Its amazing how the Awen can bend you in so many different ways – and then you find that all of those are connected to one another in a manner you could never guess.  On my last blog post – My Tribe – Dana made a comment about walking through a veil of separation between two areas of personal perception.  Yesterday, John Beckett did a breakdown of the Cernunnos ritual he and the Denton CUUPs group did at the DFW Pagan Pride Day.  In the comments to his blog post, he and I traded what were very different perspectives of the same ritual.  John made, what was for me, a startling comment:  “I don’t know if you consider yourself a polytheist (which is odd, after listening to all those podcasts you’d think I’d know), but you’re familiar with the concepts – you understood what we were doing, even from a distance.”  It was an odd comment…and one that my currently over-stimulated brain could not really get a good grasp on…and then….well, let’s start from the beginning, shall we? And just where do we begin?  The two points here – the doorway to perception, and polytheism – are actually tied together.  Or at least they are in my mind. So come on.  Grab a hold of my hand, and let’s take a walk over to those big rocks under that tree.  Let’s have a sit-down and a little talk.

In Dana’s comment on stepping from one reality to another – that is precisely what Pagan Pride Day felt like for me.  I stepped through a veil, and found a hidden world right before my very eyes,  That moment of turning the corner and finding what felt to be hidden – but never really was hidden.  I managed to walk right into the world of kindred spirits and souls that I had always been seeking.  Most of you that know me – realize that I am not fond of magickal workings.  I tend to step away from such workings – not of a point of disbelief, but as a point of respect.  My mind is always in skeptic mode, and I realize that any magickal work needs the skeptic to be a ways away for it to work – thus I keep my distance.  Then, there are moments where the magick happens – and I have no time to react or think about it.  Pagan Pride Day was that moment for me.  With no time to react or think skeptically – I was presented with the chance to walk through that veil.  I have no desire to investigate that beyond this post.  I am here, and I prefer to live in the Here and Now of my Path.

John’s comment – on the other hand – takes a deeper step into the rabbit hole.  If someone were to ask me if I were a polytheist – I would say “yes”.  I do see the Gods as separate entities – each with their own distinct personalities and quirks of behavior.  Its not a part of who I am that I advertise all that openly.  I do not see the need to do so.  Furthermore, I understand how people can look at the precepts of soft polytheism, where each god and goddess are merely manifestations of the same Source.  Just merely a different “face” shown to each individual.  I have used this discussion point several times in my past, trying to get folks from the Christian side of the tracks to comprehend that the religious world of understanding can be so much larger than what they perceive.  As strange as this may sound, I see things as a mix of the two.  The Gods get their “powers” from somewhere.  Perhaps that “Source” is similar in nature to the precept of soft polytheism.  The Gods and Goddesses all manifest in our world as an aspect of a power from a singular Source that is male, female, both and neither – all at the same time and not at all.Perhaps I am not a hard polytheist nor a soft polytheist….I am a mix of something in-between.

For me, that’s ok…I have stopped worrying about whether I am a Christian, Pagan, Druid, Wiccan or what not.  I know what I am…I have found My Tribe – and that’s what firmly matters to me most.  How I express that in religious worship or the manner in which I treat others around me – those are the real reflections of me.

Who am I?  I am me.  Tommy.  I’m a follower of two First Nations Trickster Gods – Coyote and Crow – who keep me on my feet with my thought processes.  But they also insure I do not take myself too seriously.  I am learning how to laugh and play in my worship.  So what do you say?  Let’s let the Gods lay down a beat, we get off these rocks, and dance our joy to the stars – shall we?