Drawing by the author<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>It was an indoor-outdoor kind of setting \u2013 a big covered atrium with open meeting spaces, big terraced balconies and pathways. \u00a0Mainly a college-age crowd with alumni visiting, doing break-out groups. I was walking through\u00a0when someone called, \u201chey let\u2019s ask Tempest!\u201d<\/p>\n
Hearing my name, I walked over and sat on the table, and asked to hear the question.<\/p>\n
I listened. Then\u00a0I lay back on the table, hair sprawling out, and looked up at the sky\/ceiling, then I answered:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are the gods of places and the gods of spaces. \u00a0There are the gods we carry with us, and the gods that come with us.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nPeople nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe gods of places are the gods that have always been there. They are the elements and elementals, the chthonic, that which has always been. The gods of spaces arrive at a place and create a niche, a space of their own among the gods of places. They are nature that lives, breathes, dies, and is reborn again and again. \u00a0The trees, the groves, the streams, the ponds.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nThe gentleman who called me over in the first place looks on expectantly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe gods we carry with us are the gods we know. The ones whose names we call upon, whose images we see and acknowledge.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nMore nodding. \u00a0\u201cBut the last group? How is that different?\u201d<\/p>\n
I smile up at the ceiling. \u00a0\u201cThe gods that come with us are the ones that know us, but are unknown, unknowable, forgotten. \u00a0They are the ones whose names we do not know, whose faces and images we do not see. They watch and they wait. They are the ones who call to us.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nThis exchange is brought to you by my dreams last night. \u00a0The first line kept repeating itself throughout the rest of the dream. \u00a0It\u2019s a new thing that\u2019s started in recent years, where a line will be spoken again and again, carrying throughout the dream. \u00a0The words remain fresh in my head when I wake, though sometimes the meaning and context disappears.<\/p>\n
Not so much this time, I think it\u2019s pretty clear.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I listened. Then I lay back on the table, hair sprawling out, and looked up at the sky\/ceiling, then I answered . . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2676,"featured_media":521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[225,224,18,19,226,27,7,4],"class_list":["post-520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-myth-and-folklore","tag-dream","tag-dreams","tag-god","tag-gods","tag-message","tag-polytheist","tag-witch","tag-witchcraft"],"yoast_head":"\n
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