![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2013\/01\/athena-parthenos.jpg\" "\\"athena")
<\/a>On a fairly regular basis I hear from someone who expresses fear of the gods. This isn\u2019t the awe and reverence expressed by monotheists and Pagans alike, which is a natural response when encountering a being who is older, wiser and much more powerful than you are. This is a fear of approaching the gods and goddesses of our ancestors and it generally falls into one of four categories. I\u2019d like to explore those fears and what I\u2019ve found to be helpful responses to them.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know how to begin.<\/strong> Read their stories. Read Gods and Fighting Men<\/em><\/a> and Cuchulain of Muirthemne<\/a><\/em>. Read the Eddas<\/em><\/a>. Read the classic stories of the Greeks and Romans and Egyptians. They aren\u2019t scripture and they haven\u2019t been perfectly preserved, but they\u2019re the best connections we have to how our ancestors viewed their goddesses and gods. Remember these are stories, not historical accounts. Read them, meditate on them, and let them speak to you beyond the literal words on the page.<\/p>\n Read the scholarship about the gods: what history, archeology, linguistics and literary analysis can tell us about them. Look for them in art, literature, and the mainstream culture (days of the week, anyone?). There\u2019s more material for some than for others, but we can usually get a good idea of where and how they were worshiped. That in turn gives us more insight into who and what they are.<\/p>\n Talk to their priests and priestesses. You may have to do a little looking, but they\u2019re out there \u2013 and nothing gets a Pagan talking like someone saying \u201ctell me about your gods.\u201d We don\u2019t proselytize, but we love to publicize. I can\u2019t tell you for certain who Cernunnos is, but I can tell you how I\u2019ve experienced him and what he\u2019s asked of me.<\/p>\n None of this guarantees you\u2019ll encounter a goddess or god. What is does is prepare you so that if you do encounter a goddess or god you\u2019ll recognize who\u2019s speaking to you.<\/p>\n What if nobody picks me?<\/strong> Read through the Pagan internet and you\u2019ll encounter priests and priestesses, god-spouses and god-slaves, and people speaking of their patron deity as though she\u2019s their favorite grandmother. It can create the expectation that if you don\u2019t have a close personal relationship with a goddess and you don\u2019t have an ecstatic experience of her at every full moon then you\u2019re doing something wrong. This simply isn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to be a formally dedicated follower to honor a god in ritual or to make an ordinary request. One of the features of polytheism is that different deities have different areas of responsibility. If you need healing, you can call on Brighid, make an appropriate offering and ask for what you need. It helps if you already know her, but you don\u2019t have to be her priestess to approach her. I strongly disagree with people who advise cold calling a god you just found on the internet and asking for something big (I\u2019ve done it \u2013 the results weren\u2019t pretty \u2013 won\u2019t do it again), but if you\u2019re familiar with several deities in a pantheon, you should be at least on speaking terms with someone who can help you.<\/p>\n Priesthood is a calling that\u2019s not for everyone. It has benefits, but it also carries obligations you may find annoying, objectionable, or even unworkable. Oaths should never be made lightly. They should be made in accordance with your True Will and in full exercise of your sovereignty<\/a>.<\/p>\n What if I\u2019m called by someone I don\u2019t like?<\/strong> I call this the \u201cwhat if I\u2019m put in Slytherin?\u201d fear. As Harry Potter told Albus Severus \u201cthen Slytherin House will have gained an excellent student.\u201d I\u2019m still not sure why a primal forest god called a nerdish engineer to be his priest, but the relationship has been beneficial to me, and I trust, to him as well. Sometimes gods call people because they have a specific skill or attribute the god needs. Sometimes they\u2019re preparing the person for future service. Sometimes\u2026 sometimes you just don\u2019t know. But you go with it and you do what you can and in the process, you learn and grow.<\/p>\n I haven\u2019t heard a peep from Eris or Loki or any of the many trickster gods. I think they understand I\u2019m too orderly (and as those who know me well would add, too uptight) to be much use to them. They aren\u2019t going to waste their time with me when there\u2019s plenty of people who find pleasure (and even great meaning) in their antics.<\/p>\n What if nobody is there?<\/strong> Now we get to the tough one. Part of our mainstream society insists there\u2019s only one god, while another part insists there are none. Polytheism is a very natural concept, but like so many other natural, intuitive ideas it\u2019s been squashed by people who think it\u2019s primitive or childish or unsophisticated.<\/p>\n As Sam Webster<\/a> pointed out at the Between the Worlds conference, belief was irrelevant in the ancient world<\/a>. What mattered was that you rendered due honor to the gods. Whether you saw the gods as individual beings or aspects of The Divine or archetypes or metaphors wasn\u2019t important.<\/p>\n When I am in ritual or in meditation I have no doubt the gods are real, distinct, individual beings. My experience of them is too strong and too meaningful and I\u2019ve done it for too long for me to think otherwise.<\/p>\n Outside of ritual, my skeptical side wakes up and starts offering skeptical alternatives: \u201cit\u2019s all in your head\u201d \u201cthis isn\u2019t real\u201d \u201cyou have no proof\u201d and \u201cconfirmation bias.\u201d And I have to admit that skeptical side might be right. I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n But here\u2019s what I do know. Since I started diligently following this path, I\u2019m a lot happier than I was. I used to wonder what I was supposed to be doing with my life \u2013 now I know. I used to mindlessly accept the mainstream culture\u2019s materialistic idea of success \u2013 now I\u2019m awake. I used to fear what comes after death \u2013 now I\u2019m confident it will be good.<\/p>\n Are my beliefs about the gods \u201cright\u201d? I don\u2019t know, at least not in a literal sense. But they\u2019re meaningful, and they\u2019re helpful, and that\u2019s good enough for me.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n These four fears of the gods are very understandable for someone approaching Paganism from our mainstream Western culture. Like most fears, they stream from ignorance \u2013 we don\u2019t know, so we imagine the worst. When we move forward in spite of our fears, we learn and grow. As our ignorance dissolves, so does our fear.<\/p>\n Paganism isn\u2019t for everyone. Polytheism isn\u2019t for everyone. If worshiping the old gods and goddesses doesn\u2019t feel right to you, try something else. But if you feel their call, I encourage you to listen, and respond, and practice, and see where it takes you. Not because you have no fear, but because your desire to experience them is greater than your fear.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" People who come to Paganism often have a fear of approaching our gods and goddesses. This is understandable \u2013 our mainstream society doesn\u2019t exactly encourage polytheism. Let\u2019s look at some of the common fears of the gods and how we can best address them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":665,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[18,16,17,4,5,8],"class_list":["post-664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polytheism-2","tag-belief","tag-fear-of-the-gods","tag-mythology","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-polytheism"],"yoast_head":"\n