leithincluan
Junior Member
Posts: 85
Pronouns: she/her
Religion: Gaelic Polytheism and modern British druidry
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Post by leithincluan on Mar 23, 2015 14:19:18 GMT -6
Redfaery talking about a relationship with a deity she's devoted to, in another thread, got me thinking about the difference between devotional and non-devotional relationships with deities. (If that's even the right term - I'm not sure, actually.) I've been dedicated to my deity, formally, for a bit less than a year. Up till then, I was particularly close to her in comparison to others, but it was different from now. I had very little experience, at that point, of being what Redfaery and others call 'open-headed'. Most of my relationships with my household deities were exclusively formed at their shrines. I'd get flashes of things beyond that, but not much. Some of my interactions with Beara being an exception to that. Now that I'm dedicated to Beara, I'm discovering that what I half-jokingly call my 'priestess-in-training' work for her is largely not based at her shrine, but out in the world, in lots of ways. And so I'm encountering her in much more direct ways. And sometimes at rather unexpected times.  I'd love to hear other people's experiences of the difference between ordinary worship and devoted/dedicated relationships. (I might be able to express things a little bit more clearly in response to other people's ideas!) |
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Redfaery
Junior Member
Posts: 72 
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Religion: Buddhist Polytheism
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Post by Redfaery on Mar 23, 2015 14:40:53 GMT -6
I think the clearest way to explain my relationship as a devotee to Benzaiten-sama is that we're in a...devoted?...relationship? She looks after me and loves me, and I do my best to make her proud and be worthy of her love, and return it as best as I am able. It's a highly personal bond between us, and one that I'm becoming more and more careful discussing as it grows stronger, because...well, I'm aware of just how *individual* these sorts of things are.
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leithincluan
Junior Member
Posts: 85
Pronouns: she/her
Religion: Gaelic Polytheism and modern British druidry
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Post by leithincluan on Mar 23, 2015 14:51:01 GMT -6
Interesting. Thanks! I know that people can have many varieties of deity relationship, from priest-type-work, to being under traditional patronage, to a parent-child type relationship, and so on. I'm partly wondering whether the act of becoming devoted or dedicated to a deity itself changes our relationships with them - which may be a chicken-and-egg question!
I would say that my relationship with Beara is one of service, more than a parent-child or teacher-student one. But it's also much more personal and intense than the term 'service' might signify.
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aondeug
Full Member
Posts: 141
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers, He/Him/His
Religion: Thai Theravada, Irish polytheism
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Post by aondeug on Mar 23, 2015 18:55:27 GMT -6
I've not made any formal dedications because I'm not at all ready for such things. It is far too early into things, I don't know what I am actually going to do with my life religiously. Also I am kind of prone to make very stupid spur of the moment choices and falling apart because whoo mental health problems.
I do focus the vast bulk of my offerings and what not on Lugh. Lugh is the center point of my practice, and we could say that I'm devoted to him in a not officially binding formal sort of way. He's the god I turn to usually when I'm doing things too, in turns of dedicating things I do to him. Or in regards to just kind of thinking about him as a sort of source of inspiration and strength. Not begging him to help or calling on him to do so. Just kind of thinking about the sort of person he is, and admiring that heavily as I run forward into a thing.
I do try to be formal with him when it comes to offerings. I have set things that I say for prayers and such. But I do also speak to him in a less...formal and ritualized manner? Just kind of talking about things that have happened, or that I've thought about and so on.
When I think about how I behave and the sort of person I want to be it's also often in regards to things that I feel would make him proud. He came to me and offered me help. I still don't know why me in particular, but I don't really think that is something that needs to be questioned that much. He did come and with help. I've since grown very indebted to him, and I love him very, very dearly.
Also. He feels kind of. Fatherly I suppose you could say. My father was absolutely awful and I've often had issues with father figures in general save a few. He isn't my father. But I feel a sort of daughterly affection and respect for him that I really wish I could have had in my life in a fashion that wasn't horribly squandered on someone who was actually an asshole.
I want to become skillful and proud and wise and knowledgeable and strong and honorable and kind and protective. To be just even a fragment of what I think he would respect. Well more than a fraction. Because I may as well either go all the way or not at all.
With Bríghid things are much less. Something. Serious I guess? I make offerings to her regularly and with rather ritualized prayer things. It is routine and homely. She isn't on the forefront of my mind like Lugh is though. She is someone I respect heavily though.
My relationship with Manannán is one of awe. I am awed by Lugh, but the awe for Manannán is very distinctly different. It is the sort of awe I feel about the ocean. A very deep, drawing sort of thing. It is incredibly overwhelming at times. Yet at the same time I don't feel as though there is something really. Definitely tying there. It is more a flow that comes and goes. Sometimes he crashes into my life, and other times he pulls back out.
Like the tide.
My relationship with Manannán is "Ocean".
Then there is the Morrígan who. I just feel weirdly drawn to. All of the sisters terrify me, but I feel weirdly drawn nonetheless. I leave things for them at times. Also I feel that she has given me some rather harsh and kind of frightening nudges to teach me things. For my own good and such. Basically I just feel weirdly entranced and leave things for her at times. And get scared.
Then there are just. All the other gods, so many of which I don't know the names or stories of. And many we don't know the names of at all. It'd be impossible to venerate them all, and certainly not equally. I do respect them, but my relationship with them is more distant.
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Liadine
Newbie
Posts: 7
Pronouns: She/her
Religion: eclectic polytheist & fire worker
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Post by Liadine on Mar 24, 2015 2:51:17 GMT -6
I'd love to hear other people's experiences of the difference between ordinary worship and devoted/dedicated relationships. (I might be able to express things a little bit more clearly in response to other people's ideas!) For me, formal dedication definitely puts a connection/tether into place that isn't there with the deities I worship more casually. (That really isn't the right word, but it's 1:30am, so it will do for now.) The connection is sometimes one-way on my end, but it is always there at the edges of my thoughts, colouring everything. The form that connection takes does differ a lot among the deities I'm devoted to, though. My relationship with Brigid is very emphatically a familial one (beloved aunt or foster mother), likewise with Himself, but my devotion to Persephone is more grounded in service. (That isn't to say that there isn't also a deep emotional core to that, but it was far slower to develop, and it's still much more of a hierarchal 'I'm a devotee, you're a queen and goddess' relationship rather than a familial one.) |
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Caelesti
Junior Member
Posts: 50
Pronouns: She/Her
Religion: ADF/UU, Modern American Polytheist
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Post by Caelesti on Apr 9, 2015 11:15:00 GMT -6
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Post by Intaier on Apr 10, 2015 10:00:18 GMT -6
I've been thinking much how to respond to this, as it's very interesting and delicate topic.
About "Life after dedication". Did things change? Yes, in many ways, but also I'm still the same person I used to be.
I made several dedications - all to Djehuty, but each of them was about different aspects of the Work.
There were calls from my side to experience his Mysteries; there was a dedication to the great work of Hermetic Alchemy; and, dedication of devotional service I made in 2012, and finally the dedication and vows I made just recently.
The dedication of 2012 was probably very important life-turning point, because Djehuty found very clever and straightforward way to deliver his message "Pray more often".
I saved this his wish in mind, and I started praying more often, also writing devotional poetry more often, and started making devotional translations from english - poetry, hymns, rituals.
The dedication gave me new permanent vector in life, a direction to move. There's no such thing as "I have nothing to do" for me anymore, because there is always something I can do for him :) such as translating things, working on website, and doing the rituals.
I started to love making rituals on regular basis. I enjoy this a lot - so much contrast with christian prayers from my orthodox past, I never liked them, and always felt like I'm being forced to read morning/evening prayers composed of old, dusty texts that don't resonate with my soul at all.
Instead, now I love the prayer and the rituals (but I may miss church services for unity in prayer with other people. Then, more reasons for me to invite friends for rituals!)
So, the feeling of a vector, determination, the path/road I can be sure in. It's always here now.
And, my relationship with Djehuty? It's devotion, it's bhakti, it's love, it's everything :)
But I can be absolutely casual and informal with him one day, and be absolutely formal during solemn ritual. These are two forms I take. I can chat with him about everything and let him know everything that even happens in my daily life and all the mess of thoughts in my head. But also, there are moments for the Work, and I believe that regular ritual/liturgy service for him is very important.
After the vows and dedication I made recently, things started to change even more, and I enjoy exploring these changes.
I enjoy the feelings of love and devotion, the sweet waters of inundation for the soil of my heart.
There is also a feeling of separation: separation from "mundane" society in some way. The connection with some of my friends weakened, because I'm less interested in "mundane" things now. There are still things that I enjoy (such as going to opera or visiting museums or cinema for example), but in the same time, I know that I will never have family and children. If friends would want to chat with me about boyfriends or husbands or their kids, - there is always a distance between me and them.
However, voluntarily giving away my freedom about finding a partner/getting married, I freed all my extra life energy and can now focus it on religion and creativity (I write poetry and I want to come back to writing prose eventually).
Also, there's more thoughts about duty now. If before I've been making rituals "just when I felt in the right mood for it", now it's part of the job. Part of the service. I still keep reminding myself that I "signed for this for lifetime" and probably in the future there would be even more advanced things. But I received the ultimate signs of Djehuty's love, the signs that this is the path he would like me to take. This is why I chose to "follow him wherever he goes". And sometimes, despite of all problems or feelings of loneliness I may have, I feel myself as one of the happiest persons on Earth.
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