The fullness of the earth is yours O Lady
Thus You are clothed with glory and beauty:
Every precious stone is your adornment & your clothing.
The brightness of the sun is upon your head:
The beauty of the moon is beneath your feet.
Shining orbs adorn your throne: the morning stars adore you.
Be mindful of us, O Lady, in thy good pleasure:
And make us worthy to glorify your name.
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Psalms of Aset Maryam
In my most recent post, I gave a brief summary of one aspect of Devotional Isianism. I now want to discuss the Theanic aspect of my own form of Isianism. The words “Theanic” and “Theanism” comes from the Greek word “Thea” which simply means “Goddess” / Female Deity. In my personal spiritual pathway the word “Thea” is personally related to the word “Dea” which is the Latin word for Goddess or Female Deity. Theanism is a coined word. Why have I coined it? Clearly because it says something about my worldview.
During the late 2000’s I became aware of a religion having a very small but dedicated following called De’anism, though its followers often also referred to themselves as Filianists meaning literally Daughterists. Note. I am the only person I know of who has referred to them by that term. De’anism means the religion of Dea. Within De’anism, Dea is our Mother God, God the Mother. She is the Creator, Sustainer and ultimate Cause and Purpose of the universe. Deanism believes in a God who is one but simultaneously three. She is God the Mother and the Creator, God the Daughter, sustainer and ultimately savioress of the universe, and she is the Dark Mother, the ultimately transcendent, formless Mother who can not be known. Deanism has a scriptures made up of both a myth of creation, fall, and salvation and a group of short wisdom chapters which lay out a way of life which De’anists find to be satisfying. These scriptures were composed / revealed to a group of young women in Oxford, England in the 1970’s. The scriptures were to be the basis of a matriarchal and communal counter-society in opposition to the contemporary, liberal, consumer society which existed then and now. Clearly the founders of the religion failed to achieve the latter goal but the religion still exists and has some presence on the internet.
Now to get back to myself. I joined the Deanic faith in 2012, thinking that I had finally found a religion to which I could give my whole commitment. Unfortunately besides aspects of the faith which I loved there were aspects in both doctrine and practice to which I did not relate. I need not go into these issues now. Suffice it to say I finally separated from the community after several years of deep involvement. However in spite of this separation I still find much to admire within De’anism of both the past and the present. The most important aspect of which is that De’anism for a variety of reasons focuses almost solely on the Feminine nature of God. De’anists do not tend to see Deity as balanced between a male persona and a female persona. Thus their worship is focused on God the Mother, Queen, Mistress, etc and they do not attempt to divide their love and worship between that God and a male equivalent of King, Lord, etc. That works for me! If the Christians, Moslems, Jews and others see no problem with an entirely Masculine vision of God I do not see any problem with having a strictly feminine vision of God. I was called to it.
My final point. The reason I refer to my own form of Isianism as being Theanic based as opposed to Deanic is simply because I want to cause no confusion regarding my relationship with De’anism. My theological is strongly influenced by it but I make no claims to being De’anic. I am The’anic.
I want to let people who sometimes follow this blog know that this is no longer my primary blog and I will seldom be using it in the future. My primary blog now is “Isis as Thea and God.” Thus, persons who are still interested in reading what I have to say should follow that blog. Its link is https://asetmaryam.com/
A note. I have in the last several months developed a much greater interest in certain Facebook groups in which people feel freer to interact with each other than they do in response to blog posts. I would recommend, therefore, that persons who see Isis as central to their lives check out
“Following Isis / Auset, Goddess of Many Names” at https://www.facebook.com/groups/554249258074450 and “In Devotion to Isis” my own Facebook group at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/135497005072392
Glenn
It is commonly understood that the Christian Marian devotionalism was influenced by the Goddess devotionalism of the ancient world. And while Mary has never been officially envisioned as divine within official Christian theology, she was clearly envisioned within traditional Christianity as having many of the same powers that only the most powerful of goddesses of the Ancient World would have processed. Isis was certainly one of the preeminent of these goddesses.
The Graeco Roman vision of Isis was as the All-Goddess of whom all other goddesses were manifestations. Thus goddesses such as Athena, Hera and Demeter were all viewed as being Isis in another form, tradition or language. However that world was ended by the rise of Christianity and by the official prohibition of Paganism by the Roman state circa 390 CE. After the triumph of Christianity the closest to goddess worship in the West was the veneration of the Virgin Mary which started developing full steam by 400 CE in th Eastern Mediterranean World. From there it spread into the western half of the Roman Empire.
While Mary never achieved a divine status in official Christian doctrine, the Church and people were certainly willing to envision Mary as having the divine-like powers which only a major goddess within the Ancient World would possess. And it can be legitimately said that she was in essence a Christian goddess in fact if not in theory. So what does this mean to current day worshippers of Isis if anything? I know for many very little, however I am not one of these. I go back to the basic vision of Isis as Panthea (All-Goddess). Thus from an Isian point of view it is proper and right to see the Virgin Mary as an aspect of the fullness of Isis. I am of course aware that Christians will be appalled by that idea but I do not think that they have any justified say in this matter. I am an Isian not a Christian. After all, if it had not been for the Christian suppression of all forms of Paganism, Christian heterodoxies, and other forms of belief, much more developed religious alternatives to Christianity might exist in the West today. Christianity’s monopolization of the West’s religious development prevented that from happening. And the result of the Christian monopolization of the West is that many religious homes which might have been available to people such as myself have been closed to us as a result.
Now back to Mary. If Mary is seen as an aspect of Isis then it is reasonable that the followers of Isis have the right to examine, learn from, and even incorporate into their own life those aspects of Marian devotionalism which might add to our knowledge and devotion of Isis. Now I know that most within the alternative Neopagan and New Age movements feel that there is little to learn from the Abrahamic faiths or from Christianity. They are so much more advanced than the spiritualities represented by these religions I disagree.
Despite Church doctrine that the Virgin Mary was strictly subordinate to God, the Father and to Jesus, the Son, medieval Marian devotionalism often developed a language of devotion to Mary which transcended that understanding. She instead was often seen by her followers as having power and divinity much in the same way that God the father and the son had. And throughout the Medieval Period the devotion offered to Mary seems to have been more heartfelt that was the devotion offered to either Jesus or the Father, who were seen as having much less real relationship with daily life.
So what can the various forms of Marian devotionalism add to Isian devotion. Well certainly aspects of Marian devotionalism particularly its use of Rosaries already are used by certain groups within the alternative religious communities. Many forms of Goddess spirituality today are represented particularly those represented by such small religious communities as the Deanist, and Filianic fatihs have borrowed the use of the rosary as a primary form of meditation on God the Mother.. Another aspect of Marian devotionalism particularly during the Middle Ages was the development of various liturgies and particularly Psalters in which the subject of devotion was primarily toward the Virgin Mary. One of these was a 13th Century anonymous work entitled the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I will deal with that in the next post.
During the past month I have again begun to take my writing seriously., I have had to choose from which of the several blogs, I created over the years, on which to focus my work. I started working first with my Tumblr blog, the writing below was first posted on that account. I then had to choose which blog would be made my primary blog. Each of my blogs was created for its own unique purpose and for varying reasons. This blog was created soon after I fell in love with the Deanic / Filianic faith in 2012 as a place for me to discuss issues of that faith. Another blog, I had created substantially earlier, was created as a place in which I could discuss ideas and issues regarding the Goddess Isis and the Virgin Mary. I have decided to go with my older Aset / Maryam blog which most closely reflects my current concerns then does this blog.
The point of all of this is that the following post was originally made for the blog which is now entitled “Isis as Thea and God.” The link to it is https://asetmaryam.com/ I would like to invite followers of this blog to begin following that one if interested. For a while at least I may continue to reblog here my posts from that blog. But eventually I will probably stop. This is just to let persons know this situation.
Glenn King
Isis as Thea and God
I have recently changed the name of this blog to better reflect its purpose. Its prior name “In the Way of Maat / Aset Maat, ” which does accurately reflect themes of significant meaning to me, unfortunately probably did not communicate much to others. I think that the new title “Isis as Thea as God” will be much more explanatory of its purpose. So what do I mean by saying that Isis is God? I mean that Isis means to me much of what the title of God means within the monotheistic religions of the Abrahamic traditions and within the more inclusive monotheisms of India particularly those of Shiva, Krisna, and the Great Goddess ( Mahadevi) traditions.
Thus Isis is the Center and Creatress of both the spiritual and material realities of the universe(s). She is the eternal source of life as Apuleius said during the Greco-Roman period “You whirl the sphere of heaven and give light to the sun, you are the governess of the universe and trample down Tartarus” Furthermore ‘the gods above adore her as do the gods below.’ And as her fourth hymn at her Temple at Philae stated nearly 400 years earlier “Indeed , She is the Lady of Heaven, Earth, and the Neitherworld, Having brought them into existence through what her heart conceived and her hands created.” In believing that Isis is God thus I am attempting to carry on much of the tradition of those persons who during both the Hellenistic and Roman periods did see Isis as being the center of their religious universe.
Now I want to deal with the last part of the title now. Isis is Thea. Thea is the ancient Greek word for Female Divine Being in other words Goddess. It is the equivalent to the Latin term for Goddess, which is Dea. Simply stated the word Thea is my general word for God who I feel called to envision in feminine terms as opposed to in masculine terms as is the Abrahamic norm. Since creation comes “from out of the being” of a God of Love then feminine terms for God seem to me to be more appropriate than male terms. Thus when I think of God I normally think of She.
Now the fact is that I do sometimes address Lady Isis as Goddess in my personal devotions. However in general communication I tend to avoid using the word “goddess” because of the various ways it is used negatively in a popular culture. Instead I use the word Thea or God in normal discourse often interchangeably or together. When using the word Thea I wish to communicate that for me God is more properly viewed as being a female / feminine being as opposed to being a masculine or impersonal “it” being.
I have been in the process of refocusing my writing. And one of the results of this is that I will be using this blog in some of the ways in which it was originally intended when it was created over a decade ago. Within that purpose discussion of the subjects of Isis and the Virgin Mary were central. Over the years that changed when it became increasingly obvious that my desire to help initiate a dialogue regarding the status of the Virgin Mary between Christians and Pagans had failed. It also became obvious that my own dreams that a bhakti religion in devotion to Isis might develop clearly were not going to be realized.
At that point I then went on and expanded the subject matter of the blog in other directions particularly into the areas of Filianic / Deanic theology when I became committed to that religion for a period of years.
Now for several years this blog has been inactive and I have been out of the Deanic religion, though there are still commonalities between that faith and my own. Now in what will probably be the last active writing period of my life
before my inevitable decline, I am returning the centrality of Isis to this blog again. Aligned with this, I have also become much more familiar with the general subject of inclusive monotheistic tendencies within the religions of ancient nations such as Egypt and Greece. I have been particularly interested
in the Amunite solar religion during Egypt’s New Kingdom, Ramesside period. During that time period the
worship of Amun took many theological aspects which pushed it into a strong Panentheistic and inclusively monotheistic direction.
Thus a discussion of certain aspects of Ancient Egyptian religion will be discussed periodically within the blog as well. And of course in general I will change directions in my writings as I see fit.
I have two blogs of which this is one in which I have posted little during the last two years. During the past year most of my online writings, to the degree that I have had the time to write, has been focused on posts to the Reddit online community. That is still the place in which I think that I will apply myself most vigorously in the foreseeable future. However I have decided also to begin posting within the two blogs which have been committed to religious issues of importance to me. Some of the future posts here will in fact not be new at all. They in stead be reblogs of articles I have written previously , which I feel are still of value. Other articles will be new. I obviously will to a significant degree be moving in newer directions in my writings and I hope obviously some may find the new posts of interest.
Glenn
During most of its history this blog has provided me a platform in which to discuss my own interpretations of De’anism, a religion founded in the 1970s which can be briefly but inadequately defined as a religion in which God, the creator / source of the universe is conceived and worshiped as feminine. Thus Dea the Latin word for feminine God or Goddess is thought as and worshiped in feminine forms such as Mother, Lady and Queen. The purpose of life in Deanic terms is the worship Dea and submission to her loving will. Within my own interpretation of Deanism her loving will is very like the concept of the greatest commandments given within the Abrahamic faiths. It is as Jesus said ‘we should love God with all of our heart mind and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves.’ This however should be supplimented with another Old Testament commandment though. ‘We should do justice and walk humbly with our God / Dea.’ Now obviously this says very little about all of the detailed theology and practice of Deanism. A lot more is needed. But it says enough for now. A substantial literature has been created by Deanic devotees over the years which can be found within various blogs and websites through out the internet. Anyone who is interested in these sources with a little effort should be able to find most of these sources on their own. But if one needs help they can contact me I will help on this.
About three months ago, I made a decision to return to the Deanic community. About a month ago in order to distinguish my own interpretation of Deanism from those ideologies dominant within it, I wrote a post in which I described my understanding of Deanism as being a Maatian / Justice form of the common faith. However as a result of my experience within the community during the past three months I have now come to the conclusion that redefining my own interpretations of Deanism as Maatian did not go far enough. I believe now that the differences between my understanding of Deanism and the dominant trends within it are more significant than I had thought. In spite of the fact that I hold the Deanic Scriptures as in many ways authoritative, and as having great spiritual worth, in spite of the fact that I worship Dea daily, in spite of the fact that I seek to do her will, I have come to the conclusion that a probably insurmountably gap exists between my interpretation of the religion and the interpretation of those who dominate it today. I suspect in fact that these difference perhaps are about as great as for example as the difference between early Christianity’s and its First Century Jewish parent religion.
Towards Thea and other subjects 