Friday, February 17, 2012

D is for Deity



How do you view deity?  If there is one thing that I have learned in walking this path it is that there are numerous ways in which one interprets and views deity and each way is supported by a belief system just as valid as any other, and that goes for all religions.

So how do I view deity?  It took a bit of soul searching in my journey to really get an idea solidified of how exactly I viewed deity.  When I began I found myself drawn to a particular goddess (Diana) but I always struggled to connect with any God, this was reflected in my practice and I felt bad about not meeting the ‘requirements’ of the craft as I’d read them (I was 15).  Then my patron changed, suddenly Diana had stepped back and briefly Epona stepped into my life and I was a little confused, shouldn’t we just have one patron deity? 

So it made me think, why did my patron change?  Why couldn’t I connect with a god?  Was I just wrong?  The usual doubts that come from a 17year old exploring a new path in secret with only books for assistance.  I took a step back and I looked at myself.  I thought about what I was going through at the time Diana was my patron and what she stood for and I looked at what had changed and what Epona stood for and I realized that each deity was here to help me with a specific part of my journey.  I looked at my disconnection with a male god and my life experiences and realized that I was struggling to connect to masculine aspects and masculine role models, if my life had so turned me against male figureheads how could I come to embrace a masculine deity?  I was out of balance myself and that was reflected in the deities that were manifesting in my life.

This thinking led me to analyze how it was then that I viewed deity.  Were my gods individual gods within their own rights or were they aspects of something bigger?  If the gods that chose to be with me stepped in and out of my life were they part of a whole?  Once again, back to the research and the soul searching.  I looked at creation myths, I read numerous books and I meditated… who were my deities?  Finally I came to my conclusion.  I believed in a universal force, one that was dualistic in nature – both masculine and feminine.  This force was so far beyond our human comprehension as a whole that we can only deal with aspects of it at a time – these aspects were the deities that we find in all cultures.  If we look at world mythology we can generally find in each culture deities that hold similar roles and attributes and I believe this is reflective of my belief that they are all manifestations of the one universal force.



As we journey through this path some of us find a patron and that patron never changes – this is a reflection of their path and their belief system and that is what their journey requires and therefore what the universe produces.  For me, thus far I have yet to settle on one singular deity.  In the 16years I have walked this path I have had several patrons.  I have been blessed by Diana, Epona, Cerridwen, Arianrhod and most recently Persephone who is helping me travel my shadow path.  



I have had less contact with male deities – it took me until I was twenty five before I worked with a masculine deity rather than the universal Lord, and that was Lugh, since then Cernunnos and finally Odin has entered my life and he has stayed for quite some time now.  Perhaps one day I will reach a stage where I have progressed in my journey and things will stabilize, perhaps not.



As you can see I have no problems mixing pantheons with regards to my deities – I believe that as they are aspects of a whole than it does not matter which pantheon I work with, they come to me as I recognize them and I guess they reflect what I am most familiar with in manifestation.  For this reason I will also work with different deities in ritual and spell work that reflect the purpose and intent.

4 comments:

  1. Nice post! Being a hard polytheist myself, I find it interesting to see how others view deity.
    However, using the word "patron" to refer to female deities is one of my pet peeves. They are female, after all, so why not use the word "matron"?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For me personally I don't see the word 'patron' as being gender specific, I take it as gender neutral. While I understand that its etymology suggests masculinity word meanings change. If you look up the definition online (dictionary.com) it all states "a person", and while I appreciate the history of the word as I said it just doesn't resonate within me as a word that is gender specific, for me a patron is "a being" not a "masculine being".

      Delete
  2. Glad to see another had problems with a male deity. It wasn't until my early twenties that I accepted Father Sun as a main deity. This was an enjoyable read. It's enlightening to see that like Spirit Animals, Gods(esses) have a tendency to come and go with life. ~)O(~

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've been pagan for a long time (we'll not do the math) but it's only recently that I have started to connect with Father Sky and Grandfather Sun, as I see them. I think part of it is because there is already so much masculinity that is pervasive in society, or maybe just my particular experience.

    ReplyDelete