I have a bit of a geas on me (at least, one I’m aware of).
It’s not one that will trigger my death if I break it, but if I do, it will trigger the end of my relationship with my Lord Manannan, my Father — and honestly, that would be a fate worse than death.
I was in a bit of trouble last year when I had to interact with Poseidon during Spring Mysteries Fest. The Parade to the Sea is pretty much a required part of the weekend if you wish to participate in the Mysteries, and it involves giving offerings to Poseidon and interacting with Him.
Manannan does not want me to worship, honor, or otherwise work with Poseidon. At all.
And as I was not told this would be part of SMF before I left for it last year, that was a very difficult situation to navigate. I had to find a way to make it up to Him.
When I did my ritual around Samhain to formally be adopted by Manannan, to become His child, His son and His daughter, I wrote into my vows a way for me to both commit to His request I not honor Poseidon and also a way for me to participate in Spring Mysteries Fest without breaking that geas.
I will never leave Your side, my Lord. Betimes etiquette may force me to have dealings with gods You dislike — I will show respect to Them if necessary, and I will not tarnish Your name, but I will never leave You for Them.
Still, being at SMF was a tightrope act, at least on Friday, when the Parade to the Sea was held. I had to hold my energy in perfect limbo; close enough to give respect, but not so close as to break my geas.
I think I did alright.
Manannan has been more silent than usual since SMF. This does not frighten me; He was silent for a while after last year’s SMF, after I felt the anger during the actual weekend. This year, during SMF, I felt resigned, grudging acceptance, and then, later, pleased acknowledgment that I’d finally figured it out.
The gods often don’t tell me anything outright; I fumble around in the dark until finally hitting a light-switch, and when I flick it, They’re standing there smirking, saying “Took you long enough.”
While I can’t know my Lord’s full mind, I do know a small part now — I know part of the reason He dislikes Poseidon so much. Or, at least, the conclusions I’ve come to He’s not corrected me on and the vibe I get is, like I said, pleased acknowledgement that I’ve figured it out.
I’m a hard medium scrambled polytheist. I interact with the gods as individuals, because that is how They present Themselves to me and it’s only polite. However, something that sort of fascinates is spiritual cognates* — the idea that gods have parallel gods in other pantheons.
This is related, as well, to the Lady of the Stars — I view Her and Her relations as a sort of venn diagram. The big circle in the middle is the Lady of the Stars. Several smaller circles overlap with that bigger circle: Aphrodite, Nut, Brighid, and others of which I’m not aware. Where the circles overlap, we have where that deity is both the Lady of the Stars and Brighid or Aphrodite or Nut. I call that aspect of Brighid “Brighid of the Stars.” The rest of Brighid’s circle is a very terrestrial Brighid — the Brighid that’s an integral part of this planet, its sun, our here and now.
If the Lady of the Stars has several expressions of Herself in more terrestrial form, then it stands to reason the other Two — the Lord of the Deeps and the Sovereign of the Blooded Lands — would as well. These expressions could also work as spiritual cognates to Manannan and Morrigan (respectively), or they could not. For example, it’s my feeling that Nut is not really a spiritual cognate of Brighid, nor Aphrodite. One of Brighid’s spiritual cognates, in my estimation, is Athena, however, and it’s very likely there are other expressions of the LotS who are Brighid’s spiritual cognates.
The point I’m trying to get to here is that my Lord is tired of being associated with Poseidon simply because They’re both connected to the ocean. Manannan and Poseidon are not spiritual cognates, yet I see them get lumped together all the time because hey, salty water.
This, I think, combined with Manannan perhaps losing followers to Poseidon (again, this is my UPG and He hasn’t confirmed nor denied this to me, but I do get a very strong feeling that this is the case — a big part of Manannan’s Thing is that He wants to be everyone’s uncle (or dad, in my and I’m sure others’ cases), so losing followers to another god would probably hurt Him more than it may hurt other gods) has created this rift, this outright dislike of Poseidon.
Which is all perfectly reasonable, I think. And honestly, the geas is not that terrible of a thing for me — I never really had any desire to work with Poseidon before devoting myself to Manannan, and the only time I may have to deal with Him will be at Spring Mysteries Fest or, possibly, other ATC events. I’ve walked that energetic tightrope before, and I can do it again.
The alternative is unthinkable.
*I came up with this term to describe this sort of thing. Not sure if cognates is the best term, but it feels right, so for now I’m going to use it.