#queer devotion

Asexual, A-spectrum, and aromantic folks are an important part of the queer community, but these identities are often left out of discussions of queer history. Well, not today! To my ace* and aro* friends: you are valid, you have a place in this community, and today we're here to talk about gods and spirits associated with your identities!

An asexual person is someone who does not experience sexual attraction. The term "asexuality" was first coined in the 1890s, but records of people we would now call asexual go back much further than that. This is different from celibacy or abstinence. While celibacy is a lifestyle choice, asexuality is a sexual orientation and is part of a person's core identity.

An aromantic person is someone who does not experience romantic attraction. Some people are both aromantic and asexual, sometimes shortened to aroace. Other people might be aromantic but experience sexual attraction, or might be asexual but experience romantic attraction. For example, someone might identify as an asexual lesbian or as an aromantic bisexual.

There are several other identities related to asexuality and/or aromanticism. Asexual author Athens Webster uses the term A-spectrum to refer to "the multitude of micro-labels that fall under the terms asexual and aromantic." For example, demisexual people (people who experience sexual attraction only to people they have an emotional connection to) and graysexual people (people who experience sexual attraction to a lesser than average degree) are considered to be on the A-spectrum. For more information about A-spectrum identities and relationships, I recommend Webster's excellent zine, Queer Platonic Relationships: A Guide to the Aro/Ace Spectrum, Friendships, Zucchinis, and Other Terms.

Below are a few of the deities and spirits that are strongly connected to A-spectrum identities. (A lot of this information comes from my upcoming book, Lavender Witchcraft, coming in August of this year from Moon Books.) 

Content Warning: this post contains a brief mention of attempted sexual assault in the context of a Roman myth.

Artemis is strongly associated with sapphic identities, but there is also a case to be made for her as an asexual and/or aromantic goddess. (Remember, someone can be both sapphic and ace/aro!) Artemis notably never married and spent her time roaming the wilds with her hunters. She was considered one of the "virgin goddesses" of Hellenic (ancient Greek) religion, alongside Athena and Hestia. Many modern ace/aro pagans see their identities reflected in Artemis's mythology. Artemis's other associations include the moon, hunting, wilderness, childbirth, and virginity, and she is said to be the protector of young girls.

To connect with Artemis, consider placing an image of her in your sacred space. You can also write out her name in Ancient Greek to place in your sacred space. (Check Wikipedia to find the Ancient Greek symbols for her name.) Symbols associated with her include the deer, the snake, the bow and arrows, the crescent moon, and the spear. Like all Hellenic gods, she can be honored with offerings of fruit, flowers, incense, or honey. 

Athena is another of the Hellenic virgin goddesses. Athena is a deeply queer deity in more ways than one, as we can see in stories of her birth: she was born fully grown and armored from her father, Zeus's, head. Hellenic sources describe her as being "immune to Aphrodite's charms," i.e., not feeling sexual desire or romantic love.

Athena is the goddess of wisdom, war, strategy, weaving, and crafts. She is the patron goddess of the city of Athens and several of her temples are still standing today, most notably the Parthenon. Her role as a feminine war deity subverts Hellenic gender roles, since war was very much seen as men's work in Hellenic culture.

To connect with Athena, consider placing an image of her in your sacred space. You can also write out her name in Ancient Greek to place in your sacred space. Symbols associated with her include owls, olive trees, snakes, the helmet and spear, the Aegis (Athena's shield), and the distaff. Like all Hellenic gods, she can be honored with offerings of fruit, flowers, incense, or honey. 

Vesta is the Roman goddess of the hearth and home. Like Artemis and Athena, Vesta is considered a virgin goddess, which is especially interesting because of her association with motherhood. Vesta was syncretized with the Hellenic goddess Hestia, although there are differences between the two. She was one of, if not the most widely worshiped deity in ancient Rome. Although most of her worship took place within the home, she was also considered a goddess of democracy and her priestesses, the Vestal Virgins, held a lot of political power.

One story of Vesta may be unfortunately relatable to folks on the A-spectrum who have experienced someone trying to push their boundaries or pressure them into sex. In Ovid's Fasti, the god Priapus attempted to sexually assault Vesta while she was asleep at a feast. A donkey brayed in warning, which woke Vesta up before she could be assaulted and drew the attention and anger of the other gods. This myth explains why donkeys are sacred to Vesta. On a more positive note, this story shows the other gods affirming and defending Vesta's decision not to have sex or romantic relationships.

To connect with Vesta, consider representing her in your sacred space with a candle or lamp. (Unlike other Roman deities, Vesta is typically not depicted in human form. She is usually shown in Roman art as a fire.) You can also write out her name in the ancient Latin alphabet to place in your sacred space. Symbols associated with her include fire, the hearth, donkeys, and geese. Like all Roman deities, she can be honored with offerings of fruit, honey, milk, wine, flowers, or incense. Traditionally, offerings to Vesta are burnt or thrown into a fire.

These are only a few of many, many deities and spirits associated with A-spectrum identities. If this is a topic that interests you, I strongly encourage you to do your own research. And if I missed your favorite asexual or aromantic deity, please let me know! 

They love me for being queer, for being myself, for being who I am.

Note: Many thanks to my wonderful sister for proofreading this post and offering feedback from a trans perspective. Love you!

A transgender person is anyone whose gender identity is different from what they were assigned at birth. This includes binary transgender identities, i.e., trans men and trans women, as well as nonbinary identities. Importantly, someone does not need to medically transition to be transgender.

"Transgender" as a term goes back to the mid-20th century, with the modern meaning cemented in the 1990s. This does NOT mean that trans people didn't exist before the 20th century. The idea of someone's gender being different from the one they were raised in is very, very old and can be found in cultures all over the world. The language we use may change as our culture evolves, but the underlying concepts have always been part of the human experience of gender.

The deities and spirits mentioned in this post are those that resonate with modern transgender experiences, but I want to acknowledge that ancient cultures had their own words for different gender identities, and that their gender models were different from ours. For example, many ancient cultures recognized more than two genders, so our modern masculine/feminine binary doesn't quite fit when discussing those cultures.

Below are a few of the deities and spirits that are strongly connected to transgender identity (A lot of this information comes from my upcoming book, Lavender Witchcraft, coming in August of this year from Moon Books.) 

Dionysus is the Hellenic (Greek) god of wine, sex, madness, strangers, and those outside of society. That domain would already make him pretty queer, but the connection runs deeper than that. Like many Hellenic gods, Dionysus is described taking both male and female lovers. He is also shown in primary sources to have a complicated and binary-defying relationship with gender.

Some Hellenic sources say that Dionysus was raised as a girl but presented as a man in his adulthood. In art, he is shown with a very androgynous appearance. Many modern transgender people resonate with these aspects of Dionysus's historic worship.

To connect with Dionysus, consider placing an image of him in your sacred space. You can also write out his name in Ancient Greek to place in your sacred space. (Check Wikipedia to find the Ancient Greek characters for his name.) His symbols include the thyrsus (a type of wand or staff), grapevines, ivy, theatrical masks, the phallus, tigers, and leopards. Like all Hellenic gods, he can be honored with offerings of fruit, flowers, incense, or honey. 

Cybele is a Phrygian goddess who was officially added to the Roman pantheon during the Second Punic War, around 200 BCE. She was served by a class of priests called galli (singular: gallus). The galli were castrated males who dressed in women’s clothing. They were part of a tradition of third gender priesthood in the Middle East dating back to the worship of the Sumerian goddess Inanna.

Even though many Romans criticized the inclusion of the galli in religious ritual, Cybele became an important part of Roman religious life and had a huge influence on the cult of Magna Mater ("The Great Mother"), which in turn influenced the cult of Mary among early Christians. (If you've ever been in a Catholic church and seen a shrine to the Virgin Mary, just remember it wouldn't exist without trans priestexes in ancient Rome!)

Cybele is associated with motherhood, mountains, city walls, and the fertility of plants and animals. She was also associated with a black meteorite, which was given to Rome by the kingdom of Pergamum. She was especially popular among Patricians.

To connect with Cybele, consider placing an image of her in your sacred space. You can also write out her name in Phrygian or Greek to place in your sacred space. Her symbols include mountains, pinecones and other conifer cones, hand drums, lions, and the cornucopia. Like all Roman deities, she can be honored with offerings of fruit, honey, milk, wine, flowers, or incense.

Loki is one of the most well-known trans deities in modern pop culture. Loki is a trickster god originally worshiped by the Old Norse. Their main role is as a force of change. Their purpose is to challenge those in authority and to shake up the status quo. This change is sometimes uncomfortable or even painful, but it can also bring great blessings. Loki is not any more evil than any other major force of change. Just because something challenges us or causes discomfort doesn't mean it is bad.

Loki is a shapechanger, and they use this skill to change their gender and sex. They are often masculine-presenting in our surviving Norse myths, but at least once they take the form of an old woman, and in one myth they turn into a female horse and give birth to the eight-legged foal, Sleipnir. (I may have written a retelling of this myth for an upcoming children's mythology anthology. 😉) In other myths, Loki is described as the father of multiple children. Clearly, their relationship with gender is fluid, as are most things with this chaotic deity.

To connect with Loki, consider placing an image of them in your sacred space. You can also write out their name in Old Norse to place in your sacred space. Loki's symbols include webs and nets (they are said to have invented the fishing net!), snakes, spiders, and the hearth. Like all Norse gods, they can be honored with offerings of food and drink. Many heathens, including myself, find that Loki has a sweet tooth and enjoys sugary offerings.

These are only a few of many, many deities and spirits associated with transgender identities. If this is a topic that interests you, I strongly encourage you to do your own research. And if I missed your favorite trans deity, please let me know! 

New year, new blog series! For the next several months, I'm going to be working on a series of posts focused on queer devotion. In this series, we will explore deities and spirits associated with different LGBTQ+ identities and ideas for how to connect with them. 

We're starting off with sapphic devotion purely because I am a sapphic woman and like to talk about sapphic history. 

Researching sapphic history can be a challenge, because women's experiences are often less well-documented than men's experiences. Even cultures that left a ton of documentation of queer relationships between men (such as in Ancient Greece) often left little or no evidence of queer relationships between women. Does this mean that queer women didn't exist in those cultures? Of course not. It simply means that men were writing the history books and tended to center their own experiences. 

Even so, if we look hard enough, we can find evidence of queer women's spirituality in the ancient world. Below are a few of the deities and spirits that are strongly connected to queer womanhood and love between women and femmes. (A lot of this information comes from my upcoming book, Lavender Witchcraft, coming in August of this year from Moon Books.)

Some scholars believe the Kemetic (ancient Egyptian) goddess Nephthys was understood to be a lesbian by her original worshipers. These scholars point to Nephthys’s marriage to Set, a god explicitly associated with male homosexuality. (More on Set in a future post!) The marriage of Set and Nephthys may be understood as a representation of the duality of male and female queer identity. 

According to Kemetic myth, when Set killed Osiris, his brother and the king of the gods, Nephthys sided with Osiris’s widow Isis in the following conflict. Nephthys helped Isis to raise Horus, her son with Osiris and the heir to the divine throne. When Horus was fully grown, Nephthys supported his claim against Set. 

Nephthys and Isis were frequently worshiped together, and are often depicted together in Egyptian art, especially funerary art. These sister goddesses share many of the same associations and are both connected to childbirth, magic, and protection. Some scholars believe that Isis and Nephthys can be understood as lovers and that their relationship represents the duality of birth (Isis) and death (Nephthys). 

To connect with Nephthys, consider placing an image of her in your sacred space. You can also write out her name in Kemetic hieroglyphs to place in your sacred space. (Check Wikipedia to find the hieroglyphs for her name!) Symbols associated with her include the kite (a type of bird), the ankh, and the temple enclosure. Like all Kemetic gods, she can be honored with offerings of bread and water. 

The most well-known goddess of queer women is probably Artemis. Artemis is an ancient Hellenic (Greek) goddess, twin sister to the god Apollo, and is associated with the moon, hunting, wilderness, childbirth, and virginity. Artemis was worshiped in the Hellenic world as the protector of young girls. (It is important to note that in Hellenic culture, a virgin was any woman who had never had sex with man. This included women who had only had sex with women.)

Artemis never married and completely rejected the domestic roles assigned to women in Hellenic cultue. Instead, she spent her time roaming the wilds with her hunters, who were all women. 

Artemis has long been claimed by the sapphic community. In the 1960s and 1970s, lesbian activists used symbols of Artemis to tie their work into the history of queer womanhood.

To connect with Artemis, consider placing an image of her in your sacred space. You can also write out her name in Ancient Greek to place in your sacred space. Symbols associated with her include the deer, the snake, the bow and arrows, the crescent moon, and the spear. Like all Hellenic gods, she can be honored with offerings of fruit, flowers, incense, or honey. 

Aphrodite, the Hellenic goddess of love, is also strongly associated with sapphic identity. Sappho, from whom we get the terms “lesbian” and “sapphic” called Aphrodite the patron of love between women. Other sources say that she is the patron of all same-sex relationships. Aphrodite is also associated with sex, pleasure, and beauty.

Aphrodite is also associated with intersex and transgender identities. The Roman author Macrobius wrote about an aspect of Aphrodite with a beard and a penis who was worshiped in Cyprus. Some statues of this version of the goddess have survived to the modern day. They depict Aphrodite in feminine clothing, lifting up her skirts to reveal her erect penis. 

To connect with Aphrodite, consider placing an image of her in your sacred space. You can also write out her name in Ancient Greek to place in your sacred space. Symbols associated with her include seashells, pearls, roses, doves, and swans. Like all Hellenic gods, she can be honored with offerings of fruit, flowers, incense, or honey. 

If you'd like to invite a sapphic deity or spirit into your life, try the following ritual: Set up a small sacred space with an image of your deity of choice (a print-out of a free image from the Internet is totally fine) and a candle. Make a small offering of water, coffee, or tea, or of one of the historic offerings listed above. Talk to them, either out loud or in your head, and ask what they want from a relationship with you. 

These are only a few of many, many deities and spirits associated with sapphic identity and love between women. If this is a topic that interests you, I strongly encourage you to do your own research. And if I missed your favorite patron of sapphic identity, please let me know! 

Achillean is a term for a man or masculine person who is attracted to men or masculine people. It is an alternative to the term men loving men (MLM) and is the masculine version of the term sapphic. Like sapphic, achillean is an umbrella term that includes men and masculine-identified people who are gay, bisexual, pansexual, queer, or any other identity that includes romantic or sexual attraction to men. 

In some ways, this is the easiest queer identity to research. We have no shortage of primary sources about romantic and sexual relationships between men, especially from cultures where these relationships were common and acceptable, like Ancient Greece. Western history has consistently centered cisgender male expriences, including experiences of love and sexuality. 

In other ways, researching achillean spirituality can be deceptively difficult. Most witchy and pagan spaces tend to be dominated by women and feminine people. While that isn't necessarily a problem, it does mean that there's a tendency in some of these spaces to center cishet female experiences. It can feel like there is pressure on male or masculine witches to downplay their masculinity in these spaces, especially if their masculinity is queer. Creating truly inclusive spaces means opening up the conversation so no single experience becomes the center of our discussions. 

Below are a few of the deities and spirits that are strongly connected to queer manhood and love between men and masculine people. (A lot of this information comes from my upcoming book, Lavender Witchcraft, coming in August of this year from Moon Books.) 

First of all, we have to talk about Achilles, from whom we get the term achillean. While not technically a god, Achilles can certainly be considered a divine figure depending on who you ask. (As the son of a nymph and a human king, he's technicaly a demigod, but he was worshipped in some parts of the Hellenic world.) Achilles is one of the central characters of the Iliad.

Achilles had a relationship with his companion Patroclus that was widely understood to be romantic and/or sexual in ancient sources. When Patroclus was killed during the Trojan War, Achilles was so filled with grief and rage that he went on a rampage and killed the Trojan hero, Hector. (The name Achilles literally means "grief" or "pain.") The story of Achilles and his love for Patroclus has survived for millenia, and the word achillean has been used to describe love between men even longer than the word gay! 

To connect with Achilles, consider placing an image of him in your sacred space. You can also write out his name in Ancient Greek to place in your sacred space. (Check Wikipedia to find the Ancient Greek characters for his name.) His symbols include his shield and possibly sea birds, which are described tending to his temples in some sources. Like all Hellenic (Ancient Greek) gods, he can be honored with offerings of fruit, flowers, incense, or honey. 

Apollo was possibly the most beloved god in the historic Hellenic pantheon. He was one of the only gods universally worshiped in all of the different city states that made up the Hellenic world. 

Apollo is the god of the sun, medicine, music and poetry, prophecy, and truth, and is the protector of young boys. He was the patron god of men who love men, and myths describe him taking many, many lovers, including both men and women. The fact that such a widely beloved god was so explicitly queer shows how widely accepted relationships between men were in Hellenic society. 

To connect with Apollo, consider placing an image of him in your sacred space. You can also write out his name in Ancient Greek to place in your sacred space. His symbols include the lyre, the bow and arrows, laurel wreaths, and the sun. Like all Hellenic gods, he can be honored with offerings of fruit, flowers, incense, or honey. 

In ancient Kemetic (Egyptian) religion, the gods Set and Horus were associated with achillean identity. Set rules the deserts of Upper Egypt and is associated with storms and natural disasters. Horus rules the fertile lands of Lower Egypt and is associated with the sun and the pharaoh. They are depicted as rivals in most modern versions of their myths, but these stories originally had a homoerotic tone.

Ancient texts depict Set and Horus as being in a sexual relationship, and many of their oldest myths are sexual in nature. For example, in one story, Set tries to humiliate Horus by exposing him as the receptive partner in their sex (the “bottom,” to use modern slang). Horus seeks out help from his mother, Isis, and is able to trick Set. When Set attempts to humiliate Horus, Set is revealed as the receptive partner instead. 

It's worth noting that some sources describe Set as predatory, while other sources show Horus as a willing and enthusiastic participant. This probably reflects changes in attitudes toward male homosexuality throughout the thousands of years of Kemetic civilization. The good news is, if you choose to view these gods as in a consensual relationship, there is good evidence to support that! 

To connect with Horus and/or Set, consider placing an image of him in your sacred space. You can also write out his name in Kemetic hieroglyphs to place in your sacred space. Symbols of Horus include the Eye of Horus, the falcon, the pharoh's crown, and the sun. Symbols of Set include the was sceptre and the Set animal (an animal in Kemetic art that may be mythical or may have once existed and gone extinct). Like all Kemetic gods, Horus and Set can both be honored with offerings of bread and water. 

If you'd like to invite an achillean deity or spirit into your life, try the following ritual: Set up a small sacred space with an image of your deity of choice (a print-out of a free image from the Internet is totally fine) and a candle. Make a small offering of water, coffee, or tea, or of one of the historic offerings listed above. Talk to them, either out loud or in your head, and ask what they want from a relationship with you. 

These are only a few of many, many deities and spirits associated with achillean identity and love between men. If this is a topic that interests you, I strongly encourage you to do your own research. And if I missed your favorite patron of achillean identity, please let me know! 

Either way, love the series and super excited to see what comes next!

I actually recently posted about asexual and aromantic deities!