The Austere Divinity of a Celtic Cross or How to Wrangle Pantheon Neoplatonist Style?

 

This is my how I guide to building a pantheon. It’s not a How To Guide and it’s certainly not a How You Should guide, but I’d be delighted if you stole it.

 

I like a certain sense of order to my worldbuilding. I like to start with some structure, some order, some underlying system or schema and then, if I’m feeling racy, tweak it, perhaps even break some of my own self-imposed rules. I like to live as quickly as road conditions allow and die in bed reading Roger McGough poetry. Anyway, I’ve come up with a template and process for generating pantheons which I call the Celtic Cross method. I’m drawing some inspiration from the Aristotelians, Empedocleans and NeoPlatonists and their ideas on classical elements. That there are four major elements which were either opposed or sympathetic and the combinations of these elements along with a quintessence informed the nature of all things in an orderly or procedural way. Typical Aristotelian. Yet scoff ye not. 

 

 

My method is to define 4 major base elements and work through a process until I have 19 aspects. Each god or goddess will have responsibility for, interest in, or be concerned by some of these Aspects and also for Parts or Facets of Life linked to those aspects.

The 19 Aspects are made up of 4 Major Aspects, 1 Fundamental Aspect and 14 Minor Aspects The aspects are schematically arranged in a cross shape (like Celtic Cross) 

 

 

    1 Major Aspect A or Element (next to Major Aspect B and Major Aspect D, Opposite Major Aspect C)

2 Major Aspect B or Element (next to Major Aspect A and Major Aspect C, Opposite Major Aspect D)

3 Major Aspect C or Element (next to Major Aspect B and Major Aspect D, Opposite Major Aspect A)

4 Major Aspect D or Element (next to Major Aspect A and Major Aspect C, Opposite Major Aspect B)

5 Fundamental Aspect or Quintessence S (in the centre of the Major Aspects A, B, C & D)

6 Minor Aspect (or Property) E Confluence of Major Aspect A and Major Aspect D

7 Minor Aspect (or Property) F Confluence of Major Aspect A and Major Aspect B

8 Minor Aspect (or Property) G Confluence of Major Aspect B and Major Aspect C

9 Minor Aspect (or Property) H Confluence of Major Aspect C and Major Aspect D

10 Minor Aspect (or Property) I Opposition of Major Aspect A and Major Aspect C

11 Minor Aspect (or Property) J Opposition of Major Aspect B and Major Aspect D

12 Minor Aspect (or Property) K Interface Between of Major Aspect A and the Fundamental Aspect

13 Minor Aspect (or Property) L Interface Between of Major Aspect B and the Fundamental Aspect

14 Minor Aspect (or Property) M Interface Between of Major Aspect C and the Fundamental Aspect

15 Minor Aspect (or Property) N Interface Between of Major Aspect D and the Fundamental Aspect

16 Minor Aspect (or Property) O Interface Between of Minor Aspect (or Property) E and the Fundamental Aspect

17 Minor Aspect (or Property) P Interface Between of Minor Aspect (or Property) F and the Fundamental Aspect

18 Minor Aspect (or Property) Q Interface Between of Minor Aspect (or Property) G and the Fundamental Aspect

19 Minor Aspect (or Property) R Interface Between of Minor Aspect (or Property) H and the Fundamental Aspect

So looking at the classical elements of Fire, Earth, Water, Air and a Quintessence such as Time or Aether you would get position A Fire B Earth C Water D Air E Hot F Dry G Cold H Wet. Then extending it for all of the nodes in the scheme I get

Major Aspect A: Fire

Major Aspect B: Earth

Major Aspect C: Water

Major Aspect D: Air

Fundamental Aspect S: Time or Aether

Minor Aspect E: Heat (Confluence of Fire and Air)

Minor Aspect F: Dryness (Confluence of Fire and Earth)

Minor Aspect G: Cold (Confluence of Earth and Water)

Minor Aspect H: Moisture (Confluence of Water and Air)

Minor Aspect I: Balance (Opposition of Fire and Water)

Minor Aspect J: Tension (Opposition of Earth and Air)

Minor Aspect K: Transformation (Interface Between Fire and Aether)

Minor Aspect L: Solidification (Interface Between Earth and Aether)

Minor Aspect M: Fluidity (Interface Between Water and Aether)

Minor Aspect N: Vitality (Interface Between Air and Aether)

Minor Aspect O: Fusion (Interface Between Heat and Aether)

Minor Aspect P: Preservation (Interface Between Dryness and Aether)

Minor Aspect Q: Dormancy (Interface Between Cold and Aether)

Minor Aspect R: Growth (Interface Between Moisture and Aether)

Each deity is given Foundational Aspect of 1 of the 19 Aspects (the main focus of the God or Goddesses attention), a Major Other Aspect which is  a different 1 of the 19 Aspects (a significant but secondary focus of the God or Goddesses attention), then a Specific Aspect of Interest = A different 1 of the 19 Aspects (a important but tertiary focus of the God or Goddesses attention, where they are interested in some Parts or Facets of Life associated with the Aspect)

Drawing on a bit of Laban’s movement theory I also try to use some oppostional descriptions as a foundation for their personality and how they go about their business as a deity.

1 Subtle versus Dense

2 Sharp versus Blunt

3 Mobile versus Immobile

4 Transient versus Persistent

5 Heavy versus Light

6 Vertical versus Horizontal

I’m trying to end up this template filled out for each deity.

 

 

Pantheon Template

1. God or Goddess Name
• Foundational Aspect: [One of the 19 Aspects]
• Major Other Aspect: [Different from Foundational Aspect]
• Specific Aspect of Interest: [Different from Foundational and Major Other Aspect]
• Opposed Aspect: [Different from Foundational, Major Other, and Specific Aspect of Interest]
• Areas of Interest:
• Foundational Aspect: [Significant Parts or Facets of Life]
• Major Other Aspect: [Significant Parts or Facets of Life]
• Specific Aspect of Interest: [Significant Parts or Facets of Life]
• Minor Aspects (4 minor Parts or Facets of Life): [Reasons for patronage]
• Personality Description:
• Subtle versus Dense: [Choose one]
• Sharp versus Blunt: [Choose one]
• Mobile versus Immobile: [Choose one]
• Transient versus Persistent: [Choose one]
• Heavy versus Light: [Choose one]
• Vertical versus Horizontal: [Choose one]
• Outlook on Existence and Role as a Deity: [Description]
• Origin Story: [Description].

 

This gives a deity with some areas of concern where they are the lead deity, some areas where they share or overlap responsibility and some areas where they oppose some other deity yielding tension, conflict, overlap, collaboration, opposition and orthogonal engagement.

I’ve run this process for aspect sets for 4 Major Aspects and a Quintessence

1)    Fire, Air, Water, Earth, Time (Classical elements)

2)    Love, Fear, Joy, Anger Dependability, Empathy (emotions)

3)    Void, Matter, Energy, Consciousness, Reality (states of existence)

4)    Wisdom, Curiosity, Understanding, Knowledge.  Intellect (mental acuity)

5)    Justice, Mercy, Honor, Compassion, Virtue (ethical compass)

6)    Liberal, Authoritarian, Collectivist, Individualist, Political (political compass)

I’ll post some examples of the outcome in subsequent posts.

This process gives a nice, structured logical schema for a pantheon, which to be honest sounds more like humanity than the divine. It needs some mess, some arbitrariness, some Madness of the Gods. I’ll cover that in the next post