Basics: the Clarene (Variations)

For the next few weeks, we’ll be delving into the 30 Days of Devotion, a devotional writing project that helps us explore the gods we worship. We will do each of these for each of the Four Gods. If you are an Other Person or exploring the Four Gods, feel free to add your own comments – or join in!

If you have another topic you would like to see written on, you can email me (aine@daoineile.com) or message me on Facebook – but my writing will likely go to one of my other blogs, as we’re focusing on the Otherfaith at this blog for the time being.

Variations on the Clarene

Today, we’ll be going over some variations the Clarene has – deity and regional wise.

Regional

Regional variations or differences in how the Clarene presents are largely unexplored at present. These can only be understood as more people become involved with the Four Gods and, in doing so, we learn more about how they move in our world.

I can, however, share my own experiences.

Here in Tucson, the Clarene is more housebound. She overwhelms me in the gardens, or sometimes in the parks, and in the kitchen. Her presence is heavy there, thick. I see her long dark fingers wrapped around a teacup; I see her smiling at me with those wry lips. Her endless locks of hair are tied with colorful cloth. She is smiling, and she is slow-moving. She rests, often.

I see her too in the flowers and blossoming spring, but summer with its sticky heat seems a time she is not fond of. She breathes to me in spring and fall and winter.

In Seattle, however, she is loud. This fits, as it is one of the Other People’s sacred cities, and she is associated with the Space Needle. And the water makes her active as well. (She does take to the sea, at times.) The city is living, and so she is living. The greenery, too, makes her feel alive to me.

She is with me every step. She overwhelms as I walk along the concrete. She talks, constantly; she grabs hold of my hand and leads. She’s been pointing me there for years, since I first set foot there. I’ve dreamt and dreamed of that city, of her city, as if some great horn were calling me there.

She is expansive there, unlike here in Tucson. Here she guides with whispers and gentle motions. But in Seattle, she rattles your skull and resets your compass to better sights.

Here, in Tucson, she sits with tea and teaches and bides her time. Here she shows us the time she spent waiting and tending the land. She teaches us about patience and perseverance. She teaches us about waiting for the rain. She shows us how to last, even in the desert, and how to see the beauty around us, even in the heat.

Claire Clarice Clarene

I mentioned this name in my previous post. The name given to her by her mother, and then later stripped away, helps us see who the Clarene was as a child. This is not our King, the leader of the People, but instead a god waiting to claim her throne. She can be childlike, or she can be a rush of power and anger.

Not the huge, towering god we know, she is smaller. But she is no softer, and her edges are in fact rougher. She is more faery, more wild, more teeth. And she is bubbling rebellion. She is confusion, the teenage god we do not see in the Clarene. This name was sundered from the Clarene, her mother claiming it, refusing to give it to the Clarene just as she refused to give the Clarene a throne. And there is anger there, tattered family lines. We see a god struggling to mature until the heel of another that does not want her to.

But there is promise there too – because she gets out from under and creates a whole world, effectively flipping off her mother as she comes into her own power.

the Ophelene

Not truly a variation, as the Ophelene is a separate god herself, we haven’t returned to this deity – a syncretic deity of the Ophelia and Clarene – since we first mentioned her.

Though the Clarene is a protector and has plenty of weaponry and reactionary roles, the Ophelene is a retributive force. She takes armor and sword from the Clarene, often coming forth clad in steel. She comes upon a white horse, but she presents just as often as a scrappy fighter willing to defend her people. the Ophelene is not so much a force to be called upon for vengeance as a god to act-as. She challenges us to make the world better. Her retribution is for the oppressed and wounded, but her swords are not just justice. They are a demand to be better, to create a world where she doesn’t need to be called to so often. She demands we turn the sword on ourselves, that we see the world and ourselves in it as they truly are.

This contrasts to the Clarene, who, while offering us dark mirrors and asking us to be better, does not bring the weight the Ophelene does. the Clarene buries and cooks and remakes; the Ophelene slices and splits, but she won’t be there when we need putting together again. She’s the revolution of the Clarene and Ophelia combined. She leaves the healing for them.

Previous Posts

Basics: the Clarene (Masterpost)
Basics: the Clarene (Origins)
Basics: the Clarene (Symbols)
Basics: the Clarene (Myths)
Basics: the Clarene (Family)
Basics: the Clarene (Spirits) 
Basics: the Clarene (Names)

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New visitor and a little confused where to start? Head over to our About and Otherfaith pages, and then meander over to the beginning of our ‘basics‘ series. Any questions can be directed to my email aine@daoineile.com.

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