Testing Gods

[TatteredAngel]

Fiddlers Green

Coyote, on the other hand, seems to love the game, even to the point that, and this is merely conjecture, it almost seems as if he would pretend to be a thought form, just to play with, or encourage growth in his current victim/beneficiary

Seems a pretty good assessment to me. He seems to care less regarding revealing himself than he does regarding the games. wink  

[TeaDidikai]

loona wynd

How would one be able to tell the difference between a deity and a thought form?

Turning UPG into CG.

Checking directly opposing UPG against source text.

Exerting will and being aware and objective about shifts that the being made.  

[Loona Wynd]

TeaDidikai

loona wynd

How would one be able to tell the difference between a deity and a thought form?

Turning UPG into CG.

Checking directly opposing UPG against source text.

Exerting will and being aware and objective about shifts that the being made.

So basically only through mythology can one be sure it's a deity and not a thought form?  

[patch99329]

As opposed to the mythology of the deity, I'd look at how my experience matches up with how the culture at the time viewed the deity for example.
Although mythology is also a way of understanding the cultures views.  

[TeaDidikai]

loona wynd

So basically only through mythology can one be sure it's a deity and not a thought form?

~blinks... rereads her post~ I gave one explanation that had nothing to do with mythology.

Nor did I say this was the whole of the list of means to test the gods.  

[Loona Wynd]

TeaDidikai

loona wynd

So basically only through mythology can one be sure it's a deity and not a thought form?

~blinks... rereads her post~ I gave one explanation that had nothing to do with mythology.

Nor did I say this was the whole of the list of means to test the gods.

sweatdrop Then could you explain what you meant? I must have misread and misunderstood you....  

[TeaDidikai]

The idea of exerting will over thoughtforms is pretty simple. The common one I have heard of includes things not unlike "changing the gods hair color" etc.  

[Sivirs]

It's kind of like a character continuity test for gods. The example used on the Seidh list I used to be on was the "Kali in pink leg warmers" test.

Let's say you have a vision of Kali, flashdancing at you in pink leg warmers.

So you look for information on Kali. Not necessarily specific myths, but how her worshippers largely viewed her and how her modern worshippers continue to view her. Is there anything in all those thousands of years of worship that would suggest that she'd flashdance and wear pink leg warmers? No. Therefore, the most likely possibility is that you were not seeing Kali.

Now let's say you get a vision of Kali bathing you in your own blood. You look at all the sources again and... hey! She does crazy things like that. Now signs begin to point in favor of UPG. You consult with other Kali devotees and, hey, it seems like they've had similar experiences. Ahha. Now signs REALLY point to UPG.

Does that make more sense, or should I give more examples? 'Cause I can keep this up for a while. xd  

[TeaDidikai]

Sivirs

Does that make more sense, or should I give more examples? 'Cause I can keep this up for a while. xd

That's a good example for the two mythology based tests.

The non-mythology based tests that I mentioned go something along the lines of say putting pink leg warmers on the vision and being objective about the results.  

[Loona Wynd]

Ok. Thank you! I still have a lot to learn.