Braided Wheel Study Guide - 1st month, 4th week

Overview

This section is on options. Braided Wheel is a Wiccan tradition but it is not the only one and there are other traditions of Neopaganism besides Wicca.

Chapter 9 of "Drawing Down the Moon" introduces us to a few of the Magical traditions that greatly influenced the Neopagan movement. Some of those traditions still exist. These groups are our history and our community it is important that we be able to recognize them when we meet them

The Church of Aphrodite is one of the early sources of the divine feminine. Feraferia provided a focus on nature and a utopian vision.

At the beginning of the Section on the Sabaean Religious order Margot Adler criticizes western culture for being "impoverished". This criticism is unjust western culture is not lacking in cultural symbolism and tradition. The Christian desire to stamp out all pagan influences combined with the "enlightenment" desire to throw out all superstition and folly has driven much of our heritage out of popular culture but we are great hoarders of knowledge. We have preserved our culture in books. We are the only culture to invent the study of the past, digging up and investigating our dead to relearn the culture we have lost. We have also preserved our folk tales and customs. All a westerner needs to do to find our history is visit a well stocked library. Our dead still speak to us from the pages of books.

The Appendix III is mostly resource listings. Such listings are the key to our community. There is no central authority in the neopagan movement no one source you can turn to make connections. We ask that new students purchase this book so that they will always have this list of resources at their disposal.

Learning Objective

When you have completed all the assignments in this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Recognize the origin of some major themes in the Neopagan movement.
2. Compare creation myths from different traditions.
3. List resources that are available in your area.
4. Discuss the impact of utopian and feminist ideals on the Neopagan movement.
5. Cite examples of non-Wiccan Neopagan groups.

Assignments for this lesson

Before reading the text

Read the overview and the learning objectives for this lesson. Use the learning objectives to guide your reading and thinking.

As you read the texts look for:

• The contributions that each tradition has made to the movement as a whole.
• The Church of Aphrodite's view of nature and the feminine.
• The influence of utopian thinking on the Neopagan movement.
• The Feraferian thealogy of Arretos Koura.
• The Feraferian wheel of the year.
• The similarity between the Am'n Goddesses and certain Native American Medicine Wheels.
• The Pelagian creation myth.

After reading

Review the vocabulary used in this lesson. Check your understanding of all unfamiliar terms appearing in the learning objectives and the vocabulary list.

Review the reading assignments. A second reading is suggested.

According to your instructors assignment or your own interest complete one or more of the optional activities.

Complete each of the study activities and the self test in the study guide; then go over the answers with your instructor

Study activities

Vocabulary

Check your understanding of terms by writing the letter of the appropriate definition in the space next to the corresponding term.

a. Belief in the Aesir gods.
b. Of, or relating to the relationship between earthworks and the universe as a whole.
c. Worship of stars or star lore.
d. A Germanic drinking ritual.
e. Lines of power in the earth.
f. The Norse god of poetry
g. Of, or relating to things beyond the physical world.
h. The indifferent amoral and pure source of all creation.
i. A wood or earthwork structure aligned to astrological events.
j. The worship of one god without excluding the existence of others.

Completion

1. Seasonal _________ should __________ the dictates of __________ and, __________ however temporarily, the bonds of time and space.

convention
suspend
dissolve
festivals

2. "In ancient Ireland the music of the pipes and drums and harps was essential to the success of the rites. And so, I must say, was ritual ____________ and ritual ________. I do not respect many`public' Witches because I find among them a lack of __________ experience which I think marks these people as having ______________ traditions."

incomplete
sex
ecstatic
drunkenness

3. That is the whole purpose of _________, to familiarize yourself with certain __________ in an unmysterious way through ___________.

mythology
storytelling
mysteries

4 The Red Goddess represents ___________ and the Peoples native to this continent. The White Goddess represents _______ and Caucasians. The Black Goddess represents the _________ and blacks. The Yellow Goddess represents the _________ and Orientals. And the BlueGoddess represents, ____________ the day between the years, and the races and peoples beyond the earth.

spring
autumn
leap year
summer
winter

5. The conceptualization of ____________ divinities is a useful way of explaining the kind of contact we do have with the_____________ and _____________ forces of life.

transinfinite
polytheistic
transpersonal

True-false Questions

T-------F 1. In the Church of Aphrodite belief was considered necessary for salvation.
T-------F 2. Neopaganism in the United States is primarily a white phenomenon.
T-------F 3. The Sabaean Religious Order practices animal sacrifice.
T-------F 4. Initiates into Santeria must dress entirely in white.
T-------F 5. The Gods are real.
T-------F 6. There is no single truth, no central dogma, no single coherent theory to explain reality, no one holy book.
T-------F 7. You can't choose your gods.

Short answer

1. Compare Gleb Botkin's view of Goddess religion to the Judeo-Christian view of God. How does it differ? How is it the same?

2. Margot Adler describes some of the problem of racism and sexism in Norse traditions. Compare the attitudes of the Norse Neopagans with Native American attitudes on the same issues.

3. Fill out the "Cult Danger Evaluation Frame" for your group. How did they score? In what areas would it be better if they scored higher? In what areas should they score lower?

Optional activities

W. Holman Keith "Divinity as the Eternal Feminine" Gleb Botkin "Immortal Woman"
-------------- "The God Who Didn't Laugh"
Robert Graves "Watch the North Wind Rise"
--------------- "The White Goddess"
William Morris "News from Nowhere"
2. Look over the periodicals in Appendix III and subscribe to one that interests you

© 1999 Sheherazahde, Braided Wheel Tradition
For more information contact: sheherazahde@yahoo.com
How to cite this page: MLA style: Snyder, Eva M. "Braided Wheel Study Guide - 1st month, 4th week." March13, 1999. Online. Internet. [Put here the date you read or printed this page]. Available WWW: http://www.oocities.org/Athens/Ithaca/7746/BraidedWheel/StudyGuide1-4.html APA style: Snyder, Eva M. (1999). Braided Wheel Study Guide - 1st month, 4th week. [Online]. Available WWW: http://www.oocities.org/Athens/Ithaca/7746/BraidedWheel/StudyGuide1-4.html

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