There’s been a lot of conversation sparked on Patheos pagan blogs in the last week or two that circles around the process of becoming devoted to a deity. Does the deity choose the devotee? Does the pagan choose the patron? Do certain gods call to people more often at certain times? Does pagan worship follow trends? Personally, I think the answer to all of these questions is probably yes, sometimes. After all, there are a lot of pagans, and a lot of gods, and generally any one person’s relationship with any one deity tends to be a bit different than any other person’s, even if the deity is the same.
I want to talk a bit about devotion as a group, when the group is not formed specifically for the worship of any particular deity. As it happens, my congregation just this week began the process of a new devotional relationship with Brigid, the Irish goddess associated with poetry, smithcraft, healing, inspiration, and a whole host of other things. Did we choose Brigid? Did Brigid choose us? What does the group’s devotion to a patron deity mean to any individual member of the group? Let me work through all that a bit, and see what answers we come to.
As background, at Gaia Community, at any given time since 2003 we’ve had two patron deities. The first is our namesake, Gaia. We are named for her, and we celebrate her both as deity and as the principle of the earth in general. Our other patron deity changes every year, which is to say that every year we choose, or are called to serve and work with, a different god or goddess. The annual patron gives specific focus to our work, and we devote a lot of ritual, discussion, and learning to that deity, whomever they happen to be.
We go through an extended process of developing this annual patronage. I like to think it’s the UU side of our congregation coming forward – first we nominate a wide field of deities or powers who call to us or whom we are interested in, then we discuss, then we narrow the field to three powers, and then we hold a large, theatrical ritual in which we have ritualists present each power, and we ask questions of the deities and their representatives, and at the end of the day, we have a new annual patron. There’s a bit more to it than that, but that’s another post for another day.
Once we’ve made that opening welcome, we begin a year of service to, or work with, the annual patron. We dedicate a number of rituals to the annual patron. We build a portable shrine that is blessed at every service, and that provides a point of connection to the annual patron even when that deity is not the focus of ritual. We share lore and information about the deity. We turn our social justice and charity efforts to the sorts of work that lines up with our annual patron’s priorities (not neglecting our environmental work for Gaia, our consistent patroness). We often craft ritual items specific to the annual patron, and write songs and poetry in the annual patron’s honor. At the beginning of a patron’s year, we hold a welcoming ritual, and at the end of the year, a ritual of thanks and farewell.
Since this year our annual patron is Brigid, I expect Imbolc to take on a greater than usual importance. I expect new songs to come forth, and to spend time making and crafting, and to focus on generosity and hospitality. I imagine we’ll speak of her with reference to her midwifery, bringing things to birth, and to her keening, and the need to mourn and grieve those things deserving of it. We’ll be telling Irish stories, and trying to discern the hints of ancient goddess in the hagiography of the saint who bears her name. There will probably be sheep, and cheese, and beer involved also, and the red gold of forge fire and of blood, and flame and honeycomb, as the song says. We’ll tend a fire, perhaps, and bless the wells. And we’ll reflect and meditate, and ask, “Why does Brigid come to us now, or why have we gone to her?”. By the end of the year, I hope to have an answer.
And if you are a member of our congregation, or a visitor, Brigid may call to you to take her worship into your home, and into your life. But she may not. When we choose a patron for the community, we expect and experience that relationship as being between the deity and the group, not binding on any individuals who don’t seek to be so bound. Each year, it seems that the community’s patron calls to some people who will become devotees or strengthen already present devotions, but passes most of us by. Most of us will honor the patron in community, and go on in our private spiritual lives with the deity or deities we already honor. And some will take the patron’s worship home on a sort of trial basis, to see how the relationship will develop.
I’m not sure yet to which group I will belong. I suppose that’s part of the work of the year, to meet with the goddess, and learn what our relationship to her will be. We’ve already chosen her, and perhaps she in turn will choose us.
Gaia Community will formally welcome Brigid in ritual August 23, 2015.
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