About God and Goddess Aspects.

[Elves.Maiden]

During a ritual, when one invokes an aspect of the God or Goddess, is one actually invoking the God or Goddess or the chosen aspect - such a Athena or Aphrodite or Whomever? I find this a little confusing. If I am going to be invoking a higher power, I want to know what I am invoking ... :ahhhh: ... any theories?

[SilverBear]

Not so much a theory as a personal viewpoint. The answer to your question is….both.

My view of individual deities is that they are masks or personas of the ultimate Divine being. The personas are there to enable us to interact with and develop a fulfilling personal relationship the Divine. I believe that the individual deities are shaped by both the Divine and by our ideas and perceptions.

All Gods are one God and all Goddesses are one Goddess.

When you do invoke a deity try having a conversation with them. For me it has always been an interesting discussion.

[Theres]

i've never been 100% comfortable with that whole "all Gods are one God" thing, but i guess i do pretty much agree with SilverBear.
when i'm doing a ritual to a specific end, i will invoke the appropriate God and Goddess (aspect) even if they aren't the pair i work with in my everyday magick.

[Jenett]

I tend away from the "All gods one god" thing - I'm a polytheist, I think they're individual beings.

In my case, I don't invoke a deity in ritual until I've done my research about that deity. I'm helped in this by a monthly assignment for the group I work with - each month, we research a given deity, and write up about a page summary with that deity's basic myths, associations, and related information (my notes are usually at least 5-6 pages, often longer.)

Do this for a while, and you end up with a decent collection of research. (In my case, I keep track of my notes: if I want to work more with a given deity, its' then very easy for me to review the work I've already done, and do any further research that might be useful.)

We do tend to work with the same deities often (we call the same pair every full moon, Sabbats vary somewhat more) and I also work privately with a different pair. But I wouldn't invoke a deity I hadn't researched.

I also wouldn't ask for a favor from a deity I'd never worked with before, unless it was truly urgent - I'd much prefer to do the research, do some ritual work saying "Hi, here I am, I'm being polite and introducing myself" (including appropriate offerings to that deity), and then later come back and ask for assistance with whatever I needed help with.

I figure treating them the way I'd treat asking a favor from someone human is probably a pretty straightforward way to go: you don't generally walk up to a stranger on the street and ask for a favor, unless it's an emergency. You do, however, ask your friends with whom you have an established relationship for more help.

[Bef]

I agree with Jennet in that I believe that all gods are individual beings.
When you try to invoke a god or goddess, try to specify what your after in the ritual.
Thats my advice.

[Ben Trismegistus]

Well, the short answer is that you're invoking whatever it is you wish to invoke.

[SilverBear]

What I probably didn’t make very clear (I probably shouldn’t post that late at night) is I do perceive all these individual deities as discrete individuals. The unifying Divine principle is part of my theological beliefs.