Petet in Tenebris

stop! just stop. eat the special snack. drink the expensive hippie tea. use the incense or the bath bomb or whatever you paid way too much for because you were feeling really bad and retail therapy makes u feel alive

when we save things for special occasions/rainy days it contributes to us feeling like A.) our day to day existence is lackluster and B.) you have to be feeling a certain level of Bad, or have to reach a certain level of Socially Accepted Achievement, to enjoy things

just give yourself stuff. there are definitely sometimes reasons to withhold things from yourself - as motivation, if it’s something you consciously want to use sparingly, etc - but at least for me half the time it just turns into self-flagellation and also cool things and cool experiences and nice treats just collect dust while i wait for some fabled day when i convince myself i finally Deserve it

Paul Fryer - For Laplace, 2008

Actinolite - May contain asbestos. Not recommended for elixirs

Adamite - Contains arsenic and some copper

Ajoite - Contains aluminum and copper

Alexandrite - Contains aluminum

Amazonite - Contains copper

Atacamite - Contains copper

Aquamarine - Contains aluminum

Auricalcite - Contains zinc and copper

Azurite - Contains copper

Beryl Group

Bixbite

Emerald

Aquamarine

Goshenite

Heliodor

Morganite

Contains aluminum

Black Tourmaline - Contains aluminum

Boji-stones (aka Moqui Balls, Shaman Stone, Shamanic Star Stone) -Contains some sulfur, pyrite and/or marcasite

Bronchantite - Contains copper

Cavansite - Contains copper

Celestite - Contains strontium

Chalcantite - Contains copper

Chalcopyrite (peacock stone) - Contains copper and sulfur

Chrysocolla - Contains copper

Cinnabar - Contains mercury

Conicalcite - Contains copper

Copper - Poisonous

Covellite - Contains copper and sulfur

Cuprite - Contains copper

Dioptase - Contains copper

Dumortierite - Contains aluminum

Emerald - Contains aluminum

Fluorite - Contains fluoride

Garnet (Spessartine, Almandine, Uvarovite, Rhodolite,Hessonite) -Contains aluminum

Gem Silica - Contains copper

Galena - Contains lead

Garnierite (aka Falcondoite) - Contains nickel

Hematite - Will rust, but not toxic

Iolite - Contains aluminum

Kunzite - Contains aluminum

Labradorite - Contains aluminum

Lapis Lazuli - Contains pyrite

Lepidolite - Contains aluminum

Magnetite - Will rust, but not toxic

Malachite - Contains copper

Markasite - Contains sulfur

Mohawkite - Contains copper and Arsenic

Moldavite - Contains aluminum oxide

Moonstone - Contains aluminum

Morganite - Contains aluminum

Pietersite - Fibrous form contains asbestos

Prehnite - Contains aluminum

Psiomelan - Contains barium

Pyrite - -Contains sulfur

Realgar - Contains sulfur and arsenic

Ruby - Contains aluminum

Sapphire - Contains aluminum

Selenite - Although not toxic, friable; tiny shards may break off in water

Serpentine - Fibrous form contains asbestos

Smithsonite - May contain copper

Sodalite - Contains aluminum

Spinel - Contains aluminum

Spodumene (aka Kunzite) - Contains aluminum

Staurolite - Contains aluminum

Stibnite - Contains lead and antimony

Stilbite - Contains aluminum

Sugilite - Contains aluminum

Sulfur - Poisonous

Sunstone - Contains aluminum

Tanzanite– Gem variety of Zoisite. - Contains aluminum

Tiger Eye - Fibrous form contains asbestos

Topaz - Contains aluminum

Torbenite - Radioactive

Tourmaline - Contains aluminum

Tremolite - May contain asbestos

Turquoise - Contains copper and aluminum

Vanadinite - Contains vanadium

Variscite - Contains aluminum

Vesuvianite - Contains aluminum

Wavellite - Contains aluminum

Wulfenite - Contains lead and molybdenum

Zircon - Contains zirconium, radioactive

Zoisite - Contains aluminum

Radioactivity Concerns

Some granites emit radon from the decay of Uranium. The risk is low, however if you have concerns please download this publication: A Citizen’s Guide to Radon: The Guide to Protecting Yourself and Your Family from Radon. This guide offers strategies for testing your home for radon, discusses steps to take after you’ve tested, discussions of the risk of radon & radon myths. A test kit may be purchased here.

Radioactive Gems. You may have a valid concern if you own artificially irradiated crystals, gems or stones. Try to steer clear of the following:

deeply pigmented topaz

artificially dark (almost black) smokey quartz

very deep pink or red tourmaline

colored diamonds

deeply colored kunzite

some cultured pearls

I’m on vacation so I’ll make this really short. If you’re not satisfied with my answer please re-visit my inbox (and I’m sorry if this came days ago but again I’m on vacation right now).

Activation or casting a sigil depends on the person. For me, casting a sigil is the process of creating the sigil. I draw mine out with a quill pen and during that I begin the casting process. Activation happens when I’m done creating the sigil. For me, it automatically takes effect. But I guess you could say something to signify it’s activation but in my opinion that’s not entirely necessary. 

When discussing curses, many arguments are made as to why one must be cautious in casting them. Among them, the idea of a hex or curse coming back to the caster is perhaps most prevalent, but I would like to discuss another, less frequently talked about possibility.

Your curse is cast, spell complete, and energy sent on its (not-so) merry way. Days, perhaps even weeks go by, and yet you have seen or heard no sign of your target being affected. Perhaps the magic hasn’t sunk its teeth into the bastard yet, or maybe they are keeping the effects very private. You suspect your curse may have misfired, but you yourself haven’t suffered any collateral damage either. You assume your curse must not have worked until you realize the curse has worked its magic perfectly as designed on someone else. 

Some would argue that this is an unlikely scenario, as the magic is ties to two specific people: the caster and the target. I, however, would argue differently. There may be a number of reasons for your curse to cling to the wrong person. 

1. Your anchor was compromised. A haircut, for example, might lead your curse to the unsuspecting barber. A photograph might send your hex to the person behind the camera lens. Instead of something fleeting, use a solid taglock which holds not only a semblance or connection to the target, but some deep meaning. If they have a favorite food, this might hold a stronger connection to them than some photo from facebook. 

2. The details of your curse implied it. A Curse intended to wreak emotional havoc may have honed in on your target’s friends or family to pull at their heart strings. A loneliness curse may have eked someone romantically interested in your target into confessing their feelings, leaving them heartbroken. Instead of vague curses, be as specific as possible and always include an anchor to link your target. 

3. Consider your Target. This one might be easily overlooked. Look at your target as a whole being with strengths and weaknesses. If they are a fit, healthy person who treasures time outdoors, it might seem opportune to curse them with a cold or flu. In this case, your curse might stick to someone else in your life or theirs with poor health. Instead, hone in on your targets insecurities and weaknesses. It is easier to drive a nail into a crack in a cliff than sheer stone. 

4. Consider how you relate to your target. Don’t just look at this person as an obstacle or mythical dragon you must slay. If you want to curse someone, you should spend some time examining the role they play in your life. If you were indifferent about the person, you likely wouldn’t curse them in the first place. Who else in your life plays a similar role in your life? If it’s a boss, perhaps the curse misfired onto a parent or friend because they too exert dominance over you. If it’s an ex-lover, perhaps you still hold feelings for them similar to those for your best friend who has suddenly been feeling quite low since you cast your sadness curse. 

5. Shit happens. 

Ah, I’ve only the one post on sigils sadly. I didn’t know there was a need for something more in depth! I’d be glad to discuss it here and now~Also I’m sorry this is rather late, I got off at 11 and this took longer to write than I anticipated

**Technically, sigils do not need to be sealed if you don’t think they need to be. It’s a personal decision and it’s your own work, so it’s really up to you.**

As I personally view it, sealing a sigil helps seal in the power into the sigil you have created. Charge it however you want (I’ll be glad to discuss my views on that if you’re curious), and then you seal it. The purpose of this is so that:

1. It doesn’t continue to take energy from you after creating it2. It doesn’t fluctuate in strength

(keep in mind this is according to how I personally view sigils to work)

To seal a sigil, I use a seal. To recap from my other post is just a type of sigil. It’s a “signature” used to close and seal the sigil. The seal is like laminating a sheet of paper, or signing your name to a contract, or even signing the corner of a painting. It marks the completion of a sigil. It also closes it from any changes or tampering, like sealing a letter (you lick it closed and no one can get in without you knowing about it).

Actually sealing a sigil is simple. Either you can just apply your seal, or say something like “I now seal this sigil” and then apply your seal. You can apply the seal directly on top of the sigil design or off to the side, whichever feels right to you.

For a seal to be effective, it must be seen as your “signature” sigil. If you want, you can even use your own signature to act as your seal. I personally use a triquetra stamp that I press in ink and apply over the sigil I’ve drawn up for whatever purpose. You can create something for yourself, but I would suggest that you remember what you use for your seal if you do create one (even if you have to draw one to keep for your records so you can use it as a quick reference) because in my opinion, a seal gains strength the more you use it to seal sigils. 

Ok, I know this took forever for me to reply to. But I honestly wanted to give the very best answer to simply awesome questions.

First:I have never thought about the usage of invisible ink in sigil work. Period. But this is an amazing idea. Sealing or otherwise, this is an amazing idea. Go for it. If you can’t see the seal, then that doesn’t really matter - it just has to be there. Plus think of the amazing use of an invisible seal! Especially if you’re of the mind that someone might even attempt to mess around with your seal (idk I used to be friends with someone and I did a warding sigil for her and I sealed it but apparently she didn’t like the idea of that particular sigil and broke my seal, effectively breaking the whole sigil in the process - magically mind you, it was still physically intact and I take great, great pleasure in that it was extremely difficult for her to break). So omg, that’s a brilliant idea.

Second:Charging with kinetic energy can definitely be a thing. I use a lot of mental energy in my sigil work, but a lot of my energy easily translates to kinetic energy because my energy, period, is a very physical thing for me. This is why meditation is not a thing for me, it’s not physical enough to calm my own energies down to relax and meditate. I find it easier to do something physical to relax. It’s a shame that I’m unable to do physical activities that allow me to relax 99% of my time.

Here’s the thing: By far the most common question I get from people is “how do I astral?” Which is, well, a big question. It begs other questions, like:

>Why do you want to travel

>WHERE do you want to travel

>Do you have jobs you need to do over there or are you gonna hang out

etc etc

But here’s the thing: Often people decide to travel, and then they get stuck. They try a method they maybe heard about once, and it doesn’t work, so maybe they research another method. Maybe they pick up a book on the topic, maybe the book tells them “you’ll know you’re astral traveling when you can rise out of your body and see it on your bed.”

BOOM. Imma stop you for a minute.

There it is. This is the moment the Gold Standard™ for the new person gets set in stone. The mind now says “If I’m not hovering above my body with full range of vision, I’m not Traveling, with a capital T.”

So now we have this goal. The person may feel a little more confident because there is a road map in front of them, and that map may have steps, often detailed by a book author, or maybe even a blogger here on tumblr. Maybe the person tries the steps, and fails. Maybe it takes months. Maybe it takes years, but eventually, maybe the person gets frustrated, and they give up.

“I just can’t travel”, they say, truly discouraged, or “I’m just not meant for this, if I was, I would have been hovering outside my body by now.” They maybe pack up the books and leave it be.

Perhaps you see people on tumblr or blogs that talk about full blown OBE or extreme situations, and then you internalize THEIR gold standard, and then you fail to achieve the standard. Same situation applies.

Imma stop you right here. What happened?

Person decided they wanted to travel

Person researched or was told what “authentic” travel looks like

Person attempted to reach the “authentic” standard

Person failed, and then

Assumed they were not meant to travel, due to their failure to reach “Authentic Travel”.

BUT

Here’s the secret, my bros:

1. There is no one form of “authentic” astral travel. You will find this is an epidemic with older books on the astral, when astral “travel” or astral living was equated on a wide scale with your classic OBE, or Out Of Body Experience. So in reality, what many people are trying to achieve, when they want to travel, is an OBE. Based on what books/people tell them. But that is FAR from the only way to astral–in my case, for example, I’ve never achieved full OBE–and not for lack of years of trying. (Because I thought that was How One Astral Traveled)

1-A. THERE ARE MANY FORMS OF ASTRALING BESIDES “TRAVEL”. I don’t travel because I lead an astral double-life–I “tune in”. An OBE is wrong for my circumstances, and if I would have learned that sooner, it would have helped me a lot. There are people that astral-trip only in dreams! People that astral-trip only while DAYDREAMING! People that mentally trip but never leave awareness of their body, people who can’t “see” anything there but hear everything perfectly, people who can only see the astral in black and white, people without a “form” or a body, people with only a bizarre pinprick field of vision! HONESTLY IT’S ENDLESS. Learn your style!

2. Because there is no one form of “authentic” astraling–there is no ONE WAY to achieve the travel! If you fail at going OBE, there may be a perfectly good reason you aren’t suited to that route! The failure here also lies on authors and books that imply there IS one way of authentic travel, and therefore, the user is set up for a failure situation a lot of the time. (And for example, OBE LEAVES your body open for attack or walk-ins in a lot of cases–did you ever think this was your natural energy defense system preventing you from leaving yourself a shell?)

3. Your way of travel is probably NOT going to match someone else’s, so you absolutely need to drop the gold standard now. I am NOT telling you to give up on discernment, because that will keep you alive when you reach the astral. I am telling you that if you have lofty expectations of what the astral is going to be like for you based on someone you’ve read (including me!) you need to drop it before you go, because it’s likely to fuck you up. I have listened to hundreds of different astral experiences, and I co-run the astral atlas–it’s all remarkably different for each individual based on your needs and jobs.

4. Your ideas of the astral are probably going to get blown out of the water when you get there anyway. Know this. Expect it. It will constantly surprise you and remind you that this isn’t In Your Head, and in doing so it will shatter your ideas of what it is, over and over again. 

5. Stop complicating things. If I had a nickel for every time person that came to me and asked why they can’t astral, and I gave them the idea of “Well, did you try opening a door?” and then the look of revelation descended, I’d be rich. This is not a blame on you, because I don’t blame you for this over-complication thing. We’re humans, we like to complicate everything, it makes us happy and whatnot. It makes me almost tremendously happy to shroud things in pomp and circumstance. But seriously–have you tried opening a door? Like. Visualize a door, and then open it, and then walk through. That’s how I first got to the astral.

After weeks of trying and doing all this complex shit, eventually I was told to visualize a door, and walk through. And then I was fucking there.

(Can you imagine how pissed I was, though. Like wtf I WAS TOLD MY ENTRANCE WAS TO BE GRANDIOSE AND MAGNIFICENT, not a fucking shitty wooden-ass door with nobody around to see me. Harumph, I said. I ended up in an empty field in fuck-all nowhere, if you wanted to know.)

I’m not saying it’s always easy to get to the astral. It has ways of keeping you out (or in) inside mental spaces or white rooms until you’re ready to be out on your own. This is where discernment and patience come in. But I AM saying if you find yourself failing over and over again at this thing, ask: Is it because you have an unconscious Gold Standard? Analyze why. And then, let it go. Because it’s not going to help you, it’s just going to make you anxious and perpetuate the failure cycle, trust me. And then ask: Am I overcomplicating my approach/expectations because of my gold standard? Analyze that, let it go.

Then, try an amazingly simple thing like opening a door, and stop cutting yourself off at the pass, and just let it happen.

You might be surprised at the results.

Hello I am here to spread the good word with this prelim primer on Unworshipped Gods. Enjoy.

*this is all from astral direction experience so expect some measure of disagreement with me; I am not the authority to end all on the topic or the astral in general, and I should not be seen as such. Anyways!

—

What are Unworshipped Gods?

I use many names. Unworshipped Gods, Unknown Gods, Lost Gods, but they all mean relatively the same thing. 

These are the Gods that never had human names, or maybe they did once, and then they were lost to the annals of history–likely by their OWN hand. Perhaps they have never been here at all, or been known here. They are not always Gods for humans, they are often wild, natural forces, something beyond-us. They are far older than we are.

They are the Gods you don’t see mentioned.

Why the word Unworshipped? If I find one isn’t it Worshipped?

Because astral, that’s why. No but really. I chose this name to describe an astral concept because a lot of deities “die” from this world on purpose, removing all trace of themselves, in order to go into seclusion for a time, or a period of rest, on another plane. Many entities you may talk to don’t actually want any attention anymore, but they still may pick you to receive a lesson or two, or set up some kind of reciprocity. But generally these entities operate differently.

But what if an Unworshipped God wants me to spread their name?

This is a possible thing, an Unknown God could very well want to enter the public sphere. But many do not.

There are quite a few people on tumblr that come to mind at the moment that are in fact building personal traditions around THEIR Unknown Gods–and sometimes that’s really the path that is calling you, and you just don’t have the tools yet to explain it. That’s okay.

Why are Unknown Gods important?

Mostly because of the fact that they fall through our collective Spiritworker/Witch/Pagan cracks, precisely for being Unknown.

In the Spiritwork/Pagan/Witchcraft communites, many of us are guilty of wanting to know a God/Spirit’s identity that is seeking us out YESTERDAY. We pass around association checklists and are satisfied that SOME deity we know of has to be what it is, and then it’s fine.

But…what if it’s not?

There aren’t checklists for Unknown Gods. Not really. That’s usually because of the name, and some other factors. Unknown Gods are not always Everyone’s Gods. They may come to you, privately, quietly, under guise of night, and ask you not to reveal their name to others. They may not want to be for public consumption. They may be in retirement, but something about you and what you can bring intrigues them, they take an interest, they begin trying to get in contact.

But picture, for a moment, that someone is sending you letters. You understand someone is trying to contact you, but the letters are in a foreign language you don’t understand. This language doesn’t exist on earth. It may be CLOSE to a language you’ve seen before, but not…totally right.

But this language must exist here, you think. It’s logically impossible otherwise.

You post the letter online, show it to friends that work with known deities, they (being very helpful) give you some pointers, possibilities on who it might be. None of them feel exactly right, but…I mean, it must be ONE, right? Eventually you settle on one that seems “close enough”, and set up everything from there, even if it’s not them.

But…this is missing the point. If you lack the context to recognize when something is NOT adding up, you will tend to identification errors when you try to make it make sense. Sometimes the simplest answer–That this DOES NOT make sense inside your existing paradigm–is the right one.

The problem with Unknown Gods is the fact they’re Unknown.

Many people don’t even realize this can be A Thing. That you can have a deity with no name or station approach you and godbother the hell out of you until you get frustrated enough to sit down and admit something isn’t making sense here. Often this needs to break your existing paradigm of Gods. 

What do they do?

Everything. God is not really a title reserved for a select few on the astral. Everything has some kind of overseer–a God for pebbles, a God for entire planes, a God for the orbits of planets. So many, and so many thousands more.

Not every Unknown God is a Big one. Maybe you made a deal with a God that raises giraffes on some remote peninsula 700 years ago. I dunno your life. Stranger shit has happened, I assure you.

What does that have to do with me?

It should expand your horizons.

For every man, a God, as my astral family says. I’ve talked to many deities/gods of many different planes, and they are all a fascinating source of information–provided they will receive you, or have perhaps found you out personally.

You aren’t limited by what humans know, and now perhaps you realize you didn’t realize you were being limited. Oooh, paradox.

What’s the difference between God, Spirit, Guide?

Semantics, mostly, and development. You can have an unworshipped god actually seek you out to become a kind of mentor or guide, you can have a god actually sign up to be a guide, you can have a regular spirit that essentially BECOMES an unknown god over time, with age and energy. Potato, potah-to. We could sit here all day discussing the minute differences, but it may be faster to just, you know, try asking the God themselves.

What do I do the next time I’m being Godbothered, now that I know about this new class of deity?

Really, REALLY take time to sit down and slowly dissect what you are being sent. Be cognizant the checklist for your deity/spirit/guide may not exist yet, and that is okay. When Kratos (white wolf, unworshipped god, british asshole, also my guide) showed up, my checklist was like this:

Asshole

British as hell

White arctic Wolf

Wears nothing but suits

Information broker

Black hair with a white stripe

So you can imagine my utter confusion and 6 months of research before I finally admitted I had no idea what on god’s green earth I had got myself into with this dude

Your checklist doesn’t have to neatly match an existing deity’s list. It is completely fine if you are, in fact, being bothered by a VERY known deity! But, to me, I find it better to approach the identification process with a very WIDE net, then pare down from there–so as not to miss anything if the God of Shitake Mushrooms is really trying to talk to you personally about the benefits of fungus.

Dusken told me I could go to the astral and bother ever God I see and demand names and spread them all over the internet!

No. Return to step 1. Then maybe have a glass of water or five, damn kid

So what’s my takeaway point?

Take time to really get to know the next entity that wants to talk to you.

REALLY allow the space for them to characterize themselves in their own terms, which may not be human ones. That’s honestly all I’m advocating for.

Allow the possibility your new guide/god may not have terms yet to describe them, and that this is okay, the get-to-know-you-process can be a Process.

I wish you the best of luck with your journey w/ unworshipped Gods.

All of it.

Read it.  If you even think that this is happening to you, read it.

I’ve gone through this situation with an unknown god - or if you want to be more correct about it, I guess a forgotten god.  Well over a year since I started to actively interact with this god, but a few years of knowing that He was just hangin’ around and thinking ‘brah, what do’.  

I really don’t ever talk about it because its, well, personal.

Sometimes these gods don’t give you Their name.  Or if They do, it happens to take a long time- and even then, when They finally tell you - or you think you’ve figured it out - there might be doubt.  

Did you hear it right?  What if you’re just imagining it?

What I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is, how much does it really matter to you if you know the true name of one of these unknown deities?  If you know Their familiar characteristics, and Their attributes, what They’ve said or implied that They can help you with or want from you - then don’t push it.  Just let it come - you’ll find out eventually. 

Probably.

People just like putting labels on things.  Which, like, I’m not saying isn’t normal.  Just don’t obsess over it.  Don’t think that because you don’t know Their name, you don’t know anything about Them.

That really is just my opinion though, take it with a grain of salt lol

This also brings to mind - appropriately considering my background - the Romans.  

They had all sorts of unknown gods.  Someone would help them with something, and naturally the Romans would want to repay Them.  Only thing is, the people knew what the god had helped them with - just not Their name.

So they’d make offerings and sacrifices to the god, “Whether You are God or Goddess, and by whatever name You would like to be known as.”

Like.  Simple.

If I add anything else, it would be…well, keep meditating on Them.  Don’t be discouraged by the fact that you seem to be the only one, or part of a small group, interacting with Them.  

Make a list of things They remind you of.

How do They look?  What feelings come with Them when They appear?  Have you heard Them speak?  Is there, if you’re inclined to do divination, a card or rune or what have you that you associate with Them?  Have you seen something at the store and you think suddenly I NEED TO GIVE THIS TO SO-AND-SO?

But yeah.  THANK YOU DUSKEN THIS WAS A BEAUTIFUL POST.

And a long fucking reply on my end.

The thing is, that I’m an abuse survivor professionally diagnosed with a fair number of mental illnesses and two personality disorders. I’m a huge mess, my self-esteem is absolute trash, and the problem is that I don’t feel as if I’m worthy to have any sort of relationship with any of the gods. I can’t control this feeling, and it’s blocking me completely from even coming close to starting to practice anything, because I feel like I’m doing Them a disservice by even asking for a second of their consideration. I know this is the illness talking, but I don’t know what to do… I figured that maybe, as a fellow mentally ill person, you might have some piece of advice, maybe? I just feel… completely lost and frustrated.

See, here’s the thing about mental illness: on a certain level, it’s got absolutely fuck-all to do with you. How you respond to it, sure. How you treat it, absolutely. But whether or not you get it? Man, that’s just the big random magical dice game in the sky. As inane as it sounds, don’t take it personally, sometimes life just screws you over for no goddamn reason.

The flipside of that, though, is you didn’t do anything. Personality disorders? Diagnoses? Those aren’t on you. You’re the one with the mental illnesses, but you didn’t fucking give yourself them, you didn’t volunteer, you didn’t pick this, that shit ain’t on you and ain’t your fault. Random magical dice game, remember? Why should YOU feel guilty? The fuck did YOU do? Fucking nothing, that’s what.

I’m gonna let you in on a really poorly-kept Hellenic polytheistic secret. The thing that makes you worthy of worshiping the Gods is WORSHIPING THE GODS. That’s the whole thing about kharis and reciprocity. You pray, you offer, you love them, THAT’S what builds the relationship, THAT’S what makes you “worthy”. Hellenic polytheists are “worthy” to worship the Gods BECAUSE they act like Hellenic polytheists. Our entire belief system states that to build a relationship with the Gods, you worship them. Don’t freak out about being worthy of worshiping them, just go out and do it, because just fucking doing it IS WHAT MAKES YOU WORTHY OF WORSHIPING THEM.

So, five tips.

1. Reconstructionists tend to practice more historically accurately. Non-recons tend to practice more based on personal instinct. The downside of being a recon is the risk of feeling like a “bad” worshiper if mental illness kicks in and makes you too tired or upset to do something. The upside is that being a recon gives you a checklist of things to do, with the understanding that you don’t necessarily have to check off every box on the list. That can help a lot when you feel like you’re a shitty worshiper and the Gods must hate you, because there’s kind of the underlying understanding that “this is what the gods want from me, if I behave this way, tradition says they probably don’t actually hate me, so that must be the mental illness talking.” Also, never underestimate the relief of being able to answer “I don’t know what to do” with “okay, what would Hesiod tell me to do if he wasn’t super old and dead?” EG: “I don’t know what I can do to honor Dionysus…oh, people used to celebrate his holidays with theater and dramatic productions? Cool, the modern version of that might be a movie marathon, I can do that. Great idea, old dead guys!” Decide accordingly, but understand that recon to non-recon is a SPECTRUM, not an either-or. You can compromise at any point along the way in either direction.

2. Playact that bullshit. Feel like the gods aren’t listening? Keep doing it anyway. Feel like you don’t deserve to talk to them? Act like you are. Self-conscious because you can’t just recite your prayers off the cuff? Bitch up, write them down, and read that shit off a script. Just do it. Do shit until it works, and then keep doing it after that. Somewhere on this blog is a post of me absolutely losing my goddamn shit because Ares answered divination and I flipped my shit so hard because it was like my boss’s boss’s boss’s boss had deigned to visit my lower realm to acknowledge my existence. Whereas now our relationship looks a whole lot more like me laying down in a blanket next to his shrine with a coffee rambling on about whatever the fuck comes to mind. You can get past the awkward “o impure wretch is me” phase. But you have to, you know, KEEP GOING to get past it.

3. So, yeah. Miasma’s a thing. More on that in other conversations, but basically, miasma is shit that distances us from the gods. Among other things…illness. Now, us mentally ill people? Technically, we’re ALWAYS ill, aren’t we? But we aren’t always miasmic. I have good days where bipolar disorder doesn’t really affect me. I have days where I can set it aside and focus on prayer. AND I have days where I’m just fuuuuucked up and it’s a miracle worthy of Jesus if I put pants on. Use the good days to work around the bad days. And if there aren’t enough good days? Do what you can on the bad days. See tip #2. Also? Apollo is a fucking hero and a gentleman when it comes to mental health. You are allowed to ask for help. Just tossing that out there.

4. If nothing else? Be fucking honest. Do you know how many times I have cried like a fucking garden hose in front of a shrine? A fucking lot, that’s how many. Ain’t nothing wrong with sitting down like “okay, I really want to do this, but I feel like I don’t deserve you, but I’m gonna do it anyway.” You wanna ramble on stream-of-consciousness about how you feel about the situation? Fucking do it. It’s fine. I totally give you permission to go on and on to Whoever about how hard it is to get over selfdoubt or whatever. Just talking to them abour the shit on your mind isn’t a Mortal Sin.

•Christianity wasn’t the majority religion when they started celebrating Christmas!

•The date for Christmas was set to reflect the spring celebration of the Annunciation (the conception of Jesus by the Virgin Mary)!

•Saturnalia and Christmas are both week(s) long celebrations that have almost no overlap!

•Christmas had already been celebrated for a couple of centuries before Christianity even had a chance to really encounter Yule!

•Yule=/=Christmas=/=Saturnalia!

•Syncretism is a thing that happens and is not the same thing as “stealing”!