So! What about those gods....?

Originally posted Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Being a hedgewitch, I'm connected to numerous gods - entities - around the clock. I speak with them, They speak with me in various ways and we play and work together frequently throughout my waking period. The gods do definitely have senses of humour. And I muse on them frequently. I can tell when I've come to a clear understanding on my own and it meets with His/Her/Their approval or when one of Them slips a truth - as They know it - into my head. It has come to my understanding over the last 2-3 years the gods are not omniscient nor are they omnipotent. They are, like these bodies we wear, indigenous to this planet. They are also as long lived as our Mother Earth, Gaia. *whew* In human terms, that's practically immortal! The only God not indigenous is The Source, The All, The Well of Wyrd, The One. That which we all came from, are going to and are with now until the end of Time and beyond. Kinda like the Christian God - S/He/It is everything. As quoted to Moses, "I am that I am." The Source is Male. It is Female. It is neither yet it is both. It simply IS. But I digress. It's the local gods I speak of today. The "supernatural" beings like Djinn, demons, fairies, sprites, gnomes, little people, god/desses, spirits and/or deities..
Back a hundred years ago, when I was between the ages of 10 and 25 I was most familiar with Christian traditions and faith, I would scratch my head and shake it in wonder how the Romans and other civilizations could be so irreverent about their gods. How they could give their gods human foibles, weaknesses and feelings. *slapping forehead* Well duh. They're "people" of this planet just like anyone/thing else. Of course they're like us!.
Gaia, a living entity in His/Her/Its own right, is host to millions of species in, on and above the surface in all sizes from microbial to elephants in those species we can see and all kinds and sizes in those we can't see. There are good and bad among all species - some more and some less aggressive or passive of their species. Take a pack of baboons and watch the interplay. There are distinct personalities among the pack. You have the alpha male and female, the two most robust, intelligent, healthy and confident pair in the pack. You also have the other end of the spectrum with the weakest, not so smart runt and that one is constantly picked on, pushed aside and always last to eat because s/he lacks confidence, strength and aggression to be assertive. Now look closer to home. Watch a flock of birds. The same pecking order (pun intended) applies. Now look IN the home to the pets. If there is more than one pet in the household, there is going to be a pecking order. Each pet has a distinct personality. Pets like, dislike, love, hate, feel indifference, suffer depression, have bouts of ecstatic joy, mourn and adore. So does every other living organism on this planet, be it visible or not. I know for a fact plants do and that knowledge has nothing to do with science. I can directly communicate with plants. (yeah, yeah, I know. I sound like a loonie.) So - if fish, elk, bears, pets, bees, humans - well - all living things share the full range of emotion, then its a bit obvious the Djinn, demons, fairies, sprites, gnomes, little people, god/desses, spirits and/or deities do also. They are, after all, evolved locally like we are..
Among the species on this planet you will always have the rogues - the ones who act well outside the norm. In the human species this would be called a sociopath. As a "god" this would be called a demon - in my opinion. No - not a dark god or goddess, those are generally benevolent warrior-like beings like Kali. Demon. Hell-bent on chaos. And those among the demon's ilk: incubus, succubus, and any other ugly, foul-tempered spirits that plague us from beyond our mundane senses. I also know these guys exist from personal experience. (Long story for another day - maybe lifetime.) On the other end of the spectrum there are the truly enlightened like Mother Teresa and the 14th Dalai Lama. As a "god" this would be called an angel, a god/dess, a patron saint or something similar. Inbetween you have your normal, run-of-the-mill entities who are not quite as flamboyant as the sociopathic or angelic ends of the bell curve. They are also as varied as insects or fish or mammals. There are many different "nationalities" or "species" or "types" - whatever you want to pigeon-hole them into..
And like humans, each one has their own individual bag of talents. They are no more or less important than we are. Just like we are no more or less important than - say - an ant, or a mushroom. They are simply different. Like insects or eagles are different from us. But we are symbiotic. We need each other like dogs need people and vice versa. We operate better in concert and the world runs more smoothly - as a general rule - when we do. There are things only we can do and they cannot just as there are things they can do we can only dream of. Like manipulation of Time and events. They are the ones who manifest our every thought and whim. They rely on us to dream the stuff up. And - there is one thing these entities all have in common. They all love humans to one degree or another. Remember also, love can run the gamut from pure, unselfish, untainted caring to the deadly sickness of obsession and hatred..
With so many of these beings, how do we gain, avoid, retain or rebuff their attentions? How do we pick and choose, like we do our human circle of friends, who we have truck with? Well, we don't always. Sometimes they choose us and we have no choice. We have opened ourselves through our behavior or thinking, regardless of how young we are, in some way to make us vulnerable to negative energies and entities attaching to these bodies. Unkindness, harmful thoughts and/or actions, mean-spiritedness, greed, lust, hate, jealousy, envy, bitterness - all the negative thoughts and actions degrade our ability to ward off unwanted entities. Also the thrill of playing with "fire" with summonings, playing with the "occult" without proper protection or awareness, the association with deadly risk takers and wrong-doers also weakens our ability to protect ourselves. The mind is an incredible thing. Coupled with the Soul, the minds of the creatures on this planet are the only ones in the entire universe to manifest thought into actual matter, actual events, tangible results. So as we think, so we do. We think it, we will eventually act on it. As a result, if we keep right thoughts those will lead inevitably to right and pure action. Trust me on this one. It's really true. I went from a negative nelly to a fluffy-bunny witch over the period of just one decade and a clear, loving and joyful outlook really does make life a bowl of roses. It also pulls around me a natural ward rebuffing any negative entities who might look my way..
Yeah, yeah, you say. But what about picking and choosing? Well, shucks. That's as individual as you are. Some folks - like me - just wait for Someone to show up. Others study likely god/desses and pursue them. Others pray for divine intervention. It is my opinion the god/desses have been here long enough They know who They are. They have seen civilizations come and go, kingdoms and faiths rise and fall, ebb and flow, morph and adapt and evolve over the millenia from the earliest beginnings of this planet. This planet is small for ones who live so long and They have traveled every inch in, out and over it many, many countless times. So My Lady Cailleach (see http://druidry.org/obod/deities/cailleach.html ), for instance, is a dark goddess who is known by many names around the world as is My Lord Cernunnos/Herne (see http://wicca.timerift.net/gods/cernunnos.html ), nie the Lord of the Hunt, found in many variations and aspects as each civilization around the world required. I can't really tell you how to find the god/dess(es) who will walk with you. I can tell you how I found mine.
I knew from earliest memory I was watched over by a female deity and maintained that knowledge faithfully, no matter how I cast about looking for who She may be. My Lady did not make Herself known to me until I was in my 50s. I simply believed in Her, figuring She knew who She was and She would show up when I had a need to know or when I was finally mature enough to appreciate Her fully. As for My Lord, again I operated on simple faith. I knew there was a Lord of the Hunt, a King of Animals so I petitioned Him knowing He would assist me. I did this for three years running as I stepped into the woods to hunt deer. He always presented me with a beautiful gift, but one year in particular He decided to step forward and let me know He was the male god who has always watched over me. I have known of His presence also since earliest memory. I have also made friends with other dieties, calling on this one or that to tap their unique talents for this quest or that and have become playfully comfortable with Father Sky in all His moods. It's been just that. A simple matter of believing with no shred of doubt. They're as much there as the air we breathe. I don't have to see the air to know it is always there to sustain me. I also know I must take care what I put into the air or it will no longer be able to sustain me. And so the symbiosis goes. As with our environment, so it is with the Djinn, demons, fairies, sprites, gnomes, little people, god/desses, spirits and/or deities. We cohabit this little ball of life suspended in a HUGE void. We are brothers and sisters, we are their equals and we need each other to insure one another's survival.