What do the gods do for you?

[HeartShadow]

I think if the gods gave me something, I would either remember or know about it. I do find it strange, however, that most everyone on this thread had something to offer. I do not. Oh well.

Maybe because other people with nothing to say in this thread just don't say anything?

[outlaw393]

Maybe because other people with nothing to say in this thread just don't say anything?

But I felt like offering an opinion and I offered it.
Even if it seems like I can't offer anything to the thread at hand, perhaps someone reading the thread will go, hmm. I'm not the only one that didn't get anything from my gods...she didn't either.

[Elani Temperance]

Maybe a bit of an irreverent question! But I've noticed a few threads asking, more or less, "What do you do for your gods, what gifts do you offer them?" So I thought I'd turn it on its head.

What do the gods do for you? What gifts or blessings have you received from them or from your work with them? What keeps you coming back (instead of throwing up your hands and just becoming an animist )?

--Ali

I think I see most of their gifts and blessings in my daily life. Small prayers that are answered right away (a train that is delayed by a minute or two so I can just make it, a car running on empty that just makes it to the gas station) as well as an overall positive thread that runs through my life since I started praying and offering. It could all be a coincidence but that has never stopped me from considering them gifts.

Then there are the dreams, readings and talks that come from them and which guide me on or answer questions that have been holding me back for a long time.

Meeting them in Ritual is so awe inspiring that even without anything else, I'd offer and pray to them just for that second of contact.

Great question

[Vella Malachite]

I think I see most of their gifts and blessings in my daily life. Small prayers that are answered right away (a train that is delayed by a minute or two so I can just make it, a car running on empty that just makes it to the gas station) as well as an overall positive thread that runs through my life since I started praying and offering. It could all be a coincidence but that has never stopped me from considering them gifts.

This. I'm so glad someone else mentioned it; I was afraid of looking petty or overentitled if I mentioned that a diety did something tiny, like making a train late so I can make it Just for Me...

Other than that, strength, courage, and occasionally stepping in and taking a hand in things when I'm working myself up about a problem so much I'm not dealing with it rationally anymore. Mostly, they leave me to sort out my own problems, though, and I'm not sure I wouldn't call some of my problems 'gifts' in that I've grown through them more than I would have if I were just coasting through life.

[SatAset]

What do the gods do for you? What gifts or blessings have you received from them or from your work with them? What keeps you coming back (instead of throwing up your hands and just becoming an animist )?

Aset helps me become a better person. She helps me heal myself, know the joy of feeding my soul, and have confidence in my abilities. She helps me love myself and not give apologies for who I am. She gives me strength and the ability to love fiercely.

Oya wants me to learn about the positive aspects of money and wealth. How a product is valued only if you have confidence in yourself and your product. I'm still working on this one.

Frigga has helped me understand the sacredness of my home and how that effects your own energies and the world around you. She helped me understand the importance of my ancestors and how honoring Her is apart of honoring them.

What keeps me coming back is that I can't imagine my life without them. I would be incomplete.

[Sharysa]

Just making another post in this thread because I finally realized that the Morrigan's made me a better person.

She set me up to audition for Spring Awakening, let me fail so I could realize I was doing it for the wrong reasons, and forced me to admit that those reasons were the things that have always been holding me back in life. She then reminded me that I'd always had GOOD reasons for wanting to be in Spring Awakening, but the other reasons just sidetracked me for a while.

And with all my character-development out of the way, she's giving me a second chance for Bealtaine. I don't know how it'll happen, but I know it will, and it's going to be awesome.

[oldman]

Maybe a bit of an irreverent question! But I've noticed a few threads asking, more or less, "What do you do for your gods, what gifts do you offer them?" So I thought I'd turn it on its head.

What do the gods do for you? What gifts or blessings have you received from them or from your work with them? What keeps you coming back (instead of throwing up your hands and just becoming an animist )?



--Ali

Hermes helped me to find my path, and while I still have much traveling to do, He guides me with subtle hints as to the proper direction for me to take. He has inspired me to write, on occasion, and even helped me to lose weight.

[Ask-Embla]

That's a difficult thing to answer. The difficulty arising in how do you recognize a gift or blessing.

Perhaps it was a gift and blessing when my youngest son was thrown from the car as it broke apart and received nothing but a few minor scrapes and cuts while his wife trapped in the car received the same.

Perhaps it was my two grandson's born 3.5 months early with almost no chance of survival. Yet today they approach thier 2nd birthday and are healthy and doing things the doctor's were sure they would never live to do.

Perhaps it was the lawyer that represented me for my disability hearing. A lawyer who just happened to have a Celtic Tree tatoo upon her wrist that showed that day. A day when I felt confident about it and my lawyer couldn't understand why everything she wore rode up to reveal it.

Perhaps it was the day I was some what depressed and asked Artemis for a sign. Then looking upon a cloud free sky a lone cloud shaped like a woman with outstreached arms slowly walked over the mountain line until she floated there in the sky. A figure that followed my car for 50 miles as I drove through the mountains with my son telling me she's still there dad.

Perhaps its the sense of calm and peace that settles over me when I speak to Hekate and the sound of baying hounds breaks the night air. Hounds that were not baying until I finished my talk. A snake that was not there until I turnt around as I followed the baying hounds as their call passed down through the valley.

So how do I answer your question? Those things and more mark the passage of my life and my commitment and dedication to those I honor and worship. Those who are part and parcel of my life every minute of the day, who I speak to all the time and find comfort and serenity with them. Those who are the cool kiss of a breeze upon my neck on a hot day. The tingle of a light rain upon my skin or the full blown fury of the tempest.

Sometimes it's nothing more than the warmth that fills me as I am filled with there presence and see some sign that tells me which god or goddess it was that looked in upon me at that moment.

This is so beautiful that I'm saving it for later. Thank you.

[MoonCrone]

What do the gods do for you? What gifts or blessings have you received from them or from your work with them? What keeps you coming back (instead of throwing up your hands and just becoming an animist

A very tough thing to answer because it's quite hard to corroborate and quantify...
but I believe some of them have been of guidance and assistance to me over the years, yes, most of the time they are around, somewhere between the here and there... but not constantly "in my face," perhaps entering on the day-to-day level more noticeably when there's an issue I need to resolve, I have been shown the way forwards many a time, I have felt protection at times, I have felt supported in my efforts quite often if the cause is a nobel one, I have had my resquests for help with healing answered quite a few times, my request for blockages to be removed dealt with now and again and all of that kind of thing...
Depends on what's going on and which Deity one is referring to, I think, and I can only speak for how it is with me of course!

[Crohm]

(instead of throwing up your hands and just becoming an animist )?

As an animist (in that I believe all are enshrined with soul and that what can be called Gods and Goddesses simply vibrate on a much more powerful level) I would take offense at that *teases*

I work with the powers I have for over ten years. Faith/Belief is not necessary compared to experience in my view.