Osred
05-29-2010, 05:42 AM
Irano-Germanic Heathenry is a modern blending of the Germanic and Iranian heathen traditions.
The Iranian tradition is uniquely important because out of it came the Zoroastrian philosophy which formed the foundation of the Christian world-view.
Thus Irano-Germanic heathenry is able to bring together the two main strands of European religious culture - the natural heathen and the christian - into a single coherent religious and philosophical system.
Irano-Germanics reject the idea that heathens must be defined as being not-Christians or the mirror image of Christians. Rather heathenry is seen as about looking at the whole picture of life, as opposed to taking a partial view.
What most people consider to be a heathen attitude to life (i.e. a selfish one without concern for the welfare of the other if they are no use to you) we call 'natural heathen'. However we believe that there is no reason for a heathen to only act naturally but should make use of their ability to transcend their natural inclinations.
We might say that the two pillars of a comprehensive religion are
a) promotion of wise concern for growth and strength and well-being of self as individual or community . (Nietzche's Zarathustra)
b) promotion of wise concern for the workings and needs of the Whole - especially through a non-selfish viewpoint and attitude. (The original Zarathustra)
Irano-germanic heathenry has a strong philosophical (or ideological) side to it which we consider superior to that available to either pure Germanic reconstructionists or to Christians.
Runes are important in irano-germanic heathenry and we believe Zarathustra to be the first person to create a set of runes distinct from a pantheon of gods. We believe that the Germanic runes and other aspects of Eddaic lore that contains gnostic knowledge to be ultimately attributed to some degree to the fruits of Zoroastrian thought.
Wights are an important part of irano-germanic heathenry. Wights are the beings posited to cause particularly effects. i.e. they are a mental construct to help us wrap up all the causes of something and thus help us to relate to the causes of things. We don't rely just on ancient texts to identify the wights but put some creative thought into it ourselves today.
Irano-Germanic Heathenry values wizardry and desires to set up a worthy successor to the ancient Magi (with a passing nod at the Druids). Modern Wizards will need more finely developed tools that the runes of the futhark - and will treat the whole legacy of Western Civilization as their intellectual heritage. (i.e. Western as opposed to Indian or Chinese)
MONISTIC, DUALISTIC, POLYISTIC
In keeping with our desire to be a comprehensive religion we accept three modes of analysing the world - the monistic, the dualistic and the polyistic.
Monistic thinking (associated with Zurvan or 'Father Time' in Iranian lore) sees the world as a single entity which is in a state of flux, and that every being is simply a part of this flux, and cannot be explained in isolation from it.
Dualistic thinking is grounded is our basic perception that we can have good and bad experiences, and that life can either flourish or decay. The activities in the world can either encourage the flourishing of life and good experience or they can impede it.
Polyistic thinking is grounded in the perception that the world is a complicated place and that we need to analyse it to make sense of it and find patterns of cause and effect. Polyists see many kinds of 'beings' or dynamics at work in the world, and don't label them all as good or bad in themselves but rather potentially helpful or harmful in their effects depending on the conditions in which they operate.
The Monistic or Existential Runes map out basic elements of existence and chains of cause and effect.
The Dualistic or Spentangric Runes map out the dynamics which support or discourage the flourishing of life.
The Polyistic or Functional Runes map out the different dynamics based on their internal coherence or their function.
As yet there is no one set of runes accepted by all Irano-germanic heathens - rather development of useful rune-lists is seen as an ongoing project.
However as a flavour we can give some examples:
A FEW EXISTENTIAL RUNES
Stand - what is unchangeable
Flux - what is changeable
Fluxle - a piece of the Flux - a dynamic or identifiable motion or a being
Urvan - the soul-flux of a living being
Manah - mind
Karma - conscious action
Weird - what happens
Wall - a barrier to the transmission of patterns in the Flux
Garth - a piece of territory enclosed by Wall
Arta - The natural law (or the grain of things)
SPENTANGRIC RUNES
The Spentic Octet:
1. Aramazda - the Wise Being
2. Spentaman - a wight which influence the mind for Good
3. Humanah - the Good Mind - i.e. the mind naturally inclined to do the right thing
4. Artavista - the Best Joining or Ordering of things.
5. Hukasatra - Good Governance
6. Spentarmy - reverence & service to life promotion
7. Harverty - Wholeness & Harmony
8. Amorty - non-dyingness of beings that are kept pure
Also noteworthy are:
Sarosh - (the Listener) - the being that gives knowledge of existence to Mind.
Ushta - perfect understanding and radiant happiness
Druj or Dreg - a turning away from what is right
Angraman - (opposite of Spentaman) - a being that influences minds for bad
Akmanah - the Bad Mind
Akkasatra - Bad Governance
Angrarmy - reverence/service to life destruction
POLYISTIC RUNES
There are lots of possible lists:
One possible kind focusses on 'wights' which are seen as beings identified by what they cause without necessarily having a coherent internal nature.
e.g a soccerwight (soccer = association) is a wight concerned with the way that people associate with each other or not (i.e. who meets who and under what conditions)
- a demiurge is a wight that manipulates the environment of other living beings to shape the pattern of their thoughts and lives. We can distinguish a natural demiurge which has no
mind from a manic demiurge which does have a mind.
DEITIES
The Deistic Heptad (Tuesday to Monday) is:
1. Tiew-Varuna (sky) deity of temporal governance
2. Woden-Vayu (wind) deity that causes build up of momentum by sustained or repetitious application of force
3. Thor-Indra (thunder) deity that exerts large force suddenly
4. Frigg-Anahita (rivers/earth) deity that feeds us daily with what we need
5. Frey-Tishtrya (rain) deity that promotes/supports good life (like a gardener?)
6. Balder-Mithra (sun) deity that acts selflessly in pursuit of the best ordering of things
7. Loki-Aeshma. (moon) deity that combines the trickster nature of Loki with the Whirlwind Fury of Aeshma and becomes a deity that uses deception in pursuit of satisfying its lust and is blind to the consequences (in terms of welfare of those affected)
The Deistic Ennead (made up of 3 groups of 3) is:
(sky or light)
1. Tiew-Varuna
2. Balder-Mithra
3. Nanna
(air)
4. Woden-Vayu
5. Freya
6. Thor-Indra
(water or earth)
7. Frigg-Anahita
8. Frey-Tishtrya
9. Wayland
The Deistic Octet is similar to the Heptad except that Sarosh heads the octet and Wayland replaces Loki.
The Deistic Octet is used for sacred purposes for Sarosh is spiritual lord (whereas Tiew-Varuna is temporal lord).
Note that in (Zoroastrian and Irano-Germanic) Priestly Fire rituals there are eight participants - seven active participants (as seven is the sacred number) and an eighth who directs the other seven.
Other deities are accepted as valid - such as other Germanic or Iranian deities not listed above.
DEITIES - LUCIFERIAN BINARY
The Luciferian Binary is made up of two deities with the same name - Lucifer.
One of these is associated with the Sun and one with the Moon.
The Sun is a body that gives out the light and warmth which supports life.
The Moon is a body that pretends to be a light-giving body like the Sun but is in fact a planet similar but lifeless and smaller than the Earth whose light is far inferior to the Sun's light and in fact just a reflection of a small part of the sun's light.
Solar Lucifer is associated with the morning star.
Lunar Lucifer is associated with the evening star.
Lucifer is associated with the pentagram symbol - apparently the pattern the morning star makes on astronomical charts when its position in the sky is plotted over a period of time.
Solar Lucifer is the True Lucifer whereas Lunar Lucifer is the 'fallen' Lucifer.
The nature of True Lucifer is to be the perfect attendant of Aramazda - the Wise Being. Whereas Aramazda is Wisdom by its nature.True Lucifer is a being that is has attained full wisdom of the nature of existence and acts accordingly .
True Lucifer is concordant with Zoroastrian thinking that full wisdom by itself is enough to lead to right action for full wisdom includes the knowledge that states of happiness and distress to living beings have intrinsic cosmic meaning. Thus Lucifer is defined by its wisdom and not by other possible characteristics such as selflessness (buddhist?) or being filled with love (christian?).
Fallen Lucifer is a Lucifer who remains mostly extremely wise and clever but has adopted a few convenient blind-spots (particularly that the suffering of others remains a bad thing regardless of your ability to close your hearts to that suffering).
NB It is possible to argue that fallen Lucifer is not a single coherent personality but has multiple personalities characterised by different blind spots.
Fallen Lucifer is attendant to Aton
Aton is a pseudo-deity symbolically identifiable with the Moon . Aton pretends to be a solar deity like Aramazda but is actually a puppet whose behaviour is independent of natural moral law and has few fixed characteristics except a desire to be obeyed.
SCRIPTURES
Irano-Germanic foundation scriptures include all the writings generally accepted by traditional Zoroastrians or Germanic heathens.
SOPHISM
Sophism is a general term for individual paths to wisdom with a coherent philosophy behind them. Irano-Germanic sophism is a tradition we can if we wish trace to Zarathustra (who was a sophist himself but didn't leave any detailed instruction) and then much amplified by Gautama (Buddha) , and then added to by later Buddhists, Greek and Roman stoics , gnostics and philosophers , with other influences including from shamanism. Medieval Persian Sufis such as Rumi were perhaps the most important successors integrating different aspects of earlier wisdom and practice into a single tradition. Corrupted (occult) versions of Sufi schools have survived alongside the honest ones.
The Iranian tradition is uniquely important because out of it came the Zoroastrian philosophy which formed the foundation of the Christian world-view.
Thus Irano-Germanic heathenry is able to bring together the two main strands of European religious culture - the natural heathen and the christian - into a single coherent religious and philosophical system.
Irano-Germanics reject the idea that heathens must be defined as being not-Christians or the mirror image of Christians. Rather heathenry is seen as about looking at the whole picture of life, as opposed to taking a partial view.
What most people consider to be a heathen attitude to life (i.e. a selfish one without concern for the welfare of the other if they are no use to you) we call 'natural heathen'. However we believe that there is no reason for a heathen to only act naturally but should make use of their ability to transcend their natural inclinations.
We might say that the two pillars of a comprehensive religion are
a) promotion of wise concern for growth and strength and well-being of self as individual or community . (Nietzche's Zarathustra)
b) promotion of wise concern for the workings and needs of the Whole - especially through a non-selfish viewpoint and attitude. (The original Zarathustra)
Irano-germanic heathenry has a strong philosophical (or ideological) side to it which we consider superior to that available to either pure Germanic reconstructionists or to Christians.
Runes are important in irano-germanic heathenry and we believe Zarathustra to be the first person to create a set of runes distinct from a pantheon of gods. We believe that the Germanic runes and other aspects of Eddaic lore that contains gnostic knowledge to be ultimately attributed to some degree to the fruits of Zoroastrian thought.
Wights are an important part of irano-germanic heathenry. Wights are the beings posited to cause particularly effects. i.e. they are a mental construct to help us wrap up all the causes of something and thus help us to relate to the causes of things. We don't rely just on ancient texts to identify the wights but put some creative thought into it ourselves today.
Irano-Germanic Heathenry values wizardry and desires to set up a worthy successor to the ancient Magi (with a passing nod at the Druids). Modern Wizards will need more finely developed tools that the runes of the futhark - and will treat the whole legacy of Western Civilization as their intellectual heritage. (i.e. Western as opposed to Indian or Chinese)
MONISTIC, DUALISTIC, POLYISTIC
In keeping with our desire to be a comprehensive religion we accept three modes of analysing the world - the monistic, the dualistic and the polyistic.
Monistic thinking (associated with Zurvan or 'Father Time' in Iranian lore) sees the world as a single entity which is in a state of flux, and that every being is simply a part of this flux, and cannot be explained in isolation from it.
Dualistic thinking is grounded is our basic perception that we can have good and bad experiences, and that life can either flourish or decay. The activities in the world can either encourage the flourishing of life and good experience or they can impede it.
Polyistic thinking is grounded in the perception that the world is a complicated place and that we need to analyse it to make sense of it and find patterns of cause and effect. Polyists see many kinds of 'beings' or dynamics at work in the world, and don't label them all as good or bad in themselves but rather potentially helpful or harmful in their effects depending on the conditions in which they operate.
The Monistic or Existential Runes map out basic elements of existence and chains of cause and effect.
The Dualistic or Spentangric Runes map out the dynamics which support or discourage the flourishing of life.
The Polyistic or Functional Runes map out the different dynamics based on their internal coherence or their function.
As yet there is no one set of runes accepted by all Irano-germanic heathens - rather development of useful rune-lists is seen as an ongoing project.
However as a flavour we can give some examples:
A FEW EXISTENTIAL RUNES
Stand - what is unchangeable
Flux - what is changeable
Fluxle - a piece of the Flux - a dynamic or identifiable motion or a being
Urvan - the soul-flux of a living being
Manah - mind
Karma - conscious action
Weird - what happens
Wall - a barrier to the transmission of patterns in the Flux
Garth - a piece of territory enclosed by Wall
Arta - The natural law (or the grain of things)
SPENTANGRIC RUNES
The Spentic Octet:
1. Aramazda - the Wise Being
2. Spentaman - a wight which influence the mind for Good
3. Humanah - the Good Mind - i.e. the mind naturally inclined to do the right thing
4. Artavista - the Best Joining or Ordering of things.
5. Hukasatra - Good Governance
6. Spentarmy - reverence & service to life promotion
7. Harverty - Wholeness & Harmony
8. Amorty - non-dyingness of beings that are kept pure
Also noteworthy are:
Sarosh - (the Listener) - the being that gives knowledge of existence to Mind.
Ushta - perfect understanding and radiant happiness
Druj or Dreg - a turning away from what is right
Angraman - (opposite of Spentaman) - a being that influences minds for bad
Akmanah - the Bad Mind
Akkasatra - Bad Governance
Angrarmy - reverence/service to life destruction
POLYISTIC RUNES
There are lots of possible lists:
One possible kind focusses on 'wights' which are seen as beings identified by what they cause without necessarily having a coherent internal nature.
e.g a soccerwight (soccer = association) is a wight concerned with the way that people associate with each other or not (i.e. who meets who and under what conditions)
- a demiurge is a wight that manipulates the environment of other living beings to shape the pattern of their thoughts and lives. We can distinguish a natural demiurge which has no
mind from a manic demiurge which does have a mind.
DEITIES
The Deistic Heptad (Tuesday to Monday) is:
1. Tiew-Varuna (sky) deity of temporal governance
2. Woden-Vayu (wind) deity that causes build up of momentum by sustained or repetitious application of force
3. Thor-Indra (thunder) deity that exerts large force suddenly
4. Frigg-Anahita (rivers/earth) deity that feeds us daily with what we need
5. Frey-Tishtrya (rain) deity that promotes/supports good life (like a gardener?)
6. Balder-Mithra (sun) deity that acts selflessly in pursuit of the best ordering of things
7. Loki-Aeshma. (moon) deity that combines the trickster nature of Loki with the Whirlwind Fury of Aeshma and becomes a deity that uses deception in pursuit of satisfying its lust and is blind to the consequences (in terms of welfare of those affected)
The Deistic Ennead (made up of 3 groups of 3) is:
(sky or light)
1. Tiew-Varuna
2. Balder-Mithra
3. Nanna
(air)
4. Woden-Vayu
5. Freya
6. Thor-Indra
(water or earth)
7. Frigg-Anahita
8. Frey-Tishtrya
9. Wayland
The Deistic Octet is similar to the Heptad except that Sarosh heads the octet and Wayland replaces Loki.
The Deistic Octet is used for sacred purposes for Sarosh is spiritual lord (whereas Tiew-Varuna is temporal lord).
Note that in (Zoroastrian and Irano-Germanic) Priestly Fire rituals there are eight participants - seven active participants (as seven is the sacred number) and an eighth who directs the other seven.
Other deities are accepted as valid - such as other Germanic or Iranian deities not listed above.
DEITIES - LUCIFERIAN BINARY
The Luciferian Binary is made up of two deities with the same name - Lucifer.
One of these is associated with the Sun and one with the Moon.
The Sun is a body that gives out the light and warmth which supports life.
The Moon is a body that pretends to be a light-giving body like the Sun but is in fact a planet similar but lifeless and smaller than the Earth whose light is far inferior to the Sun's light and in fact just a reflection of a small part of the sun's light.
Solar Lucifer is associated with the morning star.
Lunar Lucifer is associated with the evening star.
Lucifer is associated with the pentagram symbol - apparently the pattern the morning star makes on astronomical charts when its position in the sky is plotted over a period of time.
Solar Lucifer is the True Lucifer whereas Lunar Lucifer is the 'fallen' Lucifer.
The nature of True Lucifer is to be the perfect attendant of Aramazda - the Wise Being. Whereas Aramazda is Wisdom by its nature.True Lucifer is a being that is has attained full wisdom of the nature of existence and acts accordingly .
True Lucifer is concordant with Zoroastrian thinking that full wisdom by itself is enough to lead to right action for full wisdom includes the knowledge that states of happiness and distress to living beings have intrinsic cosmic meaning. Thus Lucifer is defined by its wisdom and not by other possible characteristics such as selflessness (buddhist?) or being filled with love (christian?).
Fallen Lucifer is a Lucifer who remains mostly extremely wise and clever but has adopted a few convenient blind-spots (particularly that the suffering of others remains a bad thing regardless of your ability to close your hearts to that suffering).
NB It is possible to argue that fallen Lucifer is not a single coherent personality but has multiple personalities characterised by different blind spots.
Fallen Lucifer is attendant to Aton
Aton is a pseudo-deity symbolically identifiable with the Moon . Aton pretends to be a solar deity like Aramazda but is actually a puppet whose behaviour is independent of natural moral law and has few fixed characteristics except a desire to be obeyed.
SCRIPTURES
Irano-Germanic foundation scriptures include all the writings generally accepted by traditional Zoroastrians or Germanic heathens.
SOPHISM
Sophism is a general term for individual paths to wisdom with a coherent philosophy behind them. Irano-Germanic sophism is a tradition we can if we wish trace to Zarathustra (who was a sophist himself but didn't leave any detailed instruction) and then much amplified by Gautama (Buddha) , and then added to by later Buddhists, Greek and Roman stoics , gnostics and philosophers , with other influences including from shamanism. Medieval Persian Sufis such as Rumi were perhaps the most important successors integrating different aspects of earlier wisdom and practice into a single tradition. Corrupted (occult) versions of Sufi schools have survived alongside the honest ones.