#monotheistic

There are so many more religions out there than just the big three, and so many of them are polytheistic! The currently oldest known religion was polytheistic! Please actually take a history class yall

This is not anti-religion.

Honestly, I think this is just a byproduct of how monotheism shaped culture over the years. I don't it's anti-religion, just history.

There is why there's no such thing as good monotheism*. And why Judaism's long history of monolatry, before descending in into monotheist fanaticism, makes it the only Abrahamic faith compatible with modern, civilized, society.

To meaningfully support barbarism and tyranny, most Jews must first move all the way to Israel. Then enable their nation's atrocities by supporting Netanyahu's regime, West Bank settlements, and the IDF. For Christianity and Islam, their mere existence is more than corrosive enough.

Oh good question, so I think each polytheistic culture (and maybe even each person?) has their own philosophy on this idea, but we have fundamentally different views on what our deities are... like at their core... than say a Christian.

In Christianity God is omnipresent omniscient omnipotent. That is not how our deities are viewed. If you are familiar with the Catholic flavor of Christianity thinking about saints might be helpful. Many people pray to and leave offerings for saints, some families have personal or familial saints they think have invested interests in them and look out for them especially. (you'll even see that many local deities across the world were 'demoted' to sainthood once Christianity became established in their areas). The big difference here is that saints are able to do what they do BECAUSE the Christian god allows them or endows them (allegedly) but polytheistic deities don't need to borrow someone else's power, it is theirs to use.

This is also not to say in any way that the polytheistic deities are less than the Christian one. I believe the ideas of him being so much MORE was well done propaganda. Early Christian philosophy and writings didn't have him so, he was just a deity to choose from like all the rest, he just stood alone in his pantheon and wanted his people to ONLY follow him. As Christianity spread to more polytheistic areas and the locals asked "yea, but why should I follow your guy when mine do just fine?" they would have needed a convincing answer. To say he is omnipresent omniscient omnipotent, would be a good one.

So back to the original question, I don't know WHY the deities need or want things from us (again I think each culture and maybe each person has their own ideas on this) but it is clear that they DO. So going back to the parallel to saints; food and other small offerings especially those related to the deity left somewhere meant for them is always a soild option. Some people do devotional acts (martial arts is a big one for those following battle related deities or in my case I often offer research I have done). Anything your deity might enjoy, you can offer.

Shituf (Hebrew: שִׁתּוּף; also transliterated as shittuf or schituf; literally "association") is a term used in Jewish sources for the worship of God in a manner which Judaism does not deem to be purely monotheistic. The term connotes a theology that is not outright polytheistic, but also should not be seen as purely monotheistic. The term is primarily used in reference to the Christian Trinity by Jewish legal authorities who wish to distinguish Christianity from full-blown polytheism. Though a Jew would be forbidden from maintaining a shituf theology, non-Jews would, in some form, be permitted such a theology without being regarded as idolaters by Jews. That said, whether Christianity is shituf or formal polytheism remains a debate in Jewish philosophy.

Shituf is first mentioned in the commentary of Tosafot on the Babylonian Talmud, in a passage concluding with a lenient ruling regarding non-Jews. Later authorities are divided between those who view Tosfot as permitting non-Jews to swear by the name of God even if they associate other deities with that name, and those who view Tosfot as permitting non-Jews to actually worship such deities.

Though shituf is primarily used as a means of determining how to relate to Christians, it is applied to other religions as well. It is frequently used as a reason to justify interfaith dialogue with Christians.

Ritual Report: Sunday April 30th, 2023

“Tried Summoning this morning

I meditated on this sigil as well as the sigil for the individual (Jophiel ) I was trying to summon. I came up with my own invocation. My objective was to speak with him and ask him how he came to know me, and to see if he had any wisdom or visions to share with me.

After lighting the candles and burning incense, I got into the bath and did some meditative exercises to get my mind in the right headspace. The hardest part of summoning ritual is elevating your mental state to a place where an angel can easily connect with you. I was having trouble with this today, as I suffer from migraines and developed a meaty headache in the bath. I kept failing and was pretty sure that the ritual would be unsuccessful, but I kept at it and eventually he did come, in three different forms at three different times.

I don’t know why, but Jophiel usually likes to make his presence known by being kind of rude. He threw one of my crystals across the room, which hit the wall and then the floor, which startled me and almost broke the trance. This was a large, hefty chunk of pink salt. If it wasn’t for the fact that I was literally trying to summon an entity, these types of things would make me shit my pants. I’m lucky it didn’t shatter this time.

I haven’t the slightest clue why, but he has on multiple occasions, thrown and broken items of mine before appearing. Last time a small cheap crystal I was using was shattered by being thrown at the wall *at a speed.* The time before that a pendulum necklace I was using was broken, again by being thrown at the floor, and then he appeared. I’m trying to find a way to get him to stop doing that because it’s cost me some things that I really liked, and now I’m on edge that he’s gonna break something of mine every time that I summon him. I suspect that maybe he just doesn’t like these things, because the crystal that he shattered was super cheap and probably fake, and the pendulum was a similarly cheap buy. Maybe it throws him off, or he feels insulted by them. Still annoying though.

1. I saw him in my minds eye, he was a gargantuan creature, to which I could not see the top of. We were again in the desert at night, and he appeared almost like a mountain, looking down at me (assumably). His wings made up of the night sky, and the stars were a part of him. I honestly don’t like when he appears this way. it’s usually just too much for me. This was causing me problems and was hurting my head, so it ended pretty quickly.

2. The second time he met me in the temple, again in the desert. I have had many dreams about this place, and it is a common place that I reside to when I do meditative rituals like this. There he appeared in *almost* human form, in robes, and his face was shadowed. It is very common for him to be shrouded in mist or darkness when he appears in this form. I assume that it is his attempt at powering down, or masking his true appearance? I say almost human form, because I couldn’t look directly at him because he’s a little bit weird. I don’t really know how to explain this, but it is difficult to observe. He’s made of complex patterns and shapes.

He led me to an open room in the temple, where a large pentacle was drawn on the floor surrounded by lit candles. He had me disrobe and lay on the pentacle with my arms and legs outstretched. He then pushed his hands down on my chest, and I felt in intense heat travel through my breast. I assume he was offering me healing, as I was experiencing some bothering chest pains the last couple days, which was kind of creating an energy block in my body. This pain was one of the reasons why I was having such a hard time getting into a good meditative state. He also made a comment that I am weak.

3. The final place we met was in an open field where a single large black tree stood in the center. It was again night time, and the sky was lilac and riddled with stars. I sat against the tree and looked out into the field. I then turned my head to look at the other side of the tree, and saw that he was hiding there, in robes, in a similar human form, but he was making a conscious effort to not be seen by me. He was also resting against the tree and spoke to me. He said that he didn’t want to hurt me, and that I was too weak to behold him at this time. He said that he wanted to visit me, but that my health was more important right now. I was told to rest for three days and try again. This was kind of disappointing, but I understand. When Jophiel gives me visions, or has lengthy conversations with me, it is a lot for my brain to process. If I overdo it too hard, it’s almost like my mind is singed. I appreciated his attempts anyways.

I then asked him my question, which was “When did you first come to know me?” (He has been following me through multiple lives and reincarnations, I wanted to know when he first met my soul)

His response was simply, “When I was still young”, which I assume is his way of saying, a very very very long time ago considering that he is an extremely old entity. I’m still not sure I understand. One day I will ask him to show me the story of when we first met, but that is a story for another day.

We sat together at that tree though, for quite a while. We didn’t really say much else, but it was comfortable and enjoyable. I just felt surrounded by his good energy, so it wasn’t a loss.

When I came out of the trance, I learned that my candles were burning very very hot and very tall. I actually got a little bit worried that my fire alarms were gonna start going off. Half the flame was blue. I’m not sure what this means or if it means anything at all, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

I gave my thanks, and exited the bath. My chest feels a lot better than it did when I started, so that’s a bonus.

I apologize for the novel, you can completely disregard this post if you want. This is a really easy and good way for me to keep track of my rituals and the things that I see in them. It is also a way for me to reference with other individuals who may be working with similar spirits, and to get advice on how to better invoke. I think I will continue to make posts like this when I do rituals so I can better document them. I do have journals, but writing all this out is sometimes overwhelming so I don’t. Which is not a good thing, because I should be documenting and remembering these encounters.