Witchcraft, deity work, spiritual shit

🫧 sound

music, bells, pots and pans, singing

🫧 liquid

charged or blessed water, alcohol, vinegar, essential oil sprays

🫧 scents

candles, essential oils (diffused)

🫧 physical cleaning

sweep

vacuum

wipe down

*make a blend of cleansing herbs, sprinkle around your space, and either sweep it out the back door or vacuum it up and dispose of the contents

🫧 simmer pots [for the steam]

🫧 rearrange your space

🫧 open your windows

🫧 visualization + meditation

🫧 sun, moon, or starlight

🫧 rain + storms

🫧 the elements

earth - salt floor sweep

air - breath and wind

fire - heat and sunlight

water - see above

🫧 salt

place a bowl of salt in the main room of your home

🫧 crystals

place in the center or corner of the space you want to cleanse

Go forth and bring joy, laughter and mischief to the world in such dark times.

May you go forth to bring misfortune to those with boots to our necks, and joy and smiles to those who fight and defy them.

I am allowed (encouraged even) to set boundaries with my deities.

I chose them, and they chose me in turn. They did not determine that I belonged to them.

They see value in me beyond my worship of them or devotion to them.

And most importantly, I do bow. But I CHOOSE that posture. They earn it from me. I worship them because they're divine, and lovely, specifically to ME. And they give me what I wish for, rather than gifts I never asked for but am somehow still indebted because of.

My response to all of this has become... more pragmatic than before. The answer I feel addresses these doubts the best is... well - it works, doesn't it? I experience benefits. I feel more at peace. I behave more ethically. I'm mindful of my flaws in a productive, non-self-loathing way. I feel more connected, both to the world and to my friends and relationships. I'm a happier, better person because I am a pagan. These are all the same benefits that many other religions purport, and whether or not these gods and spirits, I worship, venerate, work with, and adore, are truly "real", by my or anyone else's definitions, it doesn't really - matter? Does it. Because I still experience positivity and aid through it, even if it's my own mind.

"Tricksters are inherently transgressive figures who literally embody what it's like to live in a socially unacceptable or taboo way, which is why members of marginalized communities flock to them while more privileged people find them distasteful. They are the personifications of chaos and social unrest, which includes how much strife surrounds people who are deemed socially unacceptable; they are literally the gods of minorities and people who suffer under bigoted unjust systems.

When tricksters do something bad in a myth, marginalized groups see a complex rebellious figure with their own motives while privileged people see a bad person doing bad things. And when tricksters are punished, privileged people just see a bad guy getting their comeuppence while marginalized groups see the harsh realities of living as a socially unacceptable person.

Hot take

I find comfort in non omnipresent gods. I like existing knowing I’m just kind of doing my own thing and occasionally someone is there.