UPG

The Path of Eire:

Following a Path of Reconstructed Irish Polytheism

Unsubstantiated or Unverified Personal Gnosis:

Unsubstantiated or Unverified Personal Gnosis (UPG for short) is basically a term used in polytheistic reconstructionist practices to describe modern religious or spiritual practices of a specific individual (or individuals) that have developed based upon "person-specific" perceptions and interpretations of spiritual messages.  I likewise use this term in my personal spiritual practices to specify information that I may have happened upon via seership practices or intuition, but which is not attested to in any traditional source.

In other words,  these are modern practices which have been developed via impressions of practitioners and which, while they do not contradict the lore, are also not supported by the lore.

When such modern practices are presented, it is considered correct to announce them as UPG in order to distinguish them from verifiable ancient practices found in the literature and any other "original" sources.

In many cases UPG may be specific to only one individual and may not easliy generalize to others.   However, some individuals may find that they have similar and independent instances of UPG. When this pnenomena occurs among many individuals UPG often becomes "shared personal gnosis" and generally makes its way into the "shared repetoire" of the group. This has happened, for example, in Asatru where it has become generally accepted (via UPG evolving into SPG) that the Goddess Freya enjoys offerings of chocolate.

UPG, is, I believe, necessary in reconstructed religions.   For example, we know that offerings were made to the deities. However, we do not know what gestures or prayers accompanied these offerings and in many cases we do not know the specific "preferences" of the individual deities.

Additionally, as someone who believes that it is necessary to be both a scholar AND a seer when following a reconstructionist path, I do believe that the deities still speak to us. Part of being a true polytheist is admitting that the deities are distinct and separate beings, that they have likes and dislikes that may change over time. The deities did not simply stop and disappear when the Christian missionaries came. They continued to be present, continued to "be" and continued to make their "history" just as we have. They may not have been as influential upon human affairs as they had in pre-Christian times nor were they as readily "seen" or heard from, but they did continue to exist.

So, we inevitably have to ask ourselves, what developments did we miss, as a collective human race, when we began to ignore the gods of our ancestors? What changes have occured since we stopped honoring them in our daily lives nearly 1500 years ago?

I often try to compare this with a high school or childhood friend who you may have lost contact with. Let's say, that you knew a person very well in high school. While in High school, you knew his/her favorite foods, drinks, music, dances and topics of discussion. After high school, however, you went your separate ways and lost touch with one another. However, that person did not cease to exist. He/she did things that you knew nothing about and had experiences that you could not imagine.     However, you lost touch with this individual and knew nothing about any of this until you met up again with him/her at your fifteen year reunion. At the reunion you found that he/she was still, essentially the same person you knew, but that small things changed. Perhaps instead of soda, he/she now additionally liked iced tea with lemon or perhaps instead of Aerosmith, he or she was listening to the Dave Matthews Band. Not major changes, but changes that you still had to be made aware of if you wanted to "re-friend" that individual.

So, in this analogy, if we consider the gods as our "old high school" friends, UPG makes quite a bit of sense.   I believe that UPG allows us to begin to "catch up" with the deities were we left off with them, to learn more about them and to "re-friend" them.

This phenomenon is not entirely novel. In the vestiges of non-monotheistic religions in our own times, we see similar situations. For example, in Haitian Vodou, it has become widely accepted that the lwa Erzulie Freda adores the perfume Anais-Anais and prefers Virginia Slim cigarettes. Obviously, Virginia Slims and Anais-Anasi perfume did not exist in the 1700's - so this is a new preference for this spirit that personal insight and messages from the lwa herself have confirmed. Another example - who hasn't gone into a restaurant serving Thai or other Asian cuisines and seen the shrines of the owner in the corner or high on a shelf? Many times, I have seen soda-pop and cookies sitting on these shrines. I am sure diet sodas did not exist when this religion was founded. We additionally, see this phenomena in other reconstructed religions. I have given the previous example of Freya and chocolates, but I have also heard of other instances in other traditions. For example, I have heard some Kemetic Reconstructionists insist that Anubis likesTootsie rolls (without the wrapper). While I can't verify this for a fact, it is interesting that this seems to be a widespread conclusion amongst certain members of the community.

Finally, I feel it necessary to mention a few "cautionary" words of advice when it comes to UPG. First off, UPG should never contradict what we do know of spiritual practices based upon mythology, folklore, archaeology, and other "original" texts.   Secondly, we must learn to discern actual "messages from the gods" from that of our own imagination. This is not easy to do and it often trips up even the best of us. Therefore, it is even more necessary to share UPG in order to see if others are coming to the same conclusions. If they are, it is more likely a "genuine message" rather than one's imagination.

So, in an effort to explore this idea, I intend to begin to share some of my own  UPG on the following pages. As mentioned, I believe that this is a way for us to grow as a movement and to begin to develop some "unity" in practice and belief. Hopefully, some individuals reading this will have had similar experiences and will also share them, thus taking UPG to the next level of "Shared Personal Gnosis".

My blog, The Well and the Salmon, also deals with this topic.

Various Categories of UPG:

Ritual Gestures

Deity Offerings