Post by Heron on Oct 1, 2009 20:18:35 GMT -1
Oct 1, 2009 10:01:23 GMT -1 @annua9 said:
I really like what you said here Heron:"If witches can construct a workable worshipping culture out of invented or appropriated gods, why should we balk at doing so with historically identified deities because we can't be sure about every aspect of their historical validity? The point is, surely, that we can work from an historical base to decide what is appropriate for us and just get on and do it. Whatever the reality of life in previous ages, our religion will of course reflect our own history and the expectations arising from that."
It's very close to things that have been in the fore of my mind for some time. One would hope that being culturally and historically grounded to what ever extent is possible given the state of knowledge puts us in a place to construct something a more mature and richer than the Swiss-Army-Knife goddess and god for all occassions that wicca provides. That being said I stopped describing myself as a 'reconstructionist' when I had children. I'm just a polytheist now, a constructed one, lol. A person keeping a hearth as a sacred place to raise children and teach them stories and practices just has to settle with something and get on and do it, as you say, at some point. Sometimes I find that new factual discoveries broaden my understanding of a particular god and opens up a new 'feel' for them, and thus contact. But by and large I think any authentic experience goes beyond names, though it may have started with them.
Yes I think that 'Swiss-Army Knife' goddess and god of the wiccans was the main reason many people began to describe themselves as polytheists to distinguish their approach from that duotheist doctrine. Authentic experience certainly does go beyond names although I think name can take on a resonance and feed back into the experience and reinforce it. This is the reinforcement of Nature by Culture which must always be an interactive experience for us humans I think.