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Respecting the Gods

Don’t… treat them as tools. Deities aren’t obligated to help you, even if you do everything “correctly” to ask. They’re not vending machines, or a list of correspondences that only gets value from how they best serve you. They’re gods! Instead… treat them like people. (Really high-status people.) Build a relationship before asking big favors. Compensate them for their time. Respect they have their own autonomy. Respect that your will is not the center of their universe. 

Don’t… reduce them into archetypes. Putting Frejya or Aphrodite into just “love goddess” takes out so much of their depth. (Example, both of these goddesses also have warlike aspects.) Putting them into narrow categories and treating all deities that fit as the same can be reductive at best and insensitive to the root cultures at worst.  Instead… address who you’re really talking to. Do your research. See how a god either lines up with or defies your assumptions. See what makes them different from a deity with a similar domain. If you wish to speak to the Horned God, speak to the Horned God, and if you want to speak to Cernunnos or Pan, call them Cernunnos or Pan.  Don’t… ignore the lore. UPG Can certainly exist and add depth, but the lore has survived and is what all these gods are largely founded on. It’s important for us to recognize it and know who we’re approaching.  Instead… do your research beforehand. Did you know Aphrodite is widely considered to HATE pigs and be offended with offerings of pork or images of pigs on the altar? Might be a good thing to know before you accidentally offer some fresh bacon. (But if you recognize the lore and find a way to spin it so it works, more power to you~) Don’t… insult other people’s gods. If those gods don’t resonate with you, they have a lot of meaning for other good people. I’m tempted to say don’t insult your own, either. Playful banter is one thing, but there’s a line between affectionate jabs and straight up disrespect. Find where that line is for you. Instead… talk to other people. If something about a god you don’t worship feels problematic, talk to their followers and devotees and see what they have to say about it. They probably have an approach you haven’t been exposed to. Analyze your own relationships with deities. And if the way you speak about a deity makes someone else uncomfortable or upset, respect their right to feel that way, apologize, and learn from it. Remember that each deity has changed someone’s life for the better.

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An emoji offering to Aphrodite 💖I love you, Aphrodite 💖

Hades

Symbols: Cerberus (his three-headed-dog), drinking horn, sceptor, key, the helm of darkness, pentacles

Sacred Animals: The screech owl, serpents, black rams

Plants: Cypress tree, asphodel, mint, white poplar, narcissus

Scents: Frankincense, patchouli

Gems and Metals: Onyx, jet, black tourmaline, black obsidian, hematite, coal, all metals and stones (especially black ones)

Colours: Black

Time: Midnight

Offerings to Hades:

Water, wine, honey, milk, or oil (best poured into a hole in the earth)

Pomegranates

Bones

Caring acts towards the dying

Caring acts towards dogs

Coins, gemstones, and metals

Leaving flowers on graves, cleaning up graveyards

Pictures of deceased loved ones

Artist: @jessicamao

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I’m sorry, but

If you think the Theoi are abusive: shut up.

Because I have found nothing but love, kindness, help, and joy in my gods, and if you think, even for a second, that those gods are abusive, take a step back and ask yourself why you worship them. Because you shouldn’t be staying in an “abusive” relationship, I don’t care of you think they’re going to smite you. They don’t deserve your crap.

Stop saying that the gods of my religion are abusive, because they’re not. The same gods of hospitality, help, averting harm, and protection don’t care enough to be abusive towards you or anyone else.

They are all powerful, and above human spite and hatefulness. They get angry, sure, maybe ignore your offerings or stop helping you for a while, but they don’t abuse you, and the only way to get them mad at you is if you really mess up.

And if you think pushing you to do your best is abusive, (in a nonharmful manner) then I’m sorry, but you can leave.

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I’m starting up a series of drawings focused around each of the moon phases

This is sort of just a cover page, the others are really ambitious and have me a little nervous, but excited!

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I just love the myth of Persephone, i mean the real, original version of it, because it’s not like she got kidnapped, no, this bitch was la-de-da-ing in a meadow and she just happened to find an entrance to the Underworld and she was like “Imma check this out”. And she just wanders into the Underworld and discovers that hey this place ain’t too bad.

Meanwhile Hades is in the background “????? UM??? PRETTY GIRL??? WHY ARE YOU HERE?????? YOU AREN’T DEAD???” 

And Persephone (who was originally called Kore just a little fyi) just looked at him and said “I like it here. I’m staying.”

And Hades kinda just went with it, until Demeter started throwing the temper tantrum of the millenium upstairs and Zeus had to intervene because this shit was getting out of hand and its actually his job to be admistrator of justice. Which considering the shit he gets up to is kinda histerical but that’s another story there. 

And basically Persephone wasn’t a prisoner or kidnap victim at all she just really loved the Underworld and her (eventual) husband, and the Greeks feared her arguably more than her husband because Hades could be reasoned with but Persephone was the one laying the smack down on sinners, and really, who wouldn’t be at least a little scared of someone who’s name means something along the lines of “the destroyer”

Basically, Persephone is amazing and everbody needs to get on her level