Girls, Gods and Trance

“Shivering, they say, my face did change to something less than mortal, yet more mighty and beautiful than my corporeal form.  Taller they say I stood with a voice which was not quite my own.  I simply gave myself wholly and gave myself utterly over to the words and inspriation of Leto’s glorious son.”
(Bolina Oceanus, in her essay “For Lo! Apollo is within me” published in Priestesses, Pythonesses & Sibyls)

My previous two blogs looked a little at the Goddess Artemis and how she was venerated by men, something which is often overlooked by those who are reinstating the worship of the old gods today.  Likewise, the worship of her twin brother Apollo provides us with some interesting challenges to modern perceptions of gender within a spiritual and magical setting.  In modern practices it is more often a female Priestess who will open herself up to an invocation of a Goddess into her for the purposes of trance and oracular work.  It is still considered rather avant-garde in some circles for a woman to open herself up for possession by a God (or indeed for a male Priest to have a female Goddess invoked into him).   But why should such a thing be considered innovative today when one of the most famous oracles of the ancient world involved the possession of a Priestess by a male God for the purposes of prophesy?

The Oracle of Delphi was home to the cult of Apollo, twin brother to the goddess Artemis.  These two deities were born to the goddess Leto, through a union with the king of the gods Zeus.  The story of their birth is one an epic one.  Leto is impregnated by Zeus, who is of course married to Hera, goddess of marriage, who was not at all pleased with the news that her husband was to father children with another goddess (yet again, as Zeus often got himself into trouble for fathering children with both mortals and gods!).   She forbade Leto to give birth on solid land and wherever the pregnant goddess went she was made to move on and denied the right to rest and give birth to her children.  In one version of the story Hera instructs the Python of Delphi, a giant serpent, to chase Leto and prevent her from getting rest.  In the end she finds refuge on the floating island of Delos, believed to have once been the body of the star goddess Asteria (sister of Leto) when she, in an effort to escape the advances of Zeus, flung herself into the ocean.  In alternative version we are told that Asteria was turned into a quail by Zeus, when she flung herself into the ocean, or that Zeus helped Leto by turning her into a quail so that she could reach Delos more easily.  Either way, the quail seems to be a key theme in this myth.

When Artemis is born, she then (as she is a god, of course) helps her mother to birth her brother Apollo – and the two would always remain absolutely loyal to each other and to their mother.  As soon as they reached adulthood, they started the process of killing many of those who brought dishonour upon their mother when she was looking for a place to rest and give birth to them.  The first to suffer at their wrath was the Python of Delphi, who had been guarding the oracle there for many years.   The Python, described as a giant serpent or dragon like creature was slayed by the arrows of the twins and Apollo took over the shrine at Delphi, and became the God of the Oracle.

It was said of the Oracle:

“The oracle at Delphi never would have been so much frequented, so famous, and so crowded with offerings from peoples and kings of every land, if all ages had not tested the truth of its prophesies.” (Cicero, On Divination)

In her essay “The Pythia”  Caroline Tully wrote that:~

“A regular Greek priestess’ sphere of influence reached only as far as the temenos walls of her sanctuary.  The authority of the Pythia, or the Priestess of the Delphic Apollo, on the other hand extended much further into areas such as religion, politics, warfare and overseas colonisation.  This was unusual not only for a priestess, but for a woman in what was predominantly patriarchal ancient Greece”.
(Caroline Tully, from The Pythia, published in Priestesses, Pythonesses & Sibyls)

It is clear from these examples that the Oracle of Apollo in Delphi was a very important one, and that it held a lot of power, and that likewise women who held the office of Pythia there, were valued and honoured members of society, whose position gave them a high office in many affairs.  What however is interesting and something I personally believe modern Pagans who do trance work with the gods might wish to take notice of is that arguably the most famous of the oracular priestesses of the ancient world gained their prophesy from a Apollo, a male god.  This was not considered unusual at all in the ancient world and there are examples which illustrate that the pythia did not just speak ‘for’ Apollo, but was actually speaking ‘as’ Apollo:

“The Pythia not only spoke for Apollo, as other priestesses might presume to do for the deities they served, but spoke as Apollo.  Ancient authors believed that she was fully capable for channelling Apollo’s words…”
(Caroline Tully, from The Pythia, published in Priestesses, Pythonesses & Sibyls)

What is described in terms of history and academic research by Caroline Tully, is described in modern experiential terms by modern day Priestess of Apollo, Bolina Oceanus when she wrote in the same anthology:
 

“Becoming a Priestess for Apollo and allowing him to speak through me has allowed me to be free in ways I never expected I could be, but with it I have also been given a great responsibility.  I have to speak his words and I am not allowed to interpret them for others…

I have worked in groups where it was my role to assume the form of a Goddess and enjoyed those rites greatly, though I often found that something was missing or not quite right.  It was only when I first experienced Apollo speaking through me that I gave the matter much thought and realised some very obvious things.  in the ancient magickal and religious practices there were always specific deities who had associations with prophecy, whilst others had specific associations with for example agriculture, love, war or wealth.  This makes for an interesting point to consider, is it all that polite (or for that matter safe!) to invoke deities into ourselves who have no interest in prophesy?)”

(Bolina Oceanus, in her essay “For Lo! Apollo is within me” published in Priestesses, Pythonesses & Sibyls)

So, how do you decide which deities you will allow to possess you for the sake of oracular work?  And how do you test your results?

The Temple of Apollo

 This blog was originally posted to www.sorita.co.uk and is (c) Sorita d’Este 2010

Speaking for the Goddess…

In my essay “Mantic Voices” published as part of the Priestesses Pythonesses & Sibyls project I edited and which was published by Avalonia last year, I examined the role of the Oracle Priestess in different traditions.   It is clear from the available evidence that comes to us from the many spiritual traditions of the world that woman have long been spiritual leaders.  They have long served the gods and spirits of their native lands and their ancestral people, as well as those of their adopted lands.  Whilst these women are named as many things at different times and in different cultures, it is clear that many of them served in the role of the “prophetess” – that is that they became vesels for the gods and spirits to speak through, either through deep trance or through other forms of interaction, such as mediumship and divination. 

From Medea and Circe, to Boudica and Morgan Le Fey we find them, through to the Nuns of the Roman Catholic Church and though they insist on the masculine form of the word, other Christian churches, such as the Anglican Church here in the UK, now also accept women into their Priesthood.  But not all Priestesses are destined to become oracles for the God(s).  The oracles in the ancient world were often women who were chosen for the role due to their particular skill and abilities, sometimes they would be chosen based on oracles received from a serving priestess.  Great importance was placed on the oracles of the Pythia at Delphi and the Sibylline prophesies.    Their predictions were taken very seriously and were often studied by scholars for many centuries in an effort to understand their meanings.  There were many different forms of oracle too – and this in itself is very interesting and warrant an entire area of study, often much neglected today.

The practice of oracular work in modern pagan rituals is often neglected in favour of a pre-prepared “Charge” which is read out by someone in a group.  This is a remnant of the practices of our ancestors which was of course a lot more ecstatic.  There are very few groups and individuals practising full trance in the pagan revivalist traditions.  In the Wiccan tradition I have heard that it is growing in popularity in more recent years, though out of my own experiences it is necessary to make a great many changes to the practices of the tradition in order to incorporate full trance necessary for such practices.  The rituals were not designed to incorporate full trance possession, but instead for the recital of the prose concocted by Doreen Valiente from fragments taken from Leland’s The Aradia and Crowley’s Law of Liberty text.  In fact, a little known fact by those who frequently use the Charge of the Goddess in their rituals is that ironically the only channelled material it contains comes from Aleister Crowley’s “Liber Al Vel Legis” (better known as “The Book of the Law” and much of what was included was actually attributed by Crowley to Hadit, the masculine principle in his system of magick.   So yes,  it does make a powerful piece of prose to use in ritual, but it is also in reality a rather weird choice if you are speaking for the Goddess, using words which originally came from a male divinity!  

The Wiccan Tradition, and in particular parts of the rituals which are attributed to Doreen Valiente, is often “borrowed” (to use the nice term) from such inappropriate sources, yet even though people are now becoming more aware of such origins, there seems to be a reluctance to change anything.  In fear of losing “authenticity”.  Maybe its time to study the meaning of “To Dare” and “To Know” – the two, I have found, often goes together rather well.  Do we truly speak the words of the Goddess of the Wicca when we recite “The Charge of the Goddess”?  I realise that there is a lot of power in those words, charged as they have been over the years by (probably!) tens of thousands of recitals.  How honest are we when we recite those words and claim that they are from our deities?  Is that what was intended?   Is this another dogma which is being formed, which we should not question? 

There are of course traditions, groups and individuals who do work towards understanding the mysteries of the many Gods and Goddesses through trance and possession.  Many examples of the women who speak for the Goddesses (and Gods!) can be found in Priestesses Pythonesses & Sibyls – it is difficult for me to highlight any of them in particular, as Priestesses Pythonesses & Sibyls  was born out of my own desire to be able to learn from and with the women I asked to contribute to it – they come from so many traditions – including Wicca  and the Fellowship of Isis, but also the Western Mystery Tradition, Priestess of Avalon, Thelema, Candomble, Voudou and Seidr.  I have had the honour to work with some of them over the years in different ways, and I hope in time to have the honour to experience ritual with all of them.  I highly recommend this book and the essays therein to women who do mantic (oracular / trance) work with the feminine divine, and indeed those who open themselves to speak for the Gods.  (After all, the most famous oracular priestesses, the Pythia at the Oracle in Delphi, spoke for the God Apollo!).