Good Morning JMG and Commentariat,
I was reading through last week's magic monday and saw your comment about domestic pets being animals much closer to their reincarnation in human form. This sent me into a lovely day dream where, in the divine planes of existence, all the deities we humans primarily interact with are the obsessive-pet-owners and crazy-cat-ladies who choose to hang out with and care for us and post their stupid-human and cute-human pics while the other divine beings just roll their eyes. Odin, Frigg, and Thor as quirky homesteaders who went off grid with their funny farm of norse peoples. The Olympians as posh uptown apartment dwellers with litter boxes everywhere and going for walks with their pets in strollers... That was fun imagery!

1. I may have thought myself into a corner and am hopeful that you, JMG, or the commentariat, can see something obvious to help lead me back out.

For a while now, I have been quietly offering blessing to others using MOE methods and blessing water and items using the technique from the gnostic lessons. I initially offered a simple "may you be blessed." The wording I use has been evolving along with the process as I don't work with a single clear pantheon; I figured out that some of my waffling and stalling was tied to over-rumination on deities and pantheons and related mythology reading. I paused all that to get out my head and more into my practice. Now my name for the divine moves through various forms of "the Divine," "The One Life," "The Powers of Nature," "The Eternal Spiritual Sun," "The Flow of the One Life," etc. My current best understanding of a relatable supreme divinity is "the powers of nature flowing the one life," conceptualized as one life polarized into two flows moving through the elements and all beings. Somehow in this process, what I'm intending with blessing has become... complex. (I'm open to the possibility that the conception of divinity and the complexity are connected but not causal.)

The complexity that often now arises when I offer blessing: When I think of blessing as "good" intent, who am I to know another's good? If it is the good known to the divine rather than my conception, then what is the purpose of injecting myself in the process? I've tried just intending that the currents of life flow through the subject of my blessing or intending balance; though strangely that feels like a greater imposition - I seek flow and balance, but how am I to know if that is what's needed by the subject? I was offering blessing in moments where I was frustrated or otherwise hard-hearted toward someone or something. Initially, that practice helped me see my biases and helped open my heart; now when I attempt it, I sometimes almost feel like wishing wellness, balance, or flow could even be a curse to some people for whom that process would be unsettling at best and world-shattering at worst. So, I'm stuck between blessings that feel meaningless and one's with meaning but feel improperly imposing.

I feel like much of this is a breaking down of hubris around my personal spiritual journey and an increase in the awareness of the selfishness inherent in practicing altruism while embodied; yet, I want to continue to offer blessing.

Any suggestion or direction, or personal stories of overcoming such an impasse would be appreciated.

2. In a similar vein, I've thought about how to better work with personal intentions and asking for blessings upon myself. Once again, it can feel toothless to ask for a simple blessing - I feel gratitude for the flow of life through me and that is a clear blessing. I worry that asking for things specifically can lead to the vending machine form of religion I'm avoiding. Yet I also am working to become balanced, conscious, and active in the flows of life, and there are times that specific help would be, well, helpful. I've been experimenting with the thought that asking a specific deity or power of nature for blessing with the right headspace could be more like aligning myself and attuning my perception so that I can better witness and interpret the blessings that are flowing around at all times. I'm working most consistently with the WGS and it seems like the affirmation work in there and the modifications to the SOP post initiation somewhat work in this way. I also suppose that the clearest way to avoid vending machine relationship is cultivating real, two-way relationship with the beings and powers I work with - though when there is a power imbalance, the two-way-ness seems somewhat suspect.

Do you (or anyone) have any thoughts on this? How do you conceptualize the ethical asking for and receiving of help from non-corporeal entities?

Thank you as always for this space and your counsel.