This Saturday's edition of Pagan-Musings discussed parental deities and patron deities. KaliSara and I (RevKess) discussed in brief several maternal deities or Mother Goddesses and moved on to the difficulties of finding Father Gods or paternal deities that are not the Christian God, Yahweh, El, Allah, etc.
The bulk of our discussion
focused on patron deities, however. We spent a good portion of the show discussing our own personal deities and why we chose them or why we think they chose us.Obviously, KaliSara's patron God is Kali from Hindu mythology and you can find out a bit more on her choices and beliefs by reading her own blog. She has not made a post since October, but that is understandable. She is a mother of two, both under the age of five, and is a very busy woman with a full time job and the web-mistress duties and paperwork involved with our online business, Pangaia Metaphysical Store.
Speaking for myself, however, I can go into a bit more detail here about my own patrons. On a personal level, I have two patron Gods and two patron Goddesses. They are Asclepius and Thoth and Sekhmet and Ma'at. Yes, I know that Asclepius comes from the Greek while the other three come from the Egyptian.I more or less chose Asclepius as one of my patrons. He is the Greek God of physicians and healers. I am not a doctor, nor am I a traditional healer. But when he came into my life, I needed a lot of emotional healing. I had been through a VERY tough period in my life. Adding to the loss of my father at a very young age, I had also dealt with many difficult situations in my early childhood and teen years which required indepth reflection and a few visits to a therapist. In Asclepius, I found something that I was not getting from counseling, I found someone who truly listened to what I had to say and really cared about my feelings and emotions. He has inspired me to study psychology, aromatherpay and herbology. That part of my journey is very much an on-going task, as is dealing with some of the emotional and psychological scarring from my youth.
Thoth, on the other hand, chose me. I was attending a guided meditation group one evening and we were asked to visit with our patron Gods in the meditation. We were told that the Gods that appeared to us may not be who we expect and that they have a very important message for us. Well, I was not expecting Thoth. I was expecting Asclepius or some other Greek God. Even though I had (and still do) a deep affinity for all things Egyptian, I was not expecting a visit from one of the male deities of Egypt. At best, I was expecting Bast or some other Mothering deity.Thoth, the Egyptian God of scribes, appeared to me as a full bodied ibis, the bird who's head he wears. This ibis was drawing heiroglyphs in the sand when he first appeared. But as I sat and watched, patiently waiting to see and hear what message this bird would have for me, it approached me and began to draw the symbols on my body. A most amazing experience.
That encounter later led to a past life memory which I have briefly discussed in other episodes of Pagan-Musings. But in short, I had a flash of my own death at a time in the history of Ancient Egypt. From what I can recall, I was a priest of Aten (has formerly been a priest of Ra) who was hiding his true beliefs from his patron and ruler, Akenaten. When Akenaten was deposed, all his advisers and priests were sentenced to death. As I had sided with him, for political reasons and to save my own skin, I was one of those sentenced. *cringe* Death by drowning in sand is horrid. Enough on that, though.
On to the Goddesses in my life, or at least two of them.
Sekhmet invaded my life one night, again during a meditation. I say invaded because sometimes she chooses to do things the abrupt and violent manner. I had always been attracted the cat deities of Africa, in particular to Bast. As a cat lover, that make some sense. But Sekhmet had other plans for me. Bast is generally a soft, gentle and playful Goddess; while Sekhmet still embraces those traits, she is also a fierce defender and can be very aggressive when it is for the betterment of her children.
Like on of my cats, Sekhmet moved herself into my life and made herself at home. I had very little choice in the matter, but have since grown to embrace her as a patron and to fully embrace some of her characteristics. I have become very protective of both my cats and of the children in my life. I am not a parent myself, but I have been involved in the raising of several children and am an uncle at least two dozen times over (I lost count). Along with the actual children in my life, I am looked upon by many as a teacher and (dare i say it) spiritual leader. Thus, it has fallen to me to step in as Dad a few times and set someone's feet back on the correct path for them. Never an easy task and not one that I take lightly.
Which brings me to the patron Goddess I did choose. Ma'at.
Ma'at is the goddess of balance and stability in Egypt. Ever heard the cliche "everything has it's place"? That could very easily be attributed to Ma'at. Seeking to find the balance in life, I turned to Ma'at at an early age. I was lucky enough to be introduced to Egyptian mythology and later religion when I was in 3rd grade (attending a church school no less). Ma'at was one of the Goddesses of Egypt to that reached out to me, or I to her. Not really sure at this stage of the game. She enabled me to make a little bit more sense of things and to continue on as an almost "normal" person. I put that in quotes, because no one is truly "normal" by societies definition, especially not someone who is self-aware.
As a teacher and spiritual leader in my community, I find that turning to this Goddess can help me find a better way of addressing issues, talking to individuals and explaining situations to the general public. She places a single feather on a scale to balance against the heart of the deceased. I do hope that when my time comes at the end of this life that my heart and her feather are balanced.
-=- )O( -=-
We also played a lot of music during the show. Well, a lot for us anyway.
Play List:
- Imakhu Sekehmet - Sacred Mother - Water Woma: Organic Flow
- Emerald Rose - Freya, Shakti - Bending Tradition
- Dragon Ritual Drummers - Tuatha de Danann - Passage
- Spiral Dance - Raven's Lore - Magick
- Paradiso & Rasamayi - Transformation - 3rd Eye Rising
- Dragon Ritual Drummers - Afri Afrique - Passage
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