| Menu | Western Popular Mithraism | 4021.03 |
|
WESTERN POPULAR MITHRAISM (April 4020 ME amended March 4021) PANTHEON AION-ZURVAN - The Lord of Time and Activity who encompasses all things. GAETA - The living world URVANGAETAE - The soul of the living world TYCHE - The Doer, the goddess of Fate ZEUS - The righteous ordering power who brings the world into a state of ARTA or righteous order and thus creates the KOSMOS or ordered world. SOPHIA - The creative wisdom power . Sophia is wife of Zeus and the two work together in close partnership. HEPTAYAZATA - "The Seven Gods" - all children of Zeus and Sophia 1. MITHRAS is the yazad of right-connection. He connects people to each other to form strong productive co-operating societies, and he connects people in their thoughts and behaviour to the ultimate God - what is real and good. Mithras is regarded as the chief yazad of the Heptayazata. 2. ANHITA is the yazad of nurture, care and protection. She is the most concerned to provide for new life to emerge into the world and to grow strong and healthy. 3. PERCUS is the yazad of stimulation and force. He strikes the structures of the world, creating movement, upsetting existing patterns and breaking through barriers. He can act for good, being an agent of challenge that stimulates life to grow, and dissolving structures that restrict or do harm. He can also act for bad, undermining good patterns and bringing death. 4. VENUS is the yazad of love, fertility and prosperity. Like Percus she has a wild heart and represents the basic desires and drives that animate life. 5. FABER is the yazad of manufacture. He is the maker-god. He is the craftsman who crafts the material of the world into new designs. 6. HESTIA is the yazad of the hearth and home. She is the home-maker goddess. She is responsible for the happy functioning of the individual household and the wider 'homes' of the community , city and nation. She has a maiden daughter Vesta who has the role of tending the home-fire. 7. VATUS is the yazad who has especial sensitivity and ability to see the underlying workings of things. He is the seer and priest and healer. He is the bringer of music and dance. The yazads can be considered to be in male/female pairs - i.e Zeus+Sophia, Mithras+Anhita, Percus+Venus, Faber+Hestia with Vatus being unattached. THREE MAGI The three Magi or Wizards are the three senior teachers of the Good. They are ZOROASTER, PLATO and ARISTOTLE. OTHER CONCEPTS AGATHON and KAKON are Good and Evil ARTA is the righteous order, the good order of things conducive to the best life. KOSMOS is the Ordered World. KAOS is the Unordered World. EXPERIMENTAL MITHRAIC FESTIVALS Festivals that are currently suggested are: OSTARA - Festival of creation and new life - March 21st (Spring Equinox) (the Mithraic Easter) LITHA - Summer Festival (summer solstice) MESSIS - Harvest Festival (autumn equinox) MITHRAKANA - ('Festival of Mithras') - Celebration of religious life and religious community - 29th September ATARKANA - ('Fire Festival') - Celebration of the free human spirit, the fire within - November 5th. YALDA - Re-birth of the Sun including: BRUMA (18th to 24th Dec) when the Sun is at its weakest and NOVUSSOL (25th Dec to 31st Dec) when we celebrate the growing strength of the Sun Ave Mithra Chreste Ariste! Marcus Zartianus Updated March 4021ME |