question, please help

[bamba]

I'm new at this and my friend told me that I had to worship all the god/dess but my other friend said I had to find my own god/dess to worship, can someone help me figure this out, do I find my own or worship them all. And if I find my own, how do I do that? Please help me!

[zakzekezedd]

Bamba..in all truth, I think that "your" goddess or god will find you when the time is right. When I began following my path, I simply addressed the Lady and the Lord when I performed my rituals or daily devotions. Over time, I have begun to sense a particular connection to the goddess Bast though. I'd suggest reading about the different goddesses and gods, but also keeping your mind and heart open to the possibilities.

[Eeluna]

The best advice I can give you is to read all you can and think about the Divine. Discover how you actually *feel* the Divine to be. There are many different ways that Deity is viewed within Paganism. I believe that the Universe is the "body" of the Goddess, and that She can manifest in any way She so chooses. The Deities of mythology are an easy way for us to relate to an awesome concept that we can barely grasp.

Some people are drawn to a particular pantheon and consider each God and Goddess to be a seperate entity. Of course there are many other viewpoints also. You have to decide what is *true* for you. As Zakzekezedd said, you can begin by honoring the Lord and the Lady, which is one way that we acknowledge the the masculine and feminine aspects of Divinity.

Explore the different pantheons of mythology. You may find that you are drawn to one in particular and decide to study it more in depth. You may even find your own paticular God/Goddess in this way. But you should also realize that the Divine can surprise you. Sometimes we are "chosen" by a certain God or Goddess. When it happens you *will* know, and you won't be able to ignore that calling. Until then, read and think and meditate about whichever aspects of Divinity that you find most interesting. Also don't be in a hurry. Take your time exploring the many wonderful, fascinating, myriad aspects of Divinity. When the time is right, you will know, in your heart, what is *true* for you and how best you can relate to the Divine.

[Mnemosyne]

You have got such great advice all ready. No, you don't need to honor all the deities. Hmmm, I don't know all the deities, since there is such a vast number of them. Here's some advice: get a book on myths from around the world. Maybe a particular patheon will strike your fancy. Also, you might choose a pantheon based on your heritage; it helps some people feel close to the god/desses.
Hey, where's member Sylv? I remember Sylv and some other members have even written their own myths. If you have a creative side, maybe you could write your own myths one day.

[banondraig]

like zakzekezedd said, They will find you at the right time. They (or She or He) may be already trying to get in touch with you but you haven't noticed. think about themes that have recurred in your life. your god/dess may very well be one associated with one or more of these themes. for instance, i myself have only recently been ready to discover my patron God, Hermes. it suddenly struck me that in all of my job-hopping over the years, nearly every one had to do with either delivering things, selling things, or fixing communication devices. also i have been attracted to the "class clown" guys, although i'm more of the spacey, dreamy shy type myself.

you'll know when they find you.

[Sylv]

I'm here Mnemosyne-I've been settling into college and finally found some time to visit MW! It's so nice to be home. :D
Anyway, LokiPanwit was also creating a mythology and Shpongle was looking into untraditional deities.
Bamba, I'll briefly let you know what I'm doing and then if you're still interested you can check out the links I'll give you at the bottom or just pm me. Basically, I believe there are a set number of gods-it may be 20, it may be 2,000. But, like any other sentient being, the gods get bored sticking with one culture and one facet of themselves so they may decide to 'hang out' with another culture and appear a little differently. I think this stems from me being different every time I move, lol. So, I'm a hard and soft polytheist at the same time. ;) As I believe that gods arise out of culture, I don't feel comfortable calling on the gods of other cultures because I'm not Ancient Egyptian/Greek/Celt/Norse/etc. I've meditated on some of these deities, talked with them, had them help me out but they're not *mine*. So I resolved to create my own pantheon, arising out of my culture and particular beliefs. As an example, instead of a god of war, I have a god of peace and justice. He's also the god of war but that's not his focus. ;) Then, I write myths, poems, prayers, hyms, rituals, rites, etc. that fit with my religion-it also includes an acknowledgement of spiritual beings (i.e.-helpers, theoretically harmers), a profound respect and deep love of nature, an obession with trees, and more. It's pretty big on balance too-in my life, there is a place for hate, anger, pain, death, loss, etc. In fact, those are often my catalysts, and I acknowledge this in my religion.
That's a general summary. Here are links to the threads:
DIY Myths (which I started almost a year ago as my first post here so some of my views have changed since then): http://www.mysticwicks.com/showthread.php?t=22446
Personal Deities (started by Shpongle): http://www.mysticwicks.com/showthread.php?t=25589
and a couple more threads about gods and our relationship to them:
http://www.mysticwicks.com/showthread.php?t=16714
http://www.mysticwicks.com/showthread.php?t=24809

Feel free to pm me-I always love getting that little pop-up, lmao. This also happens to be my favorite subject. I'm currently reading a book called God: A Brief History which is fascinating and very well written/compiled. I also just started Myths, Dreams, and Religion which is a collection of lectures edited/compiled by Joseph Campbell (a demigod in his own right, eh Mnemosyne? lol). Also highly recommended are any of Joseph Campbell's other books for more Jungian views of mythology, Jean Houston for a personal, dynamic, still slightly Jungian philosophy (as well as *a lot* of exercises), Bridge of Stars, an amazing collection of prayers from all sorts of religions and cultures compiled by the Dali Lama and sorted by theme, Starhawk's Spiral Dance for the writing style in the BoS excerpts she prefaces chapters with if nothing else, and David Eddings (a fantasy writer), especially either of the Starhawk series, for looks at self-created mythology and an amazing ability to write stories in a mythic way (he prefaces each book in the series with one and sometimes they're in the book itself). Oh, and Tolkien's Silmarillion is self-evident. I better stop now before I go crazy...books, gods, and trees-can we ask for anything more?