Devoured by Flame

How do I know whether my message is received? How do I know it’s Them responding?

No one can really know for sure whether or not you’re speaking to the Deity you think you are. There are certain ways, however, to know whether it is possible you are speaking to the right one or not but it takes an immense amount of trial and error. This is why experimentation is somewhat the most important way to get through this sort of discernment. It’s important to be open to being wrong no matter how hard it is and how many other people think it’s right while also holding onto the fact that you might also have been right while other people have told you otherwise. 

However, if a message has been received and it is appropriate to respond to, the Gods tend to respond in Their own time. Most answers to questions I’ve ever asked Loki have gotten back to me and most of the time He has guided me to the answer in some way or shape. Often, finding resources, listening to songs on shuffle, things popping into my mind at random are all the ways in which He has responded to my questions before I got close to Him in the way that hearing Him is not much of a problem anymore.

This isn’t to say They will not respond to you if They don’t feel like it, but also you would need to be open to any response. If you’re waiting for Their answer and assuming it’s going to be one way or another, that’s likely going to put you back in the spiral of confirming for yourself the same things without ever really going anywhere. It’s like talking to yourself into an echo chamber of your own creation. Typically, most of the time, you will find nuance in the answer you receive that is intellectually stimulating and new material. There are typically layers to the response that you don’t normally see until well after the answer has been given. It’s like solving for pieces of a puzzle that fit into place in the grand scheme of things.

Answers are not normally single-minded thoughts you find on the internet but rather are more complex in the way that they can be mostly two seemingly contradicting ideas at the same time. Allowing for contradictions to be a sole part of this process allows you to open more to the idea that the Gods exist in the liminal rather than concrete. This work can be steered in multiple directions at the same time, and not one single fact is going to be categorically correct.

For instance, if you ask the Gods questions that are heavily conflated with your own insecurities (i.e. incapable of acknowledging self-worth, self-esteem, and ability) the answers can tend to get muddled. It will be difficult to acknowledge a concrete answer about these ideas given you are so heavily leaning on your own personal bias and narrative about who you are to Them rather than what They Themselves are telling you.

It is not impossible, though, to have a more direct form of communication with a Deity. Though it is rare and difficult to find authentically, there is a way of being able to clear your own forms of biases and thought patterns while having the Gods pull through your filters and can more easily tell you what they need to say. Until that point, finding an answer requires trial and error, time, and repeated experimentation until you feel like you know what you’re hearing.

Assuming you know all parts of what They are saying from the start is a bias already and not even those who speak more plainly with the Gods have any idea of what They might be doing. So it is best to approach these sorts of things with humility and respect and not allow for others beyond the Gods to dictate what’s in front of you.

The Deities will not play with you and treat you like dirt for fun.

They will, however, force you to learn where you’re going is the wrong path. It may seem like They are playing games when it’s really you who isn’t listening well and assuming things are going the way they are because you can’t wrap your brain around it yet. This is not a moral failing and it’s built into the way the Gods have dealt with humans. It does not mean it can’t be frustrating for both parties, though.

This learning can take the form of what would widely look like abuse on the surface level of the behavior. Obviously, it’s not okay. Obviously, we should never be abused by anyone let alone a God. However, there’s typically a point behind the behavior and a lesson to learn. 

So would a Deity treat you like crap? Yes. But not for the ways or reasons you automatically think They would.

The Divine are different from what you typically assume They would be. There is a significant amount of nuance behind the face that They wear for the common devotee and even when you unmask the multitudes of faces, there’s still many more to uncover. If you are knowing Them at face-value from what you read in the myths, you don’t know Them as well as you think you do. 

We have what society has made the Gods out to be and we have what They have agreed that They are to humans. We will never really know what it is They want to be for us unless we talk to Them and do the work in listening for a response. Until that day comes, we have a lot of work to do in redefining our relationship to Them and resolving whatever conflicts we hold within each of us that determine an answer before ever going to the Deity and reaching for an answer.

Troubleshooting

The first rule of Deity communication is to “know thyself.” You cannot do Deity work in an authentic way unless you are unwilling to be honest with yourself first about what it is you are wanting, what you’re trying to do with it, and where you’re going. If you don’t have an honest evaluation of who you are as a person, you cannot discover your inner Divinity and therefore communication with the Divine is going to be difficult.

A good rule of thumb is if you find yourself repeatedly asking the same question to the Deity in question and getting varying answers, you should then look at yourself and figure out why you’re asking it in the first place. If the answer for your “why” is an issue with your personal insecurity and trauma, you may need to take a deeper look at yourself and figure out why this keeps being an issue.

Instead of asking questions about “when am I going to get this thing” or “how is this happening”, ask “why” as in “why does this keep happening?”, “what do I need to learn to know the answer myself?” and “where is this going and where am I going because of it?”  

Taking out blame, shame, and guilt from your relationships with your Gods because of your lack of going within to find the answers, you will then be more capable of going without, as well. Once you resolve these feelings of not being the “right” way or doing the “right” thing, and what you “should” be doing, you will open up a wider range of possibilities of who you can be with the Divine and where you’re going on your spiritual journey.

Worried about making things up or being delusional? 

Delusional thinking is often a symptom of an already evident problem, psychosis, and other misalignment of energy due to other issues in your health. Delusions can be things like feelings of self grandiosity, fear about things that are not based in reality, paranoid assumptions about people, places or things that overwhelm you, and notions that you are in danger or putting other people in danger constantly. 

If you think you are deriving these answers from the Gods based on reasons that are not already prevalent in your life and you find that your quality of life is shifting rapidly into a downward spiral, seek mental and medical evaluation immediately. You will likely need to be treated for other mental or medical issues that often impact your discernment. It is recommended that you seek help before ever getting involved with the Gods in this way.

However, if you are hearing the words of the Gods and feel like your life is improving, things are going in your favor, and you noticed an almost permanent shift in the quality of life in a way that is positive, you shouldn’t be worried about delusional thinking. If you are improving, things are changing, and life is going the way it needs to be, it is more likely that you’re on the right track and you shouldn’t be concerned about it.

Regardless of whatever way you’re going, I highly recommend seeing a therapist anyway and even if they are not spiritually inclined. It is not that your mundane life needs to be in complete order before you start going down this path, but you need to do the ground-level thinking that can inhibit your previously mentioned issues.

A mundane illness that impacts your energy, ability to respond in an appropriate way, and otherwise physical depletion of energy, pain, and etc., can also impact the way you respond to the Gods. Your pain management, energy levels, and exertion all can play a role in how you respond to different kinds of stimulation which is what the Gods often manipulate to better get through to humans. If you are sick with a cold, flu, virus, and so on, it also can significantly impact the way you are capable of responding to the Gods.

It’s important to not beat yourself up when this happens. All of this is a normal side effect of being human and existing in the material world and the Gods will more often than not know what is going on and can even assist you in finding proper treatment or cure given the way it impacts your relationship with Them. 

The most important matter is that all of this is supposed to heal you, not destroy your relationships, control your environment, or become your worst nightmare without reason. The Gods are inherently healing, and the closer you are to the Gods, the more effective that your healing can be. Manipulation, games, and other unhealthy and toxic environments that are set up to control you are not the nature of the Gods but rather that which is toxified by humans. 

Sometimes Deities use the means of these sorts of things to force you to take a better look at yourself as They can often magnify problems you’re already having even without Them ever interceding. This is more often than not a merciful reaction to something that interferes with the relationship you want to have with Them, and not something that They do because you’ve done something wrong to Them or for Them. 

It is not punishment if things aren’t working out for you or you happen upon bad luck. You’re not going to be smited if you can’t remember your offerings, but you will shoot yourself in the foot for thinking you will or being paranoid that Deities are inherently dangerous beings who can off you because They feel like it.

Deities magnify things in your life that aren’t working typically right off the bat. It isn’t because They are mean, but because this is due to Their very large nature as well as Their relationship with humans. They long to be close to humans, and learning these things about ourselves is important for that intimacy. 

In Summary

The most important part of beginning communication with the Gods is to realize that we don’t know everything about the nature of the Gods and we cannot go into this sort of relationship having assumed all the things you read by other people are valid. It is important that we learn to discern our own biases from the sources that tell us that it’s okay to assume one thing or another. It is also important to realize that we are inherently flawed when it comes to reading situations that aren’t there due to trauma and other factors in our lives. 

So when discerning and learning how to pick up on Divine messages, it’s important to note that it’s a trial and error rather than a tried and true formula. You have to go about it on your own and fail a good amount before you truly are capable of learning and picking up. If a Deity wants to talk to you, They will guide you on the way towards that no matter what it takes or how you think you’re insulting Them. 

I will soon be posting an introduction to advanced technique where I’ll be speaking about channeling and mediumship and how to begin doing all of that in an appropriate, ethical, and safe way. Stay tuned!