The question I would like to pose for the day is, how do you see God/dess? How do you think God/dess sees you?
This seems to me to be a profoundly personalized vision for each individual – even those individuals that follow very strictly outlined dogma. The way that God/dess looks, feels, sounds, communicates… there is a myriad of combinations of each of those things. And that is when only taking into consideration a deity that is already sketched out for the believer.
As a pagan, the potential turns infinite, as there may be less of a concept of a single deity. Is God/dess a real, human-like form? Or is (s)he more like energy, spirit, with a form imposed by you, the believer, to form a sense of connection to that energy? Does God/dess have a consciousness or vibration on the same level/timeframe as a human, or is (s)he vibrating at such a high level that our lifetimes are mere seconds?
I suppose that religion, for me, has to make some sense on a logical level. I believe in magick, in the same way I believe in quantum physics. I kind of get the gist, not sure about all the inner workings, but somehow the job gets done. I have a hard time believing in multiple, truly separate beings that oversee the human race, like Zeus and his pantheon on Mt. Olympus. It makes more sense to me to believe in a larger, single, creative consciousness that is mirrored in everything around me, and that I call God/dess, and that I reference most familiarly as the Lord and the Lady. They are, to me, two halves of the same coin, the yin and the yang, the dark and the light, and I try to invoke them equally. As a matter of fact, I almost keep a running tally in my head. I’ll say “him” now, “her” now… In ritual and spell-work, I will occasionally work with a particular god or goddess, in order to focus my energy clearly on that aspect of God/dess; it’s a way of making connections. The gods and goddesses of all the pantheons are, to me, simply a smorgasbord of personalities and behaviors from which I can pick and choose the most appropriate to the energy I’m trying to channel. They are one more symbol on my altar to keep my focus on the elements of the ritual or spellwork.
I believe that God/dess is far too busy to pay attention to every little detail of my life, but that if I’m loud enough, I can get her attention. I do that through ritual, spell-work, and the occasional desperate cry to the sky. As above, so below: I may be working away at my computer, and sometimes not attending to my daughter’s every word, but when she starts crying because she stubbed a toe or joyfully hands me a card she’s made for me “just because”, she has my full attention.
I converse with them in my head, as well, but I’m not as certain that (s)he pays any more attention to that than I did to my sweet great-grandmother’s ongoing, daily, under-the-breath conversations with herself. I loved every inch of that woman’s beautiful soul, and the muttering was adorable, but she did it all day as she worked around the house, and it became the background music of my days with my grandma. I think God/dess hears my internal dialog pretty much the same way – ignored, mostly, but with fondness.
How do you see God/dess? How does God/dess see you?