Bad Gods
Anyone who has dipped a toe into the pool of polytheism know that people tend to fall in a great number of camps with regards to what the Gods *are*, who they are, and what function they serve. There is argument from a wide swath of devoted about the nature of the Gods, and as one might expect, everyone thinks they have the answer. I don't have the answer, but I do have a perspective I'm going to share.
I want to talk a little bit about "Bad Gods", that is Gods that have somehow earned themselves the reputation of being Mean Little Fucks that, much like Voldemort, their name must never be uttered. They have even built (modern) traditions around these superstitions that vary from country to country and group to group. Everyone wants the chance to prove that they're a badass practitioner that can stand against the will of a Bad God; the lore supports them of course in as much as statistics may be used to back any cause by bending them to the will of the interpreter.
So I'm not going to rely on texts for the Most Perfect and Accurate translation that was freshly removed from the cold dead fingers of the monk that spent his (we're gonna guess "his") life writing them down from wherever non literary source he heard them from. I've read them and I'm not interested in rehashing them; if academics can't agree and devotees cannot agree then there's no point in looking at the same things we've always had and sharing an interpretation.
What I am interested in discussing is how human beings have awarded themselves the right to decide whether or not a God is acceptable for worship based on decidedly human attributes they have given them. We have to have ways to relate to and understand the gods even in a limited sense, but reading lore too literally means you'll miss the metaphor. That's fine for some, but the Gods ultimately don't care much for our limitations of them. Are they limited themselves? By necessity, yes, but not in the ways that we are as human beings. What is really important to understand is this:
No Gods are Safe. There are no Bad Gods; only destruction and creation. All Gods contain both elements; making and unmaking.
Our interactions with them are dangerous in the same way that living is dangerous; even the most benevolent spirits are still not always going to behave in a way we comprehend. If we call our earnest relationship with a God "worship" or "devotion", it doesn't matter; our relationships with them or lack thereof matter more than how others have come to perceive them. I'm saying Gods are dangerous in that they are a double edged sword we are glad to bear: love is as dangerous as hate and you will receive what you give in return. We merely become comfortable and familiar. Love is not safe, but it is worth it. It is a peril we are willing to risk to enrich our lives; such is our relationship with the divine. Gods are greater than our understanding, but also as understandable and relateable as the divine we carry within ourselves.
When I hear things like "X God brings about only pain and suffering", what I hear is a number of things. 1.) They have given their pain the name of a deity, the author of their suffering, based upon the words of others and haven't really thought for themselves. 2.) They are displeased by their interpretation of events. 3.) They did something really fucking stupid.
When I hear "X God killed MY God", all I can think is (summarizing the words of a friend) if your God is dead what the hell are you doing? Gods exist in mythic time, not linear time. Ragnarok has happened and it has also not happened. Baldr has died to bring about new life later, and he hasn't. Loki is bound beneath the world, and he's walking around freely, also he is a she, also he is central to the survival of mankind as a fire god but ALSO a real pain in the ass when he's had a bad day. Morrighan is a title, and three women, and one woman, and one being while many and also could reasonably fill a small portion of a zoo on Her own. Zeus is a golden shower, a swan, and king of Olympus because fuck you. What are our 'rules' to them? What merit can there be in worshipping a dead god; clearly you get results that you desire by working with them. If they were truly dead, that would not be possible. If their rules applied to us, I could be eating a cheeseburger in my tomb while also composing a power ballad about my banishment to Siberia and no one would even question it. Not very many people can parse the idea of time flowing in any way other than linear, so the mythic does not make sense to them. They're not dead; they are myth. Myth changes, and so do Gods. The only way for a god to die is to kill the myth entirely by not allowing it to evolve and change. Fundamentalist parroting leads to death and stagnation and it will be destroyed to create something else. Nature hates a vacuum.
We worship Gods with confusing/broken/incomplete lore because the lore helps us to determine their function and sphere of experience. In the Celtic and Gaelic traditions, a deity with specific spheres of influence would be responsible for all aspects of it. A goddess of war would be the go-to deity for prayers of peace or victory. A god of medicine is also a god of affliction, because to heal one must understand the hurt. In order to bless, one must understand the curse. A fine example of this is Nodens, whom I have written about before; he's a healing god people offered lead curse tablets to because that's how this whole thing works. Each god or goddess responds with their own flavor; their own level of snark or gentility that varies by relationship.
Because we're people and we suck, we tend to focus on the negative. Change is hard, compassion is hard, and we don't like hard things because blessings and curses come to us and we are not always able to correctly assess which it is. The loss of a home and a loved one can be simply that; it's the cost of living. Suffering is living; chaos is ongoing. We bring order to the universe through ritual, but the nature of the universe is dis-order. It is a brave act to love openly and freely as it is also brave to welcome change in its many forms. That doesn't mean it doesn't suck, but it also doesn't mean nothing good will come of it. Not good or bad, just is.
In short, if you disrespect a God, don't be shocked if you do not receive a blessing or answered prayer. In fact, you might notice a decided absence of happy-feels in your life; reconsider the source. In all likelihood, it's your perception that flunked up the whole thing when you valued one thing over another or chose to withhold hospitality. Chaos is the mother of blessing just as much as destruction.
Food for thought. More later.
I want to talk a little bit about "Bad Gods", that is Gods that have somehow earned themselves the reputation of being Mean Little Fucks that, much like Voldemort, their name must never be uttered. They have even built (modern) traditions around these superstitions that vary from country to country and group to group. Everyone wants the chance to prove that they're a badass practitioner that can stand against the will of a Bad God; the lore supports them of course in as much as statistics may be used to back any cause by bending them to the will of the interpreter.
So I'm not going to rely on texts for the Most Perfect and Accurate translation that was freshly removed from the cold dead fingers of the monk that spent his (we're gonna guess "his") life writing them down from wherever non literary source he heard them from. I've read them and I'm not interested in rehashing them; if academics can't agree and devotees cannot agree then there's no point in looking at the same things we've always had and sharing an interpretation.
What I am interested in discussing is how human beings have awarded themselves the right to decide whether or not a God is acceptable for worship based on decidedly human attributes they have given them. We have to have ways to relate to and understand the gods even in a limited sense, but reading lore too literally means you'll miss the metaphor. That's fine for some, but the Gods ultimately don't care much for our limitations of them. Are they limited themselves? By necessity, yes, but not in the ways that we are as human beings. What is really important to understand is this:
No Gods are Safe. There are no Bad Gods; only destruction and creation. All Gods contain both elements; making and unmaking.
Our interactions with them are dangerous in the same way that living is dangerous; even the most benevolent spirits are still not always going to behave in a way we comprehend. If we call our earnest relationship with a God "worship" or "devotion", it doesn't matter; our relationships with them or lack thereof matter more than how others have come to perceive them. I'm saying Gods are dangerous in that they are a double edged sword we are glad to bear: love is as dangerous as hate and you will receive what you give in return. We merely become comfortable and familiar. Love is not safe, but it is worth it. It is a peril we are willing to risk to enrich our lives; such is our relationship with the divine. Gods are greater than our understanding, but also as understandable and relateable as the divine we carry within ourselves.
When I hear things like "X God brings about only pain and suffering", what I hear is a number of things. 1.) They have given their pain the name of a deity, the author of their suffering, based upon the words of others and haven't really thought for themselves. 2.) They are displeased by their interpretation of events. 3.) They did something really fucking stupid.
When I hear "X God killed MY God", all I can think is (summarizing the words of a friend) if your God is dead what the hell are you doing? Gods exist in mythic time, not linear time. Ragnarok has happened and it has also not happened. Baldr has died to bring about new life later, and he hasn't. Loki is bound beneath the world, and he's walking around freely, also he is a she, also he is central to the survival of mankind as a fire god but ALSO a real pain in the ass when he's had a bad day. Morrighan is a title, and three women, and one woman, and one being while many and also could reasonably fill a small portion of a zoo on Her own. Zeus is a golden shower, a swan, and king of Olympus because fuck you. What are our 'rules' to them? What merit can there be in worshipping a dead god; clearly you get results that you desire by working with them. If they were truly dead, that would not be possible. If their rules applied to us, I could be eating a cheeseburger in my tomb while also composing a power ballad about my banishment to Siberia and no one would even question it. Not very many people can parse the idea of time flowing in any way other than linear, so the mythic does not make sense to them. They're not dead; they are myth. Myth changes, and so do Gods. The only way for a god to die is to kill the myth entirely by not allowing it to evolve and change. Fundamentalist parroting leads to death and stagnation and it will be destroyed to create something else. Nature hates a vacuum.
We worship Gods with confusing/broken/incomplete lore because the lore helps us to determine their function and sphere of experience. In the Celtic and Gaelic traditions, a deity with specific spheres of influence would be responsible for all aspects of it. A goddess of war would be the go-to deity for prayers of peace or victory. A god of medicine is also a god of affliction, because to heal one must understand the hurt. In order to bless, one must understand the curse. A fine example of this is Nodens, whom I have written about before; he's a healing god people offered lead curse tablets to because that's how this whole thing works. Each god or goddess responds with their own flavor; their own level of snark or gentility that varies by relationship.
Because we're people and we suck, we tend to focus on the negative. Change is hard, compassion is hard, and we don't like hard things because blessings and curses come to us and we are not always able to correctly assess which it is. The loss of a home and a loved one can be simply that; it's the cost of living. Suffering is living; chaos is ongoing. We bring order to the universe through ritual, but the nature of the universe is dis-order. It is a brave act to love openly and freely as it is also brave to welcome change in its many forms. That doesn't mean it doesn't suck, but it also doesn't mean nothing good will come of it. Not good or bad, just is.
In short, if you disrespect a God, don't be shocked if you do not receive a blessing or answered prayer. In fact, you might notice a decided absence of happy-feels in your life; reconsider the source. In all likelihood, it's your perception that flunked up the whole thing when you valued one thing over another or chose to withhold hospitality. Chaos is the mother of blessing just as much as destruction.
Food for thought. More later.
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