It ain’t to serve humans.
The Deities all have a role to play in manifesting and managing Reality
- all of it, not just humanity’s concerns. There are other forms of sentient
life - even on this planet.
As an example, Deity X may be associated with Characteristic Y - in
other words, they enable that Characteristic to exist in the world. Spirits of
Place (as the Canaanite hill spirit that
later became the neochristians’ god was, originally * … the Christians God of Love
is something else) do something similar for specific places, and so on.
But our view is limited by our knowledge.
As an example, consider a child in a stereotypical heterosexual 1950s
nuclear family: the child is at home, unless they are of an age to attend
school, Dad goes off to work and is the “breadwinner”, while Mum stays at home
to do the housekeeping and childrearing. Under those circumstances, if you
asked the young child (particularly
before they started attending school) why her/his/hir parents existed, the answer would probably be
along the lines of Mum exists to care for the child, and Dad exists to turn up
occasionally and be a disciplinarian
(and, in good families, to be a care giver as well - but remember I am using a stereotype
of the 50s … ). There would be no
awareness of, for instance, the need to have money to pay for food etc.
As the child grows, perhaps a younger sibling arrives, and at that
stage, there would be a discussion about procreation (with, no doubt, no mention of sex), and the child may decide that
procreation is another reason for Mum to exist (Dad doesn’t have much to do with this, remember, because of the
sex-free discussion these stereotypes would have had, and Mum would look very
different, whereas Dad looks the same, ergo, according to child’ logic, this is
all about Mum and Dad had nothing to do with it :) ). In fact, I can well
imagine a Grade 6 primary school student lording or ladying it over the
ignorant kids in Grade 3 or 4 and saying “no, the purpose of Mummy and Daddy
existing is to make pesky little siblings who always get their bigger siblings
into trouble”.
This does sound, to me, a little like some people who I’ve heard say “Goddess/God X has characteristic Y, and
anyone who says otherwise doesn’t know what they’re talking about.”
Of course, both sets of prattlers, little and big, are wrong.
Most of us simply don’t see or know enough spiritually, psychically and
metaphysically to comprehend this - and those ***heads who think the Goddesses
and Gods are lesser or diminished for the lack of human attention are
completely missing the track, insanely so. I know so, because I’ve gone beyond
Grade 6 … :)
Let’s consider – with tongue
firmly in cheek - another analogy: that of (mid-level) management of a
company:
- administration’s view of these people is that they’re there to watch costs and ensure budgets are adhered to more firmly that driving on the legislated side of the road;
- higher managers think these people are there to generate massive amounts of profit;
- workers will have a range of views on these people, including – for those who are either cynical or, to use modern gimmicky wording, ‘not aligned with the company’s goals – saying “no: to ideas, and – for those who aren’t so cynical – helping to connect to people who can help deliver good quality, profitable projects; and
- human resources think either that these people are there to enforce company policies (e.g., paperwork around taking leave), or that they’re there to care for and look after their workers.
The truth is, they’re all this, and more.
They’re also human beings with their own rights and duties, just as
workers and admin people and HR people and even higher managers (who would possibly capitalise that, if
they’re poor higher managers – but the good ones wouldn’t) are. They’re
also in the middle, and have the job of telling admin and HR to lighten up (be less determinedly rigid) about the
rules when adhering to rules is being inhuman (and inhumane), and higher managers to back off on profit when an
emphasis on good quality will lead to better longer term profit, or when
focusing on profit could cause a loss of company reputation – and to say “no”
to the crazier or impractical of workers’
ideas, as well as connecting them to others in the company that the manager
knows about because of their position. They’re potentially the glue that turns
this disparate bunch of ***holes into a reasonably cohesive and civilised
whole: an effective company.
Our view of the Goddesses and Gods is a little like these fragmented
views of other sections of the company – what view we have depends on our
personal experience. (Speaking of which,
my personal experience is that managers can range from psychopath to wonderful
human being and brilliantly capable manager – and I can credit several of the
latter with significant advances in my day job career, and the former with
psychological damage that I still have, decades later.)
Incidentally, this analogy of Deities-as-managers is akin to the view
of Manus as a sort of
hierarchy of deities branching out from the one universal source of all, which
I first came across in the books of Lobsang
Rampa.
So … in a nutshell, the Goddesses and Gods exist for reasons that we
may not comprehend, or may not be capable of comprehending, but they do NOT exist for the purpose of serving humans’ petty
wants, nor for quite a lot of what we consider ‘needs’.
As a final point, when I light candles for the use of Deities, it is
for those Deities to use as they see fit, and I understand that it may well be
for greater purposes that I am not capable of comprehending. It is certainly
not human perception of what said Deity should do, and it is certainly not for
expectation of a direct, personal reward. I’m not bribing said Deity: I’m doing
what I would do for any friend - giving them a hand with what they consider they must do (so long as it does not involve, in the
case of said Friends, breaking the law :) ). I do, of course, receive a
benefit from the existence of said Deities. My view is that their existence
enables the existence, protection and use of concepts such as Courage, Clear
Thinking, Love, and a whole host of other attributes that we take for granted (or place, incorrectly, as having lesser
importance than, say, Love - which is not
the highest of such concepts, worthy though it is - and misinterpreted and
abused though it is). Spirits of places are clearly associated with this
reality existing and functioning well: those Deities which are not connected to
specific places are also.
*
See Gavin Andrews’ excellent book "Paganism and Christianity" (pub. 2011, Smashwords - see here) and http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/an-alternative-pagan-ish-history-of.html
for more on this bit of history.
[2] Please see here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").
Love, light, hugs and blessings
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix
Lux … aka Morinehtar … would-be drýicgan or maga
... )
My "blogiography" (list of all posts and guide as to how to best use this site) is here, and my glossary/index is here.
I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ... See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "Pagans for Peace" project (and join me at 9 PM on Sunday, wherever you are, to meditate-clear for peace), and here for my bindrune kit-bag. I also strongly recommend learning how to flame, ground and shield, do alternate nostril breathing, work with colour, and see also here and be flexible.
- neither eloquence nor inarticulateness inherently indicates correctness, but, as words can kill, the right to freedom of speech comes with a DUTY to be as well-informed, objective and balanced as you can be.
- Gnwmythr's Stropping Strap: Occam's Razor only works if the simplest solution is actually recognised as being the simplest, rather than the one that best fits one's bigotries being labelled 'simplest'.
- I mourn the desecration of the term 'Light Worker' by commercial interests, and the warping of the word 'Light' away from 'Clear Light' by the "White Lighters".
- Our entire life experience, with all the many wondrous and varied people, places and events in it, is too small a sample for statistical reliability about Life.
- May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
- Being accustomed to interacting via certain rules makes those rules neither right nor universal.
- Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master.
- The means shape the end.
- My favourite action movie of all time is "Gandhi", although I've recently come across "Invictus" and might put that one in to that category. However, I loathe the stereotypical action movie - and, for similar reasons, I loathe many dramas, which are often emotionally violent, more so in some cases than many war films.
- All of the above - and this blog - could be wrong, or subject to context, perspective, or state of spiritual evolution ...
Human dignity is
the inherently cumulative holistic
combination of human rights, wellbeing and potential, and all actions or
interaction which promote, realise or facilitate same. The converse also
applies: whatever degrades, diminishes or robs humans of dignity, is inherently
undignified.
Gnwmythr
The “purpose” of spiritual evolution is not the attainment of “spiritual perfection” - not in the sense of not having to evolve further, at any rate, since there is no such thing. We need to evolve in order to grow - but we can take rest breaks (hopefully well earned :) ) along the way. No, the “purpose” of evolution is, rather, to perfect our ability to learn, and thus grow.
Gnwmythr
Our greatest struggle with, to borrow from
pop culture, the Jedi-Sith scale, is not with the Sith, whether they are hiding
or not: it is with the annoying, snotty-nosed, heroine/hero-worshipping little
kid who keeps intruding, stopping us from being cool enough to be with our
heroines/heroes, the big kids ...
Gnwmythr
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Females, get over 'cute'. Get competent.
Get trained. Get capable. Get over 'cute'. And those of you who are called
Patty and Debby and Suzy, get over that. Because we use those names to
infantalise females – we keep females in their 'little girl' state by the names
we use for them. Get over it. If you want to be taken seriously, get serious.
Jane Elliott
The only thing necessary for the triumph of
evil is for good [people] to do nothing.
(based on
writing by) Edmund Burke
We didn't inherit the Earth from our
ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children
Antoine De Saint-Exupéry
There are risks and costs to a program of
action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of
comfortable inaction.
John F. Kennedy
Tags: arrogance, attitudes, deities, Goddesses, Gods, nature of reality, paganism,
First published: Fryrsdagr, 13th February, 2015
Last edited (excluding fixing typo's and other minor matters): Friday, 13th February, 2015
