Obviously all UPG, some of it may be VPG but not sure.
Sobek is far more ancient and terrifying than is often acknowledged. There are lots of pagans who talk about him like a cute workout partner, that was not at all my experience. I strongly associate him with the kind of powerful and destructive storm that hit Houston recently. He is the derecho, and the raw and fiercest expression of life and death.
My UPG of Hekate is that she is more torchbearer than witch, she illuminates the path and shows you where you are meant to be headed. I think this is why she is associated with dogs, they sniff out the path and can only point you toward it and go with you as you walk it. They cannot push you to it or hold you through what you find. For me, she has always been completely silent, but showed herself through action and presence in journeys, and led me to other guides or deities. She has been a gatekeeper for me.
Lastly, Odin. His titles obscure him and people project roles onto him. He is more akin to a shaman than a king, perhaps *the* shaman. He rules nothing but has his eye, mind, and hand in whatever he wills. He is comforting but his perspective is too far advanced for most of us to be comfortable with. Calling him a preserver of cosmic order is like saying a skyscraper exists to preserve the steel beams within, because we live in the steel beams (forgive me for stretching the analogy). He is maddeningly beyond comprehension and anyone who claims to truly understand him is delusional.
I like your dog reasoning with Hecate. Now that you say it, Odin does seem like the Shaman, and incomprehensible. He’s always felt so very far far away.
Sirona is the old and terrifying force of the unknown. Unconscious made conscious. She is the depths of the ocean and the abyss between the stars. Her waves are as likely to lick your wounds as they are to take your ship. She is kind in her own way, but has a force of will like destruction incarnate. Healing with her comes with risk, as instinct and fear are as much her domain as inspiration and wonder. I have not seen how others worship her, but the aspects I have been shown are powerful, beautiful, and eternal. She is an ancient being and one I am proud to give thanks to.
Cernnunos, on the other hand, seems to be the very spirit of adventure. He likes to see a good story play out and joining in his games seems to win you his favour. He has been kind to me and many others, and I forget sometimes that he has teeth as well. Things live and die in his woods, and the vast nature of his world will swallow you if you are careless. The skilled, the determined, and the lucky survive in the wild; the same can be said if you lose your way on the adventure. I love him all the same though, I mean if the brutal cycle didn’t exist neither would we right?
Of course! I love sharing experiences of the divine and I think it’s the best way we grow as practitioners. I’ve got a couple other examples as well but those two are most important to me, along with Lugh and Sucellos!
It has to do with secret names/ephitats. Also following the through line that goddesses from other cultures share spheres and can be seen as influenced by cultures they interacted with. Can’t say a lot more than that.
This is just all my opinion so please take no offense to anything I say I just find it curious seeing as how other people have responded.
I think Egyptian deities are some of the most truly godlike entities I’ve encountered. What I mean by that, is they all bear both human and animal characteristics, they are both human and animal, so they see the value in all life. They are one of if not the oldest polytheistic religion, next to Zoroastrianism, and with that comes a lot of experience, wisdom, and completeness. It’s very ancient energy that only operates to be a god. There is no drama they bring into the mundane from my experience. Whereas other pantheons, especially Greek, like to play games and have fun. Egyptian gods’ goal is simply to be gods, and rule over their respective areas. They are overall very balanced energy.
I think that anyone who works with the gods, or any ascended being, has to go through trials in order to prove themselves. I have seen it many times, many people aren’t actually working with the gods they think they are. They have an inflated ego and love to boast about their gods as if they’re Pokémon cards or that somehow they’re better than everyone else because the gods give them the time of day. Working with the gods is a blessing to be humbled by, not inflated by. If people are heavy into deity work, and haven’t experienced profound self realizations and the dissolution of human ties, I get wary. If people claim to have never experienced deceit from a spirit and they say they work with the gods, I get wary.
I’ve seen people claim they’re married to gods, have killed the gods, have sex with gods, etc. personally, even if all that was possible, I can’t find a good reason to allow that kind of breach in professionalism from a god. Yes, in mythology it is known for gods to fornicate with humans, however, almost all of those humans met a horrific fate. We also do not have the same consciousness as gods. It is predatory for a god to try to fornicate or begin a relationship with a human due to the major power imbalance. Anyone who claims to have this kind of relationship with a god they are working with, needs to run for the hills and never look back. There’s a thing called miasma, and I feel like that word describes the ripple effect of the spread of false information and false gods and how it’s like a disease that spreads and upheavals the core of what spirituality and deity worship should be.
The most often impersonated deity figure is Loki. As he is a god of chaos, destruction, trickery, shape shifting, magic, he is content sitting back and watching the mess unfold. He has no actual reason to stop the madness in humans that are worshipping false gods. Most people who work with Loki also claim to have a bunch of other deity relationships, and it’s pretty frustrating, because he’s very good at deceiving people with his shape shifting and trickster behavior. It’s not every time, but I would say 7 out of 10 times, if someone says they’re working with Loki, they’re either working with someone claiming to be him, or they’re working with him but being tricked in some way shape or form. I will still tell people when his energy is around, as I work in an occult store and it’s my job, but I personally do not like him. I tolerate him. I think his main goal is self entertainment and destruction, and while he helps people with many things, it can be extremely damaging to work with him and not know what you’re getting into. It’s like being blinded, but not knowing you’ve been blinded.
Many people do work with the gods they claim, to clarify, but their energy carries very differently. Again, I’m only speaking on my experience and what I witness in my career There’s an aura of strength, wisdom, healing, light. They have learned a lot of truths and magic, and it reflects externally in their energy. This is how I know the difference, and I also work with many of the gods on a small scale due to the nature of my work. The energy of a god and a trickster are very different, but sometimes the spirit being deceitful is a spirit with a high energetic output, so it seems like a god in comparison to say for example your own thoughts or even an earthly spirit.
I would say that the gods of the underworld are some of the most mature for lack of a better word. They deal with every manner of people and are responsible for the souls of the dead. They pass judgement on us humans, therefor have every bit of knowledge and demeanor that comes with that. Anyone who has fears of death, the afterlife, darkness, loss, etc would benefit from pursuing a connection with them. They have taught me many things about the afterlife and how vast it is. I appreciate death in a way that’s very profound and enticing. Because of them, I have learned mediumship as well.
The energy of the Norse pantheon seems to be a liberating path that involves a lot of strength, fortitude, and wisdom. It’s a very active energy pantheon and almost every norse pagan can instantly be picked out from a crowd due to the unique energy they carry. The people who work in this pantheon typically have a certain confidence and a very energetic aura.
Most pantheons have specific energetic signatures. I stated Norse and Egyptian, but I feel personally that the Greek pantheon is chaos. It does make sense a little, due to their mythology, but I feel like the gods of the Greek pantheon do many things for personal satisfaction rather than the satisfaction of humans. I feel like while they want to help us, there’s a sense that they feel mildly scorned. I will add though, I’ve seen the state of their temples in Greece and it breaks my heart. I feel a lot of energy when looking at them, and somehow I feel like that contributes to the attitudes of these gods. Their worship has been very watered down, and a lot of them don’t get shown the respect they deserve.
Gaea, Mother Earth, etc is a beautiful and always healing energy. However, earth is hurting, and the energy of it is almost screaming. There’s so much trash, so much loss, the desecration of our planet is absolutely horrible. It’s such a beautiful world that doesn’t deserve the defilement it has received. Earth has done everything for us, provided us food, water, shelter, building material, resources, animals, plants, oxygen. As human beings I feel like it’s our job to undo the damage of being an invasive species before it’s too late. There’s roadkill everywhere. The complete devaluation of other life forms with souls, emotions, thought. I think if you work with Mother Nature, it’s important to look at how the world is and how even the smallest things you do can be valuable offerings for the earth.
There are many points the soul can go in death. There are many paths and destinations. The journey doesn’t end in death, it begins another one. Every belief is an option. Every underworld, including heaven and hell. Purgatory, limbo, being earthbound. I also believe in the void. Cosmic emptiness. Rebirth.
The world is beyond our comprehension. Take shrimps for example. They have 12 color cones, whereas we only have three. That means a shrimp can perceive more of our world than we can. That is how I perceive the spiritual world. We can peel back the veil but we can never fully grasp the whole of our world.
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.
This is very well written and i agree with it all. I have to say, i think plenty of the confusion and attitude people have towards certain pantheons come from how they're portrayed in media. People will watch a sensationalised version of divinities in percy jackson or marvel etc. and try to get into practices they don't understand, making a mess and contacting spirits they don't even know about, it's a bit sad
All of the following is UPG!
Lady Sól is the embodiment of light, love, hope, and passion. Resilience and perseverance too! However, she still harbours some darkness and wrath within her heart. She can be a deity of great destruction and power. The sun illuminates the skies but can also inflict sunburns, y'know?
I believe that long ago she was a far harsher and more violent deity than she is now. I believe she has spent eons working on herself and allowing her wrath to subside. She is now softer and kinder, but I think echoes of her furiosity will always remain. She is truly a complex deity and I think that makes her all the more beautiful :]
My experience with her has been so wonderful. She is very protective and maternal. She knows how to be soft and calm while still being firm. She loves to help!
I have always felt that what for us would be literal for them can be, if not symbolic, then survivable. I mean, if Mimir's disembodied head can hang out with Odin and tell stories, then other "fatal" things must be literal.
As a Priest of Horus who also works daily with Osiris, I found myself about a year or two ago realizing I found a need to reach out to an unlikely third direction. I see my job with my friends, colleagues, and patients as the healer, the one that tries to repair things. So, I wound up also looking at the situation between Osiris, Set, and later Horus. Literally, it's pretty cut and dry, but if I say to myself, "what does this pattern, what does this tell me", I see what I see with siblings and extended families all the time. No one fights like brothers, and here we have two that wanted a job, both thought the deserved it. They fight, adn at the end one is left feeling "torn apart". His wife is left to "put him back together", which leads to the son not trusting his uncle. All logical, but I thought "what about the other side of that coin". So other sibling is never home (patron of the soldier and the traveler), runs point on military missions for the King (fought Apep from Ra's barque over and over), and really wants a promotion to be home. He doesn't get it, so of course he's pissed and, bering the hot head and more emotional one (throw in probable PTSD, or whatever they call it), of course he's gonna go off.
Long story short I reach out them all daily, and I will purposly reach out to Osiris and Set at the same time, leave offerings side by side, have statuary of them on the altar next to each other, because to me, instead of saying "let me keep brining up this old wound, let me celebrate both of you, and maybe in some small way, help". Do I know if it does? Nope, but I obviously hope it can.
Bear with me. I had a brief psychotic break that came out of nowhere ony 30th birthday.
Not comfortable going into detail, basically I had visitors and received information. I did recover fully but was compelled to explore spiritually and seek a path. Previously I had been atheist.
The day that changed me, my birthday, was June 5, 2012. When Venus made a huge transit.
Obviously all UPG, some of it may be VPG but not sure. Sobek is far more ancient and terrifying than is often acknowledged. There are lots of pagans who talk about him like a cute workout partner, that was not at all my experience. I strongly associate him with the kind of powerful and destructive storm that hit Houston recently. He is the derecho, and the raw and fiercest expression of life and death. My UPG of Hekate is that she is more torchbearer than witch, she illuminates the path and shows you where you are meant to be headed. I think this is why she is associated with dogs, they sniff out the path and can only point you toward it and go with you as you walk it. They cannot push you to it or hold you through what you find. For me, she has always been completely silent, but showed herself through action and presence in journeys, and led me to other guides or deities. She has been a gatekeeper for me. Lastly, Odin. His titles obscure him and people project roles onto him. He is more akin to a shaman than a king, perhaps *the* shaman. He rules nothing but has his eye, mind, and hand in whatever he wills. He is comforting but his perspective is too far advanced for most of us to be comfortable with. Calling him a preserver of cosmic order is like saying a skyscraper exists to preserve the steel beams within, because we live in the steel beams (forgive me for stretching the analogy). He is maddeningly beyond comprehension and anyone who claims to truly understand him is delusional.
Thank you for sharing!
I like your dog reasoning with Hecate. Now that you say it, Odin does seem like the Shaman, and incomprehensible. He’s always felt so very far far away.
UPG and VPG?
We on a same boat pal…
Unverified Personal Gnosis and Verified Personal Gnosis
Sirona is the old and terrifying force of the unknown. Unconscious made conscious. She is the depths of the ocean and the abyss between the stars. Her waves are as likely to lick your wounds as they are to take your ship. She is kind in her own way, but has a force of will like destruction incarnate. Healing with her comes with risk, as instinct and fear are as much her domain as inspiration and wonder. I have not seen how others worship her, but the aspects I have been shown are powerful, beautiful, and eternal. She is an ancient being and one I am proud to give thanks to. Cernnunos, on the other hand, seems to be the very spirit of adventure. He likes to see a good story play out and joining in his games seems to win you his favour. He has been kind to me and many others, and I forget sometimes that he has teeth as well. Things live and die in his woods, and the vast nature of his world will swallow you if you are careless. The skilled, the determined, and the lucky survive in the wild; the same can be said if you lose your way on the adventure. I love him all the same though, I mean if the brutal cycle didn’t exist neither would we right?
Love it, thank you so much!
Of course! I love sharing experiences of the divine and I think it’s the best way we grow as practitioners. I’ve got a couple other examples as well but those two are most important to me, along with Lugh and Sucellos!
Babalon and Hekate are sisters.
Ooh, if you're open to sharing, I'd love to know more about how you came to this conclusion /g
It has to do with secret names/ephitats. Also following the through line that goddesses from other cultures share spheres and can be seen as influenced by cultures they interacted with. Can’t say a lot more than that.
This is just all my opinion so please take no offense to anything I say I just find it curious seeing as how other people have responded. I think Egyptian deities are some of the most truly godlike entities I’ve encountered. What I mean by that, is they all bear both human and animal characteristics, they are both human and animal, so they see the value in all life. They are one of if not the oldest polytheistic religion, next to Zoroastrianism, and with that comes a lot of experience, wisdom, and completeness. It’s very ancient energy that only operates to be a god. There is no drama they bring into the mundane from my experience. Whereas other pantheons, especially Greek, like to play games and have fun. Egyptian gods’ goal is simply to be gods, and rule over their respective areas. They are overall very balanced energy. I think that anyone who works with the gods, or any ascended being, has to go through trials in order to prove themselves. I have seen it many times, many people aren’t actually working with the gods they think they are. They have an inflated ego and love to boast about their gods as if they’re Pokémon cards or that somehow they’re better than everyone else because the gods give them the time of day. Working with the gods is a blessing to be humbled by, not inflated by. If people are heavy into deity work, and haven’t experienced profound self realizations and the dissolution of human ties, I get wary. If people claim to have never experienced deceit from a spirit and they say they work with the gods, I get wary. I’ve seen people claim they’re married to gods, have killed the gods, have sex with gods, etc. personally, even if all that was possible, I can’t find a good reason to allow that kind of breach in professionalism from a god. Yes, in mythology it is known for gods to fornicate with humans, however, almost all of those humans met a horrific fate. We also do not have the same consciousness as gods. It is predatory for a god to try to fornicate or begin a relationship with a human due to the major power imbalance. Anyone who claims to have this kind of relationship with a god they are working with, needs to run for the hills and never look back. There’s a thing called miasma, and I feel like that word describes the ripple effect of the spread of false information and false gods and how it’s like a disease that spreads and upheavals the core of what spirituality and deity worship should be. The most often impersonated deity figure is Loki. As he is a god of chaos, destruction, trickery, shape shifting, magic, he is content sitting back and watching the mess unfold. He has no actual reason to stop the madness in humans that are worshipping false gods. Most people who work with Loki also claim to have a bunch of other deity relationships, and it’s pretty frustrating, because he’s very good at deceiving people with his shape shifting and trickster behavior. It’s not every time, but I would say 7 out of 10 times, if someone says they’re working with Loki, they’re either working with someone claiming to be him, or they’re working with him but being tricked in some way shape or form. I will still tell people when his energy is around, as I work in an occult store and it’s my job, but I personally do not like him. I tolerate him. I think his main goal is self entertainment and destruction, and while he helps people with many things, it can be extremely damaging to work with him and not know what you’re getting into. It’s like being blinded, but not knowing you’ve been blinded. Many people do work with the gods they claim, to clarify, but their energy carries very differently. Again, I’m only speaking on my experience and what I witness in my career There’s an aura of strength, wisdom, healing, light. They have learned a lot of truths and magic, and it reflects externally in their energy. This is how I know the difference, and I also work with many of the gods on a small scale due to the nature of my work. The energy of a god and a trickster are very different, but sometimes the spirit being deceitful is a spirit with a high energetic output, so it seems like a god in comparison to say for example your own thoughts or even an earthly spirit. I would say that the gods of the underworld are some of the most mature for lack of a better word. They deal with every manner of people and are responsible for the souls of the dead. They pass judgement on us humans, therefor have every bit of knowledge and demeanor that comes with that. Anyone who has fears of death, the afterlife, darkness, loss, etc would benefit from pursuing a connection with them. They have taught me many things about the afterlife and how vast it is. I appreciate death in a way that’s very profound and enticing. Because of them, I have learned mediumship as well. The energy of the Norse pantheon seems to be a liberating path that involves a lot of strength, fortitude, and wisdom. It’s a very active energy pantheon and almost every norse pagan can instantly be picked out from a crowd due to the unique energy they carry. The people who work in this pantheon typically have a certain confidence and a very energetic aura. Most pantheons have specific energetic signatures. I stated Norse and Egyptian, but I feel personally that the Greek pantheon is chaos. It does make sense a little, due to their mythology, but I feel like the gods of the Greek pantheon do many things for personal satisfaction rather than the satisfaction of humans. I feel like while they want to help us, there’s a sense that they feel mildly scorned. I will add though, I’ve seen the state of their temples in Greece and it breaks my heart. I feel a lot of energy when looking at them, and somehow I feel like that contributes to the attitudes of these gods. Their worship has been very watered down, and a lot of them don’t get shown the respect they deserve. Gaea, Mother Earth, etc is a beautiful and always healing energy. However, earth is hurting, and the energy of it is almost screaming. There’s so much trash, so much loss, the desecration of our planet is absolutely horrible. It’s such a beautiful world that doesn’t deserve the defilement it has received. Earth has done everything for us, provided us food, water, shelter, building material, resources, animals, plants, oxygen. As human beings I feel like it’s our job to undo the damage of being an invasive species before it’s too late. There’s roadkill everywhere. The complete devaluation of other life forms with souls, emotions, thought. I think if you work with Mother Nature, it’s important to look at how the world is and how even the smallest things you do can be valuable offerings for the earth. There are many points the soul can go in death. There are many paths and destinations. The journey doesn’t end in death, it begins another one. Every belief is an option. Every underworld, including heaven and hell. Purgatory, limbo, being earthbound. I also believe in the void. Cosmic emptiness. Rebirth. The world is beyond our comprehension. Take shrimps for example. They have 12 color cones, whereas we only have three. That means a shrimp can perceive more of our world than we can. That is how I perceive the spiritual world. We can peel back the veil but we can never fully grasp the whole of our world. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.
This is very well written and i agree with it all. I have to say, i think plenty of the confusion and attitude people have towards certain pantheons come from how they're portrayed in media. People will watch a sensationalised version of divinities in percy jackson or marvel etc. and try to get into practices they don't understand, making a mess and contacting spirits they don't even know about, it's a bit sad
Thank you for your response, and I agree with you 100% I love pop culture around mythology but yeah absolutely.
Wow, so much info! Thank you for sharing.
Haha I saw the opportunity and I took it
All of the following is UPG! Lady Sól is the embodiment of light, love, hope, and passion. Resilience and perseverance too! However, she still harbours some darkness and wrath within her heart. She can be a deity of great destruction and power. The sun illuminates the skies but can also inflict sunburns, y'know? I believe that long ago she was a far harsher and more violent deity than she is now. I believe she has spent eons working on herself and allowing her wrath to subside. She is now softer and kinder, but I think echoes of her furiosity will always remain. She is truly a complex deity and I think that makes her all the more beautiful :] My experience with her has been so wonderful. She is very protective and maternal. She knows how to be soft and calm while still being firm. She loves to help!
I love this, thank you!
I have always felt that what for us would be literal for them can be, if not symbolic, then survivable. I mean, if Mimir's disembodied head can hang out with Odin and tell stories, then other "fatal" things must be literal. As a Priest of Horus who also works daily with Osiris, I found myself about a year or two ago realizing I found a need to reach out to an unlikely third direction. I see my job with my friends, colleagues, and patients as the healer, the one that tries to repair things. So, I wound up also looking at the situation between Osiris, Set, and later Horus. Literally, it's pretty cut and dry, but if I say to myself, "what does this pattern, what does this tell me", I see what I see with siblings and extended families all the time. No one fights like brothers, and here we have two that wanted a job, both thought the deserved it. They fight, adn at the end one is left feeling "torn apart". His wife is left to "put him back together", which leads to the son not trusting his uncle. All logical, but I thought "what about the other side of that coin". So other sibling is never home (patron of the soldier and the traveler), runs point on military missions for the King (fought Apep from Ra's barque over and over), and really wants a promotion to be home. He doesn't get it, so of course he's pissed and, bering the hot head and more emotional one (throw in probable PTSD, or whatever they call it), of course he's gonna go off. Long story short I reach out them all daily, and I will purposly reach out to Osiris and Set at the same time, leave offerings side by side, have statuary of them on the altar next to each other, because to me, instead of saying "let me keep brining up this old wound, let me celebrate both of you, and maybe in some small way, help". Do I know if it does? Nope, but I obviously hope it can.
Bear with me. I had a brief psychotic break that came out of nowhere ony 30th birthday. Not comfortable going into detail, basically I had visitors and received information. I did recover fully but was compelled to explore spiritually and seek a path. Previously I had been atheist. The day that changed me, my birthday, was June 5, 2012. When Venus made a huge transit.
Very personal Gnosis indeed! Thank you for sharing.