"...The Rest Is Silence."

Thank you, Mr. Shakespeare. There seems to be no occasion for which you do not have the words.

Everyone I know of wants answers of one kind or another. What does life mean? Does he love me? What is your quest? What is your favorite color? (Thank you, too, Monty Python.) We go everywhere for these answers - outer space, the bottom of the ocean, deep inside our own genetic material, our friends, books, the Internet, family... everywhere.

Sometimes we turn to our gods.

There has always been (and, I suspect, will always be) endless discussion about who and what The Divine is, and where we can find it. Conventional wisdom divides the issue rather neatly. The common view is that the monotheistic religions, along with certain Eastern paths such as Buddhism, are transcendent religions. God/the Tao is out there, at a distance - perhaps concerned with our personal actions (perhaps not), and sending wisdom and salvation and enlightenment down from above, often through a chosen vehicle for received knowedge.

The poyltheistic/animistic religions are seen as immanent religions. The Divine is in us and all around us - every single thing partakes in the essence of the Gods, and we can experience it in our daily lives. I am Goddess. You are God. The trees outside are Divine. So is the highway that runs by my window. Enlightenment is there to be found by any who seek, and no one can see a a better path to reunion with Divinity better than the person walking the path.

I think that this division is simplistic. After all, the Big Three Monotheistic Religions all have mystic traditions, the very essence of which is that one person experiences their connection to the Divine directly and personally. The Christians have St. Teresa and other mystics, the Jews have the Kabbalah, and the Moslems have the Sufi. Many neo-Pagans, Wiccans, Witches, Druids, and other polytheists feel that there is something more than just everything together. Many traditions invoke specific Goddesses and Gods, asking to receive wisdom through vision and revelation. Most spiritual people experience a little bit of both relationships.

What is prayer, or spellwork, or meditation, or divination, or contemplation other than a way of personally meeting the God or Goddess, as we see it? Is that not how we as frail, isolated mortals reach for Divinity? Aren't we waiting for an answer, or a hint that yes, we are heard and loved? So very often we feel that answer. We hear that voice. We are given a sign. But not always.

Sometimes there is silence.

It's easy to feel abandoned in the silence, especially when we are used to feeling and seeing and hearing the creative force of the universe. We tend to wonder why we aren't being answered, why our prayers or spells aren't working.

We forget that silence is part of the Divine, too.

Our part of the Divine.

When we experience Silence, our conception of God or Goddess fades away, and we are left with what we know. With ourselves. With the truest, deepest connection possible. We are left with what the transcendence of Divinity has given us - with what the immanence of Divinity receives from us.

What do you know when you are Silent?