[creativeslider id=”3″]<\/p>\n
When one hears the word idol (in connection with religion), associations include the Hebrew commandment concerning graven\u00a0images, Christian writers condemning idol worship, iconoclasts destroyed images of their own faith, and so forth.<\/p>\n
Given that cultural background, where does that leave us, as modern neopagans?\u00a0 We all have an abundance of images, statues, etc sitting around our homes, some on altars.\u00a0 What do we do with them?\u00a0 How do we regard them?<\/p>\n
On the Shabaka stone, dedicated by the Kushite pharaoh Neferkare (711-697BC), Ptah is said to have:<\/p>\n
\u2026 made their (the God\u2019s) bodies according to their wishes. Thus, in ancient Egypt, idols were not idle.\u00a0 Images of the Gods, particularly statues, various symbols and objects, structures, and temples were held to be dwelling places of aspects of the Gods’ Spirits.\u00a0 As such, an image was regarded as a body of manifestation for a God\/dess, an avatar of sorts.\u00a0 This was particularly true if the image had been consecrated and the God\/dess invited to inhabit it.\u00a0 The indwelling Deity was adored, not the image per se.<\/p>\n When asked how best I could draw closer to the Goddess, Michael, my teacher, advised me to stand in front of an image of Her and invoke for five minutes per day.\u00a0 After experimentation, this invocation took the form of an offering rite, and later in a reconstruction of Egyptian temple ceremonies.\u00a0 The result was the same as in ancient times, the growing sense of divine Presence within the image and the joy of intimate communion with that Presence.<\/p>\n It makes sense.\u00a0 Energy follows thought.\u00a0 Venerating an image of the Divine opens one’s subtle senses to the Divine and focuses the mind.\u00a0 Perhaps descendant from ancient belief, the western esoteric tradition teaches that if a thought form is sufficiently well formed, one of the Powers may take interest and ensoul it.<\/p>\n The end result is the same, a sense of Presence, the Gods palpably drawn closer.<\/p>\n The Society of Elder Faiths will be performing the Consecration Ceremony at this year’s Lammas Faire.\u00a0 If you would like to begin or augment a devotional practice, this is a unique opportunity to forge a link with the divine.\u00a0 We invite you to bring an image of your chosen God\/dess and join us August 7th at the\u00a0Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.<\/p>\n Click here for more details!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [creativeslider id=”3″] When one hears the word idol (in connection with religion), associations include the Hebrew commandment concerning graven\u00a0images, Christian writers condemning idol worship, iconoclasts destroyed images of their own faith, and so forth. Given that cultural background, where does that leave us, as modern neopagans?\u00a0 We all have an abundance of images, statues, etc … Continue reading Is Your Idol Idle?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[24,25,10,12],"class_list":["post-1844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-idols","tag-lammas","tag-pagan","tag-wicca","no-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elderfaiths.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elderfaiths.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elderfaiths.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elderfaiths.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elderfaiths.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1844"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/elderfaiths.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1861,"href":"https:\/\/elderfaiths.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844\/revisions\/1861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elderfaiths.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elderfaiths.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elderfaiths.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThus the Gods entered into their bodies,
\nOf every wood, every stone, every clay,\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n