Most of us are probably familiar with the blessings of the Gods. Many of us give offerings and prayers and hold other observances in Their honor as part of a reciprocal relationship which includes the Gods gracing us with Their blessings and with aid in living Their virtues.
But as much as I have heard on reciprocal relationships, I think I am yet to hear of us being the ones to bless -- or at least wish blessings upon -- the Gods. Here, I share some of my thoughts on doing just that.
Photo: The Cascade Falls at Patapsco State Park, Maryland
I have a habit of blessing the Gods I pray to in the morning. After making my offerings and reciting my usual prayer, I often will then go into an unscripted expression of gratitude and other musings, including the stereotypical requests for blessings and protection on my closest loved ones (including if They are both willing and able -- willing, because I don't want it to sound like any sort of demand or entitlement, and able because fate is fate, and I do not believe the Gods to be omnipotent). But I close with invoking blessings upon the Gods Themselves as well while in the space.
I have noticed, at least in what I've been able to observe, that this doesn't seem to be something a lot of other people do, aside from the occasional closing of a public invocation with something grandiose such as "may Your ___ continue forever" or similar. I hear a lot of praise, and a lot of listing of epithets and qualities and feats and whatnot, but not so much invoking blessings onto the Gods. Or maybe people do it all the time, and I am just not noticing.
Regardless, this is an example of what I do: This morning, I wished Them a day filled with happiness, for love and joy to fill Their hearts and spread over Them and those They care about like the golden sunshine outside my window (there's a big window to the backyard behind my altar/shrine). For Their virtues to spread and Their goals to be fulfilled or make progress.
While it's all very nice and polite, it isn't just to close out my morning devotions with uplifting, flowery niceties.
Reciprocity and Devotion
It may be that some people would think it pointless, laughable, or even hubris for a puny fleshy human to bless the divine Gods. But to give Them something that I assume They need, or to do something that They cannot attain or do for Themselves, is not quite the point. Although the question of whether the Gods need our honor and interaction is a question I do not pretend to know the answer to, I assume the answer is They don't. I assume this is the answer because I assume the Gods, being more powerful than us in many ways, do not need our worship (although I think it does help Them and Their ends), and also because, much like everything else living, I assume They exist and operate for Their own sake, not ours. However, it certainly seems that many of Them expect worship/offerings, want it, or at minimum like the energy and attention. And it could certainly be argued that They literally can't be someone else, unless you count possession -- but then even if They bless Themselves via your body, it's not entirely coming from someone else, is it? So in that sense, I suppose one could actually say that blessing the Gods is doing or giving Them something They cannot do or give Themselves. Only you can give your own blessings; no one else can do it for you, after all. (It took conscious effort for me to not end that sentence with ...can prevent forest fires! I avoid doing these things for you, dear reader.) But pedantics aside...
The point is rather more to express my true wishes for Them from my heart, to share my hopes for Them and Their honorable endeavors, and to build relationship. And to build relationship is to share in reciprocity. Much has been written about the topic of reciprocity in the Pagan and polytheist context, so I won't belabor the point too much. (The books Sacred Gifts: Reciprocity and the Gods by Kirk S. Thomas, and Devotional Polytheism: An Introduction by Galina Krasskova, and some of the writings of Irene Glasse and John Beckett immediately spring to mind.)
Although it can certainly be a tit-for-tat, cold, sterile agreement that invokes images of business suits and begrudged mutual back-scratching, this is not what reciprocity has to be (unless one side or the other insists on the uber-professional distance -- consent). Reciprocity is the foundation of any healthy relationship, for healthy relationships are not one-way. Words, experiences, information/knowledge, work, resources (food, money, time, etc), memories, affection, gifts, blessings -- at its core, reciprocity is merely cycles of sharing. We simply cannot grow to better know one another and have meaningful relationships without sharing and reciprocating. Relationships that become one-sided either stagnate and grow distant with time or become unhealthy. It's just the nature of the beast.
I hope for the Gods to be happy and to achieve Their virtuous goals, and I want who and what They hold most dear to be protected and thrive. So, I express this to Them and wish and invoke it upon Them, just as I do for others who are important to me. For me, it is an act of devotion and care.
Small is Not Worthless
Just because we may be smaller or less powerful than the one(s) we are blessing does not mean what we do is pointless or worthless (or hubris, unless one is coming at it from an angle of power-tripping or attempted manipulation).
Now that I'm a parent, I'm convinced there are a multitude of reasons that the metaphor of us humans being "children" and the Gods being some sort of divine "parents" is so popular. Many of the Gods seem happy, or at least fine, with providing us guidance and help. They also seem happy, or at least fine, with the divine equivalent of letting us fall on our asses, putting us in the corner to think about what we've done, or sometimes even just giving us a flat-out spanking with the infamous "cosmic two-by-four", of course always "for our own good". And if we're determined to go on a self-destructive streak, there is only so much They are willing or able to do, as we are adults who are ultimately responsible for ourselves, and They have Their own lives to see to.
Sure, there may not be any of the Gods who love me as deeply as I love my child. I don't presume to know the hearts of the Gods, but I also don't presume that any human is important enough to any God that said God would be willing to permanently give up Their very life as They know it for said human, as I would for my child, if required.
However, I can easily imagine certain of the Gods finding our giving Them gifts and blessings -- even if far less potent than what They are capable of Themselves -- to be heartwarming and appreciated when it comes from a genuine place. Just as my heart swells with joy when my little one sings me a song he made up (that's two lines over and over, or even just made up of nonsense syllables), or draws me a scribble picture, or does pretty much anything as a gift for me. I also still have letters my Mom sent me in basic training, now twenty years ago. There is nothing momentous or of monetary value in them, but they are of value to me.
In a less intimate vein, I have friends who have at times thought their impacts on the world were worthless, that they were too small to matter, that the world would go on and forget them, that they had made no mark on the world. But what they've said matters to me. It changed me and how I thought or viewed things -- sometimes leading to a complete 180 as I really took in what they said over time. (Given who and where I am now, and the fact I grew up Baptist in the blood-red state of Oklahoma, I'm sure you can imagine this has happened to me more than once.)
Something does not have to be big or powerful to have value, especially within the context of relationship. Gifts are meaningful relative to the relationships already present and the ability of the giver.
The Gods Have Lives Too
Another reason I give my own blessings to the Gods is because, as I referenced earlier, my personal understanding of the Gods is that They are divine Persons with Their own lives and concerns. I'm not a neo-Platonist, and I do not believe the Gods are these lofty, totally transcendent, unreachable, unfathomably beatific and utterly perfect beings who either are so removed or else so very integrated into everything that They almost become a passive and unmoving "All" with different masks on.
My personal understanding of the Gods (which no one else by any means should feel pressure to agree with, but it informs my practice) is that They are Persons with not only Their own goals but also Their own obstacles to those goals. Sometimes, obstacles They cannot remove, or at least cannot remove in the time or method They prefer. I believe They are Persons with beings and things that They hold dear. And yes, I do believe that They are moved to grieve when said beings or things They hold dear come to harm or to an end (or at least come to an end in that particular form or cycle, depending on how one interprets such things).
I believe this both because of various mythological stories and also because I presume that deities who are closely associated with death and grief must have an intimate understanding of these things. There is really only one way to have a truly deep understanding of most anything (but perhaps especially death and grief), and that is to experience it for oneself. As a pretty hard-leaning polytheist, I also am of the understanding that not all Gods see eye-to-eye or have the same goals about all things at all times, nor are They omnipotent, omniscient, and/or omnipresent. Logic as well as the state of existence around me drives me to assume that if the Gods were of one mind about everything and omniscient and omnipotent and always virtuous and benevolent and were both willing and able to micromanage everything Themselves, that things would probably be quite different. Others believing this or not is unimportant, but it is relevant to my practice here.
Mythology also tells me that the Gods are not immune to Fate (others will read into it differently, to each their own). Therefore, things can "go wrong" from Their perspective just as they can for anyone who is subject to fate. So, I wish for the best outcomes that are possible within the bounds of fate to be Theirs. I want Them to know that I see Them as divine but also as people, and it is one of my ways of trying to connect with Them via that common thread we share, however very different we may be.
Emulating Virtues
The final reason I will go into here for blessing the Gods is to emulate Them. The Gods bless me and mine, and so I will do the same -- not only to other human people and to the Earth but back to Them as well. They say imitation is the highest form of flattery, and flattery has a negative, insincere, or excessive nuance to it, but the core point still stands -- who deserves the highest form of praise if not the Gods? I believe that the generosity and kindness of blessing others is one of the many virtues of those Gods who do so, and I want to emulate Their virtues, so I will do so too. This one really is as simple as that.
Do I expect my blessings to transform Their worlds? Of course not -- I'm a human, and Their existences and goals run on cosmic timelines that I can't possibly wrap my head around. (Is the time They operate in circular? Do They jump around in it? Is some part of Them simultaneously in all Their potential states at once? Is it somehow both all and none of the above? The timey-wimey stuff hurts my little mortal squish brain.)
Some offerings and gifts are greater than others, and nothing is absolute, for everything is within its context. I do not think blessings or well-wishes compare to (and certainly do not substitute for) doing work for Them, or agreed-upon obligations, or certain other sorts of devotion. And yet, I also can't help but think of how often in my life it has been the small things, and just knowing someone was thinking and caring about me, that mattered. I know that the Gods may certainly not value the same things as a human, but that is the only experience I have (at least for this life). Even if all it does is warm Their cockles or make Them smile -- even if it only makes Them think to Themselves in passing, "Someone actually cares how I'm doing today," before going on about Their business... whatever it's worth, the UPG feedback I get when I pray is that it isn't nothing.
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