How to relate to the Goddess

[moonlightsonata]

A little bit of background on me: I am coming to Wicca out of over a decade of traditional Catholicism. I had been Wiccan for a couple of years then left it for Catholicism. It's a big switch and sometimes I feel a little . So please be patient with me as I try to explain this.

I'm probably closest to a duotheist: I believe there is a God and Goddess, but I do believe they both emanate from the One Divine Source that is the Source of everything. I don't believe They are not real or divine or that they didn't create the universe. I just believe that They are the halves of this whole. I'm monist and panentheist in my worldview.

As a Catholic, when I felt scared, or nervous, or needed some help, I would mentally pray (and sometimes verbally, if I was alone.) I was constantly sending up little prayers. "God, please help me with this test." "God, I really need the money for x bill." "God, please forgive me." That kind of thing. And I guess I'm wondering; is it possible to relate to the Goddess that way? Does She care about the small stuff? Will She protect me? This may sound weird to you. I know that autonomy is valued highly in Wicca and we don't believe the Gods are there to micromanage our lives. But if we want to share it with Them and ask Their help...can we talk to Them? I think I kind of have this idea that you need to cast a circle every time you want to address a need.

I've gone out in nature, and I've seen the sun on the water and felt the ground underneath and smelled the wind, and I felt something very powerful that I know was Her. I remember the incredible peace after my first ritual. The joy seeing the moon gives me. I know the God and Goddess are there. I just....I don't know. I hope this makes some sense.

[SpiritTalker]

You're singing my song! I also came thru the RC ranks. To me, it's all One and we have thousands of names for It that reflects our ability to perceive It. I think when we broadcast our thoughts, it's to the One (however you choose to define One.)

You wrote:
I'm probably closest to a duotheist: I believe there is a God and Goddess, but I do believe they both emanate from the One Divine Source that is the Source of everything.

I've gone out in nature, and I've seen the sun on the water and felt the ground underneath and smelled the wind, and I felt something very powerful that I know was Her.

I pulled out 2 sentences from your text that I think expressed your beliefs. These are very solid.

In my limited experience, the day-to-day relationship we make is based more on our own
personalities than the Deity. We can use whatever approach we feel works. The way we commune constantly changes as we grow in our perceptions and the more confidently we anticipate Their response. The better the two-way flow, the more we grow and the better the flow. Our awareness grows.

Edit: (I had to leave before id finished)

Does She care about the small stuff? Well, the evidence is right before our eyes in a grain of sand or with a microscopic view of an amoeba, or any microbic creature of Nature. And the big stuff too...look up at the night sky. If that's not love, I don't know what is.

But I think you want to know if our experiences of individual deities is that they get involved in our personal struggles and victories. Personally, I'd say yes. I think they do so through us, because they are us (in terms of One) & in us, in that we are of the Earth Herself. We are Creatures of Nature as surely as any one celled animal, a fox, eagle, whale or a star.

Earth is sentient. She is aware. Conscious. Eh, I can go on but you get it one way or another. That power of Her which you've experienced is aware of you. Whether it's described through quantum physics or unified consciousness, or one-on-one doesn't matter.

[moonlightsonata]

Thank you for your reply! Nice to "meet" another former Catholiic. Were you a conservative one or a liberal one? How did you find paganism?

It's like, right now I am having roommate trouble. Now I know I can do magic re: the situation and I have. But can I pray about it, send up little prayers? I don't know why not but it just feels weird,

.

[SpiritTalker]

I think it's OK to meditate on it, and ask for guidance. Deities expect us to fix things within our means ourselves, but they love to kibbitz.

I found Cunningham's "Wicca for the Solitary Practitioner" and it started a train of thought that clarified some of my former experiences. One thing led to another...

[planewalker]

Because you've "changed" in such a big way you think - "this must be a huge sweeping change! It must be something monumental! It's got to bring me up short! I'm gonna' have the epiphany of epiphanies!". But really, has it? Your only a little different than yesterday. It's only a little different because it's only been a little time. Your comparing what you believed and did a year or two years ago to today.

Yes, you're very "noticeably"different. Remember, it was all those days in between when your mind and spirit changed. Just a bit at a time really. Just that little spiritual growth every day. That's the part that you didn't think about. Why would you? Does a fish think about swimming? Does the God think about this, does the Goddess worry about that. Kinda depends on if you worry about it. They haven't changed, you have. If you "feel" the multiverse, you know that there is unity.

The totality of EVERYTHING is right there in front of you. The flaming sunset. The driving snow. Knowing that those same things are happening on a million, billion worlds. Is that unity a being? I don't know. If it is a conscious being, then it has the work load from he!!. If I was a deity the first thing I'd do is get rid of some of my work load. Just sayin'.

I look at it as the law of three writ large. Three sides of a coin, the three parts of the Ying-Yang, the three parts of you... "WHAT? Wait! HUH?" Yup! Right brain, left brain and corpus collosum that joins them together. But to answer the question {which is what I wrote all this other stuff to lead up to, so it would be quite the mental hic-cup if I didn't}, There are beings out there. An entity will hear you and you get to have your answer, or problem fixed, or disaster averted.

Will it always be the same one? NO. Will it feel the same to you? SURE WILL. Your the one asking, so your the one who's getting. Does it work? I've my head still on my shoulders and a calling to follow. I don't ask very often,but it's usually a big one when I do. Is every one answered? In one way or another. Not always to our benefit. Sometimes it's answered by indifference and we pull our own chestnuts out of the fire.

Even though it was only your efforts doing it, made you feel that much better when you prayed,didn't it. Then that sets off the whole, did the deity, by giving me these talents....sorry I'm not going to do that chicken/egg thing. That's part of divinity. We forget that we are part of the multiverse. It's the multiverse coming to consciousness. It's how we learn an grow. It's how we find whatever paradise is, or make one for our self.

[SnowCat]

I am a former Catholic as well. I started questioning things when I was 11. By the time I was 16, I was well on the path of paganism. I spent some of my adult years trying to reconnect with Catholicism, but it always left too many unanswered questions, and I still felt the pull of something bigger.

Snow