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Author Topic: How the Gods appear to you?  (Read 3498 times)

everlearning

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How the Gods appear to you?
« on: February 08, 2012, 01:09:13 am »
Hi.  I'm joining this board really because I'm curious as to what other people might think about this and google is ridiculously unhelpful when I'm trying to find anything pagan.  

My connection with my patron deities is mostly through dreams. When I began my path, Hecate sent someone to me.  It was in the moment that I jolted awake that I saw her, just one brief look but I knew absolutely that she had been there.  I won't describe her in detail, but her face was painted grey and she seemed to be covered in either dust, dirt or ash.  

Other deities have also reached out to me, but always with in the context of a dream.  This was the first one that actually appeared on that border between dream and waking.  I've been, well, informed that I'll be working with another deity soon: Manannán mac Lir.  Which is particularly interesting since I work mostly with females.

And after a few weeks, I received another dream visitor.  He appeared right at that border of dreaming and waking as well, but seemed a lot more embodied.  The thing is, he was also sort of splotched/spotted with dirt, dust or ash.

So long story short, has anyone else experienced seeing deities or messengers from deities with ash on them?  Is this a thing?  I mean, they both have relationships with the Underworld, so I imagine it's something like that, but I'm wondering if it might also be something more.  

Thanks!

Sharysa

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Re: How the Gods appear to you?
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2012, 05:03:39 pm »
Quote from: everlearning;41938
I've been, well, informed that I'll be working with another deity soon: Manannán mac Lir.  Which is particularly interesting since I work mostly with females.

And after a few weeks, I received another dream visitor.  He appeared right at that border of dreaming and waking as well, but seemed a lot more embodied.  The thing is, he was also sort of splotched/spotted with dirt, dust or ash.

So long story short, has anyone else experienced seeing deities or messengers from deities with ash on them?  Is this a thing?  I mean, they both have relationships with the Underworld, so I imagine it's something like that, but I'm wondering if it might also be something more.  

Thanks!

I've never experienced that kind of directness with my own patron being the very subtle Morrigan, but dirt/dust and ash definitely give me "death" vibes. Manannán mac Lir is a god of the sea and death, and is often considered a psychopomp to the Underworld. He is also associated with the weather, especially mist and fog; do you live somewhere near the sea, or a place where it's rainy/foggy often?

It's also nearly the end of winter, which is a symbolic "death" of the land. Maybe Manannán wants you to work a winter/spring ritual.
« Last Edit: February 26, 2012, 05:04:20 pm by Sharysa »
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monsnoleedra

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Re: How the Gods appear to you?
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2012, 05:40:03 pm »
Quote from: everlearning;41938
Hi.  I'm joining this board really because I'm curious as to what other people might think about this and google is ridiculously unhelpful when I'm trying to find anything pagan.
 

That is very much true for a lot of subjects.  Especially given that much of the 'Unhelpful" facets in my opinion are derived from opinion passed as fact or aping of the same material over and over which was never founded on fact.

Quote
My connection with my patron deities is mostly through dreams. When I began my path, Hecate sent someone to me.  It was in the moment that I jolted awake that I saw her, just one brief look but I knew absolutely that she had been there.  I won't describe her in detail, but her face was painted grey and she seemed to be covered in either dust, dirt or ash.
 

That definately is a far cry from what I have known Hekate / Hecate as appearing as in all the years i've followed her.  Most times as the "Illuminated One" in that she is bathed in a aura of gold or sun light / torch light.  Occasionally in a foamy crest type aura that reminds me of the heavy surface and breakers of the ocean / seas.  The best description I can think of her in her chthonic role is from the Argonautica where she appears to Jason as a dark goddess with snakes wrapped about her and flames of the underworld.

But never have I personaly seen or heard of any of her followers seeing her with an ashen face, which to me seem's to indicate her association with the unrestful dead and driving those spirits before her.

Quote
Other deities have also reached out to me, but always with in the context of a dream.  


Just about every god / goddess I am bound to and honor has appeared to me in many forms and guises within dream time.  Some in human form, other times in animal form a few times with avatars that speak for them or convey a message.

I know for me though that for each dream sequence they appear in there area dozen physical encounters or situations that I know them to be there for.  Artemis is the Stag that just appears out of the mist or the full moon that illuminates you.  Hekate / Hecate is the baying of hounds that echoes down the valley, the shape that forms in the shifting fog that one moment looks like a dog the next torches or even the smell of earth or water upon the air.  Bast and Pahket to me are the dry dusty smell of the heat of the day.  The tracks of a large cat that is left in the new snow or the impressions in the soft mud.  They are all certain sounds upon the night winds that roll down from the mountain pass or smells that get carried to your nose for but an instant, leaving you wanting more and wondering at the same time.

Truthfully to think of a face that is grey or discolored and touched with ash or dust makes me think of Medusa not Hekate / Hecate.  Not saying your wrong at all just what it made me think of.  Possibly the winter face of Demeter as the land lies cold and gray while persephonie awaits in the underworld.  Shadows upon everything as death or deep sleep holds firmly upon the landscape and the skies are cold and grey above them.

Pain and Light

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Re: How the Gods appear to you?
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2012, 12:17:33 am »
Quote from: monsnoleedra;44176
Truthfully to think of a face that is grey or discolored and touched with ash or dust makes me think of Medusa not Hekate / Hecate.  Not saying your wrong at all just what it made me think of.  Possibly the winter face of Demeter as the land lies cold and gray while persephonie awaits in the underworld.  Shadows upon everything as death or deep sleep holds firmly upon the landscape and the skies are cold and grey above them.


Hmm...you know wat this makes me think of? Melinoe, which according to theoi.com is probably an Orphic title for Hekate. Melinoe isn't exactly ashen, but partly black, partly white...coupld be interpreted that way, maybe. Or maybe I'm insane :-P

http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Melinoe.html

A little bit, from the little information on the page:

Quote

MELINOE was a frightful underworld Goddess who presided over the propitiations offered to the ghosts of the dead. She wandered the earth at night with a retinue of ghosts, striking fear into the hearts of mankind. Her limbs were black one one side of her body and white on the other, revealing her dual chthonian and heavenly aspects.

monsnoleedra

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Re: How the Gods appear to you?
« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2012, 12:53:04 am »
Quote from: Pain and Light;44210
Hmm...you know wat this makes me think of? Melinoe, which according to theoi.com is probably an Orphic title for Hekate. Melinoe isn't exactly ashen, but partly black, partly white...coupld be interpreted that way, maybe. Or maybe I'm insane :-P

http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Melinoe.html

A little bit, from the little information on the page:


That one always makes me think of an old Star Trek episode where the race is half black / half white.  Almost bi-secting the body from head to crotch though the face was very apparent with its 50 / 50 placement of color.

But back onto the topic I could see that for Hekate / Hecate, especially in her role of leaving meals for the dead and/or driving the spirits of the restless dead before her.  When you connect her to the usage of lustral eggs and beans as part of her Hecate Supper's.  While the physical description doesn't match it does match up a bit to her Chaldean role in some aspects.

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Re: How the Gods appear to you?
« Reply #5 on: February 29, 2012, 09:43:10 am »
Quote from: everlearning;41938
Hi.  I'm joining this board really because I'm curious as to what other people might think about this and google is ridiculously unhelpful when I'm trying to find anything pagan.  

My connection with my patron deities is mostly through dreams. When I began my path, Hecate sent someone to me.  It was in the moment that I jolted awake that I saw her, just one brief look but I knew absolutely that she had been there.  I won't describe her in detail, but her face was painted grey and she seemed to be covered in either dust, dirt or ash.  

Other deities have also reached out to me, but always with in the context of a dream.  This was the first one that actually appeared on that border between dream and waking.  I've been, well, informed that I'll be working with another deity soon: Manannán mac Lir.  Which is particularly interesting since I work mostly with females.

And after a few weeks, I received another dream visitor.  He appeared right at that border of dreaming and waking as well, but seemed a lot more embodied.  The thing is, he was also sort of splotched/spotted with dirt, dust or ash.

So long story short, has anyone else experienced seeing deities or messengers from deities with ash on them?  Is this a thing?  I mean, they both have relationships with the Underworld, so I imagine it's something like that, but I'm wondering if it might also be something more.  

Thanks!

 
Mostly for me as well, the deities have revealed themselves to me in dreams.  However, I've had a few instances when I was younger where I could feel an invisible hand making direct contact with me, either to keep me from a dangerous fall, or to comfort me when I was very troubled.  I've never had a very direct viewing of my deities though.  I would definitely look into that imagery to see if she was trying to tell you something.

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Re: How the Gods appear to you?
« Reply #6 on: March 03, 2012, 09:39:57 am »
Quote from: everlearning;41938
When I began my path, Hecate sent someone to me.  It was in the moment that I jolted awake that I saw her, just one brief look but I knew absolutely that she had been there.  I won't describe her in detail, but her face was painted grey and she seemed to be covered in either dust, dirt or ash.


Hecate, when I still worked with her, never appeared so to me, but then she didn't wear a traditional/conventional aspect either (she favoured the ageless goth look, a bit like Death from the Sandman comics).

Generally, I've been the opposite - whatever deity I was in contact with, never contacted me in dream. It was either wide awake, like back then, or through dreamless sleep, like now.
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Celtag

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Re: How the Gods appear to you?
« Reply #7 on: March 03, 2012, 02:48:03 pm »
Quote from: Chatelaine;44760
Hecate, when I still worked with her, never appeared so to me, but then she didn't wear a traditional/conventional aspect either (she favoured the ageless goth look, a bit like Death from the Sandman comics).

Generally, I've been the opposite - whatever deity I was in contact with, never contacted me in dream. It was either wide awake, like back then, or through dreamless sleep, like now.
I would say that Amaethon does not come to me in dreams. He usually just appears as a sign or himself on rare occasions. He will sometime come as a bird. Cerridwen on the other hand usually comes to me in my dreams.
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Agarista

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Re: How the Gods appear to you?
« Reply #8 on: March 09, 2012, 05:07:43 pm »
Quote from: everlearning;41938
Hi.  I'm joining this board really because I'm curious as to what other people might think about this and google is ridiculously unhelpful when I'm trying to find anything pagan.  

My connection with my patron deities is mostly through dreams. When I began my path, Hecate sent someone to me.  It was in the moment that I jolted awake that I saw her, just one brief look but I knew absolutely that she had been there.  I won't describe her in detail, but her face was painted grey and she seemed to be covered in either dust, dirt or ash.  

Other deities have also reached out to me, but always with in the context of a dream.  This was the first one that actually appeared on that border between dream and waking.  I've been, well, informed that I'll be working with another deity soon: Manannán mac Lir.  Which is particularly interesting since I work mostly with females.

And after a few weeks, I received another dream visitor.  He appeared right at that border of dreaming and waking as well, but seemed a lot more embodied.  The thing is, he was also sort of splotched/spotted with dirt, dust or ash.

So long story short, has anyone else experienced seeing deities or messengers from deities with ash on them?  Is this a thing?  I mean, they both have relationships with the Underworld, so I imagine it's something like that, but I'm wondering if it might also be something more.  

Thanks!

Your post is really interesting, I´m pagan from i was a teenager and i had a lot of experiences... in Greece I had a strong experience with Artemis, I felt her in a mountain and after in the archaelogical museum I saw that there in the ancient world she had a temple (so strong for me).... but I think is now when i have the stronger situation with a god. Im devote of Apollo, I was and i am and i didn´t know why, i thought was because I like the art... but now i know why, he is my guide in my life and i´m seeing that now at this moment of my life, now i can understand all what happened to me with him, who helped me so many times. I went to Delphi years ago and there i felt him and i could see how cats made strange things at night... there, i promised him a thing, a very important thing to me in my life... years after, now, that i was in a very bad moment of my life, one day i was craying so much, i didnt know what i could do in my life and his sculpture was near me, i look at him and i remembered what i promised him when i went to delphi... i felt so much better and i began to find a solution. Today again i felt really bad... and again happened to me something that really helped me, today i feel that a new life begin for me, because really i need that... and i could understand that he is a guide for me, what he is, what he means for us, specially what he means to me... Also after i went to Delphi in a dream i saw his eyes, one second...
in dreams i dreamt with Hermes also one day...
Some people tell me that can be my imagination, yes why not, i dont think so but.., for example today that at morning i was really sad and now i feel that  at least i could see the light... i´m happy believing that gods appear to us.

outlaw393

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Re: How the Gods appear to you?
« Reply #9 on: March 29, 2012, 11:40:08 pm »
Quote from: everlearning;41938
So long story short, has anyone else experienced seeing deities or messengers from deities with ash on them?  Is this a thing?  I mean, they both have relationships with the Underworld, so I imagine it's something like that, but I'm wondering if it might also be something more.  


Out of all my gods, Odin is the only one that has ever appeared in a dream. But he didn't have ash on him.
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veggiewolf

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Re: How the Gods appear to you?
« Reply #10 on: March 30, 2012, 10:31:28 am »
Quote from: outlaw393;48120
Out of all my gods, Odin is the only one that has ever appeared in a dream. But he didn't have ash on him.

Okay, I have to ask for a clarification here.

In this thread, you say Odin is the only one that ever appeared in a dream.  In another thread, you say that gods appear to you in

Quote from: outlaw393;48121
Dreams, sometimes. Most of the time a feeling. And in the rare occasion that I meditate.

Then, in yet another thread, when asked what the gods do for you, you say

Quote from: outlaw393;48116
Nothing, really. I don't think I've ever gotten gifts or blessings from my gods. Honestly it makes me wonder if they care about me at all.

I'm really confused by your varying responses.  To me, it reads that gods communicate with you but you don't think they care because you don't get gifts or blessings.  Could you explain what you mean?

Edited to add: This quote, in light of what I noted above, confused me even more:

Quote from: outlaw393;48123
For years I thought my patron was Odin, but recent spiritual events have forced me to step back and re-evaluate that belief. I'm still not 100% sure who my patron is, but I think Loki is a distinct possibility.

I know I'm not alone among those who honor or otherwise respect Loki, but he is very controversial in the Heathen community at large. In the Rokkatru community he is well respected, loved and honored.

While I research Rokkatru, I am currently studying Loki and his myths. And trying to figure out how I might go about honoring him. :)
« Last Edit: March 30, 2012, 10:34:03 am by veggiewolf »
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outlaw393

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Re: How the Gods appear to you?
« Reply #11 on: March 30, 2012, 01:28:37 pm »
Quote from: veggiewolf;48175
Okay, I have to ask for a clarification here.

In this thread, you say Odin is the only one that ever appeared in a dream.  In another thread, you say that gods appear to you in



Then, in yet another thread, when asked what the gods do for you, you say



I'm really confused by your varying responses.  To me, it reads that gods communicate with you but you don't think they care because you don't get gifts or blessings.  Could you explain what you mean?

Edited to add: This quote, in light of what I noted above, confused me even more:


I'm not sure what's terribly confusing here. Odin is the only god who's ever appeared to me in a dream. Ever. I get a feeling once in a while that draws me to do rituals, which I interpret as the gods communicating with me. I interacted one time with Loki when I was meditating.

I have never gotten gifts or blessings from my gods. Appearing to me and giving gifts and blessings are two different things. And no god has appeared to me in years.

And not sure what's confusing about my last quote you quoted. Loki has a possibility of being my patron and Rokkatru is the current path I am researching.
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everlearning

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Re: How the Gods appear to you?
« Reply #12 on: June 12, 2012, 04:59:04 pm »
Quote from: monsnoleedra;44176


Truthfully to think of a face that is grey or discolored and touched with ash or dust makes me think of Medusa not Hekate / Hecate.  Not saying your wrong at all just what it made me think of.  Possibly the winter face of Demeter as the land lies cold and gray while persephonie awaits in the underworld.  Shadows upon everything as death or deep sleep holds firmly upon the landscape and the skies are cold and grey above them.

 
I know it's been quite some time since I posted this, and I thank you for all of your answers.  I'm curious about the connection to Medusa.  What makes you connect Medusa with the ashen face?  I haven't been able to find anything about it, but I definitely am connected with snakes and I've loved Medusa since reading Helene Cixous' "Laugh of the Medusa."  It's not often, but when I dream of snakes it's either deeply symbolic of something coming up or prophetic due to their association with a place or object (such as where I would go to grad school).  

I haven't quite discovered what my relationship with Macmannan will resemble, but I know it will come with time.

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Re: How the Gods appear to you?
« Reply #13 on: June 17, 2012, 03:59:08 pm »
Quote from: everlearning;41938
So long story short, has anyone else experienced seeing deities or messengers from deities with ash on them?  Is this a thing?  I mean, they both have relationships with the Underworld, so I imagine it's something like that, but I'm wondering if it might also be something more.  

Thanks!

 
Of all the times deities have appeared to me in dreams, not once have I seen them even remotely dirty.  Anpu has shown Himself to me the most, and He is always very neat and clean.  I really can't tell you what it means to see what you've been seeing.
<3 Rest in peace, Christiana. I love you so much, and I miss you like crazy already. At least you\'re not hurting anymore...May you ascend. <3

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