Magicka Ovriana

Deities

A Creation Story

In the beginning there was Chaos. Chaos was not being, nor non-being. There was no light, nor darkness, no depth nor undepth, nor height nor unheight. There was absolute nothing, filled with potential to everything and the Potential and the Nothing were One.

Ages went by as they will always do and the Chaos of nothing and everything in one and neither stirred. Nobody and everybody knows why Chaos stirred – it was what was to be.

The Will to Live was born, but with hir was born hir ever-present twin, the Inevitable Death, as there will be no life without death, nor death without life, as there is no Light without Darkness, nor Night without Day. Neither Will to Live nor Inevitable Death are good nor evil.

Then Will to Live and the Inevitable Death breathed onto and into each others, making love to each other, with the blessing of the Chaos who never seeked to be Divided, nor to be Unified because with Hir everything is already nothing and everything.

And they created all forms of life and all forms of death as none will be without the other.

So the Will to Live created ever new ways to live and the Inevitability of Death silenced them, but Death is always a step behind the Life, as Death will not take the yet unliving, as there is nothing for Death to take. Nor will Life be born without the yet undied, as there is nothing for Life to grow on.

Thus will the dance of Life and Death ever go on, until Chaos stirs again.

And Chaos looked at it all, and said -

I am the Beginning of it All. I am at the Unborn and the Undying. I am not evil. I am not good. I am. I was here before there was here and will be here after it All has ended. Fear me not, though I know you will as the fear of me is in you lest you look beyond the Will to Live and the Inevitable Death. Embrace me and never stay the same.

#Paganism #Deities

The general public is usually familiar mostly with the so called Olympian gods and goddesses along with a few others, but the Greek pantheon includes also other lessed known deities. Some of them were “lesser know” for even the ancient Greek, as there wasn't proper cult or organized worshipping connected to these deities. One of these is Khaos (Chaos). There's rather little information available in our time about Khaos, considering her part in the birth of the world and other deities in the Greek mythology.

The earliest written references on Khaos can be found in the book “Theogony” by Hesiod, who lived in the 700's before common era. In Theogony, Hesiod describes the birth of the world and the Gods, as well as Greek mythology.

The word “Khaos” means space, gap, darkness and void, referring to Khaos as that which is between heaven and earth. Khaos was also calles – albeit rarely – as Poros ('passage, contriver, intriguer') and Aeros ('air').

When the world begun, Khaos was there. She is the goddess who predates everything else – gods and even the world. After Khaos arose Gaia (earth), Eros (love) and Tartaros. Without a mate, Khaos gave birth to Erebos (darkness) and Nyx (night). From the love between these two, were born Aether (light) and Hemera (day; according to Bacchylides, Hemera's father is Khronos). Nyx also bore other children – Moros, Ker, Thanatos, Hypnos, the Oneiroi, Momos, Oizys, the Hesperides, the Keres, the Moirai, Nemesis, apate, Philots, Geras and Eris1, who are all spirits affecting human lives (daimones).

Hyginus, who wrote in Latin in the 100's, relates a slightly different story in his listing of gods Mythographi Fabularum Liber. He wrote: “Ex Caligine Chaos” – Khaos woas born out of moisture, fog. Hyginus continues to tell how out of Khaos and fog were born also Nox (Nyx), Dies (day, Hemera), Erebus (Erebos) and Aether. That is, Khaos is the mother of not only night and darkness, but also day and light.

Khaos with her offspring form the more “etheric” side of the world in the Greek mythology, consisting of deities of seasons, personifications of states of consciousness (from dreams to deaths) and spirits of feelings and states of mind. Some sources do say, that Khaos was originally an ancient goddess of ear, mist and fog.

There are few mentions of Khaos in addition to her role in the birth of the world. In his account of Zeus' fiery fight with the titans, Hesiod describes how an astonishing heat took over Khaos and how it seemed as though Gaia and Ouranos had rushed towards each others and met. This gives an impression of Khaos moving away from her usual place between earth and heaven. Later on Hesiod tells that titans who lost the battle are now residing behind the gloomy Khaos, far away from all the gods.

In his Birds, Aristophanes offers a glimpse of Khaos as something other than “the first one of all, who merely exists”. He gives and account of the beginning of times, when the only ones existing were Khaos, Nyx, the dark Erebos and the deep Tartaros. There was no earth, air or sky yet existing. The dark-winged Nyx laid and egg in the bosom of Erebos' endless depths and after times had passed, gold-winged Eros hatched from this egg. Eros made love with Khaos in Tartaros and Khaos has wings as golden as those of Eros. This union gave birth to the birds – the first ones to see the light. Birds tells about birds and at this point, relates the story from birds' point of view, so describing the gods as having bird-like wings makes sense. However, many Greek deities, especially those who descended from Khaos, were often depicted having wings, so Aristophanes' story can give you a clue of what Khaos might look like.

Khaos is also present in the story of Alkmene, the woman who got seduced by Zeus who took the form of her husband and who then bore Zeus' son Heracles. Zeus had just won the battle with the titans: the highest among the gods were now the Olympians and on the top-most spot was Zeus himself. However, he was well aware that those closest to Gaia's (the source calls them “relatives”) Okeanos (sea), Nyx and Khaos still existed, hiding and lurking at the far corners of the universe and that some day, the gods would be defeated like the titans were.

Later sources often describe Khaos as nothing but a chaotic mixture of the elements – lifeless and formless, nothing-yet. Khaos is described as merely a state before the world and order, not as a goddess or even a deity. Paraphrasing Ovid (from his book Metamorphosis): before there sea, earth or the heavens arrived, there was only the uniformly desolate Khaos, primitive and undeveloped. Khaos didn't achieve anything other than heaviness and just being a tangled mass of all the elements. These later accounts may be the result of the increasing importance of the Olympic gods in the expense of other, earlier gods. “Khaos as an impersonal nothingness, the beginning of it all but lifeless” is the description you are quite likely to run into in books dealing with Greek mythology (if there actually is any mention of her), as well as in general books on mythology.

What about Khaos today? Can Khaos be worshipped, honoured? Is it possible to include Khaos in one's own personal religiosity? I don't see any reason why not. Khaos may be “a goddess without myths”, but this doesn't make her “a non-existing goddess”. Neither does lack of historical cults worshipping her. Personal gnosis – one's own personal revelation and information derived from interacting with a deity – may get more importance in addition to historical information with Khaos and other deities like her, especially when compared to those gods where there is a large amount of information available in this day and age.

Khaos may seem primordial and maybe even distant, but even the ancient Greek didn't declare her dead. Why should we?

1) Moros – doom; Keres – death-spirits, personifications of violent death; Thanatos – death, personification of non-violent death; Hypnos – Thanatos' twin brother sleep; the Oneiroi – dreams, the most skillful and important out of thousand Oneiroi were Morpheus, Ikelos / Phobetor and Phantasos; Momos – mockery, blame, criticism (he was expelled from heaven for mocking the gods...); Oizys – pain, woe; the Hesperides – the three daughters if evening; the Moirai – the fates; Nemesis – anger and retribution; Apate – deceit; Philotes – affection, friendship; Geras – old age; Eris – discord. Eris, who is nowadays best known for being the “Goddess of Chaos” of especially Discordianists, is the grand-daughter of Khaos.

Sources:

  • Aristofanes: Birds
  • Hesiodus: Theogony
  • Hyginus: Mythographi fabularum liber
  • Ovidus: Metamorphoses

  • Bellingham, David: En Introduktion till Grekisk Mytologi

  • Leeming: Encyclopedia of Creation Myths

  • McLeigh, Kenneth: Myths and Legends of the World, the Complete Companion to all Traditions

  • online: Theoi project http://www.theoi.com/

#paganism #deities

Listen to the words of the God, the Mighty and the Terrible, the Kind and the Wise, the Lord of the Dead and the Dying, the Walker between the worlds, he whose face is beautiful among the gods, the god who's Name is great:

Here I am.

I appear before you, I show myself to you, without alarming, without decieving, I come through this mouth, I speak through these words.

I am He who was, I am He who is, I am He who always will be.

I am the Lord of the Mysteries, the Guardian of the gates of Underworld. I am the Foremost of the westeners, He who is in the place of Embalming.

I am the Chief Physician, I am the Good Oxherd. I am the Opener of mouths and Weigher of hearts. I am the Guardian and the Guide.

I am He of the watchful eye, I am the comforting strenght. I am the giver and the taker, I hold the Keys of life. I am He who walks between the worlds, I am He who opens the gates of Beyond.

I am the light and the darkness. I am the wind of the desert and the soothing of rain. I am the change and the strenght to bear the change.

I am the love and the laughter, I am the lust and the longing, I am the grief and the tear, I am the memories, I am the lesson and growth.

From me is the gentle tap on your shoulder, From me is the vigorous push, From me is the comfort and strength, From me is the doubting and gain.

With me you never fear death, with me you never fear life, with me you never fear the changes and the lessons. With me you live your life. With me you have the ending, With me you get what is beyond the ending.

You have my and my darkness, for without both you know neither. You have my wind and my raining, for without both you know neither. You get my change and my stillness, as by change and the stillness you learn.

Fear not. I am here.

#Charge #Paganism #Deities

Listen to the words of the Goddesses, who through times and the timeless have been called with their many names – Gaia, Nuit, Danu and Vesta, Artemis, Diana, Isis, and Manalatar, and by many others as they are many.

We are the watery depths of life yet to come. The ones who never were, who ever are and who will yet to come.We are the darkness and chaos and will to be one. We are the starry skies, the sun, moon and the clouds. We are the ground and the life and the moist and the rot. We are the leafs and the greenness, the flesh and the red. We are the hoof and the claw, the sound, and the silence.

When you hear us, we are there. When you need us, we are there. In your need and your plenty do gather or seclude. Learn our ways, learn our words and our rites, in your heart. For we have our ways, we each have our words and our rites. Adore us in secret, adore us in light, adore us in the night of the day and adore us in your blight. Be you needfull or plenty, enslaved or flying free.

Sing, feast, dance, make music and love. Rage, cry, with tearing and tears and laugher. Give sacrifice, a willing gift to us who so require. We are every emotion and your living is in our life. Ours is the joy and the sorrow, and life ever changing.

We're the chaos of nothing and the potential to all. We are the life and the sex, the birth and the pains of birth. We are the sadness and relief of life not yet to come, the joys and the growing, the cry and the smile of child. We're the bewilderment, the arrogance and wisdom of youth, we are the awakening. We're the virginal and the holy whore, the barren and the fruitful. We are the nurturing, the giving of life, the warring and the slaying. We're the beauty and the ugliness, the vanity and the vengeance. We're the aging and the wisdom of old, the fragility and the strength, the sickness and healing, the death and the death-head.

You will find us in the heart of your hearts and see us in your life. Look inside and around and you'll know who of us is calling. Live and learn, learn to live, find yourself and be just. For we are here as we have always been, to be found within and without.

#Charge #Paganism #Deities