#beginner pagan

[when-november-ends]

Sigrblót is the norse celebration of spring, which happens during the fourth full moon after the winter solstice.

In 2025, that's April 12th-14th.

Usually, harvest and fertility deities are honored during this holiday, but it can also be any other deity or spirit.

How to celebrate

(This is not the 'right' or only way. Feel free to personalize the experience to your liking.)

One

Enjoy the sun. Go outside if possible or sit on your balcony or in front of an open window. Do something you like, like drawing, painting, reading, or just sitting still with your eyes closed. Try to appreciate the fresh air, the singing birds and the warmth of the sun.

Two

Give offerings to harvest/fertility deities, or any deity or spirit you like. Offer something they are associated with or you think they will like, and something you made yourself like food, homemade ice tea, art, a plant or a poem. (The offerings do not have to be destroyed.)

If you have something to thank them for, feel free to do that.

Three

Eat something seasonal if you can. Work together with your loved ones to cook something that all of you will enjoy. If that's not an option, cook or order something that'll make you feel good.

Don't be afraid to make it fun! You can turn on some music and dance in the kitchen, or take way too much time decorating cupcakes.

Four

Say a few words about loved ones that have passed on. If you want, put a picture of them on the table so they can join you during the celebration. Share stories and maybe even give them an offering too.

Five

Share with your loved ones how you did with your goals from last year. Did you achieve them? Was it hard? What did you struggle with? Did you learn something new?

Exchange advice and knowledge. Everyone can learn something.

Six

Set new goals. Sigrblót is the new year's of the old norse people. This is when the world starts to come out of its shell again. Take advantage of that energy and write down some goals for this year. Meditate on them or manifest them if you want.

Please be aware that none of this is set in stone. You can celebrate however you want and it'll be just fine! This post is simply meant to act as a guide for those who are looking for ideas.

[divine-crows]

10 Ways to End a Prayer Aside from Saying Amen

Note: these are just ideas based on something I struggled with when I was a newbie pagan. I by no means am saying you can't use the word "amen", I'm just trying to help those who may not want to! If something works-- then it works!

Being raised in a very hard-core Christian household I was always taught to end my prayers with the phrase "Amen", but when I realized the faith didn't really fit me... I found that using that phrase didn't really fit me either! So, what could you say in place of it? Here are some ideas! Some I came up with, some I scoured the internet to find!

"THE END"

I have two younger siblings and they both used to say 'the end' all of the time because they thought when we said 'amen' we were actually saying that. It's very direct, but I suppose it works!

"AS IT IS REQUIRED" / "AS YOU REQUIRE"

I also use this phrasing in place of "so mote it be" when I do spellwork, not because it's a bad phrase, but mainly because I'm the type of person who has to vibe with the words I utilize. (I'm sorry I'm insufferable lol). I've used it at the end of prayers and it's nice and to the point without being too crass sounding.

"AND SO IT IS"

This one always reminds me of manifestation. Kind of a "I will obtain xyz" mindset. Sometimes I use it if I'm praying for help when I'm working towards a goal.

" DONE "

The first couple of times I tried praying without using the word "amen" I got lost on what to say, so I very awkwardly just said done and went about my day. It might work for you, but it definitely felt weird for me!

"AND SO IT IS, AND IT ALWAYS WILL BE"

I've used this phrase quite a bit and I currently like it a lot. I mainly use it when I'm doing prayers to show my admiration for my deities, or when I'm doing prayers for special occasions. I came up with it while writing some poems this Beltane and it kinda just stuck!

" LET IT BE SO " / "SO BE IT" / "VERILY" / "TRULY"

According to wikipedia, these are all translations of the word amen? So I suppose you could find a way to use them!

"BLESSED BE"

I'm gonna be honest, I lurked on some reddit forums for ideas and this one came up A LOT. I've only ever really thought of this phrase as being a form of "goodbye", and I didn't realize you could end a prayer with this!

"THANK YOU"

Sometimes the best way to end something is just a simple "thanks for listening".

UTILIZING ANOTHER LANGUAGE

If you feel so inclined, finding a language that suits you and your practice and looking for a similar meaning to 'amen' might be helpful to you!

POP CULTURE / LITERATURE

This may sound weird, but I saw a few people talking about using "This is the way" from the Mandelorian, and I even saw someone who recommended using "as you wish" from the princess bride! I also saw a suggestion where someone took a phrase from an Old English text and utilized it! The world is your oyster!

So there's a teeny list to get you started! As always I'd love if people would reblog with their own ideas and alternatives!

Online sources I looked at:

[suairceagsionadh]

preparing for samhain

[thewitchinthecloset35]

Worshipping vs Working with Deities

Definitions Worshipping a deity is all about respecting them, honouring them, living in a way that represents their domains and aspects. Working with a deity is exactly as the word suggests, a working relationship plus worshipping. A more personal and in-depth back and forth between you and the deity you work with on a long-term goal or in life generally but the specifics are between you and the deity.

Do you need to ask to worship? No. Deities are just that, deities! You can worship whoever you want and feel drawn to. You can ask them for favours, provide offerings, and pray to them.

Do you need to ask to work with a deity? Yes, but you don’t need to wait for them to reach out first. You can always express interest in working with them for whatever reason, provide an offering, and either ask for a specific sign or perform divination. A no now doesn’t mean no later, so if a deity says no to working with you, don’t worry. It doesn’t mean never, just not right now!

Can you make an altar for a deity you don’t work with or only worship? Yes, and as always, make sure you respect that space if you are dedicating it to a deity.

Working vs Worshipping example You work with Apollo in the musical aspects of your life, having more personal guidance and support on learning your chosen instrument and playing in a band. You worship his twin sister Artemis by lighting candles to honour her and care for wildlife with bird feeders, hedgehog homes, birdhouses, and an outdoor ceramic water bowl.

Which is more important? Neither. Whether you worship or work with a deity, both are equally important and just because you don’t work with a deity doesn’t mean your relationship with them is less than. Respect, honouring, and religion specifics are always important in both.

[homewardskies]

My UPG: Odin

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

Another one inspired by my earlier post about modern associations that I have of the Gods. See my UPG tag for the other posts of this nature. All UPG, some serious, some not.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

Some of my Associations + Why

1. Astronauts, Space Travel, Rockets, and Airplanes. This is inspired by his name "Váfuðr," mentioned a few times over, meaning Wanderer, and his title "Farmǫgnuðr," meaning travel-furtherer. Combining this with his myth of giving Nótt and Dagr (day and night) horses and chariots so that they may ride across the sky, leads me to associate him with space travel!

2. Doctors and Nurses. Odin is called, in the Grímnismál, "Helblindi," or Hel-Blinder. I believe this refers to the act of defying death, which is, in a sense, what doctors and nurses do every day.

3. Wishing Wells, Good Luck Coins, etc. His title "Óski" means, roughly, the God of Wishes. It seems appropriate!

4. Coding! In myth, he hung himself from Yggdrasil to discover the secrets of runes. Runes, back then, were just letters. That means he is essentially considered the creator of written language. Fast-forward to today, that could be furthered to him being the God of our new "written language." Code.

5. Court, Law, Criminals. He has a few Kennings that associate him with the gallows (Hangadróttinn, Hangaguð, Farmr galga) and truth/wisdom (Sanngetall, Fjǫlnir, Sviðurr). So, I see his aspects reflected in many aspects of criminal justice, juries, defendants, victims, and legal counsel.

Offerings

Jigsaw Puzzles

Beer

Hershey's Kisses

Pennies

Bread

Feelings and Vibes

-The feeling of finally getting the hang of a tough skill; success and pride. (Embroidery, for me)

-Similarly, the faith you have in someone to figure things out for themselves, trust in others.

-That unscratchable itch to learn.

-The relief of sitting down amongst loved ones after a day of tough, draining work.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

Anyways, that's some of my thoughts on Odin and my practice with him. Add on!

[hiddenhearthwitch]

📚 Small Intro To Polytheism📚

One of the most frequent asks I receive is how and where to get started when it comes to polytheism. This is a fairly broad subject and I’ll try to be as general as I can for advice but I will include specific references for Norse polytheists as that’s my shit. This information can be used to help you find a pantheon or to help you pick deities to work with it. If you’d like to use it to pick a patron deity that’s super, if you want to worship 20 gods and not have a patron deity that’s cool too. You do you dude. Please keep in mind this is all reflective of my research and personal practice. 🌻

Picking A Pantheon/Deity

This really boils down to personal preference. You’ll read a lot of posts and books that tell you many different ways and it’s entirely up to you because it is your practice.  That being said, there’s a couple of different ways to go about it. 

Research! This is one of my favorite ways to delve in. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with reading the stories of multiple pantheons and picking on that calls to you. You can also talk to other devotees and see what they have to say about deities and their religions. It is important to keep in mind that some religions are closed so please do proper research!

For example, I wasn’t originally a Norse pagan. I read some stories and thought the Hellenic pantheon would best suit me. I reached out to Eros for a while but after feeling no real connection to the pantheon I continued my research! After reading up on the Norse pantheon I decided to reach out to them out. Obviously, I fucking loved it because here I am. Point being, you can pick a pantheon based on research and not some divine message or whatever. You are also more than welcome to try out a religion, decide it doesn’t suit you, and move on. 

Divination! You can use runes, a pendulum, tarot, etc.This can go a few different ways. You can write pantheon/deity names on separate pieces of paper, mix them up, and place them face down then ask the pendulum to pick. You can assign a deity/pantheon to each suit of cards or major arcana card or even do the same thing with runes. 

For example, this is how I found a devotion to Frigg and Hel. I asked if there were any deities who were interested in working with me and pulled the runes Hagalaz and Berkana which read as Hel and Frigg to me. I followed up with tarot cards and pulled Death(Hel) plus the Queen of Pentacles(Frigg).

Asking/waiting for a sign. This isn’t something I’ve personally done so I don’t have much to say on the subject. You can go about meditating, praying, doing a ritual, or whatever and essentially wait for a sign after. It can come via a dream, something you experience, symbols you see in your daily life, it’s pretty much up to your intuition to decipher it. If anyone has information they’d like me to add in here please let me know!

If there’s a god you’re curious about and don’t want to do any of the above it’s totally cool to just reach out and ask if they want to work with you. 

Idk How To Research

Same, tbh my keyword search game is weak. Anyways, good portion of us are looking up dead religions with little reliable resources. To give those curious about the Norse an easy head start here’s a compiled list of  books by yours truly(click me!!) . It’s important to take everything with a grain a salt of salt when doing research. In my experience a lot of the retold Norse sagas have been Christianized or written under heavy Wiccan influences. It’s a good idea to do research on the author before reading one of their books.

Other blogs! There are tons of great witches and pagans on tumblr that have information waiting for you. 💗 You can search their blog/tags for good references for books, websites, podcasts, etc. Plus lots of blogs are open to answer asks. If you don’t know where to start for searching it’s best to try things based around your interest like: “norse polytheist”, “hellenic witch”, “gaelic polytheism”, etc.

Media! How lucky are we that we live in the age of technology? Knowledge is right at our fingertips! There are countless documentaries, podcasts, and audiobooks on youtube full of information for different cultures and religions. I’d personally recommend almost anything by BBC, Myths & Legends, and World Mythology!

Books! I love starting on goodreads to find good books and trust worthy authors. They’ve had almost every book I looked up with bunches of different reviews so you can get varying perspectives. Check out your local library as well! A lot of city libraries have online databases now of all of their books so you can “check it out” online and read the PDF(personal fave). 

Feeling Lost Still?

That’s completely reasonable and your feelings are more than valid. It can be overwhelming and lot of information to soak up. Just do your best and take it at your own pace, there’s no rush to find a deity or pantheon. 💞 Below are a few other general concerns I hear a lot that I was hoping to address.

“I’m leaving a monotheistic(Christian, Catholic, Jewish, etc) religion and it’s giving me anxiety.” This is entirely common and almost expected in my opinion. I was raised Roman Catholic and my first year to two looking into polytheism riddled me with anxiety. I was constantly concerned that god would smite me down or I’d face an eternity in hell for worshiping false gods. While I can’t speak for everyone that fear was entirely erased for me when I found my gods. I’ve never felt so safe and strong and hopefully with time you can find the same in your gods!

It’s okay to want to learn more or to seek something more. I can’t tell you how to handle your anxiety but please know you’re not alone in that fear. There’s whole communities out there willing to support you and help you find your safe space(including me)!

“What’s UPG?” You’ll see a lot of posts, mine included, that mention UPG - UPG is Unverified Personal Gnosis. This is essentially someone’s personal thoughts and beliefs about a deity. For example, I associate Sif with hazelnuts. There’s nothing in the lore or any book that says that she likes hazelnuts; that’s just a personal opinion(aka a UPG).

“How do I reach out to the gods?” I have a lot of information on my blog about this topic although a lot of it is Norse specific. You can check out my beginner polytheist tag here and my beginner norse post/ask here.

Altar! This is my go to typically. Altars aren’t limited to the cookie cutter image that comes to mind(no hate though I have a few); one thing you can make a side blog dedicated to your pantheon/deity, make a small one in a tin can, or even make one in a video game like Minecraft or some shit. You can be as creative or as to the book as you want. It’s up to you.

Prayer! You can totally just sit down and be like, “Hey man wanna work on some shit together?”. While I’m not 100% that all gods would be down with you being that casual it’s still something you can try.😂 You can reach out to them by sitting down in a quiet space and meditating into prayer, praying in the car or in the shower, or just pray at the altar you set up if you did. Again, I can not reiterate this enough, it’s your practice, reach out to them as you please.

Do something personal! This is more like devotional work in my opinion. Let’s say you knit and you want to reach out to a creative or domestic deity, you can knit something as a devotional act to them and as a way to reach out. For example I pick up litter in honor of the Vanir and Jörð, or I play Skyrim for Thor and Týr.

Most importantly just be honest and up front with the god that you’re reaching out too. Considering that statement be honest with yourself as well. There’s no point going into a relationship with a god if you can’t be upfront, it’ll end up in nothing but grief.

“Can deities reach out through gods/signs?” They totally can. However, it is up to you and your intuition if a deity has and it’s not likely another witch will decipher that for you. Sounds, experiences, images, all have different meanings to each of us - they may show you something that’s very personal to you but would be mundane to someone else. Trust your instincts. However, please remember that not everything is magical, sometimes a raven is just a raven and not Odin.

✨Take everything you learn with a grain of salt. Including this post.✨

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[devouredbyflame]

If Deities came to speak with humans face-to-face, most modern polytheists would be wrong.

If called down, Deities would actually be capable of making our lives easier when it comes to working with Them and listening for Their voices. The reason why it’s so hard for people to listen for the Gods is because people don’t necessarily know how important it is to develop their own personal relationship with the Divine.

We are so, so worried about being wrong and we look to other people to tell us which way we go. But there are very few experienced practitioners, even fewer effective teachers (if any at this point) and it is the blind leading the blind.

In all of my years of working with Loki, every single time I had a problem with discernment, it was always due to other people telling me I’m wrong or that their opinion was more important than my intuition. And I believed them because they seemed more knowledgeable. My beliefs I held strongly to in the beginning of my devotion to Him were always bent down by other people thinking they know more than me even though years later, they turned out to be truer than the thoughts I had after I was in a community.

You can call it beginner’s luck, but after years of seeking community, His voice became quieter and quieter. It was when I left pagan groups that I became explicitly aware of what He actually wanted from me. Confirmations started happening, the energy became denser, and things just magically started to work out that never did before and I could hear His voice speak to me in ways I didn’t think were possible prior to this reawakening.

I’m not saying we should be without community, but community resources need to be rewritten to accommodate the fact that us in the West know very little about working with the Gods. We used to. But we have no context for it anymore within society.

We can try to reconstruct a dead culture because you feel like yours is lacking but unless you’re actually receiving direct correspondence with the Divine, you will likely be unlucky in finding Their truest nature.

[nous-teleios]

Even if your life is falling apart, even if you're dealing with a lot, even if you've done bad things, even if you neglected them, THE GODS WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU !

[faeyramaeyra]

Hey! I dont know if you have already, but do you have a guide on what you NEED to know as a beginner?

🌷 Beginner Advice/Guide 🌷

As a beginner, You should be learning “The Golden Five” (as I like to call them) before anything else. They include: Grounding, Cleansing, Warding, Protection and Banishing. You can find information for these literally anywhere but I’m more than happy to cover them!

I will also cover some extra things too that are just handy to know/keep in mind!

Grounding

Grounding is something good to know in general, Not just for spirituality/paganism. The principle behind it is that you want to use techniques that calm/relax you (send you into your comfort/happy place) so you can focus on the here and now. I hope this makes sense. Meditation is a form of grounding!

Cleansing

Cleansing is the act of getting rid of any unwanted or negative energies etc. Different methods are used for this but the most common are smoke cleansing (using incense or even candle smoke for example), sound cleansing (using the sound of bells for example) and water (example: some people use moon water or create little bags of herbs they use in the shower/bath to cleanse themselves). There are plenty of other methods too but those are the ones I see used most often! Just use whatever works for you. A good incense to use if you like smoke cleansing but are prone to headaches (coming from someone who has chronic migraines) is frankincense and myrrh. A lot of people recommend dragons blood but for me it’s too strong.

Warding

The simple explanation for this one is that wards repel or trap any negative energies/entities/etc that attempt to attach to you or enter your space. People also use wards as defensive barriers against baneful workings. I have a guide on making a plant ward on my page that you could give a quick read but there are other methods too. I have enchanted witches bells that hang on my doorway for example. A common ward I see is salt along doorways, windowsills or any other point of entry into your space. Depending on the energy and intent you place into wards, Some may need to be renewed often and others may be okay for months.

Protection

This is the act of protecting yourself from unwanted/negative energies, backfired spell work, entities you may encounter etc. I have a more in depth guide on my page about why protection is important. Some common protection methods include: crystals and crystal jewellery, witches bottles, candles (use black ones for protection or you can substitute them with white candles as long as you set the intention of protection into them), drawing a pentagram on the roof of your mouth with your tongue and many more. Just use whatever works for you and your practice!

Banishing

Banishing is the act of getting rid of something, Not just repelling it. Most commonly it’s used to get rid of entities that try to attach themselves to you or enter your space but it can also be used to get rid of baneful workings, unwanted spell work results etc. This works for me (for entities) but may not for others: Opening a door or window and telling the entity to leave while shoving it out pretty much.

Extras

- Research closed practices. Learn why they are closed, who they are closed to, what practices are closed etc so you don’t unintentionally/accidentally appropriate a practice. Note: You shouldn’t be doing/using things from closed practices if you are not a part of them.

- Have a grimoire or book of shadows. A book of shadows/grimoire is basically a journal of all the knowledge you have learned throughout your practice. It’s a place you can find answers from or just give yourself a refresh on a topic. It’s like when you would write down everything you learnt in class.

- Meditation is the basis of everything. You need to be grounded and you need to be in tune with yourself for things like divination (as one example) to go smoothly. Try different methods of meditation, Find out what works for you. For example, I struggle to meditate unless the room is pitch black, there is no noise and I am laid down. Other people may benefit more from things like guided meditations which you can easily find on YouTube.

- Be careful of what information you take from social media. Always properly research a subject, cross reference resources and make sure the source is not problematic. Unfortunately, I have seen a lot of misinformation and potentially harmful activities being promoted on platforms such as tik tok.

🌷Recommended YouTubers 🌷

Below is a list of YouTubers that I would personally recommend for useful information:

- The Witch of Wonderlust (Great source of information for beginners. Has plenty of videos to do with cleansing, protection and banishing. One of my go tos for witchy content.)

- The Norse Witch (Has plenty of information for beginners as well as additional information about Norse Paganism if that’s an interest. Occasionally does unboxings for witchcraft subscription boxes if you are interested in those.)

- The witches cookery (Has a great playlist called “Witchcraft 101” which has some great “how to” and “witchy tips” videos. Also features a lot of information for kitchen and green witches.)

Side note: There are probably more content creators out there that are worth recommending but I rarely use YouTube anymore so I’m not too up to date on witchy channels on there.

Sorry this post took me so long to write, I’ve had a lot going on in my personal life today that I’ve had to prioritise. I hope this helps even a little! 💕

Tip-Jar and Readings

[when-november-ends]

🌿 Who are the Landvættir?

In norse mythology, the Landvættir are spirits that inhabit nature. They protect it and will drive away or harm those who do not respect it.

Some say that they are tied to a particularly beautiful thing in an area, like a waterfall, a big rock or a tree. Others say that, while they don't leave the part of the land they protect, they aren't bound to a specific place.

The Landvættir are said to be responsible for how healthy and fertile the plants and animals are, that inhabit the space. If the Landvættir are weak, so is the nature around them.

🌿 How can I build a good relationship with them?

Regular Blóts (sacrifices) in the form of food have been a common practice throughout history.

Leave some fruits or vegetables that are safe for the local wildlife outside for the spirits. Handmade offerings from natural materials (carved wood, flower crowns, a song sung by yourself or played on an instrument, or other similar things) are usually welcome too.

Be careful about not using anything that could harm the environment like glue or wood stain.

If you have a garden, be sure about taking care of it well. Plant native plants for pollinators and water them regularly.

If you've done your part for a while, you can ask the Landvættir for help with specific things, like increasing your harvest. Once they help you, don't stop doing all the things you've done before. This is a long term symbiotic relationship.

If you make a mistake and accidentally spill something that's toxic to the environment, forget to take care of your plants or forget to leave out food for the spirits regularly, apologize sincerely and try your best to fix the mistake.

Landvættir are known to be easy to anger if you sabotage their well-being, may that be on purpose or accidental. It is likely that they will retaliate, but don't let that stop you from trying to make it right. Once they realize you're doing more good than you are doing harm, they will calm down again.

click here → My Etsy Shop

pngs used in the header image are by @whizpurr and @pngblog

[fading-into-stardust]

I need more blogs to follow. if you're a witchcraft or paganism blog like this so I can follow you.

[homewardskies]

Holidays, Offerings, and Other Ancient Praxis in Paganism: It's Not an Exact Science

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A lot of people just starting out have questions about the specific details of their praxis, which isn't necessarily a bad thing! Beginners, I've noticed, especially want to know how many holidays, what to do for them, when exactly they are, etc. Some are caught up in wondering what acceptable offerings are, how they should offer, and how should they pray. And these are all very reasonable questions from a beginner's perspective. The problem is that pagan religions, particularly those that are reconstructed from ancient belief systems, (in other words, not new age religions like Wicca) are not that easily simplified; there isn't one secret collection of knowledge on how to get it "right."

So, I wanted to break down a few of the difficulties with reconstructing historical traditions that you might run into and also remind you that maximum accuracy isn't always the goal.

1. Timeframe

The first problem we run into for recreating really anything, is that some traditions (ahem, especially Hellenic and Kemetic paganism) have a lengthy history. Those civilizations spanned thousands of years, so their religion did not exist in one singular, unchanged form for the countless generations it was practiced. If you want a modern example, we can look at holidays popular in modern culture, like Christmas, that have already changed and adapted over the course of maybe the last 200 years.

Now, put that into perspective for figuring out holidays from ancient religions. There is no single answer for how to go about Paganism because there wasn't just one correct way to practice when these religions were "alive." The best we can usually do is guesstimate based on surviving records and fill in the rest with our own UPG and experience. And that leads us to the second struggle:

2. Lack of information

This is a bigger issue for pagan traditions like Norse, Celtic, or Slavic. These people relied far more on oral tradition, well up to Christianization. Because of this, we don't have a super detailed idea of what certain aspects of the practice looked like, particularly from further back in their history. There's a bit we can infer from anthropological findings and secondary sources, although those aren't always reliable since many were retold from a Christian perspective, and we then lose the context.

3. Localization

This isn't so much an issue as it is something to simply be aware of. Ancient pagan civilizations were not monoliths of culture and belief; different regions had different practices. In Hellenic Paganism, for example, there were different deity cults that were city-specific. Just as culture changed over time, it also changed over space, so the recorded history of holidays in, say, Athens, wouldn't be the same as a rural village fifty miles north of Athens.

This is one that can really inform our modern practice because I'm fairly certain that the average practitioner isn't living like folks were back in those times. We can localize according to our own cultures, geography, and lifestyle, just as they had to do. Example: Olives and wine were a central part of Ancient Greece and many offerings were centered around this. I, however, live in the southern US. Instead of stressing about the cost of imported Olive Oil, I will instead pick honey suckles, offer a locally brewed Stout, or set aside some Crawfish.

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Now, this is all to say, don't get weighed down by the finer details of your practice, especially if you're a beginner, because the "right way" is in itself an oversimplification of the change inherent to spiritual practice. Even when the religion was still "alive," it was not a single, uniform structure (deconstruct that Othodoxy, ya'll).

Yes, a pre-made calendar is a good frame of reference for worship, and yes, a guide on how to pray to each God would have helped in the beginning. But odds are, you live in a different environment than ancient people, under different circumstances than the religion was originally practiced, and most of the original context under which they practiced no longer prevails. So you have room to create your own path.

Don't get stuck in the "learning phase" because your whole practice is the learning phase.

[teawiththegods]

Hello!

I've been wanting to start working with witchcraft and paganism (I believe I feel drawn to Hermes, Dionysus, and Loki, specifically), but I have no idea where to start; if you have any suggestions, I'd really appreciate it!

Hello, hon! ☺️

So for witchcraft my number 1 recommendation is checking out any and all of Kelly-Ann Maddox’s resources!! Her book “Rebel Witch” is my witchy bible and I recommend it to beginners and advanced practitioners alike! She also has a fantastic YouTube channel for free and informative videos!

I also suggest thinking about what exactly drew you to witchcraft and follow that white rabbit. Seek out information specific to that topic and don’t be afraid to start dabbling early on! I think one of the biggest hangups a lot of us witches have (regardless of experience) is not playing, experimenting, crafting, practicing, or DOING enough. There’s always this fear and worry about doing it wrong somehow that we don’t do anything at all. We just collect knowledge and never act upon it. So try to dispel any worry early on and get your hands dirty! Have fun with it!

As for Paganism, I can’t only speak in regard to the Greek gods because they are who I’m familiar with. I used to focus firmly on research when advising beginners and while I do absolutely still think it’s important and necessary, I now believe the absolute first steps should be about developing your own personal relationship with the gods. For example, Destiny (my co-host and co-creator) is a complete newbie to all this and she wants to begin a relationship with Hermes. What she started doing was talking to him. And not in any formal way, she would just start up a convo with him as she was cooking or cleaning or taking care of her pets, basically what you might do with a friend or family member. And it never mattered whether she received any communication back. Of course she’s keeping her eyes out for any possible signs or messages but she’s not stressing about it.

That’s one idea that’s easy to get started but there’s others depending on what works for you. You can give offerings, dedicate certain activities to them, invite them to join you when you watch a movie, read a book, listen to music etc, basically you can start worship right now. And I recommend you do!

And of course along with that, it’s important to start reading up about any deities you are trying to connect with. Not just their mythology, look at their cults and how they were actually worshiped. Not only will you get a better picture of who these gods are but you’re gonna find so many cool and interesting things you didn’t even know! That’s my favorite part!

Hope that helped! And let me know if you have any other questions! 🥰

[devouredbyflame]

What to Expect From the Divine When Reaching Out

This post is going to be delving into the things that we can expect from the Divine at the beginning of our relationships and what we can do to prevent miscommunication and misjudgment. 

There is a kind of desperation that is felt when most people start working with Deities. It becomes a novelty in this day and age and we get excited – and we should be excited. This sort of work is nothing short of amazing and beautiful. The Divine being among us is a cause for celebration and joy rather than to be mocked and disgraced. However, this does leave room for error and I will get to that in a moment.

The stigma around working with a Deity seems to change depending on who you are talking to and what circles you run in. We tend to both have a lot more control where it comes to the Divine than we think we do and also a lot less control in other places where we don’t realize. It equals itself in every dynamic you have with a Deity, but it won’t ever be such that you know everything there is to know about Them. 

You can read the rest of this post here:

[dandelionjack]

as a natural skeptic i’m gonna be real with you. i’m slamming the brakes on this whole religion thing before i figure out what it really is that i believe. one thing i know for certain is that i don’t think my experiences of the world relate to what you call “hard polytheism” at all, so i will be refraining from referring to myself as “pagan” or “heathen” or similar terms from here on out — as i learned from reddit, actual pagans, i.e. those of you who believe that the Gods from whatever pantheon you follow are literal, actual, 100% independent, non-anthropogenic, non-metaphoric entities, tend to frown upon talk of “archetypes” and co. i don’t want to be seen as insulting your Gods with my home-brewed eclectic woo-woo nonsense, so i’ll keep at an arm’s length until i’m one hundred percent sure that i can defend my own beliefs because i know what they are.

i personally lean towards the chaos magic side of approaching these concepts — although, truth be told, i need to do more reading. a lot more reading. but once again, i stress, personally, i find myself far more comfortable with the concept of egregores. metaphysical entities, congregations of energy and intent, that have been given power and consciousness through centuries of dedicated devotion and prayer from humans. if enough people direct their thoughts towards an idea for long enough, leave offerings for that idea, hold festivities in its honour, write poetry and paint artworks depicting and praising it, then it’s no wonder if it gains a mind and will of its own. i lean towards the idea of deities/other spirit entities as personified aspects of the universe, as currents of energy or patterns of thought or representations of natural phenomena that were given different (or many) names in different historical/geographic contexts and have taken on a semi-solid shape with time

which is to say, i don’t know whether the Presence that has been visiting me — the one that rekindled/sparked/ignited my interest in all of this, pun quite intended if you know who i’m talking about, is genuinely the ambiguous, controversial Norse deity that i have been referring to Them as; whether They are some kind of thoughtform or another separate spirit; a manifestation of my subconscious desire to “Aren’t You Tired Of Being Nice Don’t You Just Wanna Go A Little Apeshit”; or a character i Made Up In My Head (not outside of the scope of possibility, knowing my tendency to spot patterns where there aren’t any). i’m treading with caution. that’s what you do. because after doing some wider research, i really, really don’t wish to be associated with that sort of person — you know the one. edgy. rebellious kid. doesn’t know what they’re talking about. witchtoker

after all, i did come here through pop culture. so, maybe, all this ends up being is another hyperfixation on mythology. i’ve had those before as a way younger teen — thanks, uncle rick. don’t really know how to conclude this, so: i’ll get more educated and get back to you. if any of you (you know who you are) have any BOOK or ARTICLE RECOMMENDATIONS based on what i’ve said above, please don’t hesitate to PUT THEM IN THE COMMENT SECTION

xoxo, ivy