Happy 5th Anniversary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Blogging here has encouraged me to become more professional and polished. It's made me think about what I'm writing about and how to write about it, how to convey what the gods want me to say.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/ainellewellyn\/2014\/05\/happy-5th-anniversary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Happy 5th Anniversary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Blogging here has encouraged me to become more professional and polished. 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{"id":1068,"date":"2014-05-06T17:56:48","date_gmt":"2014-05-06T23:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/ainellewellyn\/?p=1068"},"modified":"2014-05-06T17:56:48","modified_gmt":"2014-05-06T23:56:48","slug":"happy-5th-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/ainellewellyn\/2014\/05\/happy-5th-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy 5th Anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Patheos turned five years old yesterday. Though I was still too sick to post then, I\u2019m taking some time today to comment on how grateful I am to be able to blog here. My audience has been much larger than it would have been if I had stuck to my own little WordPress blog, and blogging here has encouraged me to become more professional and polished. It\u2019s made me think about what I\u2019m writing about and how to write about it, how to convey what the gods want me to say.<\/p>\n

Of course, at times I fall way off the mark, which is to be expected. All that means is getting up and trying again.<\/p>\n

It was suggest we link to our most popular posts here on Patheos in celebration of the five year anniversary. My most popular posts here, however, are far from my favorite or best work. (Which is how these things go.) So, instead, I\u2019ll be linking to my five favorite posts that I\u2019ve written here on Dalliances with Deities.<\/p>\n

5. The Face of a God<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2026for a long time I was frustrated. I wanted to see his\u00a0face<\/em>. I wanted to\u00a0know<\/em>\u00a0him.<\/p>\n

One day I did, and I couldn\u2019t quite come back from that.<\/p>\n

4. The Divine Victim<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure there are people out there who will take issue with my calling a\u00a0god<\/em>\u00a0a victim. After all, some circles of Pagandom think that victim mentality is worse than actually victimizing another person (which is rather telling, isn\u2019t it).<\/p>\n

3. Fear is Not the Goal<\/a><\/p>\n

When I began working with the Ophelia, it was all fear and all stress all the time. I remember asking what she wanted from me, that she was putting me through so much. What did she want, that she was dragging me so low.<\/p>\n

2. Monstrosity + Human Superiority<\/a><\/p>\n

It is when we approach the gods and spirits from a human-centric perspective that we so easily label them monstrous, frightening, or ugly. Many claim that faeries don\u2019t have empathy, which I don\u2019t think is true at all \u2013 they aren\u2019t always empathic to\u00a0humans<\/em>.<\/p>\n

1. Getting It Wrong<\/a><\/p>\n

My gods come before my ego. My path has a healthy amount of pride, but the gods are first for me. I jumped ahead and misunderstood the stories and even misunderstood the fundamental nature of one of my gods. I\u2019m probably going to do that again.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"