Spent a cloudy and gloomy sunset drinking tea on the ground. It was really nice getting lower with nature and soaking in the switch to night. I looked like a hobgoblin walking around with my long flowing cardigan robe looking for a good spot with my hands full and a spilling cup of tea. Definitely going to make this a regular thing now! Enjoy the fresh air before the snow comes!

is it acceptable here to post about specific gods? I tried the Hellenism sub and it was very unwelcoming and harsh

I've never had much thought about connecting with my family on my father's side until this month. I celebrate Dia de los Muertos. Not related to pagan, but from my Hispanic side, I still do like to celebrate the lives of those who have passed.

With that being said, I want to try connecting, speaking, any sort of communication with my grandparents, and my uncle and aunts on my dad's side. I only knew and met of my grandmother when I was very young.

So, any advice? Everything is open. Feedback, advice, all of it. Or books, sites, etc is also welcome. Thank you

Hi everyone. I'm a new eclectic pagan. To explain, I was an atheist for a while but I've wanted to reconnect with my spirituality for a while now. Unfortunately there are issues. I've dealt with psychosis once before (it was a week long series of episodes), and I have diagnosed ocd, which has included scrupulosity/religious ocd in the past (for me it was getting intrusive thoughts about praising the devil).

How do people like me tell if we're actually communicating with a deity or if it's our mental health issues?

Hi,

So I have always had weird dreams. They used to be predictive, as in I'd have the dream and 6 months later what I dreamt would happen, but now they're just vivid weird dreams. I've had pretty scary dreams about snakes multiple times in the past. But last night I woke up from a dream that had me wondering...

I don't know if anyone sees dreaming as some sort of spiritual sign or anything, but hear me out...

In my dream, I was standing in this really nice living room area, it had richly stained wood, like oak or cherry or something, really nice looking. I had a German shepherd that was brown and black in color sitting next to me just looking around. Next to the dog was a figure of a man. I couldn't see clothing or a face, I just felt like it was a man in this dream... Suddenly a snake with the body of a viper (had viper patterns) and the head of a cobra came slithering in and right toward me. The dog was agitated and barking at it and the guy started yelling. I just remembered saying 'get this snake out of here' and instantly the dog and the man went after this snake and managed to chase it out. The man tried grabbing it by the head, but I yelled to him not to grab it cause it was venemous and it would harm him. The dog wound up biting the snake, the snake bit the dog, and then the snake was gone. The dog went back to the calm demeanor it had, but its face was swollen and I felt bad that it got bit. Then I woke up.

Again, hope this post is allowed, and I don't know if anyone believes that dreams mirror spiritual things or not, but my question is, would this mean that maybe someone is trying to spiritually attack me? Or in waking life do I need to watch our for someone? I'd like to know what anyone thinks, if anything. Advice is appreciated. Thanks!

My comrades, as a former Christian and socialist I wish to reveal that Christianity disturbed me greatly while I was still a member of the church.

How did I come to Christianity?

As a result of a depression after my parrot, which I had kept for nine years, died a year ago. I sank into the deepest nihilism of depression and already contemplated suicide, until my psychiatrist suggested that I speak with the priest of our church. I followed this advice and asked the priest why life is only so painful, why it holds such emptiness. He told me that this insignificance and emptiness were merely a façade of the devil, intended to turn me away from God’s word and creation and to drive me into the most complete disintegration until I could no longer find the way to God. So I asked him what I could do against the devil. The priest replied that I should open my heart to Jesus by coming to church every Sunday and praying together to the Lord Christ; thus the love of Jesus would slowly enter me and gradually drive out the devil and his egoism. That would be the first goal in life; the second would be to return this love to Jesus by helping others. And that is what I did for a year, until a month ago. For several months I had already been asking where the love of Jesus remained, because for months I had been having family problems. Several times I prayed to Jesus without my father and mother becoming reconciled again. I never found peace from these disputes until my girlfriend once invited me after school to go hiking in the local mixed forests. I accepted the invitation, and while we walked we spoke about our faith—I about Jesus and that I missed him, and she about Father Sun, for she is a neo-pagan. I asked her whether the love of the sun was really as strong as that of Jesus and the Holy Trinity itself. She replied roughly, “The love of the sun is so bright that even its light penetrates the shadows within us.” With my family problems I found this idea wonderful, for it resembled the love of Jesus. During the walk she also spoke of Mother Nature, her love for every creature upon her, and spring as the awakening of the earth and nature. Meanwhile I noticed how strongly I was distracted from the stress at home simply by immersing myself in nature.

So two weeks ago I decided to practise a pagan faith in secret outside the church and to pray daily to the earth for life. Yet, occupied as I am with intellectual insignificance, a feminine nature makes no sense to me at all! Nature consists fundamentally of the theory of evolution and Darwinism. We perceive nature as so passive and peaceful only because we are protected by modernity! And precisely for that reason we think the earth is peaceful and associate it with a mother.

That is exactly what disturbs me: behind the modern façade nature remains fundamentally martial, driven by instinct, egoistic; the most adaptable wins, the weakest dies!

Even human beings are by nature deeply egoistic—race over race, party against party, nation and state!

Do we not resemble nature rather strongly?

Just as a tomcat would try to drive a rat from its territory in order to protect its kittens and its queen, so the human being does in the form of soldier and worker through the most complete political armament against the threat at the front, in order to protect the children and mothers from the monster that lurks beyond the borders!

Therefore I decided to regard the earth as fundamentally masculine; even the sun and the moon I saw as masculine forces that all follow cosmic Darwinism, such as mutual regulation (Jupiter and Saturn), defence against asteroids and meteorites, the control of orbits, the disintegration of minor objects, and so on. For me the universe is a place of masculinity that never comes to rest.

And what does my socialism have to do with this?

I base my anti-capitalism on the view that the bourgeoisie may be a threat that must be averted, exactly as the earth and its magnetic field avert solar storms.

I hope you have a deep understanding of my view, and goodbye!

As you understand, nature is not simply a setting in which human life and all animal life unfold, but rather a living reality with which we can establish relationships of respect, contemplation, and belonging

Plants, trees, rivers, and other elements of the natural world can be understood as participants in a relational reality, in which the anthropocentric perspective no longer occupies the central place in this worldview

I have genuinely questioned the separation that has become commonplace in modernity. There has been a disconnection between us and the rest of living beings, and I have come to recognize that our existence is part of a network of interdependencies. My own spiritual experience has found a particular path toward this idea: plants

For several years now, I have been committed to establishing a connection with them through an electrical circuit capable of detecting variations in their bioelectrical signals and translating them into sound. When I touch them, their physiological variations can modify the sounds I hear. In this way, contact ceases to be merely a visual or tactile experience and also becomes an auditory one

For me, this practice resonates with the ancestral ability that, for example, people in celtic pagan and druidic history possessed: the ability to pay attention to forms of activity in other living beings that normally remain beyond our everyday perception

I am aware that it would be quite radical to claim that plants speak a language through their electrical signals or that these signals somehow constitute conscious messages. Although, to be honest, what I experience when I touch plants and they produce sound feels like a particular conversation between our electromagnetic fields. But my interest lies precisely in exploring that territory where scientific observation, sensory experience, and ancient, ancestral, and spiritual knowledge can meet

In this sense, I find an affinity with certain pagan sensibilities that recognize the intrinsic value of nature and seek a deeper relationship with it. My circuit becomes a kind of listening instrument, not because it demonstrably reveals a hidden voice within plants, but because it allows me to approach their activity through a sensory dimension that I do not usually experience. And something unexpected happens: technology, instead of distancing me from nature, becomes a means of paying attention to it

This practice has led me to reconsider what it means to listen to nature. Perhaps listening does not always consist of receiving words or interpreting messages, but rather of learning to perceive processes that previously went unnoticed. Sound thus becomes a form of attention and, potentially, a contemplative practice: touching carefully, observing, listening, and recognizing that a plant has its own processes, which do not depend on my interpretation in order to exist

My experience does not seek to prove that plants possess a spirituality identical to that of humans, but rather to explore how our relationship with them can transform our own sensitivity. If certain pagan traditions invite us to recognize the sacred in the natural world, my work seeks to preserve a personal way of approaching that possibility: by using electronics to translate physiological variations in plants into soundscapes, I find in this act of listening an opportunity to cultivate respect, wonder, and a sense of belonging

So, can we develop a deeper spiritual relationship with plants when we stop seeing them merely as objects of contemplation and begin dedicating time to perceiving their processes, rhythms, and responses? Yes, in a way. If you connected with this experience and would be interested in seeing how the electrical circuit works and hearing its sonic output through these plant beings, I am leaving it here. I am very interested in learning what you think about this practice, which deeply connects me with druidism and the energy of nature as a profound spiritual connection...

Do you think the Gods might forgive us for stopping our worship—whether because we couldn't establish a routine of devotion or simply weren't ready? I tried; I put effort into building a relationship with the Gods, but I decided to pause my practices to improve my mental health. I plan to resume after some time, but I find myself wondering if I would find mercy in their eyes.

Hello!

My journey to discover what I believe in has been rocky and weird. There are days where I consider myself a kemetic polytheist largely because I associate a lot with their views of the Universe. I've come to realize, though, that so much of that is born from wanting to conform. I see pagan spaces where everyone works with gods or a set pantheon, and I felt like I needed to choose one for myself to belong.

Recently, though, I've settled into my beliefs as a panentheist.

I believe the Universe is god, and everything within it is apart of Her. The grass, the trees, the air, the stars, and myself all are apart of Her and therefore god as well. But She is also beyond what I can observe. It allows Her to look down on me and feel love and care for me because we are one.

I especially like this view because it doesn't settle on monotheism, either. It makes sense to me that the Universe as an entity is so vast and expansive that She can present in different ways depending on the aspect you focus on. It allows me to continue to feel that deep connection with Nut from Kemeticism without simultaneously betraying my beliefs. And I'd love to explore Mother Earth as well.

I guess I share this all because I'd love to make connections with others with similar beliefs? I loved Kemetic polytheism partly because of the community. Since I do still embrace some elements of Kemeticism, I see no reason why I can't still talk to others, but it does feel strange to acknowledge that I'm approaching this belief system in a different way.

If anyone holds similar beliefs to mine, I'd absolutely love to talk. I'd simply love to hear about other's experiences and discuss how you approach maintaining a connection with the Universe through yourself and your surroundings.

Thanks!

Hello! I'm a Hellenic pagan (specifically a follower of Hermes and Hestia) with Celtic ancestry and would love some book recs to learn about more rituals and practices. I also would love any recommendations for the wheel of the year and main holidays celebrated along it. (My MIL suggested llewellyn's sabbat essentials but I read that they aren't the most factual resource?)

I love love celebrating by cooking so any cookbooks or books with recipes in them would be highly appreciated.

Hi everyone, Eclectic pagan here. I mainly follow a mix of Indic and Semitic traditions, and I've noticed that most of the books about Semitic paganism are academic works or literature made for adults. Norse, Greek, Roman, Hindu and Egyptian pagan traditions are 90% of what children's content about paganism is based on.

Does anyone know anything family friendly about Celtic or Semitic traditions? Ideally, it's something with pictures, simple language, and an easy to understand collection of stories and facts.

Like you aren't meditating or anything. You are just doing whatever but you are in deep thought. Then your mind (yourself) starts talkiing about spiritual stuff. And you just let it roll. Let it keep talking.

Its like talking to yourself but letting your inner thoughts talk

I am almost tempted to do it because what my mind says in deep thought, actually makes a lot of sense. And its not stuff that i want to hear either. It challenges me. It also has helped explain things easier therefor making it easier for me to understand ideas.

What about you?

I worship Hekate and Apollo

This was actually captured by nasa. Its a heart shaped Nebula

(its actually beautiful)

I am English and have been practising British folk magic for about seven years, and consider myself pagan also. Paganism has never really borne much fruit for me though, because although I have some understanding of and experience with Hellenic, Celtic and Norse paganism, I have never found much in the way of resources on English or Anglo-Saxon paganism, and I do not have any real connection to the cultures that the above pagan religions come from or feel like it makes sense for my personal practice.

I am Scottish and English, so I have tried to find a way to practise my own paganism, and have some personal practices of my own, which are a mix of folk magic and neo-paganism, including connecting with the spirits of my local river and the plants, and the ancient history of this area, and a bit of Catholic folk magic too. I have also engaged in folk practices like sword dancing for the same reason of continuing my heritage.

Reconstruction for the sake of reconstruction is not really my goal, but gaining a connection to my heritage through historical practice is. I have found the lack of information about our historical practices frustrating. I know the names and possible associations the Anglo-Saxon gods have (Woden, Tiw, etc.) and Scottish deities such as the Cailleach, but I can't find much beyond that.

What do other British (especially English and Scottish) pagans do? Do some of you use Germanic/Norse/Celtic/Roman paganism to try and understand our paganism? Do you practice neo-paganism instead? Or do you have a personal eclectic practice like me?

If anyone has resources on the old gods of Scotland (Wales I would be interested in academically too) but especially England, or wants to share part of what their practice looks like, I would be really grateful. I am from the north east if anyone has local resources or info!

If you don't have resources but just want to discuss this topic generally, you're welcome to under this post.

Im a baby Medusa worshipper. My first amulet of her.

Hey y'all, I just need to vent and maybe hear from y'all. Basically exactly what the title says.

I live with my parents in Oklahoma. They're fundamentalist Christians pretty much, and I'm still closeted. Every so often I see or hear something about "demonic" stuff or witchcraft. I am SO damn tired of this. I used to be a Christian, and all Christianity gave me was worsened mental and physical health issues. It gave me stress and fear and pain and trauma. But according to these folks, the stuff that has actually given me peace is demonic.

I overheard something about the people who deal with spirits basically not knowing what they're doing or getting themselves into (I'm paraphrasing some video my mom was watching). That is beyond infantilizing. I study Christianity and ancient religions and a ton of other stuff, and I know far more than them about what I'm getting myself into. They haven't the first clue about what they believe and why they believe it.

These people love to say how demonic and satanic everything is, while disobeying their own god and his teachings. They are not hospitable, they don't care about the poor and the widow, and hell, a ton of Christians (at least apologists) lie CONSTANTLY. The people who praise the "Prince of Peace" are often warmongers and hateful beyond belief.

They love calling everything they don't believe in demonic. Evidently Chipotle is demonic now or something 😭 These are the people who suggested I have something wrong in my head for accepting evolution 😭

How do y'all cope with this 😭

Petitioning the Queen of families, motherhood, and childbirth to look after a beloved son&grandson in the hospital.

for me it’s just helped me become self aware and feel really loved unconditionally by my guides and deities. it helped me realize truly that what you give is what you receive, instead of that phrase just making me irritated. it helped me let go