just a werewolf

being low on time, effort, and energy does NOT make you a bad witch or pagan. it makes you human.

There was no universal Scandinavian religion, or Slavic, or Celtic.

They were multiple mini cultures with changing and differing views.

That’s why we have different beliefs on who was the ‘High God’ in the Norse myths and physical evidence that we have left. Tyr, Freyr, Odin; have all been the High God in different cultures. Because people didn’t collect under orthodox and shared religion in a pre Christian world the way they do now.

I saw a video where a woman gave this request to a chatbot:

I want you to tell me the wildest thing that you believe to be true, that other people won't believe. I want it to be so wild that even I probably won't believe it. But it has to be something that you believe is true.

The chatbot responded with a bunch of stuff about a collective consciousness, some people being more awake than others, and some people being NPCs.

If you're not clear on how chatbots work, you might think that you're talking to something that's genuinely telling you some far-out idea it actually believes. But that's not how it works.

Chatbots run on large language models, which are trained on text data so that they can react to your input with a statistically-likely output. Let's say we ask a chatbot to finish this sentence: "In the beginning, God created"

The large language model contains data that says the heavens and the earth are the most statistically likely words to come next. And so, it will correctly finish the sentence for you. There is no consciousness, no belief, just a machine full of statistical data.

If you make a request like the one I transcribed above, the chatbot will assemble an answer based on the statistical data contained in its LMM. None of its information is obtained from a higher source, nor is it produced from logical reasoning following actual observation of the world.

this is his altar so far :3

HADES: the god of the dead, riches, and King of the Underworld

PERSEPHONE: the goddess of springtime and flowers, Queen of the Underworld

HERMES: messenger of the gods, god of commerce, luck, thieves, and travel. under his Chthonius epithet his role in guiding the dead to the Underworld is emphasized

DEMETER: some sources consider the goddess of agriculture and fertility a chthonic deity because of her relation to the earth and as Persephone's mother

HEKATE: goddess of magic, crossroads, necromancy, and ghosts, she is a close companion of Persephone

TARTARUS: the primordial god of the abyss and personification of the deepest level of the Underworld

NYX: the primordial goddess of night

EREBUS: the primordial god of darkness, husband of Nyx

HYPNOS: son of Nyx and Erebus, the god of sleep

NEMESIS: daughter of Nyx and Erebus, goddess/daemon of revenge

CHARON: son of Nyx and Erebus, the ferryman that carries the dead across the river Acheron to the Underworld

THANATOS: son of Nyx and Erebus, the god of death

Hey there everybody! I’ve decided that I’ll make a post explaining pagan holidays and what they are!

Yule(The Winter soulstice)

-> Yule is basically the origins of what we now know as Christmas; the holiday that—like many other pagan holidays—got christianized and essentially rebranded. But regardless, it still stands in the hearts of us pagans and can be celebrated by making a Yule log and burning it, making a Yule alter, planting things, meditation, and much more! This holiday is celebrated over 12 days from December 21st to January 1st, each with their own unique traditions and what they all mean to represent and/or celebrate.

Luahnasadh

-> Celebrated on August 1st, Us Pagans celebrate this holiday by collecting wheat for bread, baking bread, play games that focus on knowledge, listen to music, light fires, and share stories!

Imbolc

-> Celebrated on the 1st to 3rd of February, us Pagans celebrate Imbolc as a way to welcome the first signs of spring, and Goddess Bridget. A way to celebrate is to do a house cleanse, which is basically just deep cleaning your house.

Lupercalia

-> Celebrated on February 13-15th, Lupercalia is essentially the OG valentines day if that makes any sense, as valentines day itself has pagan origins in his holiday. It is a pagan festival to celebrate the Roman fertility god, Lupercus, and the she-wolf who nursed the founders of Rome. This was also a celebration of spring and purification! In the 5th century, Pope Gelasius I replaced the pagan festival with a Christian one dedicated to Saint Valentine, aiming to end the pagan rituals; with the romantic associations coming later.

Ostara(The Spring Equinox)

-> Celebrated on March 20th, Ostara is celebrated by celebrating the return of the Sun and with it, the awakening of the world form hibernation. Ways to celebrate include: decorating your home/alter with symbols of spring, dye eggs, cooking or baking, and leaving an offering for Eostre; the goddess of Spring/rebirth. You can also celebrate by preparing your garden.

Beltane

-> Celebrated on May 1st, Beltane is the celebration of spring and the upcoming summer; which is celebrated by massive bonfires and maypoles. It is the Pagan festival of life, sensuality, and abundance.

Litha(The summer soulstice)

-> Celebrated on June 21st, us pagans celebrate Litha by honoring the sun, life, nature, love, joy, and laughter; having a bonfire, lighting a candle, and decorating your space with orange and yellow flowers and Crystals, and of course, simmer pots!

Mabon(The Autumn Equinox)

-> Celebrated on September 23rd, Mabon can be celebrated by cooking with fall crops, spell work, eating something with pomagranites in it to honor Persephone, Journal about your achievements this year, begin to winterize your home, leave an offering for local wild life, make a roast or big pot of stew, redo protection spells in your home, and healing ritual baths.

Samhain(Halloween/halos Eve)

-> This holiday is the origin of what we now know as Halloween, and Is celebrated by pumpkin carving to ward off negative spirits, costumes to disguise yourself from the spirits, leaving the spirits offerings, and appreciating nature.

i remember first getting into witchcraft and believing candles are the staple of the whole practice - that without them you can’t be a good practitioner.

oh how wrong i was.

yes candles are popular in witchcraft, but they’re also a preference - you decide if you want to use them or not, it's not a must have criteria to be a good practitioner.

there are so many different things you can do that doesn’t include candle work, such as:

-> making enchanted oils.

-> making herb bags.

-> learn/practicing tarot.

-> meditating to help communicate with your deities

-> making sigils.

-> making simmer pots.

-> making ritual baths.

I love seeing kemetic pagans

I love seeing celtic pagans

I love seeing slavic pagans

I love seeing norse pagans

I love seeing hellenic pagans

I love seeing wiccans

I love seeing eclectic pagans

I love seeing pagans who worship deities of multiple beliefs

I love seeing pagan witches

I love seeing pagans who aren't witches

for example, God might only answer Christians, Allah might only answer Muslims, Zeus might only answer Helpols, Odin might only answer Norse pagans, etc etc

because i do fully believe people when they say “God helped me with XYZ”. but i do not believe people when they say “God helped you with XYZ”, because i simply don’t believe in the Christian God and i haven’t given him any reason to interact with me (i.e. i don’t pray to God, i pray to many other gods but not that one)

obviously its a lot more nuanced than this (like with folks who change religions because of a lack of interaction from their previous god(s)) but this is just, like, the most basic way i can explain it right now

sooo does anyone else feel similar? like every god that’s worshipped exists to help their worshippers?

Someone tries to dictate your beliefs and/or practice based on their personal experiences (aka UPG, or unverified personal gnosis).

They claim the gods will punish you if you don't go along with them.

They appeal to conspiracy theories to justify their beliefs. (See also Is the spiritual person a conspiracy theorist? A list of red flags.)

They make big, dramatic predictions (like claiming aliens will arrive on a certain date, or that the ancient gods will return and overthrow the government soon).

They claim to have a big, important role in the grand cosmic drama (like claiming they're the Archangel Michael and they're going to fight Satan, which will lead to the fall of the government).

They are extremely opposed to skepticism, critical thinking, and/or academia. Not merely critical where it's actually appropriate, but treating it like it's all pure evil.

They encourage you to cut off people who don't believe or criticize what they teach.

They are absolutely certain they can use mystical means (like astrology or tarot) to determine whether someone is a good or bad person.

They are absolutely certain they can just sense whether someone is good or bad.

They are absolutely certain they can use mystical means to find out what another person is thinking or doing.

They claim you were connected to them in a past life.