Who are the Gods?

Who Are the Gods?

(Note: Everything here, unless I cite another source, is my UPG (Unverified Personal Gnosis) My opinions may change as I continue experiencing and otherwise learning. This is where I stand as of this writing.)

Who are the Gods? Are they long-lived cxtraterrestrials who diddled with our DNA? Are they pure spirits who have never incarnated? Is there a Heaven and if so, is it a physical place? (During my Catholic childhood, a friend pointed out that heaven must be a physical state because Mary was assumed bodily into heaven. Knowing the difference between the Assumption and the Ascension was a big deal back then). Is there only one God?

All these questions have crossed my mind at sometime or another. Now that I am a dedicant to a priest/esshood, having some answers that satisfy me enough to feel that I am on the right path for me, or which, at least, spur me on to greater inquiry, is important. I don’t want to be just following others or doing this just to be able to say, “Hey, I’m a priestess.”

To me, Deities are personifications or, at least, animations—I’m thinking of deities we picture as part human, part animal, or all animal—of universal principles. As such, polytheism makes sense. Deities often have several aspects i.e. things that They are best known for, while not being everything in one. This is in accord with the natural world everyone sees. We are all good at something, some of us are good at several things, and a few of us are true polymaths. However, no one excels at the entire range of human activity.

Looking at the Greek Pantheon, for example, we have, in no particular order, Love (Aphrodite and Eros),Violence (Ares), Strategy and Intelligence (Athena ), Home and Hearth (Hestia), Marriage (Hera), Childbirth and care of the young (Artemis, Eilytheia, Hekate) Work (Hephaistos), Creativity (Apollon and Dionysus), Law-Giving (Zeus), Commerce and Communication (Hermes),Agriculture (Demeter), Death (Hades and Persephone) etc. Older generations of the Greek Pantheon personify the natural world: Earth (Gaia) Sky (Uranus), The Sun (Helios), The Full Moon (Selene), Time (Chronos) etc. (It would make sense to me to have Poseidon, Lord of the Sea, listed with the elders, instead of being Zeus’ brother. )

There are also, in Greek theology and in the theologies of many other cultures, other so-called minor deities specific to certain mountains, rivers, etc. This is congruent with the idea that we are all spirits having physical experiences and not the other way around. It is also congruent with the idea that the Supreme Being is the All-That-Is. To give SB a specific name and gender is limiting. SB is limitless.

What is the role of Deity in our lives? The God/desses are teachers, for good and for ill. (The dualistic idea of one all-good being and one all-bad, as is seen in Zoroastrianism and Christianity, is unnatural. Can you really think of anything that is all bad? For example, you probably hate mosquitoes. They bite, buzz and annoy; they can carry disease. But they are also food for dragonflies, who are pretty cool. Even something as horrible as Ebola may have a long-term positive effect on humanity as the survivors pass immunity to the next generation, while humans apply their brainpower to eradicating the disease. (Though Nature will come up with something else. She always does).

The Deities are also inspirations for whatever we are doing. They are helpers, companions and protectors. Sometimes, They awaken an ability we didn’t realize we had. Sometimes They remind us of our limitations. Recently, I saw a very good description of Ares, God of War. Homer said that even His father, Zeus, hated Him. But earlier this year, I heard that Ares helps good fighters become great fighters, helps those who have come to a time they should fight to realize that they can do so, and protects those who cannot fight. Ares as protector of those incapable of fighting is a new one to me. I like that idea.

But there are a lot of victims in the world, you say. What is Ares or any other deity doing for those who are bullied in the schoolyard or attacked by drones sent from afar? We have to ask Their help. They will not interfere with our free will and They will not interfere with our fate. Yes, we have both. A person in the Middle East who asks a deity for help escaping drones will probably get that help, unless it is his or her fate to be killed by a drone. Even Zeus, the Law Giver, could not countermand fate, as He bemoaned on the day His mortal son, Sarpedon, was to be killed in the Trojan War. The interplay of freedom and fate in an article for another time.

What is the role of humanity in the lives of the deities? Yes, we have roles to play and they are greater than that of mere sycophants. The Deities still exist even if no one honors Them because the principles They stand for still exist, even when only honored in the breach. The god-forms, once having been created by various cultures, never totally disappear. They go into that Platonic realm of ideas, you know, that place where the idea of “Chair” exists, of which all real chairs on earth take part. But forgotten Gods have an existence without purpose. What good are ideas of they are never realized? That is our role, to realize the ideas, the best we can, even if that is not especially grand. On this final day of the 2014 World Series, I say that the kids who will never make it past Little League are doing Hermes’ work as much as the two teams in the Fall Classic. We can all do a God/dess’ work in the world at one level or another.

What specifically that work is can vary greatly, for the Deities are not partisan. For example, Hermes is the God of communication and commerce. I am a journalist who has been writing about the gift economy and the need to abolish monetary systems since 2009. I am sure that somewhere in the world, Hermes has a follower on the staff of some business magazine or website such as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, or Bloomberg, who is a dedicated capitalist. If both of us call on Hermes, He will help both of us get our messages out because He is communication and commerce. He is not about the particular style of either. Both of us are doing His work in the world by communicating about commerce. We are going to get different results, because of the free will choices of those who receive our communications. But He is willing to help us both to do our best if we ask Him. If we are truly doing His work and not just inflating our own egos with bylines, He will help us both get along in the world, at least until our fates intervene.

When we honor Deities, we are honoring the principles They represent. Note that I have written “honor” not “worship”. I have come to the conclusion that since I do not worship the underlying principles the Deities represent, I should not worship the personifications of those principles. In honoring, I make offerings; I say prayers; I may bow or get down on one knee–the altar we use for our group meetings is low–but I have decided not to do the full prostrations that some of my fellows do. We may be junior partners to the Deities because of our short lifespans and limited abilities compared to Them. But we are still partners, and on earth, They need us to function.

Coming to a greater understanding of this partnership is part of what being a dedicant to the priest/esshood of Hermes has been about for me. It has helped me to better understand the function of humans in connection with Deity. It makes me feel stronger, not in a way filled with hubris, but filled with purpose: I am doing Hermes’ work in the world.

K.R.-W.

10-29-2014