The Gods are not your bitches.

Blessings Darlings!

Would you walk up to a random stranger on the street and ask them to give you stuff?  Like, "Hey - you don't know me at all, and I don't know you.  But my cat is sick, and I think you should take her to the vet, get her looked at, and get whatever the vet thinks she needs.  And I also think you should give her the drugs/whatever for how ever long it's needed"

Or "I need a job.  You should make sure I get one"

No?  That's rude?

Oddly enough, lots and lots and LOTS of folks treat the God/dess/es like this. 

Their pet is sick - they call on Bast to heal the dog.  Never mind that they have NEVER interacted with Bast before.  They know so little about Bast that they think that She is "protector of all animals'.  And that Her name is Bast ...

Look, there's nothing wrong with prayers to your Gods.  But for 'your Gods' to be YOUR Gods, you need to build a relationship with them.  Not just expect them to come thru' when you need something.

And we've ALL had those type of folks in our lives, who only come around when they need something from us.  After a while, we realize that they folks are using us. We are their bitches.

The Gods don't play that at all. 

At the very least, if you need to make an, ahem, Hail Mary pass to some God or other Being for a favor, and you don't have some relationship with that being - make some damn offerings.  And promise some future offerings.  Specify the future offerings that you are willing to give.  Because the stories of Beings who ask for one or more of your children, etc, ain't just stories.  People didn't pull those stories out of their asses. 

And make those future offerings that you promised.   Surely you already knew that, but ... I feel prompted to repeat that.

Frondly, Fern

Let There Be Quiet

Blessings Darlings!

I love music ... tho' I cannot carry a tune in a bucket and have failed at every instrument I've tried.  But, as I try to search for Twitter posts with "Pagan" in them (and try to ignore all the @#$%%~@~! sales posts there) it makes it seem as if a lot of folks have music playing all the time.  And when I was in college one of my roommates had music or TV going pretty much constantly.  Later I had neighbors who .... uh .... liked to share all their music with me.  Then there were the many, many times I've been driving and I've not be able to hear anything except the music from another car at the stop light. 

Which is not to say that my world is silent.  Right now the loudest sound is the neighbor using a power edge trimmer around his fence. and probably another neighbor will mow their lawn and I'll hear that later.  Not my favorite sounds, but .... really, my dishwashers noises bother me more when it runs. 

Even with those outside man-made sounds, tho, I can still hear birds, and the wind, and my husband, and the creak of the window (I don't know WHY it creaked, tho), the hum of my computer fan, etc. 

Even with THOSE sounds .... I can still hear myself think.  And at times, I can hear the soft voices of the God/dess/es.  I don't recall any time when I've heard the voices of the God/dess/es in music or TV, altho' I've certainly heard them in the quiet times of some guided meditations.

I've never understood the impulse to always have music/TV/etc sounds going on all the time.  It's just not ME.  I'm not going to claim that it's because I am doing Deep Thinking or anything - more likely it's because I'm too easily distracted and that would put me over the edge on being able to concentrate be so irritating that I'd get a headache. 

Is it because I'm an only child of older parents? Probably part of it is from that.  My suburban upbringing, without the constant pressing noises of urban life? I'm sure that's part of it .... tho' my neighborhood had so many toxins on the lawns that we didn't have crickets at all, and not a ton of birds.

But I DO value quiet.  Intensely.  I don't travel without ear plugs, and the discomfort of those have always been far FAR outweighed by the quiet they provide. If I had to make a binary choice between music and silence .... okay, I'd opt out, because I don't accept that paradigm. 

Frondly, Fern