#devotional path

I’ve been meaning to respond to this post on @unrecorded-pantheon-roundtablefor a few days now, (particularly since it was my question in the first place). The second question for the roundtable was:  How did you build your path; how do you serve deities with no established tradition of worship?

I recently saw a different post reblogged by @laughtermagick (which is coincidentally what reminded me to write in response to the roundtable question), but which I think provides me with an excellent point to start with: begin with what is accessible and/or familiar. With as much information as there is available about any current or passing trend in the pagan/witch community, it would be foolish to write it off simply because it isn’t specific to x/y/z deity. I adapted a lot when I was working with certain Celtic deities about which not much was written. When working with deities that don’t exist in written myth or history, it can be even more difficult to find relevant information if not impossible. 

Start with what you already know. I began my devotional practices to The Horned One and The Lady of The Lantern by starting with the basics I’d learned in my many many years of study in Wicca and Druidry. I looked over what had really resonated with me- what made me feel connected to them and to the powers of nature, and started there. I adapted practices I’d already had with making offerings to other deities. There was plenty of information on Herne and Cerridwen, whom I had initially thought them to be. I started there, and then changed as I saw fit.

Listen. To the gods, sure, but also to yourself. You may not get big dramatic signs of whether or not a deity has accepted your offering. You may not get explicit directions about how an unrecorded deity’s altar is supposed to look like, or what they expect from you. If you do? Fantastic! Go with it. But also listen to your own feelings and intuition. You will know if something doesn’t sit right. If it doesn’t feel right, it isn’t. If you feel your deity would like thin mints as an offering and there’s no precedent for it, go with your gut instinct. It’s not going to lead you astray.

Feel free to experiment. This sorta follows the advice of the last paragraph, but really if you’re being respectful to deities and any cultures you may seek to borrow from (Note: this is not an okay for cultural appropriation, I’m just saying approach all traditions with respect as well as your deities/guides/etc.) there is literally no way to screw up. Something may not jive with you or a spell may flop, but the cool thing is that you can ALWAYS try something else entirely. Do it with honest effort and intentions, and literally no one is going to strike you down. Study literally anything and everything. Don’t look just in books about paganism. You may be surprised what your path ends up including.

Write shit down. I cannot stress enough how glad I’ve been that I’ve recorded stuff over the last seven years or so. Without it, I’d have literally such a hard time remembering what stuff worked and what didn’t. How certain things felt, patterns of signs, messages and meditations, etc... All that stuff is important to building the path, and writing down what WORKS especially helps you to have a more concrete idea of how your practice is shaping up.

Take your time. This is sort of advice for anyone starting any path, pagan or otherwise, but these sort of things take time. You aren’t going to have all the answers all at once. It’ll take time to know your gods, your own rhythms and patterns, and how it all becomes interwoven to make up your path.

My journey to my current devotional practice took at least the last five years or so of work and it was built upon things I already knew, research and exploration, and simply listening to my gods and to myself.

“I don’t want too many complications in my spiritual journey. Can I just have simple, straightforward, clean spirituality?” “I don’t want to commit myself to any group or follow some strict rules and regulations.” This is exactly how a modern man wants to think. He wants hassle-free spirituality which he can easily follow and practice. Many seekers who visited me had absolutely no knowledge of…

Is it possible to paint all seekers with a single brush? Maybe. There is a uniting factor amongst those on the devotional path, it is the cause of the journey itself. A seeker on the path of devotion is drawn there by That One Himself.  Those who dearly follow Shree KrsnaGuruji have come to Him because they have always been with Him. But how do you know if you have always been with Him?  What…