Theories of The True Form of The Divine
Some time back I began to ponder the question, “What could be the true form of the divine?” I asked this question because, despite the many myths of the gods/esses, it doesn’t seem to make logical sense that a deity would be a gender. This lead to other questions, such as, “Why would a deity require sexual organs?”, “A digestive system is part of a human body; why do they need one of those?”, and so on, and so forth.
All of these questions, and more, were demanding to be asked because the deities are not physical beings. They therefore do not require physical things.
So what form, I wondered, would a divine being be?
The first answer that I came to was a sphere. The reasons?
- A sphere is the most simple, the strongest, and perhaps even the most perfect shape that there is.
- There is no beginning to the form and there’s no end to it. Certainly this is significant symbology for a divine being, even if the divine beings in question don’t claim to be eternal themselves.
- As a sphere, it is a solid and whole form unlike that of the circle.
- It likely requires the least amount of energy for a spiritual being to maintain this form, and I expect the divine to be wise and mature enough to not (frequently:) flaunt their power.
A couple of nights ago a new concept came to mind - or was brought to my mind. I’m open to the idea of it being “inspired”, but I’m not going to be so arrogant as to think that it definitely was.
This idea is that the true form of a divine being is that of a great cloud. Not a “cloud” as in what you see when you look up into the sky, but rather an ethereal, smoke-like, necessarily invisible form.
This cloud like form would allow a divine being to permeate areas and objects; religious jewelry and decorations, groves, churches, even bedrooms could all, indeed, literally have the essence (or spirit!) of that divine being in them. The more sacred a place or object is, the more of its nebulous-like form a divine being could devote to that object or place.
This could also help to explain the analogy of “breath”, or Prana, or, if you like, ruach elohim (”the breath of the gods”). Literally, their pouring out of life, healing, and/or love would be like a breath!
This cloud-like form would also help to explain the limitations of divine beings. That is, it seems difficult for them to affect things in a physical way yet they can easily affect large scale events, or even individual things such as emotions. They “speak” to us not (typically) through voice, but through emotions and “impressions”.
All of this does not in any way discount a deity as being either a goddess or a god. All of the myths about the gods are just that, myths. Do you actually believe that a god was killed, or raped, or trapped, or any manner of other thing that happens in the stories?
On the contrary, the things attributed to a deity seems to reflect what that deity is like. Also, some are definitely feminine as we perceive it and others definitely male. I wrote a bit more about this in “Impressions and Poems“. In short, these things - female, male, godd/ess of the sea, and so on seem to be great allegories that explain the divine being’s… not just their personality, but perhaps their heart, too.
Perhaps it could even be argued that we are pale representations of manhood and womanhood, and that the gods are perfect representations of that despite their non-physical forms.
Yet another issue that this ethereal, smoke-like form touches on is the nature of offerings that the gods are said to prefer. In this case I am thinking of incense and music. Certainly such a form would be much in tune with the vibrations of music and the scent and smoke of incense.
Lastly, we always hear that it is what is in the heart that counts, not what is said. This is true about all things, but in particular we always read that “the gods know what is in our hearts”. What better form to be, to be affected by the stirrings of the heart?
~Steph
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