Calling or being called?

[SlaineWildfire]

Well, back about... six years ago, maybe closer to seven now, I was doing research about Bast. I had been into paganism for three years at that point, though I was having trouble finding my home and finding my place. I was reading a wonderful website (per-bast.org) written by someone I've actually gotten to speak to now and all of a sudden everything went dark. It was like I went inside myself and was in a deep void of space all at once. Then, I felt a warm hand on my shoulder and a soft, purring voice said in my ear "I need you." I came back to myself shortly thereafter and everything was different. Colors were brighter, food tasted better, cats liked me more... *chuckles* So I worshiped Bast for about three years when She came to me again and said that we needed to take a break. Basically, She said that when the time was right for me to worship Her again, I would know it. I was heartbroken, truly. It felt like my Mother was leaving me out in the cold. For a year I felt alone, despondent, and didn't know what to do. I read as much as I could about the different Netjeru of Kemet, and found only minor comfort in Set and Aset. That's when I wandered back to the Kemetic Orthdox website and found out about the class, and then that I was accepted into the beginner's class that they run. As I went through the beginner's class, I learned that the first lesson of Kemet is to accept the Netjeru en mass, and to understand that though they are separate in a sense, they are all one. They all originate from the One, the self-created entity who began everything. I went through the class and at the end of it, I felt a familiar purring within me and I knew that Bast was back to stay. I underwent my rite of parent divination about two months later (it might have been longer, I'm bad with dates) and discovered that Bast is my one and only Mother, while Wepwawet-Yinepu, Amun, and Set are my beloveds.  

[Damion5160]

TeaDidikai

Damion5160

I am an ordained pagan minister, a Runmal, and a chosen of Thonar... I am Asatruar... and believe me, they called... loud and long while I was finding myself...

Ordained through whom?

sadly, for Utah to acknowledge it, I had it done through the ULC  

[CuAnnan]

Called.
Repeatedly.

Took the phone off the hook, put it on silent, threw it away, none of that seemed to work. People kept appearing who needed the right kinda person.

I'd like to say I was ordained a priest but, in reality, I merely presumed the role and told Them if I was right in my presumption to throw people at me and let me do their work. At present, I haven't met the person to ordain me but I'll know him when I do.  

[Nashoba Kaga]

When I was little I used to always tell my mom that there was a lady from the moon with moons on her forehead and she was nice to me. I used to draw the symbols on paper, which looking back at it, was completely identical to the goddess symbol.

When I got put into the mental hospital at nineteen, I started having visions of an old woman half alive, and half dead, sitting on her throne in a very cold place. People were just walking past and she just sat there melancholy but expressonless at the same time. She told me that her name was Hel and that duality was my fate. She then pointed out that in my life, a lot of things were twos (I'm Bisexual, I have Bipolar, I'm a gemini, etc).

I must say when I finally got out of the hospital, I needed more help then when I went in, lol.  

[bondage bunnie]

I died, and this cute girl told me to follow her. So with no pulse and a very stunned EMT and crowd of people i did. After the weekend of partying and sobering up I did the research to find out who she was then a year later I was a pagan.

By the way it is Hel, and iv seen her many many times since, but i do bidding for the whole family under Agrabolda and Loki.  

[With Motion]

Sakura Kaite Pendragon

Hopefully I someday find out my own god or goddess. All I need is patience right?

Well, that's what I'm hoping. xp  

[Sakura Kaite Pendragon]

With Motion

Sakura Kaite Pendragon

Hopefully I someday find out my own god or goddess. All I need is patience right?

Well, that's what I'm hoping. xp

Does everything I do everyday determine who's my god or goddess?  

[Ashley the Bee]

Sakura Kaite Pendragon

With Motion

Sakura Kaite Pendragon

Hopefully I someday find out my own god or goddess. All I need is patience right?

Well, that's what I'm hoping. xp

Does everything I do everyday determine who's my god or goddess?

Well, I would imagine that the way you would lead your life would factor in to which gods or goddesses would call to you? That's just my feeling on the matter, however. ^^;  

[maenad nuri]

Sakura Kaite Pendragon

With Motion

Sakura Kaite Pendragon

Hopefully I someday find out my own god or goddess. All I need is patience right?

Well, that's what I'm hoping. xp

Does everything I do everyday determine who's my god or goddess?

In some ways, yes. I'll leave the troubling language of "my god or goddess" aside for a different discussion.

But yeah. For example, my marriage is something incredibly important to me. In as such, I am building a relationship with Hera, who traditionally rules over marriage and relationships. It was not a connection I had before, but it is one that I work for now.  

[TeaDidikai]

Nuri

I'll leave the troubling language of "my god or goddess" aside for a different discussion.

No fair teasing! Are you going to start a new thread?

On Hera, would you consider that her calling you to a relationship within a marriage and your understanding of what marriage is to mean, or would you consider your relationship with her purely a function of you calling her?  

[maenad nuri]

TeaDidikai

Nuri

I'll leave the troubling language of "my god or goddess" aside for a different discussion.

No fair teasing! Are you going to start a new thread?

On Hera, would you consider that her calling you to a relationship within a marriage and your understanding of what marriage is to mean, or would you consider your relationship with her purely a function of you calling her?

I'm sorry, can you reword that?  

[Funa Spectrum]

I'm trying to figure out whether I have anything resembling a calling - I had an utterly random appearance from a horned man with wolves at his side during meditation a few months ago, and later in a dream when I asked for more contact. I assumed it was Cernunnos, being the horned gods I knew who fitted the description as far as I knew at the time, and the internet was... supportive in some places, whilst utterly confusing me on the nature and existence of generic horned gods.

But so far, it was just a random appearance. I'd like to poke more, though, see if I can properly figure out who or what it was.  

[Haloquine]

For many years I've worked with deity as kind of Life/Spirit-force-behind-everything. I worked for time with individual deities, dependent on what felt right at the time, but never really connected with any properly. Save one. That I invented. 10 years later I find out she's a real deity. This was actually quite scary as she's from a pantheon I had studiously avoided (not sure why) and, well, I thought I'd made her up.

Since realising I've been researching Team Norse. And Hella herself has been more prominent, in a very gentle way.

Paralell to this I ended up working within a tradition that I love, it works very well in tandem with other paths so it doesn't clash with Team Norse. Within that Trad. one particular deity suits me very well and we have quite a good relationship. She keeps me joyful. She's not a boss though, more like a lover, and there was no calling, the relationship just grew.

I must admit to being puzzled by this attitude though;

With Motion

Sakura Kaite Pendragon

Hopefully I someday find out my own god or goddess. All I need is patience right?

Well, that's what I'm hoping. xp

What follows is of course my own personal opinion, based on my own experiences. Your milage may differ.

First off, generally, you don't have a deity if you end up that close to one. Normally, They either have you, or its a working relationship. You can have someone that you talk to often, or have a patron etc. but you don't 'have' a deity. If you're called, generally you belong to them, or you work for them, not the other way around (They look after you, they don't work for you).

I've never liked this idea, but it seems to be true.

Secondly, you don't need to be attached to a particular deity, you can develop relationships with them quite happily without belonging to them or being called by them. If you want to concentrate on developing a relationship with a specific deity by all means go for it... you don't need to wait for that.

Thirdly, being called isn't necessarily a good thing. I've been mostly ok so far (mostly having to learn new skills, which I enjoy), but many people I know who've been called/chosen/what-have-you have found it comes with responsibilities, often quite difficult ones. Remember the stories of Taboos? A deity chooses you and your choices are limited in certain ways. The more you belong to them it seems the more limited your choices are. Many people eventually feel it is worth it for the depth of relationship. Some don't and continue to fight it and be unhappy. I'm talking about extreme cases of course. For example, R. Kaldera documents not being allowed to accept money, this makes earning a living in this world quite difficult. One of my friends regularly gets grabbed from her body to do specific jobs or talk to specific people. This can make day-to-day living awkward, she eventually worked out a contract for this (if she can't right-now, she'll do it asap), which helped.


So yeah. Why do you feel that you must have a specific deity? Why do you feel you have to wait to be called before you develop a relationship with a deity you choose? Do you feel this or am I reading too much into a random comment? Is it just that you haven't researched/found one deity you want to work with yet? I'm not trying to criticise, just wondering why you seem to feel this way?


On a more general note, does anyone have any opinions on the benefits/downsides of being called? What about the upsides of not being commited to one deity? Or the benefits/downsides of choosing a deity and working on developing a relationship with them from scratch?

 

[TeaDidikai]

Nuri

TeaDidikai

Nuri

I'll leave the troubling language of "my god or goddess" aside for a different discussion.

No fair teasing! Are you going to start a new thread?

On Hera, would you consider that her calling you to a relationship within a marriage and your understanding of what marriage is to mean, or would you consider your relationship with her purely a function of you calling her?

I'm sorry, can you reword that?

I'm hoping that at some point you'll actually address the "my god or goddess" concept.

I was also wondering where the cause and effect fell within the relationship you had with Hera and your Marriage.