And I'm a muppet.
That is, it's an exoteric non-secret that I chose the syllable mup as the name of the religion I've been creating for the past decade or so in order to be able to call its practitioners muppets. Because Jim Hanson died for your sins (not really).
mup (which aggressively refuses to capitalize itself) draws on a wide variety of traditions, taking a sort of post-reconstructionist praxis, in which a very strong grounding in historical knowledge and understanding is required before going off and doing something crazy. It's also a complex thing, still in flux and still in creation, which is kind of the point of this blog, really.
The most important altered state of consciousness to mup is silliness -- which is VERY distinct from humor. You can easily have a silliness that's not funny, just as in classical understandings panic (πανικον, from the name of the god Παν - Pan) is the altered state of consciousness that arises when one is lost after moving through the fear. This blog, however, is about a very different altered state of consciousness, one which blends and merges with ontology, with how one moves through the world.
It is my intention to celebrate all the holidays, festivals, and ritual observances (or realistically, as many as I can) as possible for all of the traditions from which mup draws its pantheon. Which is a lot. In this way, I seek to recognize every day as sacred and holy, though differently so every time. In this way, I work to break my brain open that I might see the divinity of all that is and dance within it, every breath thick with the numinous. In this way, I am and will become the Beast with Flowered Horns.
To this end, I have begun compiling a Book of Days or tonalamatl for myself, to know the ebbs and flows and tides of destiny through the days and to know what needs celebrating when. You can see and comment on my work here. Much of what I have compiled has been a little bit thrown-together, so if anyone has any informatoon on these home traditions of my deities, I would appreciate learning more.
The fifteen mup deities (and their traditions of origin) are as follows and I am too geeky NOT to put them in their original scripts where possible:
- Antinous (Egyptian, Greek, Roman) - Ἀντίνοος,
- Ardhanarisvara (Hindu) - अर्धनारीश्वर
- Azathoth (Lovecraftian)
- Eris (Discordian, Greek, Roman) - Ἔρις
- Hermaphroditos (Greek, Roman) - Ἑρμαφρόδιτος
- Heru-pa-khered / Harpokrates / Hoor-paar-kraat (Egyptian, Greek, Thelema) - Ἁρποκράτης
- Inanna (Sumerian) - 𒀭𒈹
- Melek Taus (Feri / Yezidi) - ملك طاووس
- Pombagira (Congo / Ifa / Umbanda)
- Tlazolteotl (Aztec)
- the Beast with Flowered Horns (I made fem up)
- brahman (Hindu)
- Deep Reality (Robert Anton Wilson's philosophy)
- Lacuna (I made up)
- tzaddikim shel haShem (I made them up)
Does anyone know how I might be able to type in hieroglyphics above?
How about Xochipilli?
ReplyDeleteThough Xochipilli (and his feminine counterpart Xochiquetzal, who is a matron of my sir's) is a fascinating and interesting god to me -- and I have used a statue of him as a stand-in for Antinous when I was without iconry for the Beautiful Bithynian Boy, through the rather tortured path of Flower God->Flower Heroes->Antinous -- he has never directly called or resonated with me.
DeleteIn fact, of all the teteo, Tlazolteotl is the only one to have made connection with me. That's not to say that the others are unimportant. Far be it from me to claim that Tlaloc is anything other than vital to my currently drought-ridden state. It just means that none have knocked on mup's door asking to be let in, so to speak.
That being said, you know what they say: "Once a muppet, always a muppet. Never a muppet, always a muppet." I have sometimes felt as if gods like Tlazolteotl or Melek Taus are the diplomats for other gods to whom they are connected. That all the lemniscate deities and many if not all of the teteo may be considered mup deities, and that Tlazolteotl or Melek Taus are the ones who ensure that, the links by which that connection is made.
Of course, the sole primary commandment of mup is that, if you're going to pass on mup in any way, whether teaching or discussing or quoting or publishing or whatever, you MUST change something about it. Thus, if you feel Xochipilli is a member of the mup pantheon, then go right the fuck ahead and treat him as such!
The only two that I know and have heard at mup's door, knocking and asking to be let in, are Bes and Baphomet. It's interesting that Obatala shares qualities with both of those that make them highly appropriate for mup (patronage of the ugly, misshapen, and disabled on the one hand and hermaphroditic androgyny on the other) and I have been told that he is on my head, but that seems to be more of a personal working connection, whereas Bes and Baphomet seem more professional, so to speak . . .