight from the ancient religions as we bring them back to life today, in our own lives. This work is no different. However, this work, I think, transcends many of the foolish errors of the modern day, from new-age duotheism/monotheism, to the idea that all the Gods and Goddesses were just local imps and demons, or personified natural forces. This work reminds us of their true personhood, and of the power of true polytheism to defy what we expect.

There are four broad categories of "Divine Beings" that I use as my framework of understanding: The Ancestor Gods, The Son of Light Gods, the Craft or Culture Gods, and the Sea Gods.

The Great and Divine Ancestors

The oldest are the Ancestor-Gods, and this category contains, first and foremost, the Land Goddess, who is mother to all others Gods and living beings, including man, and who is "Mother of the Waters", the waters that come up out of the earth- the River Goddess for whom so many rivers are named. She is a giantess, titanic, mighty and dark, and like all these ancient beings in this category, has a connection with the celestial night sky and the stars (ref. the constellation Llys Don here). The Ancestral Gods are closely aligned with the elements themselves, the raw and first powers of nature. The Land-Goddess, the Sovereign Goddess and Grandmother to everything else, is nature broadly, in a sense. As the hidden source of waters, she is the Sovereign of the Underworld, as well. All life proceeding from her and returning to her, she is the life and death and fertility's ultimate source and end.

She stands behind the stories of Danu, Don, Anu, Rhiannon, Modron, Morrigan, all of the "Great Queen" Goddess figures.

The second great being in this category is the Divine Ancestor, the Fore-Father, mate to the Land Goddess, and ruler over the dead in the Underworld. He is the "Dis Pater", the Underworld God, the source of life, who often enough appears as a Tree in places, or is associated with the symbol of the tree- not, I don't think, because of any "world tree" or "axis of the cosmos" notion, but because tree-trunks and root-boles are quite phallic, and because the tree, and the forest by extension, is a perfect expression of the creative matrix of life- the most sacred manifestation of the underlying creative principles of reality which are parents to us all. Our ancestors in places around the Indo-European world believed themselves descended from trees or having an origin from trees, if you recall, from ancient Greece to ancient Norway. Were our Ancestors not "the people who came out of the dark forest?"

In Britain, as revealed through later lore, he acts as a psychopomp, which was one of the things that confused me through the Roman interpretation. Hermes/Mercury had that function to the Romans, but not among the British Celts so much, as it turns out- and thus the conflation that can lead to confusion. He is Father of men, forests, beasts, and life generally, holder of the power of nature, and guardian of nature. He takes the great "fertility" function.

Gwyn Ap Nudd, Vindos, Donn, Beli Mawr, Bile, Dagda, Sucellos, Conall Cernach, and Cernunnos are all reflexes of this primordial figure- he is the "strong big lad", the mighty one, and the "God of the People" in many places. Gwynn is one reflex here who stands out in having a particularly psychopompic function- the "Wild Hunter" leading and searching for the dead. These Gods also have command over the raw elements, and the storm- the storm is, after all, the full operation of the elements in rage mode, and they are Storm Gods.

Remarkably, the human Ancestors also fall into this first and most primordial, majestic category, too- for they live in us, and in the Land, and in the elements, and mediate the force of the First Ancestors to us. They do this in the same way a river mediates the essence of its source to you, when you touch its waters at any point- by flowing out from its source, it carries water that was once in the source. Your body and soul are both parts of a river of Ancestral power that includes all who have gone before, back to the Foremother and Forefather. The "Divine Mothers", the Matronae and the Ancestral Genii, depicted hooded, mysterious, or merged with burial sites and the ground itself, are part and parcel of this first category, and thus worshiped with the same gravity and attention.

The Son of Light, or the Great Son of the Mother

The next category, the "Son of Light" Gods, are where we find the most widespread of divine figures, but also the most subtle in nature, and possibly the most confusion of figures, if we are not careful. The Son of Light is a singular being, with different manifestations around the Ancestral world, who is son to the Great Mother and Great Father. (Here we find the Mabon, son of Modron.) He is not just their son; he is the presence of the immortal spirit in all of nature- including humans.

His appearance, that of a youth, symbolizes the eternally young in all of us. This is Mabon, Belenos, and Oengus Mac Og- the "Sun" God, though you musn't let this lead to an over-simplification of his character; the sun, aside from its vivifying power and its power to chase away dark powers, is an emblem of this God's undying light and spirit. He is the healer, the mediator between humans and the divine, between humans and the Ancestors, and the God of harmony, peace, and occult or sorcerous/mysterious insight. He also has functions as a sacrificial God, too- linked to the ground and to sacrifice on behalf of the people.

There are always secondary functions in these beings like fertility and even hunting or provisioning- the healing God can always kill, and so he can be pictured as a hunter or a warrior, easily. But the Son of Light is primarily an healer and enlightener of man. Here, the association with Apollo gives us much help in the nature and character of this complex figure. The Son of Light is the true universal God of the Celtic peoples- as universal as the Sun in the sky- and certainly the most widespread and popular, with Lugus coming in at a close second. But the Son of Light transcends cultures, in much the same way that the Foreparents do. This is not just "Celtic" religion we are talking when we speak of him; we are talking human religion, now- the religion of the body of nature and the elements giving rise to all things, and the eternal spirit that arises from them.

The Divine Powers of Craft and Culture

Now, the third category, the Craft and Culture Gods, are possibly the best known and most recorded- and these are the Gods who, again are children (like we) of the Ancestral powers, and who are responsible for the workings of society, the gifting of technologies, and the crafts of living. They stand over institutions like war, smithing, hearth-keeping, agriculture, etc. In this category you can find all of the minor Irish "Tuatha De Dannan" Gods and Goddesses (like Dian Cet, the healing God) and others. They are preeminently divine beings of social order and interaction, and great creativity and skill. In this category, we see the luminaries of the Sons and Daughters of Don in Wales, as well.

Lugus/Lugh/Llew, Nodens/Nudd/Nuada, Govannon, and Brigid are the four chief examples of this category of beings. Lugus, the most widespread God, was widespread because he was the God of oaths and commerce, and the "outsider" God who was good at everything (the all-skilled), and who won his way into society and became a ruler. He is literally the God of skill and ingenuity, who, being good at everything, means he can be approached by just about anyone for his aid at anything they do for a living, or for what they need. Lugus does not have a name that has anything to do with "light"- quite the opposite, his name may refer to the darkness, to something shining in the darkness, and to "interaction" as well as oaths.

He was certainly a war God and a sorcery God, because he could tap the dark, terrifying fomorian side of his nature to do magic. He was a Druid or sorcerer among the Gods, in other words. His figure is the "tricky" one, very much the mercurial figure he was associated with by the southerners. His great power and versatility made him the most popular of the Ancestral Gods, as place-names and cultic remains show. What most people don't see in Lugus today, but what they should, is the danger implied by his uncanny nature, the dark and wild side of him that is barely hidden in the Ancestral stories. And yet, In Ireland we see him lead the Gods of craft and civilization and order to victory over the dark fomorian powers. In this sense, he is very similar to the Odin figure of the Germanic peoples, even down to their associations with ravens, magic, spears, and one-eyed appearance.

Nuada was, for the longest time, my biggest quandary. I know now that He was and is a God of catching things- literally, associated with the water, and fishing. But he was also the catcher of animals, a hunter, and the god of utilizing tools to do things, and a healer. He was a more primal, probably among humans as a first teacher of types, a god of more basic crafts needful to immediate survival. From any such God as Nuada/Nudd, sovereignty can be drawn by human leaders, and Nuada, like Lugus, or even the Great Ancestor before them, were often "Toutal" or tribal Gods to various peoples, and the leaders of those people drew sovereign wisdom and power from them to co-create a just and powerful reign on earth in harmony with the Unseen world. With enough time, the "Great God" of any group or tribe evolves from the sovereign God that their own Ancestors drew so much force from.

This can explain why to certain Nordic peoples of one period, Odin assumed the role of "All Father", above all other Gods- while evidence clearly exists to show that Odin was certainly not always in such a position among all Germanic peoples at all times. But a single group of people who did see Odin in this way went on to have their particular beliefs and lore survive to us now, in the Icelandic Eddaic literature, which further lead modern people to make assumptions about the religion of all ancient Germanic peoples from a single and very particular source- not smart!

A true appraisal of polytheism shows that any sort of conceptions and relationships between Gods and men are possible, and this is a good thing, indeed- humans can evolve any combination of unique ways of thinking and acting with respect to their relationships with these powerful beings who are partners to us, teachers, helpers, and even Fore-Parents to us, in the world of nature. There is no "right" pantheon in polytheistic religion. There is only the reality of many divine powers, and the reality of many human relationships with them, evolved over time. Polytheism is responsive to human situations, events, and needs in this way, just as the Ancestral powers are, whether they be human or Godly ancestors, or other divine powers that enter into contracts and relationships with us.

Govannon, the smith God, appears in Britain and Ireland, and his presence in this category is easy enough to understand, as well as him importance to society. Brigid, who, alongside Lugus, appears to have been important just about everywhere, is the Goddess of the hearth fire, but also of smithing, healing, and even war. She's very much the "Minerva" figure the Romans saw in her. She's also the Dagda (the Divine Ancestor's) daughter, just as the lore reveals. "Brigantia" in Britain could have been her, though that name just means "high, exalted one" which could have referred to the First Mother, and her altars or sacred places on high hills.

The Divine Powers of the Waters and the Passageways Unseen

The primal Sea Gods are last- Llyr, Dylan, Mannanan Mac Lir- and they seem to have that "older than the other Gods" presence that you'd expect from primal deities. Being closer to the sea, the realm of the Fomorian monsters, they are titanish seeming, along with their mates (like Fand) who are associated with the sea, it's produce, and the mists of the waters, and transition across waters, making them (like Mannanan) "portal" Gods, Gods who can lead mortals from one world to the next, or part veils between these two worlds. 

Notes on the Gods and Goddesses of War among the Ancestors

IF you look at this fourfold system, it all begins to make sense, and avoids uncomfortable puzzles and overlaps that confuse people. One more thing must be said- the Romans called many Celtic Gods "Mars"- but there was no Celtic "mars". Any of the Toutal Gods could be the God prayed to for war functions, to support the people in conflict. Lugus has martial functions, so does Nuada/Nodens, so does the First Father, and the names given for the "Mars" god- names like "Mogetios", the "Mighty One" or "Segomos", the "Bold One", or "Budenicos", the "victorious one", are not names, but titles of honor piled on various Gods.

The "conflict Goddesses"- like Morrigan, are the same; this is the Mighty Mother herself in conflict or war mode, giving victory to her people. Without her blessing, victory would not be possible. The various "conflict goddesses"- the native Celtic versions of "Victoria", Victory, are names for the Sovereign Goddess in her war form- reference here the Andrasta or Andarta of the Iceni. We must not hesitate, as some do, to see the Morrigan as a reflex of the Land-Goddess, the "source of rivers" or "source of waters from below" Goddess, as her mythology clearly presents her creating rivers by urinating them out- a perfect (if gritty to our modern sensibilities) symbol of the earth giving forth rivers. And it is the Land Goddess herself who determines the victor of battles fought on her body, and who determines who will have the right to rule over populations of people that must live on her body and depend on it. We know that the ancient Greeks accorded to the primal Earth Mother the power over prophecy; Morrigan, likewise, appears as an arch-prophetess in Irish tradition.

The "shrieking women" of conflict, the death-spirits, appearing as Ravens (related to the Morrigan, and seen not unjustly as a Celtic version of the Norse Valkyries) are again a class of female spirit associated with war and the sovereign Goddess; just as Morrigan functioned as a "chooser of the slain", so do these "fateful women", as the lore tells us. The notion of the Otherworld being dominated by female powers who are tied to Fate is a truly Celtic perspective, leading to names like "The Land of Women" (Tir na ban) for the Unseen world in Ireland.

The Cruel Initiatrix

The same "conflict Goddesses"- our "cruel mothers" as it were, contain a sub-category of initiatory Goddesses (initiators through cruel strife or torment), and again, when we approach these complex figures- like Cerridwen, for instance,  we are coming to the ground of very primordial religion, where the great Earth Goddesses was seeress and initiatrix- few have any issue associating the mysterious "Lady of the Lake" in Arthurian mythos with the Sovereign Goddess; Cerridwen is likewise a Lady in a lake. Our initiatrix-Goddess is the one who, using the terrifying powers of life and death, transforms men and women into sorcerers and even divinities of their own kind. The Lady of the Lake bestows just imperium; Cerridwen bestows transformative insight, both gifts of the greatest of divinities.

Land Goddess/Land Goddesses and the Genii Loci

For those who dislike the notion of so many apparently different Goddesses collapsing through reflex into one Titanic and ancient figure, comfort can be had in the notion that each "Land" (not that "lands" have hard, objective boundaries somehow outside of human perceptions) has its own reflex of sovereignty, its own feminine indwelling power who, for all practical purposes either is an individual power, or acts as though she is, and she governs activities of sovereignty and the mediation of life-force and prosperity in that area. I don't personally accept this theory, but it has appeal to many.

One reason why it has appeal is because there are "native" and unique spiritual powers to be found in every location- the Genius Loci, as the Romans named them- and often enough, they or it appear in female form (though this is not hard-cut necessary fact; nothing in the Unseen world is so clean-cut or easy.) These "land spirits" are everywhere, and countless- and some powerful enough can (and did) gain the worship due to Gods from our Ancestors in various places that came to depend on them for various reasons. Of course, with the Ancestors also often seen as merged with the land itself in various places, another overlap occurs between the "land spirits" and the Ancestral powers- and this final fact not only gives us another dimension to the Land Goddesses, the Land spirits, and the Ancestral dead which is worth pondering, but it also brings my brief talk here to a close.

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Copyright © 2011 by Budenicos. All Rights Reserved.

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