The Powers of an Atheopagan
They aren’t gods.
They aren’t self-aware, and thus have no agency. They don’t communicate.
They simply are. Irrefutably.
And they are not “worshiped”. They have no egos with which to soak up adulation.
They are here. They are real. They are honored, revered, contemplated with humility and wonder.
They are the Powers of this world.
Earth. Sky. Sun. Moon. River. Ocean. Mountain. Desert. Forest.
Yes, we Atheopagans can speak to these. We can tip our heads forward to rest upon the cool rock, or plunge shrieking into the cold water or climb to the airy summit, knowing we are small and temporary and they are…well, also temporary, but large, and well out of our time scale. Knowing that in doing these things, we are communing with the vast, the practically eternal, the capital-T Truths of life on Planet Earth. We find revelation in encounters with the Powers: wisdom, humility, poetry, song, art. We become more fully alive.
And we can speak their names, invoke their natures in our circles.
To me, it is far more engaging and meaningful to say “Earth” than it is to say “Gaia”. The latter conjures a humanoid caricature in my mind; an attempt by humans to make like ourselves what is in fact in no way like us. But the former contains multitudes; it is the vast complexity of diverse places, climates, systems, creatures that make up this astounding world, and worthy of honor, reverence, humility, love.
Some non-theist Pagans use the names of gods even though they don’t literally believe in them, and that’s perfectly fine. It just isn’t my way. I’d rather sing to the sinuous, ever-renewing, world-shaping cool of River, shout to the blinding heat of Sun. To invoke the things themselves, and not the containers humans made for them.
The Midwestern Pagan writer Steven Posch takes this approach to the Powers, and I find his writing quite consistent with my own way of looking at the world, as well as thought provoking and entertaining. I encourage Atheopagans to check him out here and here.
Hey there. I discovered your blog about two months ago (or so), and its really been helping me to better understand some things I’ve been thinking. But this post in particular really resonates with me, particularly because being able to cry out/connect to those things which fill me with indescribably appreciation and joy and wonder without necessarily believing in traditionally-conceived-of gods has always made me feel odd. But knowing that others do it too makes me feel less odd.
I really enjoy your blog! Thanks so much!
Thank you! Glad to have you here.
Reblogged this on Cards and Feather.
This is beautiful. Although I’m one who finds I respond better to an anthropomorphized view of gods using names, I really enjoyed reading this. Thanks.
Thanks so much, Brandon!
Mark,
I’ve been reading various humanistic/naturalistic pagan blogs for several months. Consistently, I find that your approach makes better sense to me than any other. Thank you.
Thank YOU! That is high praise indeed.
I saw that there are, first and above all,
The hidden forces, blind necessities,
Named Nature, but the thing’s self unconceived :
Then follow, — how dependent upon these,
We know not, how imposed above ourselves,
We well know, — what I name the gods, a power
Various or one: for great and strong and good
Is there, and little, weak and bad there too,
Wisdom and folly : say, these make no God, —
What is it else that rules outside man’s self?
— Robert Browning, “The Ring and the Book”