thegrovecalls

[thegrovecalls]

Thanks for the reply! I guess I've never really considered the difference between those, or figured out where I fall on the recon-revival spectrum... I'd like to think I'm aiming for a sustainable, fulfilling balance, but as my post said I get unwittingly hyperfocused on research etc. to my own detriment. Of course you're right, full reconstructionist practice isn't possible or entirely desirable. I needed this reminder that I'm allowed to do things differently and in a more flexible/modern/individual way if that's what works best for me right now.

[thegrovecalls]

Tips for getting back into regular practice?

Been feeling the need to get back into this blog and really get back into a steady devotional practice again lately. Struggling AS ALWAYS with reading and researching too much and hyperfocusing and comparing my UPG/theories to other well-learned polytheists' and feeling inadequate because I don't have the executive function to write properly-cited essays and stuff :/ Maybe recon polytheism isn't for me lol. I get so bogged down in the academic side (which I do love and I am good at, mind you) that I get burned out before I can even get to the devotional and ~personal spiritual exploration~ side!

So yeah... I'm being called by the gods to spend some actual time with them with my nose out of a book/blog/journal for a change, and I'm realising that I barely know how to do that, and certainly don't have much confidence in myself and my spiritual agency anymore :(

Kinda feels like I need to go strictly cold turkey on research for a while (I've amassed enough notes the last few years; I should be perfectly happy that what I believe is 99% evidence-based and I'm not just wildly making stuff up), and really go back to polytheist devotion 101 stuff. I haven't made any formal offerings in a really long time and haven't done a recon-style ritual, well, ever.

So uh... What is polytheist devotion 101 stuff? Does anyone have any tips for someone like me who thinks too much and doesn't DO nearly enough? For letting go of polytheist perfectionism? In some ways I feel like a beginner (which, to put a positive spin on things, is a fairly exciting place to be). Does anyone know of any good beginner's exercises/programmes/routines that could be applicable for a Gaulpol/Brythpol lacking in confidence and connection?

[Also, one of the things I've been 'stuck' ruminating about lately is what to do with offerings after they've been offered: I live in a flat in a city with no real green space nearby, and it feels wrong to eat them myself or throw them out with mundane waste. I'm never very successful with indoor plants either. Should I just offer fire (i.e. candles in my situation), incense, and votive or 'devotional activity' offerings? Or if I do make libations or food offerings, can it just be a few drops or crumbs, that I might realistically be able to leave out for birds or on a tiny patch of urban nature (as long as they're safe for said wildlife)? Can water alone be a libation?]

[thegrovecalls]

im neo-pagan and am interested in norse & celtic mythology/symbolism/etc , but i know neo-nazis have been co-opting a lot of norse shit into their nazi things. what should i be avoiding that they have "claimed" or should i just step away from that stuff altogether?

Let us tell you a little story from the 1990s.   One of the original SHARP skinheads we know was at a party when someone said, “hey man, why don’t you drop the whole skinhead thing so people don’t mistake you for a nazi?”Our friend explained it thusly: “let’s say you loved golf.  No, you REALLY loved golf!  Golf was your everything.  Your whole identity was about golf.  Then one day, some losers showed up at the golf course with some shitty golf clothes and cheap golf clubs.  They clearly don’t know much about the game and can’t play it very well. But they are good at being racist assholes and attacking people with their clubs.

“Are you going to give up the thing that you love; the thing that you identify the most with; the thing that makes you you because some racist assholes showed up and are wrecking it?  Oh hell no you’re not!  You’re not going to let them steal and ruin what wasn’t theirs to start with.  So you’re going to get your other golf-obsessed friends together and run them the fuck off the links and out of the sport altogether!”So whether you’re a neo-pagan, or a skinhead, or a golf fanatic - when bigots show up pretending to be part of your scene, take back what they’ve stolen from your culture and then run them the fuck out.  Since you’re a neo-pagan, we’ll make it easy for you to get started by pointing you in the direction of Heathens United Against Racism.FORE!

[thegrovecalls]

[thegrovecalls]

- “I’ve got a war in my mind” -  

[thegrovecalls]

http://annasychowicz.pl

[thegrovecalls]

—And there was no dance, no holy place from which we were absent.

Sappho, excerpt of Fragment 19 (tr. by Julia Dubnoff)

[thegrovecalls]

[thegrovecalls]

My first Inktober doodle is a naked man and a monster. WHO IS SURPRISED? Not me. Done with India ink with some spots of liquid frisket. Ethan belongs to @lohkaydraws. 

[thegrovecalls]

DO BETTER BE BETTER SMASH RACISM/APPROPRIATION/TRANSMISOGYNY/ABLEISM/FASCISM/ETC IN YR PAGANISM/WITCHCRAFT

[thegrovecalls]

Source: http://illusion.scene360.com/art/97326/ashley-joncas/

PRIESTESS OF THE DYSTOPIA: THE ARTWORK OF ASHLEY JONCAS

[thegrovecalls]

But some, a very few, come to the gods all on their very own. They find their way - long and far it is, sometimes - and they wander up to the altars, shy and clumsy and embarrassed and alone, and when they can get the words out, they say, ‘Well. Here I am.’

Peter S. Beagle, Summerlong (via nicstoirm)

[thegrovecalls]

a(nother) poem I sing to the dead, iii

[thegrovecalls]

Have you ever gone out in the middle of a bright November day, even when it’s cold, and found a place out of the wind where you could lie in dry leaves or grass, close your eyes, and soak in the late season sun? With the sun leaking red through your eyelids, you can listen for the wind in oak leaves, the silver-chain trill of the white-throated sparrow, or maybe just the sound of the world turning. A time like that can open the door to where all of your thank-yous are hidden.

the article Late Season Light, from a local nature newsletter called Biophile. Just ran across some copies. It was printed in the 90s. (via geopsych)

[thegrovecalls]

The Poet’s Last Stance

or Inktober #12 8D

[thegrovecalls]

Ecstasy. From the Greek Ekstasis. Meaning not what you think. Meaning not euphoria or sexual climax or even happiness. Meaning literally: a state of displacement, of being driven out of one’s senses.

Jeffrey Eugenides  (via iopanosiris, entelechies) (via crookedwitchery) (via penumbra-nemensis) (via le-prince-des-sorcieres) (via nonbinaryfrancisabernathy)

[thegrovecalls]

Up on the moor