{"id":1460,"date":"2018-05-14T21:56:06","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T05:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/?p=1460"},"modified":"2018-05-14T22:07:11","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T06:07:11","slug":"meeting-god-should-not-be-a-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tempest\/2018\/05\/meeting-god-should-not-be-a-threat.html","title":{"rendered":"Meeting God Should Not Be a Threat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Photo by Alex Radelich on Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A word to the wise \u2013 if we\u2019re on a roadtrip together, and I\u2019m the one driving, there\u2019s a good chance a billboard is going to send me off into a rant<\/del>\u00a0an enthusiastic discussion about history and religion.<\/p>\n

Roadside signs are a mixed bag. Some of them are hilarious ones that promote tourist traps and others feature poorly designed local advertising.\u00a0 Then there\u2019s the preachy kind, focused on sin, damnation, and imposing religious views on state and human rights matters.\u00a0 (Cue my hackles being raised.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Last summer, while I was touring the country promoting The Witch\u2019s Cauldron<\/a> and The Mechanist & The Star Goddess\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0we saw a lot of billboards. Somewhere in Utah, on our way to Salt Lake City, there quite a few of the preachy variety.\u00a0 The one that particularly set my mind in motion (which I would have snapped a picture of, had I not been driving)<\/em> said, \u201cWhen you die, you will meet God.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong> I think it also had an additional, much smaller-sized line that spoke about atoning for your sins before that happened.\u00a0 A threat standing in yard high letters about a jerk god<\/a>\u00a0and what might happen if you don\u2019t follow their rules.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Andrew Dong on Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I saw that, and I thought, \u201cHow sad.\u201d\u00a0 As if it\u2019s not bad enough that so much of Christianity focuses on an afterlife reward or punishment system instead of promoting the benefits of being a decent human being right this moment. (The latter is what Jesus actually is said to have focused on if you read the scriptures.)<\/em> No, they also push this Abrahamic concept that we\u2019re removed, separated, or unconnected to the Divine.\u00a0 Which, when you think about the core creation myths, if God made the world, then everything has been touched by the Divine. EVERYTHING.\u00a0 That includes the mountains, trees, skies, rabbits, spiders, snakes, sunfish, and human beings \u2013 all created by God. God-made.<\/p>\n

Sure, I have talked about how belief in\u00a0God or Gods isn\u2019t integral to practicing Witchcraft<\/a> and that I don\u2019t consider myself a devotional Witch<\/a>.\u00a0 But I do work with Gods and spirits.\u00a0 I experience the divine regularly, and personally. The Self-Divine is a concept that is part of my threefold model of the human soul \u2013 which says that we are directly linked to the Divine\/are made of god particles and star stuff ourselves.\u00a0 I don\u2019t see gods and spirits as being separate from this world at all.\u00a0 Nor to meet or experience them does it require you to die first.<\/p>\n

Even if you have a hard time relating to deities as distinct personalities that you can interact with, you can see the divine in the world around you. As an artist, every piece of work I make is touched by my hands.\u00a0 That means they\u2019re covered in my DNA \u2013 from skin cells, to occasionally blood, spit (really I try NOT to lick my brushes), and also cat hair. (If you manage to clone me from my art, let me know, ok?)<\/em>\u00a0 Metaphysically, they\u2019re soaked in my energy, and they come forth from my mind: out of nothingness comes something real and tangible.\u00a0 My work is a part of me and linked to me, even if it\u2019s not me. Similarly, everything in the world has a hum to it, connecting elements and energy to give form to our realities. A thumbprint or DNA spiral if you will.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Joshua Alan Davis on Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That means when you look in the mirror, you are essentially meeting God. Every time you look at the landscape, interact with other people and animals, you\u2019re interacting with the divine. If you are able to recognize the sacred and godly within yourself, then you can start to see and feel the connecting threads that unite all of us. Once you have those weaving threads fixed within your mind\u2019s eye, it\u2019s much easier to work magick and to wildly fall in love with the world. Our ability to create physically and spiritually are linked to our hearts,<\/a> designed for love.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to see or use god as a threat if god is love as they<\/em> say, and love is god, as my friend S.J. Tucker<\/a> says.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lastly, meeting gods and spirits isn\u2019t something that works on neat fixed human schedule, or only in certain places (unless they\u2019re tied to a specific place of course.) You don\u2019t have to be dressed appropriately or tithe a certain amount of your income to make it happen. You could be in a beautiful grotto in an ancient site, but it might happen while you\u2019re driving or in the bathroom or asleep.\u00a0 It\u2019s not necessarily tied to yours or anyone else\u2019s expectations. Why?\u00a0 Because to meet God right now \u2013 all you need to do is live.<\/p>\n

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

A word to the wise – if we’re on a roadtrip together, and I’m the one driving, there’s a good chance a billboard is going to send me off into an enthusiastic discussion about history and religion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2676,"featured_media":1463,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13,14],"tags":[141,222,338,18,19,88,89,7,4],"class_list":["post-1460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-modernpractice","category-myth-and-folklore","category-tradition","tag-animism","tag-christianity","tag-divine","tag-god","tag-gods","tag-polytheism","tag-self-divine","tag-witch","tag-witchcraft"],"yoast_head":"\nMeeting God Should Not Be a Threat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A word to the wise - if we're on a roadtrip together, and I'm the one driving, there's a good chance a billboard is going to send me off into an enthusiastic discussion about history and religion.\" \/>\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\/tempest\/2018\/05\/meeting-god-should-not-be-a-threat.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meeting God Should Not Be a Threat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A word to the wise - 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