Penthesilea
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 Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster
Posts: 47422
Location: The Castle.....
Joined: Jun 21 st, 2006
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The Themysciran Path
Jan 9th, 2009 at 7:40pm
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The Way of a 21st Century Amazon.
Before I say another thing, one thing must be clearly understood. I make NO claim whatsoever to the historical or cultural high ground here, nor do I have any "divinely inspired" and or channeled information. What I have attempted to do here is construct a path that could have logically been followed by a Queen-led, egalitarian, nomadic/semi-nomadic warrior culture. Ancient historians reported that the Amazons worshiped Deities that came from the Greek pantheon and they identified them by their Greek names. For my own practice, I use the "romanized" spelling of the Greek names. I first encountered those names as a child (fifth grade, actually, when I got access to my school system's high school library) and while definitely not historically accurate -- the native language of the Amazons likely wasn't Greek, after all! -- I'm comfortable with those names. Neither do I restrict myself to the traditional "war" deities in this system. There is more to life than war, even for Amazons who had families and a home life. Furthermore, as the Spartans so ably demonstrated, every deity in the entire Greek pantheon could -- and in their practice, did -- have a "warrior" aspect so saying that any particular deity would have no place in a "warrior" culture would likely be an inaccurate statement.
I've investigated a number of traditions since I realized that I was a person of the Pagan persuasion and while none of them "clicked" for me, I found something in each that appealed to me and I kept those things as I continued my search. The search continues and I doubt that I will ever be finished but I feel like I can begin sharing what I do. Actually, because I'm a solitary lifemated to a Christian, my rituals when performed are simple requiring very little in the way of tools. This fits in with the "nomadic culture" aspect in which everything would have to be able to be packed up and hauled to the next camp. Following that reasoning, my altar -- which is large. I'm a klutz and need elbow room! -- can, if necessary be taken apart and made into a stack two feet by three feet by about six inches thick. The candle stands that mark the quarters can also be taken apart. My "circle" is a round black rug that can be rolled or folded up. The rest of the stuff: candles and holders, deity representations, salt and water bowls, incense and holders, containers to receive offerings, symbols for the quarters and specialized odds and ends like a small cauldron, altar coverings and decorative banners can be packed up into a reasonably sized box if needed. My ritual knife is an ebony handled, double edged sharpened dagger with scabbard that also fits in a box. Everything I need to set up my "temple" could be packed up and loaded in my minivan without too much difficulty if necessary. More important that tools and trappings, however, are ethics and I'll attempt to outline those next.
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The Themysciran Path (Read 1039 times)
