child-of-pluto

[child-of-pluto]

#440

O witty Hermes, Trickster and a messenger, Grant us a safety.

[child-of-pluto]

10 Facts about Deity Work

(AKA:  what most of us wish we had known when getting started!)

Witchcraft is a craft. It does not have to be linked with religion and you do not have to work with deities if you do not want to.

You can work with deities, call them in your craft with little commitment. You can also devote yourself to them and worship them, and that falls on the ‘lifelong commitment’ end of things.

Consider the consequences of your actions and don’t bite off more than you can chew.

Remember the differences between open and closed cultures. Do your research, be respectful and don’t steal what is not yours to take.

Do your research! Being interested and curious about a deity is a good start. Look into their history, their mythology, and the feedback from other people working with said deity!

Whatever your involvement with deities, beings exalted or revered as supremely good or powerful deserve your respect and understanding.

Whatever your involvement with them, you–a being of magic and awesomeness–deserve their respect and understanding. This is a conversation going both ways, not a hostage situation.

Each relationship with a deity is different, so don’t let anyone tell you how your relationship with your deity should be.

Trust your gut.

Life changes.  Deities will too.  There may be some that stick around for a long time and there may be some that only visit for a short while.

[child-of-pluto]

Ares is exhausted.

War made sense to him, once. Blades and arrows, guts and glory—war was something glorious, something powerful. Men were made legends, heroes, warriors.

Now the sounds of bombs and bullets keep him up at night. Now he cannot sleep, for every missile strike takes innocent lives and war has become something he no longer understands. This isn’t war, he thinks. This is slaughter. There are no heroes here.

Generals who would once have commanded their men from the battlefield now rest comfortably in plush offices. Archers sit behind screens, directing merciless machines against helpless enemies. Gas permeates the air, choking any who come near. The dead never know the eyes of those who killed them, save those who are taken from their homes by fanatics with guns. Eris strides the fields of war now, cackling, watching cities burn beneath her stride.

His family doesn’t understand. They think he would be proud. They think he is to blame. They congratulate and resent him, in turns, for the way his domain has spread. But what was once his domain is no longer.

He longs for the days when war was something sacred, something special, instead of this endless, faceless butchery. Yes, men died horribly in those days as well, but at least they had a chance. A chance to prove themselves, to rise above their station, to become as unto demigods.

They’ve made killing to easy, these mortals. Now it happens at the push of a button.

He cannot eat without the taste of smoke. He cannot close his eyes without visions of slaughter. He wonders what it would be like to be Aphrodite, to be love instead of murder. Or Hephaestus. How clever these mortals be. How much they make. He’d like that, to inspire men and women to make new things, shiny monuments to their own brilliance.

Then he remembers The Bomb, and how Hephaestus cried when they used it.

Hermes, perhaps. The internet is such a wonder, worldwide communication at an instant. Pranks and memes and theft on a scale that leave the young god bloated, and even grand Athena bows to his mastery of information. But Hermes runs free no longer—he sits behind a screen, waiting for his information to come to him.

Athena, his old adversary, barely understands. She knows the generals. The tactics, the strategies, the goals and the movements. She does not know the common soldier.

Ares is beginning to suspect that he does not either.

War has changed. And Ares is tired.

[child-of-pluto]

Ancient Romans buried curse tablets the size of credit cards, called defixiones, in graves and bodies of water, in the hope of bringing suffering on the unlucky soul of their choosing. These curse tablets are so uniform that historians assume that there was a cottage industry of scribes or magicians churning them out.

Whenever you want to make fun of crystal moms or teens in their Wicca phase, just remember that we’ve been reducing magic to cheap mass-produced tchotchkes for actual millennia.

[child-of-pluto]

Greek Goddesses as Zodiac Signs (sun) 2/2

[child-of-pluto]

hermes/mercury aesthetic

(more here)

[child-of-pluto]

Ya know every year I always tell myself I’m going to be a better witch and be better about remembering holidays, full moons, regular interaction with deities, and such, but I can never seem to get my act together... I want put more time into my practice but it never seems to work out that way. I still have this irrational fear if I’m not the perfect witch Im not doing enough.... I talk to my gods when I can, I carry them with me in the shape of jewelry and little trinkets, when I’m not loosing them. I just try really hard and I still feel like a bad witch.

[child-of-pluto]

what would dionysus wear if he was in the modern day?

[child-of-pluto]

Friendly reminder from Hermes to always wear your seatbelt, don’t text and drive, and call another ride if you or your driver have been drinking! He loves all of his devotees and needs you all to stay safe 🧡

[child-of-pluto]

Be mindful of the Gods

Take time to recognize Their hands at work in your day-to-day routine

Give thanks to Them for the Things, both big and small

Talk to Them. Invite Them into your day, if only to say ‘hi’

[child-of-pluto]

“Old gods do not mean dead gods”

— me (via witch-of-artemis)

[child-of-pluto]

“A witch does not whine when things don’t go her way. A witch makes things go her way.”

— Hecate Hardbroom, The Worst Witch

[child-of-pluto]

Apollo: Sister, what are you the goddess of?

Artemis: *lounging by a spring on piles of deerskin surrounded by three dozen naked girls with a dead pan expression* Virginity.

[child-of-pluto]

the hag in folklore actually is symbolic of men being afraid that when women get older we’ll realize how shit they really are and eat them which is fair and they should be

[child-of-pluto]

ancient greek word of the day: εὐήλιος (euēlios), sunny; of persons, fond of the sun, fond of basking

[child-of-pluto]

Don’t give up, Ares wants you to keep on fighting.

[child-of-pluto]