Here is today's video.
I hope all of you are well and finding your own reasons to push through that wall and make things happen.
Keep that shield up and push forward. You'll grind that foe under your heel yet.
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Pushing through.
Please forgive me if this comes off as rough. It has been quite a while since I have done one of these. I am also not feeling completely well.
Here is today's video.
I hope all of you are well and finding your own reasons to push through that wall and make things happen.
Keep that shield up and push forward. You'll grind that foe under your heel yet.
Here is today's video.
I hope all of you are well and finding your own reasons to push through that wall and make things happen.
Keep that shield up and push forward. You'll grind that foe under your heel yet.
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Prayer Beads: Chaplet of the Janyati (part 1)
I have written a few previous posts about the Filianic/Déanic rosary. This is patterned after the Catholic rosary. Most practitioners pray the Filianic/Déanic rosary and meditate up on the Five Mysteries of the faith. From what I can tell, I appear to be the only one who also will pray an expanded version of this, focusing upon fifteen elements that comprise these Mysteries. This, however, is not the only version of prayer beads available to people who wish to pray in a fashion that encourages focus upon Dea.
In the latter portion of the 20th century, another form of rosary was developed in the West. The Anglican chaplet (also known as the Anglican prayer beads or the Anglican rosary) came into practice in the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. It is a modification of the Catholic rosary and the Orthodox Christian prayer rope, wherein thirty three beads are divided up into five major groups. The first group is the terminal (which is a cross most often for the Anglican chaplet) and the inviatory bead. Upon these two beads, the opening prayers are recited. The next division encounter is the first cruciform bead and the first week, a group of seven beads. There are three other weeks with a cruciform bead dividing each group. The fourth week ends where it meets the first cruciform bead.
This style of prayer beads has become relatively popular through out the Protestant Christian communities that are inclined towards this style of worship. Where the Catholic rosary focuses upon the mysteries associated with the events of the life of Jesus and his mother, the Anglican chaplet is used as a tool for counting prayers. There has, not yet, arisen a liturgical structure to focus contemplation and meditation beyond this point. Individual focus whilst engaged in this exercise varies widely.
The Anglican chaplet style beads is also well suited for a devotee of Dea's use. The division of the seven beads in each 'week' of the chaplet lends itself naturally for contemplation of the seven Janyati. The cruciform beads not only connect to the Fora but also to the four regular seasons of the Filianic/Déanic calendar. The fifth season, Moura, can be counted on the inviatory bead or upon the first cruciform bead when it is reached again after the fourth week of beads is counted.
The most basic prayers of devotion1 for this are identical to those of the rosary. On the terminal bead, for example, a declaration of one's creed would be made, followed by a recitation of the Our Mother prayer and the Gloria prayer. The cruciform beads would have similar prayers to the beads that divide the decades on the rosary. The week beads would have similar prayers to those said on the individual beads of each decade. Upon the conclusion of the final week, the prayers said at the conclusion of the rosary could be said as a way to finish the prayer session.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
1. The rosary prayers of Filianism/Déanism do have some variants between each sect. I will be posting my interpretation of the major prayers in another post soon. If you examine the prayers presented by A Chapel of Our Mother God, you will see the most basic format used.
In the latter portion of the 20th century, another form of rosary was developed in the West. The Anglican chaplet (also known as the Anglican prayer beads or the Anglican rosary) came into practice in the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. It is a modification of the Catholic rosary and the Orthodox Christian prayer rope, wherein thirty three beads are divided up into five major groups. The first group is the terminal (which is a cross most often for the Anglican chaplet) and the inviatory bead. Upon these two beads, the opening prayers are recited. The next division encounter is the first cruciform bead and the first week, a group of seven beads. There are three other weeks with a cruciform bead dividing each group. The fourth week ends where it meets the first cruciform bead.
This style of prayer beads has become relatively popular through out the Protestant Christian communities that are inclined towards this style of worship. Where the Catholic rosary focuses upon the mysteries associated with the events of the life of Jesus and his mother, the Anglican chaplet is used as a tool for counting prayers. There has, not yet, arisen a liturgical structure to focus contemplation and meditation beyond this point. Individual focus whilst engaged in this exercise varies widely.
The Anglican chaplet style beads is also well suited for a devotee of Dea's use. The division of the seven beads in each 'week' of the chaplet lends itself naturally for contemplation of the seven Janyati. The cruciform beads not only connect to the Fora but also to the four regular seasons of the Filianic/Déanic calendar. The fifth season, Moura, can be counted on the inviatory bead or upon the first cruciform bead when it is reached again after the fourth week of beads is counted.
The most basic prayers of devotion1 for this are identical to those of the rosary. On the terminal bead, for example, a declaration of one's creed would be made, followed by a recitation of the Our Mother prayer and the Gloria prayer. The cruciform beads would have similar prayers to the beads that divide the decades on the rosary. The week beads would have similar prayers to those said on the individual beads of each decade. Upon the conclusion of the final week, the prayers said at the conclusion of the rosary could be said as a way to finish the prayer session.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
1. The rosary prayers of Filianism/Déanism do have some variants between each sect. I will be posting my interpretation of the major prayers in another post soon. If you examine the prayers presented by A Chapel of Our Mother God, you will see the most basic format used.
Friday, September 23, 2016
Such a long week.
Hello Everyone,
It has been a long and tiring week for me this week. I had a migraine that just wouldn't go away for the last few days. It made pretty much everything challenging. I have come away from the experience with the deepest sympathy for the people who live with that level of pain daily. I am to no end of impressed with how you folks keep going when you deal with this or worse on a daily basis. It takes a level of fortitude that I am in awe of.
The biggest hurdle to getting things happening here on this blog has been finding writing time. I have spent a good amount of time this week trying to get the household straightened up and tidy. My kitchen is finally back at a point where I feel it is presentable for company. The living room is almost there, with the exception of a large laundry hamper full of clean kids clothes waiting to be folded and put away. The boy's room, however, is in need of some attention. We're going to attempt to coach the boys through picking everything up on their own. I'm hoping this wont result in a great deal of frustration and stress, but expecting that by the end of it all I will be ready for them to go back to school and get out of my hair for several hours.
Putting aside all the mundane things in life that have gotten in the way of my posting here, I am left aghast and speechless in the face of the recurring violence in the news. More specifically, the seemingly endless cascade of reports of people who are being killed by law enforcement. It is something that angers me on a fundamental level and I struggle to find the words to express that. It is something that horrifies me and fills me with profound grief. I pray that this parade of horrors ends but it seems that every day I wake to find something new in the news about it.
I find myself at a loss for what to say. I feel that my words here are paltry and pointless in the face of such casual, routine evil. It has created something of a crisis of faith. I am not sure how to proceed here. Thus, I let posting here slip aside as I focus upon the small daily details of my life. I wish to correct this, but I do not know where to begin. Perhaps the gods shall smile upon me and provide some sort of guidance.
Please forgive my silence.
It has been a long and tiring week for me this week. I had a migraine that just wouldn't go away for the last few days. It made pretty much everything challenging. I have come away from the experience with the deepest sympathy for the people who live with that level of pain daily. I am to no end of impressed with how you folks keep going when you deal with this or worse on a daily basis. It takes a level of fortitude that I am in awe of.
The biggest hurdle to getting things happening here on this blog has been finding writing time. I have spent a good amount of time this week trying to get the household straightened up and tidy. My kitchen is finally back at a point where I feel it is presentable for company. The living room is almost there, with the exception of a large laundry hamper full of clean kids clothes waiting to be folded and put away. The boy's room, however, is in need of some attention. We're going to attempt to coach the boys through picking everything up on their own. I'm hoping this wont result in a great deal of frustration and stress, but expecting that by the end of it all I will be ready for them to go back to school and get out of my hair for several hours.
Putting aside all the mundane things in life that have gotten in the way of my posting here, I am left aghast and speechless in the face of the recurring violence in the news. More specifically, the seemingly endless cascade of reports of people who are being killed by law enforcement. It is something that angers me on a fundamental level and I struggle to find the words to express that. It is something that horrifies me and fills me with profound grief. I pray that this parade of horrors ends but it seems that every day I wake to find something new in the news about it.
I find myself at a loss for what to say. I feel that my words here are paltry and pointless in the face of such casual, routine evil. It has created something of a crisis of faith. I am not sure how to proceed here. Thus, I let posting here slip aside as I focus upon the small daily details of my life. I wish to correct this, but I do not know where to begin. Perhaps the gods shall smile upon me and provide some sort of guidance.
Please forgive my silence.
Thursday, September 15, 2016
The Gift of Tears.
One of my sources of inspiration are the accounts of medieval European lay piety. There are so many little myths of local saints (frequently unrecognized by the Catholic Church, but still adored by the people in that region) that it is really difficult to begin to organize them. In the 13th Century CE[1], there was a sharp uptick in lay devotions and mysticism within Christianity. A cursory glance over the materials produced from that era and the stories that go back to this era, one finds that women were a very large part of this movement. One also finds that an enormous amount of this body of work focuses upon the establishment of a relationship between the individual and the divine.
Now, some may wonder what this has to do with what I titled this evening's post. Looking at the accounts of Margery Kempe, an English mystic who is honored within the Anglican faith but not in Catholicism (though she was a devout Catholic), there is much written of her frequent weeping for the mercy of her God and begging for his forgiveness of herself and others. This is not something that is only written within her autobiographical writings. It is also recorded to have been evident in female mystics in continental Europe during the era. This weeping was something called the 'gift of tears' by authors of that period.
It is not something spoken of today. It is actually forgotten for the most part in the accounts of mystic experiences and viewed with similar disdain as was done by the more cynical of Margery Kempe's contemporaries. The idea that one could be moved to tears by the force of spiritual experiences is alien to most people today. The idea of mysticism as something other than a blissful experience is something often swept aside by many people who write about it today. (I'm looking squarely at you, David Wolfe.)
Some people within the more ecstatic oriented Christian faiths will admit to being moved to tears, but it is always described as being something done to them by the Holy Spirit. It is something that is viewed as external and imposed upon them. Which, considering the emphasis that sects such as the Pentecostals place upon one's submission to their God's will, is not really much of a surprise. The pagan community treats the gift of tears (which does happen within the mystics of pretty much any faith you can find and those which are emerging) as a shameful secret. It is viewed as some sort of weakness and a sign of hysterics or some kind of mental illness. (There are also vast swaths of the pagan community that views mysticism as identical to mental illness as well, but that is a topic for another day.)
The gift of tears is not something that is strictly motivated by the desire for divine forgiveness and mercy, though it is one of the reasons why a mystic may be moved to tears. It also comes with the emotions of joy, grief, frustration, and pretty much every aspect of how we are moved to tears elsewhere in our lives. The gift of tears is a bit different from that which arises due to the more 'mundane' elements of our lives. Where the stressors of our daily lives can bring us to tears, the gift of tears is something that comes with a very profound sense of the presence of the divine in our lives at the time it happens.
Like Margery Kempe, the mystic who is blessed with the gift of tears has their awareness overwhelmed by the divine. They are moved to weep by the sheer force of the gods. It is an ecstatic experience, though the ecstasy is not necessarily something blissful. It is, also, a very difficult thing to bear. Because, like Margery Kempe, the mystic who bears the gift of tears finds themselves alienated by their peers because it is so vastly different from what others experience and they will be in a position where their piety is challenged and possible accusations of mental illness or seeking dramatic attention are thrown about.
I can not claim that I have this gift. I have known people, however, who do have it. They are not the typical 'cry at the drop of a hat' people, and some of them never have teared up during a movie. Still, when they feel the presence of the divine, it is something that moves them so profoundly that they will weep. They are also people who have an awe inspiring depth of faith and adoration for their gods. When the thought of what their gods have endured and what they do for the world arises, these people do get a bit misty eyed because they can not help the force of emotion that arises from those thoughts.
We should all seek to attempt to emulate that level of faith and empathy for the divine. The heart road that is ruled by Sai Sushuri is a mystic path within Filianism (and related faiths) where the practitoner is urged to feel such love and compassion towards the divine and the world. The gift of tears, when viewed from this context, is perhaps one of the gentlest ways that the divine may lay their hand upon us. To be so overwhelmed by love that one has tears streaming down their face can be a profoundly beautiful experience for the person moved to tears and those witnessing them, think of the mother who weeps when her child is married and they're so filled with love and happiness for their child that they can not help it.
Tears for the sake of faith are not a sign of illness or weakness. They are a sign of strength in said faith and tenderness of the heart. Embrace them when they come to you, for I suspect that everyone at some point in their life will have this blessing come upon them. And recognize that they are truly a gift because they come with the full force of the divine's presence and blessing.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
1. CE designates Common Era, this is what I use in place of Anno Domni (AD).
2. This can be found online at the following link: http://theapedia.referata.com/wiki/The_Temple_of_the_Heart
Now, some may wonder what this has to do with what I titled this evening's post. Looking at the accounts of Margery Kempe, an English mystic who is honored within the Anglican faith but not in Catholicism (though she was a devout Catholic), there is much written of her frequent weeping for the mercy of her God and begging for his forgiveness of herself and others. This is not something that is only written within her autobiographical writings. It is also recorded to have been evident in female mystics in continental Europe during the era. This weeping was something called the 'gift of tears' by authors of that period.
It is not something spoken of today. It is actually forgotten for the most part in the accounts of mystic experiences and viewed with similar disdain as was done by the more cynical of Margery Kempe's contemporaries. The idea that one could be moved to tears by the force of spiritual experiences is alien to most people today. The idea of mysticism as something other than a blissful experience is something often swept aside by many people who write about it today. (I'm looking squarely at you, David Wolfe.)
Some people within the more ecstatic oriented Christian faiths will admit to being moved to tears, but it is always described as being something done to them by the Holy Spirit. It is something that is viewed as external and imposed upon them. Which, considering the emphasis that sects such as the Pentecostals place upon one's submission to their God's will, is not really much of a surprise. The pagan community treats the gift of tears (which does happen within the mystics of pretty much any faith you can find and those which are emerging) as a shameful secret. It is viewed as some sort of weakness and a sign of hysterics or some kind of mental illness. (There are also vast swaths of the pagan community that views mysticism as identical to mental illness as well, but that is a topic for another day.)
The gift of tears is not something that is strictly motivated by the desire for divine forgiveness and mercy, though it is one of the reasons why a mystic may be moved to tears. It also comes with the emotions of joy, grief, frustration, and pretty much every aspect of how we are moved to tears elsewhere in our lives. The gift of tears is a bit different from that which arises due to the more 'mundane' elements of our lives. Where the stressors of our daily lives can bring us to tears, the gift of tears is something that comes with a very profound sense of the presence of the divine in our lives at the time it happens.
Like Margery Kempe, the mystic who is blessed with the gift of tears has their awareness overwhelmed by the divine. They are moved to weep by the sheer force of the gods. It is an ecstatic experience, though the ecstasy is not necessarily something blissful. It is, also, a very difficult thing to bear. Because, like Margery Kempe, the mystic who bears the gift of tears finds themselves alienated by their peers because it is so vastly different from what others experience and they will be in a position where their piety is challenged and possible accusations of mental illness or seeking dramatic attention are thrown about.
I can not claim that I have this gift. I have known people, however, who do have it. They are not the typical 'cry at the drop of a hat' people, and some of them never have teared up during a movie. Still, when they feel the presence of the divine, it is something that moves them so profoundly that they will weep. They are also people who have an awe inspiring depth of faith and adoration for their gods. When the thought of what their gods have endured and what they do for the world arises, these people do get a bit misty eyed because they can not help the force of emotion that arises from those thoughts.
We should all seek to attempt to emulate that level of faith and empathy for the divine. The heart road that is ruled by Sai Sushuri is a mystic path within Filianism (and related faiths) where the practitoner is urged to feel such love and compassion towards the divine and the world. The gift of tears, when viewed from this context, is perhaps one of the gentlest ways that the divine may lay their hand upon us. To be so overwhelmed by love that one has tears streaming down their face can be a profoundly beautiful experience for the person moved to tears and those witnessing them, think of the mother who weeps when her child is married and they're so filled with love and happiness for their child that they can not help it.
Tears for the sake of faith are not a sign of illness or weakness. They are a sign of strength in said faith and tenderness of the heart. Embrace them when they come to you, for I suspect that everyone at some point in their life will have this blessing come upon them. And recognize that they are truly a gift because they come with the full force of the divine's presence and blessing.
19. Let flow your tears, My children, for they are the beginning of joy. 20. For every tear of true repentance shall dissolve away a thorn, and it shall be as though it had not been.
The Temple of the Heart, The Gospel of Our Mother God[2]
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
1. CE designates Common Era, this is what I use in place of Anno Domni (AD).
2. This can be found online at the following link: http://theapedia.referata.com/wiki/The_Temple_of_the_Heart
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Update & Ramblings.
Abolan 4, 3336
Greetings my dear Readers,
I have missed you. It has been very busy of late. My children went back to school on Tuesday (that would be Abolan 1, for anyone keeping score on the Filianic calendar, or the day after Labor Day here in the US). We have been running about for the last month, roughly, working on getting everything ready for school. They have new backpacks, new shoes, and clothes. School supplies was probably the easiest part of the process. The hardest part was getting my eldest to understand that he can not take Thursday's/Thamedi's off so he can visit with the garbage man. I promised him that I would take up his favorite way of helping (carrying out the recycling to this kind and helpful guy) when he was at school. One of these days, we're going to write them a very nice note thanking them for showing us the parts of the truck, letting the boys help out a bit, and generally being just awesome with their two biggest fans.
We have been very busy getting ready for my sister-in-law's wedding this weekend. I find it charming that the day it falls on is the day known for the Norns. What better day to begin the next journey in the tapestry of your life on the day of the weaver's of fate? I like to think that Sai Rhavë will share the day with the Werdë and bless her and her fiance. I also think that Ingvi is going to extend his hand in blessing as well. It is just a feeling that I have about it all.
All of this work has lead to my being sporadic in my devotional activities and my present problems with my mental health being more challenging. It is my hope, however, that life will calm down over the next week. I also hope to resume posting material for you all soon. I have been observing things happening in the world about me and I have some questions that I am pondering. I also have ideas on other stuff coming to mind. So, I will do my best to be in touch soon.
May the love of the Gods be with you.
♥
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