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Thread: Pan

  1. #1
    Sr. Member Eleanor's Avatar
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    Pan

    I did not find any posts or threads about my favorite Greek god, so I'd like to talk about him here.

    Pan has been my patron god for a long time. I've worked with goddessess, but never really had a matron goddess. Pan however has always stayed. He is the god of wild nature, music, shepherds and their flocks and sexuality.

    His attributes are of course his pan flute, or Syrinx as he named it after the nymph who was turned into a reed after Pan chased her. He has goat horns and goat feet and the upperbody of a man.

    I like Pan's boldness, like how he challenged Apollo to a music dual. Or how he induces panic by making sudden sounds in the woods. I connect with him through meditation, if the Dutch weather allows it, preferably in a forest.

    Something Pan taught me is to let go. If I want to dance, I dance. If I want to sing, I sing. Without holding back or fear how others might judge me. He taught me to enjoy my life to the fullest.

    Pan taught me (and still is teaching me) to face my fears instead of running away. During difficult times, I imagine listening to his music to calm my mind and he gives me the strength to move on.

    Has anyone else worked with Pan before? What were your experiences?

  2. #2
    Copper Member faye_cat's Avatar
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    Re: Pan

    I haven't actually worked with Pan, but the few who I knew did loved the lessons he showed them, and always ready to have fun.
    “I am Cat and I walk alone and all ways are the same to me.” ~Rudyard Kipling, The Cat Who Walks By Himself

  3. #3
    Sr. Member Eleanor's Avatar
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    Re: Pan

    Quote Originally Posted by faye_cat View Post
    I haven't actually worked with Pan, but the few who I knew did loved the lessons he showed them, and always ready to have fun.
    Oh yes, he sure is a party maker!
    His lessons have been good for me. And I have a feeling he still has a lot to teach me.

  4. #4
    sea witch thalassa's Avatar
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    Re: Pan

    Quote Originally Posted by Eleanor View Post
    I've worked with goddessess, but never really had a matron goddess.
    Please don't take this personally...lots of Pagans do this, and I only point it out because it drives me *insane*

    Patron, from the Latin, patronus's feminine form is patronissa. Matron is a married woman. While patronus (patron) does derive from pater (father) and matrona from mater (mother), due to the difference in gender roles in Rome, the development of these words come from separate "tracks" of cultural evolution. As such, a matron is not the opposite gender form of patron, rather a female patron can called a patroness (if one feels gender specificity is important)--or just a patron, because patron doesn't have to be gender specific.
    “You have never answered but you did not need to. If I stand at the ocean I can hear you with your thousand voices. Sometimes you shout, hilarious laughter that taunts all questions. Other nights you are silent as death, a mirror in which the stars show themselves. Then I think you want to tell me something, but you never do. Of course I know I have written letters to no-one. But what if I find a trident tomorrow?" ~~Letters to Poseidon, Cees Nooteboom

    “We still carry this primal relationship to the Earth within our consciousness, even if we have long forgotten it. It is a primal recognition of the wonder, beauty, and divine nature of the Earth. It is a felt reverence for all that exists. Once we bring this foundational quality into our consciousness, we will be able to respond to our present man-made crisis from a place of balance, in which our actions will be grounded in an attitude of respect for all of life. This is the nature of real sustainability.”
    ~~Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

    "We are the offspring of history, and must establish our own paths in this most diverse and interesting of conceivable universes--one indifferent to our suffering, and therefore offering us maximal freedom to thrive, or to fail, in our own chosen way."
    ~~Stephen Jay Gould, Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History

    "Humans are not rational creatures. Now, logic and rationality are very helpful tools, but there’s also a place for embracing our subjectivity and thinking symbolically. Sometimes what our so-called higher thinking can’t or won’t see, our older, more primitive intuition will." John Beckett

    Pagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible

  5. #5
    Sr. Member Eleanor's Avatar
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    Re: Pan

    Thanks for the clarification, Thalassa. I seem to use all words interchangeably: matron, patroness or patron goddess (funny that I don't call it matron goddess when using that term). I've never really given much thought about it.
    Last edited by Eleanor; 02 Sep 2018 at 11:14.

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