Your Friendly Neigborhood Spirits
When we talk about Pagan gods and goddesses we often focus on the gods such as the Olympians or other major gods such as Isis who were universal gods with major national temples as opposed to the local gods in the neighborhood shrine who was associated with the land.
In one way this attention makes sense as modern pagans in the West are often very mobile and comparatively few in number. However to many ancient pagans and modern followers of polytheistic religions the local deities were often more important than the cosmic deities simply because they were local and therefore more likely to be attentive to requests and care about the petitioner. In fact Modern India is seeing a renaissance of devotion to local gods based on this very reason:
"The natural question is why? What is fuelling this middle-class devotion to 'lesser' gods, traditionally associated with the unlettered? Devotees themselves provide a fairly cogent explanation: they see these local gods as being far more intimately familiar with, and responsive to, the needs of ordinary people than the 'great gods' who live up there in the celestial sphere.
Rather than retiring their gods, as secularisation theory expected, the emerging middle classes in India are remaking them. The local deities who were once considered guardians of the village, and protected against scourges like smallpox, are now being beseeched for blessings for success in an increasingly competitive urban environment."
Meera Nanda, 'Rush hour of the gods', New Humanist March/April 2008.
So Today's Prompt in two parts:
I. Have you ever worked with or venerated local spirits/deities? If so how?
II. How do you view or interpret local deities/spirits in your personal theological view?