Make contact with a god/dess

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Make contact with a god/dess

Postby Kima » 21 May 2011, 12:20

I was wondering if those of you who have an interest in contacting Celtic (or other) gods or goddesses have any experience to share or advice to give on how they go about establishing a relationship with a deity. I have found Emma Restall-Orr's explanations to be useful, but as they leave a lot to personal taste and inspiration that it would be helpful to do what individual druids do. Here is a quote from "What is Druidry":

A Druid will strive to enchant a deity with whom she’d like to work. Giving offerings of reverence to nature and to the ancestors as a whole, she will endeavour to remain open, waiting for a god or goddess to come to her. After that first connection has been made, the process is then about building a strong relationship with that deity, learning through respect to understand the divine power and learning through devotion how it is that she can give to that god of herself. [...] Our relationships with the gods are built on this need for perfect exchange. We offer of ourselves, both through sacrifice and through joy, giving back to the gods the creativity born of our inspiration. As our offerings are accepted, so we succeed in holding the attention of the deity, thereby nourishing the relationship.
http://www.whatisdruidry.org/eight.html

My encounter with the particular goddess I am interested in happened not out in the woods but in a museum. Whether this qualifies as Revelation is up for debate, but museums might well be some the holy temples of modern druidry! Anyway, very little is known about this local goddess whose name is only cited twice and whose attributes were lost (wait, this sounds odd :oops: ). I have invoked her during ceremonies and am thinking about gifts to offer. I'm interested to know what others have done.
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Re: Make contact with a god/dess

Postby Hennie » 21 May 2011, 13:12

My offer to the Enigma is that I recognise the Enigma; and I offer my being to this in my opening of a ceremony by invoking : 'Oh, Enigma' or 'Oh, Riddle'.
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Re: Make contact with a god/dess

Postby Heddwen » 21 May 2011, 15:35

Decorated my temple room in honour of Her..
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Re: Make contact with a god/dess

Postby Bart » 21 May 2011, 16:28

You got me interested in the name of your Deity. Do you feel like sharing?
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Re: Make contact with a god/dess

Postby kermailune » 22 May 2011, 07:14

Museums are very interesting at this level. For informations... and much more.

I have had encounters in unusual places, museum included....

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Re: Make contact with a god/dess

Postby Heddwen » 22 May 2011, 17:33

Bart wrote:You got me interested in the name of your Deity. Do you feel like sharing?



Quan Yin
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Re: Make contact with a god/dess

Postby Serpentia » 23 May 2011, 09:54

Very interesting, Kima. I had a similar experience and if mine counts - and it does for me - so does yours. I don't think the Gods and Goddesses really care where they meet us, in a physical sense. It's about being open to their presence that matters.

Ah yes, forgot to mention.. I encountered my personal deity during sex-induced trance. It was actually hard to trace her name because she's also quite unknown except among scholars of ancient pre-sumerian history.

If "God/Goddess" experience is as unique and individual as each one of us, than each experience counts.

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Re: Make contact with a god/dess

Postby Bart » 23 May 2011, 20:10

Heddwen wrote:
Bart wrote:You got me interested in the name of your Deity. Do you feel like sharing?



Quan Yin


Thank you
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Re: Make contact with a god/dess

Postby Kima » 24 May 2011, 13:16

Bart wrote:You got me interested in the name of your Deity. Do you feel like sharing?


Mine is Naria.
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Re: Make contact with a god/dess

Postby Bart » 26 May 2011, 20:52

There is not much known about her. Found some info but that lacked substance. How do you experience her?
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Re: Make contact with a god/dess

Postby DaRC » 27 May 2011, 11:45

A Druid will strive to enchant a deity with whom she’d like to work.

Hmm interesting...
my experience has been that the most important relationships have been where they've contacted me rather than vice versa. These have been the most surprising and revealing Awen moments with perhaps the greatest impact on my life.

Obviously I've been open to their contact at the time as part of ritual or seeking Awen.

Whilst I don't necessarily agree with all of Alexei's thinking this particular essay from him I found very enlightening:
http://imbas.org/articles/basic_celtic_deity_types.html
Most dear is fire to the sons of men,
most sweet the sight of the sun;
good is health if one can but keep it,
and to live a life without shame. (Havamal 68)
http://gewessiman.blogspot.co.uk
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Re: Make contact with a god/dess

Postby Kima » 27 May 2011, 21:10

Bart wrote:There is not much known about her. Found some info but that lacked substance. How do you experience her?


Wow, this is a difficult question! I'm not sure how to put it down in words. I felt something special when I saw the altar dedicated to her at the museum. I later wrote a poem for her which I read aloud during a solo ceremony and it felt quite powerful. Since then it's felt less tangible when I've addressed her but I would like to persevere. There is virtually nothing about her, which makes the exercize both frustrating and exciting!

The only known common ground is the place where I live, because that is where references to the goddess have been found. So I start there, drawing inspiration from the landscape I am familiar with.
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Re: Make contact with a god/dess

Postby Bart » 31 May 2011, 15:28

Thanks,

Just last week I was contemplating this question and Hecate shot through my mind. Clear enough to start thinking on her. Before I had not much connection.
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Re: Make contact with a god/dess

Postby Twig » 01 Jun 2011, 07:17

I was "contacted" by the spirit of a deity sacred to Catholics -- and I have set foot in a
Catholic church a only very few times in my life. This occurred while I was lying face down on the floor in a serious depression. What I saw/felt was a deity specific to the Southwest, where I was living at the time. I actually had to find out who she was.

But, like Hennie, my perception of the "Big Kahuna" is as a sacred mystery. I really have no words for it, although I label it by greeting it as "Thou, O Most Sacred." For me, the mythological deities are sort of messengers from this great unknown. Still, I honor the deity (who is still with me) in small ways, and that makes me feel closer to her. She has come to me only once since that day on the floor almost 20 years ago, although I do address her every day.
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Re: Make contact with a god/dess

Postby RunaLouise » 01 Jun 2011, 08:51

I've been drawn to four particular Deities over the years, Herne & Bridget, Apollo & Hestia. They all play a big part of my life, coming in and making themselves known at different stages of my life.
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Re: Make contact with a god/dess

Postby runningwave » 01 Jun 2011, 23:05

I was fortunate to have a dream in which I was contacted by the Goddess Brighid. I first saw in the dream my friend who in real life was a metalsmith making a bejeweled sword. This was a fantastical sword beyond my friend's capability to produce. He looked up at me when he finished his work and told me that Brighid wanted me to have it. There was more to the dream; it was so vivid I wrote it all down.

Now, years later, I am glad that I wrote what I could remember. I didn't know very much about Brighid at the time, but the dream led me to do research. I learned that Brighid is patron to bards and that the forge is one of her places.I accepted my pagan beliefs, and ultimately found my way to a path of druidry.

Lesson for me in this: listen to your dreams.
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Re: Make contact with a god/dess

Postby Greenleaf » 02 Jan 2012, 01:57

I'm having a bit of trouble trying to connect with any diety. I've not been brought up to worship any kind of god(ess) so I tend to find it hard to believe their is some being that can control everything. I do believe in the power of nature since it's something you can see at work every day and I do believe we are all connected by some kind of cosmic energy(chi, karma, feng shui, gravity, ... call it what you want). The concept of a god I find hard to grasp :???:

Any advice on this?
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Re: Make contact with a god/dess

Postby Kris Hughes » 02 Jan 2012, 17:08

runningwave wrote:I was fortunate to have a dream in which I was contacted by the Goddess Brighid. I first saw in the dream my friend who in real life was a metalsmith making a bejeweled sword. This was a fantastical sword beyond my friend's capability to produce. He looked up at me when he finished his work and told me that Brighid wanted me to have it. There was more to the dream; it was so vivid I wrote it all down.

Now, years later, I am glad that I wrote what I could remember. I didn't know very much about Brighid at the time, but the dream led me to do research. I learned that Brighid is patron to bards and that the forge is one of her places.I accepted my pagan beliefs, and ultimately found my way to a path of druidry.

Lesson for me in this: listen to your dreams.


I have an acquaintance whom I respect who does divination and dream interpretation. He says that deities do not speak to us through prayer but through dreams and divination. Of course, he would say that :) and I think it is a bit too cut and dried, however, there may be a grain of truth, nevertheless. I do sometimes hear him telling people (me included) that the dream they have described is a deity trying to communicate with them - and he's not saying this to people who necessarily want to hear it, or expect to. He says that this is particularly the case with recurring dreams. I'm still mulling this over...
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Re: Make contact with a god/dess

Postby DaRC » 03 Jan 2012, 13:21

Greenleaf wrote:I'm having a bit of trouble trying to connect with any diety. I've not been brought up to worship any kind of god(ess) so I tend to find it hard to believe their is some being that can control everything. I do believe in the power of nature since it's something you can see at work every day and I do believe we are all connected by some kind of cosmic energy(chi, karma, feng shui, gravity, ... call it what you want). The concept of a god I find hard to grasp :???:

Any advice on this?

I suppose the primary question is this - do you actually want to contact a god(ess)?

There are many atheistic Druids who find the need for deity anathema.
If you do then you need to identify the deity.

This quote "hard to believe there is some being that can control everything" suggests a monotheistic world-view based upon the Abrahamic (Judaic/Christian/Islam) religions
Whilst pagan deities tend not to be omnipotent.

Finally I've always found that with deity it's a case of "don't call us, we'll call you...". :whistle:
Most dear is fire to the sons of men,
most sweet the sight of the sun;
good is health if one can but keep it,
and to live a life without shame. (Havamal 68)
http://gewessiman.blogspot.co.uk
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Re: Make contact with a god/dess

Postby Greenleaf » 03 Jan 2012, 14:29

DaRC wrote:I suppose the primary question is this - do you actually want to contact a god(ess)?

Well I've been studying paganism since I was 17 and then wicca, I find I often got stuck on chapters that start talking about gods and how to contact them. I think part of the hurdle may be myself, I attended a catholic school when I was young and was told that if I didn't believe in God I was a bad person. It made me associate negative feelings towards god(s), later I changed to a regular school. At home we were not religious and my mother didn't really explain about God, she assumed we would figure it out for ourselves. She decided that when we were old enough we would chose our own religion or not.

So far I see the gods as the way people used to explain things before science did, the stories contain morals for people to look up to.
I feel more connected to nature than to a deity. Sometimes I just feel confused about what to believe in.

DaRC wrote:Finally I've always found that with deity it's a case of "don't call us, we'll call you...". :whistle:


Maybe I should try this :)
ImageTo see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour
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