I've been thinking about this a lot lately, though I don't think I can articulate it as well as you have here. Celebrities are what they are because they give the appearance of embodying certain attributes...as a pagan, I'm used to thinking of particular deities in terms of how they embody certain attributes. One-to-one correspondence. And sometimes I think that the way gods were thought of in some ancient civilizations, particularly those where a human being was elevated to the status of the divine, really isn't too different from how celebrities are placed on pedastals today.
Maybe it's a basic human drive, to set something up that gives the appearance of being bigger than us, but that we can still see and touch. From this perspective, the idea of a god who has no appearance, no physical manifestation whatsoever, is nothing short of revolutionary.
Then that makes me think of how a god might perceive its worshippers. My religion specifically teaches that one does not depend upon the divine for anything; at most, it might offer guidance, or point the way. How might a god deal with so many prayers and supplications? Are we even capable of conceiving of such a mind, or can it be even described as a mind?
Questions, questions. The short story I'm currently in the planning stages of is about this, in a way, though I don't think it's going to answer any of my questions.
All the answers you want are very likely inside of you, as well as all around you; all you have to do is look.
The closest thing Wiccans have to scripture is probably the Charge of the Goddess (sounds like a battle maneuver, doesn't it?), which includes this phrase: "If that which you seek, you do not find within yourself, you will never find it without."
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syntheid
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Date: 2002-12-15 12:01 pm (UTC)I've been thinking about this a lot lately, though I don't think I can articulate it as well as you have here. Celebrities are what they are because they give the appearance of embodying certain attributes...as a pagan, I'm used to thinking of particular deities in terms of how they embody certain attributes. One-to-one correspondence. And sometimes I think that the way gods were thought of in some ancient civilizations, particularly those where a human being was elevated to the status of the divine, really isn't too different from how celebrities are placed on pedastals today.
Maybe it's a basic human drive, to set something up that gives the appearance of being bigger than us, but that we can still see and touch. From this perspective, the idea of a god who has no appearance, no physical manifestation whatsoever, is nothing short of revolutionary.
Then that makes me think of how a god might perceive its worshippers. My religion specifically teaches that one does not depend upon the divine for anything; at most, it might offer guidance, or point the way. How might a god deal with so many prayers and supplications? Are we even capable of conceiving of such a mind, or can it be even described as a mind?
Questions, questions. The short story I'm currently in the planning stages of is about this, in a way, though I don't think it's going to answer any of my questions.
All the answers you want are very likely inside of you, as well as all around you; all you have to do is look.
The closest thing Wiccans have to scripture is probably the Charge of the Goddess (sounds like a battle maneuver, doesn't it?), which includes this phrase: "If that which you seek, you do not find within yourself, you will never find it without."
Etc.