I'm a bit surprised by this to be honest. Venus is, you'll surely agree, a Goddess of love and femininity.
I don;t exactly agree. Sure She is a Goddess of love...but femininity? She may take a feminine form and reside over certain mysteries that may be specific to women, but all in all I think She is a Goddess of love, beauty and fertility perhaps, sexuality. She also has many forms in which she resides over many other things such as domesticity, impure love and prostitutes - (which, from experience, does not promote oneself well with other women, or men for that matter!, victory, luck, motherhood, etc... To state that one is not practicing properly because they have no female friends, or cannot find a mate or love interest is not taking the entire realm of experience of Venus into account. I would also say that is the case for all of those who reside in the God realms. Veiwing the devotees through a straw and not taking into account a lifetime of devotional work, (possibly, yet to come, in the case of a fifteen year old or new devotee), is not allowing for the entire experience of working with God-beings.
Are you seriously telling me that Her people didn't petition Her for help in their romantic entanglements? Or that maybe you don't think that Her people should have petitioned her for help?
No.
As for making female friends--well, I don't know about anyone else but when I'm working closely with a God or Goddess, I start to become aware of Hir mysteries as they are expressed in the people around me and am naturally drawn towards people who have a good dollop of that God in their makeup.
Yes, indeed. However, that wouldn't be limited to female-identified friends - or even friends! One must see the Goddess working in everyone, men, women, enemies and beggers in the street. Some people seem to be naturally embodying certain God/ddesses. That is lovely. As a devotee however, that is a shallow practice. The effort must come from the devotee to view everyone in this manner, and to respect the God/Goddess aspect of everyone. Also, to be patient and compassionate with oneself while one is developing this skill to view others in this manner, with any authenticity.
If I was doing a lot of work with a Goddess of love and femininity, I would expect to start awakening to the Goddess in the people around me. Especially if we were talking about a male practitioner, I'd raise a bit of an eyebrow if that didn't happen. In the case of a female-identified practitioner, I'd be concerned the she was identifying herself too strongly with the Goddess at the expense of seeing Her manifest in others.
Yes, but you have a funny approach to that. Or perhaps it is in how you state things. Seeing the Goddess in oneself, and seeing the Goddess in others, is the same thing. Priest/esses must identify strongly with their Deity in order to do this. If there is an imbalance, (which I think you are trying to point out), then that will work itself out with continued devotion. It is part of the process to "hook" the ego and then transform it. And true as that is - the bigger the ego, the bigger the hooks.
What I am reluctant to acknowledge as a possibility, however, is that (for example) the NT pantheon are reaaaally demons, and that Their many followers are simply being vampirised every time they offer worship. Or to take another example, that the Lwa are actually evil hungry ghosts and astral mobsters bent on the enslavement and abuse of Their votaries; and that whilst Their followers are all too dim to realise this, The Truth(TM) will be revealed almost instantly to a white European on a sufficient quantity of drugs. I have no compunction about dismissing this sort of nonsense out of hand.
Okay. I didn't realise that was what you were refering to. I must state here though, that just because a being is deemed a "god/dess", doesn't mean they are enlightened, kind, or remotely interested in human affairs. I am certain you know this, Live, but I think it needs repeating.
Well, if someone chooses to read it that way I can't stop them. I have no problems whatsoever with putting down inferior magical practice; if you want to read a selfish motive into that, you can, but my main motivation is to help people improve as magicians and advance in their practice. Period. Failing to challenge misconceptions, errors, and bad practice doesn't do anyone any favours.
I think the problem I have is that your intolerance for "inferior magickal practice" is based your biases. Making the mistakes is a part of the journey. Going through the trials is also, a part of the journey. Not recognising that others may also need to go through things of that nature is to be a little too quick to judge. When, all along, it is really only what YOU do that you should be concerned with. If you'll forgive me - I think it is bad practice to focus on other people's "bad practice". Belittling and invalidating the learning process of others, (as we are all in different places), is not really helpful. If I or yourself had not gone through our own mistakes we may not be as knowledgable or experienced. I think viewing other people's practice in a more wholistic manner, may help you to feel less irrate about the egotism and general silliness that you percieve in other people's practice. Have a little faith that "The Powers that Be" will either drop them on their heads and they will learn, and some patience if these poor practitioners may need to be dropped a thousand times before "getting it".
I write what I write because I want everyone practicing magic to be the best magicians they can be. I write it for the 15-year-old I used to be, for the person who made all those mistakes I take the piss out of in that article because there was no-one around to tell her stuff like that.
Hmm... you are not richer for the experiences you have had? I can tell you, for myself, as a fifteen year old I would have read that and felt like curling up in a little ball and that everything I did was wrong. It would have added to my woes. Making mistakes and immaturity are part of the process. Otherwise, why would we even bother?
If indeed you wanted to address the mistakes of the fifteen-year-old-you, Live, it would hae been interesting to have it written that way.
With statements like:
The effect that Deity work of various kinds can have on your life is certainly very real. It is important therefore to get your attitude on straight before you get into the relationship
It is very discouraging. It would be ideal to have oneself together, but it is also unlikely that anyone would start deity work, or any other magickal practice if one waited till such time. The time to practice is NOW. One's issues will be addressed in time. I don't think it is helpful to encourage a sense of inadequacy by having people second guess themself. Most people have at least a few vulnerabilites and insecurities when they embark upon a magickal path. The judgements are for people's gods and one's own conscience, IMO, not for other practitioners to make. If one wants to speak about their own experience, Iam fine with that. Judging what I should be or not be experiencing, and assessing my practice based on someone else's perception of what my practice should be, is folly. Furthermore, speaking from that POV of inferior/superior practice, only indicates that perhaps that person needs to turn the mirror on themself. In having "good practice", as I understand it - and I am hoping you will agree - what does it matter how others practice to you, anyway?
The commonest response to that piece has not been "haha, yeah, those shitty magicians!" it's been "haha, yeah, I remember doing that, wish we'd had this when we were starting out, eh?" which suggests to me that I must be doing something right.
Of course you are doing something right! You help a lot of people with what you write and who you are. You have also helped me through your writing. Perhaps, if you are not offended by what I am writing, I can help you too. |
