Disclaimer for you guys. I’m not a religious person in any way, but I find religion to be very fascinating. All the different ways that different people pray or tell moral stories or, even just the history of the religion or the rituals…it’s all very, very fascinating to me.
Which is probably why most of my stories have some kind of religion in it if not behind the scenes.
Our Deities in Religion
Typically in various religions, when you think of a God or a number of deities, that God or deity only exists for those people who believe in that religion.
So, for example, Buddhists might believe in the reincarnations of Buddha (which are very interesting stories, btw) and in Hinduism, people might believe in the monkey king Hanuman (I find the idea of a monkey king to be interesting and quirky),
but,
Buddha only exists in Buddhism and Hanuman only exists in Hinduism. And it’s not because they both start with “B” or “H”. That was merely a coincidence.
A Buddhist may not believe in Hanuman and a Hinduist may not believe in Buddha.
But,
what if,
(and don’t be upset with me)
up there in the sky or wherever you think a deity is,
both Hanuman and Buddha exist for everyone no matter what that person’s religion is?
What if God in Christianity, Buddha in Buddhism, Vishnu in Hinduism, Allah in Islam (to just name a few) all existed for all people? I’m not saying all of these Gods are the same God. I’m saying, what if all of them as individual deities, existed for all of us no matter what religion (or no religion) we believe in?
That means, you believe in Vishnu, but Buddha is also looking after you as well. Hypothetically, that is.
Now I’ve presented my idea, finally I can get into what I came here for.
Kathula’s Lunar Goddess
In Kathula culture, they have one God. The Lunar Goddess.
Traditionally, the Lunar Goddess was believed to be more of a protector, a guide, and one that lends Kathula the Lunar Magic, especially to Shamans and Shamalas to make potions for healing or relaxation.
In modern Kathula culture, because of their isolation from other races and being suppressed by their enemy, the Lunar Goddess is merely there as a high-existing entity and nothing else. Lunar Magic is considered a myth, and Shamans and Shamalas understand they perform magic because of their social status which they were born into. They do not link their magic to Lunar Magic in particular.
However,
and this is where we come back to my point above,
the Lunar Goddess is actually not just a deity for Kathula. She exists for all races no matter what they might already believe in.
Unlike my idea of God and Buddha existing somewhere up there together, the Lunar Goddess is the ONLY high-existing entity but, not all races acknowledge her and some races might try to come up with something of their own to believe in.
The only race who has ever prayed to the Lunar Goddess are Kathula traditionally, yet, modern Kathula do not pray to the Lunar Goddess.
And yet, the Lunar Goddess is the only deity in this world and it doesn’t matter if any race is praying to her or not. She is there.
Just because no one has faith in her, doesn’t mean she doesn’t exist or that she will throw some wrath on the races.
The Lunar Goddess can…
guide if asked.
provide access to Lunar Magic to those worthy (mainly Kathula because, traditionally, they had a close relationship with the Lunar Goddess).
watch over the world as a kind of security blanket.
The Lunar Goddess can’t…
make one powerful.
help with vengeance.
grant a wish or show some answers to a problem or directly give aid.
send a wrath out of anger, or even get angry for that matter.
perform miracles.
create creatures.
heal people or create cures.
cause large-scale natural disasters.
do anything, really.
Seeing this list above you might think,
“What kind of a God is that???”
And I might say,
it is what I personally imagine a God to be like in reality (minus the magic). If a God must exist, then they should be realistic.
Realistically speaking, a God cannot answer to the prayers and wishes of every single person no matter how strong or “everywhere” they are. I think even a God has limits. You can’t have an entity that is so powerful he has no limits. What’s the fun of that? (In fiction writing, anyway.)
So the Lunar Goddess can’t do much except guide and provide access to magic and be a security blanket. Kathula traditionally found it very reassuring that there was some high-existing entity watching over them. It gave them strength. And that was enough.
My Opinion
Realistically speaking,
if a God has to exist,
I believe being a guide and watching over you is more than enough. We don’t need all these miracles or these disasters or this assurance that God will give us some answers.
The lost little humans that we are, we just need guidance and a security blanket. We just need to know there is something bigger than us out there that can give us a hug when we need it. But, we don’t need proof of that through miracles. We just need to believe.
Well,
if there needs to be a God, I think that’s how they should be. That’s why the Lunar Goddess is as such. It’s my idea of a realistic deity.
Anyway, I kind of put forth my ideas on religion and you can probably tell how much I don’t believe. But I’m just being real here. I’m not going to get into all the reasons why I don’t believe because that would certainly spark a lot of unrest in many of you.
On that note, I still think all the different religions in the world are very fascinating 🙂
If you want to know what I believe in or don’t believe in and you’re open to reading about it, I MIGHT write an article about it on my blogger blog. We’ll see.
FOXWOOD FOREST 