Deity fangirl/boys...seriously, is it just me?

[Edeline]

Random thread, and something a little fluffier than most, but I am genuinely curious…

So is there anybody else out there that has a completely inappropriately fan girl/boy reaction to certain deities, or am I alone and adrift on a sea of weirdness?  

Confession: I am a complete Manannan Mac Lir fan.  He’s just…awesome.  I get all gushy and fangirly whenever I read about him.  (Pathetic, no?)  I honestly don’t know what it is about him, I’ve never met him, never performed a ceremony to him, and yet I turn into a giggly thirteen year old whenever the topic comes up anywhere.  And lets face it, it’s kind of embarrassing.  It just seems like a hugely inappropriate - and completely disrespectful - way to think of a deity that I respect and revere, even if I don’t work with him directly.   I would never try and pray to him or establish contact with him, because frankly, I can’t imagine anything more mortifying than him tipping up and being all ‘oh so you’re the creepy little weirdo that fantasises about me all the time huh?  Riiiight, yeah, I’m just gonna go now…’

So seriously, am I alone in this?  Does anybody else have a bit of a fan girl/boy thing going on for a deity?  Can you still build a devotional relationship with said God/dess, or do you just give them a wide berth and serve a deity that you can worship with a more respectful reverence?

[Solstice]

So seriously, am I alone in this?  Does anybody else have a bit of a fan girl/boy thing going on for a deity?  Can you still build a devotional relationship with said God/dess, or do you just give them a wide berth and serve a deity that you can worship with a more respectful reverence?

 
You are definitely not alone, haha. I do get that way here and there, though I try to subdue it; I've never been the "Fangirl SQUEE" type person, but I do have moments where I'm like "OMG isn't that just precious? :3 "

My fangirlishness tends to come out with most anything involving birds, which is also interesting as many of my devotions go to Raven. But I get all glitter-eyed when anything to do with corvids comes up in conversation, and then I'm just all "Aren't they so cute though? OMG I'm gonna make a chibi sculpture of a raven and make it all shiny and sparkly and put it on my altar!" (Note: this happened yesterday).

For a more anthropomorphized and specific example (since you know some peeps can't help squealing over cute wickle animals, even if one is deified), I think Baldur is fucking adorable. I've never done work with Baldur (though I have with the one partly responsible for sending him to Hel -innocent whistle-) but whenever Baldur comes up in conversation I just get this big goofy grin on my face and a warm, fuzzy feeling comes over me, like I want to give him a big hug. To a lesser extent, I get that with Freyr, and I just think Heimdall is badass. Never worked with any of them, either, but I would if given the opportunity. I'm sure that I would be able to sober up a bit with the fangirling. But, I feel if I have to choke up my personality in service of a deity and find that I can't be myself, there might be some complications. It's hard for me to act serious for long, but I would definitely be respectful--just in my own, offbeat, awkward way.

Also: Hermes. Just. Hermes. XD

[stephyjh]

Random thread, and something a little fluffier than most, but I am genuinely curious…

So is there anybody else out there that has a completely inappropriately fan girl/boy reaction to certain deities, or am I alone and adrift on a sea of weirdness?  

Confession: I am a complete Manannan Mac Lir fan.  He’s just…awesome.  I get all gushy and fangirly whenever I read about him.  (Pathetic, no?)  I honestly don’t know what it is about him, I’ve never met him, never performed a ceremony to him, and yet I turn into a giggly thirteen year old whenever the topic comes up anywhere.  And lets face it, it’s kind of embarrassing.  It just seems like a hugely inappropriate - and completely disrespectful - way to think of a deity that I respect and revere, even if I don’t work with him directly.   I would never try and pray to him or establish contact with him, because frankly, I can’t imagine anything more mortifying than him tipping up and being all ‘oh so you’re the creepy little weirdo that fantasises about me all the time huh?  Riiiight, yeah, I’m just gonna go now…’

So seriously, am I alone in this?  Does anybody else have a bit of a fan girl/boy thing going on for a deity?  Can you still build a devotional relationship with said God/dess, or do you just give them a wide berth and serve a deity that you can worship with a more respectful reverence?

 
My experience with Manannan is that he likes to be liked. He's a god who genuinely enjoys being in contact with humans. I don't think you have to worry about him being put off by your interest in him.

[Aiwelin]

My experience with Manannan is that he likes to be liked. He's a god who genuinely enjoys being in contact with humans. I don't think you have to worry about him being put off by your interest in him.

Absolutely.  It took me years of approaching Nerthus with my best intentions before She accepted my seriousness.. She's just not much of a people-person.  When I first did a ritual for Manannan, I was shocked that He showed up, let alone His friendly attitude.  I honor a number of Deities regularly, but He always stops by to accept the offerings I make to Him and say a quick hello.

[Morag]

Confession: I am a complete Manannan Mac Lir fan.  He’s just…awesome.  I get all gushy and fangirly whenever I read about him.  (Pathetic, no?)  I honestly don’t know what it is about him, I’ve never met him, never performed a ceremony to him, and yet I turn into a giggly thirteen year old whenever the topic comes up anywhere.  And lets face it, it’s kind of embarrassing.  It just seems like a hugely inappropriate - and completely disrespectful - way to think of a deity that I respect and revere, even if I don’t work with him directly.   I would never try and pray to him or establish contact with him, because frankly, I can’t imagine anything more mortifying than him tipping up and being all ‘oh so you’re the creepy little weirdo that fantasises about me all the time huh?  Riiiight, yeah, I’m just gonna go now…’

IME, Manannan genuinely likes mortals, and He'd probably find your fangirling adorable. Like Stephy said, He likes being liked.

And I agree, He is totally awesome.

So seriously, am I alone in this?  Does anybody else have a bit of a fan girl/boy thing going on for a deity?  Can you still build a devotional relationship with said God/dess, or do you just give them a wide berth and serve a deity that you can worship with a more respectful reverence?

For deities I don't worship: I sort of have that for Loki? Which is very related to Tom Hiddleston, probably, but for the record I did like Loki in a fannish way before Thor/The Avengers. The fannishness has just increased now.

And Dionysos, Whom I worship. (There's a reason I consider myself a maenad, and it's not just because I tend to rip men to pieces in the forest.) And you could consider me a fan of the other deities I worship, though I'm not totally starstruck with Them, and often the fannishness takes on different qualities (I'm a fan of Manannan, say, in the way an adoring daughter loves everything her dad does, and I'm a fan of Morrigan in the way that I admire Her and want to be more like Her and when I'm feeling particularly angry and feminist I think What would Morrigan do? and the answer is invariably DECORATE HER LAWN WITH THE HEADS OF MISOGYNISTS SHOVED ON PIKES, STREWN LIKE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS which is basically what I would do, were there not these pesky laws in the way, so it makes me feel better while I buckle down to continue being an activist though I'd really rather eat pudding and watch Grey's Anatomy with my mother). So I definitely think it's possible to build a devotional relationship with a deity of Whom you're a fan.

I don't really get starstruck or incoherent over things I'm fans of these days, with perhaps Battlestar Galactica being an exception, because it's asdflkjsda;fksdf;asljfBattlestar Galactica, oh my fuck. So it's sort of weird for me to describe myself as a fan, or as fangrrling over something/someone/someOne, because I don't often do so in the usual sense that's meant.

[Louisvillian]

So is there anybody else out there that has a completely inappropriately fan girl/boy reaction to certain deities, or am I alone and adrift on a sea of weirdness?  

While I do not have that reaction, I understand it. From a very sociological perspective, neopaganism has a lot of features of modern fandom culture; the demographics have a lot of overlap, and so similar attitudes are to be expected. Not just with how people react to their deities, but also in regards to how people deal with others in the same religion. This has negative as well as positive end results, but it is what it is.

[Riothamus12]

While I do not have that reaction...

 
I don't think terms like fanboy/fangirl can really be applied here as the relationship between a person and a deity is quite different. The worship of a deity is based in philosophical and spiritual relationships related to ones perceived place in their universe and their own spiritual nature and is more closely related to the pursuit of spiritual wisdom and well being and in some cases, salvation rather than adoration alone. There is a sense that by connecting to a deity is part of connecting to inner divinity.

[veggiewolf]

I don't think terms like fanboy/fangirl can really be applied here as the relationship between a person and a deity is quite different. The worship of a deity is based in philosophical and spiritual relationships related to ones perceived place in their universe and their own spiritual nature and is more closely related to the pursuit of spiritual wisdom and well being and in some cases, salvation rather than adoration alone. There is a sense that by connecting to a deity is part of connecting to inner divinity.

 
You know, adding specifiers like "to me" to statements like this might help prevent people from thinking you're dictating a "ONE TRUE WAY".

[Nyktipolos]

The worship of a deity is based in philosophical and spiritual relationships related to ones perceived place in their universe and their own spiritual nature and is more closely related to the pursuit of spiritual wisdom and well being and in some cases, salvation rather than adoration alone.

 
I have numerous festivals, based upon ancient festivals (predominantly ancient Egyptian), which are dedicated solely to adoration of a particular deity or groups of deities. So I'd have to say this statement isn't true for me.

[veggiewolf]

I have numerous festivals, based upon ancient festivals (predominantly ancient Egyptian), which are dedicated solely to adoration of a particular deity or groups of deities. So I'd have to say this statement isn't true for me.

 
As do I.  It isn't true for me either.

[Jack]

The worship of a deity is based in philosophical and spiritual relationships related to ones perceived place in their universe and their own spiritual nature and is more closely related to the pursuit of spiritual wisdom and well being and in some cases, salvation rather than adoration alone. There is a sense that by connecting to a deity is part of connecting to inner divinity.

So what should I call it when I perform rituals for reasons of adoration alone, O Arbiter of True Religion? Because that is the thing that I actually call WORSHIP. Inner work and ascension practices are something else altogether and, to my mind, rather more self-focused than I think of worship as being.

[Morag]

I don't think terms like fanboy/fangirl can really be applied here as the relationship between a person and a deity is quite different.

 
Why am I not surprised?

The worship of a deity is based in philosophical and spiritual relationships related to ones perceived place in their universe and their own spiritual nature and is more closely related to the pursuit of spiritual wisdom and well being and in some cases, salvation rather than adoration alone. There is a sense that by connecting to a deity is part of connecting to inner divinity.

Not for everyone.

I honestly don't know how many times it can be said: if you're going to try and speak for everyone else, you're going to have a bad time.

[missgraceless]

So seriously, am I alone in this?  Does anybody else have a bit of a fan girl/boy thing going on for a deity?  Can you still build a devotional relationship with said God/dess, or do you just give them a wide berth and serve a deity that you can worship with a more respectful reverence?

I definitely get excited whenever I hear something about Quan Yin, but I try not to make it too public. My boyfriend doesn't like fangirling. Quan Yin doesn't seem to mind, though.

[Fier]

Random thread, and something a little fluffier than most, but I am genuinely curious…

 
Like Morag, I don't get fangirly over stuff. At least, not since I was 12 and was in love with Leonardo DiCaprio on Growing Pains....

But, if we are talking "deities who you don't work with but have a strong interest in", I would say Janus.