Is this where I introduce myself?

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Is this where I introduce myself?

Postby Appia Pomponia Ahala on Thu May 25, 2006 11:31 pm

Salvete!

I'm new around these parts. I filled out an application to the SVR, and I hope to be accepted. If not, I hope I can lurk around in the Forums and mooch off the excellent information that seems to fly around here!

I'm a Pagan living in Canada. I've been a student of paganism for about five years, and I've been practicing for a year now. I belong to a small coven/study group and participate in both the Wiccan Sabbats and try to observe the Roman religious calandar as well. Vesta is my Matron Goddess, which is how I came to be involved in the Religio Romana. However, I don't really consider myself a reconstructionist. More like...an adaptationist. I study the ancient forms of the ritual and what not, and then try to find the best application for it in contemporary life. I hope this does not sounds sacreligious to everyone on here!

I belong to a few other e-groups as well. I subscribe to Nova Roma's main Mailing list and their Religio mailing list (but I am not a citizen), the google group Sacra Domestica, and the yahoo group The House of Vesta.

I hope my meagre knowledge can be of some service to this great group in the future! If anyone wants to know anything else about me, please feel free to ask away!

Thanks muchly,
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Postby Primus Aurelius Timavus on Fri May 26, 2006 3:17 pm

Welcome Appia! I hope that you will enjoy SVR as much as I do!

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Postby Appia Pomponia Ahala on Fri May 26, 2006 11:54 pm

Thanks, Tergestus! I hope I enjoy it here as well! I'm sure I will.

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Postby Quintus Aurelius Orcus on Sat May 27, 2006 9:02 am

Welcome Appia, I hope you have a great stay here in SVR and feel free to ask all the questions you might have. We do our best to answer them.

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Postby Anonymous on Sun Jun 18, 2006 9:02 pm

Appia, you sound a bit like me. :P I was an eclectic pagan for like four or five years or so, and was thwapped by Mars some time ago. He became my patron, and later I was thwapped again by Ceres when i started desiring a female influence. It was after that that I became intrested in the idea that I may want to go all Roman, since they seem to like me, and I certainly like them.

I'm still in research mode, but like you I think i'm probably not going to be a *strict* reconstructionist. I defenitely want to learn all I can about ancient practice, but while I want to make an effort to honor the god/esses in a traditional sort of way, there are tons of things done in ancient practice I'm just not going to be able to do, and I'm not going to let myself lose sleep over it. And aside from that, I have a lot of habits I picked up as an eclectic that I like and i dont care to abandon.

Maybe we can talk more in detail about each others practices?
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Postby Quintus Servilius Priscus on Mon Jun 19, 2006 3:56 am

Appia,

Do you know the meaning of your Cognomen? It is one of the names used by Gens Servilia. Here is some info on it:

"Gaius Servilius Ahala was a legendary hero of ancient Rome. He was said to have saved Rome from Spurius Maelius in 439 BC by killing him with a dagger concealed under an armpit. However, this was probably an aetological myth invented to explain the Servilian cognomen "Ahala"/"Axilla", which means "armpit" and is probably of Etruscan origin."

Also:

Plutarch says, in his life of Brutus, that Brutus' mother Servilia was a descendant of Servilius Ahala, and the ancestral example was an inspiration for his assassination of Julius Caesar.

It is sort of a strange name isn't it. I thought about adopting it when I formed Gens Servilia over at NR a couple of years ago. Any way, Welcome to the SVR!

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Postby Horatius Piscinus on Tue Jun 20, 2006 3:42 am

Salua sis Appia Pompeia

:) Welcome to SVR and to our Collegium Religiosum!

I suppose that I could be accused of being a reconstruction because so often I share what I learn about ancient practices. If you have questions on the formal aspects of ancient practices I will try to answer as best I can. However, the religio Romana began in an ecstatic tradition where personal and direct interaction with the Gods is essential. In fact, as in other traditions, formal ritual in the religio Romana is intended to be a tool, not an end in itself, whereby one enters such a state of mind that you become receptive to experiencing the Gods. That is, by paying attention to the details of a ritual, one enters ritual consciousness. This is not quite the same as entering trance, although that was done in some rituals, but, as in much else that the Romans valued, there is a balance to be struck between rational thought of the conscious mind with the intuitive ability of the unconscious mind in any Roman ritual. Having a feeling that you are being called by the Gods is more important than learning exactly how ancients performed their rituals. You work with the Gods first, as They can best instruct you, and as you learn more on the Roman traditions you can always refine your practices to a Roman model. If you focus on the Gods and keep your intentions pure, then all the wrangling between reconstructionists over what once might have been "proper" is really not so important.

Questions on the "how to's" I suppose are the most frequently asked. But the religio Romana is very rich in its diversity, it had always been adaptative and the only constant in the Roman tradition was that it was always evolving. So, maybe we can get into more than just some of the ancient formalities and try to explore more how the Roman Gods speak to us today.

Vale optime et vade in pace Vestae
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