I originally posted this earlier this month on the Sodalility of Thea Yahoo e-group. It needs to be blogged here as well.
Glenn
The Filianic feast of Chelanya or Regeneration on August 1 has come and passed. Several comments on it have been shared here but I myself have not commented on it. One reason being that I simply have not in a practical way integrated the Filianic wheel of the year calendar into my life. Pamela has shared at least one post on it but no Filianic interpretations were placed on it. Enclosed is a link to an independent Filianic tumblir site called Shrine of the Gentle Way authored Kathi Bourque. I know little about her that is not on this site. By independent Filianist I mean those Filianists who are not members of the Aristasian community and who thus may have some views independent of the founding community. This is the link. http://aedismitisars.tumblr.com/post/57034739643/festival-of-regeneration
I have also enclosed the full post here. The main reason I have posted it is that I liked the scripture that Kathi uses to meditate on during the holiday. I want to share it and also to make a few comments. I am sure that many people here have an aversion to sacrificial theology either of the Christian or of any other version. I for one was appalled by the sacrificial theology that I was taught within the Church of Christ during my teen age years. It had all the horrible qualities that Pamela cites in one of her recent posts.
However it is a fact that almost every religion of human kind of both pagan and monotheistic faiths such as Judaism have had some sort of sacrificial theology. Some of these for example that of the Aztecs have been much worse than anything dreamed up by the worse of Christians. However it is also a fact that at least some forms of sacrificial theology such as that of many medieval Christian saints and of certain Filianics have led to a rich spirit of devotion in the lives of many believers. Perhaps it is because a God who sacrifices her or him self for her followers shows much more directly love for the devotees than one who simply commands them. Another aspect of sacrificial theology is of course the fact often they require that persons make some sort of sacrifice to the deity. Of course current consumer / hedonist Western society, a society that the Aristasians describe as “the Pit” does not like the word sacrifice. We can have it all with little self discipline or sacrifice. We have even been able to fight wars without sacrifice. Well the sacrificial theologies of many of the religions express an alternative point of view.
In saying all of this I am not stating that I have now become a convert to either Filianic or some form of Christian sacrificial theology. However I am interested in them and am open to the idea that they may reflect some important truths.
Glenn
For those who are celebrating it, I hope you all have a wonderful Festival of Regeneration! Briefly, it is
The Feast of Regeneration is the festival of first fruits – of the corn both as the harvested End and as the corn to be planted in order that the cycle may continue. In the life of maid it is the festival of our constant rebirth on the Wheel of Werde, and also of our spiritual regeneration as children of our Mother, redeemed by the Daughter.
(redacted from the Chapel of Our Mother God site)
I had thought about making sprouted wheat bread to celebrate, but didn’t plan ahead to prepare ingredients. Fortunately, I had a mixture of blue cornmeal/amaranth baking mix in my pantry, and I’m baking up a pan of cornbread for tomorrow.
In my opinion, it is useful for meditating upon the following Scripture:
16. And She entered the great temple of heaven, where the spirits of earth’s children were gathered at the sacrifice, even as their souls were gathered on the earth. 17. Then She stood at the great altar and took up a wheaten loaf, and spoke, saying: 18. “Like to the grains, My body was cut down by the scythe of death; and like to the grains did it rise anew. 19. For I am the ear of grains that is reaped in silence.” 20. She said: “Like to the grains my body was broken between the stones of death.” And saying thus, She broke the bread between Her hands. 21. And She gave the fragments of the bread to the spirits of earth’s children, saying: “Here is My body that is broken for you. Eat My body, that you may be one with My body, and may be one body in Me.”
22. Then She poured out Her Spirit from hands into a great chalice, and Her Spirit lay as wine within the chalice. 23. She said: “Even as you have offered Me bread in sacrifice, so I give you the bread of My body; and as you have poured out libations of wine to Me, so I pour out the eternal libation of My eternal Spirit.” 24. And as it is performed above in the Spirit, so is it reflected below in the body and the soul, and through the reflection do earth’s children have part in the real. 25. So were the things that are told in this book reflected in the hearts of maids, that all might read them and draw closer to She that acted them.
(from the Holy Mythos, Chapter 10, located at http://www.thefilianicscriptures.tk/)
May Dea bless you
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