A great many Pagans and Druids talk about serving the Gods, and doing what the Gods ask of them. I have a confession to make: I do not hear the voice of deity. I used to, years ago, but it went away. There may be reasons. I became too wrapped up in my pain. I become too weary to give – my acts of service went to the material realm, I had nothing to offer the Gods beyond that, and so, perhaps, they ceased bothering with me. Perhaps I have become spiritually deaf. Perhaps there is nothing they want from me right now and they have more important things to be doing. They are Gods, after all.
I have no trouble at all holding to the idea that Gods exist. But I’ve never been good at holding relationship with anything I couldn’t interact with. Belief without relationship doesn’t work for me, I don’t know how to do it. I love and respect the natural world, and the energies of human creativity. I pay a lot of attention to the things I encounter, to the reeds and the grebes, the sky, the earth. I have a sense of the sacredness in all that is around me, but based on previous experience, that’s not the same as a feeling of relationship with deity.
I could beat myself up over this. I have spent a lot of time wondering what changed, and why, and whether this is some judgement upon me, some proof of insufficiency and of not being a proper Druid after all. When the rain falls on me, I do not think it is a divine judgement on my shortcomings. I think it’s rain, falling. When something random and shitty happens in my life, I don’t tend to think “ah, the gods are pissed off with me again, better sacrifice a goat.” Shit happens, and it happens to everyone, and some of the best people I know have had some really hard things in their lives. So that can’t be it. That said, when unimaginable good fortune comes my way, I do tend to wonder if I have been smiled on by some benevolent force, and I express my gratitude.
There are people in my life I haven’t heard from in years. People on the folk scene, for example. The silence does not suggest to me that they no longer exist. It doesn’t make me think they hate me. Based on experience to date, when I next run into them, we’ll sit down somewhere and talk, and the intervening years won’t matter much at all, aside from the work of filling in the gaps. Why should I assume the gods are any less busy, and any less pleasant, than folk musicians? I don’t.
I’m saying this partly because it’s something I have made my peace with. Partly also in response to the many online pagans who are talking about their personal relationships with the divine. I would be prepared to bet I’m not the only one who doesn’t have that right now. Am I less of a human because of it? I don’t think so. Am I less of a Druid because of it? Well, maybe, but also maybe not. Perhaps the work I need to be doing right now is quietly inside myself, and the Gods are leaving me alone until I get straight enough to be useful again. I also don’t think of the Gods as being omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, I think they are finite entities and they may be busy elsewhere.
So if you’re one of the people who isn’t talking about what the gods ask you to do for them, I hope this comes at least as some kind of comfort.
July 3rd, 2012 at 12:07 pm
Interesting post
I suppose it depends on what you feel or perceive the gods to be as to what their voice is and to how you experience it. For me most of the time, listening to the gods and interacting with them means listening to the rain and feeling the wind. My gods are simply nature. I hear the voice of my goddess as I sit by the sea, watching how the waves shape the shores of this beautiful land the relationship between the two forces of nature and my place within it. She teaches me of flow, acceptance, birth, life. I may have a conversation with her but I am aware that most of that is my imagination and interpretation of what she might say, could she speak my language, but the dialogue is not less useful or sacred to me for that. To say ‘she’ is to understand that her personality is perhaps a product of my imagination or a deep ancestral memory. If I were to say that I didn’t hear the voice of the Gods or have relationship with them, it would be to say that I don’t hear, see or have relationship with nature, but of course that is born from my definition of deity. What do you understand deity to be? So often as Druids we talk of relationship being key. For me that is where the gods are, relationship with the the world around us.
July 4th, 2012 at 10:28 am
Wonderful words, thank you. And yes, that is the quesiton, what do I understand deity to be? (at the moment, the answer to that question may as well be 42….) I her a lot of pagans online talking about the things the gods ask them to do – some of it sounds specific enough that you have to postulate a voice for that to make sense (I think).
And there were crazy times, when I did see, hear, just now and then (not full time, mercifully) and I felt I knew what I was doing (heh). I may be more sane and functional for that having been knocked out of me. Not being sleep deprived all the time may have something to do with it. But at the same time, I think I’ve lost something.
Much, much to ponder. Thanks for the input!
July 3rd, 2012 at 12:21 pm
There is the story of the Celt Brennus who led the Celtic invasion of Greece in the 4th century BCE. Brennus entered a Greek Temple and was told he was in the presence of the Greek gods by the priests who showed to him the statues. Brennus laughed.
As far as the ancient Celts were concerned there are no gods, there are just spirits. Although the stories treat the Celtic archetypes as if they are anthropomorphic, they are spirits that take form in everyday people and events. King Arthur really existed, but he tapped into the Belenus archetype. Ancient Celts played the roles, lived up to the roles of their archetypes.
Ancient Druids were glorified shamans.
I consider that the ancient Celts were little different from Native American Indians in their spiritual outlook. Native American Indians say they have no religion, theirs is a spiritual outlook to be lived, not worshipped. The American Indians constantly related with spirits, not gods.
July 3rd, 2012 at 1:59 pm
redgriffithshaynes. Yes. That.
July 3rd, 2012 at 9:03 pm
Yes. I’m definitely feeling Red’s comment. I think if you ever find yourself hearing gods speaking to you in english it’s time to get some rest. My gods speak to me in the wind and rain, the silence or song of birds, in the drifting of falling snow. Sometimes they might be saying something to me. Sometimes they might just be singing the songs of the land.
July 4th, 2012 at 12:42 am
Hi there – thanks for the post! I’ve been talking about ‘the gods’ in my blog for a while – and I’d love to get your perspective/beliefs on what exactly it is that they are? You say they are finite beings – I have not heard this before. I’m new to all of this stuff and love a philosophical convo – and from anyone else out there reading this as well, if you are so inclined : )
http://breakfastwiththegods.wordpress.com/2012/06/03/what-are-the-gods-anyways/
July 4th, 2012 at 10:21 am
I think monotheistic faiths construct deity as all powerful, all knowing, totally present, everywhere all the time. Now, polytheism and the stories about Gods (pick a pantheon, any panthon) it is very clear that the Gods do not individually know everything. Loki does not know what Odin is doing. If they all knew what was going on, there would be no stories! Think about the tension between Zeus and Hera, neither is powerful enough to fully control the other. If you have more than one God, those gods are limited in some way, therefore they are finite beings, I think. Does that make sense? If you want to talk more, leave a message and I can pick up your email addy and reply that way.
July 9th, 2012 at 5:38 am
Thanks! I will get back to you for sure, when I get the chance. Appreciate the discussion.
Meantime – it is interesting – if the gods are limited beings… it still begs the question of what are they? I read this (see link) this week and liked how he described them. It made the most sense to me of anything I have read so far.
http://www.ceisiwrserith.com/pier/deities.htm#4
July 4th, 2012 at 12:32 pm
The concept of gods has been one that’s intrigued me since “finding” Druidry. As Red says, how you view your relationship probably depends on your definition of Gods. I prefer to use the term Spirits as Alex Jones does. I think that, in our western society at any rate, the term God(s) has been hijacked by the big three religions of the book and it’s very difficult to escape from this conditioning even when you’re talking about other pantheons of gods.
As with others who’ve commented, the Spirits I interact with are the Spirits of my land: the trees and wildlife, the hills, streams and weather. I don’t feel that they reward or punish me but I do feel I have a relationship with them when our paths occasionally cross. By using the term Spirits rather than gods I’m trying to claim the right to define that relationship rather than being subliminally forced to look for the sort of relationship that is promoted by the big three.
My relationship with relative strangers consists of conversations where, as now and in inadequate words, we try to explain who we are and what we feel and mean. My relationship with my close family does not need words; often it’s sufficient just to be with them or know they’re there. I know which of the two I consider the deeper and more fulfilling. Perhaps it’s not that your gods (Spirits) have left you alone or that you have no relationship with them but that, as you change and grow, your relationship with them has changed.
July 4th, 2012 at 2:45 pm
I don’t really believe in gods. I’m a pantheist. I’m pretty much in line with redgriffithshaynes. But I know many of my fellow druids are polytheists, and I’m interested to learn about their views.
I love the line, “Why should I assume the gods are any less busy, and any less pleasant, than folk musicians?”