My life as a devotional polytheist is not centered on what …

When I browse social media I see so much finger pointing, discouragement, and endless dissection of what others are doing or how others are going wrong. For my own part I choose to focus on what I need to do for my Gods in order to be a just and productive human being.

I choose to live by example. I say live not lead, because I don't regard myself as a leader. I'm a servant of the Gods, thus my focus is service. Service to me means offering the efforts of my life and livelihood to my Gods for Their pleasure. My pleasure comes last.

The Gods are perfectly capable of chastising and punishing those who do ill or falsely misrepresent Them. They don't need my big mouth pointing out the faults of others. My service is grounded in a cultus that embraces every area of my life, including the secular.

In my household there is no secular, since my household contains a Temple and is the holder of holy relics and cult images. Washing the dishes and taking out the trash are part of serving the Temple and are part of my practice in living the Gods at all times.

Being close to the Gods is not only about incense and golden objects and solemn rituals; these things are only part of polytheism. The fact that the Gods exist is the supreme reality for those who experience directly the Mysteries of the living Gods.

So every moment of your life can become an extension of the Mysteries, which are the direct experiences of the Gods interacting with us in our world. When you are aware of this, your life takes on a whole new meaning. It is sacred, and everything in your life is sacred.

It is sometimes difficult to see the Sacred in our current world where the Gods seem to be barely a footnote in a world composed primarily of non believers; but if our focus turns to our actions and our interactions with our Gods, we can turn this situation around completely.

We can start with little actions, such as pouring out a libation to our Gods every day, and reserving that time and space for Them alone. This will also feed us, our sense of our Gods receiving and giving with us in this very life. We can then take that experience with us.

We can start to focus on our own level of connectedness with our Gods, and put our energies into refining that connectedness, instead of looking at what others are doing and finding fault in them. Our own practice can receive the best of our energy and effort that way.

So I have made it my priority to stop putting energy into how others choose to serve or not serve, and I've made it my exclusive practice to perfect my relationships with my Gods and give Them my whole attention because that should be Theirs at all times.

My vocation as an iconographer is a very hands on experience of the Gods and the Numinous. For me the Gods are physical, tangible, and immediate. They are not ephemeral or distant or removed from the cares of the human condition.

The Gods manifest in our sphere of living because They can, and we are the fortunate ones because we can have relationships with these very ancient Powers that have shaped our world and have shaped our species. The Gods don't need us, but we need Them.

The Gods can destroy us all tomorrow without batting an eyelash, and yet They choose to engage us, flirt with us, grant boons, and give us flashes of light that can transform our lives in a single moment. If we want these gifts then we must step up to the table of service.

Sacred service can be HARD, I won't deny it. I've been a servant of the Gods for almost 41 years now, and it doesn't necessarily get easier, because we live in a world where the very existence of Gods is suspect, and devotion to Them even more so.

But the foundation of my service is love, and I always say that love cannot be argued with. The kind of love I am talking about is altruistic love, not a possessive love or a love based on what I'm going to get out of it. The Gods have given us more than we could ever give back.

So when I say I love my Gods, I mean I love Them for the sake of loving, regardless of how my Gods choose to receive or give. It is the service, the giving itself that sustains me and fills my life with the power of the living Gods. Once you have this, no one can take it from you

But how do you get it in the first place? It starts by recognizing that our Gods walk with us everywhere and through all our experiences, and I mean this physically and literally. The Gods are not merely metaphors or faces put on the nameless, formless. The Gods are life itself

And if the Gods are life and givers of life, then the experience of life is part of Their embodiment and divinity. The Powers of the Gods are present in all that we do, whether we act for good or for ill; the Gods are present and will be present after we are gone.

When we recognize this ever present reality of our Gods, then we stop and think about how we live our life and why. We can choose to cultivate the most intimate relationships with our Gods throughout all our actions and activities, which elevates these into the Sacred.

Closeness with our Gods is a choice, just as distance from Them is a choice. How much energy are you putting into other people's choices, when you could put that energy into service to your Gods, and make your life a vehicle for the Powers.

I have given up trying to change people, trying to change people's minds. I have given up putting energy into other people's behaviors and have decided to change myself, my behaviors and my motivations. My life is given over to the Powers of the Gods in action.

My duty is to give the Gods a physical space in this world, a space through which Their people may come to Them, know Them, and experience Them directly; and for me to do that, my life must be a demonstration of Their reality as ever-present and omnipresent.

This really is the meaning of devotional polytheism for me. It is a path in which the devotee becomes the embodiment of the Holy Powers living and walking and shaping the material world. This path encompasses all activities and recognizes the reality of the Gods everywhere.

My life as a devotional polytheist is not centered on what others are doing or not doing, but rather on what I'm doing and need to do. How do I put my Gods first? How am I serving the and establishing right relationship with Them at all times? How can I improve my devotion?

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