I want to start by saying this isn’t an argument that the Gods are only stories, but quite the opposite. I am wanting to relay the fact that we have been framing the Gods as only stories rather than unique beings with Their own influence on this world that we can get to know better without dogma or suppression upon our ideas through modern setbacks.
The Gods work through people and create inspiration. This isn’t a new idea, but it is one that I feel that we are going about all wrong. We have been distanced from the Gods for quite a while in the way that a lot of the ways in which They are being represented are false and not true to who They are. If we are wanting to further this praxis, we will have to go about it differently and this is my proposal as to how that is accomplished.
Deities Aren’t Archetypes
Deities are not material beings and so the ways in which They store energy are not material at all. In fact, They are so enormous that They cannot even fit inside a single archetype which will derail a lot of arguments that that’s who They are. It is okay to see that Their function can exist within an archetype’s realm, but that’s not who They are entirely. The main theme of archetypes function in and out of stories that are universal to the human experience, but that’s not who humans are, either. They are themes and placements of aligning categories under one entire idea rather than allowing the nuance for who is there underneath the category to just be what it is They are.
A metaphor for how we can understand the Gods better would be to look at the ways in which stories progress through the years. People add on to stories things that make the most sense in their culture. For example, we see the same fairy tales in different cultures appear in ways that make more sense to the way that the culture appears. That’s why fairy tales in some cultures are darker than others but have the same root and idea.
For example, the Three Little Pigs fairy tale applies the rule of three within the story to tell which pig is going to withstand the wolf involved in the story. However, you can see where the rule of three archetypes exists as a rule within several other stories, as we see the three sisters in Cinderella, three brothers in the fairy tale of the same name, three witches in Macbeth, etc. wherein one stands out among the other two and depicts a more truthful narration about where the story is going and the others play a part in framing it. This is a themed archetype whereas the colorful background is more around the story. The story has nuance and cultural relevance whereas the archetype is bland and can fit any sort of paradigm it’s placed into.
So, if we think of the Gods as stories instead of archetypes, we can see where the narration leads us to grow with the values and framework as a truth of the wider whole rather than a perspective of a common theme. Their values and ways are different and arrive at different points, but the ways in which it is accomplished is critical to the culture and the stories behind it. It is not relevant unless it has a function it plays in the tale itself and that is the Gods in the bigger picture of the story of the universe.
The Gods are Involved in Storytelling
The Gods built the stories around Themselves to give humans a better framework to tell Their stories using ways in which the culture depicts Them being rather than being who They are as unique to the story itself. It is almost a contradiction in a way, because if humans created the stories, then who created the Gods? If the Gods are only stories, what’s the point of worshiping something that can’t become a real living thing?
However, stories are built outside of the time and space it was created in. Once a story comes to light, it becomes a living thing in and of itself because it operates throughout time and space and becomes immortal in the way a living being would, should it have become an important role in society.
I’m not saying the Gods aren’t real. I am saying, however, that it’s important to have an awareness of which They employ our awareness of Them to fit what we need for the time that They are needed.
Today, Loki likely wouldn’t have much of a following if it weren’t for Tom Hiddleston playing Him in Marvel in a way that is seen as empathetic with several unique and redeeming qualities that fit the role better than just casting Him as a villain. Loki is much more complex than how Tom Hiddleston portrays Him, but still, it is something that helped Him become much more relevant in today’s time period and has given Him attention He did not have before the movies came around. Partially, this is due to the fact it was so much more common to see Him as evil due to Christian influence but also because we had not the context to see Him in this way.
Lokeans before Tom Hiddleston were often more aligned with satanists and other darker aligning things whereas after, the LGBTQ+ community as well as several other minorities have taken a liking to Him in a way that He hasn’t seen since possibly the time He was worshiped.
That is the unique power of storytelling as it assists the Gods. You can’t convince me that Loki didn’t intentionally place that idea in Tom Hiddleston’s brain as he researched the role and came to conclusions other people weren’t making for him. You can see that the more creativity Tom had in developing the role of Loki, the closer he was to the God Himself and His role in creating the universe as well as maintaining it (as you can see due to the impact of the finale of the second season of the namesake show – sorry, hopefully didn’t spoil anything for you – you should still go watch it!).
I think a lot of ideas around the Gods being embedded strictly because of the nature of stories being akin to who They are restricts our perceptions of the ways that storytelling can grow to be a part of the God itself. This isn’t so that the Deity becomes the story, but rather, the Deity is the story and it grows to be a part of Their nature embedded within the fabric of Their reality.
Of course, where it gets to be more complicated is when the unique nature of the Divine contradicts how the story goes about being told in several ways. There are obviously stories still being shared of Loki being a more malevolent being that cast Him as a villain archetype instead of an actual complex character that He is. Those tend to not be important to the Deity though it impacts Them all the same because of the fact that that’s how more humans are going to see Him and justify His imbalance with the world. I can typically tell when Loki is not amused by a story being shared about Him not going in the way He desired because it doesn’t suit Him at all and now more people will try to fit Him into a box that they created rather than what He desired.
Their nature is inherently a contradiction to what we think we know versus how They function.
This is where the contradictions happen, of course. A story that holds to the nature of the Gods is going to be held much more prominent than the stories that remain separate from Their nature. You can usually tell when a story holds more power over the audience versus a story that is told for entertainment and to exasperate already held beliefs that further a dogma. Stories that resound throughout time tend to be more significant to the role the Gods will inevitably play versus the stories that B movies come up with that are thrown out on Netflix immediately after release. And that, friends, is capitalism at its worst.
There is no significance in their nature to how well a story is being told if the Deity is not a part of that story. It does, however, become a problem when that story manifests separately from the Deity without being impacted by the actual Deity itself. This is usually due to the fact that history has written over the very unique nature of the Gods and the role They play and the significance of Christianity has a lot to do with how that happened as well as Western influence over not just the Norse pantheon but all pantheons as well as their cultures.
We can repair this, however, by knowing who the Gods are to people and where we can take back the narrative again through another vehicle which is actually getting to know the Gods as Themselves separate from how we know Them in stories. Which, I know, is another contradiction. I’m full of those these days but hear me out.
If we get to know the context of the Deities through the myths but use them only as a framework and not an actual body of the Deity, we can get to know Them as individuals rather than as parts to a story. We can get to know the role They play with humans outside of the role They play in stories by using the stories to illustrate rather than to represent.
The Divine are not represented by stories, They are represented by the humans They are close to and the stories that those humans speak of as how They manifest in this world, not the world impressing the dogma and societal constructs onto Their ideals. But we can’t get there if we’re still stuck in archetypal fairytale land and assuming the Gods are stagnant in Their relevance. We can’t grow to know who They are unless we bring Them into our lives and into our world and change the ways we think about approaching Them.
The Gods are stories and the stories are real and false at the same time. But They are not only stories that can be created by the people long ago, They are the unique tales of our own experiences and how we go about manifesting the ways They are with Their people. They manifest in Their own ways and make Their own stories become more real by being prominent among Their own people.
We will remain stagnant in our praxis unless we talk to Them and ask Them how They want to be represented, rather than enforcing our own narratives and stereotypes over Their actual voices and stop assuming humans are incapable of being directly influenced by Gods.
Where I’m Going with This
Humans are a vehicle for the Divine and the Divine are a vehicle for humans. We both play into the other being because we are a partnership rather than a coercion or set of rules and regulations. We are not obligated to serve the Divine, though serving Them is a unique correspondence that can be important to furthering our religion as it stands without the dogma of Christianity and Westernized thought.
The closer we are to learning about Their nature through Them, the more we will begin to understand Their role in our world and how it functions from which more stories can be told and influenced rather than forced as a framework. We can’t evolve properly unless we begin to acknowledge where we stand with the Divine as a relevance in our world and quit bossing everyone around who looks at it differently.
At the same time, knowing that this is a reality and not some game to enhance witchcraft or do in spare time is also an important subject to tackle. The primary issue here tends to be atheism in the polytheistic world which is a flaw that’s bred from latent Christianity and other means of passive religion. When the Gods were worshiped before, religious practices were not just something you did on Sundays, but rather something that goes through your life in the way that it makes you look at the world differently and function in ways that are specific to your particular Deities’ ideas and virtues.
I will get more into this in future subjects because that is yet another topic to cover so I will summarize by saying that we need to do better about involving the Gods in Their own roles and stories. Assuming things that are passed down through biased interpretations will get us nowhere and we will just end back at square one without ever really changing the narrative around polytheistic thought.
Devoured by Flame 