In this article I'll take a look at supplimenting the traditional
deity pantheons with figures of your own creation.
If you buy into the idea that the old mythologies may have been a
kind of 'personal development' system then
it may have been thousands of years since any of the pantheons were
used as they were 'supposed' to be. A certain level of corruption is to be
expected and at some point in time we will have to start making our own
additions / corrections to the existing pantheons.
However: it's one thing to interact with archetypal figures that have been
documented, discussed and recognised throughout history
and another thing entirely to just 'make up' such figures ourselves.
How do we make that leap?
For a moment let's consider the possible results of
spending a period of time in devotion to...
Azura, Queen of the Night Sky.
You could spend half an hour a day getting your 'inner mind' to contemplate
the questions
"How would it feel to be guided and protected by Azura, Goddess of the Dusk and Dawn?"
and "What would it be like to be inspired and guided by
Azura, Mother of the Rose?"
and as the days and weeks progress you will find a sense of
guidance and inspiration that was not there before.
You could also use questions to trigger 'dream incubation' -
"What would it be like to visit the Realm of Azura in a dream?" or even
"If I met Azura in a dream, what might she say to me?"
and then experience the 'Realm of Azura' (which may or may not be
called Moonshadow) first-hand in your dreams.
Considering that Azura is also linked to the 'twilight' realms of
dawn and dusk you could also make a point of visualising a sun-rise /
sunset when asking yourself these questions, to strongly
associate these things in your mind....
And then, one day when you are least expecting it - you might be
walking home one evening and just glance to one side -
and *bam* seeing a sunset will trigger the 'Azura Mythos'
on a purely subconscious level.
It will seem as if the sun's rays were Azura
herself reaching down towards you and
you may hear a voice, sounding both quiet and near but also
loud as if it had echoed across the universe,
"Azura... Goddess of the Dusk and Dawn... guided, inspired, protected...
Mother of the Rose."
And for a moment there will be no past or future, no here or there,
no 'me' or 'not-me' - just a sunset imbued with the essence of Azura.
- and all of this from a character from a computer game. *
What it comes down to is the 'suspension of dis-belief' that must be
cultivated during these practices. You could also say that Azura
has some similarities to Isis, which might make such experiments even easier.
(Amusingly, according to The Circle of Isis, the 'crystal' associated with
Isis is listed as Azurite...)
As soon as you've experienced results from working with such an
entirely fictional figure, then
the jump to creating your own deity-archetype figures
is much more manageable.
Anyway, this type of project is necessarily
a highly personal experience - so for the moment all I'll
do is mention the following:
No Names
If you look back at the traditional deity-figures you will find that
most, if not all, of them do not actually have 'names' in the modern
sense - they have titles, statements of function.
I have my suspicions that the way we use names now is more to do with
the 'cult of personality' than anything else - so: no names.
No Stories
This might sound a bit odd, given that 'mythology' is basically
a collection of stories, however if you immediately jump in to write
a soap-opera drama for a new deity-figure then the danger of
contaminating the deity with your baggage / issues / 'stuff'
increases greatly.
The stories should be built up from actual experiences of flow states
with the deity in question - not a Creative Writing exercise.
Evolved Humanity
I guess there's the Q from Star Trek...
but otherwise if you want inspiration for possible futures for the Human Race,
it might be worth looking into the past -
there is, to my mind, a strong possibility that some of the stories
of Mythical races like the 'Sidhe' are derived from old folk-memories
of what Human Beings used to be like before the 'rot' of
over-verbalisation set in.
Space / Alien Mythology.
This kind of deity-figure is the ultimate for an 'outsider'
perspective useful both for distancing yourself from the
weirdness of events on Earth and for maintaining a 'looking at
things with the eyes of a child' standpoint.
It is well-worth having at least one such 'alien' figure in your
personal pantheon.
If you are happy to interpret the 'Cthulhu Mythos' of
H.P. Lovecraft as a metaphor for the arisen subconscious
ripping apart the fragile intellect-personality reality-tunnel
then that could also be a rich source of 'other-worldly' material...
- otherwise just stick some Bestia Centauri onto your gramophone
and see what your subconscious creativity can come up with.
* Specifically I am referring to Morrowind and Oblivion
from the 'Elder Scrolls' series by Bethesda Game Studios / Softworks.
I guess I should point out that this site is not
'affiliated or endorsed' (etc) with or by Bethesda
... although synchronicity fans might be puzzled by
this post
that appeared on the Bethesda blog shortly after I first mentioned some of
the results of working with Azura as a deity-figure.
Coincidence? ...or evidence of mysterious forces at work? You Decide.
