Who are your Gods? For many modern pagans the answer is the Sun, Moon, Earth, Ocean and many other facets of nature. We see and feel our Gods on a daily basis. Every time the wind blows across our face, or we feel the warmth of the sun on numb hands on a cold November day. Our gods are always with us the Sky we breathe in sustains us the Earth supports us always. They may be called upon by different names but it doesn't much matter if you call the Sun Balder, Yamatetsu, Ra, Apollo or whatever it's still the sun. Names are just that names they are words, human inventions, simple symbols. They are not the thing itself. If we wish to know our gods we must cultivate our relationship with them as any other. We must pay more attention to them and their actions than to the stories others tell about them.
The gods make themselves known, and speak to us. They don't speak with words, or at least I've never heard any voices boom out of the sky. The divine speaks in the language of action and experience. When plants stretch towards the life-giving light of the sun they are reacting to it. They could be said to hear and turn their ears to listen more closely to the Sun song which sustains them.
The sky has never written a book. The wind, however; leaves its trace over time in the shapes of trees, the earth and it' s other relatives. The Sky whether you call him Odin, God, Zeus, the Horned God or the Great Spirit, sustains us. We breathe him in and he gives us life. We exhale and return a part of ourselves to him. The ocean, seas, lakes and rivers also touch us every day. Her names are many; Poseidon, Reas, Mother ocean, but when she touches us it feels exactly the same regardless of the name used. When we thirst , she gives of herself and sooths our parched lips.
I've never heard her speak in English or any other language of human invention. She does talk to me, but only if I listen patiently with all of my senses. Then I can hear her song changing the streambed, or see her dancing with the trees as the wind keeps the rhythm.
Dale Ivarie