#Spiritual devotion

[scarletarosa]

Guide to Working with Deities

Gods and goddesses are extremely ancient beings of immense power and wisdom. There are some who have been alive since the beginning of the universe, long before humans or any other mortal beings were brought into existence (the most ancient one being Lucifer). And others were created later on, either by the Greater Deities outside this universe, or from being born as children of deities in this universe. When the mortal races began being created, there were gods who began forming pantheons to watch over them and be in charge of their progress.

The children of these pantheon gods often remained in the pantheon as well; however, most deities don’t limit themselves to just one pantheon, as they often go to multiple other lands (or sometimes other planets) to help different people, or approach certain individuals who they see worth in. They weren’t always included in the other pantheons because of this, since these deities weren’t staying permanently and would approach other cultures and individuals as they saw fit. Also, there are many deities who aren’t known to any culture, since they choose not to have any divine duties and simply want to enjoy existence in peace, or to focus solely on their own evolution.

All deities tend to be serious to some degree, but some are more approachable than others since they can be a bit more laid-back. But it is important to remember that gods are not like humans; yes they have passions, get married, and enjoy life, but they do not have a human mentality. They have all experienced thousands of years, millions of years, or even more (for the very ancient gods). They also have a much higher perspective than we do, and are extremely mature as beings with immense insight. So they will not agree with everything that humans think is moral, and they also don’t tend to act how people expect them to, since they are very deep and advanced beings and they don’t have human behaviours; they’re separate beings entirely to us.

The gods are also not always going to be nice towards you, since many will be serious or some may even be harsh; these things depend on the deity’s personality and also their method of teaching. But overall, the gods are just and operate based on their own wisdom (unless the deity is malevolent, which a few known ones are, such as Apep). Besides that, plenty of deities have even killed humans who angered them greatly, often those humans who desecrated their temples or harmed humans they cared for. So they are not usually as peace-loving and forgiving as some may think.

Who to Work With

Which deity you work with is largely up to you. The majority of deities welcome any human who is respectful and spiritually open, and are often happy to help you learn and develop through lessons of wisdom. So if there is a deity you feel a strong pull towards, it’s likely that you either worshipped them in a past life, and/or you are destined to worship them in this life in order to learn significant things about yourself and your life mission. In these cases, you are encouraged to reach out to that god and speak with them. The deities are always pleased to listen to serious spiritual questions from you, and to help guide you with things that are important in your life. If you aren’t certain if the deity wants to help you with something, you only need to ask them through tarot, which is the best way if you don’t have accurate enough astral hearing.

Different Levels of Worship

You can worship as many deities as you like, but the level of worship depends on how devoted you wish to be. The most basic level of worship is general reverence towards a god or goddess, showing your love, gratitude, and deep respect for them. This can be done by speaking to the deity on occasion, whenever you feel the need, and to offer them praise and an offering. This can be done for many deities who you feel the desire to honour, but not to be very close to.

The next level is when you wish to be deeply devoted to a god or goddess. This means that you will request the deity of your choosing if they can watch over you closely and help guide you on multiple areas of your life, or on something specific that is important to you. This deity will act as your mentor in a way, and will expect you to speak with them often (not every day, but not to go months without speaking). You also don’t have to give them offerings every day or week even; usually, offerings should be given when you feel the desire to show your love, and when the deity does something to help you.

A deity will never force you or command you to worship them, and they also will not abuse or cause harm to you (unless the deity is malevolent- but the vast majority of gods in the pantheons aren’t malevolent). However, if you do something to anger the deity, either by showing unwanted lust towards them, calling them nicknames, or speaking about them in a disrespectful manner, the gods are more than likely to punish you in some way, depending on what they believe deserves to be done. Often, this punishment may take the form of a curse, which is very powerful and cannot be removed like a human-made curse.

But it should also be noted that there are many deities who will put you through a period of hardship in order to help you evolve. This is typically done with people who are more spiritual and aren’t casually worshipping the deities. Yet these challenges aren’t as severe as the challenges demons give to their worshippers, since the Left Hand Path is harsher than both the Middle Path and Middle-Left Path, which the majority of deities follow. Since these pantheon gods typically follow either the Middle or Middle-Left Path, they strongly value wisdom, self-mastery, balance, connection to the Earth, and strength of heart. So you may be tested in these things to help you grow and become better as a person, and to also overcome your weaknesses. Yet they (and demons) will not put you through anything that will damage your life, your mental health, physical health, or anything you aren’t truly ready for. They all can see into us and know what we can and cannot currently handle; so if something bad like the above happens while worshipping a god or demon, please don’t assume it’s them and instead ask them what is happening. The likely answer is that other things are at work, possibly negative energy from the world, your human rivals, a curse from a witch, or simply just difficult circumstances in life, which happen to everyone.

Though keep in mind that there are some gods who are actually malevolent and enjoying harming humans as their role, some examples include Apep and Eris (goddess of enmity and discord).

Patrons

Every person is guided by at least 4 or 5 deities during their lives- these gods and goddesses are ones who watch over the person and help them learn things that will contribute to their life mission. Usually, these deities don’t make themselves known to the people they watch over, especially since the majority of humans aren’t very spiritual. Sometimes, one of these gods may even leave the person at some point if the person completes a certain lesson that the deity was teaching them. So with their role completed, the deity will move on.

How to Work with Deities

When working with deities, it is very important to remember to be respectful and to know your place with them- don’t view them as your buddy to make jokes with or to think you are equal with them. They are gods, and they will always be far more advanced than any human. Deities also tend to become irritated when humans place labels on them or view them as if they are characters in stories; they don’t view these things the way you do and see this as very disrespectful. They expect their followers to take them seriously and not view spirituality as a game, so be aware of this higher perspective and don’t bring the gods down to your level, because none of them will appreciate this and they may become distant. You don’t have to be overly polite however, but make sure to have manners and listen to them when they give you advice. Chances are that the god knows you far better than you know yourself; so when they have advice to give, pay attention to it and don’t take it for granted.

If you would like to request a deity to come to your home so you can speak with them in-person, this can be done. Remember though that the gods have their own lives and are often busy with divine tasks or personal matters, so if they don’t arrive right away or at all, don’t assume that they are ignoring you because they likely aren’t. Thankfully, gods are able to be in multiple places at once (to a certain degree), so this makes it even more likely for them to have the opportunity to visit followers who request their presence.

When the deity does arrive to you, it is polite to bow your head to them as a show of respect. The gods are all very tall but will shrink themselves a bit when inside your home (they tend to be almost ceiling-height). Make sure to make wise use of this time, since you have the honour of having a god visit you. You can ask them questions or use this time to understand them better; they don’t usually get impatient and are often glad to answer spiritual things or to give advice. When you are done speaking with the deity, it is good to let them know and they will depart.

Astral senses

Astral senses, such as astral sight and astral hearing, are both essential to strive for if someone wishes to be deeply spiritual. This is mostly because the best way to try and understand a deity is to speak with them; no book on mythology could ever show you the essence of a deity and how they truly are. But keep in mind that astral sight often takes around a year or more of constant practice to become very clear; so if you are devoted enough and wish to strive for this, the deities will acknowledge this. But astral hearing is much more difficult to be mastered, since it requires more years of practice while also learning how to tune-out your own identity and desires at will, to allow yourself to become void inside, becoming a vessel for the spiritual voices (this is not recommended to do if you have psychosis). If this skill is not developed properly, what one will usually believe to be a deity or spirit speaking to them often ends up being their own mind (voices that are mental projections), based on their preconceived ideas of how that deity/spirit behaves. This is why one must silence their self completely, and have no ideas of their own during astral hearing, which takes a lot of self-mastery, as well as years to be perfected.

But while the astral senses allow for a very deep connection to the gods, and is a very worthwhile goal to strive for, it is not the only way to communicate if you don’t have these skills yet. The other way one can speak with a deity or spirit (to a lesser degree) is through tarot cards, although it is best to develop an accurate skill in this practice beforehand. With tarot cards, you can mainly only receive advice from the deity or insight about yourself, as any other topic is too complex to receive answers from by cards, especially if you wish to ask what the deity is like. I would however strongly recommend people not to use pendulums for spirit communication since they are heavily unreliable. This is because pendulums are very sensitive to energies and can move over the simplest thing, even your own desire for where it should move. So because of this, it is unwise to use this object to speak with gods or any spirits, since it will more often than not tell you nonsense or things that you want it to tell you.

Also, don’t feel bad if you cannot hear or see the deities; they won’t get mad or impatient with you for this. The vast majority of people in the ancient times couldn’t do these things, since they weren’t devoted to a spiritual life (that’s what the priests/priestesses, oracles, or shamans were for). So if the best you can do is pray to them and allow their guidance to take form in your life, that is perfectly fine.

Imposter Spirits

On the topic of communicating with deities and spirits, there is a category of spirit that is not only highly malevolent, but they are often prone towards pretending to be someone they aren’t. These malicious entities are called tar spirits, which are beings made out of corrupt energy that looks like tar (these usually are spawned from the body of Apep). Tar spirits are in their millions and are constantly darting through Earth or going through cities to attack people, causing either minor problems or more serious issues (such as tempting people to commit suicide, causing mental disturbances, physical pains, or attempting possession).

But one of the most common things they do is pretend to be a deity or spirit that someone trusts; they often do this in order to use that form to try and seduce their human target, which will cause them to bring more tar spirits through causing a pregnancy in their astral body. Or, they may seduce that human and have sex with them often, which will cause that person to begin developing physical pains, illnesses, or mental issues.

Take note that it is rare for a god or spirit to be attracted to humans, especially in the modern times where people are even more incompatible with their personalities. It is also because many gods already have relationships with other deities, and so they may have no interest in such things for this reason. Another effect is that if the person begins to view deities sexually through these experiences, it will badly affect their spirituality and make it more shallow, as well as making it so that they don’t truly take the gods seriously anymore. So for all these reasons, make sure to be cunning and wise, and remember the warning signs of having an imposter spirit with you. Also, it is safer to speak to deities by directing your words through your mind to them (like telepathy), since the tar spirits won’t hear you this way.

Study the Mythology, but not as if it’s 100% true

This is another very common mistake that has occurred in new age spirituality, possibly because many people are used to religions like Christianity, where the “holy” books are claimed to be true and unquestionable. But for the ancient civilizations, they didn’t do this. Their mythology was often either three things: a true account (which may or may not have been embellished over-time by other story-tellers), a teaching story using the gods and allegories to bring lessons of wisdom and morality, or a story of the gods written for entertainment purposes only (like for theatre)- these were not always respectful to the deities however, which would sometimes anger the gods. But even for the myths based on true accounts, be aware that the spiritual humans who witnessed these events usually did not fully understand what was taking place, as the events of the divine are greatly complex. So these were myths written by the perspectives of the humans who knew of them, and over time, may have been embellished even further.

The only way to truly know what is real and what isn’t is if you master your astral abilities, but since this is uncommon and takes years, it is best to read the myths with a pinch of salt. You can also ask some gods if a certain myth is true or not, and you can draw tarot cards to ask them how they feel about it. This may not be the best way to get answers, but it can help a little, especially if they feel strongly for or against the story.

For example, Athena doesn’t like the myth where it’s said she cursed a woman to become a spider- she explains this was simply a metaphor for the spider goddess. And she also explains that Medusa was never a victim, since that was a poem written by a Roman (Ovid), whereas the original Greek myth told the truth- that Medusa was born monstrous and was always malicious. That is why the Greek warriors had Medusa’s severed head on their shields, since bearing her head was a sign of achievement over evil (which is also why Athena is adorned with this symbol).  

Ways to Bond with Deities

There are many things you can do to bond with the deities. You can create art for them, sing for them, write devotional poetry, speak with them, etc. Many gods value their followers’ acts of love and care, since they care for many of us.

The gods all have been through great pain and hardship over their long existences, and many of them mourn over their lost civilizations which were raped and destroyed by the Abrahamic invaders, eventually causing the descendants of their own people to turn against them. Even now, people everywhere are continuing to break the temples that are already in ruins, or smashing ancient sculptures. So when a human anywhere in the world calls upon a deity out of respect, that deity will often see that human as worthy to be approached. They wish to help us end the dark ages of spirituality and to see reality as it actually is- not by making jokes about the gods or seeing things in simplistic ways, but to truly experience the spiritual and to see the grand complexities of existence.

Offerings

When giving offerings to the gods, it should usually be something that they connect with energetically, but they also tend to accept things that you give purely out of love. But for incense, it must be a scent they connect with energetically, otherwise it will be unsuitable (for instance, one should never offer a soft scent to Ares, like something floral). Incense should also be bought at a good quality and not something cheaply made. Offerings are meant to be sacrifices, wherein you sacrifice your own time or money to obtain something the deity would like, and you then devote it to them. Offerings can also be artwork you make for them or poetry you write for them, or even to create a digital altar for them (although it is best to have a physical altar if possible).

When you have given an offering to a deity, you should place it on their altar or on a clean surface if no altar is available. Make sure to announce to the deity that the offering is for them, bow your head, and then you can leave. If the offering is food or drink, you may leave it there for around a day, but do not partake of them. After the day, you can take the food and/or drink and respectfully discard it down the sink or into the trash. If the food was something solid (like chocolate), you can wrap it into a napkin while stating that you are discarding it into the trash as there is no other way. Make sure that you do not leave food or drink offerings out for a long time (like a week or more), as it has lost its essence, since the gods partook from it. Without its essence, the food/drink is energetically hollow and will begin to create a dip in the room if left for a long time. If the offering is something like an object, then you should leave it there at the altar or wherever you have a spot designated for that deity. This object cannot be used for yourself from then on, as it is a sacrifice. Also, if you offer a crystal to a deity, then that crystal can only be used to connect with them from then on.

All these efforts help you to be seen as respectable by the gods, and they will likely become more open towards you and doing more to guide you. It is also a way to train yourself spiritually, to see the beauty of sacrifice and to give something up for something greater.

[possil]

LIVING IN AN ALIEN WORLD Pt 2

How do we face life in a culture which is increasingly moving from indifference to the Christian faith to outright opposition? A world where orthodox Christians have less and less trust in the institutional mainstream church? The question we must face is how do we live faithfully as a small minority in an environment which is sometimes antagonistic, sometimes friendly, but always alien? In ‘The…

[bvthomas]

Rekindling 'First Love' in Faith

Summary: The biblical admonition to the Ephesian church about abandoning their ‘first love’ serves as a poignant reminder for believers to maintain the primacy of spiritual devotion. This ‘first love’ refers not to a mere emotional beginning but to the prioritization of Christ in every aspect of life. Over time, even the noblest pursuits can overshadow this fundamental commitment. The Ephesian…

[urloveangel]

[ianitos]

[leonardospoetry]

"Attention is the beginning of devotion."

Mary Oliver

[bakudekublogblog]

katsuki has to be quiet and stay calm to keep control of his heart problems.... control your heart.... CONTROL YOUR HEART PART TWO??? hori you're so brilliant

[meirimerens]

pathologic fest day 19

"In the Darkness"

where nobody dwells but the earth herself

[godslove]

[holystormfire]

[broomsick]

A river listens to the words you speak to it. The earth remembers your every step, from the very first time you walked upon it. The wind teaches you songs and words that nobody else will ever hear. The sky sings you to sleep, though you can't always hear it. Speak to the world, that is what Óðinn taught me. Speak to it and it’ll speak back. Every living thing and every piece of the world, no matter how small, has something to teach.

[tryingtobegoodwitch]

I don’t know who needs to hear this but having doubts about your practice is totally normal and actually beneficial.

Questioning everything is intelligence.

[undercovergarbo]

Apollos altar just becomes more grand with time 🌞🫶

[faeyramaeyra]

~ 🌷 Witchy things you can do to honour yourself, your craft and your deities! 🌷 ~

~ 🌷 This will be a long post! 🌷 ~

- Spend time in nature (go hiking, meditate outdoors, collect some river water, make some sun water, plant something etc)

- Interact with your pets (example, dogs are often associated with Hekate so you could play with them or take them on a walk etc.)

- Donate to a shelter or charity in the name of your deity.

- Create a protection charm to add to your dog or cat’s collar. Our companions need protection sometimes too!

- Do your self-care as an act of devotion to yourself and your deity (you could do your skincare as devotion for Aphrodite for example.)

- Have a cleansing bath or shower. You can create a pouch full of cleansing and protective herbs to use.

- Make a piece of artwork for your deities. It could be a painting, clay vase, etc.

- Make a playlist of songs that give you positive energy or remind you of your deity.

- Make a journal or scrapbook about the things you love about your craft to remind you why you are practising.

- Do a daily card pull in the morning. This can be to see how your day will go or what you should be focusing on etc.

- Stir intentions into your drink in a morning (anti-clockwise to remove negativity, clockwise to bring in positivity. You can also say what you wish to manifest for that particular day. You may need an extra boost of inspiration for example.)

- Do some spell work with your deity. Ask them to give you aid with it or to protect you whilst you are doing it.

- Consider enchanting an item. It could be jewellery, a plant, a decorative item in your home etc.(If you would all like, I can make a post of how I personally like to enchant objects.)

- Tidy up your home. This one may seem a bit odd but please read my explanation as to why it is important to take care of your home. Different rooms in your home can be associated with different parts of your life. If you want to manifest something in part of your life, You need to take care of your home in order for your manifestation to work. Your kitchen is connected to your health and health of your household. Your bathroom is connected to your finances and the flow of finances in your household. Your bedroom is connected to the happiness and prosperity of your romantic relationships. Your living room is connected to your relationships with your friends and family.

- Learn how to read candles. Candles are commonly used as an offering to deities and for manifestation workings but sometimes you can have other entities trying to communicate with you via the candle flame. I personally have had ancestors messing about with candles, Not just deities.

- Use colour magick associations when picking out your outfit for the day. For example black is most commonly used as a protection colour.

~ 🌷 Want me to make a part 2? Lemme know below 🌷 ~

Tip-Jar

[eternal-gardens]

and I seek refuge in You from the distress of my ownself to Your vast abundance.

[psalmlover]

gorgeous prayer candle by FannyPippin on Etsy