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Q: Is Aristasia a Religion?
A: No, Aristasia is a nation — or rather an Empire — not a Church. There is nothing one "has to believe" in order to be an Aristasian. Having said that, only a few Aristasians, either in Aristasia Pura or Aristasia-in-Telluria are complete Atheists.
Q: So what is an Aristasian likely to believe?
A: The most fundamental statement of Aristasian belief would be simply: "I believe in the Mother". The most fundamental act of worship, simply "I love you, Mother." Many Aristasians might go no further than that.
Q: Who is the Mother?
A: The Mother is God. It is as simple as that. The most usual term used for Her in Aristasia is Dea, or Dia.
Q: Dea is Latin for "Goddess". Is that why you use it?
No. Dea is simply the most fundamental designation for God in most languages, both in Aristasia and in Telluria. In Greek we have thea/theos, in Latin dea/deus, in Sanskrit devi/deva, in Eclectic languages diw etc. Note that deus and theos are slightly longer words than Dea and Thea. They are extensions: secondary concepts. This is what we should expect in view of the vast archaeological evidence showing that the feminine form of Deity everywhere long predates the masculine.
This fundamental root-word also gives us most of our terms for things directly related to the Divine — divine itself, deity, theology, theism, Diana, Zeus, Jupiter etc. It is also the basis of most words for day — tag, jour, giorno, day itself. This is because God is the Primary Light.
This is the very simplest form of Aristasian religion, just as it is the very simplest form of human religion.
Q: "Day" implies sunlight: but is not the Goddess associated with moon and earth rather than sun and heaven?
"The Goddess" may be. God is not. The very term "goddess" implies a) the existence and b) the primacy of male "gods". The association of "the Goddess" with the earth and the moon is a patriarchal innovation, expressing the subordination of the feminine principle. It is embraced by bongo "feminists" precisely because the inversionist mentality of the Pit instinctively prefers what is lower to what is higher and exalts Substance over Essence.
In fact, As Miss Trent notes in The Feminine Universe:
It is also important to note that when male figures first make their appearance, and for a very long time afterwards, the division between male and female divinities would seem to be as between Sky Mother and Earth Father. Sun Goddess and Moon God etc. In other words, those symbols associated metaphysically with the Spiritual are feminine, and those associated with the material are masculine. Much later, patriarchal societies reversed this symbolism, though, in many areas the more ancient correspondences remain in currency. For example, the Germans still refer to Frau Sonne (Madame Sun) and Herr Mond (Mr. Moon) and the Japanese still revere the Sun Goddess as ultimate ancestress of the Emperor. Countless other Sun Goddesses may be cited, from Lithuania to Ireland. The title Queen of Heaven was one of the commonest given to the feminine Deity, and while Jeremiah castigated the Hebrews for reverting to the worship of the Queen of Heaven, the Christians partially returned to Her fold, giving the same title to the Virgin Mary.
Nevertheless, the great project of early patriarchy was to invert the normal correspondences of masculinity and femininity; to attribute masculinity to Heaven, the Sun and the Spirit; femininity to the earth, the moon and the material realm (a process known to archaeologists, with engagingly frank male-centredeness, as ‘solarisation’).
Q: Do Aristasians reject all male gods as unreal?
No. It is natural that Dea should show Herself to different peoples in the forms most understandable to them. We believe that the form in which we see Her also happens to be her earliest and most original form, even in Telluria. That is all.
Q: But there are no male gods in Aristasia?
Obviously not.
Q: Speaking of "gods" or "goddesses", you present Aristasian religion as monotheistic, but actually there are many objects of worship, are there not? Is Aristasia actually polytheistic?
You are speaking here of the Janyati. The term is translated sometimes as "goddesses", sometimes as "angels". I prefer "angels", but neither is completely accurate — at least neither conveys quite the correct meaning to the modern West-Tellurian mind.
The traditional definition of a Janya is "the Perfect Radiance of one facet of the Jewel of Deity". Imagine Dea as pure white light. Then imagine each Janya as a beam of a single colour refracted from that light — in fact the seven Great Janyati are represented, among many other things, by the seven colours of the rainbow. Follow each coloured beam back to its source and you see that it is not other than Dea Herself. So, whether we worship Sai Raya or Sai Sushuri, we are always worshipping Dea.
Q: So we have move quite a way from the "simple and basic" view of Aristasian religion.
Not yet. Aristasian religion can become quite complex, but we are still talking about fundamentals. The seven Great Janyati are something everyone knows about, even if she does not know she knows. The seven days of the week are named after them*. The calendar has changed in almost every possible ay over the millennia, but we know that the Day of Sai Raya (the Sun - Sunday) proceeds in a direct and unbroken cycle of seven from the Day of the Sun five thousand years ago. This we know for certain, but we may be sure that the cycle goes much further back — to the very beginnings of humanity. Similarly, of course, each of the days holds its place. The day of Sai Candre (the moon, Monday) of Sai Thamë (Jupiter, Thursday), of Sai Sushuri (Venus, Friday) and so on.
The Seven were fundamental to all thinking before the rationalism of the "enlightenment" and in Aristasia they still are. We do not see the two ways of thinking as opposed, but as complementary. If we forget the Celestial correspondences, we lose a very important element of our understanding of the world.
If you read older literature, you will soon realise that the Janyati come into everything. An old herbal will always tell you what planet a particular herb corresponds to. The seven notes of the musical scale, the seven colours of the rainbow, the seven deadly sins (being inversions or perversions of the Janyatic principles) all correspond to the seven Great Janyati. All love, from romance to mother-love to religious devotion is ruled by Sai Sushuri. All authority from the highest royalty to the humblest constabel is ruled by Sai Thamë; all intelligence and communication by Sai Mati.
The Janyati are fundamental both to Aristasian spirituality and Aristasian thought; just as they have been fundamental to traditional thought in Telluria.
Q: Aristasians in Telluria use images of Dea from Tellurian sources, such as Hindu Devis or even the Virgin Mary. Why is this?
Most simply, because we cannot import images from Aristasia Pura! But actually there is more to it than that. Such images — particularly the Hindu ones — go back in an unbroken line to the original worship of the Mother as Absolute Deity. In Christianity, only the image remains (but the image is still very faithful) while the worship of Dea has been "theologised" out of existence. In Hinduism, while patriarchal myths have been woven about, say Sri Lakshmi, there are many within the tradition who still worship Her as Supreme Deity. Thus these are images in which the direct spiritual influence is still living (the same might be said about Kwan Yin bodhisattva, or the Tibetan Tara).
We could use reproductions of more ancient images from prehistoric matriarchal times, and while this is not forbidden, it is generally considered that it is better to use images that are still connected by a living thread to the earliest tradition.
Q: A feminist recently wrote:
The goddesses of Hinduism and Buddhism represent the largest extant collection of living goddesses anywhere on the planet. Feminists in the West often draw upon South Asian goddesses as theological resources in the contemporary rediscovery of the Goddess.
What is the difference between this and Aristasian religion?
It is difficult to know where to begin! The very notion of using the Sacred as "resources" verges on the blasphemous in Aristasian eyes. The exact spiritual state of any given feminist is not for me to judge. It is a matter between herself and Dea. But the sort of talk you quote seems to encapsulate much of the attitude of feminist "spirituality". It tends to make spiritual and theological matters subordinate to political and social considerations. It tends to interpret religion on a psychological and human level. It tends to treat God as a creation of maid, rather than the other way about. It speaks of "The Goddess in all women", as if Dea were some sort of emanation of collective consciousness, rather than our Mother and Creatrix.
In a single sentence, I would contrast the Feminist attitude with ours thus: Feminism uses "the Goddess" for its own purposes; Dea uses us for Hers.
Q: What would be your summing-up of all this?
A: Dea loves you. She is your Mother. She is your closest friend. Why not start talking to Her?
* English uses Teutonic names and French the Latin ones, e.g. Friday: Freya's Day = Vendredi: Venus's Day ; Wednesday: Woden's Day = Mercredi: Mercury's Day ; Thursday: Thor's Day = Jeudi: Jupiter's Day. Each refers to the same "gods" or "planets".
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