Seven Archetypes, Three Powers

With the rise in popularity of hard polytheism and culture-based Paganisms, ideas of archetypes have fallen out of favor over the past couple of decades in mainstream Paganism. I too, was on the hard polytheism train, being a member of a hard polytheistic Druid organization, and having read Greer’s A World Full of Gods to help wrap my mind around a more literal form of polytheism. 

Yet in my own spirituality, I kept returning to the concept of archetypes. I suppose it’s because I like to think that at their core, there is some part of the deities that is universal, and beyond the limited view of any one particular culture. There seems to be a common notion within Paganism nowadays that archetypes aren’t real. But archetype does not mean simply a symbol or a metaphor. Jung called archetypes primordial images ingrained into humanity, but also existing outside of humanity. They are not purely psychological. I view the concept of archetypes as an aspect of an entity that helps me understand that being. And I believe that one deity can encompass many archetypes. 

So in 2015, I became very interested in a new Pagan movement called Waincraft. This was a complex archetypal Paganism that grew out of the Vanatru movement. It presented a fresh and different way of looking at archetypes. I was especially interested in the concept of the first three powers of Waincraft: Mother Night, the Wildfather, and the Lord of Plenty. However, this system entails many more archetypes, or powers, as they call them in Waincraft– about 23. As I set out to get to know the other Waincraft powers, I came across a lot of redundancies, and to my mind, disorganizations or mischaracterizations. So I stuck with the first three, but adapted them to my own way of thinking in some ways; I saw Mother Night as more of a Great Goddess, and the Lord of Plenty as more of a youthful figure (or at least having both a younger and older aspect) and being less of a Father Time figure. I considered many of the other powers to be aspects of those first three. 

As a Celtic-insired Pagan, I’ve seen the idea of a “three powers” expressed in the mythological themes of the Maponos (Divine Son), Cernunnos (Lord of the Otherworld), and Goddess of Sovereignty (Great Goddess). Celticist Alexei Kondratiev described these archetypal themes in detail, especially how they’re played out in the Mabinogi, in his book Celtic Rituals.

Then I revisited a concept from my long ago Wiccan days– that of the Correllian seven archetypes. Though I don’t consider myself a Wiccan at all these days, there are several concepts from the Correllian tradition that I vibe quite well with, their system of archetypes is one of them.

You may ask “why seven?” Well, the use of seven contains much magical symbolism. There are seven days of the week, seven colors of the rainbow, seven notes on a musical scale, seven seas and seven continents, and the list could go on and on. It’s the most popular number worldwide, and the number people choose most often when asked to pick a number between one and ten. There’s a reason for that… psychological experiments have shown that, on average, the longest sequence the average person can recall on the fly contains about seven items. If you show someone a collection of randomly placed objects, seven is the largest number they will recognize right off the bat. Beyond that, one has the need to count them or group them either physically or mentally. But up to seven, they are immediately recognizable. 

It appears to be a belief of the Correllian tradition that systems with higher numbers of archetypes often contain a lot of redundancies and overlapping. The Correllian Lessons for the First Degree explains it this way:

“Most of the world’s cultural pantheons include dozens or hundreds of deities, duplicating the seven basic archetypes many times over. This is because smaller local cultures and their pantheons come together and grow into larger, heterogeneous cultures, while retaining their distinct original traditions.”

The Correllians have the usual three Goddess archetypes found in other forms of Wicca, but when it comes to God archetypes, they recognize four, but with two basic forms: a god of light and growth, and a god of darkness and the under/other-world. They are seen as two sets of twins, and each contain a small aspect of the other. All of these archetypes, and the divisions within each, are thoroughly described in the materials of their first degree workbook. They happen to also sync really well with my adapted concept of a Waincraft first three powers: 

The Great Goddess (Maiden, Mother, Crone archetypes)

The Correllian tradition describes the Maiden archetype as an independent young woman, and further articulates that the idea of the Maiden is strongly affected by the mindset of a given culture. The Maiden is often either an ascetic virgin or a goddess of sexuality. She is also often a goddess of skills; the arts, sciences, and sometimes warcraft. The Mother archetype is often a creatrix, or at least the embodiment of all that is needed for creation. Her body is not only the Earth, but the whole universe; she is the essence or spirit of all. The Crone is described as the most powerful aspect of the Goddess, for as the body is at its weakest, accumulated wisdom and magic are at its greatest. She is goddess of death, but also contains the conditions that are necessary for new life to emerge.

The Wildfather (King & Sorcerer archetypes)

The King is god of the harvest, abundance, benevolence, and keeper of time. His concerns are of this world and all that’s in it. In Waincraft he is the Lord of Plenty, also called “Abundance”, and is considered a primal power and light twin to the dark “Wildness” power. Correllian tradition also considers him such a twin, but groups both of the older male archetypes into the dark aspect of the year. 

The Sorcerer (Waincraft’s primal power “Wildness”) is Lord of the Otherworld, leader of the Wild Hunt, god of crossroads, travel, and death. He is the aspect of deity that is most often represented with horns or antlers. In ancient times, gods fitting that description were also gods of abundance, fecundity, and riches, indicating that the archetypes of King and Sorcerer are indeed two sides of the same coin. 

Sacred Son (Hero & Lover archetypes)

The Hero archetype is the model of young male vitality. He is sometimes a warrior, often an adventurer on a quest. He is courageous and strong, but in some cultures he is depicted as an underdog- small and unassuming, but incredibly clever and wiry and can be a bit of a trickster. Like the Maiden, he is often a deity of skills and sciences. 

The Lover is the god of youth and renewal, of love and bliss. He is often a patron of music and the arts. Though he is eternal, his cycle includes death, as his story is that of self sacrifice and renewal. Therefore, he can also be considered a younger aspect of the Sorcerer, Lord of the Otherworld. 

One of the ideas behind Waincraft, and behind all archetypal systems really, is applying the system to your own culture and place in the world. It’s a concept that has really helped me organize my thoughts on my own spirituality.

a Lord of Plenty sculpture

Abundance, or the Lord of Plenty- as I like to call him, is the third primal Power in Waincraft, the second born of Mother Night, and bright twin of the Wild Father. In creating a sculpture to represent him for my altar, I drew on imagery of what this Power represents for me from Germanic and Celtic sources, but also a lot from intuition.

As for how I made the sculpture, just as I did with my Wild Father sculpture, I started with a regular batch of salt dough (2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, and about a cup of water). After kneading, I broke off a big chunk of the dough and formed a rectangle and rounded off the top edges for shoulders. I rolled out some more dough and cut a circle shape with a drinking glass. This I placed above the shoulders as a backdrop to the head and celestial objects around the figure, making the basic size and outline match its twin sculpture.

The beard and face were all one rounded rectangular piece. (When attaching a new piece, always dampen the base surface.) I used a cutting tool to add details to the beard. A tiny rope of dough was used for the nose/eyebrows. After making soft indentations for the eye-sockets, I attached tiny balls of dough for the eyes, poked holes for the pupils, and cut horizontal slits to suggest eyelids.

I cut grooves into the sides of the figure to suggest arms of a robe. The wheat-like texture on the right of the figure was made with little scissor snippets.

The cornucopia, pig, and bird shapes I added to the base were cut out of dough flattened with a rolling pin. Ropes of dough were used to make the tree branches and the sun rays. The apples and leaves on the tree, and fruit in the cornucopia were all made from small balls of dough. For the leaves, I flattened small balls of dough and pinched each end. The stars around the head started out as tiny balls of dough also. I cut and carved their shapes after attaching, pressing down with a small tool, the areas I wanted to recede into the background.

For the opening to the cornucopia, I pressed into the base a little with my thumb, then attached a rope of dough around it, smoothing with dampened fingers where the rope joined to form a circle. I then pressed ridges into the cornucopia basket.

When completely done shaping and blending, I baked it at 250°F for several hours.

After cooling, I painted all the grooves and crevices with an acrylic craft paint in the shade of burnt umber to get a good contrast. I used a paintbrush dipped in water to blend a little bit of the color to other areas for lighter contouring. When this was dry, painted the rest of the piece. When all of this was dry, I sprayed the entire piece with a coating of clear acrylic.

My new altarpiece now sits upon the fireplace mantle next to a small cauldron. I hope this description of how I made it was useful to anyone wishing to make something similar.

a Wild Father sculpture

Wildness, or as I prefer to call him- the Wild Father, is the second primal Power in Waincraft, the first born of Mother Night, and dark twin to the Lord of Plenty. In creating a sculpture to represent him for my altar, I drew on imagery of what this Power represents for me from both Celtic and Norse lore.

Instead of telling you which deities I drew on for this, I will just say that one was a deity I followed in my early days as a Pagan, and one is a later patron. The idea that both deities draw from (or are aspects of) the same Power, holds deep spiritual meaning for me. Many other deities come to mind as well when I gaze upon this altar piece. I don’t want to name specific names here because I want others to see what is most meaningful to them.

As for how I made the sculpture, I started with a regular batch of salt dough (2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, and about a cup of water). After kneading, I broke off a big chunk of the dough and formed a rectangle and rounded off the top edges for shoulders. I rolled out some more dough and cut a circle shape with a drinking glass. This I placed above the shoulders and a backdrop to the head and antlers of the figure.

Working with salt dough is pretty simple. The shapes I add are usually rolls (for hair, beard, antlers, snake…) or balls of dough (like for the head). When attaching a new piece, always dampen the base surface. With dampened fingers, I continue to shape and blend pieces after attaching to the base.

Small flattened balls of dough are blended on the face for cheekbones and a tiny roll of dough for the nose/eyebrows. For simple deep-set eyes, I poked holes with a toothpick. You may not be able to tell from this photograph, but one eye is closed.

I cut grooves into the sides of the figure to suggest arms of a robe, and I dug deep grooves into the center to form a tree. I scratched texture into the sides to represent vining spiraling wild growth. When completely done shaping and blending, I baked it at 250°F for several hours.

After cooling, I painted all the grooves, crevices, and backdrop of the antlers with an acrylic craft paint in the shade of burnt umber to get a good contrast. I used a paintbrush dipped in water to blend a little bit of the color to other areas and for lighter contouring of the hair and face. When this was dry, I sponged on brighter colors on many of the raised areas and painted the snake a sage green. When all of this was dry, I sprayed the entire piece with a coating of clear acrylic.

My new altarpiece now sits upon the fireplace mantle. I hope this description of how I made it was useful to anyone wishing to make something similar. Check in next week and I’ll tell you how I made my sculpture of the Wild Father’s twin- the Lord of Plenty.

shifting paradigms and the star goddess

Over the past few months I’ve been contemplating a new paradigm for my personal spirituality, not so much a “changing of the gods” as when I went from Celtic Recon to predominantly Heathen, but rather, something that could combine the two or even take the focus a little bit away from culture-based spirituality. Also, something that acknowledges squishy polytheism.

At first I looked into Proto Indo European religion and liked a lot of what I read. However, the harshly patriarchal mythology left much to be desired. Waincraft kept popping up as a possibility. I really liked a lot of the ideas, but coming from scholarly traditions like ADF and CR, I was a little put off at first by the amount of UPG or SPG. However, the more I started looking into it, the more it resonated. It is really well thought out. I’m actually gaining a deeper understanding of Northern European Paganism through this system.

So I began to really contemplate the world view, Powers and new mythology of Waincraft. After a while I began to think about how I might rearrange my altar space to reflect my new framework and incorporate some new deities and combine Waincraft and ADF symbolism. So one day I was doing my daily (or semi-daily) devotionals, asking the Kindreds for guidance as I shuffled my tarot cards. One literally jumped out and landed in front of me face-up and upright. I took it as a sign that this card was my omen. A chill ran through me. The visual of Queen of Pentacles made me immediately think of the Star Goddess (Night)–the first deity of Waincraft.

I took this to mean that the Spirits wanted me to go forward on this new path. I decided I would rearrange my altar tiles and buy, make, or re-purpose an image to represent the star/night goddess on my altar. As I picked up one of the tiles to rearrange (the Heimdall tile I made three years ago), it crumbled in my hands. The tile had broken into several pieces the year before, as did most of the others I had at the time, and I had glued them back, but I guess the damp spring we had this year was just too much humidity for them. Upon examining the other altar tiles, I discovered they were in the same ready-to-crumble shape. I hadn’t planned on such a big change in altar layout, but it seems this was meant to be. I will still be honoring my same gods, but their representations are going to be different, as are the way I think of them in relation to each other and the world.

So starting at the beginning, I made a representation of Mother Night. I wanted to re-purpose an already made statue for this, for the sake of sturdiness and longevity, but unable to find the right one, I decided to go with making one of salt dough to serve for now. Instead of using “strong salt dough” like I’ve done in the past, I just used the regular formula: 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, and about a cup of water. And instead of air drying it, I decided to bake it at 250°F for several hours.

I went with a flat back like for the tiles I made, and flattened the bottom end so that it could be stood up when finished. I wanted her to have long flowing robes and outstretched arms. Since the robes drape down from her arms and flow into her diaphanous dress, it forms a good solid shape with no small parts to break off. The resulting piece was thick, solid, and sturdy after oven drying. Oven dried salt dough seems more bread-like than air dried, and less grainy. It may still break eventually, but maybe not crumble apart like the other ones did.

The first coat of paint was glossy black. I then sprayed on small spurts of various shades of purple, some blue, and a little bit of silver. Later I sponged on some lavender to highlight some places that needed it. Finally, I splattered on white paint with a toothbrush to make stars.

I’m still working out how to combine ADF with Waincraft for my personal spirituality. But this beginning feels right. I feel like I’m being true to myself and reconnecting with some powers and energies that I had long forgotten about.

“We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden.”
-Joni Mitchell