Are You a God-Slave? Will You Be?

[Lokabrenna]

I don't mean to be flippant, but this typo made my morning. I was imagining a hardcore training program for EXTREME LIBRARIANS, with rough-and-tumble recruits getting in bar brawls with servicemen, Jets and Sharks style. "We call the big guy Dewey. He's gonna sort you out..."

OMGs, I would totally fail this course! Getting my MLIS was hard enough! Well, actually, I didn't find the work to be that hard, just that there was a lot of it.

The hardest part, IMO, is finding a job when everyone wants "X years of experience" that I currently don't have.

[Jenett]

OMGs, I would totally fail this course! Getting my MLIS was hard enough! Well, actually, I didn't find the work to be that hard, just that there was a lot of it.

The hardest part, IMO, is finding a job when everyone wants "X years of experience" that I currently don't have.

Yeah. I tend to think the extreme part of librarianship these days is finding a job. (And Lokebrenna - if you'd like a link to my professional blog with "what I learned about library job hunting while doing it for a year", I'm glad to share via PM.)

Back to the line of the thread: librarianship is part of my religious vocation, and part of my service to M'Lady, and there are ways in which I really consider a bunch of the job hunt process (and why I was hunting in the first place, and the move half way across the US) to be a variant form of ordeal-work in Her service.

Not the most fun thing to do, in several dimensions - but I had, really, no choice but to do it, and with as much good grace as I could possibly manage.

[Valentine]

Back to the line of the thread: librarianship is part of my religious vocation, and part of my service to M'Lady, and there are ways in which I really consider a bunch of the job hunt process (and why I was hunting in the first place, and the move half way across the US) to be a variant form of ordeal-work in Her service.

snippy snip!

Not to get too off-topic, but I am delighted by concrete examples like this of the way we adapt the need to serve our Gods/the ways we are called to do Their work or align with Their forces in the world/so on to the concerns of a modern world whose structures, technologies, and available careers are so different. The librarian thing makes perfect sense. I see a similar echo in the ways I am in training as a minister--with the associated seminary ordeals and ordination messes--because, in part, that is the best way I am able to reconcile all the directions of movement and channels of service called up by my relationship to Anpw. (I love this because, of course, "minister" doesn't seem to have been a job back when there were big stone temples for Him. It's not, after all, anything like the same thing as "priest" in the "hem netjer" sense. And, you know, it was this or direct a funeral home, but in the duty to bind the broken back together, comfort those in lost and lonely places, and get people home safe, the job these days--for me at least--is very tidily what a modern minister and chaplain is expected to do.) ...and I went and tangented, but would anyone be interested in a thread for discussing modern adaptations of the jobs we do for the Gods?

(The earthly work I do as an Ardat-Lili, of course, well, that's a different business. At least She doesn't expect me to eat babies.)

[LeaLynne]

In the book that I've been reading, I've stumbled upon the phrase "god-slave" which both intrigued me and worried me and disgusted me and terrified me. From what I have gathered, the terminology is similar to that of having a patron deity, however, instead of merely having this divine parent, so to speak, loving you and offering you encouragement from afar, you have literally dedicated your every waking second to the patron that has chosen you.

Let me reiterate:

You have completely dedicated your entire life to this god/dess that has chosen you.

At least... I think. I think that's the reasoning behind that terminology.

The reason I stumbled upon all of this confusing morass was because of Galina Krasskova, free range tribalist heathen and the article written on patheos that I've linked here. Specifically, she says:



I was just wondering... how do you guys feel about all of this?

Personally, I can see my relationship with Sekhmet heading in this direction. So far, she's been the distant parent coaxing me to live my life appropriately. So far, she's been there to pick me up when I'm down and to yell at me when I'm wrong and to give me encouragement when I need it most. That's where she is now: she's teaching me and letting me come to conclusions on my own and I think, at some point, she would enjoy having me become a god-slave.

Honestly, I don't think I'm at all ready for that level of commitment. All joking about commitment phobias aside, it's a really big step. It's ten times more serious, to me, than marrying the significant other that you love. It's thirty times more important than anything else that I could do on this plane of existence. To me, it's important, but I just... I can't even imagine giving of myself so completely to my Hubby. How can I get that way with Sekhmet?

If that is the direction that I am heading, and something inside of me is saying yes very clearly, then I think I have a long way to go before I get there. I'm excited at having something so clearly to look forward to but I'm also... leery. It's... so much. Just. So much.

I can not as I am allow myself to become a slave to anyone/thing my deities entered their relationship with me knowing I would not be enslaved, if I ever feel them trying I will walk away from them just as quickly and "easily" as I did the Christian God...I have felt Anubis, Athena, Thor, Odin and Bast all occasionally try to break my pride and even test me by trying to break my will, they have never (completely) succeeded obviously (I have found myself begging for mercy and without my pride frequently but then they come and biuld me back up stronger and prouder than ever) and I always understand they are only testing me not truly trying to enslave me.
Then again I entered these relationships knowing these deities came with the intent to strengthen and test me, Anything I can walk away from under my own power makes me stronger.

[Morag]

I have felt Anubis, Athena, Thor, Odin and Bast all occasionally try to break my pride and even test me by trying to break my will, they have never (completely) succeeded obviously (I have found myself begging for mercy and without my pride frequently but then they come and biuld me back up stronger and prouder than ever) and I always understand they are only testing me not truly trying to enslave me.

Being broken does not necessarily equal being a godslave. Please don't conflate the two.

Also, it's offensive to suggest that godslaves are incapable of having their own will, or of being strong and proud.

[veggiewolf]

Being broken does not necessarily equal being a godslave. Please don't conflate the two.

Also, it's offensive to suggest that godslaves are incapable of having their own will, or of being strong and proud.

This.

[Vaalea]

From what I have gathered, the terminology is similar to that of having a patron deity, however, instead of merely having this divine parent, so to speak, loving you and offering you encouragement from afar, you have literally dedicated your every waking second to the patron that has chosen you.

Let me reiterate:

You have completely dedicated your entire life to this god/dess that has chosen you.

I can't really see myself becoming god-slave. Very dedicated, yes. Slave, well, no. And to me, being a slave *does* imply strong power imbalance, and having that taken away from me in those decisions I *do* make on my own. I don't judge those that enter such relationships. I don't think they'd become some sort of automatons.

But it's some kind of a sacrifice I'm not willing to make. With human partners, that's different sort of deal, one I'm willing to think of, not that I'm submissive. With gods (/goddesses), that is too hard to take. I don't believe I could get to know Them in the same way I can do with human partners. To comprehend Their thinking. It's not the same as human, tbqh what I can't rationalize to myself makes it hard for me to accept. Or to think of without major uncomfort. Which... isn't an approach I think I can take to this topic.

~Merry

[Vella Malachite]

I was just wondering... how do you guys feel about all of this?

OK, so coming into this, when I first read the post, the first thing that jumped into my head was of a person incapable of doing anything other than what their deities told them, being absolutely and completely subserviant. I don't know whether that's an image conjured up by my preconceptions of the word 'slave', but that's what came to mind. I will now make my response realising that that is not the case.

I'm also going to use the phrase 'god-servant', because for me, it carries less historical baggage and implies a similar concept. If I offend by doing so, please let me know and I will cease.

Personally, I don't think I could see myself in the kind of relationship specified by the god-servants on the board, simply because I'm too lazy, and I've got poor time management skills. I've got so much of my own stuff to do (some of which, admittedly, I do as devotional tasks), that if I were to enter into a relationship where I had to put my deities' requests first, one, I might not fulfil their requests, and two, I wouldn't fulfil my own needs and goals, and it would be detrimental. I'd prefer to honour my deities as they request, but in a slightly more ... not relaxed, not flexible, can we pretend I said the right word and move on? ... manner. Until I get my own life sorted out, obviously, then I'd consider it.

However, the relationship I described earlier, the one which is more blind devotion and the desperate need to please, I do actually see as unhealthy. I'm not saying that that's the relationship all god-servants have, not by a long shot, but I sort of look at it the same way as a dependent relationship between humans. It might be just from my point of view, but I couldn't imagine devoting myself so entirely to one thing to the exclusion of all else and still remaining a healthy person. I can't even bring myself to be honest 100% of the time, so I couldn't give myself over entirely like that. On the other hand, other people might see that differently. I'm not the be-all and end-all in opinions on emotional health by a long shot.

If I have offended or been unclear with anything I've said, please do tell me, and I'll try to apologise/clarify.

[veggiewolf]

...

If I have offended or been unclear with anything I've said, please do tell me, and I'll try to apologise/clarify.

Vella, I don't think you're being unclear at all, but I am confused. Several of us in this thread have described our god-slave relationship and blind obedience didn't enter into it. Do you think you could expand upon your position?

[Vella Malachite]

Vella, I don't think you're being unclear at all, but I am confused. Several of us in this thread have described our god-slave relationship and blind obedience didn't enter into it. Do you think you could expand upon your position?

Sorry, I'll try to rephrase: I understand that blind obedience is not a thing in god-slavery; I was merely trying to state a misconception I had, and clarify that I no longer have that misconception.

At the same time, I don't think I'm even dedicated enough for the less-extreme version of god-servanthood shown on this board. I haven't the skills to manage my time around what They want me to do, and there are things standing in the way of me being completely devoted. I applaud those who can, but for me, it is not something I could do reliably enough to enter into such an arrangement.

My last paragraph, I was answering the "unhealthy relationship" argument with my own opinion: Just like a relationship with another human, I think that if someone is in a deity relationship where they cannot do anything without the 'approval' of their deity or have a desperate need to feel approved of and appreciated to the point of being unable to do anything else, I would find that to be unhealthy, of course only in my own opinion.

Is there anything else specific that you'd like me to expand on or clarify?