Choosing a Pantheon, a Path, and a Purpose to Pray

Image - Painting by Gurlev Vladimir

Choosing a Pantheon, a Path, and a Purpose to Pray – Introduction. 

From the beginning and even beyond the end of this course, we will always stick to the principle that says: ‘each person’s spiritual path is their own.’ Your path, the god/s that you worship, the books that you follow or the techniques that you place into your personal spiritual devotional practice is as unique as you are. 
There are thousands of variations to follow, however when we learn from man, we tend to get caught up in the man-made rules and regulations and we lose sight of the spiritual ways. There isn’t a single holy book or book of wisdom that I have come across that has not contained key information on my path. Each sage and saint, each guru, Wiseman, Wise woman and teacher has brought intense knowledge and evolution on my path. Some of them are good lessons, others are bad ones, but in the end, they all lead you to where you need to go. 
With your compass in tune, you cannot be led wrong, you cannot go wrong. Now all that is needed is to understand a few key pointers to choose certain things in your devotional practice:

Devotional Mind Mapping 

When choosing a pantheon to follow, spiritual beings to work with or a devotional practice for the first time, it is imperative to constantly assess how your compass or gut instinct reacts or acts toward this. I am not speaking about negativity here such as fear or guilt. Many people who leave a monotheistic path for a polytheistic one feel guilt and fear, the opposite is also true and sometimes carries even greater psychological consequences for the person in question.

Let us begin with the who… 

Firstly, let us discuss the physical people. You need to understand that the people in your life – your family, your friends, your colleagues and those you spend time with – have a great impact on your life. If you are constantly surrounded by judgemental characters, then you will not feel worth anything. You will constantly feel as though you need to please the world to keep the peace or end up fighting everything and everyone just to have your say. 

Life is not a struggle all the time, well, it does not have to be. Yes, resistance is necessary, like a stone that is constantly pounded by waves will become smooth and rounded, but some rocks need to be edgy and jagged for the purpose that they wish to fulfil. Look at everyone around you, decide who loves you beyond your decisions, decide who is there for you when the chips are down or nonexistent, and then decide how necessary those waves are for your development. 
These are tough calls to make, but even though the universe is simplified at its core, making these decisions is necessary. 

An Exercise of the Circle of Love


 It sounds hippie, and I did learn it from my hippie-like aunt who lived in the Knysna mountains and was a sculptor, a very darn good one I might add. One day she said, “Gigi, make a circle around yourself, then you call this circle love. Decide for yourself what love means to you. One by one place the people who live up to that ‘love meaning’ into your circle. The ones who do not live up to that are not worth your energy or your time.”

Well, I didn’t learn that lesson at all when I was told it. I learned it the hard way, the way I always learn. Eventually, I did learn the lesson, and her words echo in my head to this day. We need to learn what it is we came here to learn and we need to heal in order for us to be a productive part of the bigger picture. 

The world needs you, but for you to be an asset to the world, you need to make tough decisions and you need to be what and who you are in all your glory.

Take a pen and paper now, list all the people in your life who have an immediate effect on your life, then figure out your definition of love. Draw the circle and add in the people who are needed and who deserve to be there. 

Remember this does not mean you cut off the world, on the contrary, it simply means, the circle of love is the first place, it is where your time and energy goes, and that, that is worth far more than gold.
The Spiritual Who that you need in your life. 

This depends solely on the path that you wish to follow and what you most identify with. If an all-loving, all-encompassing father God is your calling, then that is the path you need to follow, look deeply into the monotheistic imagery of God, look at how this makes you feel, and if your compass points to true north, then identify the monotheistic pathway and connect. 

Polytheism is a little harder to follow in that there are a billion different routes that you can take. The spiritual realm is saturated with forks in the road, no matter where you turn, so you need to identify what sort of spiritual energy and God/dess you need in your life.

Research is key. Before devoting any time to any spiritual entity, in monotheism or polytheism, ensure that you have done your research.

What do you need in your life? 

Devotional practice is much like bathing or brushing your teeth, eating food etc. It heals, cleanses, and nourishes the being. It becomes a habit after a while and without it, you will feel a sense of emptiness or you will feel just off. 

You need to decide what sort of practice your personality and way of life can incorporate into your daily routines. Some people enjoy a rigid, set schedule and this gives their devotional practice importance and meaning. Other people have a very loose-based devotional practice, and this too is alright. It needs to become part of who you are.

Choosing how to approach devotion 

Devotion can come in many forms, for example, prayer on the knees, prayer in specific holy sites, certain body postures and movements in honour of the divine, items of devotion made and carried at all times, certain astronomical timings added to the prayers, energy patterns identified and acted on etc. 

 Some devotional practices include fasting, pain, pleasure and other acts of divinely inspired activities. However, you choose to approach your method of devotion needs to sit right with you. In other words, if the pastor or the High Priestess or the Monk says, you must fast for 9 days and then spray yourself with doom and you know this will lead to death or certainly, a near-death experience or even any danger at all and your compass is telling you to turn away, then you need to turn away. 
NEVER EVER follow anyone blindly. 

On following doctrine or set of rules and the pedestal people 

Before you learn anything, you must understand the bluntest fact of spiritual literature and study. All literature is penned in by man. Humankind is the scribe and spirit the inspiration. However, when the spirit inspires, the human mind gets in the way. This happens in channelling of all kinds, and therefore in every book, every manuscript, you need to separate the human and spirit influence.

Even in the work that you are reading. Yes, the intentions are to heal, to bring light into your life and love and to bring you closer to your spirit because this is our life purpose, however, we are human too. The Christian bible, the Torah, the Talmud, the Nag Hammadi texts, the Sumerian texts, the emerald tablets of Thoth, the Qur’an, the Egyptian and Tibetan books of the dead and so so so many more books were all written by people just like you. 

The only difference is that these people dedicated their time or much of their time to spiritual work. They were inspired through spirit and channelled the work of the spirit. The vessel of purpose needs to be healed before work is passed on, we need to understand the consequence of passing on our spiritual teachings and channellings before we do so. Many of them had no idea that their work would be followed, utilised in personal practice or venerated in any way, shape or form. Many of them did know this or hoped that it would and that they as humans would be seen as gods. 
The intention here is not always important, what is important is that the devotional messages that you follow, the doctrines and creeds that you incorporate into your daily spiritual practice must resonate with you and always show true north on your compass.

Here is an example prayer from the apostle Paul – the excerpt is from the nag Hammadi texts:
(Approximately two lines are missing.)

... your light, give me your mercy! My Redeemer, redeem me, for I am yours; the one who has come forth from you. You are my mind; bring me forth! You are my treasure house; open for me! You are my fullness; take me to you! You are (my) repose; give me the perfect thing that cannot be grasped! 

I invoke you, the one who is and who pre-existed in the name which is exalted above every name, through Jesus Christ, the Lord of Lords, the King of the ages; give me your gifts, of which you do not repent, through the Son of Man, the Spirit, the Paraclete of truth. Give me authority when I ask you; give healing for my body when I ask you through the Evangelist, and redeem my eternal light soul and my spirit. And the First-born of the Pleroma of grace -- reveal him to my mind! 

Grant what no angel eye has seen and no archon ear (has) heard, and what has not entered into the human heart which came to be angelic and (modelled) after the image of the psychic God when it was formed in the beginning, since I have faith and hope. And place upon me your beloved, elect, and blessed greatness, the First-born, the First-begotten, and the wonderful mystery of your house; for yours is the power and the glory and the praise and the greatness forever and ever. Amen. 

  Prayer of Paul (the) Apostle. In Peace. Christ is holy. 

 Original translation of this text was prepared by members of the Coptic Gnostic Library Project of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Claremont Graduate School. The Coptic Gnostic Library Project was funded by UNESCO, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and other Institutions. E. J. Brill has asserted copyright on texts published by the Coptic Gnostic Library Project. 

…and here is the Hymn of the Goddess written by Doreen Valiente:

The Charge Of The Goddess

Listen to the words of the Great Mother, who was of old also called Artemis; Astarte; Diana; Melusine; Aphrodite; Cerridwen; Dana; Arianrhod; Isis; Bride; and by many other names.
Whenever ye have need of anything, once in a month, and better it be when the Moon be full, then ye shall assemble in some secret place and adore the spirit of me, who am Queen of all Witcheries.
There shall ye assemble, ye who are fain to learn all sorcery, yet have not yet won its deepest secrets: to these will I teach things that are yet unknown.
And ye shall be free from slavery; and as a sign that ye are really free, ye shall be naked in your rites; and ye shall dance, sing, feast, make music and love, all in my praise.
For mine is the ecstasy of the spirit and mine also is joy on earth; for my Law is Love unto all Beings.
Keep pure your highest ideal; strive ever toward it; let nought stop you or turn you aside.
For mine is the secret door which opens upon the Land of Youth; and mine is the Cup of the Wine of Life, and the Cauldron of Cerridwen, which is the Holy Grail of Immortality.
I am the Gracious Goddess, who gives the gift of joy unto the heart. Upon earth, I give the knowledge of the spirit eternal; and beyond death, I give peace, and freedom, and reunion with those who have gone before. Nor do I demand sacrifice, for behold I am the Mother of All Living, and my love is poured out upon the earth.
Hear ye the words of the Star Goddess, she in the dust of whose feet are the hosts of heaven; whose body encircleth the Universe; I, who am the beauty of the green earth, and the white Moon among the stars, and the mystery of the waters, and the heart’s desire, call unto thy soul. Arise and come unto me.
For I am the Soul of Nature, who giveth life to the universe; from me, all things proceed, and unto me must all things return; and before my face, beloved of gods and mortals, thine inmost divine self shall be unfolded in the rapture of infinite joy.
Let my worship be within the heart that rejoiceth, for behold: all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals. And therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honour and humility, mirth and reverence within you.
And thou who thinkest to seek for me, know thy seeking and yearning shall avail thee not unless thou know this mystery: that if that which thou seekest thou findest not within thee, thou wilt never find it without thee.
For behold, I have been with thee from the beginning; and I am that which is attained at the end of desire.

© Copyright the Doreen Valiente Foundation 

Both are so beautiful. Both are channelled words of devotion to the divine and about the divine. No matter how many words we use, it is difficult to describe the spiritual connection that we feel, but humans still do, over and over again. You will also do something to express the feeling and you most probably have already. 

 In Wicca, there is a thing called a Book of Shadows, it sounds creepy but all it is, is a collection of things of devotion, pretty pictures, recipes that work really well, prayers that have had a profound effect on the devotee and so forth. 
Rock paintings were also collections of imagery of things that happened that were significant. So, is your journal. (If you do not have a journal by now, it would be a great addition to your spiritual practice)

So, who and what do you follow? 

Some people need something to follow, they need a structure, as we have mentioned before, others require a more relaxed input. I want you to look at your life, look closely at how you manage the mundane and then understand how your devotional practices will look like. Everything is a mirror reflection, a cycle and an inner folding of one singular pattern, over and over again. 
If you are a follower your map will look vastly different to that of someone who leads their own way. 

A follower will require an already set structure devised by someone under the counsel of a spiritual path that fits with the individual. For those of you who are followers, monotheism has excellent structure but in its outer circles, its confinement does not always promote healthy growth patterns, in the inner circles it does. For example, the outer circle is Christianity (in whichever denomination) the inner circle would be Gnosticism. The outer circle of Judaism would have the inner circle of the practice of Kabbalah, and so forth. 

Spirituality requires freedom and space for growth, always remember that. There is no right and there is no wrong. What works for you will not necessarily work for me and vice versa. However, if something sits well with you, then utilise it in your devotional practice. Your spiritual toolbox will always end up being a box of goodies that has carried you through this life. 

Creating Your own Mind Map of Spiritual Union 

Mind Mapping is excellent for everything. Made popular by quite a bright British psychology author named Tony Buzan, mind mapping allows you to bring order to chaos, or structure to seemingly disordered thoughts. 

Devotion, choosing a path requires some structure to understand where you are at in your life and what you need most.

Regardless of what your mind map looks like, it serves a purpose. The purpose is to order and to provide direction. 
The direction is more important than order, and the direction is forward 

 
The main heading for your mind map should be something like: ‘MY SPIRITUAL PATH.’ Or ‘MY DEVOTIONAL STUDIES.’ Or really whatever feels right. With the following sub-headings or branches from the main idea, we are seeking what path to follow and what information you need to slot into that. Please feel free to do your mind map the way that you would like to and how it will work for you. 

Suggested sub-headings: • Follower/leader – monotheistic/polytheistic • Matriarchal –  • Patriarchal –  • Universal source –  • Prayer style –  • Deities / Spirit guides and guardians –  • Serving the self / Serving a spiritual path –  • My purpose –  • My circle of love –  • Wise teachers –  • Community influence –