Lucy Valunos - One Heart, Many Gods: The Absolute Beginners Guide to Devotional Polytheism

One Heart, Many Gods:

The Absolute Beginners Guide to

Devotional Polytheism

Lucy Valunos

Copyright 2016 by Lucy Valunos. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Cover Design by James, GoOnWrite.com

For Odin

All that's mine is Yours

H i, my name is Lucy, and Im a Polytheist.

Thats the short answer, anyway.

The long answer is, Ive been practicing spiritual devotion in one form or another without interruption for the past two decades and counting. My conversion to Polytheism, however, is recent, and it was my fumbling in the dark as I tried to find my way exploring devotion to a multiplicity of Gods that inspired the creation of this booklet.

It is my desire to share what has helped me in establishing a strong devotional practice as a Polytheist. Im not an expert, nor am I claiming to be any sort of authority. Im just another devotee down here in the trenches, trying to honor my Gods as best I can in my everyday life.

My hope is that this booklet will help others seeking to establish a regular devotional practice in their own lives, whether you are new to Polytheism or an experienced veteran of this path looking for a fresh idea or two.

H ow to Use, and Not Use, This Booklet

First and foremost, I ask that you keep in mind that this booklet is full of my opinions. It would be a cumbersome slog to read if I appended disclaimers to every other sentence, so Im getting that out of the way first thing. You are bound to come across ideas that you dont agree with, or suggestions that would never work for you. And thats absolutely fine! Take whats helpful and leave the rest.

Please do not mistake what youre reading here as The One Right Way to Honor the Gods. Its not. It is nothing more than some suggestions, written with an eye toward beginners. Your spiritual practices are between you and your Gods. It is neither possible nor desirable for myself or anyone else to dictate what you must or must not do, or the right way to do it. There are many right ways. The suggestions you will find in this booklet are just the ones that work for me personally.

And lastly, while this work is only intended to be a brief and general introduction to the subject to help you get started, there is a lot of information packed in here. Dont let it overwhelm you! If you are new to a regular devotional practice, you neither can nor should attempt to incorporate everything you read here into your path at once. I speak from personal experience: that will only set you up for failure and discouragement. Take one step at a time, try one new idea at a time, and you will be well on your way before you know it!

The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.

Blaise Pascal

I was given the advice long ago that when times got tough with my new husband, as they inevitably do in all marriages, I should take a moment and remember why. Why I was marrying him, why I had chosen to be with him at all, why I loved him.

I pass this same advice on to you now, at the beginning of this journey, because the path of devotion is much like a marriage. There is a honeymoon period, when youre trying all the shiny new things, excited to seek out new and different offerings (more on those later). No effort is too much, and there is no such thing as too much time spent on it. No sacrifice is too great.

But sure as autumn follows summer, the dry spells will come. What was once a joy becomes duty. Suddenly youre honoring Thor only because its Thursday and thats when you do it, and its easier to get distracted, and He wont mind if you skip it this week because that show you like is coming on, right?

Those are the times when you should take pause and remember why. Why are you honoring Thor in the first place? Why on Thursdays? What do you do on Thursdays, and why did you choose to do it that way? The answer might end up being that you just need a change of pace. The old prayers are so ingrained that theyve become rote, or youve used the same ritual so many times you could do it in your sleep (and maybe you are).

Or it might be that everything is working for you and your God just fine and your perseverance when your practices are no longer new and shiny is your offering this week, your sacrifice to honor your God.

But the most vital question in that whole equation, that most important Why, is Why you are devoted to your Deities in the first place. That is the Why you need to answer for yourself before you begin. Why are you here? Why these particular Gods? Why now? Why does devotion matter to you, and what do you hope it will accomplish?

T he Lifeblood of Relationships

The foundation of all devotion is relationship, and the lifeblood of relationship with the Divine is devotion.

It goes without saying that if you never spend time with someone, or only check in with them once a month, you probably wont have much of a relationship with that person. There is simply no substitute for time spent together. What Im calling devotion in this booklet is that time spent together. Its one way you invite your Gods into your life outside of group gatherings and holy days, whichever form those may take in your tradition. Whether you call it devotion or something else, it is a vital and irreplaceable step in building and maintaining personal relationships with your Gods over time.

Different devotees will have different answers when it comes to why these relationships are important to them, but here I share mine. I believe it is natural to show respect to those older and wiser who take interest and show concern in those of us younger and still learning, and that this is what we are doing when we honor our Gods (as well as other Spirits and our ancestors, though these last two are not the focus of this booklet). I believe the Gods deserve respect and honor for the role They play in our world, as well as in my own life.

More personally, my own Gods have made Their presence known during some of the darkest periods of my life. I would not be alive today if not for my Patron in particular. For me, my devotion is the natural response to this; it is showing my gratitude for what Ive already been given, and for what I believe I am still being given. My Patron gave me back my life; it seems only fair to return it to Him in kind.

More than that, it is extremely difficult not to develop feelings for those who take interest in our lives and help us through the hard times.

So on that note lets conclude this section with fair warning. It is perilously easy to fall in love with the Divine when you make room for Them in your life. Devotion is not a path for the cowardly and hard-hearted. When practiced with sincerity, it leads inevitably to intimacy. Intimacys coin is vulnerability, and vulnerability demands both courage and honesty.

Its not an easy path to walk, and every step you take closer to your Deities will cost you something. Its only a question of what. You may have to let go of that little piece of self-loathing youve been holding onto for years. You may have to sacrifice some of that time you used to spend on that hobby. You may have to take an honest look at parts of yourself or your life that youd really rather not.

In other words, devotion in practice is not simply saying a prayer or lighting a stick of incense. Those are the means, not the end. The end of devotion is connection with the Divine, and the Divine is not sanitized for our modern culture and sensibilities, tucked neatly into a box with all sharp fangs and claws filed down so we dont get scratched. Deities arent visited like animals in a zoo, or invited over like your usual dinner guest who will politely leave when you mention it sure seems to be getting late. They have Their own preferences, requests, and expectations, just like everyone else youre in a relationship with.