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Author Topic: Do the deities feel sadness?  (Read 11268 times)

Anon100

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Do the deities feel sadness?
« on: August 14, 2020, 07:02:22 pm »
Something which came to mind in a recent conversation I was having.

Do you believe that deities feel emotion in our interaction with them?
I know there are godspouces etc but I was more thinking of something more mundane - the sadness and joy of interacting with humans. Sense of betrayal or courage of opening up to others. Those things we take for granted every day in our friendships and interactions ( Wow, it really doesn't sound so mundane when written down ).

I honestly feel/hope they do but would be interested in everyone elses views or experiences

sevensons

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Re: Do the deities feel sadness?
« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2020, 10:09:40 am »

I honestly feel/hope they do but would be interested in everyone elses views or experiences
Hi life is a game and Gods are masters so sadness would be momentary as slip out a spell special things can happen.
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Re: Do the deities feel sadness?
« Reply #2 on: August 15, 2020, 02:17:18 pm »
Do you believe that deities feel emotion in our interaction with them?

Interesting question that may not have a simple answer. 

Emotions are, at least in part, a biological response. Emotions require a physical form and nervous system that it is substantially similar to humans.  We know that other mammals can express emotions. When you start branching into other classes of living beings, it seems less likely that they have emotions that we would recognize.  Do sharks feel guilt, butterflies sadness, or slugs joy? Likewise, do deities have a biological form sufficiently similar to ours to produce human emotions? 

I don't think deities experience emotions in the way that humans do.  There's the biology of it, but also that deities have a level consciousness and sentience we are not able to comprehend.  They may feel emotions, but it likely wouldn't be in a way or form that we would recognize. 

Simply put, you wouldn't tell a toddler that fire is hot by explaining the finer points of thermodynamic theory in Latin. Likewise, deities don't communicate with us at their level of fluency; they speak in ways that we can understand.  And we understand emotional reactions.

tl;dr - Emotions = Deity Communication for Dummies. 

"The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you." -
Neil deGrasse Tyson

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Re: Do the deities feel sadness?
« Reply #3 on: August 15, 2020, 09:07:18 pm »
Do you believe that deities feel emotion in our interaction with them?

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Re: Do the deities feel sadness?
« Reply #4 on: August 16, 2020, 01:57:09 pm »
Do you believe that deities feel emotion in our interaction with them?

You have above been given excellent feedback.

I suspect that just as deities do not experience emotions as we do (in my opinion), nor do spirits (not that the distinction between deities and spirits is for me an altogether hard and fast one), and for similar reasons as noted above by Aisling.

I will limit myself to speaking about my own experiences here regarding how spirits behave because others may have different kinds of relationships and experiences with completely different deities and spirits than me.

There is a sense in which I believe a spirit can suffer.  But it will be a kind of suffering peculiar to their nature which I do not claim to understand.

Also, spirits and deities may experience the boundaries of their identities differently than we do.  When I have perceived the suffering of a certain spirit, that suffering was also a mirror of my own suffering.

It as though the empathy and rapport we have established between us has mingled our emotions and identities both, and yet I don't say there is no distinction or boundary between our identities at all.

I have also speculated based on such experiences that the god or spirit may not at all experience the emotion or suffering I attribute to them.  Perhaps what I am perceiving is similar to how people perceive some robots to have emotions based on their artificial facial features.

The emotions we perceive in the robot tend to elicit emotional responses in humans.

At times in my experience the spirits mirror aspects of myself back to me.  How or whether they experience the other side of that interaction, I cannot say with certainty.
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Re: Do the deities feel sadness?
« Reply #5 on: August 17, 2020, 12:42:01 pm »
Do you believe that deities feel emotion in our interaction with them?

There is an actual Egyptian mythbit that describes humans as "the tears of Ra".

Whether those tears were shed in laughter or sadness is unspecified.
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Re: Do the deities feel sadness?
« Reply #6 on: August 17, 2020, 06:30:57 pm »
Do you believe that deities feel emotion in our interaction with them?

My own view is borrowed from the Chalion novels: that emotions are one of the main things humans and deities have in common. (Considering that physical needs, level of knowledge, lifespan, etc are al so different.)
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ehbowen

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Re: Do the deities feel sadness?
« Reply #7 on: August 17, 2020, 09:19:03 pm »
Do you believe that deities feel emotion in our interaction with them?

Thinking a little bit more about your question in light of the title:

I believe that all conscious beings feel emotion; it goes with the territory. Now maybe bacteria and insects don't, but I would basically regard them as living machines anyway...I feel no compunction about sterilizing or swatting them.

But I do believe that the spectrum of emotion which they feel varies depending upon the state of their soul. Uber-catholic Ann Barnhardt has done a video series on what she calls "Diabolical Narcissism". While I don't agree with all of her conclusions (and especially that the Roman church is The Only Way) she does raise some valid points.

I think that the beings which are closest to the personality of my God feel the full gamut of emotion, including sadness and regret. Remember, even in the Old Testament God regretted that he had made man after things began to go south.

On the other hand, though, I believe that the Entity Otherwise Known As Satan, and those personalities which are closest to him, have "burned out" the emotions which would let them be capable of genuine repentance. Oh, if you catch him and pin him up against the wall he'll cry and wail and say he's so sorry...but it's just crocodile tears (and for saying that I have to apologize to the crocodiles!). As soon as he's out from under the microscope he starts plotting revenge.

Just MHO.
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Anon100

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Re: Do the deities feel sadness?
« Reply #8 on: August 19, 2020, 05:26:55 pm »
There is an actual Egyptian mythbit that describes humans as "the tears of Ra".

Whether those tears were shed in laughter or sadness is unspecified.

Thanks everyone for replying. It's really nice to get more of an idea on this aspect of things.
I always reach out with a mind to touching others in the way I best understand ( emotions ) whether that be in my gardening or my days off, and it turns out this came with me in my touching my beliefs.

The thing that came up in conversation and brought this question to the fore for me was how often it seems deities are taken on for their symbolism or the power they are seen to offer and how the question of what they feel ( or how their personality may be outside of that field or the use of it ) outside of any connection to our personal situations isn't something that seems so often brought up.

I can certainly see Aisling, how their alieness of looking at things  ( or perhaps, from their view, ours? ) would make such emotions hard to comprehend or follow. Not to mention Eclecticwheel's point about the expansiveness ( and even changing form ) of their identities.
Ps. In regards your last point Aisling, I've certainly had times where I've been a dummy ;)

I quoted your post in particular Darkhawk as it just seems so beautiful and really wonderful connection to Ra as an emotional/personal being.

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Re: Do the deities feel sadness?
« Reply #9 on: August 20, 2020, 03:43:06 pm »
Thanks everyone for replying. It's really nice to get more of an idea on this aspect of things.
I always reach out with a mind to touching others in the way I best understand ( emotions ) whether that be in my gardening or my days off, and it turns out this came with me in my touching my beliefs.

Reading over this thread the thought popped into my head that perhaps while Deities may not feel like humans do, is it possible they want us to feel an emotion on their behalf? Or, give/cause an emotion for a purpose? Perhaps even to feel through us.

I have nothing to add from personal experience as I'm new to the deity front and just absorbing information. But I wondered if others had explored that already. I've always considered myself empathic (My mother says I'm an HSP, probably right) so sometimes floods of emotions happen from what appears to be not me and tracing the source would be interesting.

arete

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Re: Do the deities feel sadness?
« Reply #10 on: October 12, 2020, 07:07:44 pm »
Something which came to mind in a recent conversation I was having.

Do you believe that deities feel emotion in our interaction with them?
I know there are godspouces etc but I was more thinking of something more mundane - the sadness and joy of interacting with humans. Sense of betrayal or courage of opening up to others. Those things we take for granted every day in our friendships and interactions ( Wow, it really doesn't sound so mundane when written down ).

I honestly feel/hope they do but would be interested in everyone elses views or experiences
From what I saw, the Gods want the best for humans. The Gods are not malice. And, I think, they know everything about us. Us, humans, either we want to contact with them, or we don't want to. I think, the feel emotion thing, is a human part. Gods already know us, they know what to expect.  :)

Aster Breo

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Re: Do the deities feel sadness?
« Reply #11 on: October 15, 2020, 12:45:06 am »



Do you believe that deities feel emotion in our interaction with them?


Yes, I do.

I've had first-hand experiences (in the context of oracular ritual) with both Brighid and Idunna, in which they each expressed emotions, including sadness.

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Rodney_Dawn

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Re: Do the deities feel sadness?
« Reply #12 on: February 07, 2021, 12:49:32 pm »
Something which came to mind in a recent conversation I was having.

Do you believe that deities feel emotion in our interaction with them?
I know there are godspouces etc but I was more thinking of something more mundane - the sadness and joy of interacting with humans. Sense of betrayal or courage of opening up to others. Those things we take for granted every day in our friendships and interactions ( Wow, it really doesn't sound so mundane when written down ).

I honestly feel/hope they do but would be interested in everyone elses views or experiences

Absolutely they do.  As can be seen in many examples of classical mythology.

Think of how Demeter felt when Persephone was taken by Hades.   The harsh climate she imposed as a result of that sadness, and then the reward of vibrant colorful spring she brought as a result of the joy she felt upon Perspehone's return.  This is just one example of course, but I use it whenever the question comes up, as it is one that I feel more people will be familiar with.

Louisvillian

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Re: Do the deities feel sadness?
« Reply #13 on: December 17, 2022, 02:08:43 am »
Do you believe that deities feel emotion in our interaction with them?
Oh very much so. In contrast to the neoplatonist view, I see the gods as having strong, vast, powerful emotions because they are such vast personalities and energies. Emotions are part and parcel of being a thinking, intelligent being, not something that you "transcend" by being more intelligent than us lowly humans. They feel that much more, because they are that much more. At least in my experience.

sevensons

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Re: Do the deities feel sadness?
« Reply #14 on: March 17, 2023, 07:22:06 pm »
Oh very much so. In contrast to the neoplatonist view, I see the gods as having strong, vast, powerful emotions because they are such vast personalities and energies. Emotions are part and parcel of being a thinking, intelligent being, not something that you "transcend" by being more intelligent than us lowly humans. They feel that much more, because they are that much more. At least in my experience.
I don't see the Gods being troubled they would choose there own emotional state of experience Entertaining
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