How do you know it's real?

[yewberry]

I think heavy doubt might be a sign that you are trying to force something that isn't right for you.

I tend to think heavy doubt also indicates intelligence and critical thinking skills. Maybe I'm a spiritual weirdo, but I have very serious doubts about my perceptions of this stuff. The entities I've "met" appear to live in liminal places, including, I imagine, between belief and disbelief. I've always felt I need to embrace both states in order to even begin to understand them. But, of course, I could be totally deluding myself.

I should also mention that I don't work with the Wiccan goddess, or any gods at all, so maybe comparing it to what the OP mentions is apples and oranges.

Brina

[Aubrey_Rose]

Now, I don't mean to offend anyone here. I'm genuinely not asking this out of malice - I'm just wondering, how do you know this is all real? When you commune with a God(dess), what is your confirmation that "yes, this is real and not just something I'm making up in my head"?

The reason I ask this is that I've recently tried to reach out to a Goddess, but I keep worrying that it's just my mind inventing things whenever She answers me. I'm a very imaginative person, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that I could just be having a conversation with myself, answering in the way I'd want Her to. So is there any way to solidly know that yes, this is real? Do you still experience doubt, or is it just the fact that I'm a beginner that I'm still questioning the reality of these things?

I'm constantly thinking about this. But what it comes down to for me is what I believe in my heart of hearts. There are small things that keep me believing, like the uplifted feeling I get when I pray, or stand at my alter. Or the way thigs always have a way of working out when I ask for help or guidance, even if they don't work quite in the way I imagined.

My Goddess found me. I used to talk to the male God of my beliefs all the time, but I was left with an incomplete feeling, there was just something missing. Then one day I reached out to my Goddess, talked to her, and sat with her, and I just knew.
I know it sounds corny, but its my expirience. Now whenever I sit and chat, or sit and listen to her I am filled with inexplainable peace.


Hope that helps.

[Chausette]

I should also mention that I don't work with the Wiccan goddess, or any gods at all, so maybe comparing it to what the OP mentions is apples and oranges.

Maybe I should clarify a bit - I haven't been trying to work with the Wiccan Goddess, but rather the Greek Goddess Artemis. I had been meditating and thought of arrows and the forest and a lot of other things commonly associated with Artemis, and since then I've been trying to contact her, but when I get answers or anything else it feels forced, like I'm trying to speak for her.

Am I just rushing this or trying too hard to contact her? I feel a very strong draw towards her.

[Wickerman]

Maybe I should clarify a bit - I haven't been trying to work with the Wiccan Goddess, but rather the Greek Goddess Artemis. I had been meditating and thought of arrows and the forest and a lot of other things commonly associated with Artemis, and since then I've been trying to contact her, but when I get answers or anything else it feels forced, like I'm trying to speak for her.

Am I just rushing this or trying too hard to contact her? I feel a very strong draw towards her.

I see a lot of people talking about personal communications with deities. I am not doubting anyone's experiences, but I don't think that it happens this way for everyone. I have never had such an experience myself, and I do just fine. I pray, and sometimes I just know that those prayers were heard, other times I don't get that feeling. I would say, to not worry about it. If it happens for you then enjoy it, relish it. If it doesn't, then it doesn't. Don't rush it, let things happen naturally, Deities choose you, according to most people that I have talked to, so it could be that it just isn't time yet. But at the same time don't over think things, if you feel that a deity has spoken to you then operate under that premise.

[yewberry]

I see a lot of people talking about personal communications with deities. I am not doubting anyone's experiences, but I don't think that it happens this way for everyone.

This. Stop wishin' and just keep yourself open. It'll happen or it won't. And don't beat yourself up if it doesn't. I'm not sure that means anything either.

Brina

[Nachtigall]

Maybe I should clarify a bit - I haven't been trying to work with the Wiccan Goddess, but rather the Greek Goddess Artemis. I had been meditating and thought of arrows and the forest and a lot of other things commonly associated with Artemis, and since then I've been trying to contact her, but when I get answers or anything else it feels forced, like I'm trying to speak for her.

Am I just rushing this or trying too hard to contact her? I feel a very strong draw towards her.

I think a pantheistic approach may suit you better at this stage. Think of what Artemis represents, and why this is important to you - think of her as a set of principles you would like to honor, and think of the ways you could live this principles. Think of *why* she deserves to be honored as a deity, with offerings, prayers and other rituals.

(f.ex. I see my patron's smile in warm sun rays, in every song on my playlist, in every mathematical formula I use in my research, in every book, conversation, experience that brings me further knowledge in something, in every challenge I set to myself... these are always with me, regardless from whether theists or atheists are objectively right).

Perhaps you will have a mystical "personal connection" with her, perhaps not (which is OK; in my opinion, the overemphasis on mysticism is actually very hurtful to the practitioner, especially for a beginner). But for now, yes, it seems from your posts like you a trying too hard to force something.

[The Grumble]

I see a lot of people talking about personal communications with deities. I am not doubting anyone's experiences, but I don't think that it happens this way for everyone. I have never had such an experience myself, and I do just fine.

I've never had any sort of communication with anything I would consider a deity. When I do get messages from my guides, whatever they may be at the time, they come in flashes of pictures, short scenes, symbols or maybe a single word. And that works perfectly fine for what I do and need on my personal journey.

I think it's different for everyone. Don't worry about what others are experiencing.

As for the original question, I think it's healthy to keep some skepticism. However, even if it is all in my head, it's never caused me or others harm, and has helped me cope through some really bad times. I've grown a lot through my spiritual practices. I find it therapeutic.

[Jabberwocky]

I don't. I also really could not give less of a damn.

I care whether it works.

This. So much.

I'm fully aware that pretty much all the 'results' I've achieved could be down to confirmation bias. I simply decided I don't care if that is the case some time ago.

I will say however that there is a time for this kind of doubt and a time to push it temporarily to one side while you get on with the work.

[yewberry]

I'm fully aware that pretty much all the 'results' I've achieved could be down to confirmation bias. I simply decided I don't care if that is the case some time ago.

Brina

[Wickerman]

I tend to think heavy doubt also indicates intelligence and critical thinking skills. Maybe I'm a spiritual weirdo, but I have very serious doubts about my perceptions of this stuff. The entities I've "met" appear to live in liminal places, including, I imagine, between belief and disbelief. I've always felt I need to embrace both states in order to even begin to understand them. But, of course, I could be totally deluding myself.

I should also mention that I don't work with the Wiccan goddess, or any gods at all, so maybe comparing it to what the OP mentions is apples and oranges.

Brina

Might not have been the best post to quote, but it was the one that triggered my thought process. Mark Twain once presented a theory that nothing exists. We are all just disembodied souls floating in a vacuum, and what we perceive as reality is only an illusion. Sorta like the movie The Matrix. So the real question is how do we know any thing is real? Through our senses? Those can be fooled, but they are all that we have. So I think the test must be the same, if it seems real then it is real.