Divine Aspects

DISCLAIMER: This is my personal belief. You don't have to agree with it, you don't have to share it. All I ask is that you respect it and if you wish to engage in discourse, keep it polite and civil. Bright Blessings

I can't pinpoint exactly when I first began to think of the Divine as a single Entity (or Force, if you will). When I initially began my journey down a Pagan path, I believed in a multitude of Gods and Goddesses, all separate and distinct from one another. And while I do still believe that They are all distinct, I no longer believe that They're separate. Not completely, anyway. 

I have come to believe that it's pure hubris on the part of anyone who claims to fully understand and comprehend the Divine. It's just not possible. This Entity, this Force, is huge, spanning across not just this Universe, but all possible Universes, realities and dimensions. We can connect with It, merge with It, commune with It, but fully comprehend It? Nuh uh.

The simplest analogy I can make is that the Divine is like a spinning multifaceted prism with light shining through it. When we look at the prism, our eyes are dazzled by the light refracting through all the facets and casting rainbows to swirl around us. And even when the prism is still, there are facets that are distorted or obscured from our view. We can change our angle of view, but we still can't see the entirety of the prism clearly.

So, how exactly does that analogy relate to the multitude of Gods and Goddesses who are honoured and worshiped across the world? Simple. Our mortal comprehension is limited. To fully and completely connect with the Divine as a whole would overwhelm our organic brains and bodies; the energy is just too vast, too powerful. But we can 'see' and connect to facets, and then we translate that spiritual experience into something we can relate to from our mortal experience. The shape of our lives, the culture we were raised in, the attitudes and influence of the people around us.

The result being the creation of Aspects. Born of the Divine, but given life by our belief in Their existence.

I feel it's important for me to note here, that this belief of mine does not mean that I discount the individual stories and mythos of the various Gods and Goddesses. It is not just our reality that contributes to the creation of these Aspects; also, They exist in realities of Their own.

They are the rainbows cast by the prism, each distinct, but still connected to and a part of the Divine Source.

So basically what I'm trying to say here is that whether you believe in only one God/dess or many, in the end we honour the Divine in our own way. That is my belief. That is why I embrace and celebrate the diversity of spirituality. I don't need to follow a specific Path to offer respect to its practitioners and the Aspects associated with it.

Learn from our differences and find kinship in our commonalities, for there is much we have to share and to teach.