Why Devotion? – A Reader Question

Yesterday, well after I’d closed my Wodinic Wednesday, I received via email a question from D. It’s a good question and I wanted to highlight it and my brief answer. 

D asked: 

“Hi Ms. Krasskova,
I’ve read your blog for a few months, read your book “He Is Frenzy,” and some of two others. 
My question for you, (if it isn’t too late) is: what does a being such as He get from having adherents or people that give offerings? I’ve read that Mímisbrunnr is the akashic records. If that is so, doesn’t he have access to everything that has occurred? What more could he gain? 
Thank you for your time and willingness to assist. “

This is a good question, which is why I chose to make it and my answer a separate post. So, here’s my response: 

“HI D., 

I hope your morning is going well. 

I think, in answer to your question that it is more a question of what WE gain from contact with the Gods. I don’t believe that the Gods *need* us in any significant way to prolong or ensure Their existence. That would, after all, make us more powerful than They and that is antithetical to the Divine order. So, if They don’t need us, why devotion, offerings, etc. I think it is that we gain something significant to the cultivation of our souls from such contact. 

I also think that there are cosmic rules that the gods Themselves put into place (we see this in the “Iliad” where Zeus is forced to allow His best beloved son Sarpedon die). They will stay Their hand lest the balance of creation be destroyed unless we open to Them, and allow Them to work through us. This in turn allows us participation in the ongoing reification of creation and the divine order thereof. We heal the world in whatever small way we can, by the devotional work that we do, and it is the most important work we will ever do. 

Now, were I a Victorine, I’d say that the Gods were so enormously full of love , that it was overflowing, and humanity was created because the gods needed someone, many someones with which to share that love. 

In the end, it may simply come down to a matter of the Gods having been our creators and what parent doesn’t love and wish contact with His or Her child? 

Regardless, I think it’s a mistake to think of the devotional relationships in terms of gain. It’s not mercantile. It’s relational. 

That’s my answer in brief. You may find me adding to it as the day progresses. I think all the things we’re asked to do in devotion make us bigger, stronger conduits of the Gods. Be well.

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