Aspects of the Soul

Something that isn't held by every Pagan, but a belief of my own is that there as aspects to the whole of the person. Their are a lot of Traditions, ancient and modern, that profess that the soul is divided into certain parts. I could go into great detail here, but this isn't about all of those other Traditions, this blog is about what I believe and why I believe it.
Plato spoke of three parts and he also spoke of the daemon. In his "Allegory of the Chariot" he said that Reason drove the chariot while Will and Desire where its horses. Though I believe that all three of these forces reside in us and make up aspects of our whole, I do not think Reason is in the driver seat. In his "Myth of Er" he spoke of the Will choosing its fate without the influence of either these Reasons or Desires but based purely on the habits that it had gathered in previous lifetimes. This destiny is then handed over to a guiding spirit so that the Will can drink of the River Lethe to suppress its knowledge of the Unseen world.
I've taken my own spin on things, but I find a lot of wisdom in these stories.
I may at some point down the line go into greater detail about each of these parts, but here is the general idea as I see them.

Ikon 
Not mentioned by Plato at all, this could actually be seen as more of an influence of Nietzsche though I hadn't read anything of his at the time of configuring this thought. The Ikon is everything that we perceive with our physical senses as an outward expression of the other four aspects. If you knew all the cues then you could judge every book by its cover. Everyday we make simple, little choices about our actions and our appearance that express who we are, what we think, how we feel and where we're going. The words we use, the way we stand, the clothing we wear and how we wear it are all subtle clues to who we are. This is an aspect of your whole.
Ego 
The very core of your being and your Will to Power is the "ego." The ego is the only part of you that is consistently you throughout every incarnation. In each of these incarnations we make choices based on our Reasons and our Desires and these choices eventually become habits. Once our Reasons and our Desires fade away the ego is left as a pure creature of habit, only making habitual choices. In each incarnation we are given a chance to mold and change these habits through acting with or against them based upon the influences of our Reasons and Desires.
Eros 
This aspect of the soul is that which keeps you tied to this mortal coil. Buddhists say that "life is suffering," and this suffering comes from desires. I don't go in for that whole suffering thing, but I do believe that our desires keep up living. Eros can be thought of the energy that links the Ego to the flesh, literally. Theses desires can be carnal like sex or food, they can be emotional like vengeance or love, they can be "higher" like the search for enlightenment or the need to leave the world better than it was when you came into it. 
Logos 
Reason can be the opposing force to Desire or they can compliment each other. More than just your ability to deduce ideas or basic problem solving skills, this Aspect could better be called the Observer and Cataloguer. The Logos observes the Ikon of the world, catalogs the information and deduces their meanings. In turn the Logos whispers to the Ego to change its habits based on the new information. The Reason should not be confused with "hard fact" because the Logos deals only in abstractions. In the abstract logic and facts are two different ideas. Logic dictates 1+1=2 which is subjective to the idea of more than one objective.
Daemon
Socrates and Plato both spoke of a guiding spirit, a personal god, that warned them when they were about to do something foolish. I purpose that this personal god is just that: you're own... personal... Jesus... By that I mean that when you call out to the divine, when you pray and when you seek guidance, you're talking to your Daemon. The Daemon acts as your advocate among the Divine, speaking to other Daemons, to Gods and other such thought-forms and entities. The Daemon sways your Reasons and Desires guiding you along to your destiny.


I chose Greek because the words are already there and the ideas were inspired by Greek philosophers. Daemon is the actual word used by Plato and Socrates, and it means "personification" or "spirit" and it is the root word for "demon." As it so often happens with innocuous concepts from classical cultures, the word has become bastardized. Logos has a very rich spiritual association, be the word used for the word 'word' in the opening of the gospel of John, "In the beginning was the Word." Eros was the Greek personification of Desire, better known in the modern day as his Roman counterpart (but not equivocation): Cupid. While Ego and Ikon are just the words for "Will" and "Image."
~A. Fox

Define "Pagan"

I've been told that I'm a rather conservative person when it comes to the use of words (but most certainly not in political leanings).
I personally believe that words as abstract titles that literally define the world around us we should use them accordingly.
That being said, I'm not The Authority on Paganism (yet... <^.^>), so my definition is just as (in)valid as anyone else's.
Paganism comes in many shapes and sizes and so I like to use the terms coined by Isaac Bonewits. (*Note: the terms are his, the definitions are mine)
PaleoPaganism - The rare indigenous beliefs and practices that have gone completely unmarred by outside influence.
MesoPaganism - Those primal indigenous beliefs and practices that have evolved and been influenced by (and often sync with) official religio-political groups or had been created from those influences prior to 1900ce.
NeoPaganism - (or Contemporary Paganism) Beliefs and practices that have evolved and been influenced by both previous forms of Paganism but are often divorced from certain cultural contexts as well as exhibiting  Romantic Theo-Philosophical thoughts and blends them with psychology.

 To a Meso- or PaleoPagan, the idea of worshiping gods for pantheons was very alien. The Roman concurred cultures were often subverted into renaming their gods to be synced with Roman gods. They got to worship their Old Ones in idea, but not in name. The Greeks believed that gods other than their own existed, but viewed them on a plain of demigods, as only one set of gods could have really created everything, and the Greeks were "obviously the correct ones." The Norse believed that they were blood related to their gods, and revered them as ancestors.
Polytheists today and back then would be very offended to hear someone say that their gods are anything but very real, unique and distinct entities (sometimes having actual, physical bodies). There are others out there that will tell you quite plainly that the gods, all the gods, are just symbols or metaphors that we use to personify and understand cosmic ideas and energies.
Most Contemporary Pagans fall somewhere in between.

It's a Double Edged Blade

Since it was my blade that started the event that inspired this blog, let's talk about what it is and what it means. Before we get into the grist of it, there is a super special fancy word to call this item. The word is "Athame" pronounced in a variety of ways, most of them sound somewhat pretentious... The etymology of the word is kind of all over the place, but most figure that Mr Gardner got it from the French version of the Latin text called the Key of Solomon. This book was a Medieval codex of rituals and symbols to summon, bind and command demons and angles. The word was arthame, meaning "quill knife" which is a knife used for sharpening, you guessed it, quills. 
The tradition of using a ritual blade in Contemporary Paganism comes from British Traditional Wicca. Each Wiccan owns her own dagger while the coven collectively owns a sword that is wielded by the High Priestess to form the barrier of the ritual circle. The four central tools of Wicca come from the suits of the Tarot: Swords, Rods, Cups and Coins.
This Tradition holds that the dagger be made of steel because it is an iron alloy, double edge like the power that flows through it, and the handle be black and carve-able so that all the energies between the blade and the person can flow freely. It is a male image made of a masculine substance (iron). With the advent of eclectic Wicca and the generalization of the Pagan movement these sacred knives have taken on many different shapes and make-ups. Just about any blade seems to be usable depending on the person seeking to use it.
I tend to lean a little on the traditional side because I agree with the reasons for the traditions. I've owned my blade even before I knew why the significance of the double edge and black handle. So, this is what mine looks like.

The individual's blade is effectively a ritual phallus or a spiritual penis and as such it is the directive tool for the Will of the wielder. Of all that tools on the NeoPagan line-up, it is perhaps the most... taboo to be handled by someone else. For a witch (because we're talking about a magical implement) to hand someone else her blade is to hand someone the key to her soul, the reigns to her essential power and the ultimate weapon to be held against her. It means a lot to have a witch hand you their unsheathed dagger.  It is considered the greatest disrespect for someone to pick it up without permission (granted, if you don't know that then the owner shouldn't get his panties in a knot...).
There are differing schools on what the blade of the knife can and cannot touch and blood is the highest controversy of all. While eclectic Wiccans hold pretty fast to the idea that blood has not place in their practice, Traditional Wiccans use blood from willing persons in their magic. As a matter of fact, during a Trad Wiccan's first initiation she is pierced to let the blood flow so that she can fasten her cord. Most Kitchen Witches use a normal kitchen knife as their sacred blade and cut all sorts of things with it.  I hold, that if it is a symbol and extension of my own Will that it shouldn't cut unless threatened or in a ritual act that I might wish to use my Will to severe some bond or tie.
There are also plenty of schools that don't use a blade for one reason or another the most common two being "steel is patriarchal!" and "weapons have no place in a faith of peace."
~A. Fox