Devoured by Flame

Communication with the Gods is not an easy thing to do nor is it hard – it is natural. However, when things get in the way of our natural human inclinations, it can be difficult to unclog all of that and get into a place where you mentally are able to receive and send messages to the Gods. You store this function in your brain where you store other things like emotions, trauma, mental, emotional, and physical problems and everything else that comes as a natural reaction to being a part of this very complicated world we live in.

Before religion became what it is today, being a monastic would be one of the many paths that one can take to hear the voices of the Gods. We do not know for certain what kind of monastics there were within pre-Christian polytheist cultures but we can take a fair guess considering there has always been an account of holy people who make their living based on catering to the Divine. In most religions we see these holy people sacrificing a part of themselves in order to maintain a consistent connection with the Divine and to continue to build the religion they were in. The sacrifice often included not having a family around you, not being treated the same way as your peers, being unable to be wealthy and have a consistent job, and being unable to live a full life that is often granted to other people. This often came in the form of vows of silence, chastity, and poverty. 

This level of space is necessary to function as a gateway for the Divine though it is hard to come by in our hyperactive modern world. We still see it today in modern monks as well as Buddhist philosophy, among other monastic traditions. They do not live a life of simplicity for the sake of themselves, they do it for the Divine within and without. 

Though we do not have convents or monasteries in the neopagan traditions, we can bring forth certain ideas from the monastics in order to be more aware of what it takes in order to discern, communicate, and form better relationships with the Divine no matter what level of devoted you are. 

We seem to keep thumping our heads against how we can be perfect people by trying harder and doing better in order to make ourselves be open and aware of the Gods. When asked about how to discern our voice from Theirs, most answers are “you just will get it” or “maybe someday you’ll realize it.” We try to not make anyone else wrong when they claim to hear the words of the Gods but in most cases, those who make hefty claims are often scrutinized – often rightly so. 

There seems to often be a case of black and white with mediums or seers or anyone who has made attempts to be aware and open to the voices of the Gods. We have scrutinized those who carry the Gods by testing Them to be 100% correct or not at all and completely disregard the very human aspect of what it takes to truly form a connection and ignore a very important tenet for mystics anywhere – “know thyself.” 

Instead of whether we are totally right or totally wrong, we need to ask ourselves what stands in the way between us and the Gods? What gets in the way of our channels that we are born with as humans? What are we inclined to believe is true about the Divine? 

In this series of posts, I’m going to get into where our tendencies seem to lean when listening for the voices of the Gods based on experiential and observational learning. I’ll make note what has worked for me as well as others in relating this into our everyday lives. 

For right now, I think it is necessary to talk about what we need to give up in order to make ourselves more open and aware of the Divine. We cannot have our cake and eat it too, something has to give and let go of before we can truly realize our fullest potential as humans who live in connection to the Gods. We cannot blame ourselves for feeling these things as most of it is a natural human reaction to the way society commands us to be. Most of us in the West desire results, black and white answers, and a rationalized way of being. It must be a linear pathway between moralistic integrity and declination of our species when it doesn’t have to be one or the other.

We can, in fact, be mystical and rational at the same time. We can make ourselves aware of the voices of the Divine and also be able to keep ourselves grounded and sane. We can also assist others in hearing Them without perpetuating the idea that we are somehow more worthy of hearing voices than others and place ourselves on pedestals whether we realize that’s what we’re doing or not. 

So here are a list of some of the ways in which we need to let ourselves be comfortable as well as ways you can apply them to your life. 

Being Wrong

When it comes to hearing the Gods, we must first accept that in order for all of what you know to be true, it has to also be false at the same time. That, in its purest form, requires humility and respect for both our nature and the Divine’s.

No one likes being wrong. We don’t like questioning ourselves, who we follow, or what we’re doing. We don’t like repurposing our ways to fit something else. We also don’t like going down this path and not realizing that who we’ve been contacting all along hasn’t been who we thought we were. 

This kind of thing, however, is required to make ourselves be a little more open to receiving the Gods. We want to tell ourselves we have Them figured out but the paradox of being a mystic is learning how to be wrong just as much as it is learning how to be right. Both sides of the coin are just as scary as the other, and both sides come with a sort of consolation prize of being that much closer to the truth of the matter. 

Holding two things that are seemingly opposite at once is a good way of starting. Arguments online about whether the Gods behave one way over others is essentially not useful if you have to be able to realize that the Gods are not what we want Them to be and will present Themselves in a plethora of ways in however way They want to. 

The Gods are also capable of changing Their minds about things so by asserting we are right about something takes away Their agency to tell us otherwise. For example, if we’ve been offering mead because it feels important because we are Norse pagan, but the God in question isn’t a big fan of mead – but your tradition says otherwise – then do you offer it? In my opinion, no. Save the mead for another Deity who likes it.

Dissociation and Escapism

This doesn’t mean that your mind is a big empty void without worries, biases, or trauma. This means that it is clear enough without “gunk” or distractions. When we are wanting to clear our minds we are needing to go from one state of mind to another. If you are worried about who liked your post on Instagram, if you have a running Discord of a thousand people, or if you want to dissociate on Tiktok, it’s going to be a lot harder to alter your mind in a way that is meaningful. 

It’s not that you have to completely shove yourself into an antisocial hole in the ground, but it is important to self regulate when you realize you are using social media to dissociate and escape.

Dissociating is often used when we are unable to deal with our day-to-day functionalities. It is normal and it can be considered healthy in smaller doses as it is a coping mechanism. The same brain functionality that triggers this lack of awareness is the same brain functionality that is used in meaningful meditation practice and facilitates a way to decrease anxiety. 

Realizing when and how often you use things like social media, streaming platforms, games, and other things that take you out of your body and into your head is necessary for growing your capacity to listen to yourself and your thoughts. If we cannot listen to ourselves, we cannot listen to the Gods, either. To be able to differentiate the voices of the Gods from our own, we would need to hear it first. 

This is not easy in this modern age of cell phones and internet connectivity. Finding a way to break out of this takes a lot of patience and often therapy. We have become a population who seeks to numb ourselves to the stresses of the world around us by seeking more stimulation. We have replaced our natural inclination to dopamine highs for mass-produced media. What once gave us satisfaction has been reduced to media and memes. 

What I’m not saying is you need to give up media in exchange for mystical experiences however, the correlation to how often we feel the need to dissociate with the stimulation of media and the capacity of our brains to also listen to our inner voices as well as the Gods is pretty causal. 

I personally have found going through media “fasts” disconnects my brain from the addiction of doom scrolling and social media. I’ve arrived at the conclusion that in order for me to have a meaningful spiritual life, I need to step away from social media. And I have – and then, once I felt that I was ready to be in a healthy relationship with it again, I added what was meaningful and thoughtful and restorative to me rather than the hyper drama of before. 

I have replaced mindless scrolling with creation. I have adapted many hobbies into my regular routine instead of looking at what’s happening on Facebook or being up to date with the news and the horrors of the world. Instead of sharing content and finding content to share that exacerbates my own bias, I have resorted to primarily creating and writing my own, and then listening and engaging with other people’s content. Separating my own opinions and having my own experiences has truly opened up a lot of space that was otherwise taken up by other people’s ways and beliefs. 

Become more engaged with your body

I know I sound like a broken record from all other spiritual resources when I say that mindfulness and exercise are extremely helpful when creating a restorative kind of spirituality. 

When I say restorative, I mean a kind of peace that allows you to withstand and become more resilient to your surroundings rather than react. Resilience is not allowing things to punch you down and tolerating toxic behaviors – it is providing yourself the resources to engage more thoughtfully with whatever is going on in your life. 

The best way to build resilience is to provide yourself moments where you don’t have to be engaged with the external world and look inward instead. We have spoken of your mind going inside, but our physical bodies need some place to put all of the energy that is built up over time throughout the day. Think of exercise like cleansing the body of what it has retained in responses to triggers of stress and other situations you endure, and regulating it back to homeostasis. 

As someone who has both autism and ADHD, I have personally found walking to be a key part of my spiritual practice. Walking not only engages my body, it takes my mind away from my phone, and it brings me back to myself. Most of my most meaningful conversations I’ve had with the Gods have been through walking a familiar path. Familiarity is helpful because I don’t have to think about where I’m going, what I’ll run into, and how long I’m there. I have an estimate of the amount of time it takes to walk the path, I know how crowded it is and when, and I know what to expect along it so I don’t have to actively think about my surroundings. It’s like a trance at that point. Certain parts of the trail I become more connected and I have found there’s always checkpoints along it that give me memories of being connected to Whomever I am talking to. 

Eventually, it becomes magical and spiritual and there’s nothing that could replace a particular kind of path or trail. I usually make sure it is at least 2-3 miles long if not more. That gives me about an hour to an hour and a half of my day to unwind and walk. 

Walking is something that most people can find useful and restorative but if you are unable to walk due to physical limitations, being outside at all is useful. Being on a porch, on a park bench, or even just being by a window is helpful. No cell phones are needed, nor computer desks. Doing this for at least a couple minutes a day can become something you look forward to instead of being distracted all the time. 

Otherwise, taking on a new outdoor hobby like hiking, biking and camping is also a good way to facilitate this experience. Hiking is free and you can build more gear over time, and camping is a good escape that is often cost effective. If you have no one to go with, there are hiking groups around the country. If not, even finding a small nature trail is better than nothing. 

Expectations

We want the Gods to look and behave a certain way. Even when we think we are allowing Them Their own way of talking to you, we all have our own built-in dialogue with how we think things need to go or what They need to sound like. We feel as if we know Them because we have assumptions and even assuming we cannot know Them, we are making an assumption. 

Traditions have their own beliefs about the way Gods are inclined to behave and that is something to consider when you are taking on a tradition is just how biased that can be.

However, in exchange for giving up our expectations, we are also allowing a much more powerful source to be a part of our lives. We would have to refrain from a certain amount of autonomy over allowing another Being to step in the way of what we want for our world.

The Gods – regardless of Who They are and which one you are referring to – are inherently catalysts. It is almost impossible to have authentic engagement with Them and not have any meaningful changes. It is a fear that we have as humans to only want people to respond in some way or form even if that response is warranted. Having a conversation with a God can be extremely life-changing no matter how faint or how short it is. 

Time

Time is often something that we have very little of in our day-to-day lives. We tend to feel as though we are never having enough of it. We do have to give time to the Gods if we wish to hone our own discernment and bring awareness to Their presence in our lives. It doesn’t really matter how that looks or where you find Them to be, what is meaningful is that you are not avoiding it in lieu of something less. 

There is no morality equated with how often you give time to the Gods – the only correlation is dependent on how devoted you wish to be. If five minutes of your day is all you have to give them, then giving Them that five minutes without fail takes a lot more effort and devotion than someone who gives an hour to Them but only sporadically and only enough until they feel content. 

Eventually, you may find that having this connection is worth more time and you find what needs to be given up in order to do this. Some things cannot be given up – it doesn’t make you less of a devotee. Some things, however, if that thing isn’t giving back to you the same amount of time you are giving them, it is probably not worth having around. 

There was a point in my life where I was dependent on a spiritual group to give my path meaning and purpose. I was reliant on other people to make me feel safe and okay in it. However, I figured out that the amount of time, finances, and meaning I was giving it was not being given back to me. Doing something for other people only for them to be passive and not keep to their word over and over again is not worth keeping around especially where the Gods are involved.

We all have something to give. And it all has its own place in our lives. Whether that’s giving up self-righteousness, indulgence, superiority, popularity, or even if it’s giving up energy or effort, we all can make sacrifices where the Gods are involved and pray that they are being met in kind. 

At the end of the day, if you are not being given the same amount of appreciation and devotion from the Gods that you are worth, then that means it is likely to find other relationships with other Deities or perhaps you need to readjust your expectations in the first place. 

I have found that whenever giving too much and receiving too little is unbalanced, it is usually because my expectations of how things should look like, the way in which the Deity wishes to be present in my life, and the demands of my life in general are needing to be redefined. 

It is important to note that the deeper you get with the Divine, the more you are expected to give. This isn’t because it is punishment, but often if They are wishing to progress things further, it can take sacrifice. The sacrifice can come in the form of loss of relationships, loss of a job or friends, or even moving across the country in search of looking for that next step in your path. The longer you are engaged with Them, the more it will take for you to maintain the connection. Sometimes it happens naturally without you realizing it. 

Each of the losses I’ve endured over the time I’ve spent with Loki all ended up benefiting me as well as benefiting my relationship with Him in some form or another. On the outside, it may look terrifying – and it is – but it is sustainable and meaningful. Ultimately, I have found myself at peace with where I am and who I keep in my life. All of this eventually emboldens my relationship with Him and also makes my communication a lot more discernible and evident. 

Hopefully you can find some meaning from this as well and if you did, please give me a comment or reblog. Feedback is always welcome and appreciated regardless of what kind.

Next, I’ll be talking about how we can use these tools to make sense of what our minds are processing when it comes to actually communicating with the Gods and what receiving meaningful communication from Them looks like no matter how receptive you are.