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Author Topic: How do you contact a god or godess?  (Read 5257 times)

ethelwulf

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Re: How do you contact a god or godess?
« Reply #30 on: January 10, 2014, 02:59:21 am »
Quote from: Lionrhod;131135
Excellent thread. Even if the question has been asked before.


Sometimes it is more focused on our own interests and studies. For example, when I journeyed to find my Patron, I was approached by Arianrhod. Eventually the contents of this page http://www.lionrhod.com/poetry/for_arianrhod.html came out of it. Realize of course, that by the time I wrote the poem itself, I was heavily researching her myth. Some of this does agree with popular understanding of her, much of it (especially the notes at the bottom) does not, however many folks have agreed with me about what I learned, so *shrug*.

.

 
Thank you for the link to your poetry and the site itself. I enjoyed your poems and hope you have more.

Philomena

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Re: How do you contact a god or godess?
« Reply #31 on: January 13, 2014, 04:38:43 am »
Quote from: ethelwulf;130141
I hear about people connecting with certain gods or goddess and communicating to them. I must admit I have never talked to or communicated with a specific god and was wondering how people did this. Some of the descriptions I have read sound as if people have conversations with a god or goddess. I would like to know more about this. How do you communicate to the different gods. Where are they located so that you could communicate to them. Can you actually see them in person or is it more like a shamanic journey where you contact them. I am sorry I have never had such an experience yet. It also seems that they should be able to help us understand our unwritten past better. Can they explain more about our Ancestors and correct the misrepresentations that were given by the Christian, Roman and Greek writers?

 
1. I don't believe you can seek to communicate with a deity unless they are wanting to talk to you. It's nothing that can be pushed. Politely asking to establish a connection thru prayer and meditation will work in your favor in my experience.

2. People experience relationships with their patron deities all differently. I'm not saying you could not ask them for insight on those things, but they are not divine forms of Wikipedia IMHO.
nyctophilia  nyc·to·phil·i·a (nĭk\'tə-fĭl\'ē-ə)
n.  
 A preference for the night or darkness.

ethelwulf

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Re: How do you contact a god or godess?
« Reply #32 on: January 13, 2014, 03:37:11 pm »
Quote from: Philomena;136120
1. I don't believe you can seek to communicate with a deity unless they are wanting to talk to you. It's nothing that can be pushed. Politely asking to establish a connection thru prayer and meditation will work in your favor in my experience.

2. People experience relationships with their patron deities all differently. I'm not saying you could not ask them for insight on those things, but they are not divine forms of Wikipedia IMHO.

 
I do not know what Wikipedia imho is but I appreciate the input. I would not disagree with you that if a deity does not want to communicate with someone they wouldn't. There are some issues I have with communicating to the gods that I need to resolve form myself. These are serious questions I have considered and not intended to be a commentary about believing in the deities.
1. How many deities or gods are there? The number of gods that might exist is hard to imagine. When you consider the known Celtic gods alone you are in the hundreds and there may be more we have not heard of. Add to this the Germanic, Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and Slavic the numbers grow immensely. Add to that the Asian, Native American, South American, Australian, Polynesian, and African gods the numbers become overwhelming. Can all these gods exist?
2. Where are the gods. Are they within nature as with the Celtic gods that dwell within the land, are they in a different dimension or dimensions, are they in dark matter that makes up 80% of the universe?
3. How do you know what god you are communicating to. Of course  if they can tell you who they are this question does not apply but many people connect with god through non-verbal means. Many of their names have been handed down to us without much information with them including the best way to pronounce it.
4. Are they independent form each other or do you have to show respect to the deities they were associated with also and with what language?

These are some of the questions I have considered as I try to understand the deities better. The questions may sound silly but I am sure there are many other pagans with other questions about the gods. Any thoughts would be appreciated. I want to develop a better relationship and am trying to open myself to different ways of connecting.

Juni

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Re: How do you contact a god or godess?
« Reply #33 on: January 13, 2014, 04:06:40 pm »
Quote from: ethelwulf;136176
I do not know what Wikipedia imho is

 
Just to clarify, IMHO is an acronym meaning "in my humble opinion."
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Re: How do you contact a god or godess?
« Reply #34 on: January 13, 2014, 04:55:13 pm »
Quote from: ethelwulf;136176

1. How many deities or gods are there? The number of gods that might exist is hard to imagine. When you consider the known Celtic gods alone you are in the hundreds and there may be more we have not heard of. Add to this the Germanic, Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and Slavic the numbers grow immensely. Add to that the Asian, Native American, South American, Australian, Polynesian, and African gods the numbers become overwhelming. Can all these gods exist?


Why couldn't they? This, for me, is sort of like "How many people of whatever category" exist. Some categories ("How many people are currently enrolled at the school I work at" are things that I can actually figure out.) But a lot of categories might have a specific number, but it's one either I can't sort out on my own (or even with help I have reasonable access to) or just change a lot.

Exactly how many people there are currently alive on the planet at a particular moment. The exact number of living alumnae from the college I went to. The number of librarians in the world (which, like 'how many gods there are' requires you to define your terms.)

I don't need to know the precise numbers of these things in order to have conversations with individuals, though I admit that having some idea of scope (is this one of a dozen people, or one of several thousand? Several hundred thousand?) can be helpful. But mostly, I'm one finite person, and the number of conversations with *anyone* I'm going to have in my lifetime is also fairly finite in a world with billions of people plus a bunch of other beings.

Quote
2. Where are the gods. Are they within nature as with the Celtic gods that dwell within the land, are they in a different dimension or dimensions, are they in dark matter that makes up 80% of the universe?


Different mythologies and cosmologies have different answers to this.

My own personal theory, based on ritual and other experience is that the Gods are present in this world when they want to be, but that they also have ready access (and perhaps prefer to be) in functional spaces that are not so bound by space or time. (Whether one calls that the Otherworld or astral space or a term specific to a particular culture doesn't particularly bother me.)

Quote
3. How do you know what god you are communicating to.


How do you tell what person you're talking to? You might ask. You might compare to other existing info. (I am not the only Jenett on the internet, but you can usually tell when it's me because I link back to my personal website somehow, for example. Also, it is amazing how many people can neither spell or pronounce Jenett, and how asking me gets functional answers to both questions.)

You might do a bunch of low-commitment conversations until such time you're willing to make more commitment. Just like if you meet someone interesting at a party, consider whether you want to date them or become friends, and then move from the very introductory thing to a situation where you know more about them.

I actually compare the process to meeting someone through online settings a lot - I may know a name for them in that particular online space, but that may not be their legal name, or the name they use at work, or the name their friends use for them. They may share some things online they don't share in person, and vice versa. We're never going to *completely* know another being, so it's all a question of which parts matter to the particular relationship you have, and deciding how much being certain you're getting accurate information matters.

(I do not, for example, care about most people's favorite colours or the nickname they used when they were in elementary school. I care a lot more that what they do tell me is reasonably accurate, or at least not an outright lie. And so on. Again, pretty much the same for Gods and for people. for me.)

Quote
4. Are they independent form each other or do you have to show respect to the deities they were associated with also and with what language?


I treat deities who present themselves to me as different entities as different entities. It seems the only sure polite move.

(And honestly, I've never had a deity say "Oh, and I'm also X and Y", though like I said, I use different names in different settings all the time, and I would not think it odd if a deity did - but I'd also think it was very rude and problematic for someone to call me Jenett at work, or someone to call me the username I use in professional spaces in a Pagan one. It's not that it's implausible, I just haven't had it happen or be an issue.)

In terms of language: I do believe that languages encapsulate ideas about culture and worldview that get lost in translation, I think learning the palces those are touchy for the relevant language is a bare minimum for long-term worship.

I also think most deities are entirely fine with the native language of the person honouring them (and if not, will make that clear themselves) and that learning some basic phrases is a politeness that will be appreciated (and that learning epithets in the appropriate language is a particularly useful and polite touch.) Obviously, I'm not a reconstructionist: in those paths, learning the language may be notably more preferable, though most recons understand that it's not a trivial task, and that some people may do much better with it than others.

(I will, for example, quite commonly say Kaire (not fussing with the Greek letters here) to Greek deities: it is a very standard general greeting/parting in pretty much all forms of Greek.)
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Philomena

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Re: How do you contact a god or godess?
« Reply #35 on: January 13, 2014, 11:40:51 pm »
Quote from: ethelwulf;136176
I do not know what Wikipedia imho is but I appreciate the input. I would not disagree with you that if a deity does not want to communicate with someone they wouldn't. There are some issues I have with communicating to the gods that I need to resolve form myself. These are serious questions I have considered and not intended to be a commentary about believing in the deities.
1. How many deities or gods are there? The number of gods that might exist is hard to imagine. When you consider the known Celtic gods alone you are in the hundreds and there may be more we have not heard of. Add to this the Germanic, Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and Slavic the numbers grow immensely. Add to that the Asian, Native American, South American, Australian, Polynesian, and African gods the numbers become overwhelming. Can all these gods exist?
2. Where are the gods. Are they within nature as with the Celtic gods that dwell within the land, are they in a different dimension or dimensions, are they in dark matter that makes up 80% of the universe?
3. How do you know what god you are communicating to. Of course  if they can tell you who they are this question does not apply but many people connect with god through non-verbal means. Many of their names have been handed down to us without much information with them including the best way to pronounce it.
4. Are they independent form each other or do you have to show respect to the deities they were associated with also and with what language?

These are some of the questions I have considered as I try to understand the deities better. The questions may sound silly but I am sure there are many other pagans with other questions about the gods. Any thoughts would be appreciated. I want to develop a better relationship and am trying to open myself to different ways of connecting.

 
I can not give answers to all these questions. However, I thought I would share some of my experience. When I first started my path, I also had a hard time connecting to any certain gods/goddesses. I spent a lot of time just researching all the different ones. There are tons but I just started with where my heritage comes from (Greek) and worked from there. I did quite a bit of research but you soon find symbols and significators that resonate with you. I ended up digging deeper to the protogenoi deities. One just started sticking in my mind, and after studying her more I made and offering and pretty much sent out a prayer asking her to reveal herself to me if it was meant to be. It didn't come right away or as a 'yes' or 'no' answer but powerful messages with insight to my life (through dreams and meditation). Like I said it is different for everyone, but I hope this will be a helpful perspective for you.
nyctophilia  nyc·to·phil·i·a (nĭk\'tə-fĭl\'ē-ə)
n.  
 A preference for the night or darkness.

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