Everyday Gods

For my own experience, I can point to a very interesting occurrence. In 2008, the Roman god Sterculinus came into my perception. Sterculinus is the god of manure-based fertilizer, and holds the dubious distinction of being one of the only deities whose existence is affirmed and whose role is praised by St. Augustine of Hippo in his De Civitate Dei Contra Paganos. But, as I am neither a farmer nor a gardener, I wondered what in the world Sterculinus would want to do with me. After a great while passed, I was at PantheaCon in February of 2009, and finally realized what he might in fact be suggesting: Sterculinus is the god of doing useful things with shit. There was confirmation on this almost immediately, as I had very bad diarrhea for the rest of the day, and yet was not disrupted in my daily planned activities because of it! I later learned that there is a family of plants, the Sterculiaceae, which includes the plants from which both cola and chocolate are derived, which thus make ideal offerings to Sterculinus, as well as various others that are used as laxatives. Interesting!

And yet, it is not simply colon health and particular foods over which Sterculinus can have relevance today. There are innumerable situations I've encountered since 2009's PantheaCon when something unexpected or even negative has occurred—"shit happened," as it were. It is easier for people to imagine making lemonade from lemons they're handed, while the thought of being handed shit does not make most people at all happy. Thus, situations that get understood as "being handed lemons" can be more easily dealt with than those in which "shit has happened," simply on a cognitive-linguistic level of engagement. Nevertheless, shit does happen, and when it does, it makes extremely good fertilizer.

So, Sterculinus has been instrumental for me in finding the most useful and productive ways to deal with the most trying and difficult situations in my life since he came into it. When something can't be transformed by proper placement into a force that will contribute to one's overall garden health (i.e., one person's shit is another's fertilizer, as long as it you put it in the right place!), sometimes it is just better to "flush," wash your hands, and go about with your day. The discernment to know which situation is which is also a part of Sterculinus' influence in my experience.

So, where the gods are concerned, there is no harm in having deities who are more connected to small and everyday matters rather than to things of universal importance or validity; and while some gods may have greater power than others, often what is needed is a specialized expert with a fine set of tools, rather than a commanding general with a whole army at the ready. To a very large degree, what I'm dealing with here is a matter of perspective. The term "small god" is, in some sense, as meaningless as saying "large atom."