Monday 29 October 2012

Lir II


Having established earlier that one god, Lir, was the father of another, Mananaan, I then asked about Lir's parentage but established only that he was " '...dawn-begotten...' " (Poul and Karen Anderson, Roma Mater (London, 1989), p. 124). That could have meant either "begotten by the dawn" or only "begotten in the dawn" but read further and the answer is given.

The Symposium, meeting in Star House, has a discussion that we recognize as a curious fusion of philosophy and mythology. They set out to discuss " '...the nature of God and Spirit, the meaning and destiny of Creation...' " (p. 324). First, it is explained that:

" '...we who are educated, do not take ancestral myths for literal truth, as if we were Christians. They are symbols. As different languages, or different words in one language, may denote the same thing - albeit with subtle variations of aspect - so, too, may different Gods represent the same Being. They change with time as languages do, They develop according to the evolving needs of their worshipers. The very heavens change through the aeons; nevertheless, the reality of Heaven endures.' " (p. 326)

I agree with most of that. In particular, the resurrection of a deity is a symbol, not a literal truth. In that context, we learn that in the Beginning, Tiamat, the Serpent of Chaos, Who threatened to destroy Creation but was slain by Taranis, had been the mother of Lir who therefore killed Taranis, plunging heaven and earth into darkness, until Belisama descended into the underworld to ransom Taranis and brought Him back to make peace with Lir. Taranis dies and is reborn every year until the End of All Things. Ysans enact this mystery because Taranis dies in the defeated King and is resurrected in the victor who fathers new life on the Nine who are chosen by the Goddess. It all makes sense, almost.

Other Ysan families claim legendary descent from other Gods. There is a mystery about what happens to the dead. The Temples of Mithras and Cybele have cooperated, as I suggested earlier, but Gratillonius dislikes the Cybelean cult and thinks that Christ is a better God for women.

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