Sunday 5 September 2021

The Birth Of A God

"A Feast for the Gods."

Human beings experience something or someone, e.g., a night wind or a man;

their attitude to whatever or whoever they are experiencing becomes one of awe;

the experienced thing or person becomes numinous;

awe generates sacrifice, worship and theology;

"sacrifice" might be called something else;

when worship ceases, the god can retire but continues to exist.

Hermes:

"'...began as a night wind and worked my way up.'" (p. 219)

This approximately parallels Neil Gaiman's account:

gods begin in the Dreaming;
they come out into the land where they are worshiped;
when worship ceases, they return to the Dreaming;
from there, they enter the realm of Dream's sister, Death;
after that comes complete nonexistence.
 

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And I THINK Poul Anderson wrote another story touching on similar points. A story about some kind of "supernaturalized" computer becoming a "god." But if he did, I simply can't remember the name of the story. It's one of those maddening little things niggling in the back of one's mind!

If so, I hope somebody remembers the name of that story.

Ad astra! Sean