There is a lot to explore on the Starry Path, but it’s hard to know where to start. I will start with some basic introductions to two figures of the Path, and then shift into some actual work next time.
The Starry Path is either pantheistic, or panentheistic, that has not been made clear to me yet but on a practical level it does not matter, and it is polytheistic. While it has its own “gods” the focus is far more on the intermediary spirits, their children. There are two main deities, Cosmos and the Star Goddess. These are not new deities or anything like that. They’re universal concepts, universal beings, appearing in mythology from all over the world in archetypal forms. Cosmos and the Star Goddess are not new, but they are an exploration of those forces removed from the cultural contexts of the older myths. So far they have had no names revealed to me, several of the spirits have not provided names, they prefer expressive titles of who and what they are, rather than a name. So while They might have a name, They might have many names, the Star Goddess just wants to be known as the Star Goddess because of the image that conjures, it establishes who They are.
If the Path had a primary deity, it would probably be Cosmos. To quote St. Carl of Sagan “The Cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be.” Cosmos is an impersonal deity. They are beyond all conception and relation. Cosmos is everything, everywhere, everytime. Cosmos is the basis of all reality, inseparable from all things and no thing. As such they are an impersonal deity, which means they cannot be approached as a person or entity, they just are, they’re only really approached in a sense of reverence and communion.
The other main deity is the Star Goddess. In general I’m not a fan of the idea that all the gods are the same gods in different masks, for a variety of reasons. The Star Goddess is one of the few places where I think the idea is totally valid. There is a certain feel, almost a spiritual cadence to deities of the night and the stars, some of them touching on something primordial. Asteria, Nut, Nuit (Thelemic), the Black God, Nyx, Erebus, Ratri, Citlālicue, Sah, Hine-nui-te-pō, the Star Goddess of Feri, dozens of others, they have a feel a sense to them of commonality. If any deity would appear to humanity in many guises, it would be the primordial god of stars and the night. Regardless of Their identity, if any, in other traditions They are god/dess, beyond notions of masculine or feminine, yet often appears in a more femme-leaning form. Most often They appears as a figure of purest pitch black, but within Their form you have slowly shifting stars and nebulae.
While Cosmos is everything, the Star Goddess made everything. Cosmos is the Ground of Being, the Eternal Source of All, but Cosmos is made manifest through the Star Goddess. It is They that brought the universe into being. They were born at the moment of Creation, and have always been. The two of them are a paradox. Both eternal and beyond time, but Cosmos was made manifest when the Star Goddess was born. Cosmos is all things, but it is the Star Goddess that made all things.
The Star Goddess is somewhere between an impersonal and personal deity. They do respond to petitions, but not as easily or freely as the spirits below Them. Like Cosmos most of the time They are included as a figure of reverence and communion, but by calling upon Them you call upon Their authority as well as the spirits beneath Them, mainly everyone. You can pray to Them, and They may send to you an appropriate spirit, but the Path already has a set of spirits, and most will introduce you to other spirits that you require, and that is often easier and faster than going directly through Them
The Star Goddess is the ancestor of all beings, but They are closest to Astral spirits, in the classic sense, spirits of stars and space. The higher spirits of the Starry Path are Their children, they are embodiments of stars and stellar phenomena. A lot of the work on the Starry Path deals with these spirits, or with their children.
Their children hold many roles, and many secrets, and can be called upon for their aid. Most of them are very easy to call too, the standard summoning ritual on the Path is very minimalist. Over the next while I’ll introduce some of these spirits, and what we can learn from them and do with them.
