THOD
The House of Death
Yes. When I read texts, I read them for their literary value or writing quality and with imagination and an artistic and creative outlook and eye, and also for their potential spiritual value and philosophical value or ability to inspire the mind and even inspire or motivate the adoption of certain appearances, behaviors, practices, whatever. I view all writing in the same way and try to extract the same sort of things out of all of it (which is as much as I possibly can in every way that I possibly can).
I find the text of the game booklets of Warhammer to be pretty spiritual and religious in nature often, particularly when they involve the things to do with "Chaos", and similarly, things from Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos are very attractive and useful to me and which I use in ways that are serious and made to be true and in accordance with my beliefs and the present reality apparent to all.
I also parse and extract whatever I can in such serious ways from every detail of auditory-visual productions such as Music Videos, and things which people might find ridiculous and mundane and "just for entertainment" which I think is a wasteful way of dealing with materials which can (using our own intelligence) be used for so much more and lots of value can be derived from it and a creative mind that is bent towards making things all the more valuable and useful and inspiring for oneself. I think most people are missing out, and I take great pleasure in these practices.
Similarly, I view the writing from anyone, such as yourself, to be almost (or entirely) "oracular" in nature, being produced by a higher power outside of your direct knowledge or at least control, which is ultimately and immediately responsible for my experience (which is including your writing right now as well as what it prompted in me to write and think about, all of which I credit to the One Ultimate Power responsible for this moment and this moment of experience and those supposedly before and expected after).
I take almost all the scriptures for everything I can, but there are some (which I still use and try to extract from) which I find almost unbearable and very unpleasant to interact with (just as some substances or experiences may be unpleasant and one finds that the unpleasantness might even outweigh, in their feelings and memories at least, anything of value they may have extracted from it knowingly or unknowingly).
Many of my interactions with people, and some texts or writing, give me this adverse sort of reaction of total revulsion and hatred. The use of what I deem bad though, is to realize that it does this and why it might do this and also develop from it what would be opposite of it or not do such or "if only it had said/shown" whatever else, and so it can inspire what is better and thus be of value in that way also.
In my Tastes and Preferences thread, I mentioned some scriptures, all of which I have read and studied and which I've parsed and extracted lots of inspiration and quotes and names or epithets of God from, which is often what I'm searching through them for or my reason for reading them. I consider them all really made by The Power, as much as Moby Dick or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or whatever. My way of viewing the world is that it is a constant communication from The God in everything, through everything, in every way, constantly, without pause or anything from anywhere else or "Other" than that One.
My favorite spiritual text or religious text is the Qur'an, only for its clarity (in saying what I want it to say or ease in making it say what I want it to say), and message (as well as my success using it almost magically by opening it anywhere, but I've had good experiences with many texts, like Buddhist and Hindu texts). It has the highest literary quality and enjoyment factor for me as well, both in its English translations and its original rhyming and rhythmic Arabic recitation which is just profound to hear it and see what it is saying in English translation while basically singing, Wow (see Mishary's recital for some of the most beautiful available online).
I am very fond though of using thoughts, symbols, and ideas from the Vikings, Aztecs, Irish, Japanese, Mesopotamians/Akkadians, Greeks, Romans, and to a lesser degree perhaps, the Chinese, the Native Americans who are not Uto-Aztecan, and many others.
I am completely immersed in mythology, symbolism, spirituality, philosophy, and overall "art" and inspiring and stimulating materials.
I believe wholly in Poseidon, but not as a bearded man made of water or living in the sea (a barely inspiring or creative and mostly fruitless idea if anyone thinks that way, though it is impressive perhaps if people can be inspired by something which seems to me to be so dull and idiotic), but as the Truth trying to explain or describe God's connection to and control of the creation of water, what it does, where it goes, both in reality and nature, as well as philosophically and symbolically as a reference to something else or its other qualities or understood more abstractly and made to apply to many things, such as water's association with knowledge, with terms such as "ocean of knowledge".
All the "gods" are True mainly, as I understand them and make them to be, and completely "prove-able" and apparent, and in accordance with or matched up to Reality and what can be known, and are all One in my view (regardless of how people try to separate every little thing in life and reality by taking every word as a different intelligence or lifeform or whatever).
So my belief in and devotion to Tezcatlipoca and Tlaloc is total, I do not separate these except that I acknowledge that one is typically used to bring up some set of ideas while another is brought up perhaps to bring to mind some other set of ideas, even though these are both the same "Person" being referred to, just different powers, aspects, and epithets of this One Ultimate Power and Intelligence, and the same goes for Warhammer and its "Khorne, Nergal, Slaanesh, Tzeentch" or whatever, maybe I mispelled something, but anyway, I consider these all, even though they are literary fictions that are part of a game invented in the 80's or something (I don't know the history too well), they can be made to refer to real things, this reality, aspects of real things, qualities of the real One Power that is Chaos. That doesn't mean that the whole idea or theology written about them (that they are thoughts made by people that have taken on their own life) is an idea I subscribe to, because in my view, God exists before human thoughts and is responsible for all human thoughts, and is even the author of these "games" which may be subtly or overtly communicating messages which can be understood in more useless and false ways, and better ways that are in accordance with logic, reason, and the truth.
So Khorne is real, Nergal is real, Slaanesh is real, Tzeentch are real, they refer to real things that we can demonstrate and discuss, they can even be prayed to and one may receive what appear to be results or responses, even though these are all inspired by fictions from a game that I've never even played really.
There appear to be 6 or 7 aspects of God that have frequently appeared throughout history which seem to involve a number of things which keep appearing in combination with them.
1. Air, Force, Power, Chieftainship, Might, Planet Jupiter
2. Water, Knowledge, Information, Overwhelming, Wisdom, The Moon (and now also blue Neptune)
3. Earth, Legacy, Death, Judgment, Planet Saturn and The Earth (and now also Pluto)
4. Fire (Ionized Gas/Plasma/Electricity), Industry, Communication, Trade, The Liminal, Transformation, Speed, Travel, Change, Planet Mercury
5. Growth/Development, Ambition, Beauty, Idealism, Ethics, Sex, Caste, Role, Appearance, Vegetation, "Fruits", Planet Venus
6. Destruction/Dissolution, Disease, Healing, The Truth, Revelation, War, Apocalypse, Music, Striking (including striking notes or pulling cords), Vibrations, Planet Mars
0 or 7. Kingship, Ultimate, Dominion, All Encompassing, Yellow and Black or Gold and Black, The Sun (maybe Uranus now too)
This is a really interesting view, and I feel that perhaps we think similarly in some ways, though my language might be different.
What I want to ask about what you've posted is, do you believe all is come from the One or the Power?
As you mentioned, some people might think it's ridiculous to believe that a Warhammer manual can be inspired in this way, which I actually don't think is ridiculous.
But I'd like to take this a step further and inquire if works that detail something horrific like cannibalism or human sacrifice also come from the One.
