“The blessed protector of a town is a Pennate God or holy Guardian Angel. The secret rector of any city is its special Deity. The Protector Spirit of any family is its spiritual director. All of these Genii or mysterious “Jinns” of family, race, nation, tribe, or clan, certainly are the Pennate Gods of ancient times, who continue to exist in the Superior Worlds.”
-Samael Aun Weor, Gnostic Magic of the Runes
The pennate gods are the guardians of all cities, countries, towns and homes.
Countless ancient cities and countries have gods, saints and wise masters as their guardians that are honored with statues and churches in their name.
The goddess Athena is well-known as the patron saint of the Greek city of Athens. A beautiful golden statue of the Divine Mother Mary at the Notre-Dame de la Garde cathedral in Marseille watches over the sailors of the port, and is still considered by locals to be a guardian of the city. Joan of Arc watches over all of France, while Saint Francis protects the cities of San Francisco and Rome.
The pennate gods, patron saints, guardians of the city and country remind us of our connection to these divinities, who offer their protection and guidance when we remember them and dutifully pay respect and homage.
The divinity at the center of a city is also emblematic of the divinity at the center of ourselves. Gnostic psychology teaches that we have an internal psychological city containing different neighborhoods and streets populated by our various mental and emotional states. We can see our psychological city easily in dreams when we are in dangerous or pleasant neighborhoods it indicates something about our internal psychology.
We want to have a conscious center of gravity inside ourselves dedicated to our innermost Being. Inside our psychological city we want to build an altar, a temple, a church, a place to remember and pray to our internal divinity.
In ancient Atlantis the god of the ocean Neptune was the pennate god of the main city and was paid tribute in a beautiful temple.
“The God Neptune governed Atlantis wisely. The very sacred temple of this Holy God was dazzlingly admirable. The stockade or silver-coated walls of this temple were amazing with their remarkable beauty. All of its pinnacles and ceilings were made out of the best quality solid gold.
All of the royal splendors of ancient times, the ivory, silver, gold, and brass, radiantly glowed within the Temple of Neptune. The gigantic sacred sculpture of the God Neptune was made completely of pure gold.
The minds of his Atlantean devotees were infused with profound veneration by the mysterious, ineffable, golden statue, which was mounted on a beautiful chariot and pulled by exotic winged steeds, with a respectable court of one hundred gleaming sea nymphs around him.”
-Samael Aun Weor