Communing with Deity

[Ben Gruagach]

I was hoping people could share methods they have used or have heard about for communing with a Deity. Here are ones I know about:

1. In Wicca there is a rite called "Drawing Down the Moon" which is used to invoke a Goddess in a priestess, and "Drawing Down the Sun" to invoke a God in a priest.

2. Ceremonial magick uses visualization in things like the Middle Pillar ritual to attune with the macrocosm/univere.

3. Meditation can involve emptying one's mind in order to listen for the voice of the Divine.

4. Thelema has a system of ritual work leading to "conversation with one's Holy Guardian Angel" which is similar to communing with the Divine (and is possibly the same thing under a different name).

5. Prayer (but I don't think I'd count prayer where you're basically asking for a favour in this.)

What do others do specifically to commune with Deity?

[Flar's Freyja]

I attend a Native American ritual each month at new moon. We have an intense meditation with a group of no more than 15 people. The ritual is based on the aspects of that particular moon cycle and the wheel of the year; for instance, harvest, nesting, etc. Not everyone participating communes with deities, but the guides of each person present are invited into circle. Individuals can invoke deities at their own discretion. The ritual usually lasts about three hours and is a very intense experience, especially in that it involves sitting for that long and sometimes sweating in the hot weather. I've experienced some incredible journeys and have communed with my deities and I feel that I have grown a bit more rapidly in my spiritual life in the past year and a half that I have been practicing this. Things that I have focused on never fail to happen in the few weeks following ritual.

[Rick]

In Asatru, the Gods & Goddesses are our Ancestors, our Kinsmen... both our elders & our peers.... so when we want to 'commune', it's like talking to family members... like all families, some relationships are more intimate & relaxed, while others are more distant & formal...

[Ben Gruagach]

Freyja - thanks for that wonderful post! That's exactly the type of thing I was hoping to see.

Rick - thanks for sharing what "communing with deity" means to you. Could you share some things you do in your practice, or things you might know about but haven't done personally, that people do to establish and maintain that connection? That's the sort of thing I'm hoping people will share in this particular thread.

Just to add another method - I've heard that some people do "mirror work" as a way to commune with spirits or deities. I've read one way this sort of thing is done in Carroll "Poke" Runyon's book "The Book of Solomon's Magick." Has anyone here done this sort of "mirror work" or have anything they can share about it as well?

[Flar's Freyja]

This is a great thread, Ben, thanks....

In addition to the ritual I told you about, I also talk to my deities on a daily basis.....Freyja is my mother and sister, Odhinn is my father and Thor is my friend. To keep my focus on them, whenever I am at home I always keep a candle burning on my altar in front of my goddess representation (which happens to be a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary that belonged to my mother :eek: ) I take a few minutes to give thanks and/or ask for help, depending on my needs. I also have a ritual to Hestia, the goddess of hearth and home, that I do when time permits and when I'm making a meal for my family or friends. I have a small altar to her near the stove and I light a candle and ask for her blessing over our meal and home while I am cooking. The meal never fails to be outstanding.......also, the fire of the candle can represent the hearth fire, which we don't have in these modern times.

Rick has done a lot of work with mirrors.

[callalily]

#3. And cultivating a constant state of mindfulness, where the Divine in everyone and everything is always present to me.

Don't look for a glow around me anytime soon! While said state happens sometimes, the percentage of time when I'm not mindful, zoned, or negatively charged is very large. Well, I'm only 41; I guess I have time. And if I get hit by a speeding truck tomorrow, I'll have even more time! :p

[Anubis RainHawk]

Excellent thread, Ben! Communing with the gods is something I've been very interested in, myself. Daily Devotions (prayers) have been a really helpful thing for me. I'm actually trying to structure my daily altar devotionals. I'm looking into old prayers, but there aren't many ancient celtic prayers.

Communing with the gods in ritual can be really cool, too. After calling a deity and giving an offering, talking to the deity can be a really cool experience.

Divination call also help when trying to reach the divine. In my experience, it's sometimes hard to commune with the gods. Divination call be a great aid in the process. The tarot has really helped me in that area.

Anubis RainHawk

[Aidron]

If I happen to have the deity in mind I wish to commune with ahead of time, and normally I do as my chief patron deity Athena is very watchful I have learned as to not let just any deity in, perhaps judging for herself whether she feels their message is important enough to warrant a surprise visit.

In the cases where I have the deity in mind ahead of the time, I try to commune with them by indulging in something that reflects their nature to me. Aphrodite for example (another one of my patrons) I will often take a hot bath and just let myself go, feel sensual, feel lustful, feel beautiful and allow her to whisper in my mind. This is sometimes followed up by mirror gazing (which may be what you touched on Ben, I'm unsure) where I will gaze into a mirror and allow her to take control, sometimes tracing symbols on the mirror in a red, green or pink (she prefers the latter in my experience) on the symbol and allow me to interpret them. I wish it were plain text messages, but she is really the last one I have learned that easily 'gives' things to people. Playing hard to get spiritually if you can believe it.

Artemis, my third and final patron, I tend to commune with a lot through song and by spending time in nature at night. I have learned unsurprisingly enough so long as there is a great deal of flora present, she will be willing to make herself known, especially if the moon is visible. It can be bursting into song that takes place, dance, or allowing her to speak through various flora and very seldom fauna.

Athena I tend to do best with simplistic and straight forward meditative efforts. Though she often will highlight messages in things I am reading (the best way I can describe is that the words seem to jump out and become three dimensional momentarily) and send signals in this sense. I also do a lot of what I call 'feather whispering' with her, where she will communicate through bird calls that can be especially intense and further mind-altering when I am deep in a trance.

Vague and general, but there are a few ways. To be quite honest, I tend to be spontaneous about this a lot and when I recognize something and am inspired by it as a way to commune, I go with it.

[semi]

Drumming is a great way to commune when using African based paths like Santeria and Voodoo. Each Orisha and Loa have a particular rhythm that calls them. So you drum that rhythm and trance to it. In group rituals there are usually dancers as well who also dance in certain ways particular to the spirit being called. Drumming and dancing are very powerful methods of communion.

[Morr]

prayer & daily devotions are my main way of communing with my Gods. A lot of the time, if they have something they want to tell me, they either catch my attention via dreams and/or nature.

[Khuinaset]

Does anyone care to post examples of daily devotions? I'm feeling the need for more contact and communication but haven't come up with anything other than prayer, really(which is good, but I like variety :lol: ) :)

And Ben, did you ever find more information on the 'mirror work'? that sounds really interesting! :uhhuhuh:

[Tobias]

As a Christian Mystic, I have learned to hear the voice of my God in many different ways. It's not like I can make Him speak whenever I want, but when He has a message that needs to get through to me He usually can do so by me just slowing down enough to listen.

But, I suppose I've only gotten to this point through years of practice. There are several clasic Christian ways to hear from God. #1 is by reading the Bible. Yep, believe it or not, Bible reading can be the first step for many Fundimentalists to start communing with the Holy Spirit. In the Lord's Prayer it states "Give us this day our daily bread", which many believers take to mean God wants to give each person a daily word specifically just for them.

Another good way is through listening to worship music. If the music is good and "anointed", it seems to me like God gets really "chatty". I guess I should try and use this method more often. I don't go to church anymore, so I'm not around music regularly like I used to be.

Praying in tongues is also a great way to raise energy. I use tongues mostly as a warrior for expelling unwanted spirits, but it also works great for getting me into the spirit myself.

Quiet meditation might be the main way I prepare myself to be spoken to. Basicly though, I try and live life in a way to where I stay sensitive to whatever direction He wishes to lead. When He has something to say, I can tell it's time to listen. So I quiet myself and hear what He has to say.

[~Elise~]

Communing with Deity for me is as easy as speaking to them and truly listening for their answer. Though I'm not Wiccan, I do Draw Down the Moon every month. (or sometimes when I just need energy sometimes)

I do ritual if need be, but most times it isn't. I feel the Goddess' presence around me all the time. When I need it most, I usually feel Her Arms around me, so contacting Her isn't really necessary.

Elise

[CaitrionaMorgaine]

In my own pracitices, I use meditation and devotions (not always daily) to connect myself with the divine. I was glad to see Morr point out the use of devotions, since I view them differently than prayer.

Someone once said to me that prayer is when we are talking to the Gods and meditation is when the Gods talk to us. I've found that to be quite true. A simply devotion for me would be to sit before my altar and meditate, or light a candle and just talk to the Gods. I may do this when I've had a rough day, I have something I want to share with the Gods, or just because I need someone to talk to.

As Pearls (Elise) pointed out, it really can be as simple as just listening for their answers. It does not have to be a 20 step process that takes an hour a half to complete. While I do consider ritual another way I connect with the divine, devotions are a less structured way of doing it, I suppose.

Avalon's Blessings, ~Rhiannon

[Thalias_Smile]

I have to say that for me, communing w/Anu (the Supreme Deity in the pantheon I follow, which is Sumerian, which is adjusted from "original" per revelations from guides and angels), is becoming more and more personal for me. It's not just something I do while meditating or dreaming anymore. I am starting to feel something deep within my heart, that I cannot explain. It's like my heart chakra is open all the time. And I sense the same thing happening w/my crown chakra as well. It is never completely closed anymore. :floating: I keep thinking of that song, how does it go?

I feel so light....this is all I want to feel tonight...I feel so light....tonight and the rest of my life

That is how I am feeling more and more. I also feel that I am finally beginning to merge my spiritual life w/my mundane life. Things are finally starting to work out for me. I am writing my devotional hymns again, and I hope to have another small book ready for publication through lulu.com quite soon. :colorful:

I have a new job, and I am living w/my sis and her husband until I get my own place, which, considering the pay, shouldn't be TOO long. :lol: And after my student loans are finally paid off, I will be able to go in for that certification as a spiritual counselor that I have been dying to do for some time. :achug: :fprtyman3

All in all...life is good! :lol:

[argento_occhi]

Daily devotions (which i'm notoriously bad at not doing) are good for me, when i do them, sometimes even in the bath is good too. Sometimes, writing prayers, or drawing pictures makes me feel closer to Them. Sometimes, even when i'm watching TV. I remember a couple of days ago watching a news piece on a group of people attacked by a crocodile. one was attacked, a second jumped on top of it, and a third shot the cro. I remember seeing the carcass of the croc and feeling so sad. I felt really sad about it, and i think Sobek was too. I don't know how else to explain it. I usually don't feel Sobek around when i;m watching TV, but then i did, and the air was so sad. I actually felt like crying. The only other time i've watched TV and actually did cry was when i was watching the stargate episode Heroes pt 2 where Dr Frasier dies... I swear i was bawling my eyes out the whole way through, and i don't know why. It was sad, yes, but surely not worth getting that upset over, right? That was a weird night. cos channel 7 shows it late, around 10:30, so it's a surreal kinda atmosphere. Two hours after watching it, i still wanted to cry. And i'm gonna stop now before i ramble on and get even more off topic.

bright blessings,
argent

p.s. here's hoping that made sense.

[Anahita]

I agree with Anubis about the use of divination to commune. Tarot has been a big way for me to get in touch with deity.

I also use prayer and devotions.

- Anahita

[Faelon_Moon_Hawk]

usually I just cast a circle and ask my dieties to be present. Then I just talk, sometimes metnally, most of the time alloud to the dieties, as if I was talking to anyone else who was there physically. Or I just meditate, sometimes just quieting my mind enough, and calling out to my patrons is enough.