Question about Gods/Goddesses Choosing You...

[CalicoNyanko]

I'm still fairly new at all of this, so I was hoping someone could help me out.  Have you ever felt that you've been chosen by a God/Goddess that you've never felt you really had anything in common with, or would not have thought that you would ever really work with?  What did you make of the situation and how did you proceed? Any help would be wonderful. Thank you!

[Jenett]

I'm still fairly new at all of this, so I was hoping someone could help me out.  Have you ever felt that you've been chosen by a God/Goddess that you've never felt you really had anything in common with, or would not have thought that you would ever really work with?  What did you make of the situation and how did you proceed? Any help would be wonderful. Thank you!

Not that specifically, but I can give the usual advice about building relationships with deity which tends to help people sort things out.

First, just because a deity expresses interest in you doesn't mean you have to reciprocate. Being rude is a bad idea, but there are lots of ways to say "Thanks, but no" or "Thanks, but I need to think about this." that aren't rude.

Think of it like dealing with human beings: someone might be interested in you that you're not interested in, and there are better and worse ways to handle that interest, but their interest doesn't obligate you to anything back unless you decide you want to.

Second, there are lots of degrees of things. If you're more at "I'm not sure why this deity is expressing an interest" than "I don't want that." then the next logical step is to do some exploration. This might be doing a simple ritual step to say "I'm going to learn more about you for the next 3 months" and coming up with a plan to do that. It might be doing the learning without any ritual step. Give yourself plenty of time, though.

Some deities (and this is sometimes true for people who have the 'wait, why you?') have particular reputations of showing up and then leading people to other deities in their cultural pantheon or other connections - often deities associated with opening doorways, or a wide range of interests. So sometimes you may start exploring, and then get find yourself intrigued by a more obscure deity in that pantheon (or who deals with a specific thing) and the initial contact will fade out.

There are also all sorts of possible kinds of interactions with deities: sometimes a deity will be more obvious to you because you're doing a thing that's relevant to a very specific thing they do or are interested in, and when that is no longer so prominent in your life, it will shift again. Sometimes they have a particular expertise in a thing. All sorts of options.

(Again, if you think of this like humans, some people you meet and have really close intimate interactions with - romantic partners, long-term close friends, chosen family - and some humans you meet and get to know for a season or a year, and then you go different way. And some you consult because they're experts in a thing you need some help with, or professionals in a field - doctors, lawyers, whatever - and then you don't need that thing anymore, but still can respect their skill and expertise.)

I've got several articles relating to deities and building relationships with some specific ideas on my website: this link will take you right to that section.

[CalicoNyanko]

Not that specifically, but I can give the usual advice about building relationships with deity which tends to help people sort things out.

I've got several articles relating to deities and building relationships with some specific ideas on my website: this link will take you right to that section.

Thank you! This helps quite a bit.

[Sefiru]

I'm still fairly new at all of this, so I was hoping someone could help me out.  Have you ever felt that you've been chosen by a God/Goddess that you've never felt you really had anything in common with, or would not have thought that you would ever really work with?  What did you make of the situation and how did you proceed? Any help would be wonderful. Thank you!

I had a bit of this when I was starting out, and what helped with me was doing more research. Turns out that some of the more obscure aspects of my deities, the things that aren't in the more popular resources, are the ones that I connect with. Also, one of my deities is obscure in general, so finding any information is like needles in a haystack.

[keen]

I'm still fairly new at all of this, so I was hoping someone could help me out.  Have you ever felt that you've been chosen by a God/Goddess that you've never felt you really had anything in common with, or would not have thought that you would ever really work with?  What did you make of the situation and how did you proceed? Any help would be wonderful. Thank you!

I've gotten a lot, and I mean a lot of signs from Odin over the years. (As a matter of fact, I'm convinced I sat next to him on the Amtrak train coming into Portland once, not even joking. He was chugging a bottle of Fireball and shared some with me.) But I've never really been all that interested in what he's about and how he does things. I have a deep respect for him, quite a bit of healthy mortal awe, but I just don't think I have it in me to become an Odinsman or what have you. He seems to know this, but may have fun poking at me every once in a while anyways.

Most of the time, gods ask, which is good. Very, very rarely do they use force - those are the people who wind up falling into the spirit-working or priestly paths, nothing to be taken lightly. Their lives are usually on the line and its the god who saves them under the condition that they dedicate the rest of their years to service. The vast majority of us never have to worry about this.

If you find yourself experiencing visits and interactions from a particular power and you're not sure what to do, you can always ask for time, ask for more information, more signs. You can consult somebody else. You can say yes, you can say no, you can say maybe and provide some reasonable and respectful terms of potential engagement. You can ask your other gods to intercede on your behalf if you're not comfortable with the situation.

If you don't really feel a connection to them and they keep knocking on the door, maybe consider why that is. Do a little research, see if there's anything about them that does interest you. Gods do, after all, know quite a bit more about things than we do and may be seeing ripe potential where we don't. At the very least you should talk to them, if only to say 'no thank you'.

[Yei]

I'm still fairly new at all of this, so I was hoping someone could help me out.  Have you ever felt that you've been chosen by a God/Goddess that you've never felt you really had anything in common with, or would not have thought that you would ever really work with?  What did you make of the situation and how did you proceed? Any help would be wonderful. Thank you!

I think that my background as a reconstructionist may be affecting my view, but I honestly don’t think that you need to have a close connection with a god to worship them, or their pantheon. Rituals are, at least partly, transactions, and a close relationship with the individual deity is not strictly necessary. Its far more important to engage with the culture that worshipped the pantheon. This provides far more context for rituals in general, making it much easier to understand the pantheon as a whole, as well as other religious information, such as morals and ethics, which are important in day to day life.
Of course, if you are not a reconstructionist, this may not be appropriate.

[Ashmire]

I'm still fairly new at all of this, so I was hoping someone could help me out.  Have you ever felt that you've been chosen by a God/Goddess that you've never felt you really had anything in common with, or would not have thought that you would ever really work with?  What did you make of the situation and how did you proceed? Any help would be wonderful. Thank you!

A lot of good advice from others here.  I would also add that, sometimes, who you think is giving you signs may actually be someone else who is more obscure or unknown to you and your brain trying to fit things to the patterns you already know. For instance, I started out my postings here on the Cauldron with the unsettling experience of basically being dumped over to another pantheon entirely when I had been thinking I was about to become a dedicant.

  Reflecting on that recently it occurred to me why that may have happened, which was basically that I got a whiff of a certain energy, and made the assumption that obviously that would belong to an established deity and most likely to a Scandinavian one in accordance with the largest portion of my ancestry.  Having had the impression of physical strength/fitness being important, and also of at least the potential for sudden decisive action ( or anger) in a way that might remind someone of a thunderclap, I set about following Thor, who presumably put up with me like a cute but annoying puppy until I got too serious, then kindly but firmly informed me that, while I would surely make a fine Thorswoman, I was needed much more elsewhere and sent me off to the Egyptian gods.

[Ashmire]

A lot of good advice from others here.  I would also add that, sometimes, who you think is giving you signs may actually be someone else who is more obscure or unknown to you and your brain trying to fit things to the patterns you already know. For instance, I started out my postings here on the Cauldron with the unsettling experience of basically being dumped over to another pantheon entirely when I had been thinking I was about to become a dedicant.

  Reflecting on that recently it occurred to me why that may have happened, which was basically that I got a whiff of a certain energy, and made the assumption that obviously that would belong to an established deity and most likely to a Scandinavian one in accordance with the largest portion of my ancestry.  Having had the impression of physical strength/fitness being important, and also of at least the potential for sudden decisive action ( or anger) in a way that might remind someone of a thunderclap, I set about following Thor, who presumably put up with me like a cute but annoying puppy until I got too serious, then kindly but firmly informed me that, while I would surely make a fine Thorswoman, I was needed much more elsewhere and sent me off to the Egyptian gods.

Oops, somehow I clicked the post button too early---Here's the other half of the story:

After about a year of working in a Kemetic framework, during which time I found a lot that fit me better, but something still a little lacking, two of my goddesses introduced me to a sort of celebrity spirit/New Deity-in-Training( who would also represent yet a third culture), and as nuts as it sounds, this---really feels like I've got ahold of the right number now, and has led to measurable real world improvements in my life.   They do have those traits I mentioned, but also some pretty critical differences I wasn't seeing because I was making assumptions about what possibilities were available to me.

[Aster Breo]

SNIP
two of my goddesses introduced me to a sort of celebrity spirit/New Deity-in-Training
SNIP

That's an intriguing description. Can/may you elaborate?

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[Ashmire]

That's an intriguing description. Can/may you elaborate?

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Here's my previous thread about it.  I get a little jittery being too public and I'm not sure if they're telling me to keep it quiet (yet also urging me to post the posts I have made?), or if it's just my instinctive fear of ridicule doing that.  So if you really want to go into detail you can PM, I guess?
https://ecauldron.com/forum/pagan-spirituality/well-wow-(very-upg-kinda-long)/