I dabbled for many years now in esotericism and Traditionalism without gaining anything substantial, due to what I believe to be my own faults of method and character.
Yes, I did attempt to immerge myself into a Tradition exoterically instead of trying to make a syncretic perennialist mix of them.
However, it felt fake and forced with all of those I tried, and I'm not sure that advice is still valid today, which also ironically didn't give me the courage to engage in actual occultism.
Yesterday, out of boredom, I read the Devi Gita and it was the first time I felt something that wasn't mere cerebral, intellectualized understanding, but a profound truth and blessing that manages to reach deep within me, and so now I have the the courage and will to actually do this.
I consider this an important sign, so I wanted to ask about more literature on the topic of Goddess Worship, even better if it belongs to Western Esotericism, due to the practicalities of cultural boundaries, even if it might be considered fringe or sinister by more "solid" occultists, but also anything related to Shaktism and Bhakti Yoga would be appreciated, along with your personal experiences and insight on actual practice.
>>24558922 (OP)outside of the Hindu tradition there isn't as much of an established worship. Though you can see a goddess tradition in the old "greco-roman" tradition and Apuleius' Golden Ass is a good read.
While not as direct, there is definitly a strain of her worship in the Christian tradition, with the three Marys and the Queen of Heaven
>>24558922 (OP)Devi Mahatmya
Markandeya Purana (includes the Devi Mahatmya)
Srimad Devi Bhagavata Purana
Devi Upanishad
Kalika Purana
Tripura Rahasya
Adi Shankara - Soundarya Lahari
Adi Shankara - Sri Lalita Trisati Bhashya (commentary on Lalitasahasranama)
Bhāskararāya - Lalitasahasranama with Bhāskararāya's commentary
Bhāskararāya - Varivasyā-Rahasya and its autocommentary Prakāśa
The non-dualist Shaktist school called Sri Vidya will initiate westerners, there are temples of it where you can do this both in India and one in upstate New York, I have no idea how legit or traditional the latter is though. Douglas Renfrew Brooks is an academic with multiple published secondary sources on Shaktism and Sri Vidya that are good. The Sarvamnaya tantric tradition integrates both Sri Vidya and Kashmir Shaivism.
>>24559235Have you read all of those anon?
>>24559360No, I’m just aware that those are the main Shaktist primary source texts which have had English translations published
>>24559112I thought something of this tradition remains esoterically in tarots?
>>24558922 (OP)Satanic nonsense
They're called Yakshis and the jeets had good taste.
>>24559882They appreciated pure big tit bimbodom before we ever knew such titilation existed.
>>24559882I know the in the picture is a Yakshini, but Devi sometimes manifested as one of them.
>>24559887They did.
>>24558922 (OP)What's the connection between Aphrodite, Inana and Mahadevi?
>>24558922 (OP)What's the difference between Sivaism and Shaktism?
>>24560864aphrodite and inanna are connected genealogically but not conceptually, and vice versa for inanna and mahadevi.
>>24561502masculine vs feminine aspects of the same godhead.
>>24561780>aphrodite and inanna are connected genealogically but not conceptually, and vice versa for inanna and mahadevi.Please tell me more anon, I am fascinated by this topic. I knew already that Aphrodite and Inanna were connected genealogically, while I only assumed or rather sensed a spiritual connection between Inanna and Mahadevi.
But why do you say that Aphrodite and Inanna are not connected conceptually?
>>24561896aphrodite is greekified, i.e. she is far more subtle and humanized and realistic, she manifests in the actual personal emotion of love and attraction. whereas the other two are more metaphysical and abstract and they trace down to the shared roots of creative and destructive forces. but the goddess tradition in hinduism is not original, at least not to the indo-european side, i don't know if it has roots in the indus valley civilization or in aboriginal india or what but i think that type of goddess tradition is something that was not very present in indo-european religion. i don't know what analogue you could draw honestly, maybe the dawn goddess is the closest one? but she's pretty minor and weak in comparison.
>>24561502Girlboss version of Shiva
>>24558922 (OP)Receive a Vajrayogini empowerment
>>24561502>>24562639So which one is the true one?
>>24564179Why did you assumed one of them is false?
>>24565191>>24565245Because both texts claim opposite things.
>>24558922 (OP)I'm the little man who she is standing on. Bros, her bare goddess feet feels euphoric on my skin.
Part 1:
Start with The Golden Ass by Apuleius. It's the only Latin novel from Ancient Rome to survive in full and it's a fictionalized account of the author's conversion and initiation into the mysteries of Isis. Fun fact: it was highly influential on Augustine when he was writing his Confessions. Here's a taste:
"I have come, Lucius, moved by your entreaties: I, mother of the universe, mistress of all the elements, first-born of the ages, highest of the gods, queen of the shades, first of those who dwell in heaven, representing in one shape all gods and goddesses. My will controls the shining heights of heaven, the health-giving sea-winds, and the mournful silences of hell; the entire world worships my single godhead in a thousand shapes, with diverse rites, and under many a different name. The Phrygians, first-born of mankind, call me the Pessinuntian Mother of the gods; the native Athenians the Cecropian Minerva; the island-dwelling Cypriots Paphian Venus; the archer Cretans Dictynnan Diana; the triple-tongued Sicilians Stygian Proserpine; the ancient Eleusinians Actaean Ceres; some call me Juno, some Bellona, others Hecate, others Rhamnusia; but both races of Ethiopians, those on whom the rising and those on whom the setting sun shines, and the Egyptians who excel in ancient learning, honour me with the worship which is truly mine and call me by my true name: Queen Isis."
The cult of Isis in Rome saw her as being the single true goddess of whom all others were a reflection. You can actually see this in ancient Roman statuary, where depictions of goddesses combined features and imagery associated with both Isis and other goddesses like Venus, Ceres, and Juno.
From there, read Robert Graves. He is essential. His book The White Goddess is the foundational text of modern goddess worship. He tried to prove the existence of a prehistoric mother goddess. He incorporated this thesis into a lot of his other works, like his retelling of the Greek myths. He saw all of the pagan goddesses as being influenced by his single prehistoric mother goddess, who was associated with the moon and had 3 aspects represented by the waxing, waning, and full phases of the moon. The worship of this goddess was supposedly accompanied by the (lesser) worship of a god who was her son and lover. Graves was heavily influenced by Frazer's The Golden Bough, which is another essential text.
The Mother Nature figure that emerged from the Romantic movement is important too. For specific works, check out poems like Swinburne's Hertha and Shelley's Song of Proserpine. However, this figure pervades all of English romantic poetry and literature.
Part 2:
You'll want to read into witchcraft, as that is what launched goddess worship into popularity today. Gerald Gardner founded modern witchcraft in the 1940s, which he centered primarily around the worship of a goddess I'd recommend his book The Meaning of Witchcraft.
The historian Ronald Hutton has a chapter discussing the origin of this goddess in his book Triumph of the Moon. To boil it down, in the Middle Ages, witches were believed to project their spirits out of their body and join a procession through the night sky led by Diana, the Roman goddess of the moon. In return for their worship and service, Diana would teach them magic. Diana, being a pagan deity, was seen by the Church as evil. She was often syncretized with Herodias, the wife of King Herod who persuaded him to behead John the Baptist, and their names were frequently combined into the name Herodiana. This belief was revived by the folklorist Charles Leland in 1899 when he published Aradia, or Gospel of the Witches. He claims it was given to him by an Italian witch named Maddalena. It tells the story of the goddess Diana giving birth to a daughter named Aradia (likely a corruption of the name Herodias), who she sends to earth as a messianic figure to teach people witchcraft.
From the Canon Epicopi:
"Some wicked women, perverted by the Devil, seduced by illusions and phantasms of demons, believe and profess themselves in the hours of the night to ride upon certain beasts with Diana, the goddess of the Pagans, and an innumerable multitude of women, and in the silence of the dead of the night to traverse great spaces of earth, and to obey her commands as of their mistress, and to be summoned to her service on certain nights"
Part 3:
The worship of the goddess by witches was also inspired by the occultist Dion Fortune. She was a member of the Golden Dawn and eventually founded her own order. She published fictional novels based on her occult philosophy. This philosophy saw Isis as an all-goddess, just as she was to the initiates of her cult in Rome. A poem included in her novel The Sea Priestess:
I am the star that rises from the sea—
The twilight sea.
I bring men dreams that rule their destiny.
I bring the dream-tides to the souls of men;
The tides that ebb and flow and ebb again—
These are my secret, these belong to me—
I am the eternal Woman, I am she!
The tides of all men’s souls belong to me.
The tides that ebb and flow and ebb again;
The silent, inward tides that govern men—
These are my secret, these belong to me.
Out of my hands he takes his destiny.
Touch of my hands confers polarity.
These are the moon-tides, these belong to me—
Hera in heaven, on earth, Persephone;
Levanah of the tides, and Hecate.
Diana of the Moon, Star of the Sea—
Isis Unveiled and Ea, Binah, Ge!”
This is an invocation from a ritual in the novel. She explains it more in this passage:
"‘You were more than a priestess to me in that cave,’ I said. ‘I thought you were Aphrodite herself.’
‘I was more than Aphrodite,’ she said, ‘I was the Great Mother.’
‘But the Great Mother is an earth goddess,’ said I. ‘How can you be her priestess as well as the priestess of the sea?’
‘Do you not know the Mystery saying that all the gods are one God, and all the goddesses are one goddess, and there is but one initiator? Do you not know that at The dawn of manifestation the gods wove the web of creation between the poles of the pairs of opposites, active and passive, positive and negative, and that all things are these two things in different ways and upon different levels, even priests and priestesses.'"
I'm running low on time, so I have to cut this post a little short, but one last recommendation. Drawing Down the Moon by Margot Adler is an excellent account of the goddess movement and other associated movements in America. Also read books on individual goddesses. One of my favorites is Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer
There’s a lot more to be said about goddess worship in western esotericism. I’ll try to go into more depth on that if I don’t have anything going on at work at some point later tonight.
>>24568122>>24568144>>24568150>>24568204Thank you anon. You connected a lot of dots for me. I'm not commenting more because it's much to take, but please, reply back tomorrow if you feel so.
jtLKZYL
md5: c0c48ea5d4741c27a7a38fbe6f26b0b5
🔍
>>24568150>>24568144>>24568122You seem like a knowledgeable fellow. Tell me, wise sage, are there wiccan gfs who think they're literally goddesses who deserve to be worshiped? Asking for a friend.
>>24563987whats that like being somebody's student
Okay, picking back up. Qabalah (based on the Jewish Kabbalah) is an important aspect of western esotericism. The qabalistic tree of life depicts ten spheres spread across 3 pillars. The middle pillar contains Kether, the first and highest sphere on the tree. In her book The Mystical Qabalah, Dion Fortune refers to it as "the primal crystallization into manifestation of that which was hitherto unmanifest and therefore unknowable." She goes on to say, "With manifested existence there come into being the pairs of opposites." This refers to Chokmah and Binah, the next spheres just beneath Kether that emanate from it and sit atop the left and right pillars of the tree. Whereas Kether represents the unity of primordial existence, Chokmah and Binah, as well as the pillars they are a part of, represent the duality of fully manifest existence: masculine and feminine, subject and object, etc. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn attributed various pagan deities to all of the spheres of the tree of life. To Chokmah, they attributed gods like Shiva, Amoun, Wotan, etc. To Binah, they attributed goddesses like Shakti, Isis, Hera, Cybele, etc. In other words, Chokmah is the sphere of the All-Father and Binah is the sphere of the Great Mother. All of the other spheres on the tree are considered emanations of Chokmah and Binah, that is to say they are the same but exist on a lower arc. It therefore stands to reason that all of the other pagan deities attributed to the lower spheres are emanations of these All-Father and Great Mother figures. This is what Dion Fortune meant in that earlier quote, "Do you not know the Mystery saying that all the gods are one god, and all the goddesses are one goddess, and there is but one initiator? Do you not know that at the dawn of manifestation the gods wove the web of creation between the poles of the pairs of opposites, active and passive, positive and negative, and that all things are these two things in different ways and upon different levels, even priests and priestesses." She saw the All-Father as being best represented by the Greek god Pan, whom the Greeks referred to as the "All-Devourer, All-Begetter," and the Great Mother as being best represented as Isis. Isis, as I mentioned in my earlier posts, was seen by her very popular mystery cult in Rome as being the ultimate divinity of whom all others are a reflection. This idea actually recurs all throughout the history of western esotericism. For more on that, read Manly P Hall's The Secret Teachings of All Ages. Anyways, back to Dion Fortune, she created a series of rituals called the Rites of Isis and Pan that she performed publicly and then incorporated into her novels The Goat Foot God and The Sea Priestess. Dion Fortune and her philosophy, influenced by her time as part of the Golden Dawn, was hugely influential on future occultism and esotericism, especially witchcraft and the goddess movement that sprung from it.
>>24568544Very based, waiting on continuation if you are doing it before asking questions.
This all aligns closely with the theories of James Frazer and Robert Graves, who saw prehistoric religion as worshipping a Great Mother associated with the moon and fertility. This prehistoric religion, they believed, also included the worship of a god, though to a lesser extent. This god was seen as being both her son and lover and was associated with vegetation. He supposedly followed the lifecycle of the vegetation he was associated with, i.e., dying during the harvest season, being reborn of the great earth mother at the winter solstice, impregnating her in the spring, and starting the cycle all over again. This pair of deities would later inspire the variety of pagan gods, according to Frazer, who backs up his theory by finding evidence of similar deities in every pantheon. Isis and Osiris, for example. This theory became widely accepted throughout academia but has since majorly fallen out of favor. It also influenced a lot of writers and artists, such as T S Eliot.
Anyways, this gets tied into witchcraft by the Egyptologist Margaret Murray in her book The Witch Cult in Western Europe. She built on a theory that had been floating around the 19th and early 20th centuries that witchcraft in the Middle Ages had been a survival of an ancient pagan religion. She used reports of the witches worshipping the devil and the goddess Diana from various trials across Europe to connect this supposed witch religion with the theories of Frazer. The devil the witches worshipped, she theorized, was none other than the god Pan or some other similar deity who was misperceived and demonized by the Church. Like Frazer, Murray has fallen out of favor. But her book, along with all of the other aforementioned influences, inspired Gerald Gardner to form an initiatory mystery religion, which he called witchcraft. This initiatory witchcraft religion got watered down and made public by people like Scott Cunningham and is now referred to as Wicca. Wicca then influenced a wider goddess movement that got mixed in with the new age movement.
>>24568585>This theory became widely accepted throughout academia but has since majorly fallen out of favor.Graves' theory was never accepted in academia, it was always seen as crank shit at worst, poetic dreaming at best. If you want semi-plausible primal goddess/matriarchy vibes you should go back to Bachofen instead.
Paglia is also very good on archetypes of femininity, including the divine feminine.
>>24568585I guess Frazer is getting put in the DNR category....
I haven't read it but I think this is the premier work on goddess worship
https://archive.org/details/greatmotheranaly00neum
>>24569105>greatmotheranal
