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haptalaonIt's hard not to think of the Gods in human terms where asking them for favours or powers or spells is in some way a burden on them. But is this true?
Certainly, in our lore we see reciprocity as very important. However, this may just be about politeness. There's no real evidence that Gods are not magically neutral (when they provide help, it has no impact on them at all) or even beneficial (like when your neighbour has way more harvest apples than they can eat and are delighted for you to take some).
Christianity doesn't have a concept that you can pray too much: because their god is omnipotent, he neither runs out of oomph nor is able to be compelled into anything. In a sense, all prayer is free.
Ceremonial-style paths meanwhile tend to see divinities as archetypes, taps you can switch on and off, brimming with a certain quality which can be channeled with ease. Again, there's no real sense that a god-image will run out of steam, or is able to refuse a correctly cast rite.
Despite these precedents, it's very hard for me not to bring my personal hang ups into ritual. A fear of asking for things. A sense of scarcity:if I ask the goddess for something this week, she may have nothing left next week, or, may think me greedy and rude. A (capitalist) sense that there may indeed be a divine balance sheet and I must carefully conserve my resources, as must rhe Powers I speak with. Part of this is a kinda deprived childhood; Part of this is disability, living in a world where I must genuinely conserve my energy at all times, so why would the divine not experience a similar limitation?
I'm trying to imagine a Queen of the Witches who is, in fact, delighted and *empowered* by her follower's spells. Or spirits who are what they embody: they don't create joy, say, or fear - they are joy and fear personified, and couldn't "run out" of that resource if they tried to.
My final thought here is abour capitalism again. Capitalism is an economic system, but it's also an emotional one: it defines our sense of what is possible, what is just, what is necessary and so on. Capitalism is only 100 yrs old - there has always been buying, trading and selling, but these were under economic systems with different values and ideas. Marx writes about feudalism and slavery as two examples. A Roman would have seen a pot-maker and understood you could buy either the pot or the potter -but would have been bemused by the idea of buying the potter's time in the abstract.
(Marx uses the term "commodity fetishism" to mean "we get distracted by looking at objects and buying and selling, and this hides the fact there activities are done in a complex human society. We think about pure economics, rather than the social, psychological, ethical factors & the specific social context which lead to this economic system")
And so, part of this is remembering our lore was written abour feudal societies or similar. Leaving a coin for the fairy folk looks like payment if you are used to capitalism: "I pay you for work". But under feudalism it is interpreted differently: "you have fulfilled your duty to me, and I have fulfilled mine to you". I feel like learning more about other societies, with other economic models of worth, exchange and value could be very helpful - especially to reconstructionists - wanting to re-imagine their dynamics with the divine.
Other relationships and types of transactions are possible - is our upbringing & society blinding us to other possibilities?
Certainly, in our lore we see reciprocity as very important. However, this may just be about politeness. There's no real evidence that Gods are not magically neutral (when they provide help, it has no impact on them at all) or even beneficial (like when your neighbour has way more harvest apples than they can eat and are delighted for you to take some).
Christianity doesn't have a concept that you can pray too much: because their god is omnipotent, he neither runs out of oomph nor is able to be compelled into anything. In a sense, all prayer is free.
Ceremonial-style paths meanwhile tend to see divinities as archetypes, taps you can switch on and off, brimming with a certain quality which can be channeled with ease. Again, there's no real sense that a god-image will run out of steam, or is able to refuse a correctly cast rite.
Despite these precedents, it's very hard for me not to bring my personal hang ups into ritual. A fear of asking for things. A sense of scarcity:if I ask the goddess for something this week, she may have nothing left next week, or, may think me greedy and rude. A (capitalist) sense that there may indeed be a divine balance sheet and I must carefully conserve my resources, as must rhe Powers I speak with. Part of this is a kinda deprived childhood; Part of this is disability, living in a world where I must genuinely conserve my energy at all times, so why would the divine not experience a similar limitation?
I'm trying to imagine a Queen of the Witches who is, in fact, delighted and *empowered* by her follower's spells. Or spirits who are what they embody: they don't create joy, say, or fear - they are joy and fear personified, and couldn't "run out" of that resource if they tried to.
My final thought here is abour capitalism again. Capitalism is an economic system, but it's also an emotional one: it defines our sense of what is possible, what is just, what is necessary and so on. Capitalism is only 100 yrs old - there has always been buying, trading and selling, but these were under economic systems with different values and ideas. Marx writes about feudalism and slavery as two examples. A Roman would have seen a pot-maker and understood you could buy either the pot or the potter -but would have been bemused by the idea of buying the potter's time in the abstract.
(Marx uses the term "commodity fetishism" to mean "we get distracted by looking at objects and buying and selling, and this hides the fact there activities are done in a complex human society. We think about pure economics, rather than the social, psychological, ethical factors & the specific social context which lead to this economic system")
And so, part of this is remembering our lore was written abour feudal societies or similar. Leaving a coin for the fairy folk looks like payment if you are used to capitalism: "I pay you for work". But under feudalism it is interpreted differently: "you have fulfilled your duty to me, and I have fulfilled mine to you". I feel like learning more about other societies, with other economic models of worth, exchange and value could be very helpful - especially to reconstructionists - wanting to re-imagine their dynamics with the divine.
Other relationships and types of transactions are possible - is our upbringing & society blinding us to other possibilities?
