Feb 2, 2011

Communicating With The Gods I - Meditation

Only the Gods--and you--can speak to your individual relationship with Them. I can, however, speak on a personal level to some "procedures" that have proven effective for me in interacting with Them. Your experiences may vary widely, of course; I could very well be operating in an entirely separate "jurisdiction" than yours, with very different "controlling precedents."

Every day is a new experience, with new growth. Our Gods are very real and are the very best of teachers.

Meditation

Imagination and visualization have always been important to me. Sights and internal thoughts of beauty are a true connection to the divine. And so, mental imagery--a sort of traveling in the mind, if you will--is vital to my faith. If this is not so familiar, Diana Paxson's article at http://www.hrafnar.org/norse/worship.html may prove insightful (especially the "Worshipping The Gods Today" section).

I've found that emotional tones are of great importance: if you are getting a "cut-off," sinking, or churning and unhappy undertone, this is very, very likely not the Gods. Midgard is, well, in the middle. It's reasonable to suppose that we get interference sometimes in this realm, especially when we are starting out and learning our way, and learning what Voices to listen for. My experience has been one of encountering elements of humor, great power, and pervasive joy: of awesomeness, in the more uplifted and reverent connotation of that word. Each God and Goddess is unique, of course, and there are Ones I've felt a real connection to, and others who--so far--I seem to only have exchanged nods with in passing, if that. I hardly need add that Odin is Odin and has a particularly unique... Presence.

For meditation, I find it helpful to initially approach the Gods in terms of lifting one's mind and heart up. Here, though, things can start diverging greatly. One God may often prefer silence within and without--a steadier, measured approach--while another may be more easily reached with music playing. It does help to give the mind a bit of pause, I believe. The human consciousness keeps up its own pervasive chatter when given the chance. The mental "stilling" and "lifting up" aspect can be very useful here.

I find that I get some sort of emotional presence of the God, even if distantly, within the meditation itself. As Diana Paxton writes above, however, this can certainly start carrying over outside of meditation and can become very intense.

Though I believe that the positive emotional component is extremely important in navigating meditation, this is not to say that a worshiper will not, on occasion, manage to annoy a God. A great way to do so is to be close to One who cherishes you and to fail to take care of yourself in a real way. But the key point is you can ask for an explanation for what's wrong and get it. You can also ask for help: the results can be swift and surprising. Core honesty and whatever respect you can muster at the time seem to go a long, long way.