I was doing some research yesterday, which got me thinking, about the secret name of Rome, the other name of Rome which it is held sinful to disclose except during the rites of the mysteries

Rome
This then reminded me of the story of Isis tricking Ra to learn his true name. Other examples:


From Green Witchcraft:
Should the ancient ones reveal their name to you, it is like them giving you a private access line to them, and to tell it is a breech of trust.

I have a couple of questions for those who have a relationship with deity.

Have your gods revealed their true names to you?

Does calling them by their true names, indeed always work like a private access line?

If to know their true name, gives you power over that entity, why would they give you that power?

or

None of the above?

I know this is really, really picky, but it's 'breach' not 'breech'. and I'm only mentioning it because it wasn't written by you!



Yep : they're the same as they're known names. Either that, or they're fooling me.



No more than any other name. What's important is the relationship.



I can't imagine.

Interesting!

There's an aggressive, trickster Loa of the crossroads known as Kalfou, which translates from the Creole into "four roads". This, apparently, is not his true name - you only find out his true name if you've initiated as a priest.

I sometimes wonder if this is not only to give more magical power to initiates but also to protect people who don't have a true need of him from working with him too closely. He's like Loki in that Vodouisants will give him offerings to keep him away from their work rather than to draw him closer. Personally I've only done magic under his patronage once.

When I did my Sekhem attunement I read part of a book called the Goddess Sekhmet by Robert Masters which said the Kemetic Gods had 4 thousand names, one thousand known only to the Gods, another thousand to the Gods and other high up beings, one thousand to the priests (dependant on how well trained and competent in the Mysteries they were), in the final thousand 500 were known to the Magician priests and 500 were known to the people. One name was utterly private, known only to the God.

I was told by my Sekhem Master to pick the four which had a personal resonance and keep them private as a personal name between myself and Sekhmet should I ever wish to speak to Her.

I was taught that people can have these personal names, the name of their soul.

I would agree to keeping them private.

I agree with this. We have many relationships in our lives, and often we use names other than 'true names' when we speak to those people, e.g. love, mum, dad, hey you, etc. The relationship is far more important than the name. There are many people in the world with the same name as my boss but he is the only one I have the boss/employee relationship with, so if I call any of the others they're just going to look at me confused and wonder who I am.

Once, in a morphine induced dream, I was told the true name of one of the angels, which I instantly forgot as it was about 28 syllables long! I would distrust any 'true names' of less than 4 syllables as something shared amongst initiates to make their path more secret, rather than any verity of 'true name' revealed direct from deity.

Personally I feel my Gods are beyond names, the words I use to call them are titles, even those that are considered as 'names' in our language.

Rhiannon

In my experience the secret name is not actually a name. it is more , or was for me, a knowledge I was given that I may call on when needed, either it by me or me by it. It was revealed to me when I finally gave up fighting deity, or the concept. There is in fact no name to it and it is a kind of 'direct line', always answered but I think that is because it is only 'called' when the balance requires. I still tend to work without any deity, certainly not with any worship, but at times I know I have to bend a bit as I am part, not whole.

In my own tradition of the Craft we have the so-called "secret names" of the God and Goddess (the former is given at the concluson of the second-degree, the latter at the end of the third) - some people however give them both at third. (You're told to meditate on the gods for a few minutes facing the altar - they are then whispered into your ear). I don't really assign too much importance to this - I pass them on more out of tradition than anything else - but it does amaze me that some people seem to get obsesses by them and more than one person has tried to weedle them out of me in the past.

It's been suggested to me that its a snob/elitest thing - but most of the ancient magical traditions had names for the gods known only to the priesthood so if it is a snob thing then at least we're in good company......!

BB Peter

I must have a weird interaction. No names at all, either her to me or me to her. We have a jovial sort of relationship and there would be no question of me holding sway over her in any way. I love her to bits and it would be like crapping in my porridge at brekker. I do though have a private access line (I liked this) 24/7 to her as she does to me.
I think the names thing comes with literacy and a sort of cross culture idea. I find it a bit contrived (based of course wholly on my own limited personal experience). Any goddess here will have a corresponding figure elsewhere with another name and varying characteristics. I think we feel the need to complicate out lives a little too much with lots of secrets and forget that there are cetain things in the world that are common to all peoples; sun god, moon god, god of the harvest, sex the need for ritual and untold things etc. same figures different names.
As far as holding power over the gods goes, even berlusconi won't allow anyone to get a hold over him so i can't see the gods just giving away power. If you are an even slightly intelligent god you would do it imo. Sounds more like a human invention to lend a bit of mystery to things.

Deep meditative state chanting for me is a good way to truly connect not just with a deity and with the personal names closely assosciated to them. Its like getting to know all parts and aspects of the energies and spirit. The names of a deity sometimes reflect their different guises and if there is a name or a guise of a diety that you have strongest connection with in my experience it can be the clearest line between you and them. Which is not to say that it will always be answered in the way that you would like or immediately however the message may be received faster, quicker, clearer because that particular link between you and them is strong.

Many cultures believe that to know a beings true name is to know their essence and therefore to have ability to exert power over them. i.e. you cannot send an intention out without knowing the true identity of the person it is sent to or about? Magical working names are often guarded from outsiders to a group to protect from anyone or anything that may intend to work malicious intent towards them or influence them in some way i.e. playing with free will. Much harder to do I would imagine without access to the name of the addressee. Thus I think it might have more to do from protecting yourself from harm than actually to willingly give power over you to another if you see what i mean?

BBs Lantern_Light

Not secret ones as far as I am aware though Meave did give quite a comprehensive list of names She had been called over the years... Some of which I freely admit I had never heard of nor can I remember!

I try to avoid names now where I can, I feel more comfortable addressing "generic" rather than "specific" within my workings, partly because it all goes to same place and partly because I learnt the hard way that Invoking can be more trouble than its worth!