Reaching Out
Nov. 14th, 2007 08:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qosA few days ago, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
starfrosting asked in a comment: When you reached out to these deities, though, how were you doing it? praying, leaving offerings, going into trance states? or, rather, if They called you, how'd you get to a point where you can really hear and communicate with Them?
There's no one simple answer.
One of my gifts is the ability to have very rich inner journeys and vivid communication with contacts there. The big change in the past year or so has been using this gift as a way to connect with deities.
LM was the catalyst, since his connection with his own patron was so vivid in contrast with my many years as a functional agnostic. He was also the one who spontaneously did a dedication of me to Freyja one evening while we were doing a bdsm scene, resulting in a vivid connection and an initiation for me as a hierodule. The thing is, although he was the one who performed the priestly role, I was the one who prompted him to move the scene that way, and I had longed for more than a decade to actually experience what it was like to be a sacred prostitute. So it was a magical, unplanned fusing of intention.
After LM's death, I found out that one of my LJ friends was an underworld priestess, and we were both surprised by how much we had in common and how much my spiritual history seemed to be preparation for doing underworld work. Once I decided to commit formally to the path, I asked for assistance and patronage. Inanna, who was my first goddess patron, Isis (a patron of my teacher) and Arianrhod (a complete surprise) responded with their desire to help me. That happened in a prayer state rather than a journey.
The relationship with Ereshkigal began a few weeks ago when restlessness finally spurred me to doing an inner journey. I asked "Where should I go?" and received the answer Ereshkigal. She was familiar to me in the abstract from my work with Inanna, but this was the first time I had direct contact with her. In contrast with the more abstract contact I'd made with the Three Ladies, this was a vivid personal encounter with Her in Her throne room with a prolonged conversation. My prayer state encounters tend to be more like phone conversations: the sense of presence or contact is real, but there's a sense that the deity is reaching out over distance rather than a sense of my having traveled somewhere or having a strong visual sense of being somewhere else.
So I guess the short answer tostarfrosting is "prayer and trance states." I think prayer is fundamental: both the speaking and the listening. How well you can hear probably depends on your personal gifts and development, but I'd like to think that a sincere seeker who was able to truly listen will get an answer. (Although I shouldn't be too casual about the latter. "Listening" is something I'm being challenged to do more of these days. . .)
starfrosting asked in a comment: When you reached out to these deities, though, how were you doing it? praying, leaving offerings, going into trance states? or, rather, if They called you, how'd you get to a point where you can really hear and communicate with Them?There's no one simple answer.
One of my gifts is the ability to have very rich inner journeys and vivid communication with contacts there. The big change in the past year or so has been using this gift as a way to connect with deities.
LM was the catalyst, since his connection with his own patron was so vivid in contrast with my many years as a functional agnostic. He was also the one who spontaneously did a dedication of me to Freyja one evening while we were doing a bdsm scene, resulting in a vivid connection and an initiation for me as a hierodule. The thing is, although he was the one who performed the priestly role, I was the one who prompted him to move the scene that way, and I had longed for more than a decade to actually experience what it was like to be a sacred prostitute. So it was a magical, unplanned fusing of intention.
After LM's death, I found out that one of my LJ friends was an underworld priestess, and we were both surprised by how much we had in common and how much my spiritual history seemed to be preparation for doing underworld work. Once I decided to commit formally to the path, I asked for assistance and patronage. Inanna, who was my first goddess patron, Isis (a patron of my teacher) and Arianrhod (a complete surprise) responded with their desire to help me. That happened in a prayer state rather than a journey.
The relationship with Ereshkigal began a few weeks ago when restlessness finally spurred me to doing an inner journey. I asked "Where should I go?" and received the answer Ereshkigal. She was familiar to me in the abstract from my work with Inanna, but this was the first time I had direct contact with her. In contrast with the more abstract contact I'd made with the Three Ladies, this was a vivid personal encounter with Her in Her throne room with a prolonged conversation. My prayer state encounters tend to be more like phone conversations: the sense of presence or contact is real, but there's a sense that the deity is reaching out over distance rather than a sense of my having traveled somewhere or having a strong visual sense of being somewhere else.
So I guess the short answer to
starfrosting is "prayer and trance states." I think prayer is fundamental: both the speaking and the listening. How well you can hear probably depends on your personal gifts and development, but I'd like to think that a sincere seeker who was able to truly listen will get an answer. (Although I shouldn't be too casual about the latter. "Listening" is something I'm being challenged to do more of these days. . .)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-11-15 05:34 pm (UTC)it's funny, I actually just got an assignment from my teacher that will help, I think, with the trance end of things...which in turn, I imagine, will deepen the prayerwork I'm already doing.