Celestia Sophia

Let's be honest, religion and consistent practice can be HARD, especially when you're chronically ill, disabled, mentally ill or neurodivergent. This is a list of lower energy practices you can do to connect with your Gods when you're having a rough day.

Pray. You don't have to say the prayer. You don't have to do the full cleansing and offering. Just think about the prayer. It could be as simple as "'Deity Name', thank you. I'm thinking of you and appreciate you."

Dedicate any self care you do to the Gods. You've got to take meds? awesome. it's now a devotional activity.

If you can, light a tea light candle. You can think about who you're dedicating it to as you're lighting it.

Tell them about your day. Have a simple conversation with them (again, this can be in your head if needed).

Offer some water! Water is a great offering if you don’t have the energy to cook, collect or buy something.

Incense is also a great offering because you can light it then forget about it and your house won’t burn down (if you follow regular safety measures). 

Resting. Your deities want you to be okay. Dedicating your rest to your deities is especially great if you feel guilty for allowing yourself time to heal.

Turn on a video of someone reading mythos! 

Put on a deity playlist. There are plenty of pre-made ones on Spotify. 

Veil or bind your hair! Whenever I’m low energy I’ll throw my hair in a ponytail and bind it that way. It doesn’t have to be extravagant. 

Make a Pinterest board for them!

Post on a digital altar! There are plenty of discord servers that have digital altars and temples. You could also make a devotional Tumblr blog. 

Change your phone lock/home screen to something that reminds you of your Deity.

Someone tell me why Golden Sun Charms are SO HARD TO FIND AT CRAFT STORES AAAAAAAAA

I used Citrine beads and I think Carnelian.

I haven’t been really praying or anything, and I’ve been in a slump, but once I get more candles (LED), I can probably get back into it.

*opens jacket, hands you PDFs of every Loeb classical library text in the public domain*

*also hands you links to Gutenberg.org for searchable EPUB books, LibriVox for free audiobooks, the Internet Archive library and the Perseus Digital Library*

*also, if you're under 22 and in the US, you can get a free eCard for the Brooklyn Public Library, and access their entire digital catalogue*

I don't pray ritually. Well, not always. I pray because I want to have a relationship with the gods. I pray to thank them for things they have given me, and I pray just to thank them for being in my life. I pray over the small things. I pray all the time. These are not riutalized prayers. I'm not taking a whole bath to cleanse myself of miasma before I pray over these small things. Sometimes I don't have the option.

Perhaps this is just left over influence from growing up around Christians. I think prayer absolutely can be rituatlized, and sometimes it is. When I'm going to give a big prayer with an offering, I wash myself and get ready to pray. But this isn't always the case for me. I felt almost discouraged at that video because to some extent I felt like that was how I HAD to pray and the gods wouldn't accept it any other way. I don't think that's how it is.

The gods aren't going to be cross with you because you said a small prayer without ritual. They aren't going to be mad if you don't give an offering over these small prayers. They aren't going to be mad if you don't want to pray ritually. This is about YOUR relationship with them. Do what works for you, there is no right or wrong way to pray. Sure, there are historically accurate ways, but that doesn't mean you're doing it wrong.

The important lesson is just because someone is an authority (youtuber who does research and presents it to people is a kind of authority) doesn't mean you have to agree with them or do what they say. I struggled with only following what other people told me when I started practicing and I've been a lot happier now that I take the info in and parse it for myself rather than try to follow exactly how someone tells me to do things.

(further ramble)

🩸🩸🩸😄👍🩸🩸🩸

05: Zagreus-Dionysos

Now you have died and now you have come into being, O thrice happy one, on this same day. Tell Persephone that the Bacchic One himself released you.

From a woman’s grave in a sarcophagus in Pelinna, late 4th cent. BCE, inscribed on two ivy-shaped tablets lying on the chest of the deceased.

“According to the Ionian philosopher Heraclitus, Hades and Dionysos were the same. The concept of a chthonian, underworld Dionysos who had a role to play in the fate of the soul was widespread, though not fully manifested in state religion. Instead, it was disseminated through private Bakchic mysteries, which seems to have arisen in the late Archaic period.”

“An esoteric Orphic tradition held that Persephone was the mother of Zagreus, who as a child was torn apart and consumed by the Titans, yet came to life again as Dionysos in the womb of Semele. This unique experience meant that Dionysos, in conjunction with Persephone, was able to grant release from the miserable lot of the dead; thus his epithet Lysios (Releaser) had one meaning for the general public and another for the initiate.”