The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

I just thought I'd start a thread where people can share how they perceive their honored deities, including both spiritual and physical representation. Is there an image, energy, object, etc. that you readily associate with your honored deity?

For me, the goddess Rhiannon is humanoid, except in the third branch of the Mabinogion when she has to carry visitors on her back. Since I don't have the money on hand to buy a statuette for my altar, I actually just got done drawing a picture for my altar.

There pretty much no pictures or statues to reprersent Amaethon. So I use objects such as the plough and sickle to denote the Agriculture aspects of Amaethin.

I just thought I'd start a thread where people can share how they perceive their honored deities, including both spiritual and physical representation. Is there an image, energy, object, etc. that you readily associate with your honored deity?

For me, the goddess Rhiannon is humanoid, except in the third branch of the Mabinogion when she has to carry visitors on her back. Since I don't have the money on hand to buy a statuette for my altar, I actually just got done drawing a picture for my altar.

 
I believe that the true form of my deities isn't anthropomorphic, and most likely isn't even imaginable to the human mind (see the myth of Semele and Zeus). They can take whatever form they wish though; therefore, humanoid, animal and other symbolic forms are used for the purpose of worship.

Whichever symbol I choose for my practice, depends mostly on the purpose of the rite, and on the aspect of the deity I wish to focus on. Such as, I've "experienced" Apollo as a handsome man, as a wolf, as sound, as light, as cold wind, as fire, and much more... each of these has also been used as a symbol in representing him.

I just thought I'd start a thread where people can share how they perceive their honored deities, including both spiritual and physical representation. Is there an image, energy, object, etc. that you readily associate with your honored deity?

I don't know if it's a holdover from being raised Christian, but I can't really set a specific physical presence on my deities. I think, being divine, they can appear how they want, and the way I picture them has much more to do with me than them. So, while I might have certain associations and like to picture them one way, I don't think that's how they "actually" look.

But I really like the style of Thalia Took's artistic interpretations of different goddesses and mythical women in her Goddess Oracle, particularly Sedna, the Sibyl, Ariadne, Artemis, Cerridwen, Inanna (NSFW), Kirke, and the Magdalene.

Is there an image, energy, object, etc. that you readily associate with your honored deity?

My goddess is Brighid.  Like the ancient Celts, I generally don't anthropomorphize my understanding of Her -- although there have been exceptions to that.

I see Her most easily in the sun and in fire -- the kind of fire that warms, comforts, and heals; not the kind of fire that rages and destroys.  She is the hearthfire, the flame of the oil lamp or candle, the camp fire, the cooking fire.

Less readily, I see Her in certain kinds of water:  springs, wells, small creeks, lakes.  But not the ocean.

There are certain symbols that bring various aspects of Her to mind for me: Her cross, of course, triskeles, trinity knots, sun symbols, oak leaves, acorns, anvils, flames, torcs, spirals, yonis, stars, compass roses, galaxies.  

Certain stones also make me think of Her, including sunstone, blue moonstone, opal, amethyst, emerald, smokey quartz, aqua aura quartz, jade, fluorite, and clear quartz.

I do have some more or less abstract art work that calls Her to mind.  But that is more because of how *other people* see Her.

In my experiences, Brighid is a force of energy, rather than a larger-than-life woman or something like that.  I feel Her presence all around me, but but not in the same way I feel the presence of my family.

I've had a couple of pathworking/meditation experiences in which She did appear in a human form.  In those cases, though, I think She did it just for fun.  She appeared as a young woman, pale, with black hair, wearing the most ridiculous, bright pink "princess" dress with one of those conical hats with a sheer, pink scarf flowing from the point.  Very "little girl/fairy tale".  I thought it was amusing, but I have no idea why she chose to appear like that.

~ Aster

I just thought I'd start a thread where people can share how they perceive their honored deities, including both spiritual and physical representation. Is there an image, energy, object, etc. that you readily associate with your honored deity?

For the past seven/eight years, I only perceived the Morrigan as a presence or a voice in my head. Spiritually, she "feels" like that person who can walk into a room and have everyone look at her--but less in the "drop-dead gorgeous" way as opposed to the "puts everyone just a little bit on-guard" way. An animal I strongly associate the Morrigan with is the crow, which someone suggested may not be the goddess Morrigan, but the aspect of the Morrigan that's known specifically as Badb.

Which leads me to a big concept I associate her with: Drive. My theater professor frequently states that the most important thing an actor needs is the drive for it: To be an actor, you can't put theater above anything but your family's welfare and the need for shelter/food. When I first started out, he constantly told me that I have more than enough drive to be an actor--I just wouldn't accept it until recently.

And then this February, I found out just how MUCH drive I had: The minute I found out that my dream production (Spring Awakening) was going up in my home town, I asked her for help and said that "I will be Ilse Fucking Neumann if I have to cut a bitch."

Three months and a whole lot of epiphanies later, I realized that this is why she helped me, and maybe why she called me to follow her in the first place. I didn't just ask for help: I told her with utmost sincerity, to her face, that "I will do any-goddamn-thing I have to for this."

On May 31 when I was just about done with things, I finally saw her face. Well, it feels more like she finally showed it to me. And even her "appearance" is more like the "essence" of an appearance as opposed to "This is what I look like." Copied from my LiveJournal: "When I blinked, I saw a pale, stark woman with sunken dark eyes and a mass of black hair. She was gaunt and her skin was stretched tight over her bones. She smiled at me with her teeth, and it felt like the reflection from a knife."

-
Another god I've been working with is Aengus Og, the Irish god of love. He has always felt like the "essence" of love for me; more recently I asked him what he'd look like as a human and he told me in no uncertain terms, "THIS."

John Barrowman is as famous for being obscenely attractive and charismatic as he is for playing Captain Jack Harkness--who, incidentally enough, is known for being pan/omnisexual. It's not just that he loves everything HUMAN; he loves everything, human, animal, or alien, and everything loves him back. That's definitely someone a god of love would identify with.

In addition to seeing the Morrigan's face, I get the feeling that the gods are big--both in physical size and power/strength. Again, copied from my LJ: I realized how huge they were. I'm five feet tall and I barely reached their chests, so they'd be at least six feet. [...] [T]hey kind of... shone, but in different ways. The Morrigan's was really contained and harsh like a fluorescent light, and Aengus' was... magnetic? Like, he'd be the "flame" in "like moths to a flame."

One shared concept that the Morrigan and Aengus Og keep telling me is that of letting go. For the Morrigan, it's "Let go of everything that doesn't work for you (anymore)," "Let go of people's opinions of you," and "Let go of hiding your doubts/pain/insecurities." For Aengus Og, it's "Let go of shielding yourself/others from pain," "Let go of your inhibitions," and "Let go of trying to know everything."

I just thought I'd start a thread where people can share how they perceive their honored deities, including both spiritual and physical representation. Is there an image, energy, object, etc. that you readily associate with your honored deity?

Hekate has been the one calling me to service for several years now and Pan has come into the picture just recently after meditating with Hekate as to which God would be my Patron. I definitely do not view them in the "Lady and Her Consort" aspect but as Deities that I serve and feel comfortable calling them "my Lord and Lady" as individual deities.
 
I also work with Hestia, but She is the one in charge with hearth and home. The way this relationship works with Hestia, Hekate, and Pan . . . Hestia presides in the kitchen, hearth, and shares the garden with Hekate and Pan. Pan presides in the outdoor workings (forests and woods), shares the shamanic aspect with Hekate, and of course the garden with both, Hekate (whom I work with most) presides over all things Witchcraft and Conjure. Of all three, Hekate is the one who takes on the Mother figure for me, but I laugh at those who think She is all "Light and Love". She is both Light and Dark, and does not hesitate to show tough love to those whom She's called to serve Her.
 
I also believe that my Deities chose me and I just vowed to be in their service. Another interesting tidbit, if any other Deity wants to come into the picture, if Hekate, Pan, and Hestia do not approve, it's a no go.

I just thought I'd start a thread where people can share how they perceive their honored deities, including both spiritual and physical representation. Is there an image, energy, object, etc. that you readily associate with your honored deity?

Lovely topic for a thread!
I believe no two people involved with the same Deity will experience them in exactly the same way if what I have already heard from others reported back to me is anything to go by... so baring that in mind, I can only say how it's been for me.  It really all depends on the situation I'm facing and the Deity involved... for instance, when I call upon MamaCoca to assist with my efforts to heal, I feel her change from a reddy brown 2-D image to a glowing in green and gold lights 3-D one... while if I call upon Lord Ganesh to help with an enterprize, I feel him become from static and serious to quite animated and jolly...  while Anubis, who usually "comes through" when I have somebody I love pass over to Summerlands props me up and helps me to cope with my grief by a sort of lifting feeling... while Pan is the one who lead me into temptation all too often which is precisely why I wear his image around my neck.