Four gods
Okay, remember how I commented a while back that Renee had said to me she had been getting the impression for some time that I have four gods hovering around me? Well, this subject came up again over the weekend and there has been a few new developments.
Initially I think we had both assumed the fourth god was Aphrodite, but since then I had been thinking and realized there was still one unidentified. Persephone is not one of my gods so to speak, she is to the extent that her mythology is so meaningful to me, but that is the totality of my connection with her at least at this time; celebrating the equinox holidays I came up with that revolve around her trips to and from the underworld, but as far as a personal relationship is concerned that's likely a no go. Renee had had some time to consider it as well and had come to the same conclusion, Persephone isn't one of them.
Aphrodite is one of them, that seems to be certain. Who knows why, but she is. I remain convinced that, whatever the reason for her presence is, its a temporary one, she won't be a permanent fixture in my life. She doesn't make sense with me, I don't think so and no one else does either; I mentioned this to a few people who know me over the last few days and they've each looked at me like I had six heads, "Aphrodite? You? Why?" But regardless of how long she plans to stick around, she is around for the time being, and I guess that's all that really matters right now.
Hermes is one of them too. Not that I had any doubts of that, but come on I had to ask. Dionysos as well, but I had few doubts of that one as well. Dionysos did a pretty good job of erasing all doubts from my mind a few months back. He does leave an impression so to speak. :-)
So who is this fourth? I had thought about it while I was listening to Isaac Bonewits talking and the only name that immediately came to my mind was Hekate. She would fit the overall pattern, she is another one of Hermes' associates; I never worshipped her before nor had any particular desire to go out of my way to learn more about her right now, which I've always thought was kind of strange all things considered, and yet that's the way its always been.
So I thought I'd ask about it. Renee is not at this moment completely certain about anything, but she did tell me the few ideas that came immediately to mind, all of which could be wrong she's not sure. The vague impression she was getting was that the fourth deity was male and that he was not Greek.
If she is correct in these immediate impressions, that would put quite a twist on things. I did a bit of cultural exploration early on when I finally discovered Paganism beyond Wicca, I settled on the Greek gods in large part because of Hermes, but also because they were the ones I was ultimately the most comfortable with. And I enjoy being culturally specific rather than eclectic, it makes life so much more simple. Thankfully for me so far my spiritual life had worked out that way, it doesn't always, not everyone who is eclectic necessarily chooses to be that way. Caryn from Cedarlight Grove has a mind boggling array of gods that she worships from all sorts of completely unrelated cultures; from what I have been able to gather from talking with her about it is that she didn't choose any of them, they all chose her and she went along with it. It happens, you don't always have the luxury of picking just one culture (when I use the term eclectic here it is in reference to the gods in one's life; this is of course entirely different from the sort of eclectic that rips off bits and pieces of various cultures without any thought or consideration and tries to incorporate it all into the giant ugly eyesore they call their religion, whether all these pieces actually fit together or not; if I ever somehow turn into one of those people, I wish to be shot).
I looked into Celtic first because of my almost entirely Celtic ancestry (I early on ran into those Recons that said you had to be of the right bloodline to worship the gods of a particular culture; while I never bought into that bullshit idea, it did make me think that I knew nothing at all about the gods my ancestors worshipped and that starting my exploration there was as good a place as any). I found that to be some of the most unengaging mythology I'd ever read besides Biblical; I was sort of surprised since so many Pagans seem to go with Celtic gods. So I doubt very much its Celtic, the cold shoulder I felt toward them seemed to be more than mutual. Norse is a stronger possibility since I do find the mythology and the deities to be more engaging, it probably would've been my second cultural choice. Stronger still because Renee practices some sort of energy work that involves the runes and, in exchange for allowing her to do this, the Norse gods apparently like to use her occasionally to deliver messages to people they want to talk to. Also because the only other experience that I've had with a deity was with Thor, I ran into him while meditating once, I wasn't looking for any gods but there he was (or at least the impression I received said it was him); he was there for a little while, maybe a month or so, got a hymn out of me, and then he was gone. Another strong possibility is Egyptian because that culture seems to mingle in with Greek often enough, and because it was the only culture I didn't previously explore. Could also be something I'm not even thinking about.
It might be some time before I get to know anyway, depending on whether or not Renee can focus in on anything else. She does say she gets a strong impression that this deity is hanging far back for the moment, that he's not yet ready to let me know that he's there. She also says that once I do know who he is, he won't be going anywhere, she feels a sense of permanence.
So, a question to anyone on my friends list who may have had a similar experience; where you have your culture of preference, and then all of a sudden some deity shows up from outside that culture and wants some attention from you. How did you handle that? How did you balance that out in your spiritual life? Does anyone have any advice for what to do if and when this situation occurs? Its not something I've really considered before now, so I'm sort of at a loss and would like to be prepared just in case.
Hermes will always come first, of course. I have gotten a bit of work done on the ritual I'm planning in March to make the whole thing official. So I've been thinking a lot about exactly what I'm going to say and exactly what vows I will be making. I remember a discussion with Sannion several months back in which he explained that for him Dionysos comes first and every other god who comes into his life has to understand that. I believe that is the direct I will be heading in as well, my commitment to Hermes comes before anything or anyone and everyone, mortal or immortal, will have to understand that. If for no other reason I will always be primarily Greek.
Of course I have to hope these immediate impressions are wrong and its just one more Greek god and life can remain nice and simple for me. :-)
Initially I think we had both assumed the fourth god was Aphrodite, but since then I had been thinking and realized there was still one unidentified. Persephone is not one of my gods so to speak, she is to the extent that her mythology is so meaningful to me, but that is the totality of my connection with her at least at this time; celebrating the equinox holidays I came up with that revolve around her trips to and from the underworld, but as far as a personal relationship is concerned that's likely a no go. Renee had had some time to consider it as well and had come to the same conclusion, Persephone isn't one of them.
Aphrodite is one of them, that seems to be certain. Who knows why, but she is. I remain convinced that, whatever the reason for her presence is, its a temporary one, she won't be a permanent fixture in my life. She doesn't make sense with me, I don't think so and no one else does either; I mentioned this to a few people who know me over the last few days and they've each looked at me like I had six heads, "Aphrodite? You? Why?" But regardless of how long she plans to stick around, she is around for the time being, and I guess that's all that really matters right now.
Hermes is one of them too. Not that I had any doubts of that, but come on I had to ask. Dionysos as well, but I had few doubts of that one as well. Dionysos did a pretty good job of erasing all doubts from my mind a few months back. He does leave an impression so to speak. :-)
So who is this fourth? I had thought about it while I was listening to Isaac Bonewits talking and the only name that immediately came to my mind was Hekate. She would fit the overall pattern, she is another one of Hermes' associates; I never worshipped her before nor had any particular desire to go out of my way to learn more about her right now, which I've always thought was kind of strange all things considered, and yet that's the way its always been.
So I thought I'd ask about it. Renee is not at this moment completely certain about anything, but she did tell me the few ideas that came immediately to mind, all of which could be wrong she's not sure. The vague impression she was getting was that the fourth deity was male and that he was not Greek.
If she is correct in these immediate impressions, that would put quite a twist on things. I did a bit of cultural exploration early on when I finally discovered Paganism beyond Wicca, I settled on the Greek gods in large part because of Hermes, but also because they were the ones I was ultimately the most comfortable with. And I enjoy being culturally specific rather than eclectic, it makes life so much more simple. Thankfully for me so far my spiritual life had worked out that way, it doesn't always, not everyone who is eclectic necessarily chooses to be that way. Caryn from Cedarlight Grove has a mind boggling array of gods that she worships from all sorts of completely unrelated cultures; from what I have been able to gather from talking with her about it is that she didn't choose any of them, they all chose her and she went along with it. It happens, you don't always have the luxury of picking just one culture (when I use the term eclectic here it is in reference to the gods in one's life; this is of course entirely different from the sort of eclectic that rips off bits and pieces of various cultures without any thought or consideration and tries to incorporate it all into the giant ugly eyesore they call their religion, whether all these pieces actually fit together or not; if I ever somehow turn into one of those people, I wish to be shot).
I looked into Celtic first because of my almost entirely Celtic ancestry (I early on ran into those Recons that said you had to be of the right bloodline to worship the gods of a particular culture; while I never bought into that bullshit idea, it did make me think that I knew nothing at all about the gods my ancestors worshipped and that starting my exploration there was as good a place as any). I found that to be some of the most unengaging mythology I'd ever read besides Biblical; I was sort of surprised since so many Pagans seem to go with Celtic gods. So I doubt very much its Celtic, the cold shoulder I felt toward them seemed to be more than mutual. Norse is a stronger possibility since I do find the mythology and the deities to be more engaging, it probably would've been my second cultural choice. Stronger still because Renee practices some sort of energy work that involves the runes and, in exchange for allowing her to do this, the Norse gods apparently like to use her occasionally to deliver messages to people they want to talk to. Also because the only other experience that I've had with a deity was with Thor, I ran into him while meditating once, I wasn't looking for any gods but there he was (or at least the impression I received said it was him); he was there for a little while, maybe a month or so, got a hymn out of me, and then he was gone. Another strong possibility is Egyptian because that culture seems to mingle in with Greek often enough, and because it was the only culture I didn't previously explore. Could also be something I'm not even thinking about.
It might be some time before I get to know anyway, depending on whether or not Renee can focus in on anything else. She does say she gets a strong impression that this deity is hanging far back for the moment, that he's not yet ready to let me know that he's there. She also says that once I do know who he is, he won't be going anywhere, she feels a sense of permanence.
So, a question to anyone on my friends list who may have had a similar experience; where you have your culture of preference, and then all of a sudden some deity shows up from outside that culture and wants some attention from you. How did you handle that? How did you balance that out in your spiritual life? Does anyone have any advice for what to do if and when this situation occurs? Its not something I've really considered before now, so I'm sort of at a loss and would like to be prepared just in case.
Hermes will always come first, of course. I have gotten a bit of work done on the ritual I'm planning in March to make the whole thing official. So I've been thinking a lot about exactly what I'm going to say and exactly what vows I will be making. I remember a discussion with Sannion several months back in which he explained that for him Dionysos comes first and every other god who comes into his life has to understand that. I believe that is the direct I will be heading in as well, my commitment to Hermes comes before anything or anyone and everyone, mortal or immortal, will have to understand that. If for no other reason I will always be primarily Greek.
Of course I have to hope these immediate impressions are wrong and its just one more Greek god and life can remain nice and simple for me. :-)