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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in Gods

Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs

I love Chaos Gods. They fill my life with hugely beneficial synchronicity, if I only open to these supposedly chance occurrences, instead of stubbornly digging in my heels. (Yeah, I know Chaos Gods are portrayed as all evil and dangerous, but that's a lie. Well, some Chaos Gods are evil, but I don't work with them.)

I felt moved to write about this Divine chaotic kindness because of a recent event. It dazzled me so much that I have to share my delight—or I'm going to burst—in how beautifully and intricately the World Tree weaves to embrace me in its branches constantly.

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Bee Smith
    Bee Smith says #
    This post is pure gold, Francesca!
  • Francesca De Grandis
    Francesca De Grandis says #
    Wow, Bee, thank you so much! ✨
  • Ted Czukor
    Ted Czukor says #
    Love this, Francesca, and I hope Ravyn contacts you for tips on disability crafting. It's both comforting and humbling to look bac
  • Francesca De Grandis
    Francesca De Grandis says #
    Thank you! Yes, I am so grateful for divine designs. Did you read my book Share My Insanity? In it, I talk about chaos only appea
  • Jenn
    Jenn says #
    This is so awesome! I love felting - I do needle felting but have a book about wet felting and definitely want to get into it. You

Posted by on in Paths Blogs

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Every so often, the devotional polytheistic community comes up with a new way to try to distinguish gods from archetypes.  In the past, terms like "real", "literal", or "separate" have been emphasized.  Now it's "agents".  The gods have agency while archetypes do not -- so the argument goes. 

One of the most visible exponents of this idea has been Morpheus Ravenna. Morpheus has written two essays -- here and here -- about this issue, and more recently delivered the keynote speech at the Many Gods West polytheist conference: "Deep Polytheism: On the Agency and Sovereignty of the Gods" (which I urge you to read in its entirety).  Morpheus argues that "if your Gods are real to you, treat Them like beings with agency." Agency, she says, is "the capacity of an entity to act ... something like will."  This, she says, is what makes gods distinct from archetypes.  And, on this point, I have to disagree with her.

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  • Henry Buchy
    Henry Buchy says #
    Just a point of information regarding this quote-" 'In one passage (I believe in the volume _Alchemical Studies_) Jung argues that
  • John Halstead
    John Halstead says #
    Thanks for the reference to O'Neill. I'll check it out.
  • Billybareblu
    Billybareblu says #
    Very good and thought provoking article John. This is one of those subjects that will be difficult for individuals to wrap their

Posted by on in Paths Blogs

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This is the third in a series of posts in which I discuss four terms that polytheists use to distinguish gods from archetypes: "real", "literal", "separate", and "agents". In this post, I want to address the position the the polytheistic gods are separate from us in a way that archetypes are not.

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  • Fábio
    Fábio says #
    And if we consider another point of view: that the Gods are not part of nature, but the nature is part of the Gods? That the natur
  • John Halstead
    John Halstead says #
    Sorry, I can't make sense of any of that.
  • Fábio
    Fábio says #
    That´s the reason about all your appointment. You´re not looking, you´re only thinking and believing that thinking is enough to kn
  • John Halstead
    John Halstead says #
    Kristen: You can email me at allergicpagan [at] gmail [dot] com or FB message me.
  • Taffy Dugan
    Taffy Dugan says #
    There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. - Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horat

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Do the Gods Still Speak?

I was reading some “locutions” purportedly spoken by the Virgin Mary to a visionary in Medjugorje, Bosnia, when I noticed something interesting.

Not a single one of these “messages” sounded even remotely like something one would expect a 1st century Palestinian Jewish woman to say.

“From today,” she supposedly told seer Yakov Colo, “I will not be appearing to you every day, but only on Christmas, the birthday of my son” (375).

Well, there's a 1 in 365 chance that the historical Jesus was born on December 25. I suppose that if anyone could tell you when he actually was born, it would be his mother.

Assuming, of course, that it really was her you were speaking with in the first place.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs

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I have heard hard polytheists come up with all sorts of words to distinguish their gods from Jungian archetypes.  The gods, they say, are "real", "literal", "individual", "distinct", and "separate"; they are "persons", "beings", "entities", or "agents".  The archetypes, it is implied, are none of these things. 

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  • Lizann Bassham
    Lizann Bassham says #
    Thank you!

Posted by on in Paths Blogs

b2ap3_thumbnail_zeus.JPGI have heard hard polytheists come up with all sorts of words to distinguish their gods from Jungian archetypes.  The gods, they say, are "real", "literal", "individual", "distinct", and "separate"; they are "persons", "beings", "entities", or "agents".  The archetypes, it is implied, are none of these things. 

I think much of this is based on a misunderstanding of the nature of the archetypes.  In the next four posts, I want to talk about four terms that polytheists use to distinguish gods from archetypes: "real", "literal", "separate", and "agents".

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs

And in my heart the daemons and the god
Wage an eternal battle ...

-- W.B. Yeats

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