Aloha,
On 11/12/2007 at 2:46 AM Felicia wrote:
>A friend recently attended an Anderson Feri Trad ritual which referred
>to 'Drychten' [sic] as Goddess.
>It had been my understanding that the term 'dryctin' is a neuter
>referring to 'The Eternal One' which "begat" the masculine and feminine
forms.
>But, I can't find provenance for this statement other than modern Wicca
sources.
The Neo-Pagan Drychten liturgy probably originated with Gardnerianism,
and diffused into the burgeoning Craft movement. The term is almost
certainly
a borrowing from early English poetry or literature. Or perhaps some book
or lecture on early English history. The term was used in feudal relations.
For example, *Old English Made Easy* says that *dryhten* means: *[m
(dryhtnes/
dryhtnas) a ruler, king, lord, prince; the supreme ruler, the Lord, God,
Christ; chiefly
used for God and Christ.*
[http://home.comcast.net/~modean52/oeme_dictionaries.htm]
My guess is that the term gradually lost or expanded its original
linguistic gender as
it spread into more and more contexts in which that linguistic gender
seemed contrary
to immediate liturgical need.
I think that this is what happened in Anderson Feri and other
goddess-centered
Neo-Pagan trads.
Hardly any Neo-Pagan liturgists were/are scholars of early English
languages. But
some were/are spiritually-minded poets. With an affection for antique and
unusual
words. Lots of them rummaged Christian liturgies and devotions,
particularly those that
originated in a targeted *source* historical culture, say early medieval
England, for
useful words and notions. Words and notions that lacked common modern
usage, and
thereby were easily adaptable to Neo-Pagan liturgical purposes.
I think that what we find here is an instance of linguistic adaptation
rather than one
of misuse. *Drychten* for Neo-Pagan Craft is a term of liturgical art in
itself, not a
misuse of an Early English word no longer spoken except by scholars.
>(I'm really hoping this isn't yet another case of what I've come to refer
to as
>"neo-pagan-dumb").
Honestly, I think that it's probably misleading for students of the
Neo-Pagan
movement to fault the Neo-Pagan movement's adaptations of terms from other
languages or historical cultural sources as *dumb.*
The Neo-Pagan movement has followed and continues to follow its own
imperatives,
not those of academic scholarship. Liturgical, and maybe theological, needs
take
precedence over strict academic precision vis a vis the origin languages of
those terms.
Musing Neo-Pagan Crafters Today Aren't Medieval English Christians, After
All!*
Pitch
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