{"id":5896,"date":"2016-12-15T06:23:40","date_gmt":"2016-12-15T12:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?p=5896"},"modified":"2016-12-13T21:00:01","modified_gmt":"2016-12-14T03:00:01","slug":"gods-getting-impatient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/12\/gods-getting-impatient.html","title":{"rendered":"The Gods Are Getting Impatient"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Big<\/a><\/p>\n

When it comes to dealing with difficult times and especially with large, multi-generational shifts in culture, I\u2019ve always encouraged people to have the perspective of the Gods: take a long-term, big-picture view. The rate of change in the 21st<\/sup> century is unprecedented. When you combine that with TV shows where everything is wrapped up in an hour, we often feel like anything and everything can and should be done right away, and if it isn\u2019t we feel like failures.<\/p>\n

If the Gods are not immortal (and who really knows) They might as well be by our standards. They know that doing things right takes time \u2013 for some things, more time than exists in any one human lifespan. Getting frustrated \u2013 much less quitting \u2013 because things aren\u2019t happening fast enough is both unrealistic and unhelpful. The Gods usually have great patience, and so should we.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0not always.<\/p>\n

For perhaps the first ten years of my Pagan journey (not counting the eight years of dabbling<\/a> and going nowhere) I kept asking \u201cwhat do You want me to do?\u201d All I got back was \u201ckeep working.\u201d Keep studying, keep practicing, keep learning. This was a time when I did a ton of reading and when I studied the OBOD coursework<\/a>. I was an officer in Denton CUUPS: I led rituals and taught classes. I started this blog in 2008<\/a>\u00a0and I started going to Pagan gatherings in 2009<\/a>. I was doing a lot of good and necessary work, but I couldn\u2019t see how it fit into anything bigger.<\/p>\n

In 2011, I started to feel a sense of urgency, although I still didn\u2019t know why. In 2012 I heard first-hand from a certain Battle Goddess<\/a>: \u201ca storm is coming \u2013 get ready.\u201d I found others who were hearing the same thing, and not just from the Morrigan.<\/p>\n

And I started getting messages that I needed to build \u2013 or rather, to help build \u2013 something deeper: for me, for my local group, for those doing the same things in different places, and for those who come after us. As almost always happens with messages from the Gods, what I got was ideas, impressions, and concepts. I\u2019m an engineer \u2013 I want drawings and specifications. I never got them, so I learned to work with what I had.<\/p>\n

Some good things happened in 2013. In 2014 I tried to over-engineer things with our local group and it didn\u2019t work, plus we didn\u2019t have the right mix of people. In 2015 we started again, had some great successes and began to build momentum, both locally and in the wider Pagan and polytheist communities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The messages from the Gods picked up: \u201ckeep building\u201d \u201cthis is good but work faster\u201d \u201cthere is more that needs to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

2016 has been a difficult year in more ways than I can count: in the world of art and music, in the polytheist world<\/a>, in the political world<\/a>, and in the metaphysical world<\/a>. On top of all this, other things have happened that I have not written about, nor will I. When you\u2019re in mourning \u2013 for your favorite singer, for your country, or for a dying dream \u2013 it\u2019s hard to prepare the Way of the Gods. When you\u2019re trying to deal with a stressful paying job it\u2019s hard to focus on exploring the Otherworld. When people you thought were your allies decide that since you\u2019re not 100% with them, you\u2019re against them, it\u2019s hard to keep trying to build community. When your schedule is already overfull, it\u2019s hard to add one more thing even if you really want and need to do it.<\/p>\n

This is the environment in which we work. But what I\u2019m hearing from the Gods (or more specifically, from the handful of Gods with whom I and many of my friends and co-religionists are working) is \u201cwe told you to do this last year\u201d \u201cwhy isn\u2019t this done yet?\u201d and \u201cthis is needed now, not next Summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Gods have the perspective of immortals, but even immortals can get impatient. And They are getting impatient.<\/p>\n

\"04<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not hearing blame and guilt. I\u2019m not hearing \u201cor else!\u201d threats. I\u2019m hearing that my feelings, shortcomings, misfortunes, and other obligations do not change the fact that we need fully functioning polytheist religions now. We need priesthoods now. We need mystical orders now. We need initiations, ordeals, and transformations now. We need to reclaim \u2013 and exercise \u2013 our sovereignty now.<\/p>\n

I used to hear \u201cjust keep working.\u201d Now I\u2019m getting deadlines \u2013 tight deadlines. Now, now, now.<\/p>\n

I did some deep personal ritual work earlier in the Fall. I haven\u2019t finished processing it yet, but now there\u2019s more deep ritual work I have to get done by the end of February. I do not expect that will be the last of it. I have friends and groups experiencing similar deadlines. Their stories are not mine to tell and so I won\u2019t, except to say this isn\u2019t just me.<\/p>\n

I do not know why the Gods are getting impatient. They often share \u201cwhat\u201d with me \u2013 They rarely share \u201cwhy.\u201d Still, I trust the Gods because They have shown Themselves to be trustworthy. Working for and with Them has been some of the most meaningful experiences of my life. If They say \u201cthis needs to be done now\u201d then I trust it really does need to be done now, even if I don\u2019t know why, and even if my speculation takes me into areas that are truly frightening. I\u2019m going to do everything I can to meet Their deadlines, even though I don\u2019t know how I\u2019m going to do it all.<\/p>\n

Let me be clear: I am not speaking for all Gods or all traditions. I am not speaking to all polytheists and Pagans. If your intuition, divination, and first-hand experience says you\u2019re on schedule, then you should assume you\u2019re on schedule. If you\u2019re hearing \u201cjust keep working\u201d then you should not feel any special urgency about your religious and spiritual work. If the Gods are being patient with you, consider yourself fortunate.<\/p>\n

Because They\u2019re getting very impatient with me, and I\u2019m not the only one.<\/p>\n

\"06<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m hearing a lot of \u201cwhy isn\u2019t this done yet?\u201d in my divination and oracular work. The Gods may have infinite life, but They do not have infinite patience. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":5900,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1161,51,1195,29,4,5,8,1196],"class_list":["post-5896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polytheism-2","tag-1161","tag-change","tag-impatience","tag-morrigan","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-polytheism","tag-urgency"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Gods Are Getting Impatient<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I\u2019m hearing a lot of \u201cwhy isn\u2019t this done yet?\u201d in my divination and oracular work. The Gods may have infinite life, but They do not have infinite patience.\" \/>\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\/johnbeckett\/2016\/12\/gods-getting-impatient.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Gods Are Getting Impatient\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019m hearing a lot of \u201cwhy isn\u2019t this done yet?\u201d in my divination and oracular work. The Gods may have infinite life, but They do not have infinite patience.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/12\/gods-getting-impatient.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-15T12:23:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-12-14T03:00:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2016\/12\/04-390-Ravens-at-Tara.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"384\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/12\/gods-getting-impatient.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/12\/gods-getting-impatient.html\",\"name\":\"The Gods Are Getting Impatient\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-12-15T12:23:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-12-14T03:00:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"I\u2019m hearing a lot of \u201cwhy isn\u2019t this done yet?\u201d in my divination and oracular work. The Gods may have infinite life, but They do not have infinite patience.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/12\/gods-getting-impatient.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/12\/gods-getting-impatient.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/12\/gods-getting-impatient.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Gods Are Getting Impatient\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Gods Are Getting Impatient","description":"I\u2019m hearing a lot of \u201cwhy isn\u2019t this done yet?\u201d in my divination and oracular work. The Gods may have infinite life, but They do not have infinite patience.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/12\/gods-getting-impatient.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Gods Are Getting Impatient","og_description":"I\u2019m hearing a lot of \u201cwhy isn\u2019t this done yet?\u201d in my divination and oracular work. The Gods may have infinite life, but They do not have infinite patience.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/12\/gods-getting-impatient.html","og_site_name":"John Beckett","article_published_time":"2016-12-15T12:23:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-12-14T03:00:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":384,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2016\/12\/04-390-Ravens-at-Tara.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John Beckett","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Beckett","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/12\/gods-getting-impatient.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/12\/gods-getting-impatient.html","name":"The Gods Are Getting Impatient","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-12-15T12:23:40+00:00","dateModified":"2016-12-14T03:00:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad"},"description":"I\u2019m hearing a lot of \u201cwhy isn\u2019t this done yet?\u201d in my divination and oracular work. The Gods may have infinite life, but They do not have infinite patience.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/12\/gods-getting-impatient.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/12\/gods-getting-impatient.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/12\/gods-getting-impatient.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Gods Are Getting Impatient"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/","name":"John Beckett","description":"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad","name":"John Beckett","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"John Beckett"},"description":"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}