Fit to Worship

Trigger warning: fatphobia, ableism, mention of disordered eating, suicide So recently there was a question on TC regarding whether or not we have a religious duty to take care of our bodies. I refrained answering, and for a while even refrained reading the thread. Threads like that have a tendency to fall into fatphobia, fat-shaming, …

Quan Yin, compassion, and lovingkindness

A while ago I was having tea and knitting time with a school friend of mine and her parents. They’re lovely, amazing people, and I got to talk a lot with them about my work for the Gods — specifically Brighid. I got an email from my friend’s mother a while after our meeting, and …

Becoming My Own Person — a ritual with Persephone and Hades

A week ago Friday I posted about Persephone, and becoming my own person. I said I was going to do a ritual to cut myself away from my abusive father, because I was tired of being hurt by him. I did the ritual on Monday the 13th, the eve of my 26th birthday, the last …

Persephone, and becoming your own person

When I was a child I was obsessed with the myth of Persephone’s descent. I read all the sanitized versions, of course, and so came to associate Her descent with my own — having to visit my abusive father for access weekends and, later, seasons. (Family law is mainly concerned with working around the needs and …

‘God-Bothered’, and what I mean by that

After writing Monday’s post, a discussion with a friend made it clear to me that my definition of ‘god-bothered’ may be quite different from many other people’s definition of it. When I say being god-bothered isn’t that common, I am not saying it’s not common to have a close and personal relationship with a deity. …

Prayer, and how it’s difficult

I realized today — I don’t know how to pray. I do pray, quite often, but it’s always clumsy, and sort of haphazard, like I’m picking my way through a cluttered cabin full of spiritual knick-knacks and doodads, trying to find just the right one for my purposes. Quickly uttered “Dear Brighid, please wrap so-and-so …

Landbinding

I mentioned Landbinding once, I think, in my blood sacrifice post. Since then I’ve been meaning to actually talk about what Landbinding is, or at least what sorts of nebulous ideas I’ve got about it. Danny’s post yesterday, The Morrigan, The Goddess of Blood, sort of spurred me on, and now here we are. When …

My current altar for the Hellenic deities

My altar to the Hellenic deities is still a work in progress, but I’m slowly getting there. I suppose it began with Hecate. I’d already made the decision to start to worship the Hellenic deities and had set up one shrine — to Hestia — before Spring Mysteries Fest. But it didn’t really become an …

Hearing the Gods: self-deception is the enemy

How can I tell what the gods are saying? I’m in a relatively small camp of people who are ‘god-bothered’. We’ve usually been thwapped by gods and have really intimate relationships with Them, and many of us have conversations with those gods that are pretty distinct. (If you’re going to get jealous or upset because …

Dionysos, the Liberator

Things I Learned the Night of the New Moon Flying ointment + wine combo makes you think that nothing much is happening while you’re dancing and worshipping at the altar of the Liberator; it’s the hangover that brings clarity. Said hangover will consist of feeling like someone beat all your muscles with hard sticks for …