Pagan friends: a question about your deities?

Question

I realise there are many Pagan religions, would you be kind enough to state which Pagan path you follow when you answer this? Thank you :)

Question:

Would you say that your deities are less 'demanding' than the Abrahamic G-d? It just occurred to me today that I don't know if your gods ask or insist that you do certain things or follow any specific rules? Are your gods 'jealous' gods...? :)

Answer 1

Our gods are not jealous gods. They exist, and I believe they welcome our worship and love, but if we denied them - I doubt they would care. I am Wiccan. I believe the Wiccan deity is in part immanent, and therefor, at least in part, not at all human or of human qualities. Therefor, projecting jealousy and a demanding nature -- human qualities -- upon them would be... incorrect, at best. I worship my Deity because they are fit to be worshipped - not because they demand it, or punish me for not worshipping them. If anything, I am rewarded by them, by a feeling of personal connection and communication with beings I consider to be divine.

Answer 2

I'm an eclectic Wiccan, and my gods are not jealous gods.  Then again, neither is the God of my Christian relatives. ;)  Generally speaking, they neither go out of their way to help me or hurt me.  When I seek something of them, there is always an expectation in return.

Answer 3

Asatruar / Norse heathen.  Are my deities demanding?  Not generally, no.  There is nothing they DEMAND of me, only (in my opinion) to show them honor through my deeds.  By being an honorable person myself, they as my Elder Kin, are in turned honored.  We see our Gods as extended family.  Do not do anything to bring dishonor to the family.

No specific rules, although there are some traditional taboo.... Don't name anything or anyone directly after a God.  So no naming your son Thor or daughter Freya.  Although Thorbjorn and Freyadis are quite common.  You're naming them after, but not directly.  Don't name your son or daughter after someone who is still alive, as it is believed that parts of the soul are transfered/reincarnated when you name a child after someone.  (The naming ceremony is the time when the child is given a collective soul, by being given a name).  And also, by definition, to be Asatru (True to the Aesir) it does rule out praying or honoring any other gods.  To be true, to have fidelity in the gods, rules out praying to any other.

Answer 4

The first time I was ever "Bathed in Gods Good Grace," I  first had to experience "The Fear of God " being thrown into me, and, believe me, That was about four Hours of Abject Terror, and it only stopped after I let go and surrendered totally to the Overwhelming Power that, well, had overwhelmed me.

As soon as I surrendered, I was filled with the Grace and Love of God,

and that was my Epiphany.

The Form God took,to show me Fear, was Pan, and when Grace was shown to me, I knew that Pan was just another Face of a Loving God,

Trying  to get me to Know Him Better.

Hope this helped with your curiosity.

Shalom.

PS, The moment of Epiphany, felt like, suddenly getting the punchline of the Greatest joke ever.

The joke was what I had previously seen life as, and the punchline was, that it was all going as planned, and my faith was suddenly like Armour.

Answer 5

I follow the Egyptian (Memphite) beliefs called Maa Kheru (truth speaking) in the Temple of the Spirit of Ptah (HetKaPtah).

Much less demanding than YHWH.

The only rules are that I do what is right and just. They ask me to go through trials that seem to correlate with certain mythos. I recently undertook the trials of Osiris and allowed myself to be sacrificed for the good of the community and temple. The process was amazing, as I seemed to watch the ordeal from a perspective other than my own. These ordeals are for revealing secrets and enlightenment, though, not punishment.

Well, Set is jealous of Osiris.. but not of who venerates him or not. The Egyptian gods would get upset and act up (Tefnut once got upset that no one took care of her altar, left Egypt and had to be cajoled by Tchehuti to return) but they handle all that among themselves.

Answer 6

Some are just as or more demanding... But we get to choose the level of personal restraint (dogma) we follow. If we choose to follow the path of the Orphic Mysteries, there are very stringent tenets we follow. However, some gods are more laid back, by far. We accept all paths as paths (when followed honestly) toward ultimate union with___ . (God, Goddess, the Prime Fount, Nirvana, etc)

Answer 7

I can't really compare the gods I honor to the Abrahamic G-d because I've never met or honored him. I have heard about him from others and I've read some so based on that I'll say mine are just very different.

I completely agree with others that my gods do not really care that much if we honor them and yet that is not completely true. Most Pagans will say that we were "called" meaning that we were picked by our gods, we didn't necessarily pick them. That makes me feel like if my gods didn't want to be honored by me they wouldn't have bothered with me in the first place. I do think my gods would be irritated (for lack of a better word) if I just up and stopped paying attention to them. If fact, I once did stop when I went through a rough time and sort of lost my faith and they were patient while I went through that but there was some making up to do when I returned. It wasn't "hugs and kisses we're so glad you're back." There was no punishment though for my leave of absence and people are not punished for not believing in my gods or not honoring them to begin with.

Yes, my gods ask for things. They do not demand things, but they want to be honored in certain ways and there are times when they may require something specific. My gods are not jealous in the classic sense - they do not require that we worship them and only them. However, some gods do have a little bit of a jealous nature. There is one goddess that I honor that has a tendency to get jealous.

So yes, gods can be jealous, they can ask for things or make rules but it is usually fairly individualized. What one god asks of me is likely to be different from what he asks of another.  

Answer 8

hi paperback;-)

well im 'eclectic pagan' apparantly

non religious

i have no 'deitys'

i believe in nature and fate as conscious beings (you may be aware of that as i have a tendency to repeat myself haha)

and yes, they are less demanding, as they dont ask anything of me, they only wish to communicate

i think all they woudl want is that i dont ignore their existence or their communicating with me

i think they are similar to us really that they just want to be known and heard

no jealousy,that i know of, ive never felt that

Answer 9

*Pokes Nyssa*

I am agreeing with Nyssa, simply because she has covered what I would say.

I have the need to poke people today. xD

Answer 10

Eh. My primary deity is a little pushy, but I'm a hard case.

It ends up with me needing to follow more rules than your average bear.

Answer 11

I'm a Celtic Polytheist/Fam. Trad witch

Would you say that your deities are less 'demanding' than the Abrahamic G-d? It just occurred to me today that I don't know if your gods ask or insist that you do certain things or follow any specific rules? Are your gods 'jealous' gods...? :)

I'd say mine can be more strict. It depends on what way you mean. There are required days of fasting, and days of purification, as well as days of isolation. They are certain rules for the way clothes are washed, how food is prepared, etc.

There are also moral codes. I don't want to call them higher, just different. we too have our lists of things that are considered wrong or abominations, they're just different lists, really.

There are rules about charity, about war, about raising children, about the handling of money, about marriage, etc. There's no eternal punishment for lack of repentance, but there is finite punishment for finite actions.

Are they jealous--eh. They allow me to honour other gods, but my full devotion and loyalty must always be to the gods that called me.

I'm not sure if I made any sense, but I tried.

Answer 12

Norse Heathen here:

Well, our gods and goddesses will get pi$$ed off, but that is when you DO something to pi$$ them off.  They don't expect worship from people who don't want to worship them.  They don't demand it with a threat of punishment if you don't.  If you anger them, they will definitely mess up your day.. but they don't FORCE you to accept them as "the only god" such as the god of Abraham does.

The ones who make me giggle are the ones who claim that they can mix and mingle "other gods" in with the god who COMMANDED them that "I am the Lord your god.  You will have NO gods before ME!"  That seems rather "cut and dry".   If you don't accept his "commandments", you can't very well say that you worship him now can you.

Answer 13

Norse Heathen pagan

Yes and no. That's a case by case on that really.

No they aren't. They could care less. They exist whether we believe or not.

Answer 14

Oh, more demanding, and I'm an archetypalist, so I don't even believe my deities exist literally!

Less rules, but much more work.  And I have yet to meet one that's jealous, but I'm sure they do exist.  Basically, we don't have a nice book to tell us what our gods want.  Or how to think of them or address them.  We have to deal with them on our own, one-on-one, often with no community support or liturgy.  And often, we weren't even aware we were searching for them, then there they are.  

It's kind of a flying in the dark sort of thing, when you first start experiencing the divine.  Most (but certainly not all) pagans feel the echoes of divinity in themselves, so it's a little hard to live up to seeing yourself reflected in that light.

Answer 15

As someone who has followed both a Abrahamic path and a Pagan path, I would suggest that the deities of Paganism are less personal than YHVH. They are more like crystallization's of philosophical concepts rather than an omnipotent force.

Answer 16

Thunor

Anglo Saxon Pagan

with a soft spot for the Church of England

He just demands I drink a lot and die in battle

Answer 17

I'm a traditional hedgewitch. :)

My lady is The Morrigan. She's not to be messed with. ;)