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<\/p>\nThor, God of Thunder.\u00a0 Zeus, Father of the Gods, God of Lightning.\u00a0 Hades, God of the Underworld.\u00a0 Odin, God of Wisdom.\u00a0 Hekate, Goddess of Witchcraft.\u00a0 Thoth, God of Knowledge.\u00a0 Apollo, God of the Sun.\u00a0 Ra, Sun God.\u00a0 Ishtar, Goddess of Love.\u00a0 Hermes, God of Travellers and Messengers. Brigid, Goddess of Poetry and Smithcraft.\u00a0 Cernunnos, God of Fertility.\u00a0 Demeter, Mother Goddess of the Earth.<\/p>\n
We all know these lists, we seek them out and study them and rely on them for quick bites of the deities, to know who may be best to call on in a given situation or who we might like to try to spend more time worshipping, or who might be sending us this sign.\u00a0 I have an entire book devoted to just this sort of thing, an Encyclopaedia of the Gods that lists over 2500 deities around the world and gives snippets of information about Them \u2013 their main correspondences and tiny bits of Their mythology, as well as Their origin and such of course.<\/p>\n
These lists that tell us what the various Gods represent are helpful and handy things, but they are a two edged sword.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The most troubling thing about such lists is they have the ability to make us think of the Gods as more limited than They really are. \u00a0The Gods are far more than these little bites of information might suggest.\u00a0 They are real living beings with lives longer than we can imagine, with experiences we don\u2019t even know about.<\/p>\n
These lists of information often only give us a tiny part of who and what the deity actually is.\u00a0 Sure, Zeus is the father of the Gods and the God of lightning, but is that all He is?\u00a0 No it isn\u2019t. You could of course try to find a more comprehensive list \u2013 but it still won\u2019t tell you everything.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t going to tell you if He likes or dislikes the colour yellow, for instance.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t going to tell you if He likes to have the occasional afternoon nap, or not.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t going to tell you how He feels about what He does \u2013 does He even like lightning? Has He ever gotten sick of dealing with electricity like that?\u00a0 Do you know?<\/p>\n
The Gods are real, living beings and They are just as, if not more, complex than you and I.\u00a0 Sure, They might rule over this and that and this other thing, but that isn\u2019t the whole of Them.\u00a0 They are more than what They rule over.\u00a0 Just like, I am more than a blogger at Patheos and I am far more than the labels I share in my About Me section.\u00a0 You could look at my self-imposed labels and see what is there, what is not and decide \u2013 no, Bekah is all about Paganism, Hellenism, Hekate and Homeschooling.\u00a0 That\u2019s what we must talk to her about.\u00a0 She is not the one to talk to about Skyrim.\u00a0 But you would be wrong, I love Skyrim.<\/p>\n
Remember, labels only describe snippets of ourselves \u2013 and so it is the same with the Gods.\u00a0 Lists of what They rule over only tell snippets about Them, but They are more than that.\u00a0 Don\u2019t forget it.<\/p>\n
So, you\u2019re about to go on a holiday and you\u2019ll be travelling a lot, so you might check to see which deity is best to pray to and offer to in order to have a good and safe trip.\u00a0 Ah, Hermes, of course!\u00a0 So you go about making offerings and praying for everything to go well.\u00a0 But, it doesn\u2019t work out so well, you get robbed, you lose some luggage, you get stuck at an airport for two days because of weather delays.\u00a0 Why?<\/p>\n
Maybe Hermes was answering the thief\u2019s prayer for a good haul that day, did you forget Hermes is a thief?\u00a0 Maybe Hermes had to contend with Zeus\u2019 decision to create some bad weather \u2013 oh, you forgot to ask Zeus for good weather, didn\u2019t you?\u00a0 Maybe Hermes doesn\u2019t know you, because you have never prayed or offered to Him before, and so He didn\u2019t really see why He should even listen to your prayers, let alone acquiesce to them.\u00a0 Maybe Hermes just doesn\u2019t like you.\u00a0 Maybe you didn\u2019t research things and you offered Hermes something He hates.\u00a0 Maybe.<\/p>\n
Who knows? But, it\u2019s pretty obvious, something went wrong somewhere.<\/p>\n
Above we spoke about limiting the Gods, well this is one example of how we do so.\u00a0 Here we are limiting the deities by looking at some of Them for only specific reasons, completely ignoring Them at all other times.\u00a0 But, this is also an example of how we might be limiting the Gods we do know, because They don\u2019t \u201cfit\u201d the situation.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s fairly common in modern Paganism and related traditions to have a bit of a focus on one deity, or a small group of deities.\u00a0 These are the Gods you worship, communicate with, pray to and offer to on a regular basis.\u00a0 These are the Gods who know you well, and you should (hopefully) also know Them, through research and interaction.\u00a0 The Gods are powerful, not all powerful, but They are definitely more powerful than we are.\u00a0 Just because a deity doesn\u2019t \u201crule over\u201d a certain things, doesn\u2019t mean They can\u2019t have a pretty heavy influence over that thing.\u00a0 Don\u2019t be afraid to ask a deity you know for help in something They aren\u2019t listed as ruling over.<\/p>\n
The opposite holds true though.\u00a0 Yes, we should always seek the help of a deity that knows us over a deity who doesn\u2019t know us, whatever their province.\u00a0 But we should also remember to think deeply and not ask a deity for help in something They just aren\u2019t suited to!\u00a0 Our Gods are not all powerful,\u00a0 They are very powerful but that doesn\u2019t mean They can do anything and everything.\u00a0 They can do a lot, and They can each do things we probably cannot even imagine.\u00a0 But it\u2019s also possible They shouldn\u2019t have a hand in certain things.<\/p>\n
Consider some of the stories given to us by Aesop.\u00a0 Some of these are considered to be jokes, written for a laugh, but I think they also tell us something important about the Gods.\u00a0 Aesop tells a story about Prometheus in His creation of humans.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone asked Aesop why lesbians and effeminates had been created, and old Aesop explained, \u2018The answer lies once again with Prometheus, the original creator of our common clay. All day long, Prometheus had been separately shaping those natural members which modesty conceals beneath our clothes, and when he was about to apply these private parts to the appropriate bodies Liber [Dionysos] unexpectedly invited him to dinner. Prometheus came home late, unsteady on his feet and with a good deal of heavenly nectar flowing through his veins. With his wits half asleep in a drunken haze he stuck the female genitalia on male bodies and male members on the ladies. This is why modern lust revels in perverted pleasures.\u2019\u201d \u2013 Aesop, Fables 517<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Prometheus was doing something He is good at, and yet in this story He made some mistakes and messed things up.\u00a0 This is a good example of how the Gods are not perfect, are not all powerful.\u00a0 If They can mess up on the things They rule over, what might happen if you ask a deity to help in something They not only don\u2019t rule over, but are kind of terrible at?<\/p>\n
Pay Attention, Dig Deeper<\/h2>\n
It all comes back to limiting the Gods based on basic information.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just about knowing how the Gods can help us, or knowing about what the Gods like.\u00a0 It\u2019s also about knowing what They don\u2019t like and how They can\u2019t help us.\u00a0 It\u2019s all well and good to know a deity rules over fire, but you should probably also know if that same deity is somewhat averse to water. \u00a0And no, you can\u2019t assume a fire deity will hate water, since some deities rule over both fire and water together.<\/p>\n
These lists that tell us what the Gods rule over or represent or what Their symbols are, they are great and can be very helpful.\u00a0 As a starting point, but only as a starting point.\u00a0 Never go full on in to anything with a deity based on what some list tells you \u2013 not even just general worship!\u00a0 Because even in general worship we can mess things up and who knows what will happen then.<\/p>\n
For example, you might search the internet for a list of generic offerings you could make to Chthonic deities and find that mint is listed in some places as being a good one.\u00a0 But if you happen to be offering to Persephone you\u2019re going to run into some trouble.\u00a0 If you research Persephone and strive to learn about Her, specifically, and not just in list form you might learn that mint is not something you offer to Her.\u00a0 Seriously.\u00a0 She hates mint!<\/p>\n
Even in the more mundane areas we need to know what we\u2019re doing.\u00a0 Because even the generic things might be hated by some of the Gods (I can\u2019t imagine Poseidon really likes olives, which are a very generic offering in Hellenism). Even things that seem like they should work, might not work.<\/p>\n
Basically, it\u2019s important to be sure of what you\u2019re doing and not\u00a0just jump in the deep end without some knowledge to back you up.\u00a0 You certainly don\u2019t need a complete and comprehensive understanding to get started, but you should have more than a basic list from the internet or from a book.\u00a0 And you certainly shouldn\u2019t go asking the Gods for favours before you even say, \u201cHi! My name is\u2026. and I want to get to know you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Gods are real, living beings and They are just as, if not more, complex than you and I. Sure, They might rule over this and that and this other thing, but that isn’t the whole of Them. They are more than what They rule over. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2764,"featured_media":1179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,13,39],"tags":[22,9,41,40,94,20,32,29,25,23],"class_list":["post-1178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hellenism","category-paganism101","category-religious-philosophy","tag-deities","tag-hellenismos","tag-mythology","tag-nature-of-the-gods","tag-offerings","tag-opinion","tag-paganism","tag-polytheism","tag-religion","tag-rituals"],"yoast_head":"\n
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