It's actually an idea that's found quite frequently in a lot of ancient pagan religions. Artemis and Apollon are two examples, they were thought to bring sudden illness and death to girls and boys respectively, but at the same time were also seen as protectors of girls and boys. (For Artemis it's the same with animals, she is both hunter and protector of wild animals. She is also a virgin goddess who helps in childbirth... contradictory aspects were very common all around.) Similar ideas were found in ancient Egypt, Sekhmet could bring disease and disaster, but was also petitioned to keep them away, and she even became a patron of doctors and surgeons because of it.
The thinking was that the deities who could bring these negative things could also be petitioned to not bring them, to keep them away. The opposite is true as well, deities who could bring good things could be petitioned to keep the bad again, since again, it was thought that they controlled the whole area - both good and bad. Like a deity would control weather... storms and beneficial rains, they brought both, and we could ask them to bring the one that is needed.
Statistics: Posted by Siona - Sun Feb 15, 2015 12:27 pm
