Arduina, Priestess and Goddess

[satya_firestone]

One thing that has been a puzzlement to me, is Arduina talking about Mama Erta, a Mother-Earth Goddess She says She worshipped and served "when She was a Priestess." It always made me wonder what She meant. How was She once a Priestess, but now a Goddess? A possible answer has come from two places.

One, is something I've mentioned before the similarities between the words "Sorgitsak" in Vaska as the Gods have taught it to us, and "Sorginak" in modern Basque. As was stated then, "...it is deemed unclear by scholars whether 'Sorginak' refers to actual, physical Witches, or mythological beings. This is significant, because Sorgitsak, Witches who practice Sorgae 'Craft, are considered a race of Fae. So Sorgitsak are both physical, practicing Witches, and 'fabled beings.' We are the Fae of Will, in that we are the vehicles of Divine Will on this plane of existence." I doubt it is a point of any contention that Arduina was/is a Sorginak/Sorga. So from there stems the conflation between Priestess and Goddess; She is both human and so-called "mythological being" Who served an Earth Goddess.

However, that still begs the question of how this is at all possible. Aside from the assertion of Sorgae 'Craft that Witches are also Fae, I'll let a quote from the novel Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny address that issue:

Godhood is more than a name. It is a condition of being. One does not achieve it merely by being immortal, for even the lowliest laborer in the fields may achieve continuity of existence. […] Being a god is the quality of being able to be yourself to such an extent that your passions correspond with the forces of the universe, so that those who look upon you know this without hearing your name spoken. […] Being a god is being able to recognize within one’s self these things that are important, and then strike the single note that brings them into alignment with everything else that exists. Then, beyond morals or logic or esthetics, one is wind or fire, the sea, the mountains, the rain, the sun or the stars, the flight of an arrow, the end of a day, the clasp of love. One rules through one’s ruling passions. Those who look upon gods then say, without even knowing their names, ‘He is Fire. She is Dance. He is Destruction. She is Love.’ […] they do not call themselves gods. Everyone else does, though, everyone who beholds them.

Arduina is a Goddess because we (and presumably someone, somewhere, before us), recognized Her as one. Just as Deity names being agreed upon by consensus between Witches and Gods, so too is the very condition of Her Godhood. She is a Goddess, because we name Her as such, and She does not object.

Comments

[kintsukuroi.livejournal.com]

Interesting post. You bring up some great points about Godhood.

How I'm understanding it is like leaders of countries. Godhood isn't like a monarchy where you're born into it, but it's more like a democracy, where you can be recognized ("voted in") as a Deity. Am I understanding right?

[satyazomasorga.livejournal.com]

It's not quite that formal, but essentially, yes. Humans on this plane of reality have experiences with beings of othe planes, and because of both the human need to categorize experience and the limitations of our understanding simply by existing at this point in spacetime, those other beings have come to be thought of as Deities. The same can also be said of Fae and any other "category" of non-human entity.

Because think about it; how do we know cats are cats? Humans had experiences with these animals, a category was created, and it carried on to be accepted by the entire population. Some cats are big and wild, some are small and tame, but we can look at one and instantly know, "That is a cat." The same is true of Gods. We look on Them, and somehow, we just Know, "This is a God."

[twistedphoenix.livejournal.com]

Exactly! You describe this beautifully. It's so fitting to our understanding of How Things Work that you give such a wonderful passage from modern fiction. There are many who understand this Sooth, even those who don't know about and wouldn't self-identify as Sorgae 'Craft *grin*. deep and thoughtful understanding of this 'conflation.' I'm sure Arduina Herself would nod and say "ayi!

[satyazomasorga.livejournal.com]

To me it also removes the debate about whether Gods are human constructs. Naming Them as Gods does nothing to change Their nature or existence. They were there before we worshipped Them, and would still have been there had we not started, with exactly the same features and characteristics we knowm As my analogy with cats above, nothing about cats changed because we noticed them and gave them a name. So are Gods man-made? As an Other being that receives worship, sure, we decided to do that. But They were still already there.

And I hadn't given thought to the added meaning of a modern fiction quote, but you're right about its significance. I tend to do that, don't I, exposing layered meanings that didn't occur to me at first? :-P

[twistedphoenix.livejournal.com]

Yes, you do do that *grin* It's part of your intuitive brilliance. And I agree with you that, although it is we who name the Gods, They are/have always been there.