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Author Topic: Contact with a deity or wishful thinking?  (Read 2229 times)

Lauren

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Contact with a deity or wishful thinking?
« on: June 16, 2015, 05:25:20 pm »
So I'm a newbie Eclectic Pagan (with rather strong, at the moment, leanings towards Eclectic Solitary Wicca).

Today I was meditating on creativity. I was repeating the word as a mantra to myself and  at one point, I heard in my head: "I made you to be creative," followed by "who are you?" and then a simple answer: "Diana."

Now to be completely honest this comes out of left field; I have been looking mostly at Celtic mythology to start off with and know next to nothing about Diana. Additionally, the most thought I have given to her lately was a brief passing thought about Dianic Wicca at least a few hours before the meditation. I have, however, been giving plenty of thought to patron deities.  

Also, to be quite honest, I can count the number of times I have meditated on my hands. So my question is, is it likely that Diana is trying to contact me? Or that I have succeeded in contacting her? Should I/How should I meditate on this more (I am still not sure how to meditate on a certain thing to be quite honest)? Is this just my brain messing with me? How can i tell the difference?

Apologies if I sound like a total noob. I was just intrigued by the quickness and out-of-the-blue-ness that the name came to me. Most of my thoughts have been focused on Brigid as of late, not that I would be completely heartbroken if she turned out not to have a reciprocated interest in me.

Redfaery

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Re: Contact with a deity or wishful thinking?
« Reply #1 on: June 16, 2015, 06:00:08 pm »
Quote from: Lauren;176125
So I'm a newbie Eclectic Pagan (with rather strong, at the moment, leanings towards Eclectic Solitary Wicca).

Today I was meditating on creativity. I was repeating the word as a mantra to myself and  at one point, I heard in my head: "I made you to be creative," followed by "who are you?" and then a simple answer: "Diana."

Now to be completely honest this comes out of left field; I have been looking mostly at Celtic mythology to start off with and know next to nothing about Diana. Additionally, the most thought I have given to her lately was a brief passing thought about Dianic Wicca at least a few hours before the meditation. I have, however, been giving plenty of thought to patron deities.  

Also, to be quite honest, I can count the number of times I have meditated on my hands. So my question is, is it likely that Diana is trying to contact me? Or that I have succeeded in contacting her? Should I/How should I meditate on this more (I am still not sure how to meditate on a certain thing to be quite honest)? Is this just my brain messing with me? How can i tell the difference?

Apologies if I sound like a total noob. I was just intrigued by the quickness and out-of-the-blue-ness that the name came to me. Most of my thoughts have been focused on Brigid as of late, not that I would be completely heartbroken if she turned out not to have a reciprocated interest in me.

 
I can't tell you for certain whether it's your brain messing with you or not. Honestly, I think figuring out the answer to that is best left to YOU. If you are the type of person who gets random thoughts popping into your head, then yeah...I'd be cautious (Full disclosure: I'm that type of person). Still, I think it's quite possible that you've got *someone's* attention. That doesn't mean it's Diana. Either way, I'd proceed with caution. Maybe make an offering to Diana, and ask her for a sign?
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PetitAlbert

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Re: Contact with a deity or wishful thinking?
« Reply #2 on: June 17, 2015, 03:40:58 pm »
Quote from: Lauren;176125
So I'm a newbie Eclectic Pagan (with rather strong, at the moment, leanings towards Eclectic Solitary Wicca).

Today I was meditating on creativity. I was repeating the word as a mantra to myself and  at one point, I heard in my head: "I made you to be creative," followed by "who are you?" and then a simple answer: "Diana."

Now to be completely honest this comes out of left field; I have been looking mostly at Celtic mythology to start off with and know next to nothing about Diana. Additionally, the most thought I have given to her lately was a brief passing thought about Dianic Wicca at least a few hours before the meditation. I have, however, been giving plenty of thought to patron deities.  

Also, to be quite honest, I can count the number of times I have meditated on my hands. So my question is, is it likely that Diana is trying to contact me? Or that I have succeeded in contacting her? Should I/How should I meditate on this more (I am still not sure how to meditate on a certain thing to be quite honest)? Is this just my brain messing with me? How can i tell the difference?

Apologies if I sound like a total noob. I was just intrigued by the quickness and out-of-the-blue-ness that the name came to me. Most of my thoughts have been focused on Brigid as of late, not that I would be completely heartbroken if she turned out not to have a reciprocated interest in me.

 
Unfortunately, I don't know that you can tell the difference. The other poster's advice is good - if you tend to chat to yourself or to characters a lot in your head, then does this feel similar to that or different? One post I really like on this topic is this.

Another thing to ask yourself is - what did it feel like? It's taken me a while to recognise what Something Supernatural feels like, but it is really striking when it happens. For me, it's a weird giddy feeling in my gut. High magic makes me feel like I've been plugged into the mains, whereas natural magic feels like a nebulous giddiness that is quieter but everywhere. If you just heard the words but didn't feel something, maybe not?

But that doesn't mean it's not valuable - even if it's just a connection your brain threw out there, it's worth looking into and meditating on further. If only to learn more about yourself.
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Lauren

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Contact with a deity or wishful thinking?
« Reply #3 on: June 17, 2015, 05:44:57 pm »
Quote from: Redfaery;176126
I can't tell you for certain whether it's your brain messing with you or not. Honestly, I think figuring out the answer to that is best left to YOU. If you are the type of person who gets random thoughts popping into your head, then yeah...I'd be cautious (Full disclosure: I'm that type of person). Still, I think it's quite possible that you've got *someone's* attention. That doesn't mean it's Diana. Either way, I'd proceed with caution. Maybe make an offering to Diana, and ask her for a sign?

 
I actually am that type of person, but just the fact that the name was Diana and how quickly it popped into my thought made it seem different from my usual train of thought. I will definitely do what you suggests! Thank you!

Quote from: Unmutual;176158
Unfortunately, I don't know that you can tell the difference. The other poster's advice is good - if you tend to chat to yourself or to characters a lot in your head, then does this feel similar to that or different? One post I really like on this topic is this.

Another thing to ask yourself is - what did it feel like? It's taken me a while to recognise what Something Supernatural feels like, but it is really striking when it happens. For me, it's a weird giddy feeling in my gut. High magic makes me feel like I've been plugged into the mains, whereas natural magic feels like a nebulous giddiness that is quieter but everywhere. If you just heard the words but didn't feel something, maybe not?

But that doesn't mean it's not valuable - even if it's just a connection your brain threw out there, it's worth looking into and meditating on further. If only to learn more about yourself.

 
I tried to read through that post you linked, but it really confused me. Would someone mind explaining it to me in a different way?

After I heard it, I was kind of dumbstruck. I tried to focus on what I was feeling and I did feel a little funny, but I'm not exactly sure that's descriptive enough! I really can't remember what exactly I felt like, but I surely will meditate on it further - do you have any advice on how to do that? I see so much on meditation on the internet but it all says just to quiet your mind/chant a mantra, etc. so I'm not exactly sure how I should go about meditating "on" aything!

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Re: Contact with a deity or wishful thinking?
« Reply #4 on: June 17, 2015, 08:15:07 pm »
Quote from: Lauren;176125

Also, to be quite honest, I can count the number of times I have meditated on my hands. So my question is, is it likely that Diana is trying to contact me? Or that I have succeeded in contacting her? Should I/How should I meditate on this more (I am still not sure how to meditate on a certain thing to be quite honest)? Is this just my brain messing with me? How can i tell the difference?


The way I go about this is that a single point is not a line (or a name!)

Fortunately, there are ways to get yourself more information. You could try (and I'm making some general comments here, in case they're helpful to other people, and then some specifics that might help re: Diana)

1) More meditation (or different kinds of meditation.) Even just sitting quietly for a few minutes a day can be helpful.

2) Doing some research and then spending time in places that seem relevant to that deity (so for Diana, you might want to find some woods, preferably somewhere at least a little quiet and secluded.)

3) Do something that takes some of the more academic/intellectual learning about a deity and uses it to create a piece of art or music or poetry or something else creative (interpretative dance counts. So does knitting).

This is an exercise that was part of my training, described more over here. Pay attention to feelings and emotions and images that come up as you do it.

4) Divination (either you doing it or someone else). I usually find 'what should I be paying attention to' type questions more useful than 'Is this particular deity contact me', but sometimes divination can smooth out the latter too.

(Like if you have a series of experiences that might relate to more than one deity, but you've narrowed it down to a fairly small number.)  

5) Reading that is not active research - one of the things I discovered is that when I'm working on deeper religious questions, my brain will naturally seek out the things I ought to be reading - often fiction, rather than non-fiction, or I'll keep hitting the same set of referernces in multiple places. There's a lot of reasons this can happen, but if the pattern-matching keeps happening, I usually figure there's some kind of reason, and look at that more carefully.

6) Remember that you don't have to figure this out quickly (or even at all, if you don't want to.) You can take your time. You can set it aside for a couple of months. You can decide it's something you want to explore for a limited time, once or twice a month, until you figure out more.

Some deities can get a little pushy, but I generally believe that having healthy boundaries about it ("I want to take my time" "I have a lot of other stuff going on in my life right now" or whatever) is just as appropriate with deities as with human beings, though obviously there are some rude ways to set a boundary and some politer ones.

7) Even if you do think you figure it out, and you feel you are connecting with a deity you feel comfortable doing that with, take it slow. Don't make any big commitments (the page I linked you to above has links to other things about this.) If you want to make a test commitment, try six months, at first. Long enough to be a meaningful trial, short enough that you are not commiitted for a long time if you discover that it's not good for you, or that you think you have the wrong deity, or anything else like that.

8) Many people who identify as Pagan have relationships of varying kinds with different deities (just like we as humans have different kinds of relationships with people).

It's not at all uncommon for people to have one, two, maybe three or four deities they have a very close connection with, some others they interact with more rarely - maybe once a year, maybe a couple of times, maybe only at times of specific need that's relevant to that deity. Balancing this can take a bit of thought (just like people), but sometimes it's pretty straightforward.
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Lauren

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Re: Contact with a deity or wishful thinking?
« Reply #5 on: June 17, 2015, 08:31:23 pm »
Quote from: Jenett;176168
The way I go about this is that a single point is not a line (or a name!)

Fortunately, there are ways to get yourself more information. You could try (and I'm making some general comments here, in case they're helpful to other people, and then some specifics that might help re: Diana)...


Thank you so much for a very thoughtful and informative response! The link was also very helpful!

carillion

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Re: Contact with a deity or wishful thinking?
« Reply #6 on: June 17, 2015, 09:41:59 pm »
Quote from: Jenett;176168
The way I go about this is that a single point is not a line (or a name!)


It's not at all uncommon for people to have one, two, maybe three or four deities they have a very close connection with, some others they interact with more rarely - maybe once a year, maybe a couple of times, maybe only at times of specific need that's relevant to that deity. Balancing this can take a bit of thought (just like people), but sometimes it's pretty straightforward.


This from your link made me curious : "Be extremely careful with very long-term commitments, or ones with no ‘out’ clause: these can lead to miserable outcomes if you realise five or ten years later that you’ve made a mistake, or simply changed in ways that no longer fit that relationship. (And unlike marriage, where divorce is an option, or at least the oath ends at death, a commitment to a deity whose lifespan is far beyond yours is more complicated.)"

What (or who) would be an example of this?

Thanks

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Re: Contact with a deity or wishful thinking?
« Reply #7 on: June 17, 2015, 10:04:54 pm »
Quote from: carillion;176171
This from your link made me curious : "Be extremely careful with very long-term commitments, or ones with no ‘out’ clause: these can lead to miserable outcomes if you realise five or ten years later that you’ve made a mistake, or simply changed in ways that no longer fit that relationship. (And unlike marriage, where divorce is an option, or at least the oath ends at death, a commitment to a deity whose lifespan is far beyond yours is more complicated.)"

What (or who) would be an example of this?


Pretty much what it says (or at least, I can't get a lot more detailed without getting into other people's confidential stuff, which I'm not going to do.)

Some people start building a relationship with a deity, and make long-term commitments (years, decades, 'all my life', 'all my lives to come' are all variations I've heard people refer to at one point).

Sometimes those turn out well. Sometimes they don't.

The marriage analogy is really apt here. (My parents went home the first night they met and told their respective roommates they'd met the person they were going to marry, and they were happily married until my father's death decades later. Some people go home, say the same thing to their roommate or whoever, have a great year or two, and then things go very miserably sour.)

Also, people in the beginning stages of building a relationship with deities, or the beginning stages of exploring Paganism in some form are - well, like people who are new to romantic relationships or other kinds of relationship commitments (business partnerships, artistic collaborations, high-intensity volunteer commitments. Whatever.)

Sometimes those go really well, but a lot of times, when you're still building interaction and relationship skills, it's really good to have an automatic release valve  built in, a time when you can stop and deliberately decide to continue doing that thing, or back off.

That way, if you discover that as you learn more and grow more, the things you want change, there's already a habit of that kind of self-awareness and regular checkins on how the interactions are going, and whether they're still healthy for you (and the other beings involved).

I have a similar attitude towards magical working names and ritual tattoos, for what it's worth: better to have something that can refer to different things or change and grow with you over time, than have something that is fairly fixed into a single mode.
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Lauren

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Re: Contact with a deity or wishful thinking?
« Reply #8 on: June 22, 2015, 07:19:54 pm »
Quote from: Jenett;176174
Pretty much what it says (or at least, I can't get a lot more detailed without getting into other people's confidential stuff, which I'm not going to do.)

Some people start building a relationship with a deity, and make long-term commitments (years, decades, 'all my life', 'all my lives to come' are all variations I've heard people refer to at one point).

Sometimes those turn out well. Sometimes they don't....

...I have a similar attitude towards magical working names and ritual tattoos, for what it's worth: better to have something that can refer to different things or change and grow with you over time, than have something that is fairly fixed into a single mode.


Very interesting to know this about deity relationships, and definitely useful! I never would have thought that a relationship with a deity would turn sour (of course, until it happened to me) but it makes sense - not every deity is going to click with every practitioner, even if the deity sought out the relationship.

And this may be a bit of a tangent, but I also agree with the magical name thing - I don't currently have one (or a real desire for one) but it should definitely be able to grow as you do!

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