Finding Your Patron God and Goddess

Finding the God and Goddess you resonate with is an important part of your path. When you make a connection like that it makes the hard work you have to do a little easier. You’re working with energy you know instead of being unsure of yourself. You’re amongst family instead of strangers.
Sometimes the Gods find you. When that happens, there is little you can do to escape Their intentions. They’ve set Their sights on you and you should just learn to live with it. For me it was Brigid the Celtic Goddess of inspiration, healing and the fires of the forge. It took awhile for me to hear Her. I think the final marble that tilted the scale was when my best friend’s son was born… on Imbolc (Her Sabbat day)… with fire red hair right out of the womb. She’s my guiding light through the darkness into the day.

The rest of the time you have to put in the work to find your Patrons. You have to research the many and various pantheons and cultures to see which one speaks to you the loudest. For that you have to hit the history books. You have to see how people lived back before Christianity took hold and banished all the wonderful old gods. Find out what life was like for the Egyptians when they were erecting those glorious pyramids, or the Hindus right when they were completing the Vedas or the Celts before Caesar starting pitting them against each other in battle. Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Hindu, Africa, Celtic and countless others besides these run throughout history.

After you’ve chosen, or have been chosen by, a specific pantheon, the real work begins. Now it’s time to pour over and through the books on mythology. Local libraries, even ones in small towns, usually have a pretty decent selection of these books. The internet is also a good source as long as you find a reputable site. When you’re surfing the internet it’s important to remember that what you read is not always written by people who know what they’re talking about or who’ve done their research. So be mindful of that.

So you’re reading through the myth books now. What you’re looking for is who these characters are and why are they behaving this way and are any of their stories like your stories. There is so much to learn about the gods. They have personalities just like we do. They can be loving and nurturing or they can be full of vengeance and wrath.
It’s also important to remember that when you get to the point where you’re in a circle about to do a ritual, be sure to realize who you are invoking. It isn’t always one big happy family in the world of the gods. Even within a single pantheon or group of gods from the same culture of people, there will be angst and fire-y temperaments sometimes. I would also caution against invoking deities from different pantheons into circle. You don’t want to be in the middle of a healing or cleansing ritual with the gods fighting in the background.

Just remember that when you find the ones you resonate with the most, you’ll know. It’s a gut feeling and you'll want to say, “There you are! I’ve been looking for you for ages!” Usually you just need to close your eyes and your mouth and open your heart and your soul.




All photos in this article are the property of Justine Marie. Copyright 2011.