sunforests

Prayer to Hermes, Bearer of Messages and Dreams

Swift-footed Hermes, guide of souls,

With winged sandals and wand of gold,

Messenger of the gods, hear my plea,

As I walk through shadows, grant clarity.

You who traverse the realms of night,

Bringer of dreams, both dark and bright,

In whispers carried on winds so high,

Let your words descend from the sky.

May your wisdom light my weary mind,

In every omen, your truth I find.

Through the veil of sleep, may visions flow,

With blessings of insight, may my spirit grow.

Hermes, patron of the traveler’s path,

Guard me from misfortune’s wrath.

With every step, let your guidance lead,

And in your presence, may I succeed.

O swift one, grant me eloquence and grace,

In every word, let your power embrace.

In messages spoken, written, and sent,

Let your divine essence be my intent.

In dreams and in waking, your light I seek,

For your blessings, O Hermes, make me meek.

With gratitude, I offer this prayer to you,

Hermes, guide and guardian, ever true.

-looks around, then slowly raises own hand-

I’ve rubbed shoulders with two Pleistocene (ish) deities: Vulture Mother and the infamous Wild God. 

Vulture Mother had a very particular reason for coming into my life, and when that reason went away, so did She. She was intense and not entirely a welcome presence in my life, but we had our good times. I learned… some things from Her, personal lessons. I ran a blog while She was there, @carrionmother

The Wild God seems to have no stated purpose for coming to me, and is really not great at talking, and does not like divination, so I really don’t know what His-Her deal is. His-Her presence was much more strongly felt when I lived further north last year, but I still get tingles and pings here and there. Through conversation and notes-sharing, @epithetsandepiphanies determined that we were both experiencing the same Wild God and got a kind of sense of what She-He was. I also run a blog for Him-Her, though these days it’s just sporadic updates of Really Strong Pings: @sometimesthewildgod

I would not encourage anyone to seek out either of these two entities, though–not that They’re dangerous or anything, just that They’re… if They want your attention, They’ll come find you. Otherwise, I think They’re best left alone.

That said, I firmly believe that there have been gods for as long as there have been humans, and that there are whole pantheons we know nothing about, gods of glaciers and mammoths and winters that never seem to end. And if you want to go looking for those unknown gods, I wish you all the best. I’ve actually been feeling much the same pull myself of late. 

Hello I am here to spread the good word with this prelim primer on Unworshipped Gods. Enjoy.

*this is all from astral direction experience so expect some measure of disagreement with me; I am not the authority to end all on the topic or the astral in general, and I should not be seen as such. Anyways!

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What are Unworshipped/Unrecorded Gods?

I use many names. Unworshipped Gods, Unknown Gods, Lost Gods, Unrecorded Gods for those who want a different name! But they all mean relatively the same thing.

These are the Gods that never had human names, or maybe they did once, and then they were lost to the annals of history–likely by their OWN hand. Perhaps they have never been here at all, or been known here. They are not always Gods for humans, they are often wild, natural forces, something beyond-us. They are far older than we are.

They are the Gods you don’t see mentioned.

Why the word Unworshipped? If I find one isn’t it Worshipped?

Because astral, that’s why. No but really. I chose this name to describe an astral concept because a lot of deities “die” from this world on purpose, removing all trace of themselves, in order to go into seclusion for a time, or a period of rest, on another plane. Many entities you may talk to don’t actually want any attention anymore, but they still may pick you to receive a lesson or two, or set up some kind of reciprocity. But generally these entities operate differently.

But what if an Unworshipped God wants me to spread their name?

This is a possible thing, an Unknown God could very well want to enter the public sphere. But many do not.

There are quite a few people on tumblr that come to mind at the moment that are in fact building personal traditions around THEIR Unknown Gods–and sometimes that’s really the path that is calling you, and you just don’t have the tools yet to explain it. That’s okay.

Why are Unknown Gods important?

Mostly because of the fact that they fall through our collective Spiritworker/Witch/Pagan cracks, precisely for being Unknown.

In the Spiritwork/Pagan/Witchcraft communites, many of us are guilty of wanting to know a God/Spirit’s identity that is seeking us out YESTERDAY. We pass around association checklists and are satisfied that SOME deity we know of has to be what it is, and then it’s fine.

But…what if it’s not?

There aren’t checklists for Unknown Gods. Not really. That’s usually because of the name, and some other factors. Unknown Gods are not always Everyone’s Gods. They may come to you, privately, quietly, under guise of night, and ask you not to reveal their name to others. They may not want to be for public consumption. They may be in retirement, but something about you and what you can bring intrigues them, they take an interest, they begin trying to get in contact.

But picture, for a moment, that someone is sending you letters. You understand someone is trying to contact you, but the letters are in a foreign language you don’t understand. This language doesn’t exist on earth. It may be CLOSE to a language you’ve seen before, but not…totally right.

But this language must exist here, you think. It’s logically impossible otherwise.

You post the letter online, show it to friends that work with known deities, they (being very helpful) give you some pointers, possibilities on who it might be. None of them feel exactly right, but…I mean, it must be ONE, right? Eventually you settle on one that seems “close enough”, and set up everything from there, even if it’s not them.

But…this is missing the point. If you lack the context to recognize when something is NOT adding up, you will tend to identification errors when you try to make it make sense. Sometimes the simplest answer–That this DOES NOT make sense inside your existing paradigm–is the right one.

The problem with Unknown Gods is the fact they’re Unknown.

Many people don’t even realize this can be A Thing. That you can have a deity with no name or station approach you and godbother the hell out of you until you get frustrated enough to sit down and admit something isn’t making sense here. Often this needs to break your existing paradigm of Gods. 

What do they do?

Everything. God is not really a title reserved for a select few on the astral. Everything has some kind of overseer–a God for pebbles, a God for entire planes, a God for the orbits of planets. So many, and so many thousands more.

Not every Unknown God is a Big one. Maybe you made a deal with a God that raises giraffes on some remote peninsula 700 years ago. I dunno your life. Stranger shit has happened, I assure you.

What does that have to do with me?

It should expand your horizons.

For every man, a God, as my astral family says. I’ve talked to many deities/gods of many different planes, and they are all a fascinating source of information–provided they will receive you, or have perhaps found you out personally.

You aren’t limited by what humans know, and now perhaps you realize you didn’t realize you were being limited. Oooh, paradox.

What’s the difference between God, Spirit, Guide?

Semantics, mostly, and development. You can have an unworshipped god actually seek you out to become a kind of mentor or guide, you can have a god actually sign up to be a guide, you can have a regular spirit that essentially BECOMES an unknown god over time, with age and energy. Potato, potah-to. We could sit here all day discussing the minute differences, but it may be faster to just, you know, try asking the God themselves.

What do I do the next time I’m being Godbothered, now that I know about this new class of deity?

Really, REALLY take time to sit down and slowly dissect what you are being sent. Be cognizant the checklist for your deity/spirit/guide may not exist yet, and that is okay. When Kratos (white wolf, unworshipped god, british asshole, also my guide) showed up, my checklist was like this:

Asshole

British as hell

White arctic Wolf

Wears nothing but suits

Information broker

Black hair with a white stripe

So you can imagine my utter confusion and 6 months of research before I finally admitted I had no idea what on god’s green earth I had got myself into with this dude

Your checklist doesn’t have to neatly match an existing deity’s list. It is completely fine if you are, in fact, being bothered by a VERY known deity! But, to me, I find it better to approach the identification process with a very WIDE net, then pare down from there–so as not to miss anything if the God of Shitake Mushrooms is really trying to talk to you personally about the benefits of fungus.

Dusken told me I could go to the astral and bother ever God I see and demand names and spread them all over the internet!

No. Return to step 1. Then maybe have a glass of water or five, damn kid

So what’s my takeaway point?

Take time to really get to know the next entity that wants to talk to you.

REALLY allow the space for them to characterize themselves in their own terms, which may not be human ones. That’s honestly all I’m advocating for.

Allow the possibility your new guide/god may not have terms yet to describe them, and that this is okay, the get-to-know-you-process can be a Process.

I wish you the best of luck with your journey w/ unworshipped Gods.