How can I know which path to take?

[Juniperberry]

Love this.

 
Thanks!

Probably an unnecessary clarification but I wanted to note that I didn't mean that example in the "house/mansion of the god" way like in the Mystery SIG. I just wanted to illustrate that we can accept the literal, physical existence of someone/thing living among us, even if we never see that person/being.

[Maps]

Thanks!

Probably an unnecessary clarification but I wanted to note that I didn't mean that example in the "house/mansion of the god" way like in the Mystery SIG. I just wanted to illustrate that we can accept the literal, physical existence of someone/thing living among us, even if we never see that person/being.

 
[thread hijack, sorry OP]

Oh no, I know you didn't mean it that way. Sometimes I forget that my tradition often sees things so plainly and literally too: the idol is the god, just as much as it is clay or wood and fashioned by the hands of some average mortal person; just as much as a thunderhead is cigar smoke, or a cave The Entrance To The Underworld.

Things for me are both Mystery and literal object; finding that dualistic balance is interesting. But still, you are 100% correct. :>

[/hijack]

[Juniperberry]

[thread hijack, sorry OP]

Oh no, I know you didn't mean it that way. Sometimes I forget that my tradition often sees things so plainly and literally too: the idol is the god, just as much as it is clay or wood and fashioned by the hands of some average mortal person; just as much as a thunderhead is cigar smoke, or a cave The Entrance To The Underworld.

Things for me are both Mystery and literal object; finding that dualistic balance is interesting. But still, you are 100% correct. :>

[/hijack]

It's interesting to me that the more I read your blog the more similarities I see between your traditions and mine. Obviously the cultural import is different, but the mechanics seem very similar.

(Sorry, OP.)

[Valdi]

Resurrecting a deadish thread, but still. :p

My advice, for whatever it's worth, is to relax, take your time, and try not to force anything. You'll find what you're looking for.

Still nothing; how long should I wait before I start door-to-door spiritual seeking, so to speak?

I would think you would do better this way.  Stand on the street corner with a sign saying "I am here and I am listening." rather than walking into various Deities' homes and tasting their soup without asking or being invited.

How would that help me? I'd be in an instutition within a week. :p

I think the Aesir interact with us externally. They're not of the spirit and within us, they're of the world and outside of us.

I've always thought of them as within and beyond and so would interact internally; my understanding of religion mostly marred by Dharmic thought since these are the religions with which I've got the most familiarity.

Christian, Pagan, etc are still somewhat new to me.

I don't know how, or if, I could accept them interacting externally. At least not yet.

[thread hijack, sorry OP]

(Sorry, OP.)

Not a problem.

[Maps]

I've always thought of them as within and beyond and so would interact internally; my understanding of religion mostly marred by Dharmic thought since these are the religions with which I've got the most familiarity.

I don't know how, or if, I could accept them interacting externally. At least not yet.

 
I really don't want to toot my own horn here, and I'm also not sure if it's appropriate for me to do so, but many Mesoarmerican concepts of divinity are both panentheistic and polytheistic. They are also animistic. I'm under the impression that thwappage is just as common among the Aztec Teteo as any other Indo-European pantheon, but I had to specifically approach mine with extreme humility and prove my worth to them. I'm still doing that, I think, but that may just be their nature.

[Valdi]

I really don't want to toot my own horn here, and I'm also not sure if it's appropriate for me to do so, but many Mesoarmerican concepts of divinity are both panentheistic and polytheistic. They are also animistic.

As someone trying to reconcile them, how does are these (for lack of a better word) reconciled in Mesoamerican philosophy?

I'm under the impression that thwappage is just as common among the Aztec Teteo as any other Indo-European pantheon, but I had to specifically approach mine with extreme humility and prove my worth to them. I'm still doing that, I think, but that may just be their nature.

How do you prove your worth to them? What actions, words, etc?

[Juniperberry]

I've always thought of them as within and beyond and so would interact internally; my understanding of religion mostly marred by Dharmic thought since these are the religions with which I've got the most familiarity.

Christian, Pagan, etc are still somewhat new to me.

I don't know how, or if, I could accept them interacting externally. At least not yet.

 

It's just a matter of working to perceive them asactual living things of/on/in this world rather than of/on/in a spiritual plane. My perspective: When the breeze blows against you you know that Njord is nearby. Just like when you hear the vacuum an apartment over you know your neighbor is home. When a storm approaches then you know Thor approaches. When the clouds are overhead then you know Frigga ks weaving. When the sun is shining on you Sunna is riding her chariot. Fields blooming means Freyr has walked through. Birds chirping on your fence are the spies of men's privacy and take messages to the spirits. The ground you walk on is the corpse of Ymir and the grass beneath your feet is his hair.

There is always something nearby. There is always something listening. We're not alone or separated. If you leave a gift something will see it. If you scratch a rune something will read it. If you are about to die of dehydration in a desert than Odin's buzzards will be waiting to carry away your corpse. The more you acknowledge and recognize the world ( and gods, spirits, dead) then the more you'll see the ways that they're already around you. We think we're too modern, we think we're quarantined from nature, we think that the spiritual is behind some other wall...and that's not true at all. There's a thousand lives and movements that live among  us that just aren't human: ants, forests, mountains, birds, oceans...but we expect our gods to be human so we don't validate them.

[Maps]

As someone trying to reconcile them, how does are these (for lack of a better word) reconciled in Mesoamerican philosophy?

Mesoamerican deities are conceived of as manifestations of an ultimate creative force as it brings various aspects of reality into existence. This explains the often extremely confusing overlap the deities have, as they are not a pantheon in the traditional sense, though they are individual entities of a worldly existence like Juniperberry explains above, while simultaneously being transcendent, fleeting facets of a greater, unknowable, whole.

How do you prove your worth to them? What actions, words, etc?

I had to prove that I knew enough about them to approach respectfully (these gods don't really "settle" for "good enough"), and I have to continually work to know them and their people better while making the proper offerings and sacrifices. Otherwise, they will exercise the power to withdraw from my life and leave me to look for new gods. They're harsh gods, but good. (Also, none of this is to give the impression that I have a personal "connection" with any of them, as I have no patrons in the neopagan sense.)

[Greendevil]

I was thinking more of that, once you have that wheel, you can roll along with others of a similar philosophy-- even if their carriages look so different from one another. From your answers... you didn't miss anything, but I do believe you when you say you need a community to bounce ideas and practices off.

The thing is, I think the way you know which path to take, is the one that is true to yourself. If you don't know your own nature, or your place in Nature... it just comes off to me that you haven't quite found yourself? It's a rare community that can find you for you, really. I won't say none can do it, just that you won't know what it isn't until you've explored enough and failed, probably-- but that'll just make you sick again what with more ruts, again.

So! While I'm answering anyway, I'll give you some purposely personal bias: do you practice meditation? :ange: (Because a meditation-based discipline is absolute square one, to me.)

 
I would like to ask 1 thing if you are going to the wrong path what kind of nature is that?