The Crafts: Wixes, Spells, and the Weaponized Placebo Effect

...or rather, in what capacity I believe in them. Like someone said earlier, the likes of Hathor and Freyja occupy the same place in my head as fictional characters. The thing is, we don't do the same things with gods as we do with fictional characters, right? They're different somehow.

 

Well I mean that gets into the issue of pop culture polytheism and thoughtforms. And just the idea that you can, through the power of the mind, effectively make something real. Even if it isn't real in quite the same fashion you or I are. So like in Tibetan Buddhism the meditational deities aren't real like how I am real. However if I were to take Guanyin as my meditational deity she would be an emanation of my mind. And through that she becomes real, if not on the same level that I am.

 

Huh. So I can just meditate on my personal headcanon version of Odin or Hermes or Tsukuyomi and that's an accepted Thing? That's really reassuring, so know that I can have a deistic sort of practice without having to accept the idea of, like, Cernunnos being a real and conscious entity that I gotta communicate with somehow in a way that doesn't feel like playing pretend.

(P.S. the Gods List has a Zoroastrianism section now! I also created a heading for Yoruba religion, which I know a little about but I feel nervous doing more than that;;)

 

You can yeah. There's a metric fuckton of approaches to theology. Even with people and traditions that share similar concepts such as Tibetan tulpas and pagan thoughtforms have very different conceptions of how that shit works. Like I can believe that my gods are literally real and conscious entities, but I view them very differently from how, say, a Hellenic recon polytheist type would. We both think that our gods are real, but we have different conceptions on the level of gods, their purpose, our relations to them and so on. An example would be that in one of my things, namely Gaelic recon polytheism, we lack the conceptions of piety and hubris which are VERY important to Hellenic recons. While I've definitely got to respect the gods and know my place so to speak I'm not some ant unworthy of their presence. Our relationships are ones of oaths, contracts, and lots and lots of hospitality. However for them the conception of the gods as the HIGHEST OF ALL THINGS who cannot be placed below anything is very, very important. As is the idea of hubris.

Also don't be afraid of having conceptions of or relationships to gods that would offend the sensibilities of others. Within reason of course. It's kind of iffy to go about worshiping Santa Muerte if you're not a Mexican Catholic for example. But like my theology would be outright rude and incredibly improper in a Hellenic recon viewpoint and vice versa.

 

I added most of the major Norse deities to your list the other day. Tending toward the Icelandic spellings with accents and weird characters; if you'd rather I can do the more Anglicized versions?

 

You can add what spellings you want. If you'd like to include both go ahead.

 

I think I might place them in parentheses after, because people might get confused otherwise if they are used to the more Anglicized forms.

There are also a shit-ton of minor Æsir and Vanir who are technically Gods but not in practice really worshipped. Lots of the sons & daughters of the major Gods, stuff like that. I may or may not list them, not sure yet. Probably not if nobody actually worships them, if they're essentially bit players in the mythology.

There's also the issue with Gods who have a bunch of different names. Freyja has 9 names, for instance. (possibly many were originally separate deities)

 

TFW literally no one worships your patron deity anymore and all texts about how she was worshipped are really vague, so you have to create rituals and prayers nearly from scratch.
A good thing about this is that what she's supposed to do also changes a bit between sources, so I can actually make new interpretations that fit my world view better, and don't have to stick to some old privileged ancient Greek guy's political opinions, I guess.

 

that little rainwater-filled-well you toss coins into kinda gave me an idea

i might do the idea but I'm bad at remembering and forgetting to do the thing it made me think of would make me feel bad.

i'll...think on it. it's something that would be simple enough to work for me, i think.

-is very vague but mildly afraid to share idea because despite everything seen in the thread is scared someone will think I'm doing it wrong-

 

@palindromordnilap ooh, which deity?

 

Nemesis. Seriously, I'd thought there would have been more clear information about her, but no. What the fuck.
Like. She's not even actually about revenge and evil stuff, which I had heard all my life. She's a goddess of divine retribution and justice. How can you possibly mess that u-- Don't answer, I already know how.

 

The key word to understand how that got messed up is "she". :/

 

Also, the fact that most people who wrote about her are exactly the kind of people she's supposed to punish.

 

i needed to trim my hair since it was getting too long to do anything with (i don't do a bunch with my hair since i am not great at doing my own hair) and while i originally planned on taking off five or so inches so it'd be at the bottom of my shoulder blades, i ended up getting ten inches cut off so i could donate it to an organization that makes wigs for children. so my hair is shorter than its been in maybe six years, but i can do cute little pigtails with it and I'm happy because my hair isn't lost, its just going somewhere else to be used and loved :)

also a big part of my personal beliefs are giving what you can and just. loving everyone who isn't an asshole. so ^^ yay some kiddo gets my pretty hair that glows with lots of gorgeous red highlights in the sun -is overly proud of hair-

and even if the worst happens and the kiddo passes away from whatever disease took their hair, well, mine will have helped them feel good-looking and happy in their last bit of life. so bittersweet but mostly sweet, i think. sad/bad things are a part of life but i try to focus on the bits of goodness as much as possible.

only putting this here cause i wanted to go into detail for some reason, i dunno

 

Adds Lithuanian paganism to the Gods List because that country was a special interest for me back in college. May do Finland next.

 

I'm kind of half tempted to bring a tarot deck with me to folklife. There's always witchy sorts there.

 

Oooh, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival? I love it, but somehow I'd never noticed the witchiness.

 

I BOUGHT TINY BOTTLES AND BIG JARS AND ALSO A BUNCH OF HERBS AND SOME ESSENTIAL OILS :D

 

YAAAAAASSSSSS Tell us whatcha got! Tell us whatcha wanna dooooooo with 'em!

(tiny bottles and big jars, eeee, pics maybe?)

 

I feel like talking about the Morrígan because she is awesome. So a thing that occasionally pops up is the Morrígan as a villain or the Morrígan as evil or just the Morrígan as deeply unpleasant in general. The fact that she is a war goddess is often brought up in these cases. As is the fact that she's a goddess of death. These are very important to the Morrígan and what she is. They need to be kept in mind and attempting to sanitize the Morrígan as being some nice, harmless mother-maiden-crone thing is wrong. It's not just incorrect but it's also rude.

However I feel that just making her spooky scary war woman is also wrong and also rude. See she's also a goddess of sovereignty. She is a crowner of kings. They are not kings without her blessing. This relates to her as a fertility goddess. She isn't one in the sense of tilling fields or anything like it, but it is with her that there is fertility. If she doesn't want your field to produce plenty then by gods it is not. She does grant that, though, and whats more she wants it.

See the Morrígan has predicted the end of the world. At the end of the second battle of Mag Tuireadh she recited a prophecy in verse form, as she is also a goddess of prophecy. She foretold of an age without honor where the world would burn up and all life would die. Before this though? She gave a prayer for peace. She asked for an end to war. A time of peace and plenty. Where people were healthy and happy and honorable. She goes into pretty thorough detail of it too, talking about how she wants shields to be hung up and spears to be set aside. How she wants cows to give bountiful amounts of milk and for honey to flow freely. It goes on.

The Morrígan absolutely will wreck your shit. She is absolutely behind some of the darker facets of how reality functions. She is not however pointlessly cruel nor does she desire pointless cruelty. She wants quite the opposite. That this aspect of her gets tossed in a corner to go "oh no she is a mean war god" is not right. Remotely.