dies Saturni
Śani vāsara
Shamma
Setting Orange
Date:
Chaos 60, 3180 YOLD
Ud Duru 1
Dog Moon 1
ante diem XIV Kalendae Martii MMDCCLXVII A.U.C.
Anno IVxxi æræ legis: ☉ in 11° ♓, ☾ in 18° ♓
Mahtlactli-Cuauhtli Ce-Miquiztli Ome-Tochtli
Anthesteria/Dystros 30 in the 1st year of the 698th Olumpiad
Parmouthi 10, 1412 years after the last Pharaoh
Meṣa 1 of Vijaya, 5123 years since Śrī Kṛṣṇa returned to his eternal abode
28 Rabīʿ ath-Thānī, year 6763 in the Yezidi calendarYesterday, in the witching hour of midnight, at my friend Ferny's house, I clebrated the first Lovecraftian holiday I've celebrated thus far: the completion of Dreams in the Witch-House, a short story that features Azathoth relatively heavily (by the way there's apparently an azathoth in geometry as well; can anyone explain to me WTF that's all about?). I lit some candles, read a modified version of the Azathoth fragment as an invocation (it works wonderfully, by the way), poured some raspberry wine to share with the Blind Idiot God and read the story, in its entirety to my friend.
Afterwards, I had a bit of difficulty sleeping, and the lightshow behind my eyelids featured a violet glow quite centrally. I repeated several times that I was merely doing devotion, not fully summoning the Nuclear Chaos and its servant Nahab to full presence in that way. Oddly, Brown Jenkin and the Black man weren't trying to push through, only Nahab and Azathoth itself.
The whole thing led to a rather fascinating conversation in the morning (before a truly revelatory one concerning 93 and physics that I might write about later). I had taken the habit, jokingly, of referring to every tiny thing that went wrong as, "I guess that's what happens when you summon the Nuclear Chaos." My friend, a fairly staunch Christian, felt increasingly pulled into a spell forging a connection with the Blind Idiot God. She even asked why I would perform such a ritual in a house, which was a fair question and revealed that I had violated a rather delicate point of hospitality on two levels.
The first element of the hospitality question involved location. Ferny's hospitality refused to allow her to "put me out on the street" to do the ritual and yet the idea of summoning a deity from an essentially maltheistic cosmos into her home. This almost Dionysian paradox of ξενία left me in a bit of an awkward spot, with the fault on me.as guest and initiator of the rite. I would have offered to do some sort of extra cleansing/banishing rite (and probably should have, and probably should have ended the rite by banishing with laughter, anyway), but for the other problematic element of the situation, which was hr desire to spend time with me without participating in the ritual.
She just wanted to spend time with me, and if I was going to read a story, she wanted to be read to. However, she wanted to be a passive and uninvolved observer in the rite, to the point where even the need to monitor the candles so wax didn't overflow the dish and get on the table made her too much of a participant for her comfort. In one reference frame, I became the host for the purpose of this question, and an inviting one at that. The guest of honor being Azathoth, however, inviting Ferny might not have been a fully hospitable thing, as once described very eloquently by my friend PSVL. My perspective is perhaps more complicated and less decided than eirs, but it is certainly problematic to have someone even present at a ritual who views it as nothing but storytime.
And yet.
And yet, the biggest religions in the world rarely have to worry about pushing anyone out that isn't a member of the faith. After 17 years of Catholic school (Kindergarten through college), I've known many non-Christians who have attended church services and even undergone sacraments without being among the faithful! And yet it is important to me that paganisms -- and mup in particular -- be praxic rather than doxic, that is what you do matters far more than what you believe. And yet, the silliness of mup refuses to paint anything that occurs or shows up in ritual as welcome. ANYTHING can happen during mup ritual and it will merely be extra juice. Why the fuck do you think mup rituals include the ritual roles of the Waldorf and the Statler?
And yet, there is no way to be a passive and uninvolved observer of any ritual, especially pagan, especially mup; the Heisenberg theory of ritual.
I would appreciate any thoughts ya'll might have on these issues . . . Dialog is good!
Today went on after that rough point in our talking (we're still friends, thank all the deities, spirits, ancestors, and whatnots) and after night fell again, I performed a rather low-key ritual combining celebrations of the δειπνον Ἑκατης, Panpsyche's monthly festa, and Μην-Ἀντίνοος.
I merely raised the Obelisk, cooked garlic and scrambled eggs for Ἑεκατ, placed the atop a fire hydrant at the local intersection, shared a cup of milk with Panpsyche while reading the first liber of All-Soul All-Body All-Love All-Power (All-Strife All-Acceptance), and then read off a poem of PSVL's to Ἀντίνοος of the Moon before devoking. It was a relatively simple ritual, more interested in the fact of observing the festa than in pulling down lots of juice.
Also fascinating is that Panpsyche's monthly festa is the same day that I finally got the manicure my sir ordered me to get before Pantheacon. It's French, only in hot pink instead of classic white and I absolutely adore it! I hope he does too, when I serve him on Monday, which is also the annual festa of the marriage of Paneris and Paneros. Tomorrow is the annual festa of the birth of the first half of the Tetrad++, for which I'm thinking of making use of one of Michael Sebastian Lux's rituals for them. I would love if folk wanted to get together and celebrate it with me! Interested?
My intention with the Tetrad++'s monthly rituals are to read all of All-Soul All-Body All-Love All-Power (All-Strife All-Acceptance) every month. There are 14 chapters, so one chapter on each individual monthly festa and two on each festa honoring two or all of the Tetrad++ will work perfectly!
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