Me When I Add Literally Anything To My Altar:

Thor, thunderer, protector. Help me stay strong in these hard times. Protect our trans siblings. Help us to defend our rights and the rights of others. All hail.

My mjolnir pendant is so important to me. It's a constant reminder of my Gods and my ancestors in my soul at all times.

It's holy to wear but it's also holy to live with. My partner and I kiss on my bed and mjolnir swings into his teeth on accident and we laugh, and someone else, some ancient lovers with the same faith, have done that before.

Cunk on Nirn Part 3: I had to this iconic bit

copia giving you all a goodnight kiss

i tried my best

<3

Today, my post is for the new practitioners and worshippers.

There is a lot of information coming from a whooooole lot of sources on the internet.

I know that you really want to get into doing everything just right, and you want to do it all right now.

You've taken on a dizzying job. This forum says not to worship Hades and Demeter on the same altar. That forum says you should focus your worship mostly on deities that relate to your profession.

It seems so many of the people you see either align themselves to 'myth literalism' or they disregard the myths, altogether.

To you, everyone looks like they only deal in extremes. Maybe you feel like a new student in a classroom where you can clearly see that the established clique divisions are very, very important.

They're not.

Take a deep breath and slow down. You haven't already messed up before you've even begun.

The reason you see these dichotomies everywhere you look is, at least in part, because of the way you're looking for your information.

Many people, when starting, will ask the Great Google Void™️ questions like, "Can I have only one patron deity?" "Does my altar have to be big?" "Does X deity hate Y deity?" These questions are targeted, and they have a tendency to draw answers from people with very strong opinions. (A fact that isn't wholly bad, but is fucking scary when you're new) You will also find opinions from people who have practiced a long time and will give you good, well written advice. Still, you can't quite find it in yourself to overlook the contributer who says something like, "I wouldn't dare disrespect Demeter by putting her on an altar with Hades." The wording seems so final and ominous. Disrespect. The idea of risking it makes you want to take down the altar, because... What if she's already mad at you for even thinking of it?

You're holding yourself to an impossible standard, newbie. We all started somewhere, and many of us arrived at different conclusions.

My advice to you, and I cannot recommend this highly enough: Look for resources, not answers.

Stop punishing yourself for things you don't know. Network with other poytheists. Ask for resources. Google resources. Read as many of the myth sources as you can, but make sure you double check and research who translated them first. That's right, the translations. Different translations of the very same texts have led to discrepancies in beliefs in the community. Decide for yourself where myth belongs in your practice. Decide for yourself if you are reconstructing ancient practice or modifying it. Decide for yourself who will be on your altar, if you can/ want to have one. Allow yourself to enjoy the research. Do it in digestible bites.

Research how other people do it, but stop asking the question, especially to the internet, "Which way is the correct way?"

You will get so hung up on the extreme answers that you will burn out.

Walking toward the Gods is a journey, not a trip in a teleporter. Make your mistakes and learn. It's okay. I promise.

a bit of advice for my fellow polytheists out there:

use the first of the month as a day to check in with your deities or other spirits you work with!! let them tell you whatever it is that they need to tell you and use that guidance to help you throughout the rest of the month!

this is what i imagine stimming would be like as a fire ghoul. i would love to set my hands on fire.

just burning all those excess feelings out

Nothing haunts you like unexpressed feelings.

:0