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Golden Aphrodite

Lady of beauty and grace,

Please give me the power to appreciate my body

Grant me confidence in my masculinity

Help me to feel your love within myself, and to express it outwardly as well

Lady Aphrodite, please hear my prayer

I sing your praises and offer you this incense

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e-offering to Lady Hekate

Lady Hekate, Goddess of magic and the moon. I come to you asking for protection over my dog. Please wrap your beautiful arms around her and keep her safe. I honor and praise you, thank you.

Thank you for hearing my prayer.

Honor to the Gods!!!

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e-offering to Lady Artemis

Thank you, I honor and praise you

Honor to the Gods!!!

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Lord Poseidon, God of the seas. I come to you asking for protection for me, my family, and everyone affected by the hurricane. Let your mighty showers rain, but wrap is in your mighty arms. I honor you and praise you. Thank you for hearing my prayer.

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Which Deity do you think would be best associated with transgender identities? I realise it is a tricky question as these concepts were not, back then, thought of as they are today. I guess I'm mostly asking for your personnal feeling or interpretation, not for a "universal truth" which would not exist.

Hello there, Anon!

So I did some research with a friend and I came up with a few deities for you to choose from. Please know there are MANY deities out there who could be associated with transgender identities, I chose these few to not overwhelm you.

A lot of my trans and enby friends gravitate towards Dionysus. So, from their testimony and my research, my first option is Dionysus. In one myth, Dionysus was born of Zeus' thigh and was entrusted to Hermes, who brought the newborn to a couple of nymphs. The nymphs were convinced to raise baby Dionysus as a girl. Many also state that Dionysus can appear very feminine or gender nonconforming. I've heard devotees use all pronouns for Dionysus as well as all genitalia to describe his body. (I use he/him pronouns because that is how Dionysus appears to me).

Another option could be the child of Aphrodite and Hermes, Hermaphroditos, who is the patron of intersexed persons.

My friend also recommended Leto, who answered a prayer and changed the sex of a child from female to male. Leto is also the mother of Artemis, who is the Goddess of Transitions.

I hope this helps answer your question, Anon. Followers, please feel free to add to this! Thanks for stopping by!

~Crimson

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Concept: Altars in a jar, AKA godly goody-bags

Basically, you address the jar to the god (either verbally, mentally, or with their name written on a piece of paper in the jar.) And then you fill the jar with things you associate with that deity!

(Also you can address a jar to more than one god, woo!)

From left to right we have:

Jar one: Aphrodite, Ares, Dionysus

Jar two: Artemis, Apollo, Hyacinthus

Jar three: Hermes, Thanatos, Hypnos

I personally started doing this as a means to declutter my altars, but then it turned into this.

It’s really helpful because I ran out of altar space at five, and I didn’t want my space to restrict my worship.

Plus, I like the way they look.

Anyway, yeah, you don’t have to use jars. You could use Tupperware containers or cups. Hell—shotglasses if you can make it work.

These can also pass as decorations, so here you go, closeted fellows.

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The Seasons and The Gods

With the seasons getting ready to change, the trees starting to light on fire, and the wind getting cooler and more frequent, I take time to remember the Gods. 

Some gods are retiring for the year. The spring flowers are going dormant and the summer fruits have all been picked, so Persephone will head to the Underworld soon. With cornfield mazes and the harvest foods being picked and ready, Demeter is getting busy but it won’t last long. Some animals are readying for hibernation and we’ll see less of them as the seasons get cold - so Artemis will keep them safe and warm and will have time to relax. 

And then there are gods that will take up some tasks and continue to keep the autumn and winter lively. With the lakes and rivers freezing, Poseidon’s power in rushing waters will be trapped under the ice. But he will keep the imaginations of children and adults alive as they skate and fish and walk on the frozen waters. Zeus’ beard is growing greyer with salt white streaks, and instead of thunderstorms and lighting strikes, he’ll bring blizzards and flurries and iron grey cloud over white hills. And as we huddle back into our homes, light our fires and cook hearty stews, soft breads, and sweet cakes and pies, Hestia will welcome us with loving arms, perfume the scent of warm treats and hot cocoa. 

The Gods are around us, all year long. With each season, they change their motions and the ways we can see them creating and sustaining this world around us change too. But they are always there, you just have to look, pray, and smile. 

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What is it that motivates the gods to have relationships with us? What do they get out of it?

I get stuck on this question now and then. I got stuck on it yesterday, sitting at Loki’s altar. There are many answers to this question, and a few of them make good sense to me; but a sensible explanation is not the same as a deeply felt truth, the kind of truth that lives and breathes inside of you, that changes the way you interact with the world.

Over the course of the day an answer began to unfold for me. The answer was another question, directed at me: why do you leave seeds out for the wild birds? What are you hoping to get from them in return? And the answer of course, is that I don’t want or expect anything in return. There is no reason or explanation I can give for why I want to see the wild birds outside my window. I just love them, entirely for their own sake, not because I want or need anything in particular from them.

Another question directed at me: why did you adopt a cat? The answer is simply that I had love to give, and cats tend to be enthusiastic recipients of love.

I concede that it is possible to have a transactional relationship with a deity, and that there is nothing wrong with such an exchange, but my close relationships are not about us “getting” anything from each other. I may give offerings to my deities, and my deities may share their blessings with me, but as Lewis Hyde writes, “It is the cardinal difference between gift and commodity exchange that a gift establishes a feeling-bond between two people.” My relationship with Loki is not a commodity exchange.

Perhaps the gods feel for us something like what I felt when I picked up my cat at the shelter. Perhaps they feel for us something like what I feel when I am rewarded for my stillness in the woods with the sight of a wild owl close to the ground. Perhaps we are beautiful and fascinating to them simply for our own sake.

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E-offering to Lord Hermes

Lord Hermes, God of travels and trade. I ask that you keep me and my family safe as we travel tomorrow. I honor and praise you. Thank you for hearing my prayer.

Honor to the Gods!!!

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e-offering to Athena

Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and War. I ask that your protect me and my family tomorrow. I honor and praise you. thank you for hearing my prayer.

Honor to the Gods!!!

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To me, personally, Dionysus is all about liberation from social inhibition; a culture of defiance, I'd say, which a lot of us might've experienced at least once in our lives. It is a defiance of all that dare to shackle our darkest, innermost selves; and the suppression of emotions and instinctive yearning under the excessive desire to be logical and "acceptable." It is surrendering the ego — or self-esteem and importance — to the flow of our subconscious when neccessary, such as in the creation of art, the birth of new life. It is looking at the eternal transience intertwined with age, and the fullness of being: bearing witness to ecstacy and tragedy and dual madness.

I call Him Dionysus Eleuthereus: of liberation from care and sorrow. And yet He is also Dionysus Sôtêr, the Saviour who calls to moderation. And ultimately, Dionysus Psilas: "the giver of wings." (There, too, exists Dionysus Lyaeus: of liberation from care and anxiety.)

He will come to know that Dionysus, son of Zeus, is fully a god: most terrible, and yet most gentle to mankind.

- Euripides, The Bacche.

Dionysus and Apollo reflect the duality of the human person. The latter is of the conscious self: logical, methodolical, and in pursuit of truth; such is who we often seek to be. The former, however, presents Hinself in meaningful co-existence as the parts of myself I've once kept burried.

My Lord, Dionysus Bromius, please accept my humble offering.

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3/8/22

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e-offering to Lady Artemis

Lady Artemis, I offer this to you tonight as a thank you. I honor and praise you. thank you.

Honor to the Gods!!!

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— to you, o king of power & might, to you, o lord father zeus, do i sing. i give  worship to the strength of you, the power that rings and echoes within my very bones. o lord  of the heavens, lord of the earth, lord of all that dwells  within, to you i sing. illuminate the dark where my feet tread, your strike of lightning to chase away  the foes before me. out of chaos, o mighty king, led  me forward. guide me in righteous ways, bring holiness to my words, & lend me your strength. o blessed king! ruler of all the gods!— king of glory & brightness! it is to you that i sing — 

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e-offering to Lord Dionysus🍇

Lord Dionysus please accept this offering I have prepared for you. I know it is not a lot but I hope you enjoy it. I honor and praise you. thank you.

Honor to the Gods!!!

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e-offering to Lady Athena

Lady Athena I offer this to you this morning. I honor and praise you. Thank you.

Honor to the Gods!!!