The “Religion” of Aristasia
With numerous pieces appearing about various aspects of Aristasian spirituality, we are increasingly being asked "what is the Aristasian religion". What do Aristasians have to believe?
Well, Aristasians don't have to believe anything, but it is true that most Aristasians, at least in a general sort of way, believe in what is loosely termed "Aristasian religion". The trouble is, the term is far too loose and makes far too many assumptions.
The term, and concept of, "religion", as René Guénon often pointed out, is exclusively Western. It is imposed by Western minds on forms such as Hinduism or Taoism, just as the modern Western concept of the nation is imposed on their political forms. In the east "having a religion" is a much more fluid concept. A maid may have a Taoist cosmology, Confucian ethics and practice Buddhist meditation without seeing any contradiction. Even in the Christian West, the seven planetary influences, still under the names of their "pagan" gods were accepted by every educated person as fundamental to an understanding of how the universe works, until the Rationalist Revolution, or "Enlightenment", of the 17th Century — which has been described as "not so much a question of a new light as of one's eyes becoming accustomed to the dark".*
Now we must understand that the Eastern approach to "religion" is much closer to the Aristasian. That is why we tend to say (for want of a better expression) "spirituality" rather than religion. Though this tends to imply something a little too far in the other direction and make it sound looser and vaguer than it really is.
Let me try to explain. In Aristasia Pura, one will find many devotions. One will find temples to Sai Raya, the supreme Spiritual Sun, to the Divine Love, known in many places as Sai Sushuri, to the Divine Wisdom, known as Sai Mati. To the pure and consuming Fire of the Spirit, known as Sai Annya, to Dea as the Great Ruler of the Cosmos and the Sacred Harmony of being, known as Sai Thamë. One will find maids devoted to the Path of Pure Love and others to the Path of Intellect and contemplation. Others to the path of ritual and works. One will find whole peoples devoted primarily to the Sacrificial Daughter and others who seem only to know the Mother.
Now none of these are "different religions" in the Western sense, or even opposing sects. They are simply different Ways.
Do they all agree on anything? Yes. They all agree that there is one supreme Spirit, our Mother, who is everywhere called Dea (or Dia). And furthermore— and this is important — they disagree (in the Western way) on nothing. No one disputes that the other Ways are Ways. No one "disbelieves" in another's view of Dea.
The concept of "religion" in the Western sense comes closest to being realised in Western Aristasia Pura where the worship of the Mother in some places and of the Mother and Daughter in others (the latter being the closest Aristasian parallel to Christianity — though the superficial similarities are in some ways deceptive) takes place in "churches" organised with some similarity to those of Western Tellurian religions. Even here, though, the exclusivism of Tellurian religion is unknown. The most dedicated follower is aware that hers is one Way among others (even if she considers it the Greatest Way).
How does this translate into Aristasia-in-Telluria? In the first place, we are all agreed that there is one Spirit, one God, one Dea. That is the one fundamental. Dea: our Heavenly Mother.
After that there are different Ways. The simplest is just a belief in, and love of, Dea. We call this Deanism*. For many Aristasians it does not go any further. We know that God is there; that She loves us; that we should love Her. Perhaps in times of crisis, we may even say a prayer. As someone joked: this is not so much a Way as a Half-Way. But it is the basic minimum of Aristasian "religion".
One can be a simple Deanist and go much further. One may say a little prayer every night. One may chant the Mother's name occasionally. One may have a picture or statue before which one burns a candle. Or one may burn the candle without a picture or statue (not everyone finds them helpful).
How precisely Deanism fits into a Tellurian patriarchal world is a question that has received many Aristasian answers over the years. Some have adopted "Hindu" Scriptures such as the Angelic Hymn to Dea because the devotion to Our Mother is preserved therein as a living tradition — also because the Indian Tradition preserves the Primordial Philosophy of the Western (in the sense of not Far Eastern) world in its purest form. Aristasians are aware that The Supreme Mother was the earliest form of God worshipped in Telluria, and some consider it necessary to connect themselves to a living Tellurian root which leads back to the taproot of the primordial Tellurian worship of Dea.
Others again suggest that it is not necessary to do this: only to know and love Dea here and now.
Others again believe that it is possible to take up the "religious" forms of Western Aristasia Pura, most notably the worship of the Mother and Daughter. This is known as Filianism (the faith of the Daughter). This movement started in Aristasia-in-Telluria some thirty years ago and even attracted some non-Aristasian adherents. It has various Scriptures which are held to be equivalent to those of Aristasia Pura. In Tellurian terms, the Filianists believe that these represent the Primordial Religion of Dea adapted o the needs of the Iron Age (just as Tellurian religions represent the later patriarchal forms adapted to the needs of the Iron Age). They regard them as gifts given by Dea to our Founding Mothers and as Holy Scripture. Non-Filianists are more likely to regard them as beautiful and inspired writings.
The Filianists (or Filyani) are among those who believe that Aristasian religion should be constituted more like a Western-style "Church" with a Catechism and clear doctrines and practices, because this is what the current Western soul needs.
The Filianic Scriptures range from myths such as The Creation to more mystical texts such as The Clew of the Horse. Because some of the non-Aristasian adoptions of Filianism have been a shade "eccentric", a project has begun of issuing the Authorised Version of these texts. Perhaps one day there will be Filianic Councils like the Christian councils, which, some 300 years after the foundation of the religion, decided which texts were and were not to be regarded as Holy Scripture and to be included in the Bible.
The mention of "eccentricity" raises a question sometimes asked by serious enquirers: Do some aspects of Aristasian religion risk the eclecticism and general unsoundness of such modern cults as the New Age movement, Wicca and neo-paganism? The answer to this is that Aristasia has always been very firmly founded on traditional Essentialist philosophy. This is outlined in The Feminine Universe and provides the touchstone by which all spiritual forms are assessed. This being the case, we would say that Aristasian Deanism is safer than some branches of Christianity or Western Buddhism from the errors and heresies of the New Age.
The ways an Aristasian may relate to Dea are many. A friend of mine as a child felt the urge to worship Aphrodite. She did not know it at the time but hers was the Platonic Aphrodite, ruler of both earthly and Divine love (and not in any sense the sexual demigoddess of both the Classical decadence and the bongo neo-pagan). She felt after a time that she could not do this and spent an uncomfortable year trying to be a Christian. Then, on encountering Aristasia, she found that Aphrodite was Sai Sushuri and that she might worship Her after all. Others have privately adapted favourite patriarchal texts, giving them back to God in Her purest and most ancient form. "The Lady is my Shepherdess…"
How do different Aristasian Deanists regard each other? As in the East, and in Aristasia pura, we tend not to place barriers between Ways, or to see a Way as an exclusive "religion". We can love and recite "Hindu" texts without in any way being "Hindus". We can love the forms that our sisters worship, because we know that they are all our one Dea. Even those who are not Filianists tend to acknowledge the Daughter-Principle, though it may not be central to their worship and they may regard the story of the Daughter as an inspired poem rather than a Scripture. Nativity — the Birth of the Daughter — tends to be celebrated by Filianists and non-Filianists alike, and all of us are prone to sing Filianic carols like Hail to the Princess.
Whatever approach we may take, we are all sisters in Dea, and all Her daughters. That is the simple essence of the Aristasian "religion".
Link: Aristasian Chapel in Elektraspace
NOTE
* I.e. the darkness of a purely-material
(or substantialist) world-view.
**The Term Deanism is used in two senses: a) The simplest form of devotion
to the Mother. b) All devotion to the Mother. So Filianists are also called
Deanists. One has to be a Deanist first in order to be a Filianist.
