#wyrddruid

So, I want to brush up on my ocular skills and you all can help! send me an ask for a free druid oracle deck or greek alphabet oracle reading! Just give me a brief description of what it’s for and I’ll do the rest!

So, this isn’t something we necessarily get a lot of questions about but I do believe that it’s worth bringing up.

I’d like to preface with how I’ll be approaching my section of this roundtable, which will help for contextual reference. I am Hellenic, and will be referencing my relationship with the Theoi specifically. While the overarching topic is going to cross cultural lines, my examples will be Hellenic because that’s what I know.

A huge part of most religions that fall under the “pagan” umbrella is offerings and things given by the mortal to the deity as gifts, sacrifices (not just the literal animal sacrifice sense, but giving up things in general), and libation or votive offerings. In Hellenic polytheism, these offerings are used in a variety of ways: to honor, for no other reason, to win favor, to ask that prayers be answered, and to petition the Theoi.

But when choosing an offering, a lot of times the practitioner asks themselves (or others) the question of - how much is enough? How much do I have to give?

From a Hellenic standpoint, you give what you can. You give your best. How do you determine this, though? Well. I like to think of it in terms of myself; if I drop $20 for a nice scented candle for myself with no problem, then I should be able to drop $20 for a scented candle for one of the Theoi. Whether or not I get both for myself and the Theoi depends on my finances, and if I can’t, the Theoi come first. Always. (As an aside, I realize that not everyone can afford a $20 scented candle. This is just an example.) If what you can afford is a $2 candle from the dollar store, because $2 is the only money you have leftover after all necessities are met, then that’s your best.

Working from your best is constantly changing for most people. For myself, I don’t always have the energy to sit and do my devotional spreads or work on devotional poetry or writing because I work, have to take care of the house, cook, etc. When I do have the energy, I do sit and do them. It’s a day to day determination. If your best one day is to scrape yourself out of bed and get through the day with one prayer and maybe a libation poured or offering given if you’re lucky, that’s okay. But - when you can do better, do better. My best is constantly changing, and some days I can’t find it in me to offer at all, just pray and think of them. Talk to them. And this is okay, because the days where I have excess energy go into my devotional crafts: knitting, journal spreads, offerings, etc.

Learning to find your best is going to be a lifelong, constantly evolving practice. It’s okay if you have to wean yourself out of bad habits (my bad habit that I’m still controlling was not cutting into my recreational spending for my gods. This has turned out to be a win-win after controlling it) and figure things out. It takes a lot to really look inside yourself and at what you do daily to figure out where your best lies!

As another aside, some deities are much more action-oriented. Some don’t want you go buy them fancy things, and would rather you live your life a certain way. YMMV. Above everything, ASK THEM if you’re confused. We here at the PSG cannot interpret dreams, signs, or tell you what your deity wants of you.

Does anyone have anything to add? Personal experiences or advice?

~terebinth

It depends on one’s tradition one is a part of and how rigorous piousness is within said path. For myself, Kemetic Orthodoxy is fairly lenient while taking care to be as revivalist as possible without causing a member of the House to fall into debt due to their faith AND remaining as close as possible to antiquity rites and offerings (again, lenient, so some things are adopted to modernity due to QOL).

For Mugyo (Korean Shamanism), it’s a lot more arduous and rigorous. Due to our gods holding us mudang to higher degree of responsibility due to our position, we can’t let ourselves slide a lot. Sometimes they’ll be understanding if, due to low spoons (an example is my spirit sister being 5 months pregnant), we can’t do the 108 bows every day or missed refreshing an offering.

Some things we cannot miss, ever. They take priority over everything in our life. It is our life’s purpose to serve them and our community. If we have a lot of 굿 that month but we wanted to go on a two week vacation for an anniversary, we’d need to go to the 굿. If we have client appointments throughout the month but we had fun activities planned for our best friend’s wedding, we need to attend to the client. To “sin” (which I really don’t like using that word, but that’s the one my spirit sister uses as translation) is to cause our gods direct pain, which makes them very angry and can punish us and our loved ones pretty severely.

If you’re in a tradition that has priests or a similar role, go to them and ask. That’s what they’re there for.

- trueriptide

I personally see my devotional activities as my duty, I am a priest and as Trueriptide said i have duties to perform. I must “Tend the Temple Flame” if nothing else. I am also the head of my household and am responsible for the worship of our household gods, as well as the “greater” gods that i am a priest for. As such I can not rightfully rob my household unjustly to honor the high gods, my family must come first or I will not be able to worship ANY gods very long. I do what I can, my gods deserve and demand my best and sometimes that is the bare minimum but usually it is much more. Giving to the gods requires you have something to give and if you have no extra to give then clearly you have not yet received the blessings required for reciprocity. So, try your hardest and your gods will see your effort as a gift within itself. If nothing else, you can always offer a little prayer.

~>Wyrd

I’d say no, you do not need any particular social skills to worship gods. More than likely, your gods will know that you are sincere, which is really all that matters. When approaching a new deity, be sincere regardless of how you do it. Your gods will understand, just as mine understand my mental illness that makes worship difficult. 

I hope this helps!

~terebinth

This Is not something I have shared online yet, but I think now is as good a time as any. I have, at 23 years old, been formally diagnosed with Aspergers, or more accurately been made aware that I was diagnosed when I was a child and never told. this is a major contributor to my absence in the last few months as I tried to figure out what that means to me. 

this being said, I have never had a problem with the gods understanding me and accepting my prayers. I spend a good amount of time reading and rereading my prayers and rituals, I write them down to make it easier for me, and sometimes when I can’t speak I simply pray with my heart, no words needed. Simply doing your best is enough for the gods, they will understand. I have found comfort and understanding both by my gods and the pagan community as a whole.

 if it would help ease your mind, as it does mine. when you feel like you messed up and offended them, or as a precaution at every ritual, you can give a piacular offering, its a big thing in roman polytheism. Its a way to apologize for unintentional mistakes, no matter what they are from. either a mispronounced word or a cat interrupting you during ritual and needing some shooing away and even a misunderstanding. All you do is state “If anything I have done or failed to do has offended you, oh gods, please take this offering as recompense for my mistakes” and give an offering like normal.

This isn’t weird at all. I always tell my gods I love them. Because I do, you know? Love is so much more than just a romantic feeling between mortals, and the love that you feel for your deities is wholesome and wonderful. Tell your gods you love them. Tell them every day if you want. It’s not weird or abnormal at all. ~terebinth

you do you, there are few ways to pray incorrectly. If you love your gods, feel free to tell them as I’m willing to bet they will appreciate your affection for them. I mean we say I love you to family, mentors, close friends and partners. if your patron is a mentor or close friends or like adoptive family (like gods and spirits in household worship are often considered family) then why WOULDN’T you say that you love them?

So, if you read any of the mods’ bios you’ll find a lot of us are multi-traditional and you’ll find most pagans jump between pantheons at least occasionally. Some are strict adherents to one chosen pantheon or tradition but this is largely personal choice. In Ancient Rome it was common to take gods and ideas from other groups and worship them in rome and in a roman fashion, remember kiddies the romans did eclecticism first, HA.

NOW as for this “worship them together” idea, many traditional pagans and hardcore reconstructionists will tell you that you shouldn’t mix pantheons within an individual ritual. personally, I do not hold this as necessary myself. I find that it is a personal choice, I do mix pantheons from time to time and haven’t had a problem with it. this however is my very controversial personal opinion and should not be taken as a absolute authority, i am wrong all the time and will do so into the foreseeable future

~>Wyrd

The thing about multi-tradition practicing, as we’ve iterated before, is to be respectful of every culture you worship in. Meaning, creating a multi-faith practice rather than an inter-faith one. Deities have their own cultures and deserve to be worshiped within them. Don’t be rude, create little worship boxes for yourself and worship within each tradition you decide to. In other words, worship as if you were Hellenic when worshiping the Greek gods, worship as a heathen when worshiping the Norse, etc. While there is nothing wrong with worshiping multiple pantheons in and of itself, be respectful of the cultures (as well as other practitioners who do not appreciate the blending of their religions disrespectfully.)

The PSG will always advocate for a multi-faith practice rather than an inter-faith one.

We have a Round Table discussion on this topic here.

We had recommended those because those were the ones our mods and admins had been a part of. Thank you for the information though.

Sparrow

I would like to take this opportunity to shamelessly plug The Reformed Druids of Gaia, a order in which I have great love for. We come from the same roots as ADF but have less structured beliefs and ritual forms closer to our Reformed Druid roots. 

I’d like to address something before I get into this question: paganism in and of itself is not a religion. It is an umbrella term that includes many, many different religions.

That being said, I will say that most religions that fall under the pagan umbrella do not have “rules” against being LGBT+ in general. The problem lies within the practitioners you choose to surround yourself with. Most of the communities on here are very friendly, but there may be outliers. Put simply: the religions aren’t necessarily where you want to look, but within the communities for whether or not you will be safe. I cannot attest to any community except the Hellenic community, which is very friendly in my experience. 

If any of the other mods have experience being LGBT in a pagan community on tumblr specifically, please add your experiences and thoughts! 

~terebinth

I think Terebinth got the girth of it here, I would like to add my experiences with a few other pagan traditions. Druidism is very LGBT+ friendly as a whole, the Reformed Druids of Gaia actually just issued an official statement on their stance on the LGBT+ community stating that anyone who is against LGBT+ rights shouldn’t be a Reformed Druid. ADF is also very LGBT+ friendly, I believe our last ArchDruid was gay. Heathens can be very LGBT+ friendly, however I would issue caution because not ALL of them are, avoid anyone or any group affiliated with the Asatru Folk Assembly. Finally Considering the well documented history of LGBT+ people in roman culture Roman Polytheists have seamed rather unanimously for it. These are just my experiences and you should, as cautioned above, feel out a individual group/ person’s morals before getting to involved with them.

Yes, Practice Practice Practice, there is no crying in baseball and no shortcuts in magic, anyone who tells you differently is probably trying to sell you something.

~>Wyrd

Yeah, as someone who’s primary magickal practice is energy magick and began some 10 years ago with Psi balls. They’re hard as dicks, dude. Like, really fucking tough to get down. Once you got it then it’s easy. But trying to figure out how the fuck to get it in the first place, that’s tough. Different people have different methods, so it’s really hard to give advice. Just keep trying anything you can until you find what sticks and go with that. Best of luck my dude.