Refill Our Aquifers
The Gods refill our aquifers. We collect moisture from the world around us in daily life, which life, directly from Jord, draws up its precious fluids from deeper wells. We make our nest, our stores, our provisions ; wisely we build our caches and cisterns, and even more wisely fill them gradually on our own. (Such cisterns may be the circle of arms around which we give and pass gifts.) But from time to time in the vicissitudes, we run low, and then, if we have been good (not perfect, good) and aimed at worthy deeds, the Gods may share a little extra from their stores. Then we feel the flow of goodness that is reward for being true to our hearts and soul. Soul, which connects to the soul of world and is thereby nourished by good deeds in the world. We must feel the flow up from the Mother, and sometimes to feel it, we must defend her children, who are through her, our brothers and sisters. There's no avoiding that implication, and why would we want to? There's love that is natural to our heart that springs up within us when good parents teach us how to tap that flow by loving us ; then, we may direct that flow to Earth when we see how much She, Beloved Mother, loves us. Let us do the Worthy merit.
posted by SiegfriedGoodfellow at 6:48 PM
3 Comments:
Why must the God/desses do this?
The wellspring that is our Ancestors is much more likely to provide this "refill" it is more in their interest to do so.
Same with the Vaettir, they interact with us directly and constantly, so again it is much more in their interest to encourage, and maintain us just as we do so for them.
You go on frequently about our ancient heathen ways, but they did rely on the God/desses like you are suggesting, the relied on their "local Gods" their ancestors, and the Vaettir.
The God/desses are indeed there, but they have jobs and purposes to go about doing. To pay attention to "fill an aquifer" of an individual that has several other closer and more vital sources lowers who, what, and the why of the Deities.
I think our difference here is a matter of emphasis and direction, although I certainly appreciate your emphasis, and agree that we all ought be thinking ground-up from the wells and ancestors, rather than top-down from the Gods, and it is probably likely that the latter pattern is overemphasized due to Christian influence. So I take your well-meant correction well. Nevertheless, I think it is undeniable that one of the gifts the Gods give is Hael. A careful reading of my piece notices that I actually do emphasize a local and ground-up emphasis, where the ancestors and vaettir are implied : I speak of drawing Hael from the landscape around us and all it's beings, who in turn draw it up from deep sources, which is the ancestral realm. Such is the emphasis the Gods desire, as it fosters self-reliance and community mutual aid. We all ought not neglect the power stores to which our ancestors have access, nor those of the land wights, nor how either of them are without admiration and reward for honorable, good deeds expressed in the right arenas. Still, the Gods themselves admire honor, and do give Hael. My suggestion here is that this is more the exceptional gift, and one probably granted usually around the time of a communal feast, in which the emdowment would likely be communal, albeit with special distributions to the heroes and noble ones of that season. Yet such little sprinkles from Gods are as flows of luck to us, even floods, that can refill the empty cisterns. Given the federalist emphasis of our ancestors, we can think of this as a structure of relying on local resources, yet being able to call upon federal funds during times of special need. Thank you for shaping the discourse towards the proper emphasis!
Also, again, for emphasis, please note that I said the Gods "may" do this, and that they "do" do this from time to time, with certainly no emphasis that they "must". The idea as well is that they would refill the aquifers, not our personal cisterns where we store, if we are wise, what we draw up from our wells from the aquifers. However, in the process of refilling the aquifers, the flow is abundant enough that our cisterns can indeed be refilled in the flood. That this has some connection to merit is simply an observation of experience. Of course, our difference here mitigated by the fact that the Gods often do their work and give their gifts through their intermediaries, various disir and alfar.
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