Toward Ecosophy

An investigation into the underpinnings and superstructures of the Pagan world view

Pagan religions have tended to be more concerned with practice than with theory and in a system that has no dogma - no legislated doctrine - that is as it should be. Yet as the movement grows and matures, it is inevitable that we will begin to think in a more abstract way about our models and systems.

John Michael Greer provides a primer on the kinds of ideas and themes that must be included in any discussion of the theology and philosophy of Neo-pagan religions.  Much of the book takes shape in a dialogue with existing ideas in theology, philosophy, and comparative religion. It looks to find a comprehensible yet intellectually rigorous middle ground between too much and too little reference to the work of other scholars.

It aims to be part of a conversation, that stretches out over the centuries. Voices of polytheist spirituality have had little place in that conversation for many years, but much of value has been said in their absence. The rebirth of polytheism as a living religious tradition in the Western world will inevitably force a reassessment of much of that heritage, and pose challenges to some of its most cherished assumptions.Yet reassessment is not necessarily rejection, and the traditions of modern polytheism are deeply enough indebted to legacies from the past that an attentive ear to earlier phases of the conversation is not out of place.

Finally, why "For  A Few Gods More"? Back when I was originally working on this project, twenty years ago, it was a running joke among my friends to refer to it as "A Fistful of Gods," with reference to a certain classic spaghetti Western film starring Clint Eastwood. That inspired suggestions that a sequel or new edition should be "For A Few Gods More," and a third would of course be "The Good, The Bad, and the Godly"...

Call for Submissions:

Anthology of Polytheistic Monasticism

Polytheists who identify as monastics are invited to submit personal essays about their experience and practices to be included in an as-yet untitled anthology intended to heighten awareness of this form of Pagan spirituality. The editor is Janet Munin, editor of Queen of the Great Below: An Anthology in Honor of Ereshkigal.Danica Swanson of Black Stone Hermitage is serving as a consultant.

We are looking for vivid personal accounts and thoughtful reflections, not research papers.

Possible topics include:

• How a person came to and/or currently lives out a monastic vocation
• The joys and challenges of monasticism
• Monastic theology
• Your Rule of Life or other monastic disciplines you’ve adopted and what their impact has been
• Interviews with polytheistic monastics
• How monasticism differs from or overlaps with other spiritual identities or practices
• Living in community vs living as a hermit
• Balancing a monastic lifestyle with the need to earn a living in the world
• Poetry and/or prayers which vividly express monastic practice or devotion

* Submissions must not have been published previously, either online or in print.

Submission deadline: August 30, 2019

Early submissions are encouraged.

You may submit more than one piece.

All submissions are subject to editing, and the editor will ask authors to revise or modify their work if needed.

Please send all questions and submissions to janet.munin@earthlink.net.

You are welcome to send a query email if you would like feedback on an idea before committing yourself to writing a full article.

All submissions must be in an editable format.Google Docs is preferred, but Microsoft Word is fine. Please ask the editor about other formats before sending.

Compensation & Publisher

All contributors to the anthology will be compensated.

This is the basic internal energy practice of Golden Dawn magic. It’s meant to waken and energize five energy centers in the subtle body, and then circulate energy through the subtle body as a whole. It’s best done every day, right after the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram and right before your daily meditation.

You’re going to need to personalize this rite to work with whatever pantheon of deities you prefer. You’re going to need the names of five deities; you’re also going to need five colors and five symbols.

The default option here, adapted from Israel Regardie’s The Art of True Healing, is to use deities corresponding to the five elements—spirit, air, fire, water, and earth, in that order. In that case the colors are white, yellow, red, blue, and brown, in that order, and the symbols are the sun, a cloud, a flame, a drop of water, and a stone.

That’s the default option, again. You don’t have to use the default option.  If your tradition has other symbols for the five elements, you can use them; if it associates the elements with other colors, you can use those.

You can also choose a different and subtler logic for the deities you assign to the energy centers. The first deity can be the supreme deity of your pantheon; the second can be a deity of wisdom and initiation; the third can be a hero deity, a sun deity, or a deity of  the hearth; the fourth can be a fertility deity, or a woodland deity, or a deity who’s closely associated with the life force; and the fifth can be a maiden goddess. (Those readers who know their way around The Celtic Golden Dawn now know the logic behind that book’s version of the exercise.)

By the way, in case you were wondering, the names of the deities don’t have to have four letters each. That was just for the pentagram ritual.)

However you do it, work out a suitable table as follows:

Crown center:             DEITY 1         COLOR 1       SYMBOL 1

Throat center:              DEITY 2         COLOR 2       SYMBOL 2

Heart center:               DEITY 3         COLOR 3       SYMBOL 3

Genital center:             DEITY 4         COLOR 4       SYMBOL 4

Foot Center:                DEITY 5         COLOR 5       SYMBOL 5

In the Druidical GD, these are as follows:

Crown center:             Hu                   White              Sun

Throat center:             Ced                 Violet              Crescent moon

Heart center:               Hesus              Golden          Cluster of oak leaves

Genital center:             Coel/Sul*        Silver               Red dragon

Foot Center:                Olwen             Green              White trefoil

*There’s a lot of polarity symbolism in Druidical magic, so which deity you invoke at the genital center is determined by which set of physical genitalia you have, Coel if you’ve got male genitals, Sul if you’ve got the female set.

Or let’s say you wanted to do an Anglo-Saxon version, one option might be this:

Crown center:              Tiw                  White              Sun

Throat center:              Woden             Blue                 Raven

Heart center:               Frige                Red                 Spindle

Genital center:             Ing                   Green              Sheaf of Barley

Foot Center:                Eostre              Brown             Flowers

Other arrangements could be chosen easily enough; these are just samples. Make your decision and give it a try.

Once you’ve got your table constructed, the exercise is done as follows:

*********************

First, perform the complete Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.

Second, imagine a ray of light descending from infinite space to form a sphere of light just above your head, around eight inches in diameter. This sphere is COLOR 1 and contains SYMBOL 1. When you have formulated it clearly in your imagination, vibrate NAME 1 three times.

Third, bring the ray of light to your throat, and form another sphere. This one is COLOR 2 and contains SYMBOL 2. When you have formulated it, vibrate NAME 2 three times.

Fourth, bring the ray of light to your heart, and form a third sphere, which is COLOR 3 and contains SYMBOL 3.  NAME 3 is vibrated here three times.

Fifth, bring the ray of light to your genital center, and form a fourth sphere.  This one is COLOR 4 and contans SYMBOL 4. NAME 4 is vibrated here three times.

Sixth, bring the ray of light to your feet, and form a fifth center. This one is COLOR 5 and contains SYMBOL 5.  The name vibrated here, three times, is NAME 5.

Seventh, return the attention to the center at the top of the head. Bring a current of white light a few inches wide down the right side of the head and neck,  the right shoulder and arm, and the right hip and leg, down to the center at the feet, and then back up the left leg and hip, the left arm and shoulder, and the left side of the neck and head, back to the center at the head.  Repeat this a total of three times; if possible, synchronize with the breath, so that the energy flows down with the outbreath and up with the inbreath, but it is more important to visualize the whole course than to make it happen within a single breath.

Eighth, in the same way, bring a current of white light from the center above the head, down the midline of the front of the body to the center at the feet, and then back up the midline of the back of the body to the center above the head. Repeat a total of three times.

Ninth, turn the attention to the center at the feet. Breathing in, draw a current of energy up the Middle Pillar of the body from that center to the center above the head; breathing out, allow it to spray like a fountain out and over the whole body, cleansing the entire aura, pooling at the feet and being drawn back up the Middle Pillar with the next inbreath. Do this a total of three times.