How do I decide if an impression is communication with a god? It depends
on how specific the impression is. And how not-me it is. I have had four
different types of communication with gods--Dramatic Vision, Meditation
Companion, Playback, and Direct Intervention. I will describe a specific
example of each kind. 

I wish I were a verbal thinker...Mostly I think in shapes / images /
relationships between things. Anyway, communication with the gods in those
terms is difficult to turn into words. 

DRAMATIC VISION

When I was 7 or 8, I decided I wanted to have a Spirit Guide, so I fasted
and journeyed into the wilderness to have a vision. Yeah, right, like my
mother would let me. Really, I skipped breakfast and lunch and lay in the
backyard under a tree, trying to think like a mystical Indian. 

I did not get a spirit guide. What I got instead was a vision of a large
man with his head in the clouds walking toward me. When he got to me, he
stopped and struck the ground with a hammer or axe (hard to tell). The
ground split open into a canon. He reached into the canon and took out a
smooth black stone (about fist sized), which he then pressed against my
breastbone. The stone was absorbed into my chest. Then he turned and
walked away. 

Of course, at the time, my main thought was along the lines of "Oh great,
eveyone else get bears and hawks and I get a rock." Now I think, "Why did
Thor choose a scholarly geek like me?" 

MEDITATION COMPANION

This is my most common communication. When I want to meditate, I mentally
travel to a particular location in my mental landscape. Usually, this is a
particular high desert mountain with lots of trees and some large rocks
well placed to be seats or backrests. The spot overlooks a broad plain. 

When I settle in to meditate, I go there and calm myself by looking around
and listening to the sounds. Often, but not always, I have a strong
impression that the god is also sitting there, looking and listening with
me. There is no active communication, just the sense of sitting with
someone you know well enough not to have to talk when you are together. 

The most powerful sign I have had recently that a different god is trying
to communicate with me is that when I try to meditate in my usual place, I
am transported to another location--walking along a path, with a lot of
trees on either side, tall (I don't know what kind of tree but the
impression is specific enough that if I saw one in real life I would
recognize it). A strong breeze is making the tops of the trees move and
making a distinctive sound in the branches. I walk along and meditate in
company with the god. 

PLAYBACK

The new god (whom I have yet to identify) that is trying to communicate
with me uses an unusual method. He plays back memories--images and sounds,
mostly, but also some body-memories. I think these are memories that he
has collected from other people over the years (also some from me). 

The strangest memory playback was a physical memory of walking along some
kind of dirt path with leather sandals on. I can't describe how peculiar
it is to remember someone else's body walking. 

My overall impression is that he is trying to identify himself and also to
communicate some specific important task to me, but so far I can't make
much out of the multi-media rebus. 

Typical sample sequence: sound of wind in trees, someone singing some kind
of travel song (badly), feel angry, white mittens, large red-headed man
changing into a deer, deer running, feeling of satisfaction. The overall
impression is that someone was putting things out of balance and that the
new god and Thor did something that involved changing Thor into a deer to
put things right. 

DIRECT INTERVENTION

I was in Geneva recently and near the hotel there was a english-language
bookstore. To get there I walked past a music store. I was looking in the
windows as I went, so I slowed down to look at the display at the music
store. Nothing gripping there...I have no music experience, interest, or
aptitude, I don't go into music stores, and usually walk past them without
seeing them. And yet, there was this Impression or Ping or something that
I should go in. But I didn't pay much attention. 

When I got to the bookstore & pulled on the doorhandle, it didn't open,
even though there were people inside. I figured it was closed for lunch
(lots of stores in Geneva do) and left. Came back a couple of times, same
thing--looked into the music store window and then couldn't pull the
bookstore door open.

Finally, I went in to the music store, I think with the conscious
intention of asking about the bookstore. And there was a recorder in there
that was just like deja-vu, as if it was already mine & I misplaced it. So
I bought it and walked down to the bookstore. I got there just as someone
was coming out. It turns out the door opened inward. Doh. I am not
generally stupid, so I have to think that something was blocking the idea
of pushing.

Anyway, now I am learning to play the recorder. 

A similar intervention led me to find the OCRT web page while searching
for something completely unrelated. That is what led me to find organized
asatru.