Concepts, Conlangs, and the Importance of Understanding

 There are a few important spiritual concepts that are somewhat hard to parse down to a single word, often having to rely on phrasing and drawn out explanations. Early Madrians, realizing this, worked with words and phrases that they knew of in the Western World (English), and sought to create language to better define some ideas. This is what they termed 'Rhennish'(a conlang, or constructed language), and you can find traces of this throughout the writings.

The first and most often used example is a word you will see often in Scriptures and Madrian writings; thamë. This was created from the Greek word "themis', who was also a goddess of Greece and upheld an important role. Themis was a goddess of social order, customs, and mores (see Wikipedia article). The Madrians, however, seem to have intended both this definition, and what is similarly found for the concept of dharma, as it was seen as the order and harmony of the entirety of the universe, the "music of the spheres", and Dea's(God/Goddess's)Law. 

This gave them a means to singularly describe what they were trying to convey, as well as further define such things as athamë (against harmony), or sithamë(one's own personal harmony). Or, it could be a means of describing actions that are thamelic (in harmony with thamë) or athamelic (out of harmony with thamë).

A second term that is oft seen used is werdë. This is from an older/archaic word, wyrd, of which modern weird derives itself from. Originally, wyrd was seen as fate, especially one's personal fate. It is mentioned in the old writing Beowulf, and in Shakespeare's Weird Sisters (see Wikipedia article). Werdë was coined to denote both wyrd as it was seen in the past, and very similar to how some Western people view karma. Your werdë can determine your fate, but it is within your means to change it, and acts of werdë can affect one's own and the overall thamë of the world.

If you've navigated around this site, you've most likely noticed that I've used wyrd, but not werdë, nor has thamë been used. I've a varied response to why this is so.

As it is, these terms are derived from a conlang that I would gather nearly next to no one knows of outside Filianic circles. As such, you are then burdened with having to explain the definitions and origin of the words often, fairly defeating the purpose of having a simple word to explain a concept. The flip side being, anyone familiar with the terms can fluidly read anything you are including them in and you can be confident they will comprehend what you are saying.

Another issue I have is the aforementioned schisms that occurred - these stemmed from the parts that relied heavily on Rhennish language and stories and became a separate entity known as Aristastia. I have no affinity to this, nor do I wish to do so. That was a movement I did not agree with, and my beliefs and practices do not align with them. If you are unfamiliar with them, I'll give a content warning; there are some things that could be triggering. I don't wish to speak much further on it than that.

Finally, I want to keep consistent with my own language and nomenclature, in a way that is easily accessible and able to convey without heavy background, or at the very least, one would be able to look up definitions for. So, for me werdë is cognate with wyrd, and thamë is cognate with themis, or even more readily, Divine Harmony. I will try to remain consistent without becoming overly wordy in future posts.

My goal is to elucidate on my practice, encourage others who may feel out of place within some portions of Filianism, and share what I can to those who find it helpful. I am content in my spiritual home, and with the diverse voices within Filianism I wanted to share my vision of Reformed Madrianism with those who resonate with it, and especially when it comes to language.