Many Pagan systems divide the year into two halves. Some call it Light and Dark, or Winter and Summer. Some use the story of the Oak and Holly Kings, others say one half is for Goddess and the other for God. Sorgae also divides the year, into the Spiritual and Material.

The first four Sabeot/ds (B/Pelatin, Ardunakh, Lamasu, and Vestraven) make up the Spiritual half. From my understanding, this can be compared to the "planning stage" of a project, from the first inkling of an idea to a fully formed and detailed plan. If I plot them with the Directions, this is what I see:

B/Pelatin - Northeast - potential, anything is possible
Ardunahk - East - pure knowledge, the idea, transition into energy
Lamasu - Southeast - decision, the moment things come together
Vestraven - South - Will, commitment to the plan and path before us

The next four Sabeot/ds (Soven, Salanakh, Vol'ka, and Ostraven), make up the Material side of the year, when the plan is put into effect. So my Directional interpretation continues:

Soven - Southwest - risk, taking that first step, intial action
Salanakh - West - daring to act, making it happen, trasition to physical
Vol'ka - Northwest - quickening, actions breathing life into the idea
Ostraven - North - solidification, manifestation, completion, results

Unlike Wicca and other Pagan paths, the Sorgae year is not centered around a Deity's life journey. Instead it focuses on renewal of the Wasteland*, our term for the state of the spiritual landscape at the turning point of each year. In my mind I compare it to farmland; just after the snow melts, the land seems barren, dead, an expanse of nothingness. But beneath the surface, there are nutrients, bacteria, enzymes, evem insects. There is life. So it is the duty, responsibility, and privilege of the farmer to prepare the land, seed it, tend it, and harvest the crops.

As Sorgae Witches, I feel we share that duty, responsibility, and privilege, but our preparation, seeding, tending, and harvest occurs through our ritual work. Each year, our Coven performs divination to determine our role, our goal, what "crops" we will raise that year, both for the individual members and the Coven as a whole.

[*Note: However, this does still reflect the idea of the Sacred King myth, that the King must die for the sake of the Land, for He IS the Land. In Sorgae, we seem to "cut out the middle man," in a sense, and work with the Land directly, instead of with a surrogate.]

Lamasu

Jun. 6th, 2013 02:00 pm
The original understanding the Coven had of Lamasu was that "we know the spiritual adventure of love and begin to understand the chain that will bind us to the physical.  We feel a great love with which we shall renew the Wasteland. At this time we Draw Southwest God [Dionysus], the keeper of the chain of physical desire, and Southeast Goddess [Gwenhevar], the essence of spiritual love."

However, my High Priestess and I and two of our Familiars did a Tarot reading about the yearly cycle with my Londa deck, and drew Page of Cups for Lamasu, meaning "perception, metaphysics, compassion. The true understanding within ourselves." It is a similar meaning, but enough of a shift that we assigned the South God [Hermes] and Southeast Goddess [Gwenhevar] to be invoked instead.

Since this is the first Sabeot/d entry I've done since that reading, here are the adjustments made to past Sabeot/ds as well.

Read more... )

Lamasu was the only Sabeot/d that aligned symbolically with its Wiccan date-counterpart, Lammas, in my Juxtaposition entry. We haven't yet explored how these changes affect that model.

We speculated that these sorts of investigations and adjustments may need to be done every year, but it is also possible that this is merely a symptom of beginning the Aquarian Age. We've done our reading for this calendar year, and will just have to see what shifts, if any, occur with the next.
In writing about Ardunakh, and then B/Pelatin, I noticed some similarities in symbolism to more traditional/familiar Sabbats, namely Beltane and Imbolc, respectively. I discussed this with my High Priestess. We read over the rest of the Sorgae Sabeod/ts, plotted them on a diagram with the traditional Sabbats, and soon after had a discussion with our Coven as a whole about the implications. These are our findings.

[Note that I'm using lowercase-t "traditional" here; I am not saying that these Sabbats belong to any specific Wiccan or other religious/spiritual capital-T Tradition, nor that the Sabbats and their symbolism are the sole propriety of (British) Traditional Wicca. I only mean to say they are established and known and recognizable in paths already in existence. The Sorgae Sabeot/ds, as you will see, both are and are not.]

Read more... )

A Topics

Jan. 9th, 2013 07:43 pm
satya_firestone: (Atamenoch)
Administrative note: I've devised a system and a plan for posting since last week, which will start when we hit B next week. But this entry is a "slush pile," all the other A topics I want to speak about. Also, I had meant to explain that I'll be using this Project to talk about Sorgae, the branch of religious Witchcraft I'm studying.

First is this journal's main title, Aranakh. This is a Vaska word, which essentially means, "to not forget," which is different than just remembering. I understand the distinction thusly; I can remember that I am supposed to shower regularly, and I remember the experience of showering in the past. But "to not forget" showering means that I actually do shower when I am supposed to. So, applied to this 'Craft, we can remember the ways of the past, both our own and stretching into antiquity. But this concept of Aranakh compells us to actively live Sorgae, to practice it and honor these Gods.

Read more... )
***

My Coven is gradually building a website about Sorgae 'Craft, which can be found at Aranakh.org. As it is a revealed system, we are far from knowing everything about this 'Craft and its Gods, and so what I write here will be my own personal impressions and experiences.

January 2023

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