What do they mean for you? How do they inspire and help you?
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Who is your favorite god or goddess and why?
- Thread starter The Sum of Awe
- Start date
If I had a favorite, I think I'd be a henotheist (worshiping only one god while acknowledging others as a thing) instead of a polytheist. Instead, there are certain gods that I have a stronger relationship with than others and they sort of form my "pantheon" you could say. The icons in my signature are there to directly represent them.
-•- -•- -•- -> The Sacred Four. Depending on how you want to think about it, the Four are less gods than they are the fundamental principles upon which all depend and are built from. I could go on for pages about the significance of the Four alone since they are the foundation of my tradition. The short of it is they are honored and acknowledged in some way in just about everything I do. They serve as an incredibly useful mnemonic and way of mapping the territory of the world. Also, they're cool.
-> Gaea, Lady Sol, and Lady Luna (among other names). If the Four are the foundation, Gaea is the center. How can one not be inspired by planet earth and the celestial powers that influence it? I'm utterly dependent on them to exist in here-and-now. Humbly acknowledging that and celebrating the awesome that is the world I'm privileged to live in is what my tradition is all about. The universe, especially Earth, is cool.
-> Storm Spirit and Plant Spirit. These are just a couple other gods/spirits I find especially cool that are aspects of Gaea. I'm a botanist, so of course Plant Spirit. Plants are super cool, and often super under-appreciated by us two legs. And Storm? I've worshipped Storm since before I knew what Paganism was. I love her because she is a cure to human hubris. Storm routinely reminds arrogant humans who is really in charge of things.
-> The Spirit of Learning and the Spirit of Creativity. From sciences to folklore, inspiring films to hobby crafts, the flow of Awen is the illumination that lets one revel in the splendor of the world (aka, the gods). These are the practices, the ways of life. The things that are done. Lots of learning, and lots of creativity.
-•- -•- -•- -> The Sacred Four. Depending on how you want to think about it, the Four are less gods than they are the fundamental principles upon which all depend and are built from. I could go on for pages about the significance of the Four alone since they are the foundation of my tradition. The short of it is they are honored and acknowledged in some way in just about everything I do. They serve as an incredibly useful mnemonic and way of mapping the territory of the world. Also, they're cool. -> Gaea, Lady Sol, and Lady Luna (among other names). If the Four are the foundation, Gaea is the center. How can one not be inspired by planet earth and the celestial powers that influence it? I'm utterly dependent on them to exist in here-and-now. Humbly acknowledging that and celebrating the awesome that is the world I'm privileged to live in is what my tradition is all about. The universe, especially Earth, is cool. -> Storm Spirit and Plant Spirit. These are just a couple other gods/spirits I find especially cool that are aspects of Gaea. I'm a botanist, so of course Plant Spirit. Plants are super cool, and often super under-appreciated by us two legs. And Storm? I've worshipped Storm since before I knew what Paganism was. I love her because she is a cure to human hubris. Storm routinely reminds arrogant humans who is really in charge of things. -> The Spirit of Learning and the Spirit of Creativity. From sciences to folklore, inspiring films to hobby crafts, the flow of Awen is the illumination that lets one revel in the splendor of the world (aka, the gods). These are the practices, the ways of life. The things that are done. Lots of learning, and lots of creativity. 
Sand Dancer
Currently catless
Krishna because he is loving and child like. Kokopelli because he plays music and dances.
Sheogorath, Prince of Madness
Why would you want to bond with a prince of madness?
Why would you want to bond with a prince of madness?
I'm so happy, I could take out your intestines and strangle you with them..
Okay this got me thinking. What are some definite no-no's to summon. I was thinking like Apep from Egyptian mythology, the serpent demon of chaos.
"Apep, O Serpent of Chaos. What wisdom will you share with me?"
-poisons mind with visions of incomprehensible horror and chaos-
"Hummina Hummina Awooga!"
"Apep, O Serpent of Chaos. What wisdom will you share with me?"
-poisons mind with visions of incomprehensible horror and chaos-
"Hummina Hummina Awooga!"
ChieftheCef
Well-Known Member
I am a huge fan of the Shivering Isles.
ChieftheCef
Well-Known Member
I worship around four gods, Father Nothing (space-time that creates everything), Mother Nature (the all encompassing), Father Sol (the Sun), Mother Ear (Earth).
Hildeburh
Active Member
You worship four gods? Mother Earth is a goddess and who is the goddess Mother Ear (Earth)? Father Nothing? What mythology does that come from, creation stories differ greatly depending on culture and mythology? Sol is a specific Roman deity (Romans had two representations Sol = Invictus and Indiges). Sol as a male deity is not all encompassing representation of the sun, for example in Germanic mythology tye sun is female and the moon is male.
Guitar's Cry
Disciple of Pan
Pan. He represents the trinity we all have: animal (id), human (ego), and god (superego). He is also a nature god of music and sex. He is primal, and his name is All.
"The worship of Pan had never quite died out...he is the Nature-God to whom all must come back at last. He has been called the Father of all the Gods, but most of his children have been stillborn." - Saki, "The Music on the Hill."
"The worship of Pan had never quite died out...he is the Nature-God to whom all must come back at last. He has been called the Father of all the Gods, but most of his children have been stillborn." - Saki, "The Music on the Hill."
Guitar's Cry
Disciple of Pan
ChieftheCef
Well-Known Member
Very cool! I've noticed how Father Nothing's role, fertilizing Mother Nature with matter, and energy, and light, and heat and stuff (what ultimately is hot goo to a scientist that cooled into us, but to me is semen) is very similar to the stars fertilizing each of their planets.I incorporate "Mother Earth and Father Sun" into my ritual offerings.
ChieftheCef
Well-Known Member
This is from my own mythology based on the science of the day, not the science of yesteryear as religion is. Equinoxes do not hail the spring anymore as I count, just getting with the times. WHy would I care abop0ut the german gods above what is true? The german gods were made with science of the time, yesteryear. Much has changed since then and much has been learned. Though I do enjoy the odd tale of the courage of mighty Thalmar (Thor).
Why reinvent the wheel? When the formula has already been given to us? Connecting with the Gods, has no need for "science", but it certainly doesn't ignore it it. Some of us Pagans are pretty scientific minded folk.
Callisto
Hellenismos, BTW
Reinventing the wheel seems to be a common tendency among Neopagans. I don't know why. As the saying goes, " if it ain't broke...".
Truth. Just in my trad line alone, there are several STEM professionals from archaeology to veterinary science. My initiator has a Doctorate of Chemistry and headed a lab at a major university.
ChieftheCef
Well-Known Member
I just prefer it for myself. I practice as sort of a modern druid, saving animals, talking to them, helping plants, talking to them BECAUSE they are alive, conscious and able to perceive the communication according to science, and my own observations, not because some book says it, but because I believe it.
Also, a universal trait is that reinventing the wheel is how you get new goodness.
I accept that answer, and incan understand and see your reasoning.
But I was a bit put afront by your denigration of the Old Gods in the original.post I responded to.
ChieftheCef
Well-Known Member
They're made by old indirectly gained science. I can see god is real without religion.