The days are getting longer again. It’s nice to have the additional hours of light in the day, however it also means that it will continue outward until the heat of summer, the mosquitos and the wasps are back in full swing. There is no ‘single point in time’ that we can look forward to without realizing that that same point will come, pass and time will keep going. Rushing to another day, another week, month and then year.
This is probably my favourite time of year – early spring. Along with early autumn. Enough time out of the midst of the harshness of a season (whether extreme cold or extreme heat) to be able to notice a difference and appreciate it.
Much as the seasons are cyclic, so are our lives and here I find myself in a space where I want to connect with inner wisdom while journeying outward this year.
I have restarted the personal practices I had before when in the Seminary of the AJC and the Order of Esclarmonde. It has been a few years. And it really feels good to be home again. No longer in the Seminary itself, but still in my heart are many of the things I’ve learned.
One thing I like about being a Johannite is that I can still practice Wicca, and learn Druidry and it doesn’t conflict with the statement of belief or any such thing – especially because I am a soft-polytheist. Hard polytheists and people who are generally anti-Christian would not be able share the same enthusiasm, but being a Esoteric, Gnostic organization, it lends itself to various interpretations.
One statement that Gerald Gardner said about the deities was this:
Briefly, it may be explained that the personification of a particular type of cosmic power in the form of a God or Goddess, carried out by believers and worshippers over many centuries, builds that God-form or Magical Image into a potent reality on the Inner Planes, and makes it a means by which that type of cosmic power may be contacted. Nor is the worshippers’ belief in vain; for though they may themselves have built the Magical Image, the Power which ensouls it is real and objective, if the building has been done in the right way. – Gardner, Gerald. The Meaning of Witchcraft. Lakemont, GA US: Copple House Books, 1959; 1988 edition. (p 260-261)
The power which ensouls it is real and objective.
The power, to me has always been the Source. The One. And it as seemed that in the occult there has been a theme of Wholeness. Working on the aspects of self whether it be by examining them as the God and Goddess, or by study of Kabbalah etc in order to bring all those pieces together and make whole.
There is no Hard Polytheism rule in Wicca. Gardner, the granddaddy of Wicca says Deities are personifications of various forms of a power that is real and objective . Worshippers may have built the Image, but the power is cosmic, and pre-existent. That power finds its form in Gnosticism and Esoteric Christianity in many various myths of the Logos, Sophia and the Pleroma. It finds itself as the Masculine and Feminine energy that is put into the form of a God and Goddess in Wicca. Likewise that energy manifests itself to different people, from different places, over different time periods in so many forms. Much like different notes sounding through a flute. The breath flows through but depending on where it exists, it has a different sound. This power manifests itself as many different deities and forms.
One woman sees the Mother Mary at her death, taking her hand, guiding her. One man sees the Halls of Valhalla opening to him in his last moments. Each experience is individual. For the last year or so, I have had a connection with El of the Mountain, and the myths of Ugarit have sung to me.
The Wiccan ideas of Lord and Lady to me have often been dressed in my heart as Word and Wisdom, or Logos and Sophia, Bridegroom and the Bride. Or the Supernal Parents. The form of Wicca I practice leaves room for personal identification of the God and the Goddess.
Druidry in the OBOD has one prayer at the end of rituals (you are always reminded to use whatever works for you) that says ‘May the blessing of the Uncreated One, of the Created Word, and of the Spirit that is the Inspirer be always with me’ . OBOD and Wicca have some common threads at their creation and once you step inside the OBOD you do begin to see some of this – though of course there are differences as well.
My personal practice as a Johannite – my daily devotions/divine offices of the day, are enhancing my connection with the deeper mysteries. Likewise, my Wiccan and Druid practice, as seen through the eyes of one seeking gnosis are more full of meaning now than ever before.
Blessed Be.
