Thinking about Gods

Gods are very important in the pagan religion but their role in Magic is a little less clear. My personal belief is that their is only One Thing that takes on lots of different roles. Paganism and modern paganism in particular with its Goddess obsession does as much to move me as the Christian idea of a male God. However the question then comes to the idea of worship. How do you worship One Thing? The sort answer is that you don't. It is as vain as worshiping yourself. You are part of the One Thing so you are just saying to another part of yourself how brilliant you really are. This is silly.
But I use Godforms a lot and so the question is what sort of relationship should you have with them?

Terry Prachett said in one of his books Lords and Ladies:

"Once you start paddlin' with the occult you start believing in spirits, and when you start believing in spirits you start believing in demons, and then before you know where you are you're believing in gods. And then you're in trouble."
"But all them things exist," said Nanny Ogg.
"That's no call to go around believing in them. It only encourages 'em."

If you replace the idea of believing in them with worshipping them you get where I am coming from here. I don't believe in worshipping gods any more than I might worship an aeroplane which takes me on holiday. Gods are masks, bits of the One Thing, which I use to get me from one state to another. A god or a bus it is the same thing. Now I can worship the One Thing through one of those fragments but it ends up being the same as worshipping the coffee table.
The Bible is full of references to “not worshipping idols” and what I think is meant here is don't worship fragments. Both you and Gods are fragments you are both equal so kneeling before them is not a good idea unless you BOTH are kneeling before the One Thing.
Gods are creations of the created tools to understanding... you don't want to go around worshipping them it only feeds their huge collective egos :-) .
The universe is made up of stories. When you use a godform you are choosing to look at he universe through one lens and through “one story”. There are many stories but you benefit from understanding the world through many different ones (it is when people think their story is the only one that people start getting burnt at the stake). In Aurora Aurea when we adopt a god form we are putting on a mask to understand a story or an aspect of the one thing which is above all stories.
Magicians are not priests. We do not have the job of bringing one story to others to believe in. We are looking for the story that suits us and living it.
So I see the Godforms as realised aspects of myself with the power to do more than me because they have a bit more history. But I don't think I would ever go around worshiping them.
BY the way the beautiful Green Man picture on the left  is one of Paola's.

Paola and I got engaged

We will get married in Feb when we go on holiday to New Zealand

David Williams

David Williamson died on Corpus Christi after a long illness that destroyed him.
David was a doctor where he spend his life working with the dead and performing the function of a coroner's doctor.
This lead him to a relationship with a god form called Anubis. The Opener was an archetype which had a huge influence in his life. He was introduced to magic through Masonry and then joined the Servants of the Light school of magic where he became a supervisor and rose through the ranks quickly. It was there that he meet Krys and the patterns of his life were changed completely.
I was deeply honoured when he and Krys joined the Horus Hathor temple of the Golden Dawn and they were a great asset to me. Both of them could see whether or not magic was taking place in the temple and practically assist with the inner perceptions of the temple working.
David's dedication to magic forced him into a change which estranged him from his family. His daughters, who he deeply loved, rejected him when he left their mother. This deeply affected him and led him in a downward spiral into illness from which he never recovered.
David was a man who was incredibly significant to the magical path. He was intelligent, and inspired in his magical work and there are a large number of students who owe him much for his insight.
With such potential, particularly working with Krys, one can only wonder what he would have achieved for the Order.
His invocations to Anubis in both in the Magical Order of the Aurora Aurea and in its correspondence course, get to the heart of this godform and have bought his understanding to our order.
Personally I will miss him, and I will miss what he provided to me over the last six years that I have known him. It is rare that people dedicate themselves to this work. He had a saying which he provided as an eulogy to his fellow Golden Dawn Frater Brian Thompson when he died over a year ago.

"May he appear before the throne
of Osiris, as a traveller, justified"

As a traveller David has finished his journey too early.

Paola and my own thoughts are with Krys at this time.

"I am the Divine Magician who guides David through the celestial halls,
I part the Veil of the hidden world and clear his vision.
I initiate David into my Secret Mysteries,
I cast for David the Holy Circle of Starry Light.
I enfold thee in my Ka and rejoice in your embrace.
The Ancient Ceremonies are performed,
the chants echo across the temporal halls.
David's Temple is rebuilt, your faith renewed.
We are One, David and Me
twin beams of light entwined,
the Soul-Temple glows as a Golden Dawn,
the Ancient Twilight glows across Space and Time.
We are an Indestructible Star, David and Me
a Power of Heaven.
I indwell in David's Soul-Temple.
And make him complete."