Most of us who are pagans or polytheists in the modern world did not grow up with our present religions, which often makes relationships with parents strained, difficult, or sometimes (sadly) unsustainable, particularly where religious matters are concerned. While I’ve been luckier than many as far as my own parents go, in a variety of different respects, there are still some gaps and quite likely a lack of full understanding on many matters, which could very well change in time. In the good category, I can certainly talk about, for example, Sigillaria at my dad’s house last year, or all the times my mother has gone to the Shinto shrine with me for various seasonal celebrations, as well as for her own ceremonies on various matters. Both my mom and my dad have copies of many of my books, and I know my mom has read at least one or two of them, in whole or in part. But, she’s not much of a “book discusser” a lot of the time.
So, when I was finishing up my latest book, A Serpent Path Primer, this last weekend, with the help of my sister, mom was going in and out of the room quite a bit, and she no doubt heard us talking about the title, which my sister kept insisting on calling “PRY-mer,” with the emphasis on a long “i” rather than a short “i,” and I explained that if it were pronounced her way, you’d use Serpent Path Primer to pre-paint and seal your fences and decks, rather than it being an introductory book on a particular subject. Anyway…
Which brings us to yesterday, when I was driving around with my mom after doing some errands. She said “What’s your latest book about?” I sort of scrambled to figure out how to explain it in a way that would make sense (which took all of two seconds, but it seemed much longer than that!), and I said “Have you heard of kabbalah?” She said, “Yes, I think so.” I wanted to make sure, however, that we were on the same page, and so I followed up with, “Okay, what do you understand of kabbalah?” She said “Isn’t it that sea monster, who’s kind of like Godzilla?” I was completely baffled and confused at this, and thus said “Huh?!?” She said, “You know, that one that you like…” It took me a few more seconds to figure out what she was talking about.
“OH! You’re thinking of Cthulhu!”
“Oh, right.”
Well, much hilarity ensued for me over this, and luckily she thought it was pretty funny too. I then went on to explain what kabbalah is, why it’s important to modern occultists in particular, and a great many pagans as well, and then why it’s not appropriate to polytheism in many respects (at least in my view, and that of many of my associates), and thus why the Serpent Path was engineered as an alternative to it for a specific Antinous-based spiritual context.
Later, we were watching America’s Got Talent, and there was a performance painting act called David Garibaldi and his CMYKs. I knew that the C, M, and Y in that stood for cyan, magenta, and yellow, but couldn’t figure out what the K stood for (and I’ve since learned, it’s “blacK,” which makes no sense to me…I mean, should I go around giving my initials as SSSS now? Seriously…?!?). I said to her, “I know that it’s Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow, but what do you think the ‘K’ is for?”
She said, “Maybe it’s ‘Kabbalah’?”
It’s also my mom’s birthday today, so we’ll be having some festivities in a short while. Thank you to my own parents for bringing me into this world, for teaching me so much, and for being a constant source of amusement for me in a billion different (and very good!) ways! 
And, in honor of a Sanctus of the day, who would have been 66 today (and was poking about my consciousness the last few days)…
Ignis Corporis Infirmat; Ignis sed Animae Perstat!
I know very little about the kabbalah (it has never, ever called to me) and so I don’t know why it isn’t appropriate, in your opinion, for polytheists. Is there a brief explanation somewhere as to why it wouldn’t be appropriate? Probably too much to ask, and a reflection of my rank ignorance on the topic, but thought I’d ask.
By: Divine Twin Diversions on September 6, 2012
at 11:48 am
It’s a system of Jewish mystical theology that was designed during a period when the Jews were very certainly monotheistic. It moves through various emanations from their one transcendent god, from pure potential through material actualization, and uses different divine attributes and concepts to describe nearly anything/everything in the universe within its system.
Occultists, polytheists, and pagans who use the system, and do not question that it is a “universal system” (which most who use it don’t) are, whether they like it or not, bowing to the monotheistic god as the singular reality behind all other realities, and are thus (at least) monists if not outright monotheists in their underlying theology if they do use it. A lot of people try and argue that kabbalah is polytheistic because of the diversity it allows for, but it’s diversity of emanation within underlying transcendent oneness…which isn’t polytheism!
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fun system, a beautiful system, a complete system, and one that has many centuries of usage and tradition behind it (even from an occultist’s viewpoint); but, it’s not only culturally appropriative for people to use it and say it’s “not really Jewish” (which A TON do–the prevailing notions suggest it’s Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian, Pythagorean, and various other possibilities other than what it most demonstrably is, i.e. something created by the medieval Jews and given a back-story for legitimacy by them that obscures more than it reveals, which too many people have taken too literally and then assumed a bunch about…), but also not culturally or theologically appropriate to do so as polytheists.
By: aediculaantinoi on September 6, 2012
at 2:17 pm
Because I felt overwhelmingly compelled to post…
Not entirely sure on your familial background, but apparently this pronunciation difference of primer is an American English thing. I had to Google just to make sure I wasn’t spouting off nonsense, because honestly I have never heard primer pronounced with a short “i” up here in Canada (land of a strange mixture of British and American English!). Both ways are said with a long “i”.
It’s interesting, at least to me, to see the differences between British and American English, and to see how that relates to *Canadian* English.
By: Nykti on September 6, 2012
at 4:56 pm
The various dialects of English, including Canadian, are very interesting phenomena to me. I’ve been told more than once (often by East Coast U.S.’ers) that my accent sounds Canadian–and, to be sure, it’s close, because I’m only a few miles from Canada, but it is distinct as well. Our “ou” isn’t as short as it is for most Canadians, for example.
I don’t know if folks in other parts of the U.S. pronounce the two words the same way, but I’ve never heard “primer” (as in a book) pronounced with a long “i” by anyone who knew what it was. But, then again, most people born in the U.S. in the last 30 years have never heard of primers, hornbooks, or other such things…!
By: aediculaantinoi on September 6, 2012
at 5:31 pm