{"id":2389,"date":"2009-09-01T01:00:13","date_gmt":"2009-09-01T06:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=2411"},"modified":"2009-09-06T12:42:57","modified_gmt":"2009-09-06T17:42:57","slug":"pagan-theology-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2009\/09\/01\/pagan-theology-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Pagan Theology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pagan theology short:\u00a0 graven images
\n
\nThou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God \u2013 Exodus 20 3-5. <\/em><\/p>\n

Recently a member of our group got very upset over the loss of one of her owls.\u00a0 It was a small, black owl that she had used in ritual several times, and now it was missing.\u00a0 She was inconsolable.\u00a0 It was as if she had lost a pet or a loved one.<\/p>\n

What was going on?\u00a0 Was she fetishizing an object, loving too much the things of the world and not the spirit?\u00a0 Or had, through use in ritual, the owl taken on properties of the Owl?\u00a0 Of Minerva, of the Lady.\u00a0 Had it become the Goddess?<\/p>\n

In the United States we often treat our stuff as an important member of our families.\u00a0 We\u2019d be lost without all our gear, and Pagans in particular seem to be given over to accumulating a large amalgam of ritual implements and other toys associated with the craft.\u00a0 Some of that we can blame on the ritual magicians, with their wands and censers and swords, but we can also look back in time and find many examples of images of the Gods and Goddesses being used in worship.\u00a0 Those toys we keep, particularly those that we connect with the Gods and Goddesses through may, in fact, be more than mere objects.\u00a0 They may embody the deities themselves.<\/p>\n

Idols are the fetishized [1] image or object, and represent an embodiment of deity, magical power, or magical spirit.\u00a0 There are many different ways to approach a discussion of idols. We can discuss the question of incarnation, of the God or Goddess occupying an object in the natural world.\u00a0 We can also discuss the creation and construction of magical or blessed fetish objects, such as wands or alchemistical materials.\u00a0\u00a0 We can also discuss what happens when we venerate the idol, both to the object and ourselves.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Obviously the book religions have a clear answer about what happens to you when you venerate idols, but those answers are meaningless to us [2].<\/p>\n

This multitude of ways to approach the theological question of idols can be reduced to a set of basic questions [3]:<\/p>\n

1) What property of the fetish makes it inherently special?<\/p>\n

2) How does consecration or creation of the fetish make it different from other objects?<\/p>\n

3) What happens differently in the viewer or reverent when they are viewing or interacting with a consecrated fetish, as opposed to a normal object?<\/p>\n

This division breaks fetishes up into three components, the object itself, what is done with the object, and how the object affects the viewer or user.
\n
\nThe fetish itself <\/strong><\/p>\n

Is the God or Goddess inherent in their image or sacred object?<\/p>\n

The ancient Greeks saw the temple as the place where the deity lived, or naos [4].\u00a0 During Homeric times it was seen as the dwelling place of a particular God or Goddess, and was often used by the Gods and Goddesses as part of their worldly escapades.\u00a0 Magical workings often use images such as poppets or dolls as stand-ins for the object of the magical working.\u00a0 In the Roman lectisternia celebrations the God or Goddess was brought into the house to join in the celebrations [5].\u00a0 The idea that the Gods and Goddesses join us through their fetish representation is neither new nor particularly radical.\u00a0 It\u2019s only strange in the context of the religious traditions of the books.<\/p>\n

Casually, it is easy to say: \u201csure, since deity is immanent and exists everywhere, it is naturally in the statue of Aphrodite on my altar as much as it\u2019s in the chairs on my patio.\u201d\u00a0 That is not what I\u2019m talking about.\u00a0 I\u2019m talking about specific immanence.\u00a0 Is the God immanent in the image of the Green Man?\u00a0 Is Cernunnos himself immanent in the stag on the altar?\u00a0 Are they there?\u00a0 Are they present?\u00a0 And does that mean they are not somewhere else?<\/p>\n

This is a far more difficult question to deal with than the one that arises from the immanence\/transcendence argument.\u00a0 Instead we have to ask a couple of background questions, the first being whether we believe in the Gods and Goddesses as individual entities at all [6], and whether they represent manifold spirits of a pantheon or are just a form of gendered monotheism [7]?\u00a0 Because, if we believe in the general idea of the God and Goddess, and they are seen as in the larger world, then of course they are contained within the fetish object, and the function of the fetish object is to simply remind us of this fact.<\/p>\n

If, however, the Gods and Goddesses represent a unique group of individual deities, with names and actions associated with them, then the fetish object can be more easily understood as associating with a unique, individual, deity.\u00a0 This uniqueness provides for idols that become the deity when we consider them, that the deity is \u201cthere\u201d and \u201cnot over there\u201d when we view the fetish.\u00a0 I argue this differentiation of the deity in the world, kind of a GPS for deities, is a key function of the fetish object.<\/p>\n

The fetish idol or object says to the reverent:\u00a0 the God or Goddess you seek is here, in here, and not anywhere else right now.\u00a0 Here is where you focus.<\/p>\n

This is of course anathema for book religions where the god is universal, omnipresent, and separated from the world.\u00a0 Our deities [8], by appearing in idols and fetish objects, transcend the immaterial and the unnatural, and become one with the world.\u00a0 They also allow us to visualize and work with them not only in the spiritual realms, but the physical as well.<\/p>\n

This is the property of the fetish that makes it special, the \u201chere, not there\u201d that it brings to the immaterial.<\/p>\n

Creation of the idol <\/strong><\/p>\n

The act of creation of an idol is what separates its function from that of the everyday object.\u00a0\u00a0 It is easy to list a series of sacred motions, inscriptions, and formula that are necessary for the consecration of a sacred object.\u00a0 But fundamentally what all those formula are doing is telling you, and in some cases everyone else, that the deity or magic is \u201cin here\u201d and not somewhere else.\u00a0 The action of consecration is to dedicate the object to a purpose that has no purpose in the world; instead it is inscribing the object with a purpose in the spiritual.<\/p>\n

In this sense consecration of objects moves them, and their purpose, from the \u201creal\u201d world to the world of the super-natural.\u00a0 And that means it really doesn\u2019t matter what you \u201cdo\u201d to consecrate the object, as long as that consecration affects how you view and feel about the object.\u00a0 This separates consecration from blessing.\u00a0 Consecrations focus on you and your intent for the object.<\/p>\n

The consecration tells you the object is sacred.\u00a0 Blessings seek to invoke the power of the Gods or Goddesses to establish the object as favored in their eyes.\u00a0 To remove the negative that exists in the object, or the negative from the viewpoint of the Gods and the Goddesses, and to make the object into something that is positive.\u00a0 A blessing may precede consecration of an idol, but its effect and nature are different.\u00a0 Blessings empty, consecrations fill.\u00a0 Blessings are static and have potential, while consecrations are active and have purpose.\u00a0 Blessings are, consecrations do.<\/p>\n

In the case of blessing the object becomes pure, in the case of consecration it becomes the pure.<\/p>\n

Thus objects can become sacred through use, through ritual, or simply through the loving thoughts that we surround them with.\u00a0 This gives us wide latitude in figuring out how and why we consecrate objects, and which objects we will treat as idols.\u00a0 As long as we perceive the God or Goddess to dwell in the idol, they do.
\n
\nThe reverent <\/strong><\/p>\n

So what happens to us when we use consecrated idols in our worship?<\/p>\n

It can be difficult to visualize the Gods and Goddesses everywhere in their immanent state.\u00a0 They are spread out like radio waves [9], interpenetrating everything, but separate from everything.\u00a0\u00a0 It can be hard to grasp onto something that is everywhere, something that you cannot grab hold of, hold in your hand, feel but at the same time you know is real, is in the world.<\/p>\n

Unlike those who wrote the books, we should be able to hold our Gods and Goddesses.\u00a0 To smell, feel, hear, and taste them.\u00a0 They are in the world as much as we are.\u00a0 Idols become for us the houses, the naos<\/em>, of the Gods and Goddesses.\u00a0 When we say, \u201cthis is our God\u201d we mean that this, this thing, is where our God resides more than any other thing.<\/p>\n

By creating a separate place for the Gods and Goddesses we also change.\u00a0 The material for us has become sacred, deity has manifested itself in front of us, and it dwells on our altar.\u00a0 We are remained by the sacredness of our objects of the sacredness of all objects.\u00a0 Because, ultimately, the Gods and Goddesses are everywhere.\u00a0 Like many things associated with Pagan worship, there is a circle that comes back around for us.\u00a0 We begin with the unfathomable connectedness of everything through the presences of multiple Gods and Goddesses.\u00a0 We then bring that infinite macrocosm down to a microcosm of one God or Goddess in one consecrated place.\u00a0 But what dwells in the microcosm is also everywhere and for all time.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThat which is above, so it is below.\u201d<\/p>\n

Idols and other fetishes allow us to relate to the Gods and Goddesses on our own terms, as we would relate to them as friends or colleagues.\u00a0 We can make offerings to them, we can ask them questions, we can pledge to them, and we can hold them in our hands.\u00a0 But at the same time the act of consecration, the act of knowing that the God or Goddess dwells in the fetish, reminds us of the sacredness of all things.\u00a0 That anything we hold in our hands, whether it is person, an idol, or a stone, are the divine.\u00a0 They are consecrated and they are holy.\u00a0\u00a0 And they deserve just as much care and love as if they were the Gods and Goddesses themselves.\u00a0 Because they are.<\/p>\n

[1] We\u2019re not talking about pervy behavior here.\u00a0 Rather we\u2019re talking about the religious and theological use of the term \u201cfetish\u201d to mean a man made object that is somehow given magical powers or connected to the supernatural and given some form of reverence of deference.<\/p>\n

[2] With the image of Christ on the cross, the black stone of Mecca, and the Torah there are any number of objects that sure look like fetishes in the book religions.\u00a0 We\u2019ll leave it to them to work those problems out for themselves.<\/p>\n

[3]\u00a0 This division roughly corresponds to the \u201cImago and Spiritus\u201d \u201cIconoclasm\u201d and \u201cGeneratio\u201d divisions outlined in Daniel A. Schulke.\u00a0 \u201cIdolatry Restor\u2019d:\u00a0 Witchcraft and the Imaging of the Divine,\u201d\u00a0 The Cauldron<\/em>, 133, Aug 2009.\u00a0 This article literally arrived in the mail at the same time as I wrote my first paragraph.\u00a0 I took it as a sign that I was at least relevant.<\/p>\n

[4]\u00a0 Walter Burkert.\u00a0 Greek Religion<\/em>, Basil Blackwell, 1985<\/p>\n

[5] Ramsay MacMullen.\u00a0 Paganism in the Roman Empire<\/em>, Yale 1981.<\/p>\n

[6] Remember my point of view on this:\u00a0 the answer is: yes, they are discrete entities with individual, if somewhat complex, personalities, intentions, and existence.<\/p>\n

[7] For a good discussion of the issues surrounding neo-Paganism and its relationship to indigenous Pagan belief, and the question of polytheism and idols, see Michael York.\u00a0 Pagan Theology:\u00a0 Paganism as a World Religion<\/em>, New York University Press, 2003, pp. 63-64.\u00a0 While I disagree with some of his assumptions, the argument is similar to the one I\u2019m making here, and far more closely associated with facts and research.<\/p>\n

[8] While I reference deity here it is also just as easy to talk about magical power, the sacred, or alchemistical understanding.\u00a0 In all cases the object reifies the immaterial, causing it to manifest for us in a physical place.<\/p>\n

[9] But for Hera\u2019s sake they are not actually waves, quanta, or energy.\u00a0 See my previous columns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pagan theology short:\u00a0 graven images Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God \u2013 Exodus 20 3-5. Recently a member of our group got very upset over the loss of one of her owls.\u00a0 It was a small, black owl that she had used in ritual several times, and now it was missing.\u00a0 She was inconsolable.\u00a0 It was as if she had lost a pet or a loved one. What was going on?\u00a0 Was she fetishizing an object, loving too much the things of the world and not the spirit?\u00a0 Or had, through use in ritual, the owl taken on properties of the Owl?\u00a0 Of Minerva, of the Lady.\u00a0 Had it become the Goddess? In the United States we often treat our stuff as an important member of our families.\u00a0 We\u2019d be lost without all our gear, and Pagans in particular seem to be given over to accumulating a large amalgam of ritual implements and other toys associated with the craft.\u00a0 Some of that we can blame on the ritual magicians, with their wands and censers and swords, but we can also look back in time and find many examples of images of the Gods and Goddesses being used in worship.\u00a0 Those toys we keep, particularly those that we connect with the Gods and Goddesses through may, in fact, be more than mere objects.\u00a0 They may embody the deities themselves. Idols are the fetishized [1] image or object, and represent an embodiment of deity, magical power, or magical spirit.\u00a0 There are many different ways to approach a discussion of idols. We can discuss the question of incarnation, of the God or Goddess occupying an object in the natural world.\u00a0 We can also discuss the creation and construction of magical or blessed fetish objects, such as wands or alchemistical materials.\u00a0\u00a0 We can also discuss what happens when we venerate the idol, both to the object and ourselves.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Obviously the book religions have a clear answer about what happens to you when you venerate idols, but those answers are meaningless to us [2]. This multitude of ways to approach the theological question of idols can be reduced to a set of basic questions [3]: 1) What property of the fetish makes it inherently special? 2) How does consecration or creation of the fetish make it different from other objects? 3) What happens differently in the viewer or reverent when they are viewing or interacting with a consecrated fetish, as opposed to a normal object? This division breaks fetishes up into three components, the object itself, what is done with the object, and how the object affects the viewer or user. The fetish itself Is the God or Goddess inherent in their image or sacred object? The ancient Greeks saw the temple as the place where the deity lived, or naos [4].\u00a0 During Homeric times it was seen as the dwelling place of a particular God or Goddess, and was often used by the Gods and Goddesses as part of their worldly escapades.\u00a0 Magical workings often use images such as poppets or dolls as stand-ins for the object of the magical working.\u00a0 In the Roman lectisternia celebrations the God or Goddess was brought into the house to join in the celebrations [5].\u00a0 The idea that the Gods and Goddesses join us through their fetish representation is neither new nor particularly radical.\u00a0 It\u2019s only strange in the context of the religious traditions of the books. Casually, it is easy to say: \u201csure, since deity is immanent and exists everywhere, it is naturally in the statue of Aphrodite on my altar as much as it\u2019s in the chairs on my patio.\u201d\u00a0 That is not what I\u2019m talking about.\u00a0 I\u2019m talking about specific immanence.\u00a0 Is the God immanent in the image of the Green Man?\u00a0 Is Cernunnos himself immanent in the stag on the altar?\u00a0 Are they there?\u00a0 Are they present?\u00a0 And does that mean they are not somewhere else? This is a far more difficult question to deal with than the one that arises from the immanence\/transcendence argument.\u00a0 Instead we have to ask a couple of background questions, the first being whether we believe in the Gods and Goddesses as individual entities at all [6], and whether they represent manifold spirits of a pantheon or are just a form of gendered monotheism [7]?\u00a0 Because, if we believe in the general idea of the God and Goddess, and they are seen as in the larger world, then of course they are contained within the fetish object, and the function of the fetish object is to simply remind us of this fact. If, however, the Gods and Goddesses represent a unique group of individual deities, with names and actions associated with them, then the fetish object can be more easily understood as associating with a unique, individual, deity.\u00a0 This uniqueness provides for idols that become the deity when we consider them, that the deity is \u201cthere\u201d and \u201cnot over there\u201d when we view the fetish.\u00a0 I argue this differentiation of the deity in the world, kind of a GPS for deities, is a key function of the fetish object. The fetish idol or object says to the reverent:\u00a0 the God or Goddess you seek is here, in here, and not anywhere else right now.\u00a0 Here is where you focus. This is of course anathema for book religions where the god is universal, omnipresent, and separated from the world.\u00a0 Our deities [8], by appearing in idols and fetish objects, transcend the immaterial and the unnatural, and become one with the world.\u00a0 They also allow us to visualize and work with them not only in the spiritual realms, but the physical as well. This is the property of the fetish that makes it special, the \u201chere, not there\u201d that it brings to the immaterial. Creation of the idol The act of creation of an idol is what separates its function from that of the everyday object.\u00a0\u00a0 It is easy to list a series of sacred motions, inscriptions, and formula that are necessary for the consecration of a sacred object.\u00a0 But fundamentally what all those formula are doing is telling you, and in some cases everyone else, that the deity or magic is \u201cin here\u201d and not somewhere else.\u00a0 The action of consecration is to dedicate the object to a purpose that has no purpose in the world; instead it is inscribing the object with a purpose in the spiritual. In this sense consecration of objects moves them, and their purpose, from the \u201creal\u201d world to the world of the super-natural.\u00a0 And that means it really doesn\u2019t matter what you \u201cdo\u201d to consecrate the object, as long as that consecration affects how you view and feel about the object.\u00a0 This separates consecration from blessing.\u00a0 Consecrations focus on you and your intent for the object. The consecration tells you the object is sacred.\u00a0 Blessings seek to invoke the power of the Gods or Goddesses to establish the object as favored in their eyes.\u00a0 To remove the negative that exists in the object, or the negative from the viewpoint of the Gods and the Goddesses, and to make the object into something that is positive.\u00a0 A blessing may precede consecration of an idol, but its effect and nature are different.\u00a0 Blessings empty, consecrations fill.\u00a0 Blessings are static and have potential, while consecrations are active and have purpose.\u00a0 Blessings are, consecrations do. In the case of blessing the object becomes pure, in the case of consecration it becomes the pure. Thus objects can become sacred through use, through ritual, or simply through the loving thoughts that we surround them with.\u00a0 This gives us wide latitude in figuring out how and why we consecrate objects, and which objects we will treat as idols.\u00a0 As long as we perceive the God or Goddess to dwell in the idol, they do. The reverent So what happens to us when we use consecrated idols in our worship? It can be difficult to visualize the Gods and Goddesses everywhere in their immanent state.\u00a0 They are spread out like radio waves [9], interpenetrating everything, but separate from everything.\u00a0\u00a0 It can be hard to grasp onto something that is everywhere, something that you cannot grab hold of, hold in your hand, feel but at the same time you know is real, is in the world. Unlike those who wrote the books, we should be able to hold our Gods and Goddesses.\u00a0 To smell, feel, hear, and taste them.\u00a0 They are in the world as much as we are.\u00a0 Idols become for us the houses, the naos, of the Gods and Goddesses.\u00a0 When we say, \u201cthis is our God\u201d we mean that this, this thing, is where our God resides more than any other thing. By creating a separate place for the Gods and Goddesses we also change.\u00a0 The material for us has become sacred, deity has manifested itself in front of us, and it dwells on our altar.\u00a0 We are remained by the sacredness of our objects of the sacredness of all objects.\u00a0 Because, ultimately, the Gods and Goddesses are everywhere.\u00a0 Like many things associated with Pagan worship, there is a circle that comes back around for us.\u00a0 We begin with the unfathomable connectedness of everything through the presences of multiple Gods and Goddesses.\u00a0 We then bring that infinite macrocosm down to a microcosm of one God or Goddess in one consecrated place.\u00a0 But what dwells in the microcosm is also everywhere and for all time.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThat which is above, so it is below.\u201d Idols and other fetishes allow us to relate to the Gods and Goddesses on our own terms, as we would relate to them as friends or colleagues.\u00a0 We can make offerings to them, we can ask them questions, we can pledge to them, and we can hold them in our hands.\u00a0 But at the same time the act of consecration, the act of knowing that the God or Goddess dwells in the fetish, reminds us of the sacredness of all things.\u00a0 That anything we hold in our hands, whether it is person, an idol, or a stone, are the divine.\u00a0 They are consecrated and they are holy.\u00a0\u00a0 And they deserve just as much care and love as if they were the Gods and Goddesses themselves.\u00a0 Because they are. [1] We\u2019re not talking about pervy behavior here.\u00a0 Rather we\u2019re talking about the religious and theological use of the term \u201cfetish\u201d to mean a man made object that is somehow given magical powers or connected to the supernatural and given some form of reverence of deference. [2] With the image of Christ on the cross, the black stone of Mecca, and the Torah there are any number of objects that sure look like fetishes in the book religions.\u00a0 We\u2019ll leave it to them to work those problems out for themselves. [3]\u00a0 This division roughly corresponds to the \u201cImago and Spiritus\u201d \u201cIconoclasm\u201d and \u201cGeneratio\u201d divisions outlined in Daniel A. Schulke.\u00a0 \u201cIdolatry Restor\u2019d:\u00a0 Witchcraft and the Imaging of the Divine,\u201d\u00a0 The Cauldron, 133, Aug 2009.\u00a0 This article literally arrived in the mail at the same time as I wrote my first paragraph.\u00a0 I took it as a sign that I was at least relevant. [4]\u00a0 Walter Burkert.\u00a0 Greek Religion, Basil Blackwell, 1985 [5] Ramsay MacMullen.\u00a0 Paganism in the Roman Empire, Yale 1981. [6] Remember my point of view on this:\u00a0 the answer is: yes, they are discrete entities with individual, if somewhat complex, personalities, intentions, and existence. [7] For a good discussion of the issues surrounding neo-Paganism and its relationship to indigenous Pagan belief, and the question of polytheism and idols, see Michael York.\u00a0 Pagan Theology:\u00a0 Paganism as a World Religion, New York University Press, 2003, pp. 63-64.\u00a0 While I disagree…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}