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yusratoth · 2 years

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On recent events at the Temple of the Heart

This will be of interest only to a small number of people. Sorry about it.

The Temple of the Heart is a discord server -- if you know you know. Although the admins are evidently unclear on whether it is a religious community or not, on tumblr, the only place it advertises, it heavily brands itself as a Filian and Dean space. The "recent event" is unremarkable as discord servers go -- a single admin has been abusing her power while the rest of the admins, a tight-knit old guard, congeal like cops around the worst tendencies of their most outwardly aggressive. The rest of the team may as well not exist at all except to back her up.

Erin is a bully and her slanders against me are unacceptable. Others go along with them not because they think she's telling the truth, but because she is a bully and will jeopardise their position in the community. In this community, I am generally well-liked, and have quite a bit to gain back by clearing my name.

For instance, this shit's false, and like, obviously so. You gotta have worms for brains to think I think this.

Women should be financially independent and allowed to vote. I'm a communist from Albania, and my model for womens' rights is contained in this speech and other Albanian communist speeches from around the same time. I've linked to this speech in the server numerous times and explained my sympathies to it, and the idea that I'm some sort of secret communist with a secret agenda is absurd. I'm not a feminist sympathiser because the movement as it exists now is a tool of imperialism, and because it has no history in my country, not because I (a financially independent woman, not to mention a lesbian) don't think women should be financially independent. Any idiot can tell I got under her skin and now she's trying to slander me.

I'm not going to argue that I shouldn't be banned from TotH, because I should be. It's an intensely reactionary space. The inciting incident -- a crime for which I am not sorry -- was when I called Erin a thatcherite and asked if she'd ever had a job (the answer is no) after she downvoted an Uber driver for saying God is male, and then going on an insane rant about how taxi drivers literally shouldn't be allowed to talk to her, a white British woman. I'm not the bad guy here and anyone who has had a service or gig industry job will immediately understand this.

Erin's claim that I'm "too political" is particularly outlandish because Erin routinely defends the British monarchy and openly advocates for the de-industrialisation of Europe -- political stances if I've ever heard them. Banning me for defending an Uber driver is the most poignant, emblematic way that the politics of the monarcho-fascist, TERF-infested server could have manifested themselves, and my pride is fully intact after being banned because of it. There's no hill I'd rather have died on.

She is now, as I predicted, convinced that I have a "spy" in the server, and banning people without warning about it while the other admins sit around with their thumbs up their asses, afraid to stand up to her because they see how she's using her immense power in the community to attack my reputation in the most ridiculous possible way and alienate me from other people in the community.

PS: There's more than one spy, if by "spy" you mean "person who is on speaking terms with me and thinks you've gone insane and we laugh about it together". They all fully expect to be banned at one point, because by now everybody does.

Why are you here?

The admins, a tight-knit old-guard of orthodox filianists, have attacked me for not being a Filianist or a Deanist. This is not entirely accurate, and the reason I've rejected the label is basically semantic. I've asked a few times for a more broad goddess spirituality role in the server, to no avail, and because I have not wanted to proselytise my own religion, I haven't pushed it. Privacy is the lifeblood of religion in my opinion and I feel like this understanding of mine is well-understood. It's not often that we talk about what happens in private prayer in the discord server, because we're all adults, and that's not a social expectation. In my country, religion is a private matter, and even close friends and even spouses are not entitled to any information about it ideally. I've never felt that to be a barrier to getting along with other people in the server, though, and I've had no problem continuing conversations about religion while maintaining respectful boundaries -- in fact moreso than most other people in the server -- and I've never felt like these boundaries vary wildly from those of other people in the server.

Erin's conviction is that a Deanist is someone who thinks God is female. To me, this is nonsensical, and completely at odds with my understanding of both gender and monotheism. This does not, however, mean that I'm uninfluenced by the broader goddess spirituality movement and by Filianism in particular. Although the admin team have maintained that it's not strictly an exclusive space for what they refer to as "orthodox Filianists" and "broad Deanists", the admin team openly see it as their role to police the boundaries of orthodoxy, defined in the most British of ways -- which is to say, poorly. To elaborate.

I've rejected orthodox Filianism mostly due to some anti-materialist passages in the Clear Recital, particularly in Teachings II and in the later passages of Teachings I, as well as because it's not compatible with my actual religious goals. The shortest way to summarise this conflict is that to me religion is about understanding the world as it really is by contextualising information within a consistent world-outlook. Because of this, I can't have "religious beliefs" working their way into my ontology.

I've been meaning to write on the anti-materialism in Teachings anyway, and I'll probably follow up on that in a later entry in this blog. This blog is a thing now, by the way, being that one of my objectives in writing this is to establish a presence in the community beyond a discord server run by a bully and her pet jellyfish. But my disagreements with orthodox Filianism does not mean there is no Dean influence in my religion. It's just that that influence looks more like other things I've read on the web or in The Coming Age than what Erin thinks it should be -- insofar as I attribute feminine aspects to genderless divinities, they're a self-aware psychological device meant to temper the masculinity inherent in the cultural frameworks which I -- along with all people -- approached them earlier in life, not an ontological claim about the nature of the Creator and Creation. In Erin's, and therefore the server's, effective canonical view, Deanism is always an ontological claim and I reject it as an ontological claim.

Due to its anti-materialism, Filianism is politically reactionary. As a member of the server I sought to temper its reactionary tendencies and I did so very effectively. The day before my ban, Erin considered inviting a long-time tumblr mutual of hers, and posted the person's blog, praising their "vibes". Within minutes I'd read the person for filth, uncovering numerous posts in praise of Hitler and Nazism.

I recently advised a member of the server to seek a promotion on the grounds that she was able to catch the error of the other editors, who came dangerously close to publishing an interview with some mildly famous far-right figure. If it weren't for her, I said, the magazine would have published the interview, jeopardising its reputation with its primary demographic, young woke people. So she should seek a promotion and become an editor. By the same token, I am evidently The Person there who knows what a nazi is and why they are bad, and I should not be banned, but I should have an admin role if the server is going to continue to operate responsibly. Similar to the magazine, without my influence the reactionary tendencies of the rest of the server are now completely untempered. If Erin had aggressed that taxi driver and banned me about it a day earlier they would just have an esoteric Hitlerist in the server, probably fitting in great.

Do I have a political agenda? Oh, yes. I have never been secret about that. It was to prevent exactly this scenario -- to prevent an esoteric Hitlerist, or an entitled British coloniser, for that matter, from sinking their claws into a small, young religion and turning it into a force for arch-reaction when all it really needs is a bit of textual criticism and some historical context.

Regardless of all of this, the influence of Deanism in my personal world-outlook, my historical interest in 20th century NRMs and the goddess spirituality movement, as well as my friendships with others in the server made me genuinely want to see the religion last and grow. Because of this, I lined up a digital maintainence worker and offered to pay the bulk of the cost, even the entirety depending on what the costs turn out to be, of maintaining it. Again, Erin was the bottleneck, I asked her a few times to get the data from the previous admin of the website, since she's the only person who knows that person. She never did it. But for my part my commitment to digital archival of the religion is difficult to question and evidently outstrips anyone else's in the server.

I will continue to be involved in the weird internet people religions community, in the same capacity, because there are people here who just want to do cool religion things without establishing themselves as a vanguard of reaction with esoteric Hitlerists and people who downvote Uber drivers for nothing, which is where being "apolitical" with Britishers historically gets people.

My religion does not allow me to claim (inherently falsely) to be "apolitical", and one that does is inferior to one that doesn't, because not only is it a lie, as there is no such thing as being apolitical, but it is also not a good ideal, because a religion that is dead to the world is, as far as I (a person who lives in the world) am concerned, lifeless.

Anyway, to the person who ran the website -- Race? If you catch wind of this, please send me all the data from the website, I have infrastructure basically lined up to bring it back online and am still commited to doing that, despite the burned bridges with the TotH discord server.

To the rest of you, your community will die if it does not establish independence from this shitshow of an admin team before it grinds the server to dust. I'm not saying they're bad people, I'm just saying that the Uber rating system is too much responsibility for them, let alone maintaining a religious community. They're incompetent.

#deanism #filianism #filianic #deanic #filianist #independent filianist #paganism #new religion #religion #theology

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tellurian-in-aristasia · 7 months

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Infra-Quirinelle is sort of strange place in the world of Aristasia. It represents the first handful of years of the 1960s, before the Eclipse or Telluria's counter culture change that began to happen with The Beatles, social revolution, and the Hippie movement. In Aristasia Pura, its represented by an island off of Quirinelle. Depending upon which map you are viewing, this is either an island in the Golden Sea, or The Void. It seemed there was a little bit of rebranding and rewriting of history of Infra, post Bridgehead, where they tried to not only change the name, but imply that "Infra" is a disparaging name. You can view some conversations about that in this old blog post here. Here are some choice quotes: "It is worth noting that one of the ancient names of what is now Infraquirinelle (i.e. Lower Quirinelle, the island off the western Quirinelle coast) was Isle of Sapphire, though through a chain of sad incidents in a relative recent century caused the somewhat disparaging ‘infra’ to be in a preferred use by mainland dwellers." It is interesting to note that "Lieutenant Fiona Gregoire" is the infamous Miss Iris, who later went on to criticize the weeaboification of Aristasia and then later went on to form an independent filianist group. Here she seems to have an authority on Aristasian Pura geography, and Miss Sushuri Madonna defers to Miss Gregoire's knowledge on the subject, which is interesting because usually Miss Sushuri is one of the only ones allowed to "invent" Aristasian lore, along with the woman also known as Miss Martindale. However, this information about the island's "ancient" name was available on the Aristasian website, so perhaps Miss Gregoire is just repeating that same information, and wasn't an originator of it.

Or at least, this is what it appears, to a Tellurian tourist like myself.

#infraquirinelle #aristasia #aristasian #miss martindale #aristasian preservation project #quirinelle #infra #aristasia pura #sushuri madonna #aristasian geography #miss iris

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heartofbarbelo · 3 years

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If I want to be a filianist or deanist, but will only be calling Mother God by the name/title of Goddess, instead of calling Her by the name/title of Dea, is that acceptable to others in the community? I know that some say it is diminutive, like there supposedly "has to" be a male god if we call Her by Goddess, but I do not feel that way at all and just don't understand that train of thought, to be honest. To me, it just clarifies that She is female, not male. Just as Dea (dea literally means goddess or female god in Latin) clarifies that She is female, rather than using the word deus, which means a male god in Latin. Why is it more acceptable for some in the community to use a word that literally means goddess or female god but in another language, but it's not acceptable to use the English word that means literally the same exact thing? lol

Rayati!

It depends on what part of the community you find yourself in but, speaking personally as an Independent Filianist, I have nothing against those who call Déa "Goddess", sometimes I even do it myself. There's just something so empowering and intrinsically feminine about the word, even if it is considered a diminutive of the masculine 'God', perhaps just from when I was a teen and discovered 'The Goddess' for the first time in Wicca.

In fact there are quite a few prayers and hymns from older Filianists who used the word 'Goddess' (and I'm sure the word even appears in at least one version of the Clear Recital....the NCUV, maybe?), so if that works for you more than Déa, go for it. I call Her Déa, God, Goddess, Mother, Lady, Kyria, Sophia, Mari, Anna - I honestly don't believe She cares, so long as it's something you are comfortable with when talking to Her and feel a connection to Her through.

Blessed is Her name.

#ask a sophian #filianism #goddess religion #déa #the goddess

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lark-looks-for-god · 3 years

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So, I changed my name. This blog was formerly the-witch-and-her-rosary. I’ll go by Lark in this space now, with they/them pronouns.

I originally was going to make a secondary blog for this purpose, then I toyed with the idea of deleting everything of mine on tumblr and starting from scratch, but in it’s beginnings this blog was a place of spiritual refuge for me, then it fell by the wayside for quite a while and became sort of just a lurking blog that I mostly used to like fandom-related posts, without me posting much of anything original. I’d like to try to get back to the original intentions I had when I started this space years ago, as much as I can given the myriad of changes I’ve undergone as a person since then.

This blog will be decidedly no longer Christian-based going forward. I made a post about my struggles with Christianity some time ago, the first original post I had made in quite a while. I can say now with certainty that while my Christian cultural background and upbringing will always have some influence over my spiritual life, my path needs to take on a new shape now if my soul is to grow. If for that reason, any of my followers choose to leave this space, may God bless you and I thank you for the time you took to sit with me a while on our spiritual journeys. More details about the direction I’d like this blog to take going forward are under the cut, should you be interested.

Now that the solemn part of this post is over, let’s talk exciting new things to come! As I had mentioned in a previous post, I’ve done quite a bit of searching and researching of different spiritual paths; after a few years, I found that there are two I keep landing on/coming back to: Druidry and Independent Filianism. I’m currently undergoing a formalized course of study in Druidry (though life keeps getting in the way and I often find it hard to set aside time for the lessons) and at this point I’ve read multiple versions of The Clear Recital several times through. I’ve also been grateful for the opportunity to talk to practicing Independent Filianists and access their wisdom through their blogs and other means.

I hope to approach my spiritual life going forward with openness to the possibility of a blended path, but also willing to take one or the other as my sole direction should that be what rings true with my spirit. At present, I’m finding myself leaning more towards the Filianic side of things. This blog is likely to turn into a sort of record of this new infancy stage of my spirituality. It will be messy, there will probably be times when I become cynical and just want to give up, and it’ll probably still be a very long while before I have any idea what I’m doing. But I’ve had enough of floating around in spiritual limbo, and I feel that I’m ready to seek God again in whatever form She may take.

God bless and keep us all

Lark

#filianism #deanism #druidry #new spiritual beginnings #not witchcraft

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devotedtodea · 3 years

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Introduction

Hello! I recently became an independent Filianist. I have explored many different religions, but none seemed to fit me quite as well as Filianism does. I decided to start this blog because I want to document my journey with the religion, and hopefully help others with their religious journeys as well. My DMs are always open if you’d like to chat.

#filianism #mothergod #déanism #the clear recital #religion #independent filianism

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easystate · 4 years

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Priestess of Holy Wisdom intro to filianism.

I loved this. Reposting this here for fellow deanists and filianists (credits at the bottom):

“Rayati (“Hail to the Sun within you”),

My name Sorella Roselyn and I’m a Filianist.

Filianism is the religion of Our Mother God and Her Holy Daughter. The Creed above, very briefly, outlines the basis of what we believe.

Our religion is a subset of Déanism; an umbrella term for those who worship God the Mother independent of a male consort, father or son god (however some Déanists do incorporate the divine masculine in their faith, albeit carefully to avoid His image overshadowing Her). Déanists may or may not believe in the Holy Daughter, or follow the Filianic scriptures, or observe the Wheel of the Year. All that one requires to be a Déanist is the belief in God as Mother; the Supreme Deity, immanent but also transcendent from Her Creation rather than being an earth or lunar goddess as observed in Pagan Goddess religions such as Dianic Wicca.

For Filianists, God (who we call Déa) exists as a divine feminine Trinity. She is the Bright Mother, the Creatrix of the cosmos and God-above-Us. She is also the Holy Daughter, the dimmed reflection of Her Mother who commands the energies of creation and who is God-with-Us. And lastly She is the Dark Mother, also called the Mysteria, who is beyond all knowledge and form – God-the-Absolute. While it common to compare the Filianic Trinity to the Christian Trinity, a more apt comparison would be to the Hindu God Brahman who exists as Brahma (Creator), Vishnu (Preserver) and Shiva (Destroyer). Their feminine counterparts, found in the Shaktism, would be the closest parallel to the Filianic trinity; Saraswati, Lakshimi and Parvati. The concept of a Triple, or Tri-unity Goddess, is one that has been replicated across many cultures and religions, primarily those now considered Pagan, yet still have thriving traditions in modern times.

Even in esoteric Christianity, particularly Gnostic and mystic circles, there is growing number of believes in a feminine Trinity to balance the masculine Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Others believe the Holy Spirit to be feminine Herself and correct Her name as ‘Mother Spirit’. The Divine Sophia, who is the form of which Déa came to myself as, exists in a three-fold form as Barbelo or Sige; the forethought of the All and cosmic mother, the creatrix Sophia or Pistis, and the Daughter Soul; Zoe. Sophia is the Greek word for Wisdom; Her trinity names thus translating as Silent Wisdom, Faithful Wisdom and Living Wisdom. While many Gnostic traditions regard Sophia as at fault for the flawed creation of the world, or personify Her as the lost soul desiring her male bridegroom and saviour (Christ), there are many who detach Sophia from her patriarchal demotion and worship Her as God in Her own right.

For Filianists; the Holy Daughter does not represent the soul in need of a saviour. She IS the Saviour. As explained beautifully in our scriptures, we believe that the Bright Mother created all things perfectly in the beginning, to be one with Her. Maid, the soul of humanity, was created in Her likeness as Her First Daughter. However the Maid wished to experience that which was outside Déa and so turned from Her, unable to look upon Her brightness or live in perfection. To Orthodox Filianists, the reason for this was due to temptation by the ‘Snake’ which represented the illusion of separation from Déa. However in the Janite Tradition it is believed that the motivation for this was not of deception but to seek knowledge. To experience both pleasure and pain which she could not when living with Déa. And this was done so according to Déa’s will as the soul of Maid came from Her and was a fragment of Her being. Whatever the intention, for Filianists that is the reason for why we live in a world of khear (separation) where suffering exists, where we are subject to the wherde (karma) of our actions and where our souls are reincarnated on the wheel of life. Déa did not exile us or punish us, rather we chose this state and each life we live is another step on our journey back to Her.

We believe that the Holy Daughter is the reason we have any hope of purifying our souls from khear and reuniting fully with Our Mother. According to the mythos, the Mother birthed the Holy Daughter (different from the First Daughter) as an aspect of Herself to reach Her children beyond the illusion of khear. While the Bright Mother is symbolised by the sun, beautiful yet blinding, the Daughter is symbolised by the moon, reflecting the light of Her Mother for us to see in the darkest of places. While the Bright Mother is the Light of Déa, the Holy Daughter is Her Love given form. It is the mission of the Daughter to spread Her Mother’s light to every corner of the cosmos, even to the farthest reaches where all hope seems lost.

The Mythos tells of how the Holy Daughter wilfully descended into Hell itself, suffering agonising torture and humiliation, before coming face to face with the Dark Queen; the antithesis of Déa who represents the soul of Maid at her most lost and cruel. The Holy Daughter allows the Dark Queen to ‘kill’ Her, only for the Bright Mother to shatter the gates of Hell after following Her Daughter’s descent. The Bright Mother’s tears of sorrow revived the Holy Daughter and restored Her to life; thus managing to conquer death itself. She is thus able to rise from Hell and carry the souls of all those lost with Her into Heaven.

This is of course a fictional story, but its purpose is to explain the mission and passion of the Daughter in images for Maids to understand. There are obvious parallels to other dying-and-rising saviour gods and goddesses. While Christians recognise similarities to the passion of Christ, there are also illusions to the descent of Inanna, the return of Persephone and also the shattering of Sophia as the Holy Soul unto the world. We believe these myths and more are evidence of the truth being shared and interpreted differently throughout time of God giving a part of Herself to save us from being eternally lost from Her.

Whether the mythos of the Scriptures is taken super literally or figuratively or a mixture of both is irrelevant for a Filianist. To be a Filianist is to follow Our Lady, the Holy Daughter, and Her teachings. Many of these are included in the Clear Recital along with the Mythos. These teachings as they are written were compiled by a group of women in Oxford during the 1970’s who referred to themselves as Madrians. While the themes and images of God the Mother and Daughter have existed for thousands of years, the structure of the Filianic faith arguably began with the Madrian movement (though the beliefs of those women at the time do not always represent those of Filianists today). Many accept the Teachings, though inspired by Déa, to still be subject to criticism as – like all religious texts – they are still the work of Maids, who are not perfect.

However, when reading the teachings, their central message is clear; Love. Love of each other, Love of Self and Love of Déa.

Therefore, the very nature of being a Filianist, is to Love.

Our Lady is the form of Déa’s Love. To worship Her is not simply through prayer or studying scripture, important as those aspects are. It is in being compassionate, in being kind and loving, to ourself and others, we are worshipping Her. In sharing the light of Déa to all the earth and beyond, we are ensuring that Her suffering was never in vain. To worship Her is not to hate, or envy, or seek revenge or harm unto others. To worship Her is not to proselytise or judge but to be a friend to every living creature and seek to do Good in Her name.

As Filianists we also believe in the Seven Janati; the seven great ‘angels’ or powers that are aspects of Déa given form:

Sai Raya (Jana of Light, Joy and Brilliance) Sai Candre (Jana of Purity, Reason and Reflection) Sai Vikhë (Jana of Strength, Courage and Valour) Sai Mati (Jana of Knowledge, Intuition and Wisdom) Sai Thame (Jana of Justice, Harmony and Order) Sai Sushuri (Jana of Mercy, Compassion and Love) Sai Rhavë (Jana of Discipline, Restraint and Faith)

To be a Filianist is to try to live in the image of the Seven Janati and inhabit their virtues. While most Filianists have a patron Jana they connect to, the goal of a Filianist ideally is to balance these virtues within oneself and society so as one does not become unbalanced. For instance many believe we are in an age where the ‘Vikhelic’ (Sai Vikhë) principle has overtaken the others, and thus we have more violence in the world than compassion or joy or restraint. But when channelled correctly, the virtue of Sai Vikhë can be used to help Our Lady’s light shine brightly, so long as it remains in balance with the others.

Our Lady Herself has been given many names throughout eternity, as has Our Mother. Most Filianists refer to the Mother as Mari or Marya; a holy name which has its place in multiple cultures for the Divine Mother, outside of the obvious Virgin Mary of Christianity. The most sacred name for the Holy Daughter in Filianism is Inanna (distinct from the Sumerian goddess of war), also referred to as Janah (pronounced ‘Yanah’, ‘Anna’ or ‘Hannah’) or Rhi’annë. She has also been called Kore, as in ‘maiden’, as well as Zoe by those like myself whose form of Déa has been Sophia. Anna often means Grace and ‘Jana’ also means Gateway, as well as being strikingly similar to the Islamic word for Paradise; Jannah. I personally call Her Janah. Whatever Her name or Her image, She is there for those who seek Her. The Dark Mother, Déa Mysteria, has no name or form – She Is Who She Is.

In closing; this blog is simply one Maid’s attempt to log her own journey as a Filianist, to walk in the path of Our Lady and help guide others into the arms of Our Mother.

Blessed is She.

“Take heart, My children, take joy and courage in our Mother. For She that created you also loves you, even to the end of the age. Take heart, though you have turned from Her. For She has not forsaken you, neither are Her eyes filled with anger. And Her hands that have shattered the gates of Hell shall not harm you; that have broken Hell’s foundation, shall be lain on you in gentleness. Therefore hide yourself not from Her, and put aside the tangled weeds of thought that strive each with the other. For of all things, Love is the simplest.” – Teachings 1:4 (“On Our Mother’s Love”)

Source: https://priestessofholywisdom.wordpress.com/

#deanism #filianism #goddess #goddess worship

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wanderingalonelypath · 5 years

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Déanism, or: God IS a woman

Disclaimer: I am, in NO WAY, trying to prosthelytize anyone or convince them to convert. I wrote this article as an informative resource on Déanism as a whole, and because the information about my faith is so scattered and scarce.

Let’s start with the basics: Déanism (pronounced: day-en-ism) is the belief that God is a woman, known as Déa (pronounced day-uh) and She is the sole Creatrix of the universe, with no male consort or superior. Déa is the Latin word for ‘Goddess’, but many Déanists simply refer to Déa as God, because calling Her Goddess implies that She is subservient to a God, but there is none over Déa, in déanic belief. That is, however, a preference, and one can refer to Déa as goddess if they so wish.

Déanism, while a faith in and of itself, is also an umbrella term for a number of religions and faiths. Technically, any path or religion that believes the highest power in the universe (God, to simplify) is a woman, fits under the umbrella of déanism and is considered a déanic faith.

Some paths under Déanism include Filianism, the largest and most well-known déanic religion.

“The most prominent characteristics of Filianism are that it:

• Worships God in exclusively feminine form.

• Sees God as both Mother and Daughter.

• Is trinitarian (but in a manner very different from Christianity).

• Is monotheistic (but in the same sense that Hinduism is) and has a strong angelology, focusing especially (but not exclusively) on the seven "planetary" angels, who are all feminine in form.

• Has a distinct body of Scripture recognized by all Filianists (although several slightly differing versions exist)

• Has a complete theology, philosophy, and world-view.

• Like Déanism, to which it is related (see more later), Filianism uses the term Déa for God and does not use the word "Goddess"

The best resource for Filianism is http://www.mother-god.com/ which has information on Déanism as a whole but is written from a heavily-Filianic slant. Filianism has its own scripture, complete with different versions, called The Clear Recital, that is used by Filianists and non-Filianists alike. You don’t have to be Filianist to incorporate the Recital into your practice, but the story includes beliefs that are specific to Filianism, so keep that in mind.

Other traditions have other scriptures, but The Clear Recital is the most well-known.

Another tradition under deanism is the Janite Tradition, which, while heavily similar, has a few differences from Filianism. The best resource for this tradition is https://deanic.com/about/ .

Some Déanists also believe in the presence of a masculine consort to Déa, or that Déa can have a masculine face as well as a feminine, but it is inconclusive whether or not these fit under déanic beliefs.

This list of faiths is by no means exhaustive, as any religion that has the supreme ruler be a Divine Feminine could be considered déanic! But these are the most popular. Let me state that you do not have to be apart of any of these faiths to be a Déanist! I am a non-denominational Déanist myself!

On the history and creation of Déanism, there is little information, except that it was created by a group of female college students in the late 60s, early 70s:

“The belief originates from the age of the counterculture movement at Cambridge and Oxford in the 1960s and the resistance to it by a group of young intellectual women, sapphistly inclined but ultra-conservative, who regarded the developments of modern culture and the modern "LGBT" movement with dismay as being, essentially, contrary to the real emotional current, the real psychological desires, and indeed the entire real natural socio-cultural order of nations. “

Nowadays, Déanism is similar but different from how it started, but it obviously isn’t just full of conservatives or just full of liberals. Our community has good people and bad people and everyone in between, just like all religions. A particular problem our faith seems to have is the inordinate amount of TERFs and radfems. This likely stems from the belief of the divine feminine, but let me reassure you: the beliefs of these people do NOT reflect the community as a whole. God loves all of Her children: cis or trans or nonbinary or GNC or agender or any other combination. There are those of us that don’t subscribe to these beliefs, and that love all of our siblings, regardless of gender or lack thereof.

Despite this, our community is still incredibly small, and thus, we have little to no resources for our faith. That’s part of the reason I am writing this article: to have a central, broad source of information for Déanists and seekers alike.

Despite the scattered nature of our community, there are a few things that Déanists as a group believe collectively, other than God (Déa) is a woman. A popular belief, and sort of moral guideline for us, is the belief in thame, or harmony. The simple explanation is to uphold harmony between all creatures in your life. Personally, it gets a little more complicated, as each practitioner has to decide what this means to them in their life, so everyone’s thame is likely to be different. Think of it like the Wiccan Rede. It means something unique to every person.

Déanism as a whole is monotheistic (believing there is only one god) but it's not as...strict? As other monotheistic religions for lack of a better word. There are no tenants or commandments in Déanism, and nowhere does it say that Déa can be the only god in your life. So what does this mean? You can work with and worship other gods, and still be considered a Déanist, as long as you hold Dea as the highest, and believe that She created everything in the universe.

This can come in many forms. Some Déanists, like myself, are hard polytheists (the belief that there are multiple independent gods that aren’t faces or facets of a larger godhead). I personally believe that most gods were created by human need and that Déa created us, and therefore created us with the power to manifest these deities. Some others believe that Déa created these gods since She created the entire universe. Both of these fit under the umbrella of Déanism.

Some Déanists are soft polytheists (the belief that all deities are facets of one or two ultimate divine deities). These Déanists believe that every deity in every culture, male and female, are facets of Déa, and just how mortals choose to see Her.

And some Déanists still, believe that the gods and goddesses of other religions are simply very powerful spirits, and Déa is the only true God in the world. All of these beliefs fit into Déanism

Though our community is small, we have things that unite us, things that make us feel like a cohesive group instead of a bunch of people who believe in the same God. You will often hear people in the community refer to followers of Déa as maids. This is in reference to the Clear Recital, and it is a gender-neutral term for followers of Déa. For those who don’t want to use this term, you could also use the titles Sorella and Fratello, meaning sister and brother respectively. These are usually put before names, i.e Sorella Neria, Fratello Theo. These are all personal preferences though and depend on the practitioner on whether or not they want to use them. Rayati is commonly used as a welcome and a hello, supposedly meaning “come in peace/love”. Amadéa translates roughly to “goddess’s love” but is used as a sort of amen. Déa volente means “goddess willing” and is used as a sort of prayer for others, i.e “Déa volente your dog recovers” or “I hope you have better luck in the future, Déa Volente.”

I hope this article is helpful as well as informative! As I said in the beginning, this is by no means an attempt to get people to convert to Déanism; everyone has their own path! There is just so little information on it that I wanted to write up a sort of ‘primer’ for anyone who might be interested! If anyone has any questions or wants to learn more about the Heavenly Mother and Her faith, feel free to message me! I’m always happy to chat!

#déa #déanists #déanic community #déanism #déanist #religion #world religion #world religions #new religions #goddess religion #goddess religions #god is a woman #heavenly mother #mother god

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deanic-collective · 6 years

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The Filianic Catechism

It is often asked, even within the Déanic community, what constitutes Filianism? What separates it from other Déanic religions? This has become even more of a hot topic recently as it’s become clear that Filianism, while its own religion, is not a single belief anymore than Christianity or Wicca is. Below is the Catechism of Our Mother, taken from the Chapel of Our Mother God, website. This outlines the core beliefs of Filianism, with the preceding description:

“In some versions this Catechism has been added to with material that is not universally agreed upon, but this is the basic and original Catechism of the Children of Dea, upon which every Filyana can agree.”

This is referring to other traditions linked to Filianism, such as the Order of Kore Di-Jana (Janite), whose version of the Catechism can be found here.

The statements of the Catechism are all linked with the mythos and teachings written down in the Filianic scriptures known as The Clear Recital. Whether the Recital is seen as a description of true events outside of our reality or divinely inspired poetry, or something between the two, is up to the Filyana themselves - either way, they are the primary influence of our faith.

A Short Catechism of the Children of Dea

I. THE ORIGIN OF THE SOUL

1. From whence do you come and where is your first origin? I was created from before the beginning of time by Dea out of the overflowing of Her divine love.

2. What manner of creature are you? I am the reflection of a fragment of Her eternal Spirit.

3. What have been your actions since the beginning of time? I have passed through many states of existence and many forms of life (although I can remember but a little).

4. How came you upon this wheel of countless existences? In the beginning, my soul turned from the love of Dea and so fell into exile from her natural state.

5. What is the natural state of your soul? The natural state of my soul is Perfect Union with Dea, which is the state of pure delight.

6. What is the first cause of existence? Dea is the first cause of existence, for She created the manifest universe.

7. What is Dea? Dea (”Day-ah”) is the one Spirit of the universe, complete in Herself, uncreated, and infinite in potency, perception and perfection.

II. DEITY

10. What are the three Forms of Dea? Our Celestial Mother, Her Divine Daughter and the Dark Mother who is Absolute Deity.

11. Who is our Celestial Mother? The Mother is the Creator of the world, and Ground of all being.

12. What is Her Nature? She is pure Life, pure Light and pure energy.

13. What are Her Acts? All life, all action and all thought flow from Her.

14. Who is Her Daughter? Her Daughter is Princess of the World, Priestess of the World and Queen of Heaven.

15. What is Her Nature? She is pure love.

16. What are Her Acts? As Princess of the World, She governs all the cycles of life and nature; as Priestess of the World, She gives us Communion with Her Mother; as Queen of Heaven, She shall bring us at last to the Celestial Throne.

17. Who is the Dark Mother? She is Absolute Deity, Who existed before the beginning of existence and is beyond being and unbeing.

18. What is Her Nature? She is outside space and time; She is all that is and all that is not.

19. What are Her Acts? The exhalation of Her breath or Spirit is our Mother, the Creator of the world. Of Her other Acts, our minds cannot conceive.

III. THE NATURE OF DEITY

21. Had Dea any beginning? Dea had no beginning and will have no end.

22. When did Dea create the world? She creates it now and in every moment; if She ceased to create it, it would cease to exist.

23. Where is Dea? She is in every place at all times.

24. What is the name of Dea? She has been given many names by many different peoples.

25. Yet are there many Gods? No, there is only one God. 26. Are there any other Deities? There are no other Deities.

27. Who are those others that some worship as Deities? Some are forms under which Dea may appear, or under which certain creatures may perceive Her, others are Janyati and creatures of the higher spheres.

28. Could Dea have a special relationship with one or more of these higher creatures? She could have no special relationship.

29. What is the reason of this? Firstly, She alone is uncreated; all other beings are of Her creation, therefore none can exist on Her own level. Secondly, the highest relationship between creature and Deity is that of Perfect Union; this is the final aim of every soul, and no special relationship can be higher than this.

30. What are the powers of Dea? The powers of Dea are infinite; no thing is impossible to Her.

31. What is the knowledge of Dea? The knowledge of Dea is infinite; She knows all that is, all that has been and all that is to come.

For a commentary on each of these points, I recommend reading the full page here.

According to some, the term Filianism used to be used as a term for those Déanists who focused their beliefs purely on the Holy Daughter (Déa Filia), while ‘pure Déanists’ focused on the Mother and Trinitarii Déanists focused on all three aspects of the Trinity. While this may have been the case, many different religions that are completely separate from the movement of Lux Madriana and the authors of the Clear Recital, also fall under the umbrella of Déanism. Many of these have their own Déanic Trinity that is viewed completely different from the theology of Filianism. Not only that but, having spoken to many who identify as Filianist, they consider themselves devoted to all three aspects of the Trinity. Even the Chapel website backs this up.

As I mentioned before, Filianism is not a single belief, though it is a religion in its own right. When one refers to Orthodox Filianism (or Chapel Filianism) they are referring to the path that follows the beliefs, calendar and cosmology written on the Chapel of Our Mother God. An Independent Filianist, or Eclectic Filianist, may agree with most of the basics of what is outlined in the Catechism and follow the Clear Recital, while not necessarily following the same calendar or views on the Chapel. They may lean more towards the beliefs of the Janite tradition or the Lucienne tradition, to give just two examples. They may synchronise their own previous beliefs with Filianism, as I myself have done with Sophian Filianism; an adaptation of my previous Gnostic beliefs into Filianism. This can be achieved with any belief so long as the Mother God has no male superior or equal (Father God) and likewise the Daughter has no brother-bridegroom figure as Her opposite, and the other beliefs fall in line with the basics of the Catechism.

Whether you call on Her as Inanna, Kore, Zoe or any other name,

May Déa Filia be with you.

~ Sorella Roselyn

#filianism #orthodox filianism #independent filianism #deanism #divine daughter #dea filia

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underhermantle · 6 years

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Hello,

I just wanted to let you all know I am taking a break from the extended ‘Deanic Web’ indefinitely. I have ‘unofficially’ done this before but I just wanted to let people know this time why I won’t be around.

The community is changing, not necessarily in a bad way. There is such a huge variety of beliefs now within ‘Deanism’ that I think it’s becoming too broad of an umbrella for me to really relate to. Just like how when I was a Pagan I thought ‘Pagan groups’ where too broad, because Paganism encompasses such a wide variety of faiths. When I first became a Deanist, there were Herthelan Filianists, non-Herthelan/Independent Filianists, Clan Jana, and all of those were relatively the same with some small differences.

Nowadays we have people from various faith traditions identifying as Deanists and I don’t think that is a bad thing at all- but it doesn’t work for me personally, because interacting with other ‘Deanists’ is just the same as me interacting with ‘Pagans’- we all believe very different things to the extent where it just feels like a big mish mashy interfaith group as opposed to a group with many shared beliefs and values, and that definitely works for some people and is inherently a good thing, but I can’t deal with it right now. I have Asperger’s Syndrome and Borderline Personality Disorder, both of which give me a very black and white view of things, and the ‘debating’ doesn’t invogorate me and intriegue me like it does most of you, it just makes me feel tired and sad.

I need to focus on my own relationship with Dea and sadly that means isolating myself from the community/just discussing faith with other Filianists. I know that is very isolationist and many of you may be offended by that, but it’s nothing against any of you at all. I think you’re all wonderful. I think diversity is the spice of life, but for religion? It just doesn’t work for me. Not when peoples’ ideas about the nature of God fundamentally are at odds with mine in a community I thought had mostly shared values. It just doesn’t work for me, and the way my brain works. Even if you had a gathering of Christians in such a close-knit community of various denominations (Catholic, Orthodox, Evangelical, Liberal Protestant, Mormon, JW, SDA) it wouldn’t really work. All of those groups have radically different beliefs and it seems that these days Deanists do, too.

I love you all. If any of you need me you can find me on Chelouranya’s Shining Room (if I can remember my login on there, lol) and I will still reply to messages on here when I get the chance.

Blessings.

- Sorella Guinevere.

#personal #deanism #filianism

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ladybrythwensinclair · 6 months

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The lettering is done in running stitch with DMC's No. 799. The stems on the leaf and blossom on the right are done in running stitch with Designs for the Needle's No. 826. The centers of the blossoms are done in Rhodes stitch with DMC's No. 799. The petals of the blossoms are done in what I had closest to lavender, J.P. Coats No. 128, the stitch is satin stitch. The leaves are outlined in running stitch and filled with closed fly stitch in Designs for the Needle's No. 826. The hearts are outlined in running stitch and filled with satin stitch (one on the lower left done randomly and the one on the upper right done properly) with a red and pink variegated selection from Designs for the Needle, with out a dye lot.

#filianism #déanism #deanism #independent filianist #prayer projects #hand work #embroidery

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blessedishername · 7 years

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On Appropriation and Other Matters

My main complaint against Tumblr is that it tends to splinter conversations. There has been so much very thoughtful and earnest discussion going on in the last few hours, but I find myself perplexed in trying to engage it, as it is now split across, by my count, seven distinct threads. At the risk of making things worse, I’m going to attempt to weave them all together here. I do have somewhat to say regarding @seekingsoteria‘s original questions about Janyatic colors and the term “Sai”, but that will actually make somewhat more sense after addressing the main theme the conversation has taken on. @seekingsoteria writes: “In a lot of orthodox Deanist resources there’s a lot of appropriation, which is another reason I want to start my own tradition; I don’t want appropriation to keep new members from joining, and I don’t want us to think casually using Hindu terms or Chinese goddesses is okay.” I will return to the question of starting one’s own Déanic tradition; for the moment, however, I feel obliged to reject the notion that there is “a lot of appropriation” in orthodox Déanist resources. On the subject of “Hindu terms”. First, it should be pointed out that the “Hindu terms” in question are not exclusive to Hinduism. They are Sanskrit terms, also used in Buddhism and Jainism, and indeed used in the discussion of any religion to which they are applicable when that conversation is occurring in Sanskrit. Sanskrit is still used occasionally in academic and other formal contexts in India, and when an Indian scholar writes a paper on, say, Christianity in Sanskrit she will without hesitation refer to Jesus in Christian theology as saguna brahman (God with form), for example. The use of these terms in English is attributable, as the Chapel often notes, to the lack of sufficiently precise theological terms in English. The Chapel’s use does not redefine the terms (as was observed by @jules-morrison) and, to the extent that it might pull them out of some kind of “original” context in Dharmic thought, it is careful to note distinctions (as, for example, in observing that the Janyati are similar to, but not identical with, the Hindu concept of deva). There is no more appropriation here than there is in our English use of such phrases as nom de plume, Schadenfreude, or mono no aware—all of which are terms borrowed into English to represent concepts English simply did not have adequate terms to express. Chinese goddesses are a more complicated matter. The only one whom I am aware of us dealing with in any substantial measure is Guanyin. In her East Asian context she means many things to many people, and it is not entirely clear that she is even originally Chinese. Many common Chinese stories of her may be amalgams of an indigenous Chinese figure with an imported Buddhist one traveling from India (this was quite common, as evidenced by the way in which the Hindu goddess Saraswati, who also belongs to Buddhism, ended up as the Japanese kami Ugo Benzaiten in a number of Japanese shrines). As @underhermantle pointed out, some Buddhists regard her as a universal figure transcending cultural divisions. The nature of our claims about Guanyin is important to examine in detail here, however. When we discuss her, it is by way of asserting that she represents a particular cultural reflex of a universal figure in world mythologies (in @jules-morrison‘s terms, I would consider this “understanding them within their original system”). We make this same claim about a wide variety of other figures, including our own (since we do not actually make the claim that the Daughter, for example, as she appears in our Scriptures is a culturally unmediated Ding-an-sich). In this respect, our “use” of Guanyin is no more cultural appropriation than her (or any other figure’s) “use” by comparative mythologists, or folklorists, or archetypal depth psychologists, or literary critics, or anyone else who academically makes a claim to reveal a more universal level of meaning behind the figure. At the risk of trying everyone’s patience, I will illustrate the point. Christian theology incorporates something called “typology”, which is both the doctrine that all events in the Old Testament were foreshadowings of Christ, as well as the related discipline of explaining just how they providentially signaled the future coming of the Savior. This has been Christian practice since the earliest days of that faith, and has annoyed Jews to no end for 2000 years. Jewish theologians counterclaim that Christian typologists read out of context, distort the meanings of Hebrew words, etc. We do not, however, generally regard this as appropriation, and I think there are two reasons for this. One is that Christianity does not actually claim that, when Moses raised the bronze serpent on the pole in the Book of Numbers to turn away the plague of fiery serpents, he had Jesus in mind. Christian typology respects that the original Jewish view was something different, and then simply claims, on the basis of subsequent evidence (i.e. the New Testament), that it is now possible to understand the events of the Old Testament more profoundly than people in Old Testament times could. In that sense, it is not appropriation, but a point of theological debate to which both sides are bringing evidence to support normative truth claims. The second reason that I think we do not take this to be appropriation is that that would be patently absurd, since we would then have to regard (at least all gentile participation in) Christianity itself as a massive act of cultural appropriation of Judaism, invalidating it as a distinct religion with its own history, teachings, customs, and culture. If we are not prepared to dismiss Christianity as misunderstood Judaism, we cannot regard it as appropriative. Even the most questionable of Déanic uses of figures from other religions are no more so than Christian typology, and generally significantly less. If we were to take typology as appropriative, however, we also would hit a reductio ad absurdum, since some would argue that Judaism as we understand it is a distortion of pre-Exilic Judaism, itself arguably ripped out of a pagan Hebrew context. Are modern Jews “appropriating” Moses by potentially attaching meanings to him that he would not have regarded himself as having? Where would the chain end? Who gets to be “original”, and how much do you have to change something to make it new, and therefore “original” to you? This question is pertinent to Déanists in light of the observation that at least two people intimately involved with the formulation of orthodox Déanism had authentic connections to Hinduism (as @underhermantle cogently reminded us), and it would seem (as I argue in the ECE) that many of the original Madrians had similar bona fides in respect of Catholicism. Would we accuse Catholics of appropriating Mary, or Hindus of appropriating Sri Lalita by incorporating, not even the figures themselves, but certain unconventional understandings of them, into a new doctrine which they did not attempt to represent as “real” or “authentic” Hinduism or Catholicism? If they took these figures from “their own” traditions in good faith and wrapped a certain way of understanding them into a new, independent tradition which they then gave to us, isn’t that just us inheriting the tradition of Déanism, rather than us appropriating Catholic or Hindu traditions? As I say, however, they did not directly incorporate any of those figures. They simply bequeathed us a theology of religions that understands those figures in a particular way—as providential preservations of a Mother God image that is eternal and primordial (in the strictest sense), and predates all subsequent religions that have embraced it. In that sense, their teaching was that all patriarchal religions are “appropriations” of the ancient Mother God faith, and that we are at least as entitled to the wealth of its images and symbols as anyone else, if not more so. The pages and pages of nuanced and carefully argued reflection they produced on Guanyin’s symbolism, or on the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception as necessarily indicating identity with atman, suggest to me that they were not, and we are not, “casually using” anything. We, like Christian typologists, are engaged in a very thoughtful, well-researched conversation with theologians in other traditions over the proper meaning and understanding of particular symbols and incidents in prophetic history. Regardless of what one thinks of the merits of our case, arguing it from a body of evidence spanning the world’s religions is certainly not appropriation. The devotional use of icons may be more troublesome, but not, I think, insurmountably so. When @hanashisara observes that we have a “fragmented tradition”, she reiterates the essence of what the Aristasians called “the Filianist controversy”, in which one party felt that Filianism was too incomplete (as we possess it in Telluria) to follow, and that it would be better to embrace Hinduism or other Tellurian traditions, while another felt that enough of Filianism was available to us to be effective as a spiritual path. The two eventually worked out an amiable coexistence, which is part of what gave rise to the distinction in the literature between Filianism and “simple Déanism”. In proportion as we move away from orthodox Filianism toward simple Déanism, we actually become more—not less—dependent on borrowing from established Tellurian traditions, until we eventually hit the point of simply converting to them and practicing a Mother God devotion within their paradigms. (Most of us are here because, in some way, that did not work for us.) Even the strongest Filianic position still involves some borrowing from, or at least reference to, existing Tellurian traditions in order to understand how to apply Filianism in this context (a point @jules-morrison made with regard to iconography), but here we come back to the crux of Traditionalism. The Madrians and the Aristasians drew heavily on René Guénon and Ananda Coomaraswamy, who both argued that all the great world religions are reflexes of the same divine truth and that the “ownership” of any of their teachings and practices belongs, ultimately, only with that God Who inspired them. In this sense, all (Traditional) religions are “open”. One can dispute whether Guénon (a Catholic who converted to Sufism) and Coomaraswamy (a Hindu) had the right to make this claims, but they are far from the only ones. Historically, there are no “open” or “closed” religions (a point @jules-morrison made with specific respect to Hinduism). Christianity is conventionally “open” in that it seeks to spread itself and convert the whole world, yet there are sects in the US Midwest that have been stuck in remote corners since the 19th century and accept no converts, holding that only their few homesteads following “true Christianity” will go to heaven. Conversely, while there are Hindus who passionately contend that one must be born a Hindu to be one and that no one else is permitted to engage the religion at all, many devout Hindus came to preach to the West and argued that Hinduism was part of the same sanatana dharma (universal, eternal path) as Christianity, with some even embracing Jesus as an avatar of Vishnu. Today the Hare Krishnas make it their mission to encourage people of non-Indian descent to give themselves to Krishna, fill their homes with images of him, and even retell his stories in creative work. Every religion has partisans for declaring it “open” or “closed”. Personally, I would agree with Guénon and Coomarawamy that no partisan gets to own a religion—the religions of the world belong only to God. All of that being said, I think we would all like to work, as much as possible, with materials indigenous to our own tradition. @seekingsoteria mentioned the lack of material on the siari (faeries), and I too have been frustrated at not finding more on this. That being said, there is much more Déanic “mythology” (in the highest sense of that term) than I realized before I started combing meticulously through old Madrian documents. The new ECE, for example, contains an Appendix C with a couple of allusions to Déanic myths which occur in Madrian material without the whole story being given. Interestingly for our present discussion, one of these is a reference to a story of Inanna riding in the chariot of an Amazon princess before a great battle, which the Madrian source asserts is the archetypal origin of the story of Krishna in Arjuna’s battle-chariot in the Bhagavad Gita (a “patriarchalised” version of the Inanna story, as the Madrians would have it). Who is appropriating whom here? Or is it better said that both reach back to a universal theme that belongs to all maidkind? Still, we can do more to establish Déanism in its distinctiveness, and I have long thought that commissioning original Déanic icons would be a good place to start. There are a couple of Madrian sources that specify iconographical traits for the Janyati (the most detailed one is here), and I have been working on collecting these so that an artist would know how they were meant to be depicted. I might note that the existence of these descriptions, which are unique to Déanic teaching and not copies of any other tradition’s iconography (though there are certainly similarities to multiple other traditions’ iconographies, as one would expect given the cross-cultural occurrence of many archetypal symbols), further reinforces the idea that we draw comparisons with images from other traditions, rather than appropriating them. The Chapel is very careful about this, and will never say of an image of Sri Durga, for example, that it is an image of Sai Vikhë, but only that the Déanic devotee may see something of the essence of Sai Vikhë in it. In many cases, the Chapel even particularly notes the ways in which distinct traditions of iconography are not equivalent, as in observing that Sri Lakhshmi and Sri Saraswati are both figures that incorporate elements that, in Déanism, would be divided between two separate Janyati. I hope it goes without saying that, if relating Déanism to Hinduism, or to any other tradition, makes you uncomfortable, you shouldn’t do it. If you don’t feel right about having an image of Sri Durga on your altar as a way of approaching the essence of Sai Vikhë, then don’t. These comparisons—borrowings, relations, whatever one wants to call them—are meant to be helpful, and if they aren’t then they may be set aside. As time goes on and the community grows—as it accumulates more of its own artists, thealogians, etc.—they will become less necessary anyway. For that to happen, however, we have to hold the community together as best we can. That is where I become a bit uncomfortable with @underhermantle‘s suggestion that one could swap Janyatic color correspondences in one’s “own tradition”. In one’s personal meditation and reflection, by all means explore the “blueness” of Sai Sushuri or the “greeness” of Sai Thamë. They are sisters after all, and Hindu iconography combines elements of both in the figure of Sri Lakhshmi, who is interesting to reflect upon in this regard. One could also explore the fact that, until very recently, Japanese had only one word—aoi—that served for both blue and green. On the level of “official” Déanic teaching, however, I think the preservation of our shared symbolic/liturgical heritage as we have received it is very important for building and sustaining our broader sense of community (to say nothing of the importance of the metaphysical teaching itself). It would sadden me to think, for example, that if a Déanic artist finally rose from our ranks to produce the beautiful icons we all wish for, that her work would in the meantime have become out of alignment with a variant branch of teaching. This does not mean that we can never disagree or alter anything, but I think we should be very, very careful about doing so. @seekingsoteria said, “I would love for us to have our own culture and images and terminology, but we just haven’t been around for long enough.” As with other historical religions, it’s partly about being around long enough, and it’s partly about maintaining unity on as much as possible over time. The more effective we are at doing that, the more quickly and more strongly our “own culture” will be established. Thus I come at last to make a point on the idea of having one’s “own tradition” of Déanism, or of establishing a “denomination”. This strikes me as a very Western sort of idea. The Chapel frequently reiterates that Déanism “in the Motherland”, has no rigidly separated “denominations”, for all that it has various temples, religious orders, and devotional movements that have their own (broadly compatible) traditions. This might come off as a bit semantic, and perhaps it is, but I think articles like this one highlight how much all of us raised in the modern West will have to readjust our thinking (starting, as Confucius said, with the rectification of names) in order to manifest Déanism truly in Telluria. And with that, at last, at last, we come to the “Sai” prefix. As @jules-morrison noted, it is a Herthelan prefix, linguistically cognate to both Sanskrit sri and Latin sanctus, which is the root of our “saint”. Like both of those, it is used as an honorific before the name of a Janya or of a hera—i.e. a saint. Two common such uses are the legendary Herthelan figures Sai Rayanna (who defeated the demons to establish the Cairean Empire) and Sai Suanti (who rejuvenated popular religion with a devotional chanting movement). Interestingly, the oldest attestation of this term that I have found comes from a Madrian article on world religions, perhaps worth reading in light of all the above discussion on appropriation (it can be found on pp. 3–6 of this PDF), which contains the phrase “Sai Jesus”. PS On the point that came up while I was writing this about our mind’s ability to perceive God, I suppose I always assumed that’s what the Scriptures were talking about when they said that Her brightness had become too great for us to look upon and that it therefore had to be mediated through the gentler light of the Daughter. Is there another interpretation of that of which I have not been aware?

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