#personal 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.

Whether it is your Healing Journey, your Spiritual Journey, Finding Yourself, Soul Searching or any other Journey you pursue, always keep in mind it is your journey, therefore it must be your own Personal Path. Listen to those who guide you, rather than those that dictate to you. Someone who guides you will tell you how they have found their way and it may inspire you to do some things the same but in your own personal way. 

Those that dictate will say “You have to do it this way” or “It won’t work if you don’t do it a certain way”. This leaves no room for creativeness, If we were all meant to copy each other, it wouldn’t be a personal journey and there would be no point of us being individuals and we would never evolve, we would all be stuck doing the same thing over and over again, We are all here to find our own way. Not meaning there will be no similarities, but meaning it should fit and feel right for us individually.

Sometimes you may find, you will do something the same as someone else but you do it because it feels right, not because you were told you have to or this is the only way. When you are on a Journey, you are doing it to find your own path, not to journey up somebody else’s path. You are here to find the path that resonates with you, otherwise it won’t feel right and you may likely feel it’s a waste of time or too hard and give up. A lot of people starting out on a path get so confused and they are told it is going to be hard and they hear so many people say, “this is how you must do it” and everyone is saying different things and that makes it seem confusing and hard. When you find your own path it won’t feel hard it will feel good and it will feel right. 

When you listen to people telling you how, “you have to do it,” you lose your freedom and that is what your path is all about, it is the freedom to feel good, being you, the freedom to find your own way. There is no one person out there with all the right answers for you or anyone else either. But you can take a piece from each, just take the pieces that fit for you, it’s perfectly okay to do it that way.

Yes, there are structures and things that need to be considered and achieved along most paths. For example healing emotional wounds, you need to achieve self love and self respect and acceptance of who you are, so you can feel worthy, You achieve those by going within and understanding where your hurt first arose, so you can then release it by healing your inner child, but how you get there has to feel right to you, there is no one way that fits everyone, your wounds are no exact match to anyone else’s and neither will your healing be. All journeys need a structure but you are the one who chooses and designs the path.

There is a lot of very helpful guidance and advice out there but learn how to recognize guidance from dictatorship. Listen to advice, it will definitely help, I advise you to get your hands on as much advice and guidance as you can, but don’t believe there’s only one way, feeling stuck on what one person said “you have to do”, can create blockages and hurdles along your way. Listen to the choices but above all, take only what feels right to you, it will make your journey a lot smoother.

Good question, anon. Firstly, its important to note that there are many different branches of Satanism. Some Satanists don't even worship Satan (for example, atheistic Satanists see Satan as a symbol for freedom of self expression and indulgence and essentially worship themselves as gods) and other branches of Satanism do worship Satan along with many other deities. Theistic or Traditional Satanists are the most notable group to worship Satan as a physically existing supernatural being as far as im aware, and they also often believe in magick (obviously I can't speak for every theistic Satanist. That's just a generalisation, everyone's path is different). There is also LaVeyan Satanism, demonaltry and Christian-based polytheistic Satanism to name a few.

As for me, I am currently exploring a syncretic polytheistic approach to Satanism (in other words I'm confused AF RN). So I see Satan as my main deity, however He has allowed me to explore other spiritual paths so I am currently working with Loki and Njord and I am very grateful that He is so understanding and supportive of my spiritual journey. "Syncretic Polytheism" as i've labelled it, allows me room to explore different paths while still being loyal to Satan.

Basically, it all comes down to the Individual because nobody's path is going to be the same. Some people only worship Satan, some people worship multiple deities including Satan, others don't worship any deities.

Hope i managed to answer your question to some degree, anon. Lol I went off on a bit of a tangent there. Feel free to message if you want.

This is going to be a long read, but it’s something that I feel needs to be said, even if it’s only for me. Hopefully, someone else struggling with the same issues I’m going to address later on will take a small amount of comfort in knowing that they aren’t alone. 

Fast forward a decade and a bit, I’m looking back and realising that my draw into witchcraft and eventual Celtic Polytheism was down to Cernunnos calling to me through the wind in the trees and the feeling that I must follow.

I’m gonna give a few more points to baby Me’s premonition.

It's yours and yours alone.