"A religion that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by traditional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge." ~Carl Sagan
E 'transmitted' The Pentavalent to me more than a decade ago. While it certainly qualifies as a Religion, and can function as a Liturgy, as I said above, we can more accurately regard The Pentavalent as a Metaphysical Operating System, a phrase that should be understood within the context of computing. It is exactly what it says it is; a System for Operating Metaphysically, plain and simple.
Let us take a look at it. Please be aware that while it is brief, it is very dense, so we shall review its simplest form.
The First Valence: The Creatrix is The Foundation of All
The Goddess is The Divine as Feminine and The Female as Divine. Her Triple Energy is The Core of Human Existence: Spiritual Energy, Sexual Energy, and Creative Energy, all three inextricably intertwined, all three Feminine Energies. These Energetic Vibrations are The Basis of Creation, The Foundation of All. And Energy can only be Transformed, never destroyed.
The Second Valence: The Pentavalent Is An Adaptive Metaphysical Operating System
Majick is a Meta-Physical Technology that can be enhanced by, and is ultimately reconcilable with, Patriarchal Science, and it is the duty of all Her Practitioners to study both Disciplines and work toward their reconciliation and integration, tempered by the awareness that they cannot yet know how said reconciliation shall ultimately manifest.
The Third Valence: Women Must Reclaim All That Is Theirs
A New Matriarchy is to be founded. Without exception, all that once belonged to The Goddess must be reclaimed. Without exception, all that once belonged to Women must be reclaimed. The Masculine Qualities of The Race are to be reclaimed and reintegrated by Women. The birth of Daughters is preferred over the birth of sons.
The Fourth Valence: The Creatrix Has Many Aspects
The Goddess reveals Herself in Many Aspects. All of Her Aspects are to be honored. All of Her Aspects are to be considered paramount. Any 'god' is to be 'consort' and equal only in regard to an individual Aspect of The Goddess, never to The Goddess Herself. In each of Her Aspects, Priestesses shall always have precedence. Priesthoods are always to be discouraged.
The Fifth Valence: The Pentavalence is The Community Of The Five Valences
"The Pentavalence" is all of Her Practitioners who gather under these precepts as Solitaries, Covens, Groves, Arrays, and Cults, each honoring and worshiping which of Her Aspects they shall choose, in the manner they shall choose, consistent with the precepts of "The Pentavalent". We may individually call ourselves by different titles, "Witch", “Shaman”, "Practitioner", but, all together, we are "The Pentavalence": The Community of The Five Valences and our common goal is the establishment of a New Matriarchy.
Okay, your eyes may have glazed over a bit. As I said, it is short – only 356 words including the names of each Valence – but it is very dense.
So what do these 'Five Valances' mean?
Let's start with the word itself, Valance. The dictionary definition is thus: VALENCE: noun 'Chem.' 1) The quality which determines the number of atoms or groups with which any single atom or group will unite chemically. 2) The relative combining capacity of an atom or group compared with that of the standard hydrogen atom. Latin - 'valentia', "strength, worth", from 'val', root of 'valere'. VALENT: suffix - "strength, worth, value". Latin - singular of 'valens', past participle of 'valere', "to be strong".
Simply put, a Valance is combination term meaning 'strengths/worths/values'. And Penta comes from the Greek word 'pente', meaning five. Therefore The Pentavalent is a set of five combined 'strengths/worths/values' of a metaphysical nature.
But what do they mean?
Again, it is E who will explain; “It will not surprise many of you that the vast majority of human concepts regarding deities and their nature is anthropocentric nonsense, evolved out of tales told around camp fires thousands of years ago and based upon a combination of fear and the echoes of race memory.
Let me go straight to the point: there is no 'God', not as most of you conceptualize 'God'. However, there is a Source of All.
But even my race, which in its prime explored in ways that you will not be capable of for a very long time, could never actually find said Source. We did however find Its Shadows and Echoes and from that we determined a number of things.
First, as Its Name implies, It is in All, Its Creative Energy imbuing everything throughout all of Creation with Its basic nature. Because your presently bi-gendered race rightly perceives Creative Energy as Feminine, calling The Source of All “The Goddess” or, better still, “The Creatrix”, is an accurate and effective way of labeling It.
Second, because The Source of All is a functionally infinite concept, even my race needed to 'break it down' into more workable elements. The details of how we did that are not relevant here as they are mostly beyond your race's present capabilities.
But the basic concept is well within your reach, what Buddhists call Tulpas, a manifested Thought Form. By focusing individual or collective Will upon a specific Aspect of The Creatrix, meaning a specifically Named Goddess – such as Astarte, Kali, or, Bride – a Tulpa may be invoked out of The Creatrix, a part of Her that can be understood and related to, and therefor directed.
As we are all part of The Source of All, this is really just reaching into our own Being. All is within each of us.
But...once one has invoked any Aspect one must attend to two things. First, Tuplas can take on a life of their own, so attend closely to them. And second, they live through your focus of your Will, so if your Practice fades, they will likely fade as well.”
In E's explanation you should be able to understand all of The First Valence: The Creatrix is The Foundation of All. It's pretty straight forward really.
You should also be able to understand the “Majick is a Meta-Physical Technology” part of The Second Valence, Majick being “the Direction of Will through a Metaphysical Discipline to archive an outcome in the world”. And note to those who call Majick 'evil' etc, this construct also includes all types of prayer no matter the faith of those who are praying.
Majick is a technology, though not yet a Science, as it will still vary in its operation from individual to individual and from group to group. However, Majick will one day become a Science, by the methods implied in the entire Second Valence.
The Second Valance also states the overall nature of The Pentavalent as being An Adaptive Metaphysical Operating System, a useful and flexible system of Majickal Practice whose Practitioners are Metaphysical technicians, an 'operational framework', not a 'dogma'. Those who are computer literate will understand this instinctively.
A key activity within this context of “Practitioners as Metaphysical technicians” is the use of individual Talents which, as stated above, vary from person to person.
For example, in defining Community, The Fifth Valance speaks of “Solitaries, Covens, Groves, Arrays, and Cults”. Combined with the Primary Precept of The Fourth Valance - The Creatrix Has Many Aspects - each of these can focus upon one Goddess within that Community, which can be just a single individual, to invoke the 'deity' Tulpas that E speaks of, yet still be part of that greater Community.
And there is absolutely no reason why the individual Practitioners could not freely move between these various “Covens, Groves, Arrays, and Cults” and even be members in good standing a several of them. That allows The Temple to grow and flourish beyond a single 'home base'. The only requirement for membership would be to operate within the Precepts of The Pentavalent, which as you can see, are quite inclusive and flexible.
The Third Valence: Women Must Reclaim All That Is Theirs is also a fairly straight forward statement and certainly the most controversial part of The Pentavalent because it is the Valance that is the most socio-culturally radical of all The Five Valances.
It expresses the Essence and Primary Goal of the whole movement; the creation of a New Matriarchy and clearly outlines the criteria by which this is to be done. More of the details will be discussed in the following sections.
The Fourth Valence: The Creatrix Has Many Aspects, is about the creation and honoring of Aspects within the framework of The Creatrix being a Feminine Energy.
It is also the only Valence with 'political considerations'. E and I debated about the last line, “Priest-hoods are always to be discouraged.” E wished it to read “Priesthoods are banned”, but I said that was too harsh at this moment and She deferred to 'my better knowledge of humans'.
However, one day The Fourth Valance will formally ban priests, as I do expect 'creeping priestism' to manifest sooner or later. That is why I mention this now as a clarification for the future.
The Fifth Valence: The Pentavalence is The Community Of The Five Valences is in one way the simplest and most self explanatory; if you follow these Precepts, you are a member of the community.
[The following is a somewhat crude analogy, but I believe it gives one a fairly good outline of the concept.]
The way this Community is envisioned to work is something akin to a Majickal version of a labor union, a Cult being like an individual union, with covens, groves, and arrays being analogous to shops and locals, and The Temple providing the umbrella organization like the AFL-CIO or The Teamsters.
In this paradigm a Sister could belong to a number of covens, groves, arrays, and Cults, as more than one Aspect of The Goddess may speak to her, something I have found to be more likely than not.
Let us imagine a Sister named Jennifer, a lawyer who lives and works in West Los Angeles and who is interested in Feminist Mysteries.
As a lawyer, she could be drawn to Justicia, Goddess of Law and Justice, Patron of Lawyers and Judges. One can find Her statue in nearly every courthouse in America, holding a sword and a set of scales, and usually blindfolded.
Jennifer could then be a member of The Cult of Justicia, and that Cult's West LA grove or array, depending upon the number of members.
Now let us say that Jennifer works at the law firm of Smith & Smith and practices criminal law at the Superior Courts of both Santa Monica and West Los Angeles. She could then be a member of a coven at her firm and covens at both those courthouses, if there are in fact other Sisters in those locations.
The latter covens could include prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges, as Justicia is The Goddess of Justice, not winning. Before the 'start of business', these Sisters could throw a Circle in a judge's chambers, a quick holding of hands and a prayer to Her. No need to burn incense and go skyclad in the main lobby.
And then again, Jennifer may not be a member of any of those covens. Her choice. Given the intense nature of her profession, she most like would be a member of at least one of them. But as you can see, this would vary from place to place, vocation to vacation, Sister to Sister.
The Pentavalent must serve each Sister as much as each Sister serves The Pentavalent. Rigidity and Dogma are the hallmarks of Patriarchy. Suppleness and Subtlety will let Sisters flow and win the day for Matriarchy in the end.
So, as we said, Jennifer is interested in Feminist Mysteries and this has led her to Isis, one of the oldest and most profound Aspects of The Goddess. She could be a solitary in The Cult of Isis, but never publicly acknowledge that, following her practice as a pure solitary. Or she could join a local coven. Again, her choice and her choice alone.
Let us say that she gathers sage in the local mountains and deserts to make smudge sticks. She might have done some research and discovered that the local Earth Mother Goddess is Chehooit, a deity of the Tongva tribe of Southern California, and that she asks for the Blessings of Chehooit when she gathers that sage. And tells no one of this, making her a pure solitary in relationship to that Aspect of The Goddess.
Suppleness and Subtlety, my Sisters, Suppleness and Subtlety.
So think, my Sisters, which Aspects of The Goddess speak to you in your personal and professional lives? For example, both the undocumented seamstress and the wealthy fashion designer could be Sisters in The Cult of Arachne, Goddess of Weaving. Truck drivers and airline stewardesses could be Sisters in The Cult of Pallas Athene in Her guise as Goddess of Traveling. And all of them could be Sisters in The Cult of Isis for the same reasons as our hypothetical lawyer Jennifer.
Now, with the above explanations in mind, let us re-read The Pentavalent...with some extra annotation.
The First Valence: The Creatrix is The Foundation of All
The Goddess is The Divine as Feminine and The Female as Divine. Her Triple Energy is The Core of Human Existence: Spiritual Energy, Sexual Energy, and Creative Energy, all three inextricably intertwined, all three Feminine Energies. These Energetic Vibrations are The Basis of Creation, The Foundation of All. And Energy can only be Transformed, never destroyed.
[This is about The Goddess]
The Second Valence: The Pentavalent Is An Adaptive Metaphysical Operating System
Majick is a Meta-Physical Technology that can be enhanced by, and is ultimately reconcilable with, Patriarchal Science, and it is the duty of all Her Practitioners to study both Disciplines and work toward their reconciliation and integration, tempered by the awareness that they cannot yet know how said reconciliation shall ultimately manifest.
[This is about the Discipline of Majick]
The Third Valence: Women Must Reclaim All That Is Theirs
A New Matriarchy is to be founded. Without exception, all that once belonged to The Goddess must be reclaimed. Without exception, all that once belonged to Women must be reclaimed. The Masculine Qualities of The Race are to be reclaimed and reintegrated by Women. The birth of Daughters is preferred over the birth of sons.
[This is about Reclaiming]
The Fourth Valence: The Creatrix Has Many Aspects
The Goddess reveals Herself in Many Aspects. All of Her Aspects are to be honored. All of Her Aspects are to be considered paramount. Any 'god' is to be 'consort' and equal only in regard to an individual Aspect of The Goddess, never to The Goddess Herself. In each of Her Aspects, Priestesses shall always have precedence. Priesthoods are always to be discouraged.
[This is about a Sisterhood of Goddesses for a Sisterhood of Women]
The Fifth Valence: The Pentavalence is The Community Of The Five Valences
"The Pentavalence" is all of Her Practitioners who gather under these precepts as Solitaries, Covens, Groves, Arrays, and Cults, each honoring and worshiping which of Her Aspects they shall choose, in the manner they shall choose, consistent with the precepts of "The Pentavalent". We may individually call ourselves by different titles, "Witch", “Shaman”, "Practitioner", but, all together, we are "The Pentavalence": The Community of The Five Valences and our common goal is the establishment of a New Matriarchy.
[This is about creating Community]
All together this is about Goddess Majick Reclaiming Sisterhood Community.
I hope that makes a little more sense now. Like all things, study will bring greater comprehension, so I urge you to go back and re-read that which still eludes you.
Now, let us look at what The Temple is meant to accomplish on the 'mundane level' and how we plan to go about doing so...
Her Prophet Explains: Part Three "The Temple's Grand Strategy"
