Aranahk

I had a bit of an epiphany about Deities and Sabeot/ds and such.

Some background, every year at B/Pelatin, my Coven performs a Tarot reading to determine our purpose and goal for the coming year. After laying a card for each of the eight Sabeot/ds, we discuss how they fit together as a whole, like a story, and then determine which Deities we feel need to be Called and/or honored at each point. This seems to change every year.

It caused me some anxiety, in relation to making the Sorgae system in general more public; if the Deities shuffle about every year, how could we possibly standardize rituals (whether the formal, elaborate sort, or the Tarot ritual I devised)? Because other Pagan paths always honor, say, Brigid at Imbolc, or Lugh at Lammas, the Holly and Oak Kings at the Solstices, or the Horned God at Samhain.

Then it hit me. Sorgae is not like this. Sorgae is an organic, living system. Why should the Deities remain static if the year's purpose doesn't? And why should the purpose for our Coven be the same for everyone else who may practice Sorgae? The answers are, they shouldn't. If Sorgae is going to keep its organic, living qualities, then everyone who follows it needs to discover for themselves what the Gods want of them each year, and when They need to be honored in relation to the Sorg or Sorga's progression through the year. Each Sorg/a and Sorgae Coven should find out how they, individually, contribute to the renewal of the Wasteland. Because the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

So my thinking now is that, with the sorgae_tarot deck, we need to include the (very simple) instructions for the yearly Wasteland Renewal reading, so that those who buy the deck and begin to work with this system and its pantheon, can add their energy, their Gobah, to the whole of the Sorgae collaborative effort.

This entry is going to be brief because I'm not feeling 100% due to allergies and sinuses. My apologies.

( Soven and Salanakh )

Renewal is one of the central themes of Sorgae 'Craft. We mark New Moons to renew each month, raising power between Sabeot/ds. We mark Sabeot/ds to raise power for and renew the year. And each year then adds to the decade, the century, the millennium, and the Age. The Sorgae yearly symbology, as I've mentioned before, is of the Wasteland. I plan to do a post focusing on it in the future.

It is one of our Tasks as Sorgae Witches to help things turn like this. It is related to Gobah; we give so that we may receive and ensure that the Cycle continues. Scientific laws support this necessity: A body in motion tends to stay in motion. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Energy can never be either newly created or finally destroyed, only changed in form.. And so it works with the energy needed to turn the Age, because even Witchcraft is bound by the laws of Nature.

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.]

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.]

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