A tentative Starry Ram pantheon

Written by thehouseofvines

Something I have been working on. Usual caveats apply, especially since this is in an incredibly preliminary stage. But I have had enough people ask about it, particularly post- posting this piece on primary sources for the Starry Ram tradition, that I figured it was worth sharing.

It is difficult to decide what the criteria for inclusion should be. Veneration in the lands of Israel/Samaria and Judah, Egypt, Syria, Babylon, etc.? Their relationship to Dionysos? The role they play in the emerging Starry Ram hieros logos, mysteries, cultus, customs and magical practices?

Oi. It’s enough to give one a headache!

And that’s not even factoring in the need to figure out what the relationships between these divine powers is [within the context of the Starry Ram, since that significantly differed depending on region and era], negotiating what they want for inclusion in the Starry Ram pantheon and developing practices that will be most pleasing to them, as well as what they’re offering in exchange for that, not to mention figuring out how all of this fits in with the Starry Bear and Starry Bull traditions, and practical matters like whether I should just list one entity or their distinct manifestations. (The list currently is somewhere in between.)

I am truly blessed to have my beautiful wife as a collaborator, someone who can walk in the worlds of academia and spiritwork with equal skill and grace. Someone who will drop everything to spend hours with me in ritual because of a sacred impulse, have some serious shit dropped on us, and then produce such beautiful and potent work as the Starry Bear and Ram adaptations of the Phaldōr incantation. Truly the Gods have been good to me.

And here are some of the names of those Gods and spirits.

Abaddōn
Agrat bat Maḥalat
Allāt
Amalek
ʿĂnāṯ
Anat-Bethēl
The Ancestral Mothers
Aphrodite Aidos
Apollon
Artemis
Ašam-Bethēl
ʾĂšērāh
ʾAšmedai
Asklepios
Athenē
ʿAṯtart
Aži Dahâka
Baʿal Hadad
Baʿal Hammon
Baʿal Šāmayīm
Baʿal-Seth
Ba’alat Gebal
Baḡdānā
Beliar
Belzebul
The Bene ʾĔlōhīm
Bes
Bethēl
Chokmah
Dagon
The Daimones
Deber
Dhū-Šarā
Dionysos Abraō
Dionysos Anthios
Dionysos Ktistēs
Dionysos Mekal
Dionysos Nabōth
Dionysos Sabai
The Egrēgoroi
Eišeth Zēnunīm
‘El
‘El Šadday
’Elōah
The ʾĔlōhīm
ʿElyōn
Enki
The Ephesia Grammata
Ešem-Bethēl
Gabriēl
The Gigantes
Hathor
Herem-Bethēl
Hermes
Hygeia
Khnum
Korē
Lamaštu
The Lilīm
Lilith
Mār
Mārāh
Masṭēmā
The Mazzikim
Melqart
The Mevakkaltas
Michaēl
Mōt
Nabû
Naamah
Nanay
Nemesōth
The Nephilim
Nsyt
The Nymphai
Nysa
Pakeidas
The Patriarchs
Qeteb
Qos
Raphaēl
The Rephaim
Rešep̄
Riḍwān
The Ruḥot
Samaēl
The Se’irim
Sekhmet
Šālah
Šamaš
The Šedim
Šemyāzā
Šezbeth
The Theoi Patrōoi
The Theoi Sōtēres
The Titans
Tychē
Typhōn
Uriēl
Yarikh
Yah
Yahō
Yahweh
Yahweh Sabaōth
Zarnay
Zeus Akraios
Zeus Olympios
Zeus Phyxios
Zeus Xenios

30 thoughts on “A tentative Starry Ram pantheon”

  1. and readers, it’s important to know that the relationships with the above Powers are not all positive. some are hostile beings as you can tell from our prayers of protection. I expect this will evolve like any emergent tradition, organically and likely in surprising directions.

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    1. Yeah, “figuring out what the relationships between these divine powers is” may be severely underselling things. Many on this list are hostile powers we (and our Gods) stand opposed to. I appreciate you bringing that up. (Which also shows just how valuable your contributions, large and small, are to this endeavor.)

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      1. No, that’s a good reaction to have, and I should have made things clearer. Considering the shit we deal with as spiritworkers and exorcists we have no truck with the wicked ones or an interest in “rehabilitating” them. (Except Ashmedai; he loves his mother, spends his time studying Torah and drinking wine, has a badass personality and is a hell of a lot more powerful than he might initially come across, and is very much opposed to the unmaker, even if he does happen to be a demon.)

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  2. I’m curious, Sannion, and I mean no offense, some of the names on the list are traditionally considered demons. Are they deities that were demonized by the Jews like Christians demonized Set? Or something else?

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  3. If I may. I see Saint Gabriel. I’ve been fiddling with my own ideation, lately, in the Has No Name tradition I make for myself.

    I’ve had the notion for a long time that Angels (messengers) are Gods of another order. It seems plain to me in the OT, especially now rereading since my Catholic lapse years back.

    The 4 main archangel of ‘canon’ embody qualities typifying older pantheon. Here I’m thinking of Uriel reminding me of Odin or Ogmios, or even Hermes. But Gabriel too, when you consider his roles in the NT or apocrypha. I’m not saying they’re consubstantial per say.

    What does the Starry Bull make of the listed Angels? *what* are they? Are they divorced of their service to Yahweh? Because I cannot imagine you would take so bilateral an approach to the god of the Old Testament in a sea of contenders, being that YHWH was said to have begun as a tribal storm god who through syncresis and opposition to Baal absorbed his cultus and slowly ate his way to world supremacy.

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    1. Interesting, the blending of Odin and Gabriel. I can see it. Historically there was a syncretism between Odin and Michael, especially in Northern Italy with the Lombards. They built a church on a location that had been a healing and oracular cave in pre-Roman times. They revered him in the form of a sword, and made animal sacrifices.

      Likewise in Phrygia and other parts of the Empire polytheists worshipped Angels and Archangels (which St. Paul was critical of in Colossians and Galatians) and they’re often invoked in Greco-Egyptian magic.

      I consider Angels to be a fairly powerful and high-ranking class of spiritual beings created to assist the Gods, and Archangels are specifically tasked with helping maintain divine order; I also believe that there are classes of evil spirits which are Angels that have rejected such roles, embracing wickedness and/or allying with the unmaker. (Not everything evil wants the kosmos unmade, and some even battle alongside the preservers of life and order against the unmaker and its forces. After all, if your bag is corrupting and destroying things things need to exist.)

      I also think that Yahweh is a God of storms, battle and vitality similar to Zeus, Perun Indra, etc. who was a son and thus subordinate to El. When Yahweh sought to replace his father as King of the (Levantine) Gods his chief rival was Ba’al, who is in many respects Yahweh’s double. (Hence their frenemy relationship.) His coup successful, Yahweh absorbed many of the powers, attributes and titles of El, but did not become the monotheistic Super God that Israelite reformers developed an obsession with during the Babylonian captivity. This entity ousted the old tribal Yahweh, becoming increasingly abstract and distant until you end up with the Theos Agnostos of modernity.

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      1. The “Sword of Saint Michael”? It’s an icon of sorts with a cruciform on an idealised ceremonial sword. I’ve seen the image around.

        My understanding is Greeks worshipped angels as intermediaries between Gods and Men in the ages before Gnosticism and Orthodoxy. Funnily enough, it had a legal connotation – my Greek friends tell me. In Greece today, legal arbiters are named Angelos.

        Interesting, as to the rest. I’ll have to give it some thought. Might draft my own angel syncretism article if I think there’s any interest.

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    2. I think angels are beyond any pantheon — they’re sort of like systems admins that keep everything going on a micro and macro level, crossing what we call “pantheons”, whether you call them Lamassu, angels, or…I can’t think of another word for “angel”right now. it’s too friggin early. :)

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      1. Interesting. I’m picking up what you’re putting down. It jibes with a gut feeling – Angels feel earthy and they operate like classical Gods. They are often disguised. Jupiter and Mercury disguised themselves. Odin had many masks. The divine condescends but seems to need to translate itself for the benefit of tangibility. I’m sure you must know the example of 3d – 2d rendering?

        I was at a Bible study the other day, and the Priest was covering Revelations. It struck me then, I thought, that I was hearing a very, very Hellenistic voice during some of the interludes. How Mother Earth should Herself rise up and give comfort to the Lady of the Sun, that Angels would feed Her for a thousand days. Etc, etc.

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        1. I do not believe that Odin uses any angelic mask (though I suppose He could. I wouldn’t want to put any limitation on the Gods). I think the angels though are their own pantheon. I have known certain Gods though to hare masks…

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          1. I’m not necessarily implying that Angels are Odin in disguise. But like you said, unwise to place limits. What I’m making note of is a similar operating frequency.

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            1. I haven’t actually found Them to have the same operating frequency. That’s a good description of how a Power feels — operating frequency. I like that.

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  4. Yes, I too was a bit skeptical when I read the list. I’m glad this was already addressed. Perhaps the post should be edited to designate which entities we are not intending to engage with positively?

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        1. Guason, way too many people are half-witted. I’ve given up trying to be the stupid whisperer. There’s a saying by Schiller that translated means “Against stupidity even the Gods struggle in vain.”

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          1. Also, San was recognizing that there ARE malignant entities but that there is nuance there. They’re not all the ame. They can’t necessarily be treated as one thing. Monotheism is neither our way or theirs and certainly not the Holy ones’.

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  5. How do They play well with Others? I noted that several ME/NE Gods are together in a group. One problem that I always am wary of is developing a mono-religion. I would like to know your methodology of how you have them be together beyond the traditional lore such as Anat.

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        1. me too. following them enough to get the download for that prayer left me wrecked this morning, utterly wrecked.

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