But I'm still intrigued by the idea of the gods making offerings to humans...
Do you feel that the gods bestow ever blessings as a way to persuade us to do what they want? IOW, do the gods ever "make offerings" to humans the way humans sometimes make offerings to gods to persuade them to help us?
Or would that just be bribery? Or maybe extortion...?
The Chaotic Canine has been known to try that. I learned very early to be extremely cautious when he seemed too generous; there are always strings, and he's prone to "forgetting" to mention them. It's quite a bit different since my relationship with him changed (you shoulda seen me looking at
that proposal from every angle I could think of checking for "catches"!), but I still apply a policy of getting all the info I can pry loose. OTOH, as Marilyn has often noted, he's a bargainer, and a sharp one; if those who deal with him don't learn to be sharp bargainers themselves he may take advantage of their inattention, but he keeps his deals - so "offer to each other" is a reasonably apt way to describe it.
The "trickstery" kind of thing hasn't, as far as I recall, come up with any of the others I work with, but I wouldn't put it past some of them - several have some degree of "trickster" association.
There are other sorts of things that, while it never occurred to me to characterize it as "offer to each other", could fit that phrase. JamieG's description of how it works is more Heathen-y than my own experiences, but it's not that far different; one of the reasons I so often use the phrase "deity-type people" is because for me it
is a mutually-beneficial reciprocal relationship between
people.
Which, come to think of it, is a big part of why I have trouble articulating answers to these sorts of questions - there's a difference in base assumptions. Not to say people - you or anyone else - should change how they're asked; deity-relationship paradigms that do have those base assumptions are, I think, more common, so it's likely the best form for getting a full range of answers. But if I remember to adjust for it, I'll probably be better at responding when things in this line come up.
Sunflower
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