-Ezra Pound

I may catch a lot of flak for this. Then again, I may not. I have the privilege of being one of those little pagan blogs that never get attention except occasionally. I like that. So here goes:

I am a fascist.

No, not really. I’m not. Both because I’m honestly not aligned with Classic Fascist ideology, and because it is outlawed by Nova Roman law. I’m a Great Depression style isolationist conservative with National Socialist anti-corporation and blut un boden influences. My preferred government style is neo-Hamiltonian and I occasionally call myself a National, or Volk, Federalist. I am a very strong supporter of Monarchy and the primacy of either the Orthodox, Roman Catholic, or Protestant churches within those monarchies; depending on the nation in question. I have a passing interest in racial theory although I believe that most of it is complete bullshit; if not all of it. Economically I prefer a State Monopoly on essential goods like transport and electricity accompanied by an old-fashioned Guild-system replacing most of the corporations of today; ensuring handmade quality goods with higher regulation than we see today. I support invading Mexico to disrupt the drug trade and restore the House of Iturbide.

Kind of a mouthful, eh? So I go by fascist until it gets me into trouble and I spill the more truthful mouthful. What I’m addressing here today is conservatism (and not the GOP Classic Liberalism) within the pagan community and the third positionist communities. That last being the grand amalgamation of all Fascists, Classic and Strasserite National Socialists, Federalists, Futurists, Nationalists, National-Syndicalists, Monarchists etc. in the world. Verbosity is a bit of a problem; especially when it comes to identifying oneself in our little community. What prompted me to write this post was/is the already growing kerfluffle on Z. Budapest -a hitherto respected Dianic elder- holding a Dianic rite at PantheaCon that was for, as The Wild Hunt reports, ‘genetic women only’. A meditation/protest was staged outside the ritual, several reports have surfaced expressing displeasure with Budapest, and there have been calls to keep Budapest out of PantheaCon. This is utterly ridiculous.

First, I would like to point out the following: it is her religion. She founded the damn thing. Every transgendered individual on this earth can scream and shout, holler and moan, but it is her tradition and she can do whatever she goddamn pleases in setting it’s ritual boundaries and requirements for participation. Should she take into account the input of other Dianics? Of course. Power should not exist in a vaccum. But she has a right to hold whatever Dianic anything she damn well pleases. You cannot argue otherwise; unless you feel like sacrificing individual religious liberty in favor of some monstrous universal ‘equality’ (lol Hyperbole). My personal opinion on the matter of Transgenderism is that it is a mental illness and the transgendered it’s sufferers. I don’t know from where this illness originates, but perhaps it is a symptom of living environment, trauma, etc. Perhaps not. I don’t really care. All I know is that they’re not women.’Womyn’? Sure. Women? No. Gender is non-negotiable. It is the bedrock of human society and civilization; a classification that has existed since the beginning of civilization. It is not something that can be changed; however this degenerate modern society wishes it weren’t so. You can’t have choices in everything. You can’t change and destroy the deepest tradition of human society.

Keep in mind however that this does not mean I’m condemning Transgendered individuals, spiritual trangenderism like has been often found in shamanistic and Native American societies etc. If you are a transgendered individual and you call yourself a woman, that is fine. I don’t. We can ignore the issue and go on as planned, or we can acknowledge our differences in opinion and go our separate ways. If you considered yourself a ‘person of two spirits’ but don’t try to strap on a phallus or identify as the opposite gender then that’s fine. I’ll accept that. And also keep in mind that if you get surgery to get the proper equipment and hormones, then you aren’t transgendered. You’re a man/woman. Don’t call yourself or identify as transgendered, because that isn’t what you are. And I do say that hesitantly, as there is a culture and human history and identity with each gender. But I’ll make this compromise.

Getting to the meat of this post, the issue of transgendereds at PantheaCon is only a single facet of the multifaceted Liberal Diamond of Paganism. Paganism has historically been a liberal movement, with humanistic and liberal roots stretching back to Gardner and the first little flowers of modern paganism. We’re a liberal crew. Even reconstructionism -traditionally regarded by a great deal of pagans as a conservative subset- has a great deal of liberals both classic Libertarian and modern Democrat. Only Heathenry is a pagan faith-group that I think it is fair to call ‘conservative’, and they are kinda marginalized for that. This is because Paganism is not a truly ‘tolerant’ place. And normally, I wouldn’t have a problem with that. I’m not generally a tolerant person. But the ‘pagan community’ places a great deal on value on being a ‘tolerant’ community when it is in fact very intolerant of anything outside it’s narrow, liberal, humanistic, duotheistic worldview. And it is that hypocrisy that really gets to me. I am well acquainted with a few pagans -one nameless one who nevertheless knows who she is anyway in particular- who have been rejected from their local pagan community for, basically, not being Wiccan enough. And it happens all the time. We are not tolerant; but I wouldn’t mind if we were. Religion, in a statement that would greatly piss off my ideological comrades, transcends all boundaries; even religions like my own which are quite connected with our boundaries, thank you kindly. We should not exclude any political ideology any more than we should exclude an faith-tradition. And that is something paganism needs to learn. A devout Orthodox who believes I’m a heathen and I can get along famously if we’re both monarchists. Likewise, a communist I would otherwise advocate be imprisoned can be my friend if he is a Celtic Recon.

It all depends.

Now within the Third Positionist community we have a lot of pagans, But not pagans like you or I, but pagans who make that decision based solely off the fact that Christianity is ‘weak’ that paganism (usually Germanic) is strong and warriorlike. Others are Christians where they would otherwise be atheist call themselves Christian solely because it is their ‘national faith-tradition’. And I heartily oppose this pagan-fakery. You are not a pagan if you do it simply because it fits your ideology. Nor do you call yourself a specific kind of ideologue simply because it fits your religion. They either compliment each other, or they do not. I say all this because I normally strive to keep the two separately. I chose Nova Roma because of my preference for organized religion and because of my deepest love and devotion to Roman religion and culture. I chose my ideology not because of the highly-organized and state-centered nature of my faith, but because I gradually came to adopt those ideas through trial-and-error. They are completely separate and yet they compliment each other well. But they are not one and the same and I generally hate to mix them. So don’t get any ideas on how I’m some sort of ebil theocrat. Thanks kindly.

The Emperor, while it is correct that he was viewed as the manifestation of Imperial authority, was not ‘God’ but ‘a god’ which is a very important distinction. Furthermore the living Emperor was not viewed as a god; veneration was merely given to the Imperial genius (his personal deity; every Roman man had/has a personal deity called a Genius while every Roman woman had/has a deity called a Iuno) and not the Emperor himself. Granted the cultus of the Emperor’s genius was deeply intertwined with the formal Imperial Cult of the deified Emperors, but they were not one and the same.

The place of the Imperial divae (the Divus Iulius, Divus Augustus, Divus Claudius etc.) within the Roman pantheon and the Mos Maiorum was laughably far from “above all other gods”. Theologically speaking the divae are rather minor deities and very rarely honored outside an official context alongside the cult of Roma and the Imperial genius. While there is evidence of popular devotion throughout the Empire and in Britain and the East especially, no one would dare hold the deified Emperors above the ‘main gods’ and threaten the Pax Deorum in such a manner. jupiter was/is consistently held to be the highest deity in the Roman pantheon, with Jupiter Optimus Maximus held to be the highest form of Jupiter.

As to the comment about supremacy and so forth, I think that that would be quite unlikely. Rome was always very open to the religions of others and their deities, as long as no-one caused trouble. So the desire to prove a ‘supremacy’ seems wholly unlikely. The problem that the Roman state had with Christians was not that they wouldn’t ‘acknowledge the supremacy of the Emperor’ presumably above their own god, but rather that they refused to pay homage to the Emperor at all. Where the Romans had worked out a compromise with the Jews some time after Hadrian -instead of giving offerings and prayers to the divae/Imperial genius, they could give offerings and prayers for the health of the Emperor- the Christians rejected even this compromise. Refusing to acknowledge the gods or the Emperor in any context whatsoever was seen as an act of treason because insulting the Imperial Cult was akin to offending it’s sister cult, that of Roma herself. Refusing to recognize the gods went against the Pax Deorum and could possibly lead to the Gods taking out their anger against the Roman state. It was regarded quite like we today would regard espionage, and was punished just like any other offense: with death.

To be honest, it seems from what records we have of antiquity that many Christians purposely martyred themselves; smashing cult images, disrupting festivals, and desecrating sacred places eager to be placed in front of a curia. One Roman official was even recorded as saying of this phenomena “Oh unhappy men, is it really so difficult to find ropes and precipices?”. That does not negate the senseless persecutions of Emperors like Nero, or the methodical killings of Diocletian, but it does bring the whole ‘persecution’ thing into context. I might add that pagans killed under the reigns of men like Constantius, Constans, Constantine II, and Theodosius I numbered above and beyond the numbers of Christians martyred in any of the persecutions of them, but that is for another time.

Forthcoming Posts:

• Look What I Found
• Modesty and Veiling
• Conservatism and Paganism
• Hats

castus, castitas

Castus is an adjective meaning morally pure or guiltless (English “chaste”), hence pious or ritually pure in a religious sense. Castitas is the abstract noun. Various etymologies have been proposed, among them two IE stems: k’(e)stos ^[1] meaning “he who conforms to the prescriptions of rite”; or *kas-, from which derives the verb careo, “I care for”.^[2] In Roman religion, the purity of ritual and those who perform it is paramount: one who is correctly cleansed and castus in religious preparation and performance is likely to please the gods. Ritual error is a pollutant; it vitiates the performance and risks the gods’ anger. Castus and castitas are attributes of the sacerdos (priest),^[3] but substances and objects can also be ritually castus.^[4]

1. ^Compare Sanskrit s’ista.
2. ^M. Morani”Lat. ‘sacer’ …” Aevum LV 1981 p. 38. Another etymology connects it to Vedic s’asti, ‘he gives the instruction’, and to Avestic saas-tu, ‘that he educate’: in G. Dumezil La religion romaine archaique Paris, 1974, Remarques preliminaires IX
3. ^Vergil, Aeneid, 6.661: “Sacerdotes casti dum vita manebat”, in H. Fugier, Recherches… cit. p.18 ff.
4. ^See, for instance, mola salsa.

Looks like I have my work cut out for me. And the name wasn’t even intentional. I thought it meant something else entirely…

Now we get to my patron, Divus Iulius. Caesar was feted in his campaigns in the East as a God by the towns he conquered, in typical Hellenistic style (V). Upon his return the Senate erected a statue of Caesar proclaiming him to be an “unconquerable god”, but he had the inscription removed in a show of piety (IV). His image was paraded alongside those of the gods (VII), and he himself instituted a flaminate and priesthood for his genius. Cicero, rather hostilely, equates him to a full-blown god (VIII) After his hideous murder by the so-called “Liberators” of Rome, Marcus Antonius called upon Caesar’s divinity and ancestry from Aeneas (Jupiter Indignes) and thus, Venus (IX); and a popular devotion to Caesar arose, worshiping and revering him in his deified form. Later Marcus Antonius was installed as flamen for Caesar as the Divus Iulius.

And so on. I could go on and on concerning the progression of the Imperial cult, but the fact remains that I’m just completely enraptured by the history of the practice and the concept of the deified emperor and his genius. In history they were often practiced as separate cults. The Emperor would often serve as officiants in either branch. And it’s things like that that I love. Just reading the Wikipedia page on the subject sends shivers down my spine. It fills me and drowns me. The pious Tiberius who, in affirming that he was mortal, carried out an act that would set the bar for piety. He was later deified. Antonius Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Julian Pius, all these great men. They deserve worship, and I just can’t deny them that. And you know, I just changed the title of this post because I don’t want to write another one tomorrow.

I was going to write this post separately, but today I had a revelation. There have always been things I want to do with my life, and priest has been one of them. Three, actually; priest, politician, and author. They change in precedence depending on my mood. Now it’s the first one and the only one. It is strange when one decides, at an early age, want they want to do in life. It changes as one grows, I know; but I just have to look to what I see in the future. I want to serve the Imperial Cult within the context of Nova Roma, as flamen of Caesar and the other Emperors. I want to build a Temple, keep it clean, and give libations. I want to read classic texts and preform classic rites. And I know that, with the current state of the priesthood, it will be a long trek. But I’m willing to do it. And to that end, I’ll be speaking with pontifices within the Republic. Wish me luck.

Hail the gods.

—List of References Used—

• (I) Lives, Plutarch; X 18.7-9
• (II) Article The Imperial Cult; Wikipedia
• (III) Taylor, p.48, citing Plutarch’s Marius, 27
• (IV) Gradel, 51, citing Cicero, De officiis, 3.80
• (V) Plutarch, Life of Caesar; Suetonius, Life of Caesar
• (VI) Dio 43.14.6 & 21.2.; Taylor, p.65; this was in the temple of Quirinus
• (VII) Ibid Ref. II
• (VIII) Price, in Cannadine and Price, 71, 85
• (IX) Bryan, William Jennings, ed. The World’s Famous Orations. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1906; New York: Bartleby.com, 2003.

]]> http://aedessidus.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/revelations/feed/ 1 papaltaurus http://aedessidus.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/the-40-julian-adorations/ http://aedessidus.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/the-40-julian-adorations/#comments Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:33:04 +0000 Castus http://aedessidus.wordpress.com/?p=307 Continue reading »

Hi. I’m back. I just went through an intensive surgery on my legs, and haven’t really had the time to post here. But I’m back; and a great deal more reverent and pious. It’s amazing what searing pain can do for one’s perspective. At one point I had some-sort of hallucinatory dream/vision of Apollon applying ointment to soothe the pain. Interesting experience. Anyway I’m sure you all have noticed the recent trend in the pagan blogging community of posting adorations for their deities.  I am absolutely in love with this, and will try my hand. There is no sacred number to the Divus Iulius as far as I know, so I will simply go until I run out.

Hail the Divine Julius, sweetest god. I invoke and say your names, or whatever other you prefer. I hope you store your blessings upon my endeavor(s).

1. I adore you, Star of Roma
2. I adore you, First Man
3. I adore you, Slayer of Elephants
4. I adore you, Clement One
5. I adore you, Cutter of Oak
6. I adore you, Queen of Bithynia
7. I adore you, Father of the Fatherland
8. I adore you, Son of the Subara
9. I adore you, Patron of Multitudes
10. I adore you, Thrower of Dice
11. I adore you, Chronicler
12. I adore you, First of Britannia
13. I adore you, Spanish One
14. I adore you, Conqueror of the Lusitans
15. I adore you, Builder of Bridges
16. I adore you, One who Pacifies
17. I adore you, Child of Love
18. I adore you, Triumphant One
19. I adore you, Layers of Lilies
20. I adore you, Crowned of Leaves
21. I adore you, Wearer of Boots
22. I adore you, With Tongue of Greek
23. I adore you, Lover of Dignity
24. I adore you, One who Sacrificed
25. I adore you, Single Consul
26. I adore you, Vain One
27. I adore you, Grey-Eyed
28. I adore you, Hairy One
29. I adore you, Reluctant King
30. I adore you, Waiting Star
31. I adore you, Thrower of Games
32. I adore you, Layer of Feasts
33. I adore you, Leader of Legions
34. I adore you, Lover of Women
35. I adore you, Arrogant Boy
36. I adore you, Receiver of Arms
37. I adore you, Generous One
38. I adore you, One of Three
39. I adore you, Father of Empire
40. I adore you, my God

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• Life of Numa, Plutarch
• On the Gods and Cosmos, Sallustius
• On the Nature of the Gods, Cicero
• Stoic Serenity, Keith Seddon
• The Stoic Handbook, Wiedgardt, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus
• Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
• http://hellenicpolytheist.wordpress.com/
• http://lykeiaofapollon.wordpress.com
• http://thehouseofvines.wordpress.com/
• http://aediculaantinoi.wordpress.com/

Io Saturnalia!

Io Saturnalia! Today is the first day of the week-long festival that commemorates the Golden Age of Latium when, according to my fellow cultor over at Religio et Pietas, grapes made wine by simply falling to the ground. To seemingly veer wildly off-topic I spoke to the marvelous Pythia Kharis, who is the proprietor of the blog Writ, Ritual and Revelation the other day, and I was advised to be more candid on this blog. So in the spirit of candidity (spellcheck tells me that’s not a word, but it’s a festival damnit; and I don’t care) I’ll let you all in on a little secret: I’m not that pious. Oh, I’d love to be. But the last time I preformed my NR-mandated morning ritual was….a long time ago, to say the least. The last time I preformed any kind of ritual was, if memory serves, was Hallowe’en. Anyone who knows me well (or even not that well) knows that I aspire to the priesthood. Well the Religio is a mainly Orthopraxic faith and Pietas, at least IMO, goes hand in hand with ritual. So yeah, I’m a impious wannabe priest. Go-figure.

To move on from my brief whine fest, to celebrate Saturnalia I intend to spend most of tomorrow baking cookies (if I can get the stuff, that is), spending time either calling or playing games with friends. And writing. Lots of writing. And that is because to celebrate further, I’m starting a Heroes of Paganism series with figures mainly from Roma Antiqua or from the Hellenistic world in general; and supplementing that series with a number of planned posts on theology and the like. So I hope you all enjoy that. After all, who doesn’t want to read light, un-detailed posts on Neoplatonist philosophy?

Oh come, all ye druids,
Gather at the center.
Oh come ye, oh come ye
To worship the Gods.
Sing Praise to Saturn,
God of Romans’ Golden Age.
Oh come let us unbind him
Oh come let us unbind him
Oh come let us unbind him
Saturn the King.

(Song ‘Oh Come All Ye Druids’ is fully attributed to The Three Cranes ADF Grove)

]]> http://aedessidus.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/io-satvrnalia/feed/ 0 papaltaurus http://aedessidus.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/wheat-wheat-its-good-to-eat/ http://aedessidus.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/wheat-wheat-its-good-to-eat/#comments Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:12:15 +0000 Castus http://aedessidus.wordpress.com/?p=292 Continue reading »

Today marks the Consualia; a festival in honor of Consus, a god of grain and grain storage. After reading an article about the homegrown wheat movement nearly a week ago, I decided that devoting a small plot of our rolling 27 acres to growing the stuff would be a fun venture. Thus I figured that cultivating a relationship with this particular deity would be beneficial to say the least.

However, what little we know about the Consualia is of absolutely zero use to me as a reconstructionist. Ludi and the ritual sweeping of his underground altar near the Field of Mars is the only thing I’ve been able to uncover. Thus, I will celebrate Consus through bread. Read of it, dear reader, wallow in the bread:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anpan
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babka_(food)
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bammy
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_bread
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bara_Brith
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhatoora
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciabatta
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dampfnudel
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruitcake
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gugelhupf
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hushpuppy
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ka’ak
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantou
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melonpan
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_bread
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_de_Pascua
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandoro
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panettone

AVE AVE CONSVS!

 

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• The Rites of the Bona Dea (Dec. 4th)
• Faunalia, in honor of Faunus (Dec. 5th)
• Agonalia, in honor of Sol Indiges (Dec. 11th)
• Consualia, in honor of Consus (Dec. 15)
• Saturnalia, in honor of Saturn (Dec. 16th-23rd)
• Eponalia, in honor of Epona (Dec. 18th)
• Opalia, in honor of Opis (Dec. 19th)
• Divalia, in honor of Angerona (Dec. 21st)
• Bruma, in celebration of the Solstice (Dec. 21st)
• Larentalia, in honor of the Dea Tacita (Dec. 23rd)
• Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, in honor of Sol Invictus (Dec. 25th)
• Brumalia, in honor of Bacchus (Dec. 25th)

The ones I celebrate are highlighted. I missed celebrating both the Kalends and Faunalia, so I’m going to do something for the Agonalia today. I’m not entirely sure what; probably just write a poem or the like. As for the others I’ll have to look at what was done on those days and reconstruct as best I can. But what I’m trying to get at here is that even pagan religions have holidays during this time, and that we shouldn’t be bitching about “the Christian/Christmas hype” that occurs especially during this month because we can do it too. And in the long run it really isn’t important what the Christians do anyway. We pagans (and my own Graeco-Roman community in particular) are a lively and, for the most part, amiable group of people who can do just fine with our own thing.

In conclusion to this short and rather unfocused post, I wish all of you a Joyous Festive Season and hope to be back writing something soon.

O Lost and Lonely,
the Conqueror went,
Wand’ring through the Endless sands.
Trudging through the aerid wastes,
as the forlorn Gods demand.
And so he wonders, whisp’ring of bees,
Has he conquered Ra?
Or has Ra conquered he?