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Deity Work: Respect vs. Honor vs. Devotion

When deciding to add a religious component into your practice, there’s a lot of factors to consider. 

What practices are closed to me? 

What kind of relationship do I want to build with the Divine? 

How do I practice a religion that most believe to be long gone? 

Have I dealt with any negative experiences/beliefs/mindsets that may be hard to let go of from my old religious practices? 

While all of these are important, I want to focus on a simple but crucial distinction within deity work- what it means to respect or honor a deity compared to devotion to a deity. 

Respect:

Respecting a deity is basically extending common courtesy towards Divine entities that you are not directly involved with. Speaking of them with respect and engaging in discussion of theological differences without deliberate contempt or ridicule. 

Why? Well, for one, I think it’s a good idea not to antagonize a being I can’t even comprehend, even if I don’t believe in them. But primarily, it’s an extension of my respect towards those of different faiths. It’s important to note that respecting a deity doesn’t mean respecting people or organizations who use their faith as justification to harm others. It doesn’t mean agreeing or supporting every aspect of a religion’s theology. 

My common courtesy does not extend to religious leaders within the Catholic church that have refused to apologize or take responsibility for the decades of abuse of Indigenous children. 

If you live in the U.S. or Canada- go to this website and learn what Native land you’re living on. If you can, make a donation to a local or national Indigenous organization to start making a dent in these injustices. 

Respect is simply having good manners. It’s how we want others to treat our deities, symbols, and traditions.

Honor: 

Honoring a deity is when you believe in a deity, you engage in practices with/for/associated with them but you do not have a personal commitment to a relationship with them. 

For example, I honor all of the deities of the Hellenic pantheon. I might make offerings on days of significance or participate in specific festivals but I don’t have a dedicated altar space or have a committed practice of worship. And I also don’t honor all of the Hellenic deities in the same way or with the same frequency. I honor Artemis and Dionysus more than others because of personal connection. 

I think it’s important for polytheistic pagans not to feel pressured into honoring every single deity within that pantheon. Setting aside the 12 Olympians, there are dozens of deities within the Hellenic pantheon. Learning and feeling confident enough to work with 1 deity is already challenging, so please be kind to yourself. 

Devotion: 

Devotion is making the commitment to a personal relationship with a deity. It takes a lot of time and emotional energy to devote yourself to a deity, lots of learning and understanding of them and their traditions. 

There’s no framework for how to devote yourself or if you should become devoted to a deity. It’s a very personal journey and it’s impossible for anyone to tell you exactly what to do if you’re interested in a deity. I can offer advice about my experience with Apollo, but your experience with Him will be completely unique to you. 

Devotion to a deity as a practice also looks very different. I have a dedicated altar, I pray, I make offerings and celebrate festivals. But if your relationship with a deity doesn’t include any of that? That is okay. Especially if you’re a solitary practitioner and learning on your own- the Divine are patient and understanding. We’re human and I really believe that the Divine prefer you at your most genuine rather than perfection. Especially if that fear of not being “good enough” is what’s keeping you from establishing that relationship in the first place. 

I hope that helps clarify the differences. You can always send a message or an ask with questions on deity work or other witchy topics. Just know that with deity work in particular, it’s hard to get specific answers because of how personal that journey is. 

How do you perform deity work? What’s something you love about your particular path or pantheon?

Brightest blessings! - Kate

🌛June 9th is the next full 🌜

This it’s the strawberry moon (or rose moon) because it comes at the peak of strawberry picking season. This moon is in Sagittarius. It’s corresponding colors are red, orange, gold, and yellow. Make some magic you beautiful witches ✨🍓♐✨

life is about being gay, eating fruit, and petting cats.

Help

I really want to read 91 Whiskey, but I’m a little bitch who read Twist & Shout over Christmas break and I’m scarred. Can someone please tell me to not be scared. I don’t care what you have to spoil. I’ve just seen that it’s really good, but I don’t think my mental heath can handle a really hard blow like that

This spread doesn’t have a name yet, but it’s one I use in order to get a good idea of where I stand/where things are going when I begin to work with a new deity, or to check in with one I’m already familiar with.

Card 01 - Who is this deity? You can basically look at this card as doing two things. The first thing is verification, to make sure you know which deity you’re dealing with. I’m especially in love with this position because I have a problem of asking after a particular deity and then getting a different one answering me when I do this spread.

The second part comes into play in figuring out which aspect of a deity you’re dealing with, if it comes to that. I have noticed that a lot of the deities I work with will present a COMPLETELY different side of themselves to others. It’s nice to know who you’re getting.

Card 02 - What will our relationship be like? This card kind of colours how I interpret the other cards in the reading. A friendly, easy going relationship will cause me to look at the cards differently than a distant, business-like relationship. But it also serves the obvious purpose of warning you of what you’re getting into.

Card 03 - What do they want from me? If you’re picturing me asking this question in a sort of desperate and hopeless way then you are correct XD;; But yeah, knowing what’s expected or required of you is always a handy thing to check.

Card 04 - How can I best make this happen? It’s kind of difficult to determine how to actually go about what you need to do, that thing and that’s what this card is for.

The first time I did this reading, it was hijacked by another deity who wanted to go out of their way to make sure I knew things were over between us — and the card I got in position #3 was the Two of Swords and the card I got here was the Ten of Swords. I needed to let go and acknowledge that our goals are too different to really reconcile with each other. And in my case, to do that, I needed to realize that the circumstances had changed irrevocably. (Ten of Swords, for me, is not only a death more final than Death, it’s an end to all pretenses and a revelation of total Truth.)

Card 05 - What may get in my way? Because when is anything ever easy, right?

To continue on my last example, what was getting in my way of moving on was my deeply rooted fear of change, of having to rebuild, and an unwillingness to dismantle what was no longer working so that I could build something better, and a fear that if things went wrong, I would have no safe space to turn to.

Card 06 - Ultimate outcome of the relationship. Straightforward enough, I think.

~

I really like the way this spread’s positions interact with each other. Card 3 (what’s expected of you) and Card 4 (how to best do that) are diagonal from each other, and I’ve personally gotten a lot of insight from having card 5 directly in-between what your relationship will be like and what you’re going to be doing in that relationship. When laid out, the cards kind of go back and forth between your perspective and the deity’s, so it’s kind of like a conversation in that way.

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Emoji spell to attract the person you’ve had your eye on into your life 💓👀 (tip: focus your intent as you like/reblog with your desired person’s name/face in your mind!)

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Reblogs cast

Blessed be! 🌒🌕🌘

There are so many gays on this app! Like can’t one of y’all hit me up?

Calling all witches!!!!!

So, I’m a new beginner witch and I REALLY want some online witch friends! If you’re a beginner too we can help each other out!

🌺💕 Aphrodite Invocation Spell 🌺💕

💖 This spell was used when I felt a strong connection to Aphrodite and don’t know how to reach her. The spell is based on my personal experience! 💖 

📝 Note: Use this spell when you have a very strong connection to Aphrodite. The spell will be 100% successful if your connection is strong with her. I had a very strong connection with Aphrodite for 5 months before doing this spell and my results came in a few hours after casting this spell. 📝

🌛 When to cast: 🌜

• Preferably any day/time/phase during april (april is a scarced month for Aphrodite) or any day/time/phase you want

💐 Things you will need: 💐

• candles ( preferably red, pink, blue, seafoam or white )

• rose incense or any herbs corresponds with love

• food offerings: apple slices, any chocolate snacks, apple juice, milk, strawberries, fruit flavored yoghurt, candies. etc whichever from this list

• item offerings: roses, lavender, pearls, seashells, rose quartz or any love crystals, your favourite jewellery

• your favourite divination tools

• circle casting tools

🕯️ The spell: 🕯️

🌸 First, cleanse the altar/area and tools your are working on. then cast your circle and light the candles and incense.

🌸 In your on words, invoke Aphrodite and welcome her to the circle

🌸 Tell her about yourself, likes/dislikes, favourite foods, hobbies, books.etc

🌸 You can ask her any questions with tarot cards, pendulums or any divination tools

🌸 When you are done talking give her the offerings raise them towards the sky and say: “ Goddess Aphrodite, i offer all to you, so mote it be.” And let yourself feel her energy around you.

🌸 You can close the circle and let the incense burn til the end and thank her. You can do some devotional acts to her such as: take a rose bath/shower, eat some sweets, research on her, meditate with a rose quartz.

🌸 Signs you will see her are: her entering your dreams, pictures of her in random places (on newspapers, signboard, statues etc.), doves flying, roses everywhere you walk, finding wild strawberries and bees, having the urge to visit the beach, craving for apples or sweets, feeling a random gentle press on your body, mysterious sweets smells, roses on the beach, finding a certain same shell multiple times during a visit to the beach, noticing that everyone you know will be slightly be kinder towards you, receiving chocolates from friends💕

💗 Happy casting! Feel free to ask me any questions! 💗

🖕🏻💔 Radfems/terfs DO NOT reblog/like 🖕🏻💔