Literal Gods and Goddesses

[outlaw393]

I have a question for people of all different Pagan paths.

If God(s) and/or Goddess(es) are a part of your tradition, are they deities you truly believe are real, or are they symbols or metaphors to help you along your journey?

I'm a hard polytheist. My gods are all real, separate individuals.

[dragonfaerie]

If God(s) and/or Goddess(es) are a part of your tradition, are they deities you truly believe are real, or are they symbols or metaphors to help you along your journey?

I interact with the Gods as real, distinct entities because that's how they've presented themselves to me. We won't really know the true nature of the Gods until we reach the afterlife (if even then), so I don't really worry about what the "truth" might be. That's why it's called "faith".

As for what Randall's said about being chosen by a deity and how most people wouldn't really like that... based on my relationship with Brigit (she chose ME to be one of her... I'm not saying pets... servants, perhaps), I think that's absolutely true. I work with many other deities, but I don't have relationships with them in the way I do with Brigit.

Being chosen by a deity involves a certain amount of "giving up your life to their will". I will fight back against demands I think are unreasonable... I'm not getting up at 3AM to blog just because She wants me to. I'm not going back to Ireland until we've paid off our credit card debt.

But Saturday, when I was getting a clear impulse to go take a walk into the woods right next to my office, I went. And when the folks organizing my coven's Imbolc ritual went in a decidedly non-Brigit-centric direction, I gave into Her and ended up starting a bit of a crap-storm on the coven email list.

So it ain't something to take lightly. And I have fulfilling relationships with other deities without them being on that level. You could compare it to the relationship you have with your spouse (or significant other, or primary relationship, or however you term it) and that you have with your friends. You might have friends that you're really emotionally close to, but that relationship will not be on the same emotional level as you have with someone you'd term a "spouse" (and I'm talking about functional relationships here, not just someone who is a spouse because they can't/won't pursue a divorce).

Karen

[Carnelian]

I have a question for people of all different Pagan paths.

If God(s) and/or Goddess(es) are a part of your tradition, are they deities you truly believe are real, or are they symbols or metaphors to help you along your journey?

I think they're real insofar as they are expressions of the unknowable spiritual component of the physical universe, but I don't think there are actual superhuman beings out there influencing life on earth. However, I agree with Darkhawk in that we can't know either way, and that it doesn't really matter. If one is going to honour individual gods, then it makes sense to treat them as such.

[veggiewolf]

I neither know nor care.

I treat Them as individuals because that is how They present themselves, and it would be rude to do otherwise.
...

And, this is me.

[SunflowerP]

This is the first time I am being introduced to the idea of hard and soft polytheists. I never knew there were two different types.

Well, no. As my side convo with Juniperberry illustrates, there are several types, which can be roughly placed somewhere on a spectrum from "hard" to "soft", but that's just one way to talk about the ways they differ.

Sunflower

[Stardancer]

I'm a harder polytheist than either of them, since I see the deities as being as much distinct individuals as humans are, but not as hard of a polytheist as some people are because I'm a pantheist and consider everything (deity-type people, human-type people, animals, rocks, trees, stars, etc, etc) as part of the divine whole.

Sunflower

I'm kind of in that area too. When I work with my chosen deities, I see them as separate and distinct, sentient entities. The Kemetic deities with their syncretisisms can be a little more fluid (Sun-as-Ra, Sun-as-Sekhmet, Sun-as-Heru, etc), but their flavours (for lack of a better word) are still distinct.
When I work with the Western esoteric traditions, I focus on the Divine Source/ Primal Will that I see as the essence of all deities, all humans, animals, rocks, trees, etc, etc...
I have used the deity-as-archetype view before, but not much anymore. My inner Chaote thinks I should be able to do that too at the drop of a hat, but I'm still a bit fearful of insulting Someone out there.

[Nomadic Spirit]

Well, no. As my side convo with Juniperberry illustrates, there are several types, which can be roughly placed somewhere on a spectrum from "hard" to "soft", but that's just one way to talk about the ways they differ.

Sunflower

Ah, I see. Thank you.

[dreamweaver]

I have a question for people of all different Pagan paths.

If God(s) and/or Goddess(es) are a part of your tradition, are they deities you truly believe are real, or are they symbols or metaphors to help you along your journey?

Now, I know to some people the deities (or deity) will be real, and to others they will be a metaphor (symbol) of sorts. Everyone believes many different things and even variations of those different things, I understand that.

The reason I ask this question is because for one, I am simply interested, but the beginning as to why I ask my question above is because I have an interesting predicament (if that is even the right thing to call it). I want to have a God(s), Goddess(es) I can pray to, meditate upon, etc., in the sense that they are actually real and listening. I, however, for a reason I am not sure of (purely a lack of faith?), find it very hard to start praying or meditating to a God(dess) that I am not sure if they are truly real. As I write this, it seems I can see my own problem, I lack faith, however, I am curious to know how others feel. More specifically, I am curious to know if anyone has ever had this issue when they were first exploring Pagan paths; the issue of wanting to literally pray to a God(dess), but not knowing where to get the faith from (if it is possible to "get" faith) to make it happen. I wish I could "just do it", and I tried praying to the Universe/Mother Nature today (the first prayer I have uttered in a long time, and the very first prayer to a force other than the Christian God of my birth religion), so I assume that is the first step? Maybe.

(Note: I am not even asking as to which God(dess) to pray/meditate upon, I understand more often than not the God(dess) finds you rather than the other way around, who is not my problem, I can accept that would come with meditation and time, it is the how that irks me.)

I see the deities as being real and separate entities with very distinct personalities. That's how I've personally experienced them. I used to lack faith in deities but after I decided to open myself to them I began to have experiences I can't discount as coincidences.

[Elani Temperance]

I'm a hard polytheist. My gods are all real, separate individuals.

This.

Also, my Goddesses chose me, at a very young age. They helped me develop and I developed to need them, specifically, in my life. They moulded me, you could say. Like RandallS said;

The Gods directly call few and that's good because most people would not want to be one of a deity's "pet humans."

I have no problem being a 'pet human' for my Goddesses. It's an honor. But it's not for everyone. Look at all your options and see where and with what you feel most comfortable. It's not a race and you have your whole life in front of you. You don't have to figure this out before you can develop yourself

[Vella Malachite]

That doesn't mean nothing about them is metaphorical though. Is Thor's hammer an actual physical hammer, or is a hammer just the closest comparison to something we can comprehend? I believe in the literal existence of deities, but some of their mythology might be partially metaphorical.

This. I'm a pretty hard polytheist, in that I believe that all of my gods are separate individuals and are, in some sense 'real' - whether they exist in the human forms that we tend to assign to them or some other way, I don't know.

It's mythology where I start to believe in archetypes and general tools; most myths probably aren't true, although some may have a grain of truth in them, for example, having started off based on a person and being overblown and exaggerated over years and years. Myths are less a description of events and more stories; they tell you about the nature of a god, rather than about their acts, and more about the values of society than about the people in the myths who exemplify those values.

But still, for me, gods are real and separate entities, mainly because they have presented themselves to me as such, and I'm not about to tell them that they don't know these things