Thursday, November 3, 2011

Where we find the Gods

The Divine is something that can be found in the strangest of places.  My thought in this as of late was inspired by a conversation on Facebook.  An acquaintance of mine posted about finding reference to the Horned God in a God in one of her favorite video games.  The video game was Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which as some of you may know is my favorite game as well.  At least until vacation in 8 (OMG 8) days when Elder Scrolls V comes out and no one hears from me for two weeks.  Mmmmm, Elder Scrolls...

I digress.

I'd often thought that the religion in the Elder Scrolls universe was very well thought out and realistic.  They have nine main gods, which they call the Nine Divines.  It is easy to see correspondence in some of them to things in our own life.  Take Mara.  From the the Elder Scrolls Wiki:  "Mara, the Goddess of Love, is a member of the Nine Divines.  In the Empire, she is worshiped at the Benevolence of Mara (her temples) as the Mother-Goddess.  Her origins lead back to ancient times, where she was revered as a fertility goddess."  Sound familiar?

There is also Azura, Daedric Goddess of "Dusk, Dawn, and the magic that exists between the various realms of twilight."

What about in books?  Can the Gods in the literary world show hints of the divine?  The mythology of David Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean series bears some striking resemblance to the Greek mythos - despite the fact that there are no goddesses.

What do you think?  Can there be aspects - hints - of the Gods found in places we wouldn't expect?  Have you ever found the Divine somewhere you wouldn't have looked for it?

Goddess Bless,
Stacy

3 comments:

  1. I've always enjoyed Edding's take on the divine. It varies between the series and he does have Goddesses in The Elenium/Tamuli as well as Redemption of Althalus.

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  2. I don't know about Edding's stuff (my mom met him once and almost brained him because he was an a** and I still haven't opened the book after 10 years), but I have seen some really nice glimpses of Divinity in other books like "The Silver Branch" and P.C.Cast's Goddess books. If the Gods occupy all of Nature and Life, they are certainly present in art, music and writing.

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  3. I agree with The Cauldron Keeper. The search and acknowledgment of Divinity is something inherent in us all. To that end they present themselves in our expressions of art.

    I also play Oblivion. Cool game. =)

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