Hello it’s me again with a post I was meant to put online three weeks ago! I’ve done several of these: Artemis-Demeter - I also made one for Hermes during my 30 days challenge but I’ve just realized it’s quite short so I will be making a new one again at some point in the future.
What are devotional acts?
Devotional acts, or devotional activities/practices are things one can do in order to honor a deity, just like one would do with physical offerings or prayer. In short, instead of giving, say, wine, you will offer time and energy (the mundane one). You would typically look at a deity’s domains and pick some things related to them.
So here is a list of things you might do, in the hope that it would spark some ideas. Of course the list in non-exhaustive !
☀️Study academic fields (sciences or humanities) - dedicating your studies to him can be one of the easiest devotional act you can do. Can be for school/uni/work or simply your research related to the hellenic path. He’s all about the pursuit of knowledge so no matter the field, you can dedicate this time to him. It’s a side of him that is a bit forgotten as people will think of Athena first, but it is completely in line with his domains as a god of Knowledge and Education.
☀️ Art and Music making and appreciation - he is the god of music and all the fine arts so you can dedicate the practice of these things to him and call upon his aid to develop your skills and sensibilities. The mastery of Arts requires the combination of technical skills, emotional sensibility, the capacity to break down things mentally, and the creativity to bring out solutions, things that are his domains as a god of Reason and Expression. If you don’t make art, you can simply dedicate some time to your appreciation of those fields by going to an exhibition or a concert.
☀️Honoring the Muses - his epithet Musagetesmeans leader of the muses and is meant to connect him to the Arts, as previously mentioned. However, you could also take that more litteraly and devote your time forming a relationship with the Muses to him.
☀️Write and appreciate poetry - made this a separate entry for how important this was to the Ancients. Without judging yourself, write your thoughts and feelings freely and see it as an expression of your mind and soul. Alternatively, lose yourself into the writings of others.
☀️ Working around health - Apollo is the god who inflicts but also relieves plagues, and the father of Asclepios. He is thus linked to the medical field and any practice related to that would be a great idea. One of his epithets, Acestor, means healer.
☀️Philosophy- Apollo is the patron of those who seek truth and wisdom, so not only would studying philosophies and religions be a neat idea, the most important would be to adopt that mindset and make sure you reflect on your values, the meaning of your life, your place in society, etc… The delphic maxims can be a good place to start, not to use them as dogmas but rather to stimulate your own thoughts and spark questions. When I think of Apollo I think of a god who wants us to keep questioning the world and ourself and push us to a better understanding of things and to build our own sense of ethics.
☀️Introspection - As an extension of that, practising a form of introspection as a way to shed light on the most unknown parts of yourself and seeking understanding of your whole self. Keep an journal to write down your introspection sessions can be a great devotional act and would draw his good influence upon you.
☀️Pursue the best version of yourself (with kindness) - to some extent all gods want to see you become the best version of yourself, but I don’t know why, maybe it’s a bit of an UPG, but I see Apollo as the one who thrives for perfection the most and works hard for that. Just be careful that this doesn’t become unhealthy and that you are always doing this with kindness and love for yourself.
☀️Celebrate the blessings the light and the warmth of the sun gives us - he isn’t the Sun himself (that is Helios) but he is undeniably linked to the Sun and its light so he is the one I go to when I want to celebrate the bright season and its blessings. Personally I intend to celebrate the summer solstice with him.
☀️Practice methods of divination - he is the god of prophecy and oracles and one you can go to to improve your ability to divine. He isn’t the only god whose domain is of one form of divination (Hermes has ornithomancy and astragyromancy, and Zeus had oracles), but he was the one who spoke through the Pythia so you can dedicate the development of your psychic senses to him. Also, Tarot is a relatively modern invention but I link it to him due to the fact that it’s an elaborated system through which spontaneous insight arises.
☀️Teaching- giving a drawing or music class, or just anything really. The idea of transferring your knowledge and allowing someone else to become more skilled at something. Especially great with the youth since Apollo is one of its protectors.
☀️Crafting things for your altar - maybe you want to make a laurel wreath (his sacred plant) to DIY your altar, or what about a scented candle containing solar plants, you could also use clay to shape little elements that you will paint later as a decoration. The possibilities are endless!
☀️Note on donations: an alternative to practising the activities I previously mentioned, you could also give your money to those causes and domains. For example: by supporting local artists or health-workers.
hey! so, as a devotee of the demoness, Lilith, i’ve decided to make this post and dedicate it to her. here are some stuff you can do for the sacred demoness.
1. stand up for yourself, know your rights.
2. be confident.
3. write/read poetry dedicated to night.
4. do research about the dark goddess.
5. make a playlist for Her, vibe to the songs that reminds you of Lilith.
6. chant Her enn, talk to Her, feel Her presence if she’s near.
7. light incense for Her.
8. meditate with the crystals she admires.
9. give Her some nice tea. hibiscus? hell yeah.
10. dress up in the colours she admires.
11. be aware of your femininity, try connecting with the divine feminine.
➳ During the winter, go outside more! Throw it back to snowball fights, sledding, snow angels and people, etc
➳ If you collected snow water this past winter, leave it as an offering for her. If not, or if you’re in an area without, snow globes and paper snowflakes also work!
➳If you typically hunt, dedicate the act to her.
➳ Have a random winter based movie marathon in the off months
➳ Dress for the weather. This is ignored especially during the colder months, so make sure to get your coat out next season!
➳ Add cooler colors into your wardrobe, whites and light blues / yellows / etc etc. This can be as simple as nail polish, but range from accented makeup to full clothing dedications.
➳ Go all out with winter celebrations, don’t let the cold hold you back!
➳ Set up a winter oasis for her in your home using decorations you’d normally have put away; keep out your stringed lights, snow settings, etc etc
➳ Practice your aim. This can be as grand as practicing archery, or as small as using your trash as a basket, playing bags, and so on.
➳ Keep up to date with the Winter Olympics the next time they’re on.
➳ Donate your old winter clothes in her name.
➳ Exercise! I feel this is a good way to honor a goddess of the hunt - going on walks and/or runs in particular.
➳ As per usual, light a candle! Any winter, nature, or woods themed scents work perfectly for her!
Today is the second and last day of the celebration which means it’s Apollo’s day!
It’s really hard for me to put into words how much Apollo means to me. The emotions that stir within me whenever his name is mentioned are beyond any language but I’m sure many of you don’t need an explanation. You know those emotions just as well as I do because that’s what Apollo does to humanity. I’ve often said that humanity’s adoration for Apollo is proof of Apollo’s love for humanity. Polytheist or not, we feel something for Apollo. He stays cemented in our imagination, values, passions, innovations, and of course our hearts. Everything that makes us wonderfully and tragically human echoes back to Apollo. He belongs to us just as much as we belong to him. Perhaps that’s the real reason he remains unmarried?
Exactly like yesterday, if you have any plans for the holiday let me know! If not feel free to share any thoughts or experiences you have about Apollo! I’d love to hear them! I’m also taking questions about our beloved Golden Prince!
As always though, whatever you choose to do today I hope you have a wonderful and lovely day, my sweet starlings!
Obviously I can’t give one answer that works for every person. So here’s just a little thing to help with defining what is/isn’t an acceptable offering to YOUR practice! Just go through and really think about what you believe is the answer to each of the questions. There are no wrong or best answers, it’s just finding what you think for your personal beliefs, which will inform how you practice.
Why do we make offerings? Do the gods need or want anything from us? Is it to give back, or to further our own connection with them? To please them? What about the act of offerings betters your practice? What role is it filling?
How are the offerings received? Do the gods take the energy from the item? Do they get a copy of it in their metaphysical space? Do they now own the entire item as part of their domain? Do they simply take the item and bless it for us? Is the act of giving/sacrificing something we love to them (saying that we love them more than that thing) more important than the thing itself? Is that sentiment the real offering?
Can I offer this thing in a way where I think they’ll receive it? If you perceive the act of the offering as more important than the actual offering, then offering something you were just going to throw away isn’t as valuable because there’s no real sacrifice. If you view them as wanting/needing nothing, then it doesn’t make sense to throw out something you could just eat. If you view the gods as owning the entire offering, including its physical form, then eating a food offering would not make sense.
ALSO, FOR DEVOTIONAL ACTS….
What do the gods get from a devotional act? Are devotional acts just to help us understand and connect with a deity’s domain better, or do they get something out of it? Is it shaping the world in line with their perceived values? Is it shaping us into better followers? Does it just make them happy to see us doing stuff they like in their name?
What makes an act devotional? Is anything under their domain a devotional act, or do you have to consciously define it as such? Does the act have to be out of your way (such as volunteering somewhere/something you wouldn’t normally do on your own) or are your usual habits and maintenance (Such as regular hygiene, cleaning, eating food, etc.) acceptable? This comes back to how they receive the offering (is it the act of doing something because you’re dedicated to them valuable, or just the act itself?) What must be done to make the act a dedicated one? Can it be dedicated after the act has begun?
Will performing this devotional act as an offering fulfill the outlines of giving and receiving an offering I’ve made for myself?
If you can answer all of these, then just run through the checklist in your mind when wondering if something counts. “What is it that I’m giving with this? What is it they’re getting from this, if anything? Can this offering be recognized and received? Is everybody I believe benefits from an offering being benefited?”
I’ve been thinking about doing a proper WordPress blog post about this but since my executive functioning hasn’t come back from the war for that level of Formality ™, let’s do this, instead.
Basic skills I wish I’d been encouraged to start with as a baby polytheist spiritworker.
My teen nephew has been making noises about learning spiritwork, so here’s what I basically told him.
Have a mindfulness practice so that you know where ‘you’ end and 'other’ begins.
The difference may not be so straightforward, depending on a whole variety of spiritual factors, but GENERALLY SPEAKING, you want to have a baseline standard of being able to know what’s your internal narrator/intrusive thoughts/mental illness/etc and what’s actually other entities. Not all (or even most) random thoughts for most people are actual spirit chatter. Work on your discernment.
If possible, I’d recommend having a supportive but critical third-party support: a therapist you actually trust, for example. Especially in the beginning, it’s easy to get sucked into thinking everythingis spirit contact, or spiritual damage, or spiritual something. Maybe it is! A lot of it isn’t. (Occasionally it’s an awkward combo of both.) Having an incredulous (but supportive) sounding board can help you calibrate how your personal brain stuff plays with your spiritual stuff, and also helpavoid getting sucked into cultish movements that do harmful stuff like equate trauma = empathic psychicness.
**Note: this third party should preferably have a) some legit knowledge in appropriate peer counseling/therapeutic support and b) isn’t someone who’s gonna be bringing a their personal agenda to you, such as trying to invalidate your spiritual beliefs or, on the other end of the psectrum, undermine your mental health by framing it as magic instead (e.g. equating delusions with spirit contact).
Additionally, if you’re familiar with your spiritual body, e.g. how your physical body carries spiritual energy, it can also help you know when you’ve picked up unwanted Stuff like some curses, spiritual parasites, or other immaterial 'gunk.’
“Mindfulness” can look a bunch of different ways. More conventional mods of meditation are perfectly fine, but other kinds of somatic/embodiment practices can work just as well: experiment to see what’s compatible and sustainable for your lifestyle, resources, and cognitive processing style.
Pick an external divination style and get comfortable with it.
Doesn’t really matter what kind: what you’re looking for is somekind of a system that can become a shared language between you and your own spirits/gods/blessed powers. That can take some negotiation, and you can always change systems, but pick one to start with and get to know it.
You won’t always have to rely on another person to act as the messenger between you and your own spirits. (That said, there are times when you shouldn’tdo your own div, but that’s a different post.)
Having an external div option will help you double-check on your own intuition. Not sure if what you saw was a sign from your spirits? Use div to make a more formal check. If we’re personally invested in a particular answer to a question we have, that can skew how we interpret our intuition.
Helpsdeepen personal relationship between you and your spirits, which also makes shit like mediumship or using omens easier.
You can double-check other people’s divination for you. For more important/higher stakes stuff (such as a Tarot reader telling you that a specific deity is now claiming you and you have to swear an oath, dear lord, please take don’t take that as face value without at least a second opinion!), this can be particularly important in terms of maintaining a sense of autonomy over your own relationships with your blessed powers.
Basic healthy communication skills that frankly most of us aren’t ever taught.
All the meditation and div practice in the world isn’t gonna do shit if you don’t know how to talk to other beings, human or otherwise. You know what made the actual biggest difference for me in transitioning from 'flailing baby pagan practice’ to 'devotional polytheist priest’?
Knowing my boundaries AND how to negotiate them safely and healthily. Learning how to do possessory mediumship first started with me getting every single one of my trauma triggers slammed ALL AT ONCE. Nothing healthy would’ve come out of that experience if I hadn’t had been intentionally practicing my boundary-setting skills in my mundane human relationships, AND if my blessed powers hadn’t been willing to meet me halfway. It took a LOT of conversation and mistakes were made on both sides, but now possession is something that’s become privately sacred and beautiful and wonderful for me, partially becauseof how hard-earned it was and how it required the development of mutual trust. (Now I get scolded for being TOO trusting with my main lady, oops. )
Conflict management. A lot of people are conflict-avoidant. That’s not helpful. It’s also not helpful if you dread 'getting in trouble’ or 'being a disappointment’ every time you have contact with your blessed powers. Learn how to handle disagreement, misunderstandings, disappointment, and frustration with more intention and skill so that you can move past those inevitable incidents with growth instead of deeper shame, resentment, or resignation.
Assertive communication (or your social/cultural equivalent of that, since what’s considered 'appropriate communication’ might change based on culture, circumstances, etc). Assertiveisn’t the same as aggressive, either. But basically, this is the kind of communication that’s like, “What are your needs, and what are my needs, and how can we collaborate on exploring options to get both our needs met with mutual respect and dignity?” For example: when my blessed powers ask for a daily disciplined routine, my ADHD ass has learned to ask what the goal is and here are the methods I amneurologically capable of to achieve said goals, how does that sound? So far, we’ve always been able to come to a mutually satisfying plan that doesn’tdeepen my old, unhelpful, internalized ableist narrative of being 'too broken to do something that any neurotypical person could do.’
There are lotsof other helpful skills, both spiritual and mundane, and not everyone may agree with the ones I picked out here, but these are the most basic ones I find myself returning to most often and being the most thankful for, personally.
Pick out three things you’re proud of yourself for doing that day
Take time to appreciate any fatherly or generally strong male figures in your life
Stop, and look at the sky every once in awhile, if only to appreciate its beauty
Hera
Treat yourself like the queen/king/royalty that you are
Practice self-compassion
Take time to appreciate any motherly or generally strong female figures in your life
Point out your top three favorite things about yourself
Find three positive things about your own self-worth
Demeter
Pick out three things that you love about nature
Take a nature walk or hike, if possible, or post pictures of nature
Make yourself or a loved one an organic meal or just a meal that has more “natural” ingredients, such as fruits and veggies
Connect with the Earth for a moment by sitting outside for a bit or maybe even meditating at a park
Draw attention to cleaning up and caring for the environment, or simply spread some love about what the Earth means to you (besides being the place you live lmao)
Hestia (I consider Her an Olympian)
Cook a meal for yourself or your loved ones
Clean your room or your general living space
Do some chores around the house, such as washing dishes or doing laundry, or sit around a fire, and watch the flames lol
Tell your loved ones that you appreciate them, and spend quality time with them
Spread some random acts of kindness
Poseidon
Drink lots of water, and stay hydrated
Take a shower, and allow the water to cleanse your entire being
Relax and rest for a day
Show appreciation for marine life (watching ocean documentaries, looking a undersea photos, spreading awareness for saving the oceans, etc.)
Watch Nemo, and yes, I really do mean that
Athena
Read a book, an article, or some other form of written media
Nerd out about the things that you love
Work on a simple sketch or other simple creative activities
Meditate or daydream
Spend some time alone with yourself (in a healthy way), and focus on grounding yourself
Apollo
Write a simple poem or even a song
Listen/sing to music you love
Take any needed medications or medical treatments
Point out three positive things about yourself or things that you love about yourself
Spend some time in the sun, even if it’s just through a window
Artemis
If you own pets, spend quality time with them
Go star-gazing
Take a moon walk (a walk under the light of the moon, or just generally at night)
Try spending some time in nature, even if you just go to a park or sit outside your home
Take a relaxing, warm shower or bath and add herbs, if you can
Ares
Let out some anger or bottled up emotions, through physical activity, such as boxing, or something passive, like writing
Dance to music like nobody’s watching
Take time to appreciate any father figures or veterans in your life
Acknowledge your personal flaws, and remind yourself that it is okay - and normal - to be a flawed human
Find ways that you can protect yourself, such as cutting certain people out of your life or practicing assertiveness
Aphrodite
Focus on self-love and self-care for a day
Treat yourself with things you like
Be kind to yourself, or engage in random acts of kindness
Give yourself or a loved one three compliments
Express how much you care for your loved ones by reminding them, either through actions or words
Hephaestus
Finish or continue a project you’ve been working on, even if it’s something small
Make something with your hands
Appreciate the things that make you stand out from others
Take some time to learn about how something works or functions
Celebrate your improvements in a craft, even if they seem insignificant, because all of your progress is worth celebrating
Hermes
Write a fun little short story or poem
Tell cheesy dad jokes
Watch a comedy movie or performance
Cause the downfall of capitalism, or write Him a letter, even if it’s short
Pick up any stray coins you find on the ground, or leave stray coins for others to find
Dionysus
Sing and dance to music you love
Spend time with your loved ones, if possible
Watch a movie, shows, or musical that you enjoy
Invite Him to share a good meal or drink with you
Celebrate yourself and how far you’ve come in life, whatever that may look like for you (even if you just eat ice cream and chill)
MINIBONUSROUND
Hades
Honor your ancestors or other deceased loved ones (make a food in their honor, leave coins for them, look through photos of them, etc.)
Draw, post, or print a picture of Cerberus (or any dog, if you want)
Make Him a cup of coffee
Spend time alone, and do something like helps you live in the present moment, like drawing, reading, or watching something
Take some time to notice the little things about life that you appreciate, like the warmth of the sun or breeze of the wind
Persephone
Care for plants, or show them some appreciation (like looking at photos of pretty flowers or hugging a tree)
Show yourself some love and appreciation
Wear jewelry that reminds you of Her
Spend some time out in nature, especially during the spring
Hold people accountable for their actions, and cut them out of your life, if needed (this is a form of self-care)
I apologize if these aren’t the best devotional acts; I was pretty tired when I wrote this, but please know that I did try my best! I hope you enjoyed these! ^^
Since I’m still thinking about high effort “investment” offerings:
This weekend I spent hours in the 90 degree heat, working under the boiling sun. I got sunburned, scraped, bumped, and bruised. My muscles are sore, my nerves are on fire, my eyes sting. I used up all of Monday’s spoons, most of Tuesday, and probably a few of Wednesday’s as well. But it was worth it, for 30 minutes of water and wind working in harmony. To hear Pesse croon in his crashing breakers rumble as I lay in bed exhausted but in to much pain to sleep.
I love it. And he loves it. And I love that he loves it. So I will continue to do it for him whenever I can, no matter the cost to me.
