theeninthkeye

[theeninthkeye]

🎭 and 🔥 for the polytheist/pagan asks?

My first ask!!! I'm so excited to answer 😊

🎭 - What is an emotionally impactful or a silly worship-related experience you've had?

A while ago, there was a super moon on Halloween night and I was visiting my in-laws who are VERY Christian. They made my partner and I sleep in separate rooms at the time, as well. I was very disappointed that I was unable to do my usual full moon workings. However, I was determined not to let that stop me, so I opted to secretly make some moon water in a window sill.

As I lay, trying desperately to sleep, I felt the familiar feeling of a spirit contact beginning. This usually starts with a distinct heaviness in my limbs, pressure in my forehead, and a unique ringing in my ears. I closed my eyes and listened/felt for what was trying to communicate.

I sensed before me a great humanoid figure that I knew at once was not a human spirit, nor a deity, but it felt very powerful. It said my father's name and asked if I was his child. I said yes. The spirit began urging me to ask my father about it. I am estranged from my father, so I declined. It kept pushing me to talk to my father. I started getting uncomfortable, so I told it to leave. It would not. I began "shielding" myself energetically, but it was very persistent, and I was losing focus. It felt like this entity was touching me and draining my energy. I was extremely scared, as I had never had to deal with this before (or since).

Hekate appeared in a colossal pillar of golden flame. She held a hand above the spirit and it vanished. The room was empty, and I felt completely safe.

Later, I found out two things. Firstly, this entity came from a deal my father had made. My mom showed me a photograph of his old altar and told me that he used to be heavily into the Goecia. She told me that he had suddenly stopped his practice after a drug-induced mental breakdown that left him hiding in his closet for two whole days. He had apparently mentioned to her that as spirit had scared him. I fully believe this was that spirit. The spirit wanted to continue whatever deal it made with my father with me. Looking back, I know this spirit had been harassing me for many years but I had never been able to see it so clearly.

Second, I learned that it had followed me to my in-laws' house and had been tormenting my mother in law and sister in law (both of whom most certainly have latent psychic abilities, in my opinion). They both described this same entity. On a later visit, I called on Hekate to help me banish it. It's been a few years since then, and it has never come back.

🔥 - Do you have a favorite myth or tale from your pantheon or others?

My favorite myth is the story of Prometheus. I find Prometheus to be a very interesting figure. He's rebellious, intelligent, and humanitarian- all things that I strive to be in life. He was afraid to do what he thought was right, even if it meant punishment. That's some serious dedication and strength. Prometheus is, in many ways, my "Jesus" figure, if the two can even be compared.

[theeninthkeye]

Iceland's sky broke the colour spectrum. The magical stratospheric cloud ❤️✨️😍

[theeninthkeye]

Epithets of Hekáte

Nyktophaneia - Night-shining

Hekáte, Mistress of the Moon,

Queen of Witches, bearer of torches.

Guide us to Your garden, Nyktophaneia!

Set Your Hounds up on the path,

Shine the way, glorious Goddess,

Let us venture forth beyond the crossroads!

[theeninthkeye]

Nut (goddess)

Mostly depicted in nude human form, Nut was also sometimes depicted in the form of a cow whose great body formed the sky and heavens

[theeninthkeye]

Polytheist & Pagan Asks

🙏 - Which pantheon(s) do you actively worship?

🌞 - Which deity(ies) are you closest to/do you worship the most often?

✨ - Do you believe in patron deities? If so, do you have any that you know of?

🌍 - Which pantheons do you believe exist?

📜 - Have you ever made an oath, vow, or contract with a deity? If yes, how did it go (you don't have to share)?

📿 - What are three things you're grateful to your deity(ies) for?

🖋️ - If you could say anything to your deity(ies) right now, what would you most want to say?

💌 - What is your favorite form of deity communication?

🎭 - What is an emotionally impactful or a silly worship-related experience you've had?

❤️ - What's one memory of your practice that you reflect the most fondly on?

🥂 - What is your favorite devotional act or offering to give?

🎉 - Do you celebrate any festivals? If so, which ones?

🫂 - Do you syncretize any pantheons with one another? If so, which ones?

🔮 - Do you delve into topics like the occult or the mysteries? Do you do anything esoteric?

⭐ - What is something you wish people outside your practice knew more about?

📖 - Do you like the way your pantheon is most often portrayed in media? Why or why not?

🏛️ - Do you have a favorite statue or temple to your deity(ies)? If yes, what is it?

🔥 - Do you have a favorite myth or tale from your pantheon or others?

🧭 - What led you to your practice?

🧿 - Did you have any other spiritual beliefs before discovering your current practice?

🪽 - Do you believe in angels and/or demons? If yes, do you worship or work with any?

🪄 - Do you practice witchcraft? If yes, do you keep it separate from your deity worship?

🪦 - Do ancestors or human spirits play a big role in your practice?

🐾 - Do animal spirits play a big role in your practice?

🌱 - Does nature - plants, nature spirits, etc. - play a big role in your practice?

💀 - Do you believe in ghosts? If yes, have you ever had an experience with one?

☄️ - Do you believe in astral travel/the astral realm? If so, have you been there before?

[theeninthkeye]

"I really am a lovely god."

~ Dionysus coming to me during my nightly prayer to convince me to pray to him as well.

I guess I've got to make room on my altar! He's been reaching out for a while, but this was the first time he's spoken to me so directly.

[theeninthkeye]

It's truly fucked up how ancient Ancient Egypt really is. Like, the New Kingdom period of Egyptian history ended in the 11th century BC, and that's the one they call the New Kingdom. King Tut's reign was one thousand years before the time of Cleopatra. The Great Pyramid of Giza was older to the Romans than the Romans are to us. Ancient Egypt is just fucked up old and it blows my mind every time I think about it.

[theeninthkeye]

31 Days of HelPol!!!

DAY THIRTY-ONE: Share a positive experience you’ve had this month/year with one or more of your deities

Earlier this year, I awoke to an entity in my room that introduced itself to me as "The Lion" and it indicated that it was sent to me specifically. I was very confused but thanked it anyway. I learned a few days later that Hekate is sometimes associated with lions and felt intuitively this entity was sent to me to protect me and my family.

At the time, I was dealing with a falling-out with some friends and was very sad, lonely, angry, etc. These people had been gossiping about me and making fun of me behind my back. After "the Lion" showed up, I started hearing that the person who was talking the most crap had been exposed for stealing money from the place they worked and essentially got run out of town. They had to move 3 hours away from me, to a new town.

While I don't revel in the suffering of others, it was really amazing to see that I am protected and that my gods have my back. This person had spread a lot of rumors about me and to see their lies coming back to bite them.

[theeninthkeye]

Stolen from Facebook

[theeninthkeye]

[theeninthkeye]

POV: you took a Dionysus devotee/patron to the wine store

[theeninthkeye]

Devastating...

my heart is literally shattering

[theeninthkeye]

Studies Into the Past series (Laurent Grasso, circa 2009-2020s)

[theeninthkeye]

[theeninthkeye]

come in

[theeninthkeye]

the fandomification of paganism

hello everyone! first of all, thank you for taking the time to read this post. I want to preface it by saying that it is based on my opinion and observations and it's coming from a genuine place of care for the community. I don't mean to attack anyone or deny anyone's experience, I simply want us to reflect on the path that online paganism has been taking in recent years. with that being said, I hope you can continue reading with an open mind and limit your critiques to those actually related to my points, framing or conclusions. thank you!

there is something that I've been noticing in online pagan spaces lately, a shift which has me worried and feeling disconnected from much of the community. it seems to affect the way we think and talk about our deities which then seeps into the rest of our practices and communities.

I think we have already witnessed many large ways in which it manifests. the most recent and widespread example that I can think of was the whole "the gods are mad" thing on the eve of the US presidential election. some people were adamant that the gods were emotionally affected by the affair as if they themselves had a personal stake in it. now, I don't mean to say that the gods don't care about human affairs but the general consensus after this whole debacle seems to be that the gods are generally quite distant from stuff like this as they have no stake in things like human politics beyond potentially how it affects their worshippers. I agree with this general idea and I think what is likely happening is people are projecting their own opinions and feelings onto the gods because it is important to them that the gods seemingly agree and can sympathise (i wrote a bit more about this situation here if you're interested in reading it).

so from this one example, but potentially many more that I or you reader have experienced, i think what we are seeing is a certain trend (and I don't mean this in a negative way) of the gods as much more human-like. this is not necessarily a bad thing, many pagans see the gods as much closer to humans than I do (I see them as much more non-human or superhuman and just completely out of our realm of understanding). but what i usually see this being accompanied by is a certain belief that the gods are always around and very invested in every tiny aspect of our lives. in some people's practices, they seem to serve a more companion role and their importance as gods is severely downplayed.

I think this want for spiritual companionship is completely understandable and normal, this is after all one of the reasons why people can decide to become pagan or religious in general. but I think at times I see this move into a territory that I find problematic. I call it the "fandomification" of paganism.

I've been struggling with how I want to describe it because as much as I want people to be able to worship and practice however they want, I genuinely think that some of these behaviours cause problems in our communities and I want to address that from a place of good faith. with the knowledge that this might ruffle some feathers I want to say the following: I think some people treat the gods too much as manifestations of their favourite blorbo from a tv show or book rather than the powerful spiritual beings that they are.

I think that the idea that anyone can immediately communicate with the gods through a candle flame or a pendulum has led people to believe that they always have the ear of the gods and that the gods care and have opinions about every little thing that we can think of. I think skits on tiktok have popularised the erroneous idea that the gods can have snippy little conversations among themselves and practitioners and that they have beef amongst themselves.

what I honestly think is that many people have lost the respect and awe of the gods and made them into their personal entertainment clowns and that really rubs me the wrong way. this is not the way I want to engage in my religion, and once again while I do not wish to compel people to adapt their religion to what I believe, I have definitely noticed a growing schism between pagans who think like me and pagans who do not. I think it may be time for us to reflect on this development and how we want to tackle it going forward in relation to the future of our pagan communities.

[theeninthkeye]

Here's another -> https://www.globalgreyebooks.com/index.html

oops! it seems i tripped and dropped several million free books, papers, and other resources

https://annas-archive.org

https://sci-hub.se

https://z-lib.is

https://libgen.is

https://libgen.rs

https://www.pdfdrive.com

https://library.memoryoftheworld.org

https://monoskop.org/Monoskop

https://libcom.org

https://libretexts.org

http://classics.mit.edu

https://librivox.org

https://standardebooks.org

https://www.gutenberg.org

https://core.ac.uk