Tag: Dian Cecht

The Magick Power of the Spoken Word

The Magick Power of the Spoken Word

Author:   Crick   

Since most folks who identify themselves as pagan these days came from other belief systems, I have to wonder about the awareness of some of the basic aspects of magick. One of these basic aspects is the power of the spoken word.

What, you may ask, in the spoken word carries power?

Well, think about it. When we do ritual we use the spoken word. When we do invocations and evocations we use the spoken word. When we cast magickal spells (energy work) we use the spoken word. And in fact, in some Circles folks enhance the spoken word by using what is known as the “God voice”. This is a technique where we draw a well of power from deep within our souls to forcefully convey the spoken word. This technique is similar to what a martial artist does when they draw their “chi” or “ki” forth.

For those who engage themselves in witchcraft, we use the spoken word to cast forth a curse or a blessing. I’m sure that other magickal paths probably do so as well, but I am writing from my own personal area of knowledge or comfort zone if you will.

And so obviously the spoken word contains a great deal of power within a magickal setting.

And the belief in the power of the spoken word is not confined to just the current New Age thinking, but is in fact an ancient and accepted tenet of magick.

One example in support of this belief, which can be found from times of old, is in the Lebor Gabala Erren (Book of Invasions).

As a rather brief background, during the first battle of the Magh Tuiredh, Nuada, the High King of the Tuatha De Danann lost his right arm in battle against the Fir Bolg warrior, Sreng mac Sengainn. The Tuatha De Danann had a code of honor in place that stated when a king became blemished he had to abdicate his position, for he was no longer considered fit to rule.

As a result, the half Tuatha De Danann, half Fomorian prince, Bres mac Elatha, was elevated to the position of High King. It was hoped that because of his mixed heritage that he would bring a lasting peace between the Danann and the Fomorians. However he turned out to be a very oppressive and spiteful king of the Tuatha De Danann.

After a short period of time, the Tuatha De Danann whom was suffering from the injustice of their High King turned to a trained Satirist named “Corbre“. The Druids of the time (and perhaps even to this day) had certain Druids who were trained in the magickal arts of the spoken word (satirists). By way of this magickal art they could inflict emotional, mental and even physical damage to their intended victims, regardless of their position in life.

As a result, Corbre was able to successfully inflict such damage on Bres, thus forcing him to abdicate his throne. While these events were taking place Nuada had his missing arm replaced with one made of silver by the Tuatha De Danann physician known as Dian Cecht. The son of Dian Cecht, “Miach” then transformed the silver arm back to flesh, thus allowing Nuada to regain his position as High King of Ireland.

And so as you can see from this proffered example, the spoken word does in fact have magickal powers. And if it can be used to bring down a High King of a noble race of Gods, how does this power affect the average person?

Many conversations these days almost always touch upon on how the world village is spiraling ever downwards. It is no secret that we are inundated by an ocean of negative energy which by all accounts is of our own making and is thus our problem to own.

I personally believe that much of this negative energy comes from the frequent and irresponsible use of the spoken word.

Think about it, how many times a day will you be the recipient of someone’s negative comments?

How many times in a day, a week, a month will you direct such negative energy at someone else?

And how often do folks stop and think, wow, perhaps I shouldn’t conjure up and direct such words of power without giving some thought as to the consequences of ones actions?

Judging from the ocean of negative energy that is choking the life out of society, I would presume that such careful considerations does not happen nearly enough.

The world village has descended to a level where instantaneous use of such a basic, yet powerful magickal tool is now the norm. For the most part, folks simply do not hesitate to vocalize a disparaging comment at someone else. Sending this negative energy out without any consideration of responsibility and/or awareness of what such energy, once manifested, might do to the recipient.

Now, as pagans, it is our responsibility to be aware of such a basic and yet powerful form of magick. It is our responsibility to use such power in a manner that is beneficial to both ourselves as individuals and to those around us.

We often pontificate about wanting to set a higher example by way of our spiritual pursuits and to make a difference in this worn out world of ours. Well, this is one basic way to do just that.

Just by being aware of the power of the spoken word and by applying such awareness and knowledge, we can stop just talking (sorry about the pun) about it and actually contribute some positive energy to a world village that is crying out for such a change.

By being keenly aware of what we say to others and how we say it, we are in effect taking some simple and yet effective steps towards setting a higher example for others to follow. By showing such responsibility, we are exhibiting an alternative to the self-centered, “it’s all about me” quagmire that our society has slipped into.

Of course as a simple Irish witch I realize that such an obvious and yet challenging change won’t happen overnight. But as a diehard optimist, I firmly believe that each journey begins with the first step. And who better to start such a journey then those who strive to understand and thus effectively use the magickal arts within their lives?

Isn’t this what individual responsibility is supposed to be all about?

Deity of the Day for August 30 is NUADHU also NUD, NODENS, LUD.

NUADHU also NUD, NODENS, LUD.

“Nuadhu of the silver arm.” God of healing and water; his name suggests “wealth-bringer” and “cloud-maker.” At the first battle of Moytura, Nuadhu lost an arm, and Dian Cecht replaced it with a new one made out of silver. Because of this, Nuadhu was obliged to turn leadership of the Tuatha de’ Dannan over to Lug. People came to be healed at Nuadhu’s temple at Lydney, and small votive limbs made of silver have been found there.

Silver

Silver

Silver is easily my favorite metal to wear. While Gold is beautiful,
impressive and inspires power, I’ve always enjoyed the calmer, more tolerant
attitude that surrounds me when wearing Silver.

Native Silver, which refers to the pure mineral occurring in nature is quite
rare. Silver crystals are wiry, sometimes coiling and twinning so that
clusters can resemble bizarre bushes or trees. Cubic, octahedral and
dodecahedral crystals are extremely unusual and highly sought after. The
majority of native Silver is found as massive deposits, sheets, flakes or
grains.

While native Silver can be rare, there is a wide group of minerals that
include Silver in their composition or as a by-product. These Silver
minerals are usually divided into four categories: Silver Sulfides
(Acanthite, Argentite, Stephanite) which form in deposits caused by lower
temperature hydrothermal (hot water) veins; Silver sulfosalts (Antimony,
Bismuth) which usually form in the primary hydrothermal veins; Silver
halides, these photo-sensitive minerals are used in the chemicals that bring
photographic exposures to life; Silver amalgams – Copper, Gold, Galena, Zinc
and other minerals that produce Silver as a by-product. In all, there are
approximately 150 different species of Silver minerals. The majority of the
Silver used in industry and exchange comes from these secondary sources.

The first Silver mines were in an area call Antolia, which is near modern
Turkey. In 900 BC the Larium mines by Athens Greece began operating – these
mines would produce most of the world’s Silver for 1,000 years. Rome mined
their Silver in Spain, emptying out those mines by the middle ages.

Today the top six producing countries in the world are Mexico, USA, Canada,
Russia, Peru and Australia. Silver is also found in Bolivia, Norway, Czech
Republic, Germany and Austria. The largest piece of native Silver ever is a
massive specimen that weighs 844 pounds that was found near Aspen Colorado.
The Coeur d’Alene mines in Idaho are the largest producers of the mineral in
the world, digging out a total of one billion ounces since it began
operation in 1880.

Modern life has found many practical uses for the versatile physical
properties of this metallic crystal. It is highly malleable and ductile,
meaning it can be stretched and pounded to extreme limits. An ounce of
Silver can be stretched into a 30 mile long wire; it can be pounded into a
thinness of 1/100,000 of an inch. It has the highest optical reflective
qualities of any metal, making it very useful in mirrors and solar energy.
It is resistant to extreme temperatures and exhibits excellent conductivity,
so it is used in switches, batteries, coatings and and endless list of
electronic applications.

Photography, bearings, jewelry, coins, water purification, silverware and
almost anything you turn off and on depend on Silver.

While Gold and Bronze may have made an earlier introduction in Human
history, Silver’s impact is no less significant. Very early in that history
it was noticed that liquids kept in Silver containers remained fresh and
pure longer. In fact a Persian king, Cyrus the Great took an unusual
approach to his subjects’ physical health. During his reign, between 550-529
BC, he set up one of the first boards of health and established a medical
dispensary. Plus, drinking water was drawn from a special stream, boiled and
then stored in massive Silver containers.

Numerous legends, traditions and myths have grown up around this bright
reflective mineral. In the Greek and Roman myths, the second age of the
Olympians is the Silver Age, when man began to civilize and develop his
environment. The doors to Apollo’s palace on Mount Olympus were Silver and
his sister, Artemis was fond of using arrowheads dipped in the mineral.
Dian Cecht, the Irish God of Healing replaced the warrior Nuada’s hand with
one made of Silver when his was lost in a great battle. The home of the
Norse Gods, Asgard, is filled with palaces constructed of Silver and Gold.
Ulysses’ leather bag that held the Winds was tied with a Silver string.
Chinese children were often given lockets made of Silver to protect them
from harm.

Certain purification rites practiced by the Egyptians called for special
basins made of Silver. Such practices even find their way into contemporary
rituals. Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran chalices for their masses must be
constructed of Gold, Silver or Vermeil.

As a magical tool Silver has been used to reflect and capture Lunar
energies. It also provided protection against evil intent, reflecting spells
and harm back to the sender.

You can also use it to enhance your psychic skills. Wearing or sleeping with
the metal can both be effective. You can use a piece with the Moon for
psychic trancing. Take a small polished Silver object and catch the
reflection of the Moon’s light. Focus your gaze on this point until you
begin to feel your psychic energies awakening. Keep a journal of your
experiences, making note of your progress and improvements in your skill.

If you want to wear gemstones or crystals that you are working with, Silver
is the perfect metal to set them in. It has almost no vibrational impact on
stones. On the contrary, it can help enhance the connection between the
wearer and the gem, allowing for a gentle flow of energy between the two.
Over time, the Silver will absorb and reflect the same energy as the stone
set in it, much like Grandmother Moon absorbs and reflects the Sun’s light.
Place a piece of this mineral on your forehead to activate and open your
Third Eye Chakra. A Silver bracelet worn around the wrist of your receptive
hand will aid you in receiving channeled information and drawing certain
energy forms.

Use the Lunar qualities of your Silver to balance your life; growing what is
good and necessary while voiding whatever causes you harm or prevents your
evolution. Let it perform like a psychic mirror, allowing you to see your
life from the outside. View this new perspective without judgment, but with
a purer knowledge of what is best for your highest good.

Practitioners of astral travel may like using Silver as an anchor as they
move from one reality to another. It provides a kind of energy beam or
signal trace that allows you to always “see” where your physical body is. So
you aren’t distracted by the fear of not being able to return.

There is a long history and tradition of healing associated with Silver. It
is believed Silver (Colloidal Silver) is antibacterial, a sort of
disinfectant for the Human body that boosts your immunity. Several resources
suggest that this metal, when ingested, kills anaerobic (nitrogen breathing)
bacteria – which are very bad. It lets aerobic (oxygen breathing) bacteria
survive, which are very good, especially for digestion.

Silver was used in many ancient cultures to purify water and prevent
festering in wounds. In 1884, a Dr. F. Crede discovered Silver could cure a
disease that had been responsible for causing blindness in thousands of
babies.

Energy workers will find this metal a wonderful conduit for sending energy
to a patient. It can also be used to help channel the energies of stones in
healing. Turquoise, Carnelian, Moonstone, Amethyst and Quartz are excellent
healing stones to channel with Silver.

This mineral should also be beneficial in treating some infectious diseases,
like hepatitis or the flu. Silver may help cleanse your blood and correct
chemical and hormonal imbalances. In more traditional medicine it is used
for dental fillings and fittings, plus surgical implants.

By Stephanie Pflumm

Elucidating the Divine: A Druid Perspective

Elucidating the Divine: A Druid Perspective

Author: Vetch

Introduction

There are so many deep, theological questions that never seem to be tackled – things that make us question our beliefs, and wonder why we took on that particular aspect of a certain faith’s philosophy – after all, I’ve always been a person who feels I shouldn’t just go with what “feels right”, but I should be secure in my convictions to defend them from attack. In a roundabout way, this is my confession to behaving as something of a Pagan apologist in my studies of Christian witnessing material and conversations regarding my community. What I say I do with regards to my beliefs correlates nicely with apologetics:

Apologetics is the field of study concerned with the systematic defense of a position. Someone who engages in apologetics is called an apologist or an “apologete”. The term comes from the Greek word apologia (áðïëïãßá), meaning defense of a position against an attack.

Anyway, this essay is in two parts. The first is a discussion of a common concept of divinity found in the Pagan community in comparison with the others – polytheism, the belief in multiple deities, and the variations in which it occurs.

The second part of this essay is a more general theorizing on what constitutes a God or Goddess (note, in my generic language, “God” means a male or female deity unless otherwise indicated – taken as an asexual term for both). This is building on a conversation I’ve been having with a Heathen online, following my inflammatory reading of some philosophy of religion and recognizing something I’d never even considered before regarding the Gods.

It should be also noted here as a general disclaimer that I am not as of yet old enough to study with a Druid order and won’t be until June, so my views are my own personal perceptions as a Druid, and I don’t claim to speak for the BDO, OBOD, AODA, ADF, or any of the others, though my views have been shaped in part by the works of older Druids representing the four orders I have mentioned (Emma Restall Orr, OBOD’s website and introductory material, John Michael Greer, and Isaac Bonewits and Rev. Robert Lee (Skip) Ellison.)

Polytheism

It’s always best to choose a dictionary definition to start off a warbling passage of philosophical and theological ideas, so here we are, lifted shamelessly from Wikipedia:

Polytheism is belief in or worship of multiple gods or deities. The word comes from the Greek words poly+theoi, literally “many gods.” In polytheistic belief, gods are perceived as complex personages of greater or lesser status, with individual skills, needs, desires and histories.

These gods are not always portrayed in mythology as being omnipotent or omniscient; rather, they are often portrayed as similar to humans (anthropomorphic) in their personality traits, but with additional individual powers, abilities, knowledge or perceptions

Generally speaking, then, polytheism is what the Reconstructionists and the Heathen community have – they worship multiple distinct Gods and Goddesses, typically of one culture or civilization’s pantheon, viewing the Gods as possessing a hierarchy of importance like humans have the equivalent of classes (there are chiefs of Gods, like Odin and Zeus) and each God has their own personality, likes, dislikes, powers, jurisdictions, sometimes particular area of veneration or pool of worshippers, and as many people with direct experience of the Gods will attest, they tend to have their own preferred votive offerings in ritual.

Philosophy of religion generally assumes that when we say “God”, we are referring to an entity like the Christian God – perfect (or incapable of error), with knowledge of everything past, present and future, powers without limit, and completely benevolent. However, anyone who reads mythology or knows their cultural history knows that the ancients talked of “Wars in Heaven” where the Gods didn’t get on with each other.

The Olympians often squabbled amongst one another, and the Eddas are populated with stories where Loki causes trouble and the Aesir and the Vanir fought for a time before making peace. It was once said that thunder was the Gods going to war.

So we know that, if we are a reconstruction of the “Old Religion” as Neo-Pagans and Heathens, we can’t view the Gods as perfect. They have clearly demonstrated otherwise – that they are capable of error. Likewise, we can assume that as Gods, more powerful than we humans, their mistakes are more colossal and with more consequences than our own.

Our ancestors also made images of their Gods, not as idols to worship (stone gods, the Frosts have called them) but as representations or focuses for their prayers, in the same way a Christian might light votive candles and imagine the rising smoke to be carrying their prayers to God, or the saints if they are Catholic to intercede on their behalf.

The Celts took a long time to produce statues of their Gods – perhaps they, as Muslims do, had a cultural prohibition against making images of the Gods (as Muslims do the Prophet). So we know from archaeological discoveries how people perceived the Gods to look – how they in a sense anthropomorphized the Gods or made them human enough to be understood – and what duties they ascribed to the Gods.

In mythology, gods can have complex social arrangements. For example, they have friends and foes, spouses (Zeus and Hera) and (illegitimate) lovers (Zeus and his consorts and children), they experience human emotions such as jealousy, whimsy or uncontrolled rage (The fight between Tiamat and Marduk) and they may practice infidelity or be punished. They can be born or they can die (especially in Norse mythology), only to be reborn.

Jesus may be the most famous “Son of God”, but he is not the only son of a God, even one in human form – we know Hercules was half-divine and as mortal as the people he protected. We know the Gods behaved a lot like us – they were guilty of all kinds of indiscretions, most commonly having affairs (my patron Manannan mac Lir is guilty of running off from his wife Fand, who then had an affair with the hero Cuchulainn).

Gods are also very human in their behavior – like Dian Cecht, they are capable of doing bad things in their jealousy, like killing their sons and destroying other people’s work so it won’t surpass their own (Dian Cecht scattered Airmid’s herbs out of jealousy). Some even eat their own children to prevent themselves from being overthrown. They live and die as we do. This I’ll come back to later.

So it’s pretty clear how the ancient people thought of the Gods. But we in the Pagan community have made delineation between two types of polytheism – “soft” and “hard”. Soft polytheism is where a modern Pagan views the Gods as being aspects, faces, or manifestations of a single God or Goddess (even a duotheistic pair), or of a Supreme Being or Spirit who is greater than any of them.

We find this theory of divinity in Hinduism, which allows for countless Gods, which are all manifestations of a single, impersonal divine Creator – termed Brahman or Atman. However, this isn’t actually polytheism – it is a concept quite closely related called monism. Commonly expressed by Pagans as “All is One” or “All Gods are one God, and all Goddesses are one Goddess”, monism can be defined as the following:

Monism, the metaphysical and theological view that all is of one essence, and this essence is sometimes called the monad.

Therefore soft polytheism isn’t polytheism at all, only monism. This doesn’t invalidate it, but we’d do better to call it by its real name, rather than pretend associations with what we call “hard” polytheism – the ancient view that the Gods were personal, anthropomorphized beings.

Having spoken to a few Witches and Pagans of many more years than myself, who are monists, and having read in Margot Adler’s Drawing Down the Moon that many of the influential people of the early Pagan movement subscribed to this belief, it’s obvious it is just as valid a theory – and just as old, because Hinduism and systems like it go a long way back. I just think we need to recognize certain facts.

Having finished with my analysis of polytheism, I want to move on to the second part of my essay and the more pertinent part – what constitutes what we conceptualize as a God? This section will discuss modern Pagan conceptions of divinity, the old perception of what constitutes a God, and the difficulties of defining such a thing.

What constitutes a God?

We don’t conceive of the Gods as the philosophers do, as omniscient and omnipotent. I think we can also throw out that the Gods are necessarily by nature benevolent, because we know from the Eddas, the Mabinogion, the Tain and other repositories of ancient lore and mythology that the Gods are a quarrelsome lot when you boil down to it. In a sense, then, we could dismiss that there is a problem of evil, which requires us to think up a theodicy. Otherwise, this would be the inconsistent triad proposed by Epicurus – firstly, evil and suffering exist in the world; secondly, God is all-powerful; thirdly, God is all-loving.

Such a God, Epicurus argues, cannot exist, because a God that is totally benevolent would want to extinguish suffering, and a God that is totally powerful would be capable of extinguishing evil, which causes suffering. Yet he/she does not. In summary, Epicurus’ teachings were:

The opinion of the crowd is, Epicurus claims, that the gods “send great evils to the wicked and great blessings to the righteous who model themselves after the gods.”, when in reality the gods do not concern themselves at all with human beings.

He also stated that there isn’t really such a thing as good or evil, only that as humans place such value in transitory things, we define what is pleasurable or enjoyable as good, and what is painful as bad. If we lose a child, we are in emotional pain, so the death of a child is bad. If we enjoy lazing around on a summery day, then doing so is good. (He did, however, warn against overindulgence, as people are of course aware that too much drinking, however nice at the time, causes hangovers later, which cause pain to your head.)

If we assume that one does not have to be all-loving and all-powerful to be a God, then we don’t need to consider the Gods should be doing anything to erase evil. In fact, it’s more likely that we create what is evil ourselves, through causing pain to others, unconscious or not.

You’ll notice that war gods tend to be in charge of the pantheon, as chief if you like – Teutates, the “God of the Tribes”, is one, and Odin as Lord of the Slain is another, gathering half the best warriors to Valhalla. There are some exceptions, and notable examples are that the jurisdiction of war is not necessarily attributed only to male deities – Sekhmet, Ishtar, Athena, and the Morrigan (in triune form as Macha, Nemain and Badb as well as by herself) are all Goddesses of war and battle.

So already we’ve thought that to be a God, you don’t need to be all-loving, or have a particular desire to end the bad things in the world, because more often than not the Gods do them themselves. Do you need to be immortal in order to be a God? Well, actually, no – take a look at Norse mythology. The Gods are quite capable of living for a long time, but they are dependent on the golden apples of Idunna – shown when Loki happened to lose them and rapidly needed to get them back to stop the Gods from dying. Further, at Ragnarok, the Gods will die, though Heathens generally think they will be reborn or renewed after Ragnarok, along with the rest of the world.

A God doesn’t need to be immortal, or benevolent. I think we could also dismiss that a God needs to be all-powerful. If every copy of the Bible and the Christian and Jewish scriptures disappeared (I am not counting Islam here, because though I don’t believe this theory many Christians reckon the Allah worshipped by Muslims is an old moon god as opposed to “The God” they worship, which is the same as the Jewish God Yahweh as Christianity is an offshoot of Judaism), then the God of the Bible would no longer have any theoretical power. Nobody would believe in him, so if he caused an earthquake, people wouldn’t attribute it to him but “just one of those things”.

I think Gods have a certain amount of power by themselves. That’s one distinguishing feature of a God – that they possess alone earth-changing powers, wielding the natural energy we call magic in a far more skilled way than we do, and to far greater accuracy, and with less effort. But I’d also argue that a second distinguishing feature of a God is, that like the sidhe in Laurell K Hamilton’s Meredith Gentry series, they get more powerful if they are worshipped. The prayers of the faithful give them strength; the focus of people’s belief in them makes them more solid and real, and more capable of doing things on this physical plane.

A third feature of a God is that their influence spreads with their followers. Most Gods have a homeland or place of origin where their worship started, where they first started interacting with the humans – for the Aesir it’s Scandinavia, for the Celtic Gods it’s central Germany and Gaul and Britain (the druids were supposedly trained in Britain, the school posited to be at Anglesey, destroyed by Suetonius).

A Heathen in America calls on Thor and the sky rumbles with thunder – the fact that people who worship him live in the US means that he can exact changes upon natural phenomena there as if it were in his own country. Like the deities of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, we take our deities with us when we journey away from their original place of worship.

I would argue a fourth feature of what makes a God is that they exist generally in a spirit form, but wear a human form (incarnate) here for an unlimited period of time. After all, if a God is not all-powerful, benevolent, all-seeing (if they fight so much, they can’t be able to see the consequences of their actions – but they must have some foresight because the Norse Gods know about Ragnarok) and immortal, you could define an especially powerful human being that way. However, a powerful human, whilst able to journey between here and the Otherworld in spirit form (you can’t take your body there), they are only in a flesh-shape for a limited period of time. They grow old, weak, and they die. But a God’s human body need not do that – I’m sure Odin can wander around as an old grey man for centuries if he wished.

Characteristics of a God:

(1) A God is an extremely powerful entity by themselves, capable of changing futures and natural phenomena with minimal effort, equivalent to the muscle power needed to flick a fly off your knee;

(2) A God’s power increases when they are worshipped, or their ability to affect changes here in this Middle World increases when there are people whose adoration they feed off, or worshippers they can work through as appointed avatars;

(3) A God’s influence over the world travels with their followers when they uproot from their original homeland and settle elsewhere;

(4) A God is an entity that exists normally in spirit form, but is capable of wearing human flesh in whatever design they like and for as long as they like, instead of being stuck born one way and dying after eighty years.

These are my four criteria for defining what makes a God, which doesn’t have to be able to know everything, or to be all powerful – simply better at these things than humans. I would argue that the Gods are not perfect, as the Christian God and the philosophical God is purported to be – they aren’t omniscient, omnibenevolent, or omnipotent. Further, how could we conceive of perfection? I think we think of the Gods as being like us, and therefore imperfect (as we know we’re not), because then their motives and reasoning capabilities are like ours.

We can then understand why the Gods might do something, or that they are sometimes guided by whimsy or emotion as we are. But a perfect being, a perfect God (let us lay aside our earlier theodicy which prevents a perfect God from existing), would not be like us. Perfection does not equal perfection, and does not resemble it. The motives of a perfect God would be alien and terrifying, as we wouldn’t understand it. Therefore the concept of deciding whether said God’s motives were good or bad is impossible, as it is arbitrary on the part of the God without independent judgment upon it.

I can say I don’t like it that Taranis soaked me with rain, because it made me wet and miserable, and I know that it probably amused him as it would be if I could soak my priest who had too much mouth; a perfect God drenching me with rain would confuse me (I’m assuming here I asked for the rain to keep off me until I got under shelter), because I wouldn’t understand why he did it. This is probably a poor example, but I think you get the idea.

Just quickly, I want to examine why we should think a bit better about some of our other deity concepts. Not to invalidate them, but I don’t understand why anyone would conceive that a God is merely a human archetype, or a symbol, or even an advanced thoughtform through which we focus our magical energies and intentions. A Catholic evangelist asked this niggling question:

Finally, some suppose that the gods do not have independent, objective reality but are just symbols. The question is: symbols of what? On the one hand, if they are symbols of nature and natural forces, then it is difficult to see why they should be worshiped. Electricity is part of nature, but if one does not worship it when it comes from a light socket, it is difficult to see why one should worship it when one imagines and names a symbolic thunder god to represent it.

The problem with this idea of conceiving deity is that it’s pointless. Why should you say you’re evoking a God in your ritual, if all you are doing is using a name with ideas attached to focus your own powers? As said above, it’s like worshipping a light bulb as a receptacle of electricity (cognate with magic, here) that gives light (results of spells).

If the Gods are symbols of a greater force, that is monism, or monotheism in a thin veneer of polytheism. I think we should think about that.

Vetch

       

Footnotes:
Wikipedia articles

“Anti-Neo-Pagan Apologetics” (Google it to find the Catholic site with the irritating questions that caused this essay)

Aliens The Truth (a great site, and my conversation on “are the Gods perfect or imperfect?” is on there under the “Religion and Faith section”

Also, thanks to Sigurd (Odinist) and givethedogabone (Witch)