An interesting question that frequently comes up is "Which Gods do you follow or worship?"
My usual, and frequently misunderstood, answer is - "none and all of them". I don't debate the existence, validity or 'good'ness or 'bad'ness of any of the various deities. If you feel it and believe it then it's real and it exists, if only for you. Energy work and spirituality are deeply personal areas of study and the simple fact is that thoughts have energy. When you direct your thoughts toward something then you do, in fact, create it.
Gods are energy. To be more precise the various Gods in the various religions represent the various aspects of the common energy that we all share. For instance, in the Celtic pantheon there exists Lu´gh (slight misspelling as I can't get my computer to put the accent in the right place) also known as the Many Gifted Lord, Master of the Stag and Keeper of the Spear. Lugh represents a very specific energy and is also represented as the master of all illumination and symbolized by a burning spear. Having a pretty good background in Kundalini Awakening it's easy for me to see him also as representative of the fiery kundalini energy that flows up ones spine and through the brain, illuminating ones life and the path to follow. We're all a part of the same energy and we're all connected through it. Once you learn to feel that energy then you can begin to get deeper and learn to feel the differences in the energy between various people and objects.
We each have a specific energy signature the same way we have a specific smell, voice and way of walking. What it's really all about is building up your own personal catalog of how things feel. Unfortunately the only way to do this is to spend a LOT of time feeling different things. With practice you can learn to distinguish between the people in your training group simply by feeling their energy. You can also learn to connect to the energy of various people or places simply by feeling it.
If I were an ancient Druid I would have spent a couple of decades feeling and learning about that energy. As a Druid part of my job would have been teaching about that energy and our connection to Nature to people who didn't have the same background and abilities. It only makes sense to put it into terms that can be easily understood by people who don't have a decade to train for it.
Do this exercise;
Face West and visualize a fertile plain with the sun setting beyond it. The colors are vivid and bright. Lugh appears surrounded by a radiant halo and with a blinding point of light at the tip of his spear. Don't think about anything or try to connect with anything, just pay attention to the feelings that you have with this vision. Can you feel the energy flowing up your spine? Do you feel your aura begin to brighten as Lugh's energy flows into and through you?
Now take a moment and send out a feeling of gratitude for Lugh and to the universe at large, for having made it through another day and witnessing a beautiful sunset.
Remember the feeling that you had with this exercise. If your energy is strong enough then you can recapture that feeling at any time. Does that mean that Lugh doesn't exist when you touch the energy without the ritual? Of course not.
Some people need the ritual, and in fact the rituals can be an excellent way to help people feel the energy for themselves as well as a way for many of us to combine our energies to use for a specific purpose or just to create a little more sacred space.
Energy is a tool, and different situations require a different energy (at the beginning levels). Connecting to the proper energy is easier when you have a clear tool to help you visualize and remember the feel of it. Gods are an excellent way of storing the feel and intent of the different aspects of the energy and easily accessing it so that you can use it. Teaching about the Gods is also an excellent way to help teach the feel of the energy to students who may not know what it feels like yet. That's one of the things that make teaching about subtle energy so difficult, the fact that it is subtle. I can tell you what it feels like for me, but I can't tell you how it should feel to you.
By using a ritual for the Gods a person can access those specific aspects of the energy and learn to feel it for themselves. At the Druid level it allows us to access those energies and pass it on so that people without our training can feel it as well. This can be applied to pretty much any aspect of life. A Druid Healer can not only access the healing aspects of Brigid (from the Irish traditions) but can help lay healers also connect to the energy by teaching them to feel Brigid and interact with her.
Energy is just energy. It's not good or bad, light or dark or smart or stupid. It just IS. It's what you do with it that defines its effects. The Gods are how we use that energy in a variety of ways.
It's easy to see how the deeper spirituality of this could get lost or misunderstood. In some cases all we have left is the dogma that went with the energy, but very little real intention or understanding of how to use it. That doesn't mean that a ritual conducted for a Celtic, Greek, or any other God is useless without the deeper energy work. You don't have to be a carpenter to use a hammer and a saw.
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Robert Morgen is a Reiki Master who currently holds a Black Belt in Hoshin Roshi Ryu. He's the founder of the Kundalini Awakening Discussion Group, the Druids Circle Discussion Group and the (offline) Druids Circle in Lakewood, CO. You can find more info on all these at; www.druidscircle.info
He's also the founder and Executive Director of the Windhaven Foundation for Sustainable Living.
He writes a regular column on subtle energy for Fight Times Magazine and a twice monthly column on Kundalini Awakening at Alumbo.com.
In addition to teaching about energy work and Kundalini Awakening he donates time to teach about Renewable Energy, Alternative Building and Creating Sustainable Lifestyles in various Public Schools.
He travels and teaches as much as possible and you can find out how to attend one of his Kundalini Awakening seminars at his website at; www.windhavenco.org
His new book "Personal Mastery: Develop Your True Inner Power By Awakening Your Kundalini" is now available at http://www.lulu.com/RobertMorgen.