Are You a God-Slave? Will You Be?

[Dujanka]

for the LOLLZ.

 
I hadn't laughed until I almost p*ssed myself until a few sessions with Odin and Loki.  But it's like waiting on the rains I make no requests one will just start and hilarity ensues.

Odin is almost spittin off George Carlin but even more hilarious.  But both are completely original, I'm not comparing.  Please don't go expecting and requesting these kinds of things.  I don't want anyone's feelings hurt, hyaaa?

Really, almost p*ssed myself several times.  Hard being around people when this happens or I'm driving down the street.  Almost makes me a shut in.. Can't play pool can't swallow my beer..

Mom straight up called me a lunatic because I couldn't explain what I was laughing about... Hard when that happens.

I think part of the dom aspect is for those people that are of a subservient nature and do willingly want to please their patrons or gods.  Their just trying to get me to not trust but believe in them most of the time because I am despite all the proof they have sent to me skeptical sometimes.

[Fier]

In the book that I've been reading, I've stumbled upon the phrase "god-slave" which both intrigued me and worried me and disgusted me and terrified me.

 
I can understand why some people would choose to devote their life to a deity. I imagine that not all parts of that work are fun or enjoyable. Every job comes with tasks that are disagreeable, even if you really believe in and love the cause.

I find the term 'god-slave' problematic. Slaves did not choose their life. They did not consent to be separated from their families, forced to work for little or no pay, beaten when they didn't perform as desired, or raped when their master was horny.

If slavery was still legal in the US would god-slave be an acceptable term? Would you use the term if you were in conversation with someone who was or had been a slave?

[Nehet]

I'm thinking more along the lines of plantations with whips forcing men and women to work until they drop dead.

I get why you have that association but for me it's not like that at all.

Perhaps it has not occurred to you that someone might volunteer for this sort of relationship.  

Ausir never threatened me or demanded that I serve him.  It was more like this:

Me - Hey, Ausir, you're awesome and stuff.  Like, insanely and ridiculously awesome.  I don't know if I'm crazy for saying what I'm about to say, and I don't know how to make it work.  But, er, um...I kinda just want to belong to you, now.

Ausir - Oh, OK.  It's about time you admitted to that.

Me - Like I said, I don't know if I can make this work.  I don't know if I can do this right.

Ausir - Don't stress.  Just keep doing rituals.  There's some more complicated stuff, but we'll worry about that later.  

This led me to where I am now, which is complex.  Let's just say I basically do whatever the hell he wants.  He hasn't asked me to do anything unreasonable.  He's asked me to do hard things, yes, but nothing that would hurt me.  The bottom line is that I trust him, so this isn't as hard as you might think. Is this kind of thing for everybody?  No, of course not.  The thing is that for some people, it's harder to resist this type of relationship than it is to have it.  I think some people just fall into it naturally.  It's how they're wired.

[SkySamuelle]

I identify myself as M'Lady's handmaiden. Slave is not a particularly useful cultural term. (She's English. Very firmly Not Celtic, as she is wont to point out, but I'm still in the stages of tracking down whether that means English, or originally Saxon or Angle, or what - mostly, I'm at the stage where I need to go to England and wander around a bunch of places to make more progress, and that's obviously budget-dependent.)

Anyway, the equation for her is that I am very much Hers, my hands do Her work, and more to the point, my brain does Her work. However, it's more like being the administrative assistant to a very capable executive: I have a great deal of discretion in *how* that work gets done, and she rarely cares a lot about my method.

 
THIS resounds a lot within me.

The term godslave somehow suggests that I gave up my free will or that i am living under pretty restrictive rules.

My relationship with Hekate might be definied better as a queen-knight dynamic - She hints to me what She wants and do my best to deliver. If i take spiritual downtime that lasts a bit too long, She finds a way to reach me and bring me back -which i appreciate.

I do question what I'm asked and there was no big formal contract signed in. The relationship just evolved naturally to this point. At first the one thing She asked for were Her deipnon offerings... during last year though, as we grew closer and our comunication more consistent, I was guided toward turning one of my hobbies into something more time-consuming.

Even if i call Hekate 'the dark face of the Muse' as She fuels that coming to surface of those buried feelings that inspire art, for the longest time I didn't understand why She would be interested in encouraging my creating side. I later realized that lots of the lessons She taught me in past reflect in my writing.

I can say that nearly as soon I made a conscious decision to focus into this project many things in my life slowed or even stalled to give time to focus on that even more. It was not always pleasant, I was always free to say 'no, thank you'.

Same way,  lately i received the suggestion of excercising more so we can prepare to do some oracular work. My laziness is still getting in the way of that, but no heads are falling because of it.

Although I do take notice of Her directives, it's not like Hekate's presence in my life is invasive. Some days, She is the friend I whine on about everyday problems, some others She is a teacher, some others She's my boss.

I am coerced to think about Her every waking second of every day but She is pretty much a welcome, daily influence in my life. It works for me and I do consider it more like an honor than a chore.

[Garm]

He hasn't asked me to do anything unreasonable.  He's asked me to do hard things, yes, but nothing that would hurt me.  

Uhhhh....How do I put this?

Your not batting in Galina Krasskova's league, not by a long shot

The heathens collect stories about her and use them to scare their kids with

[SkySamuelle]

Uhhhh....How do I put this?

Your not batting in Galina Krasskova's league, not by a long shot

The heathens collect stories about her and use them to scare their kids with

 
That bad? You are making me curious.

[Garm]

That bad? You are making me curious.

 
From what I gather GK has done a lot of work with practical occultism, and if you have a background in, let's say, chaos magic, her ordeal work, that's the term she uses, makes perfect sense.

You want a way of getting past the barriers of the ego to accses a greater power.  Pain and stress are effective ways of breaking those barriers.  So to this end she has repeatedly put herself through ritualistic torture sessions seirous enough to leave her permanently scarred.  And all this is part of being a god slave.

To the people trying to build heathenery up in to a perfectly respectable religion that you can tell your grand parents you belong to without them batting an eye, she is one of their worst nightmares.

[SkySamuelle]

From what I gather GK has done a lot of work with practical occultism, and if you have a background in, let's say, chaos magic, her ordeal work, that's the term she uses, makes perfect sense.

You want a way of getting past the barriers of the ego to accses a greater power.  Pain and stress are effective ways of breaking those barriers.  So to this end she has repeatedly put herself through ritualistic torture sessions seirous enough to leave her permanently scarred.  And all this is part of being god slave.

To the people trying to build heathenery up in to a perfectly respectable religion that you can tell your grand parents you belong to without them batting an eye, she is one of their worst nightmares.

 
ew, I understand.

Thank you for explaining.

[HeartShadow]

 
Personally, I have issues with the word slave.  Again, there's the image of the plantation and the whips, and that ain't cool.

That said, I am His Eyes and His Hands in this world.  I'm not sure if I've given that choice over or if there ever was a choice - I cannot imagine ever NOT being attached this way.

I still have my mundane life - I'm mom, I'm a wife, all that good stuff.  But I am also His, and I am most definitely subservient in that relationship.  And I'm fine with that.

Slave to me implies no choice, though, and that's not where I am.  I have choice.  Every day I have choice - and every day I choose this.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

[HeartShadow]

From what I gather GK has done a lot of work with practical occultism, and if you have a background in, let's say, chaos magic, her ordeal work, that's the term she uses, makes perfect sense.

You want a way of getting past the barriers of the ego to accses a greater power.  Pain and stress are effective ways of breaking those barriers.  So to this end she has repeatedly put herself through ritualistic torture sessions seirous enough to leave her permanently scarred.  And all this is part of being a god slave.

To the people trying to build heathenery up in to a perfectly respectable religion that you can tell your grand parents you belong to without them batting an eye, she is one of their worst nightmares.

 
I can't quite figure out what you're trying to say here.  Are you saying she's doing all these things and she's misguided, or that they're the right thing for her but they make bad PR?

I especially find these comments weird considering your sig quote.

[Fier]

I get why you have that association but for me it's not like that at all.

Perhaps it has not occurred to you that someone might volunteer for this sort of relationship.  

 
If you volunteer, then I find slave to be an incorrect word choice. Priestess, maybe, instead?

[veggiewolf]

I am certainly not willing to discuss this in a thread that starts with someone being disgusted by my life.

I concur, wholeheartedly.  God-Slave is one of the terms I use to describe my religious path.  I can therefore only assume that people posting here that are going "Ew!" about GK, or god-slavery, are also doing that about MY life.

[Marilyn/Absentminded]

I concur, wholeheartedly.  God-Slave is one of the terms I use to describe my religious path.  I can therefore only assume that people posting here that are going "Ew!" about GK, or god-slavery, are also doing that about MY life.

 

Even when it's made clear that they are trying to overcome a cultural reaction to the word 'slave' in order to understand a relationship that does not involve abused indentured servitude in the historical sense?  Several people have expressed that it is not the relationship they are having this knee-jerk reaction to, but the history of slavery in the western world.

They are seeking to understand your life, or rather the relationship you have with your gods, and they are having trouble with the general and historical, non-specialized, meaning of one of the words.  That does not mean they are disgusted by your life.  I suppose that reaction could be hidden and not mentioned, but it is easier to remove a knee-jerk reaction if it is admitted to and examined.

Explaining how god-slavery (?) works might help that process.  Refusing to do so on the grounds that people are not starting off with your level of knowledge and reaction helps no-one.  Refusing to help because you disapprove of an initial word choice just ensures that those knee-jerk reactions go uncorrected.

If you don't want to answer because of the way the question is asked, and it is important enough to you to post that you don't, rather than just not answering, perhaps you could suggest a re-phrasing of the question?


Absent

[Fier]

I concur, wholeheartedly.  God-Slave is one of the terms I use to describe my religious path.  I can therefore only assume that people posting here that are going "Ew!" about GK, or god-slavery, are also doing that about MY life.

 
I thought SatSekem made it pretty clear that it was not the practice she was disgusted by, but the terminology.

I find it hard to summon sympathy for anyone who's upset that other people find their religious path naming choice upsetting when they choose to use a word that belittles decades of abuse, torture, rape, and genocide.

[veggiewolf]

...

They are seeking to understand your life, or rather the relationship you have with your gods, and they are having trouble with the general and historical, non-specialized, meaning of one of the words.  That does not mean they are disgusted by your life.  I suppose that reaction could be hidden and not mentioned, but it is easier to remove a knee-jerk reaction if it is admitted to and examined.

Explaining how god-slavery (?) works might help that process.  Refusing to do so on the grounds that people are not starting off with your level of knowledge and reaction helps no-one.  Refusing to help because you disapprove of an initial word choice just ensures that those knee-jerk reactions go uncorrected.

You're right, Marilyn.  My response was somewhat knee-jerk itself, since I do understand the "ACK!  SLAVERY! BAD!" auto-response.

If you don't want to answer because of the way the question is asked, and it is important enough to you to post that you don't, rather than just not answering, perhaps you could suggest a re-phrasing of the question?


Absent

 
Absolutely.  Let's try some rephrasing:

"I came across the term god-slave and had a variety of gut reactions to it, so I thought I'd ask for some clarifications from people that have that relationship with deity.

(1) What is God-Slavery?  Why is "-Slave" used to define the relationship?
(2) Does being a God-Slave have anything to do with BDSM?  Is it primarily sexual in nature?
(3) What makes a God-Slave different from a Servant of a God?"

Is this in line with what people are actually asking?