I was reading someone's blog a couple days ago (can't remember whose, otherwise I'd link to it) talking about how some forgotten or nearly forgotten deities--deities who may have had a large cult back in their day--must be lonely. This person then went on to say that saying a prayer or making an offering to a deity like that would really make his or her day.
My kneejerk reaction was LOLNO, but now I'm not so sure. I doubt a god or goddess experiences loneliness in the same way we humans do, and there are still other deities to hang around with. But to say they don't get lonely at all in any way, shape, or form may be going a little far, at least in my mind.
Then I think of the offerings, prayers, communings, meditations, feasts, and (sometimes raucous) festivals a deity may have once received. It starts to make a little sense. It's not that said deity's life is ruined, that they're now mopey and depressed, or that they have no purpose to exist. Nor is it that a deity's going to get all lovey-dovey on someone who deigns to pay attention to them. There are still rules and boundaries for mortals. It's just. . . there are times where the little things are missed, eh?
I sometimes get that impression from Atum--an impression of loneliness. Maybe "loneliness" isn't quite the right word, though. Maybe it's a desire to be contemplated. Dunno. That would be a topic for a different thread.
So, what do you think?
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