Old Gods in the Modern World

I love the brilliant, fruitful, and diverse thinkers in my community = Here’s a guest blog by Kathi Somers. 

And here’s a fun pic of her. She’s smart and fun.

Old Gods in the Modern World
By Kathi Somers

Many writers and philosophers have speculated that gods exist or become stronger based on the belief expressed in them. By this thinking, whenever we name a deity, we invoke that entity. Therefore, we daily invoke various gods by simply acknowledging them in the names we use for weekdays, months, planets, constellations, etc.

The English-speaking world’s days of the week are simple to recognize, of course. Sunday and Monday are the days, respectively, of the sun and the moon, long worshipped by ancient peoples. Tuesday is for the Norse war god Tyr. Wednesday is Woden’s day (Woden or Odin is chief of the Norse pantheon) and Thursday is Thor’s day (the Norse thunder god and, some believe, the original Santa). Friday is Freya’s (Norse goddess of love and beauty who taught magic to Odin) and Saturday is Saturn’s (Roman god of agriculture).

We also have many words in common use that invoke the gods: Jovial (for the cheerful chief Roman god, Jove, also known as Jupiter); saturnine (for the gloomy Roman god, Saturn); mercurial (for the speedy Roman messenger god, Mercury); music and musing, both of which derive from the nine muses of Greek mythology. These are just a few of the words we use in daily speech that have their origins with the gods.

The old gods have never left us, because we cannot leave them. We belong to each other, we are interdependent, despite the jealous god who wanted us to leave them out. Where is the value in leaving them out? How insipid and empty our world would be without them!

Copyright 2010 by Kathi Somers. All rights reserved.

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