Some of this is my fault. I mean this emphasis in the Pagan
community, and especially in ADF, on ‘Patron’ deities in personal worship. The
topic remains important and somewhat controversial in Euro-Pagan reinvention, arising in regular waves
in public discussion.
In my opinion the idea that individual practitioners have, or should have,
‘Patron’ deities enters Neopaganism from two or three directions. First, of
course is the Euro-Christian custom of providing every believer with a Patron
Saint upon baptism. This cannot be shown to have Pagan roots, but it has a firm
grip on western imagination.
Secondly we have the Patronage practices of African
Traditional Religions in the new world. Customs such as the Haitian Lave Tet and the Crowning of Santeria present the worshiper as being naturally and intrinsically aligned with one of
the Powers of that system. In the course of early spiritual work the initiate
determines, through divination and ritual, who is the ‘God of the Head’ and
ritually acknowledge the relationship. That spirit then becomes the personal
‘god’ (fine points of Ifa theology aside) of the initiate’s work, even though
s/he may interact with many other spirits.
As I think back to the early 1990s, as we were working on
devising our new, more formal polytheism this notion of personal Patronage
loomed large. One of the core problems in translating scholastic study of old
religions into working modern cult is determining which of the innumerable Holy
Beings is to receive ones real attention. We approach an ethnic pantheon, do our
reading, and begin offerings. Fortunately, in ADF our ‘Druidic’ ritual order
begins with general offerings to all beings in all classes, so one can get a
foot in the temple door without a specific invitation.
The ancients must have had this problem as well, and we can
ask how they solved it. Focus on specific deities seems to have come from
several directions – perhaps especially from family and caste, from profession,
and from locale. All of these can provide some guidance for modern choices,
though we are disadvantaged by our non-Pagan surrounding culture. Most modern
Pagans will not inherit our family’s gods, nor have local deities whose
festivals are community norms. Not Pagan ones, anyway… We can still take some
guidance from our career and artistic choices in life and many Pagans do so.
Back when we were starting out, I fixated pretty firmly on
the idea of ‘Patronage’ – that worshipers would choose or be chosen by (as you
like…) a specific god who would become the god of their Altar, their House,
their work. I experimented with the methods locally with some success, devised scripts and
guidance materials, and it was included as a goal in the first version of ADF’s
Dedicant Work.
Fairly enthusiastically received, within a couple of years
problems with the model became obvious.
First, it became obvious that the methods were too advanced
for new students. Many ADF students arrive entirely new to Paganism, meditation or ritual. The goal of decisively arriving at a Patronage relationship
was a stumbling block, likely to produce either a withdrawal from the work or a
provisional decision that had little of the weight of the model found in
traditional systems. As a side note, continuing research didn't turn up the idea
of Patronage in literate pre-Christian Europe. The Orthodox Christian custom of
affixing a saint’s name to believers does not appear to be inherited from Pagan
times.
Some practitioners stuck with the model and, for a few, got
the kind of results I might have imagined. They became real devotees of a
particular deity. There’s been very little overt henotheism, I’m happy to say –
little choice made to worship no other gods than the Patron. I would find that
inconsistent with what I know of polytheistic religions generally. On a
practical level the more common result was that individuals focused on specific
deities sequentially, as their lives’ needs guided.
This seems typical of Neopaganism’s self-directed
spiritualties. The big, big difference between us and the ATR systems I had
been observing is the manner by which Patrons are chosen. In ATR systems it is
done by an external authority – by the divinations of a priest. The decision is
binding on the initiate regardless of how s/he “feels” about the outcome. I
understand that changes and corrections are not unheard-of, but in general the
fact of Patronage is bestowed, not chosen.
I know of no Neopagan system that is ready to administer
such a thing. The ATR divination systems are all adapted for it – they generate
indicators of the various gods and spirits as a matter of course. There simply
is no such system in western occultism or Paganism. Even more centrally there
is no accepted lineage or source of authority that would make people willing to
accept the decision of another.
After maybe half-a-dozen years of working with the original
model ADF formally changed the nature of the requirement. Instead of
prescribing Patronage we began to talk of “developing the Hearth Cult”. This
helped us to move the conception beyond deity – traditional Paganism seems as
much focused on the Dead and on the Landwights as on the Gods and Goddesses.
The recommended practices expanded to include the Three Kindreds broadly, and
the requirement to have an acknowledged Patron was removed.
As I have observed, this history in ADF rather mirrors the
development of the idea of Patronage in the wider Pagan community. At present
the idea still exists, and there will always be people who are plainly drawn to
one god or another. There is a real movement of Pagan devotionalism, and some
folks become henotheists – worshiping only ‘their’ god or goddess to the
exclusion of others. Currently, my opinion is that such exclusivity does not reflect the practices of most traditional polytheism.
Tradition seems, to me, to recommend a balance of intimacy
and utilitarianism. One develops alliances and friendships among the spirits
over long or focused work. One’s ‘Home Cult’ is a unique print of one’s
spiritual history and expression. Many people maintain a central relationship
with a very few gods and spirits for many years. However for new students there
is often a period of transition, and a sense of being ‘handed off’ from god to
god. No formal methods of securing Patronage have become generally accepted in
modern polytheism, and no divinatory method or priestly authority has shown up,
either.
Yet the subject of Patronage continues to percolate. New
students, especially those looking to modern polytheism rather than post-Wicca,
tend to bring the question “How shall I find my Patron?”, and some degree of
confusion still exists. Of course many new students arrive out of religious
systems with actual rules, and so they may stand staring at the notion that
they’re free to do as they please. From there we hope to provide some guidance
in sorting the spirits (and helping them sort us).
When I give advice to new students now, it goes something
like this:
• Your path is your own, but progress is more easily made on
paths with good signage. Choose a system and work it for a year at least,
preferably three. It will adapt as you go, but start with an outline.
• Choose one or two ancient cultures on which to focus your
reading and experimentation. Begin with the descriptions of the gods in mythic
summaries, but make an effort to read about the ancient ways of life, hear the
culture’s music, etc.
• Put up a shrine and begin worship. The spirits are unlikely to speak to you
unless you speak to them first. There are many places to find instructions on
how to begin. If one is unsure of who one is offering to, there are several
models for general offerings, including Our Druidry’s Three Kindreds, and Jason
Miller’s spirit-offering outlines.
• Open your heart. Some of the discernment exercises in
places like our Dedicant’s book may be useful. Work on meditation skills and
let the ideas of your reading and shrine-work percolate. Not everyone (but
some) will naturally turn toward a specific god quickly. Place as many gods
from the culture you’re working with on your shrine as you like, and work with
them as you study.
• If you find yourself with an obvious inclination toward a
god or spirit, go with it. Resist exclusivity but allow emphasis, and watch
your heart and the omens. Use divination, or even consult a diviner.
• Don’t resist change, but don’t mistake momentary interest
for a calling. Once you have established work with an ally, maintain it even if
you take up something new, all according to your own understanding, of course.
• After a year or three of this kind of work it is likely
that you’ll have a sense of what gods are at the center of your personal
Constellation of Worship. After another nine years things may or may not be
different. Don’t sweat it, our work changes shape like a stream-bank. You’ve
watched a stream-bank, haven’t you?
It pleases me that practical polytheism is percolating in our (people… no! too
much…) community. New students are seeking direct interaction with the deities,
and even with the Not-Gods. Even more hopeful is that fact that
Neopagan religions are trying on various approaches experimentally, and then
changing and responding to the results of those experiments.
On we go, my kin! Raise up the idols!
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