Universal Divinity

T-Wolf (he/him/his, she/her/hers)

Editorial Team Member

Throughout my childhood, I’ve consumed a lot of fictional media involving mythology- whether that means explanations of godly pantheons, modern retellings of ancient fables and legends, or breathtaking combinations of both. I’ve read Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians, which I still fondly look back on because of how much writing inspiration it’s given me. I watched playthroughs of the video game Okami with my siblings, which contained a world inspired by Shinto mythology, and adored the power and divinity the characters displayed. Gazing into the possibilities of not just those supernatural, but those in sync with and responsible for the natural, has always been something that fascinated me. I grew up with Buddhist parents, and no one can live in the United States without becoming accustomed to Christian theology and stories on some level, but the idea of attaching myself to one faith, one notion of an almighty or even set of almighties, was never personally appealing. The stories, the sense, the idea of a godhood that was one with the world around us- that's what I loved to think about.

This isn’t to say that any modern religion in particular is superficial or wrong in what and how they view the sacred. But that sense of knowing the world and nature to be like a deity, paradoxically so close and so far beyond humanity itself, is something I’ve only found in my own imagination and projection of feelings into the nature I see around me. And being able to hold that love for the godhood of our world itself, personal and private yet expansive and electric, simply feels right. It’s the elation of witnessing a fresh rainstorm, of hearing the downward cry of mourning doves, of feeling the wind wail through my hair. For a moment, it feels like I witness something truly divine, and I feel myself fall in love all over again.

It’s the closest to romance that I think I’ll ever feel, being my aromantic asexual self. That’s another thing attractive about mythological stories for me. The idea of falling in love with something beyond humanity, without a need to know whether such love can really become anything more than the feeling itself, is all that I need to feel connected to it. Even when gods are given a human face or body, to be a kindred spirit to them is to desire something of the world around me. And that love would feel more right than love towards any individual who simply exists alongside me.

I’m not a particularly spiritual person in real life. But this concept can be applied far beyond mythology. There is a certain passion that comes alongside loving a concept rather than a person, that is both always around you and never with you. Knowing that you love that which will outlast you. Knowing that you are loving your love itself. Such a notion lies behind a lot of proponents of political movements and change, social work and service, and anyone who gives to the greater good. I like to believe that in those moments of loving and fighting for something beyond ourselves, or beyond any individual, we have a bit of that universal divinity coursing through us. And I adore falling in love with a godhood like that.