The Gods Are Not Fluffy

This post is adapted from an online discussion I was having, though I removed all personal details. We were talking about the tendency of some Pagan groups to call on random Gods and spirits, without having a full understanding of their entire nature or being willing to offer them something in return.

"I am always put off when I come across NeoPagan writings that talk of "using" various Deities for spells and magic. We've all seen the books that say something like "Flip through the appendix at back, and pick a God you want to use for your love spell." Never mind the horrid and arrogant presumption that the Gods exist solely to act as a kind of Santa Claus, granting wishes and gratifying shallow requests for goods, but it also seems to be to be a wee bit risky. When taken in historical context, most Gods are multi-faceted and may have attributes that could be harmful or destructive if wrongly invoked, and of course there are very real threats and dangers in the Spirit world. It's not hard to imagine somebody recklessly calling on beings from a book of which they had no understanding, and then suffering serious adverse effects from it. I would blame the authors of these books more than the readers. I guess a serious discussion of the risks involved doesn't sell as well as "The Spirit World is full of wonderful, happy Gods and angels who have nothing better to do than grant you a parking space!" Since so many newbies don't know how to find serious, reputable books (or even know they exist) I think they really can't be blamed if something goes wrong, as they probably didn't know any better."

Food for thought. I don't want it to sound like I think of the Gods as "evil" as that's definitely not the case. Just remember, Nature has both a light AND a dark side, and with life, comes death. The Goddess that protects the innocent may crush the wicked, and the God of the Forest can also be the Lord of Death.