This is a long ramble-- for those who want to skip the ramble and instead share their own-- feel free to just share your own experience with the mother goddess, great mother, motherly ancestor spirits etc. On to my ramble:
__________________
My path connected me with great mother before I learned anything about paganism or even was interested. It started with doing meditations to connect with ancestral memories at the cellular level to create the experience of health as experienced by good times my ancestors have experienced and the cellular behavior, instincts, and wisdoms associated with such. At first I thought great mother was simply an aspect of myself I had connected with- and I still think that is an aspect of what I have connected with-- but along my journey I started to have experiences with a force that felt and behaved as something from beyond myself.
I even had this experience where I have called on lady thor (yes from fiction) as a real force though not really as lady thor-- I feel I have connected with a deity/ancestor who shares my passion for protecting women from men (and sometimes other womens) abuse and cruelty and exploitation. She has said her name is of course not lady thor, but the people do not remember her. I also call on Korra as a force-friend, even if it's just pulling up an aspect of myself I relate to (and if it arises in my I believe it can arise elsewhere in the world or my ancestors or the universe).
Dark times came over the germanic people and what we have left is any idea of "the heathens" as being warlike, as celebrating war, as worshipping at the feet of god's that delight in human sacrafice, early death, and who are detached and uncaring about humanity. This is what our ancestors faced so of course they pressumed this is what all the germanic deities and spirits wanted- but I think what we have left of germanic religions does NOT reflect the whole of the thousands of years of humans lives in the germanic and norse lands.
Great mother is in my heart, and I know her love is deeper than something that just appeared-- I know that love was not invented by Christians and I have had heathens tell me that my beliefs on love are a christian pathology which I think is wrong even by the standards of my own people and ancestors. I KNOW I have had ancestors who believed in compassion as best they could practice it in difficult times. I know they are with me helping me serve compassion now.
I chose to STOP serving the Christian god because of all the censored said about how "he" (first off is a patriarchal censored who won't let women lead) creates suffering to make lessons and all the other bullshit in christianity I am grossed out by. If there is a god of compassion, I am serving. If the Christian god is serving that, we are of shared purpose and I welcome help from above and to be of service with whatever I can offer.
But the same as I won't serve a Christian god who is an censored, neither will I serve a heathen pantheon headed by a rapist, death celebrating censored who doesn't care about humanity at all (why did he create us then? Or did he? Is just some censored that invaded and took over the pantheon from Tyr who was actually ruling with justice? Was Odin a human that claimed to be a God as mentioned by some early writers?) I don't even see why Odin would care about being the leader of the gods so far as the humans are concerned, I mean, if he exists in another realm and has nothing to do with us, then why bother to have any awareness of his existence at all? He's just some distant being that has nothing to do with us. I know, at least I feel, there have been good spirits who HAVE cared about the human realms, who have tried to help.
I wonder if Frigg even is a representation of great mother-- why has she stood by this censored who would mistreat her children so? If we're going to say the stories are all untrue then why use them at all? Why make claims we have ANY knowledge of the gods if we're going to say the stories are all made up? Why take the existence of the gods as literal fact if we are going to then just say all the stories are made up and useless- and why then say certain things from the stories are FACTS about the natures of the gods and certain things are totally wrong?
I don't believe all my ancestors from the germanic lands, or even that all the tribes from the germanic lands were exploitative thieving censored who would sooner steal, rape, plunder than accept help and mutual aid-- who would rather abandon those in need than work very hard to care for those in need....
I don't believe the people of the present can speak with such certainty for ALL of our ancestors or the gods associated with them, that they can claim my understanding is false and theirs is right.
I still wonder if the surviving texts about jainism reflect a phase and connection with peaceful diving beings that happened in multiple times and places of earth realm (egypt had a period where mummies were found to be vegetarian) that there have been beings that want peace for earth realm that have tried to create peaceful spaces in northern europe and elsewhere in the world as well. I think that's the direction we should go rather than celebrating brutality as "natural" and therefore good. Saying things are the way they are therefore means that is "Good" is justifying all manner of horrors that should not be.
We should BE the force that stands against suffering, not the force that causes and enjoys seeing it happen to others. We have so much potential as a species to be this force, to connect to our inner resources, to connect with new (and old) powers in ourselves and our world and our universe to serve the welfare of beings-- I find it depressing when spiritual teachings are inspiring us to do the opposite and celebrate injuring our fellow beings claiming "they secretly want it" even if they are fighting (why does that sound so familiar, or yeah it's been applied WRONGLY to women by men for centuries).
Forgiving and understanding the state we are in is one thing but celebrating and reinforcing it is another.
If the christian god is an censored I am not serving him, and I don't see why I would dare to stand up to such a being that rules through, fear, intimidation, threats of torture or early death-- only to submit to some other tyrant who rules through fear and who his followers themselves tolerate more out of fear and serve more to appease him than because he's worthy of the gig, at least according to some. That's not an "all father" that's an abusive tyrant who should probably move to the side and let someone better do the job. If he wants to fight off bad censored, that's cool but what are you fighting for if with one hand you defend the humans from bad things and with the other you're a fucking monster to them? At that point the humans need protection from you, who will take that gig since you're failing at being a protector? And listening to what heathens have told me about him has only reinforced I have the same problems with this particular violence and cruelty loving censored as I do with the Christian creator god who created all this censored suffering and doesn't seem to bother to do piss all to fix it, aside from permitting "his son" to be tortured- all for nothing because the "messiah" was supposed to bring about the messianic age and we are NOT in the messianic age are we?
Supposedly, from some claims, Frigg can bring PEACE- can and SHOULD stop Odin from pulling horrible censored like say allowing humans to put themselves at risk of suffering and death by offering to serve Odin without informed consent or Odin say, possessing human beings as sexual servants...
I was thinking about that while watching Steven Universe and so aptly Garnet says to some guy who has a crush on her something like "You can't love me, you don't even know who are what I am, love takes work and knowing the other person"
Informed consent between humans and deities that are not explaining and what they are clearly to humans in a way that humans can understand, should not be taking advantage of them sexually- and if humans are ready or able to understand who are what the gods are- then again informed consent can not be given. If some people want to worship God's who do this, then whatever but I will be standing up against that censored especially if it's supposedly being done by MY spiritual family... the spirits of my people and my ancestors. censored THAT.
If some unknowing young person devotes themselves to Odin without knowing what that means, than that does not count as informed consent. Not to mention consent to suffering before one even knows what the suffering is... that in and of itself is sketchy.
I guess if the heathen deities are supposed to be so distant as many heathens claim, I don't understand why humans would even count them as part of their religion. I mean surely universe deities are busy doing universe stuff, but it would seem to me if there are deities there would have been regional deities or spirits who be available to beings at the levels of existence they exist. Meaning there would be deities/spirits of the human realms.
If there are many realms I have to believe there are some good places, places of peace. And places where there are beings who want very much to help beings in need, including earth realm, not to be distant and uncaring.
I think Odin as a force that belongs in a leadership position needs some cleaning up- whether it's a real him that needs to evolve and grow or heal or whatever-- or whether it's the human perception of what they want to celebrate (and I think we project our shit on our ideas of deities so this is very relevant) and I am finding it hard to connect with or serve Frigg without getting upset with her over the state of Odin as a leader. Outside of war times, we do not lead a warlike death celebrating leader. When possible peace should reign-- if there is any reason to fight it IS to serve this purpose-- if you aren't fighting to bring about a world that doesn't need fighting (or needs it as little as possible) you're just serving injustice and suffering. You ARE the force that needs fighting against.
__________________
My path connected me with great mother before I learned anything about paganism or even was interested. It started with doing meditations to connect with ancestral memories at the cellular level to create the experience of health as experienced by good times my ancestors have experienced and the cellular behavior, instincts, and wisdoms associated with such. At first I thought great mother was simply an aspect of myself I had connected with- and I still think that is an aspect of what I have connected with-- but along my journey I started to have experiences with a force that felt and behaved as something from beyond myself.
I even had this experience where I have called on lady thor (yes from fiction) as a real force though not really as lady thor-- I feel I have connected with a deity/ancestor who shares my passion for protecting women from men (and sometimes other womens) abuse and cruelty and exploitation. She has said her name is of course not lady thor, but the people do not remember her. I also call on Korra as a force-friend, even if it's just pulling up an aspect of myself I relate to (and if it arises in my I believe it can arise elsewhere in the world or my ancestors or the universe).
Dark times came over the germanic people and what we have left is any idea of "the heathens" as being warlike, as celebrating war, as worshipping at the feet of god's that delight in human sacrafice, early death, and who are detached and uncaring about humanity. This is what our ancestors faced so of course they pressumed this is what all the germanic deities and spirits wanted- but I think what we have left of germanic religions does NOT reflect the whole of the thousands of years of humans lives in the germanic and norse lands.
Great mother is in my heart, and I know her love is deeper than something that just appeared-- I know that love was not invented by Christians and I have had heathens tell me that my beliefs on love are a christian pathology which I think is wrong even by the standards of my own people and ancestors. I KNOW I have had ancestors who believed in compassion as best they could practice it in difficult times. I know they are with me helping me serve compassion now.
I chose to STOP serving the Christian god because of all the censored said about how "he" (first off is a patriarchal censored who won't let women lead) creates suffering to make lessons and all the other bullshit in christianity I am grossed out by. If there is a god of compassion, I am serving. If the Christian god is serving that, we are of shared purpose and I welcome help from above and to be of service with whatever I can offer.
But the same as I won't serve a Christian god who is an censored, neither will I serve a heathen pantheon headed by a rapist, death celebrating censored who doesn't care about humanity at all (why did he create us then? Or did he? Is just some censored that invaded and took over the pantheon from Tyr who was actually ruling with justice? Was Odin a human that claimed to be a God as mentioned by some early writers?) I don't even see why Odin would care about being the leader of the gods so far as the humans are concerned, I mean, if he exists in another realm and has nothing to do with us, then why bother to have any awareness of his existence at all? He's just some distant being that has nothing to do with us. I know, at least I feel, there have been good spirits who HAVE cared about the human realms, who have tried to help.
I wonder if Frigg even is a representation of great mother-- why has she stood by this censored who would mistreat her children so? If we're going to say the stories are all untrue then why use them at all? Why make claims we have ANY knowledge of the gods if we're going to say the stories are all made up? Why take the existence of the gods as literal fact if we are going to then just say all the stories are made up and useless- and why then say certain things from the stories are FACTS about the natures of the gods and certain things are totally wrong?
I don't believe all my ancestors from the germanic lands, or even that all the tribes from the germanic lands were exploitative thieving censored who would sooner steal, rape, plunder than accept help and mutual aid-- who would rather abandon those in need than work very hard to care for those in need....
I don't believe the people of the present can speak with such certainty for ALL of our ancestors or the gods associated with them, that they can claim my understanding is false and theirs is right.
I still wonder if the surviving texts about jainism reflect a phase and connection with peaceful diving beings that happened in multiple times and places of earth realm (egypt had a period where mummies were found to be vegetarian) that there have been beings that want peace for earth realm that have tried to create peaceful spaces in northern europe and elsewhere in the world as well. I think that's the direction we should go rather than celebrating brutality as "natural" and therefore good. Saying things are the way they are therefore means that is "Good" is justifying all manner of horrors that should not be.
We should BE the force that stands against suffering, not the force that causes and enjoys seeing it happen to others. We have so much potential as a species to be this force, to connect to our inner resources, to connect with new (and old) powers in ourselves and our world and our universe to serve the welfare of beings-- I find it depressing when spiritual teachings are inspiring us to do the opposite and celebrate injuring our fellow beings claiming "they secretly want it" even if they are fighting (why does that sound so familiar, or yeah it's been applied WRONGLY to women by men for centuries).
Forgiving and understanding the state we are in is one thing but celebrating and reinforcing it is another.
If the christian god is an censored I am not serving him, and I don't see why I would dare to stand up to such a being that rules through, fear, intimidation, threats of torture or early death-- only to submit to some other tyrant who rules through fear and who his followers themselves tolerate more out of fear and serve more to appease him than because he's worthy of the gig, at least according to some. That's not an "all father" that's an abusive tyrant who should probably move to the side and let someone better do the job. If he wants to fight off bad censored, that's cool but what are you fighting for if with one hand you defend the humans from bad things and with the other you're a fucking monster to them? At that point the humans need protection from you, who will take that gig since you're failing at being a protector? And listening to what heathens have told me about him has only reinforced I have the same problems with this particular violence and cruelty loving censored as I do with the Christian creator god who created all this censored suffering and doesn't seem to bother to do piss all to fix it, aside from permitting "his son" to be tortured- all for nothing because the "messiah" was supposed to bring about the messianic age and we are NOT in the messianic age are we?
Supposedly, from some claims, Frigg can bring PEACE- can and SHOULD stop Odin from pulling horrible censored like say allowing humans to put themselves at risk of suffering and death by offering to serve Odin without informed consent or Odin say, possessing human beings as sexual servants...
I was thinking about that while watching Steven Universe and so aptly Garnet says to some guy who has a crush on her something like "You can't love me, you don't even know who are what I am, love takes work and knowing the other person"
Informed consent between humans and deities that are not explaining and what they are clearly to humans in a way that humans can understand, should not be taking advantage of them sexually- and if humans are ready or able to understand who are what the gods are- then again informed consent can not be given. If some people want to worship God's who do this, then whatever but I will be standing up against that censored especially if it's supposedly being done by MY spiritual family... the spirits of my people and my ancestors. censored THAT.
If some unknowing young person devotes themselves to Odin without knowing what that means, than that does not count as informed consent. Not to mention consent to suffering before one even knows what the suffering is... that in and of itself is sketchy.
I guess if the heathen deities are supposed to be so distant as many heathens claim, I don't understand why humans would even count them as part of their religion. I mean surely universe deities are busy doing universe stuff, but it would seem to me if there are deities there would have been regional deities or spirits who be available to beings at the levels of existence they exist. Meaning there would be deities/spirits of the human realms.
If there are many realms I have to believe there are some good places, places of peace. And places where there are beings who want very much to help beings in need, including earth realm, not to be distant and uncaring.
I think Odin as a force that belongs in a leadership position needs some cleaning up- whether it's a real him that needs to evolve and grow or heal or whatever-- or whether it's the human perception of what they want to celebrate (and I think we project our shit on our ideas of deities so this is very relevant) and I am finding it hard to connect with or serve Frigg without getting upset with her over the state of Odin as a leader. Outside of war times, we do not lead a warlike death celebrating leader. When possible peace should reign-- if there is any reason to fight it IS to serve this purpose-- if you aren't fighting to bring about a world that doesn't need fighting (or needs it as little as possible) you're just serving injustice and suffering. You ARE the force that needs fighting against.
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