#val practices

[witchesofvaliant]

My Take on Worshipping & Working with Ares

(Disclaimer: "My take" means my personal opinion and deriving heavily from my own experience.)

I work with Ares primarily in Shadow Work, and worship/work with him heavily in my practice.

1: The Misconceptions

I see a lot of "I work with Ares, so I work out all the time for him", and while exercise is wonderful for the body, and I myself love to get in a good walk, I have never devoted that to Ares. I am not saying you shouldn't, but the reason I mention it at all is the fact that many people equate working with Ares or those who do as muscle-headed gym bros who are always having to exercise or have to prove their masculinity. As a computer nerd who doesn't have exercise in their daily life and has chronic disabilities/illness that make that harder, I just don't do that. If I can, I take a good long walk for an hour or two about twice or once a week (if I can), that's mostly as far as it goes. In terms of proving my masculinity? Why? Let's dispense with the antiquated gender roles that say we have to assign the tough masculine aura to the cis guys. I am a trans male who has no issue looking feminine and being both a Queen and a King, that's just how it is. Ares can tell me himself if he has an issue with it, but he never has. And after getting to know him for some time, personally, he's not the type to give a fuck about your gender presentation. That also means, you don't have to be a guy to work with him, as I have also seen before.

Now, if we're trying to be true to the ancient Greek times, he was the primary deity worshipped in Sparta, and once the Romans adopted (which is putting it nicely) the Greek deities into their belief system, Mars was used as the primary deity equivalent to Zeus (Jupiter as he was called), with the common epithet to represent him being Mars Ultor, basically a title of greatness and power for him. He was used to inspire and push young men in those times toward a great strength and motivation in terms of military service as that was a greater focus in their culture than it was in the Greek culture (Not that the Greeks couldn't fight of course, they had their war deities, and Ares was one of them, but there IS a massive shift in the Greek and Roman mindsets when involving war, too much to get into). Now, here's where I stop, as I'm not an expert on Greco-Roman history and the two cultures, but it should demonstrate the point well at least on where these ideas so many people are spreading come from and why many think they're valid for everyone.

2: Worship

I tend to worship him by simple prayer. I take the knife I have and meditate with it, praying to him or simply talking. Sometimes, I don't even take the knife Lol. He's honestly a very simple person to deal with in my experience. You don't need to do fancy shit for him as devotional acts, he values respect and honor above all, so if you are giving that and offering this to him, he's a very pleased guy. I can't and don't use candles or fire in my practice, but my fire element/offering is going into a game and killing some bad guys. Is it semi-stereotypical in terms of the aggression? Kind of. Is it more focused on lessening my own stress and self-control so I'm taking my stress and anger out in a game than on people? Yes, and usually this isn't done FOR Ares, this is done more in terms of working on myself as agreed upon with Ares. Which goes into our next subject.

3: Work

Working with Ares is a huge part of my relationship with him (don't get me wrong, I love to just exist with him and listen to Fallout Boy too) but it's here where I have much more to say as I have always focused on Shadow Work in my life, and that only increased when I started my practice and my move away from the toxic Christianity I was raised with. Ares was not the first to work with me on this, and I had to work on some stuff myself just to be open to the idea of working with other deities. But in terms of Ares, he has been someone that I feel a strong connection to because of the heart, not my masculinity, not fighting others and exercising, but more because of the internal struggles and survival for my life I have had throughout my entire life. Be it with illness, my heart and trauma, or defending others, mainly my little brother, but all these thins took an internal struggle, not am external one. I find I work with him purely in terms of internal survival (either against physical or mental illness) and Shadow Work, which means understanding my heart, my will, and how to overcome the pain that has broken those things in my past. THIS part of him, is the part I rarely see anyone say anything about. Or everyone pairs him with Aphrodite and says this is their thing. I don't understand why it can't be him alone, I have hardly ever worked or dealt with Aphrodite, and while I give her respect and have given her my prayer, she is rarely there as my path just doesn't flow that way.

And also.. Why does no one talk about the fact that Ares can connect to illness too? In my opinion, he connects to illness through the issue of having to fight through it or even fight to keep someone alive.

I love embracing him as someone that doesn't require you to be a cis man with a six pack, or fight a literal war or fight other people just to work with him, and I really want to stress that you don't have to be these things, or change who you are as a person or fit into any requirement to work with him, and you don't have to do this with any deity either. You bring yourself first, that's all you truly need to bring to them, yourself and an open mind and ears to listen.

(Damn, this was long, hope people actually read this rant lmao)

If you got to the end, congratulations! And thank you for reading, I deeply appreciate that and you! 💖

[valeovalairs]

coping the only way I know how

[localechoes]

various practice animations regarding val

[popppyfur]

girl best friends 🤨

[val-of-the-north]

(These are the images I used in this part)

Magical discussions happening on twitter dot com, unsurprisingly, where the worst takes can be found.

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 216

“So we all know that Damian is trying to sneak in a new animal, right?” 

 “I mean, yeah, he only starts sneaking around like that when he’s sneaking something he shouldn’t be, and the box was pretty obvious…” 

“Are we going to ask about it or…” 

“Nah, plausible deniability when Alfred or Bruce inevitably finds it.” 

Later, Duke will regret listening to Dick and Steph, because there is now a massive fucking dragon glowering down at all of them from the back yard with nine heads. Each of which do not seem pleased. It might be time to question what Damian might have brought home this time…

[corpusdiem-seizethedead]

Charlie: Angel is smiling, did something happen?

Angel: What? I can’t smile just ‘cause I feel like it?

Husk: Valentino tripped and fell in the parking lot.

[missatan]

˖°.𓆩♡𓆪 .°˖ "I finally found you, my personal slaughter" ˖°.𓆩♡𓆪 .°˖

[trickstarbrave]

artfight attack for @thescrolls-haveforetold !!!!

[masoqueen-official]

ART UPDATE! 5/7 ◈4/14/25◈

Doodles, doodles, doodles galore!!!

First off, we have these fuckheads. No the other pair of fuckheads.

Practice practice yada yada yadaaaa... Yeah, I think 3 teeth work the best with my style tbh.

We may look cute and my art may look cute but we are not talking about whatever is going on here, capiche?

I sketched a theatre production's set of "A Christmas Carol" for practice and memory :)

THAT'S TOM KENNY DUDE- Oh yeah and Splatoon flight sketches ✈️

Who's the birthday girl? It me. Oh yeah and those doodles exist too. Rewatched SVTFOE while I was at it too.

Lalalalalalalala

Okokokokokokokok

Jkjk... winning fit / "new" red marker / some guy at my mom friend's work I thought was a joke and about lost my mind / either a dream I had or some sort of fuckin' paragraph I forgot about and you should forget about too / What Liyah said actually made me feel really bummed for a week... it was obviously more than that but still.

And last but CERTAINLY not least, this art I don't remember if I sharred with you guys but here it is again because it's fucking fabulous.

[witchesofvaliant]

31 Days of Hellenic Polytheism & Demonolatry - Day 1-6

Welcome to my 31 days, with a twist of Demonolatry added in too!

DAY ONE:

Who was the first deity you began worshipping? Do you still worship them now?

The first deity I began worshipping was Hades/Pluto, and I do indeed still worship with him now, and in fact now work with him, which definitely was a journey with a lot of shadow work involved and learning before I was allowed to work with him and that I was comfortable with working with him as well.

DAY TWO:

Which deity did you most recently start worshipping? Were you called to them or did you reach out first? Do you think there were specific reasons behind why you were drawn to them?

Barbatos is the most recent deity I've started worshipping & working with, and it was more that I was called to him, with him reaching out first. I'm still learning and understanding more about him, but I do see reasons behind why I'd be drawn towards him, both in his personality and in part of his domain, that revolves around the revealing of secrets or the unknown, and understanding mysteries and divination. Honestly, this is going to definitely include shadow work as it tends to with other deities Lol

DAY THREE:

How long ago did you start Hellenic Polytheism?

About two years ago, actually! I certainly would've started sooner, but it took a lot of deconstruction of my (toxic) Christian upbringing, so it just goes to show, one's journey in anything can take much longer than we like at times, but all of the best things happen in their own time and when the time is right for you.

DAY FOUR:

Are there any deities you don’t currently worship but want to learn about?

Absolutely and I think it's always that way Lol Prometheus, Moros, Khaos, Phobetor & Phantasos, Nemesis, Eris, Belial, and Astaroth. (Probably more, but that's what I can think of for now)

DAY FIVE:

How much have you bonded with your deities?

I'd say plenty, but there's still much more to learn and go! The ones listed as me being devoted to are the ones I know best and feel closest to at this point (Hades, Lucifer, Ares, Kronos, and Stolas), but even then, like a close friendship, you continue to learn with time about the person you feel so close to. I am able to be very casual with these deities most of all, though I'm casual with plenty, but just as you open up more to another as you get closer in a relationship, it feels like I continue to see more of them, a side they didn't show when I first had met them or was just beginning to know them. With time, we continue to know each other, building a greater bond, and a better relationship with one another.

DAY SIX:

What’s one way you incorporate Hellenic Polytheism and/or Demonolatry into your routine (daily, weekly, monthly, etc?)

The single primary way is by meditating and cleansing at the beginning of the day alongside any deity I worship that simply feels most right or whoever decides to simply join me. I also pray before eating at times, offering my food to a deity or more than one deity I worship. But most of all, I just tend to give my time to a deity regularly, existing with them, and letting them channel through me at times.

Dividers by @cafekitsune

[teyrnacousland]

I think it's fun that different characters give a different time period for how long Rook was in the Fade Prison. Both because everyone's perception of time is different (and gets weird when you add grief to the mix) and because it means we can headcanon how long it took each specific Rook to get out of there based on how well we think they'd have managed their regrets

[inkesse]

For the first time ever, I used tarot as a method to try and contact Lord Apollo. I've been anxious about it for a while, but today the sun shone brightly and I saw some beautiful art of him, so I just.. felt compelled to give it a try. It went better than I ever could have expected and I truly do feel cared for, and that what I do in devotion to him is enough.

[voxscientistau66]

I need Vox to do the whole "Pull the lever, Val! WRONG LEVER!!' thing 😂

(The audio is from The Emperor’s New Groove)

[tvhearts]

it's quick, it's easy and it's free: drawing your OCs in increasingly compromising positions instead of actually writing the story they're supposed to be in 🧠✨️💙

[funkle420]

some Ingrid and Misty doodles