My Relationship to the Gods has Changed...
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
- Another little life or rather practice update from me. This time we're discussing something that has for a long time been a focus of my practice: Deity Work. My relationship to the gods has changed a lot, so let's talk about it.
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As Odin says "Better not to pray than to sacrifice too much". My gifting cycle evolved in a similar way.
I often feel I don't do enough and my pattern is irregular at best. I don't 'work' with any of the deities so much as just honor them and offer gifts. Occasionally, I do ask one or two to help nudge outcomes in my direction if they can after I have done what I can to make something happen. In truth, I only have relationships with half a dozen. Of them, I only regularly (ie when it feels right) offer gifts to Freyja who I consider my patron and Njordr for whom I have a ship-shaped water fountain on my altar that regularly needs refilled. I treat that water as an offering. I see so much out there about people who say they do elaborate offerings every day to every deity and I just don't know how they manage. Is that much even welcomed? Ocean Keltoi put out a video a while back talking about his feeling that our venerations were like a happy cat purr for them. They don't need it but enjoy it. I have to wonder if that would get old with so many cats purring at you everyday all day?
I can go in spurts, but I'm trying for regularity....
It's a challenge
Bente: *giving offerings every single day*
The Gods and Goddesses: Not HER... AGAIN! 😄
Ahahahahaha that’s how I imagine it:
Bente: sits down to communicate every single day
The gods: For fucks sake, I have better things to do than answer your stupid human questions daily! Piss off!!!
@@TheNorseWitch 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Yeah! Jokes aside, oddly enough I've never thought about asking what the Gods want for me via divination. I've always relied upon signs. So thank you for that handy idea! And I totally agree - doing devotional work makes deities much more happier than offerings. I think an easy fix for someone who wants to do offerings daily is a song. Many historical sources will say that the gods love singing and it is probably the most rarelly used offering.
I work with the Gods on occasion. Mostly they come to me and then we connect. Sometimes the Gods are busy. Sometimes they want you to make your own decisions and walk on your own. Sometimes they send someone else to you. Sometimes they are laughing at us! Sounds like you are finding this out! Enjoy your every changing path, as it should be. The Gods are happy!
Ive stepped away from the norse pagan label. Ive turned towards folk magic, ancestor work, and bature spirits, which for me doesn't include norse stuff 🤷♀️ its felt a little werid not feeling freyjas presense anymore. But i have other spirits I'm building realtionships with so.
That’s interesting, to me ancestor work, folk magic and nature spirits are a huge part of Norse Paganism 😅
@TheNorseWitch yeah, I'm heading towards english folk magic and practice is why lol I should have speficied
Found you through Frankie (Chaotic Witch Aunt) and love this sort of parallel journey you two are walking. I feel like a lot of people have felt the draw to return more to roots, I know I have.
Oh they mentioned me somewhere?🥹🥹🥹
My deity has changed her posture toward me recently. I felt like my time with Freya was over. But now I think maybe I just need to keep things organic, just like with any friendship.
She’s more of a nature spirit, but I’ve considered lately asking Baba Yaga for guidance and to learn from/ work with her. I’m in a small space and I have cats that get into everything, so I don’t have much of an altar space. But I also am just so busy and my day to day changes a lot. I’ve been thinking I could just do something for nature each day to show my respect instead of a dedicated altar space.
My Heathenry is focused on trees, bodies of water, local spirits, elves, the dead, wyrd, runes, and then the bigger spirits we call deities. It sounds like you're settling into a great practice!
Great message. Your practice is definitely supposed to change over time. It shows growth.
Love that you're evolving sister ❤ in a way this is what pre-Christian beliefs were about...change and growing within the practice is vital for developing a healthy relationship with all your surroundings and spirits 😊 hail! Never stay stagnate like a bible or something with rules that puts our practice in doctrines. Hehehe i wuv wuv you!
I see it the same way! 🥰 I feel very at home in my practice atm 🥰
@@TheNorseWitch 🥰❤🙏
To be honest, I’m not much of a deity person. Praise to whatever keeps you safe, and may your gods guide you fairly. That being said, you give off MAJOR witch vibes, and my mother always told me to have a healthy respect for the mystical. So to put it plainly, you freak me out, can we be friends?
Totally makes sense. One thing I've found in my own tradition which is predominantly Irish Celtic is that some Gods were deified ancestors and ancestor veneration cults led to the creation of certain Gods. I think there are some parallels with Norse and Germanic traditions, although you have different cosmology and creation myths that we don't have.
It makes sense to me that the Gods can be considered to be the earliest ancestors.
This is exactly where I’m at with my relationship with Anpu! Honestly daily/weekly working with my ancestors feels much more important/needed then the Gods and spirits. Love this! ❤
I felt compelled to comment here for so many reasons....wow....ok so, this is the second video of yours I've watched now. I just watched your older video on spiritual psychosis and commented because it was spot on and something I'd also experienced. And then this one caught my eye because I'm also experiencing changes in my relationship with God. I refer to God as They/Them, All That Is. I believe we are all God experiencing the dream of individuality. I also used to spend a lot of time singing worship songs (some of that due to volunteering to play and sing for a Sufi church service, as well as playing for seniors), but if I'm being honest, I grew up in an evangelical christian upbringing and I know that had an influence on my style of communication when I sat in meditation and communication with All That Is. More and more, I was feeling this turning away. Kind of like a wall, but there was just no feeling of reciprocation or receipt at all of what I was giving whenever I was praising, worshiping or expressing gratitude. And the message I was getting, was, save it. Save it and use it on something more meaningful. So far my changes have been that instead of expressing my gratitude with words, I try to just really feel grateful with my full self. Instead of sitting in prayer asking for guidance, I try to just sit with all of my self, inviting all of it to the surface and then I invite the presence of God and I try to just experience with out goal or agenda. I don't pray for other people anymore either, I do what I can with what I have to give, even if it's only a smile or a kind word. My views and beliefs have shifted so much over the last several months. It's so interesting to hear that you are going through a similar shift. I was really intrigued by the concept of devotional action and it got me thinking about what kind of devotional actions might my ancestors jump for joy over? Oh! That is one other reason to comment! This is actually the third time I'm hearing someone talk about Ancestor work and it's been a year or more since the last time I heard it and it resonated for me, so I don't think it's the algorithm. Also, I have Norwegian heritage but know nothing about it!
I love that you shared this. My path has changed so much over the years. We need to just do what feels right. I imagine my path will continue to change and I find that exciting.
Sometimes the Gods and Goddesses push us to change up our praxis to have a more balanced medium that works with everything in our lives. I love this video!!
Thank you so much for sharing ! I discovered that forcing myself into any kind of magical routine quickly led to spiritual burnout. I also tried to give deity offerings every day and had a similar experience as you. I felt like it began to take away from the meaning of the offering, and made it feel more like a chore than what it was supposed to be.
(I am still very new to ancestors) But offering tea/water/coffee to them daily does feel right.
It is nice to spend some time with them in the morning and share that drink with them. It is very grounding. 😊😊
I started my journey with norse gods by knowledge of records and understanding their symbols. Cause in that way I can slowly feel them on my daily life not needing the altar stuff, im horrible with praying since my church traumas, I adore the meditations and dreaming with them, tryng to find and meet their natural places in earth
And the cosmology, the simbolic interpretation of the creation of the 9 worlds and Ragnarok as well. The daily altar thing in old times really wasn't for the gods, it was for ancestors, landvættir etc
I have been a solitary practitioner of wicca since I was 16 and went through a kind of self-discovery period. I absorbed everything and learned above all, harm none and do what you will =) Use what tools you wish, pray to whomever you wish, it is impossible to have imposters syndrome when it comes to worship and connecting with the higher powers because we are all unique and have individualized ways to connect. Right? (oh BTW, I am now 54 so that is many years of self-discovers and contemplations and they still change and evolve to this day.)
I light a candle each day to spiritually connect. It’s grounding for me and I can change my focus daily while simply lighting a candle. The candle type, holder, intention…. And it’s very easy to travel with my connecting “lightly”. 💜.
I feel historically, cooking over fire, or heating your living space with fire (as we did when I was a child) for has made a strong fire connection for me- candles are an easy way to connect.
This is similar to my practice
i love an update it's so interesting to hear how things develop~ i understand the feeling of feeling like an imposter for not actively doing so much... but from what i read often is different regions had different ways to do stuff, so i feel validated... and i agree, the gods will reach out when/if they want my attention or a special something
I try to avoid labels, so I don’t claim a societal practice. Instead I simply ask my ancestors, my guides,anyone out there willing to help me out in this dense plane, simply asking, “Help me be of service.” Then looking for opportunities to show up on my daily path. Simple little things usually, extended to myself, animals, nature, other humans. Change is growth, not something to be feared. Thank you so much for sharing your journey, it’s beautiful to see
To be honest, I feel like the gods would be more interested in you doing what feels right and what makes you have an actual connection to your practice. If you're just going through motions because you feel like you're supposed to, they become hollow and they don't mean anything anymore. Sure, you may be giving daily offerings to the gods, but if you're not really feeling it and you're kind of just going through the motions, you're not going to get any extra bonus points for it 😂 I started off doing daily offerings to the gods as well. Aunt found that after a while it really stopped losing meaning for me and I was just doing it because it was routine. My practice as far as deity worship/ working goes, looked a lot like yours did before and is changing a lot like yours is now!
I’m glad I’m not the only one lol It feels logical andI have moving more this way myself. It just naturally happened. I still light my rose candle or incense on Friday but I don’t feel I have to I just do as I am usually doing something creative so it works
A lot of newer heathens don't realize that our ancestors didn't have much to do with the gods at all. Typically they would only interact with the gods at major blots, SOME would have a small shrine in their house, but that's about it.
The majority of their working with spirits was with their land vaettir and their ancestors.
Deity work is interesting and I would love to try, but I am a bit.. afraid or confused. I mean, most people will deam you crazy if you say "I am working with a God ". Allthough when you pray to "the God" (the big christian/jewish/muslim one) noone will think you are crazy but basically it is the same, dont you think.
My favored gods are Thor who is so cool and I have a feeling he is very openminded and like.. sure girl, nice to meet you. Today and yesterday it rained a lot and I saw lightning so maybe he wants to encourage me and I really want to try because I have the feeling I could connect with him quite fine. The other one is Apollo, whom I absolutely adore. I love to draw and write and recently I did a Tarot reading after not doing it for a long time and asked Apollo (who is in charge of poetry and also seeing the future) for help and got a superclear reading that encouraged me to follow my spiritual path.
Would love to hear more on deity work from you, I love your videos (and I am always happy to get a glimpse on a lovely cat)
I feel like I can relate more to that than to properly working with my deities. I think there are some things that we do that are more like "working", but for the most part it's just venerative behavior and holding space for them
Still hype for the tree magic series whenever you have that done or when you get around to it... It might be efficient to do some alphabetizing but, it might be practical to start with the Allies you know best... Idk I'm excited regardless 😂👌✨
What every works for you is right for you
I am just starting with deity work and I'm not sure about ancestors work, but this was nice to hear. Change means your growing, I think❤ I only do devotional acts and some offerings too. Local spirits sounds really interesting!
Going the pagan / witchcraft path without being a member of a specific group has the great advantage of being able to learn, evolve and adjust our practice to what feels right to us and serve the stage of life we are in, without needing to stick to other people’s ideas and rituals.
I appreciate you sharing your experience.
So cool to hear that your practice changes!!! ❤
I really love your videos! I'm newly interested in paganism (like really new) and for a lot of things, I don't know why people do that. One example are offerings for the ancestors. I don't reallly understand why to do them, and also I'm german, so some of my ancestors were probably not the greatest people (and further back I don't have enough informations). It would be really interesting to hear your opinion on that
My gods know i dont have all the energy for daily offerings, so ill do it if i get a feeling that its time for one or until they tell me what they want. Apollo told me sunflower seeds 2 weeks ago and i went and got it i just do what feels right. Still learning at my own pace
I find a lot of to I talk with deities are all around me and out side as well I still love my alter it helps me feel at home since I moved alot I really liked this video thanks
It sounds like you are growing from practicing a religion to engaging in meaningful relationships. 👍😎
Thanks for sharing. I have been in a similar place recently and im feeling less of a presence with the gods. Im finding myself drawn more to godesses of other pantheons and nature spirits as of late.
Excellent video ❤
You made some great points - a person's practice can and does change, depending on how long they've been practicing and how they find what works and what doesn't.
I'm so glad that you're doing well and always learning and growing in your practice.
Thank you ❤️
Thank you for sharing I can relate with this video I just started my pagan path and choosing a deity to work with, I set up an altar for my Celtic deity, but I'm like you before I started this path I was working with my ancestors and spirits of place and I still am like my ancestors are my go-to
I feel like ancestors and locals have always been more prominent in terms of regular people living regular lives. I really don’t think the gods even need our veneration. It’s more for us than them. I feel what you are sharing and totally resonate.
I'm the same way! I used to always try to focus on deities, but now I'm mostly working with ancestors and land spirits
Sounds you are becoming more of a "Folk Witch' ☺ and there is nothing with that!
I definitely do, although that actually integrates very well with Norse paganism because there are so many heathen elements in Scandinavian folk magic 🥰
This has been my sentiment too oddly enough.
You're looking great & healthy!!❤
Very timely. Thankyou ❤
That was really nice, I love seeing you evolve in your practice and finding ways to improve your craft for YOU. It helps understanding that it’s fine to change and let your practice grow with you!
Thanks for being so transparent and sharing this. ❤
great video im similar in practice
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666 views!
I am so glad to have found your videos! I can definitely relate to how you are feeling in this. I think perhaps your practice is evolving and as such so will the energies that you are drawn to or so it has with my practice. For the longest time I was consumed with the way others had shown me or how it was “supposed”to be done. I felt as if I was kinda just going through the motions. I have shifted more to working with energies that present themselves according to how I am feeling or where I find myself drawn and connected. I will always have my ancestral altar because it is a respect thing for me and what my family has gone through. I worry less about trying to shove myself and my practice into a box of societies labelling and more of evolving my practice. I am not the same person I was 10 or 15 years ago so I should not expect my practice to be and neither should you.
Blessings light and dark to you sister 🖤❤️
Thank you so much for sharing the evolution of your personal practice! I think this is a very natural progression for lots of people, it’s great that you’ve mixed it up a bit!
When I started working with Loki, Odin started to work with me a lot, and Loki did as well. I recall Odin calling me, 'Child of Dreams," which he left me to figure out. After a week of him telling me that, I start having more dreams that start becoming for significant or my subconscious telling me that is wrong in my dreams, which, once again, Odin was not wrong and very on point and then Thor became more active (my right eye starts to twitch when there is a thunderstorm nearby). Either way, I worship them by doing self care and self love like washing my body, face, etc. Doing an occasional tarot reading, etc. I am starting to be around Hela because she sent me a dead bird decomposing in my driveway 😂.
This us do interesting, because I've felt and experienced similar. I've felt a discomfort with offerings. I feel like they want me to take from what I learn from them in my practice in to Midgard. Apply and untegrate my spirituality in all of my actions. I feel Blots were dobe as hon8ring s0ecial events, and we are not in a syrvival environment, socqe qould be more relaxed. The need to do things with the deitiws seems less neccesary. Yoy arw right too. Ancestor work dies seem more of a thing. I myaelf qork with my elf ancestors.