So, the question of “belief” in Pagan practice has been on my mind a lot in recent months. Many people have claimed to have seen, heard, or felt spiritual phenomena and experienced things not explainable by modern science.
Among Pagans, the degree of belief in the existence of deities or otherworldy phenomena vary widely. Many believe in the literal existence of deities. Other people see the deities as simply aspects of the Universe or of a greater, perhaps monotheistic-like deity. I have on my bookshelf a book entitled “Godless Paganism.” It talks about the way that people who are atheist or agnostic approach their Paganism. Many “godless” practitioners might view the deities as just archetypes, or avoid any mention of any deity altogether.
Communicating with the other world
Many Pagans, will report that they also “hear” or otherwise receive communications and guidance from deities. This really kind of confused me at first in my early days as a Pagan. These spiritual phenomena aren’t necessarily considered essential to Pagan practice but it’s something many people engage in.
There are many ways that people try to communicate with the deities. Some people see signs in their rituals or even mundane lives that seem to answer their prayers. Some will do divination through tarot readings. Some engage in what might be referred to as “automatic writing.” And some people report that thoughts and ideas spontaneously come to them. In Wicca and some other paths, people will often “invoke” a deity or spirit by drawing the spirit within themselves—a process known as “aspecting.” This is not to invite possession but to be closer and communicate more clearly with the spirit. Wicca rituals that I attended years ago would have someone invoke a god or goddess and they would sometime speak as if the deity was speaking.
My own experiences
As a new Pagan a number of years ago, it was strange for me to see people doing things like this. I wondered how real it was. I saw one good friend do such a convincing invocation of Loki it actually scared his girlfriend a bit.
I haven’t engaged in such rituals in a very long time, as I opted instead to develop a personal practice. Initially, I was reluctant to even involve deities, but gradually began to feel more drawn to the idea. Eventually I settled upon three whom I felt like I could connect well with and who had similar and complementary intentions to my own. Eventually I felt the need to write down some of the things I thought I was hearing. So I have been doing so.
But in doing so, I have found myself really questioning myself. Am I really communicating with deities? Am I receiving the message accurately or am I missing things? Is this spiritual phenomenon real? Or is this simply my own idle, or perhaps idol fancy?
Deity communication: Christian and Pagan versions
I was recently shocked to learn that Southern Baptist preachers usually do not receive the formal education that clergy in other denominations receive. Many simply declare publicly that God has specifically called them to ministry. Then a church votes to give them a license to serve. This also happens with some pastors in other denominations or non-denominational churches.
I imagine that there are perfectly decent preachers who are ordained in this way. But we have also seen plenty of examples of what happens when people confuse their own ego with “the word of God.” It is unfortunately common to hear preachers proclaim that God told them things. Many of those things “God told them” are downright hateful, such as God’s alleged hatred of the LGBTQIA community. When people believe such preachers, this paves the way for frightening power and abuse. So when thinking about communication with otherworldly entities in Pagan practice, seeing this would be enough to give any ethical Pagan pause.
The Pagan community has informally developed some concepts that can serve as guardrails against such abuse of power. If someone has heard a specific message from a deity and no else is known to have done so, this becomes known as unverified personal gnosis or UPG for short. It doesn’t pass judgment on the statement, but puts it in context. There is also something called “shared personal gnosis” or SPG where two or people will hear identical messages from a deity independently of each other. While shared personal gnosis might be considered more convincing, it shouldn’t in and of itself be considered proof of the truthfulness of a situation.
Are these spiritual phenomena real?
But going back to belief, a reasonable Pagan may ask, “Am I really hearing the voice of this deity and am I hearing them accurately? Or is something else going on?”
Three questions come to mind when thinking about this: 1) Does the deity exist? 2) Are they communicating with me? and 3) If 1 and 2 are true, am I hearing them accurately? 1 and 2 could be considered simple “yes” or “no” answers. 3 is more of a question of degree than a simple “yes” or “no” answer.
But there is yet another possibility worth considering that doesn’t necessarily answer the above questions, but which provides another way to look at the phenomenon. It’s quite possible that when we imagine ourselves communicating with a deity, our minds begin to think about how they might respond. So, essentially, we are putting ourselves in their shoes, and by doing so we could obtain insight that way. This could be true regardless of whether or not the deity exists. Maybe it’s in putting ourselves in their shoes that they actually communicate with us.
This approach to spirituality is less belief-based. And while The Skeptical Witch hasn’t put forward this theory, she has put forward other non-belief based approaches to Paganism Her YouTube channel is worth following regardless of one’s own personal skepticism. I myself am less skeptical. But The Skeptical Witch’s point of view is also valid. So is that of the person who has literal belief in deities and communicating with them.
I myself do a lot of journal writing and. I also write down in a separate journal what I think the deity I’m working with is saying. It’s noteworthy that I see a very distinct difference in tone in my writing when trying to represent what the deity is saying. In talking with the deity, I see ideas and insights come up that haven’t otherwise appeared in my own journal writing.
Does it matter if these spiritual phenomena are real?
Does it matter if these spiritual phenomena are literally real? Let’s think about this for a second.
Religions have grappled for centuries over the notion that certain spiritual phenomena are in fact to be taken literally. At some point in societal development, religions began to codify their beliefs and sometimes they got very specific. A lot of times this was done to resolve arguments, with the Christian Council of Nicaea being a classic example. And today, a lot of modern humans argue over the validity of such things. A lot of people are very concerned about what the “right” answer to the question might be.
But why must we be so exacting? Isn’t it fine, for example, to accept that we don’t really know what happens after death? And isn’t it fine to accept that we really don’t know whether the deities we pray to actually exist or really are saying what they’re saying?
The notion of a perfect and infallible god seems to be mostly confined to the Abrahamic religions. Such a concept might be comforting, but it also becomes problematic when humans try to speak for such a god.
Pagan deities generally have not been considered infallible. I don’t suspend my critical thinking just because of what I perceive are words coming from the the deity. The deities I work with, in fact, absolutely don’t want me to suspend my critical thinking for them. They would see it as inhibiting my growth.
The spiritual phenomena of words
I would argue that if we are asking whether certain spiritual phenomena are real, we are asking the wrong question.
Here’s a challenging question: What is more important–who Jesus was or what he said? I don’t know what percentage of Christians believe that what Jesus taught is more important than who he was. I would imagine that it is quite a small percentage. Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection and the notion that he died for our sins is widely considered a cornerstone of the Christian faith. Many non-Christians, including myself, are less interested in what his spiritual station might be and are more interested in what he said.
Given that Pagan deities are not considered infallible, the question of whether we are dealing with actual words from the gods becomes less important. Not everything they say has to be gospel. What is more important is the value of the message conveyed.
When I write down what I think I hear, I look at what’s written. Is it insightful? Does it have value? Is this something that I can learn from?
Yes, if I believe the words came from the deity I communicated with, certainly that can feel uplifting to me. But I would argue that it’s the value of the words that have the potential to stand the true test of time.