paganism without deity

Patrons, Angels, and Guiding Spirits

/ Twist the Leaf / 2 Comments

This week’s question from the Pagan Perspective YouTube channel is about patrons, angels, and guiding spirits.

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Topic for the Week of 10/14: “I don’t have a succinct question but I’d love to hear people talk about patrons, holy guardian angels, tutelary spirits, head spirits and that sort of thing. Do you think they’re all the same or are they different things with different roles? How many (if any) do you acknowledge and work with?”

Honestly, I am open to the possibility that they all exist.  I am also open to the possibility that they are all the same thing and that people just relate to them differently   I am also open to the possibility that they are NOT all the same thing, and that each is a different thing with a different role.

In my own personal practice, I do not work with angels, demons, patrons, gods, goddesses, spirits of the deceased, and have no idea what a tutelary spirit or head spirit is (although I did consult google briefly before this post, but… it wasn’t clearly defined in what I found).

What I do work with is energy.  I work with (and revere) elemental energies, and I work with what I see as the core energy that is within everyone and everything, which I refer to as the “energies of creation, evolution, and balance”.

I also acknowledge 1) the existence of spirits of the deceased that occasionally linger or stay behind for some reason, and 2) Fae.

With the spirits of the deceased, I do not work with them.  I do not want to work with them and feel that it is not a part of my wheelhouse.  That’s not to say that I haven’t had experiences, but these are acknowledged and not explored.  I have no interest in delving into that area of things, regardless of if I have potential ability to do so.

Concerning the Fae… It is much the same, but with a feeling of kinship and gratitude.  I am familiar with liminal spaces, especially those that are very much connected to raw nature.  I enjoy them immensely and feel very, very much at home within them.

In these spaces, there are Fae energies present and these are welcome in that sense of kinship and gratitude that I’ve mentioned, but I do not work with them in my practice or my spellcraft.  For me, it is much the same as why I don’t work with animals in my practice and spellcraft.  They are living entities with free will, their own motivations, and their own choices to make.  I would never push my will upon them in that way, even if they stepped forward to volunteer for it.  It just doesn’t feel right.

 

Gender, Identity, and Paganism

/ Twist the Leaf / 2 Comments

This week’s question from the Pagan Perspective YouTube channel is about gender, as well as how gender factors into your pagan practice and beliefs.

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Topic for the Week of 10/7: 

Part 1 from Jack Place: “Your thoughts on transgender people and the difference between bio sex and mental sex.”

Honestly?  I don’t really care.  I’m Pansexual and see people, not gender.  My only issue is when it comes to pronouns.  I really hate the whole pronoun thing, because there is so much room for confusion, mistake, and accidental offense.

Part 2 from MintyDandyDannie: “Supposing that there is a third gender as many believe and feel, how would you react? Would it still fit in with your current beliefs? Or would it create a need for movement? How do you feel about the concept of a third gender that is not related to male or female in any way?”

For this part of this week’s question, I think need to start out by explaining why the second part of the question is phrased as it is, and why it would even matter.

In many pagan practices (such as Wicca, for example), there is worship of the God and Goddess.  This includes mythos that follows the wheel of the year where the goddess and god are intertwined from conception to birth to growth, to adulthood and conception again, rinse and repeat.  In these religions, adding in a third gender could, I suppose, upset the balance.

Obviously, as I’ve mentioned this before, this is not my path.  My path deals with nature, the elements, and the energies of creation, evolution, and balance. There is no deity.

Yes, there is a yin and yang to the balance of all things, but although it is often “classified” as masculine and feminine, it has nothing to do with gender.  Those terms are used for in discussion of these energies more due to “stereotypical stereotypes” than accuracy. (And, isn’t that one hell of a term?)  All people and all things have both the “masculine” and “feminine” energy within them.  The terms are archaic, and yet it is because they are archaic that they are universally understood when used… and thus continue to be used.

In my tarot practice (both in reading and teaching), as well as my practice as a whole, I have moved to using the terms “projective” and “receptive” (or yin/yang depending on the situation and usage).  I think this better expresses my perceptions without confusing things with the mention of gender.   If there was a third gender?  That gender would also have projective and receptive energies within them, just as everyone and everything else does.  Therefore, it would really have no effect at all on  my beliefs or practice.

 

My Morning Routine

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment

Being that I’m away from home for the week this week, I figured today would be a nice day for some nostalgia.   Well, nostalgia concerning my normal routine, that is.   So I thought you might like a peek at my regular morning routine.

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I usually work on the farm at least six days a week, and I wake up VERY early each morning to head to the farm and get there by 5am for my shift.  I very literally pick my ass out of bed, put on  my crappy tattered farm clothes, grab my keys, a handful of protein bars, and my phone, and head out.  I don’t bother with a shower or brushing my teeth, or even combing my hair.

My shifts on the farm are usually between 4 to 7 hours in length depending on what needs done that day and if the owner needs any extra help.

Once I get home, I immediately toss my clothes in the washer and hop in the shower.  I do all of my washing, flossing, tooth-brushing, plucking (because I do not grow enough hair on my face to bother shaving), hair combing, other intimate grooming, etc in the shower.   I get out and apply lotion, then apply emollient bar to the various scarring on my body to keep them supple so they don’t crack.  Deodorant, ear cleaning, all that good stuff comes next.

I then get dressed and spend about 30 – 60 minutes on the floor doing yoga.  Once this is done, I move to my altar and do my daily devotional.

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What is a Daily Devotional?

Every morning I stand before my altar.  I take a few minutes to center and ground myself, and then I light the candle on my altar.   I touch each of the corresponding spheres on my altar as I go through this invocation in my mind (obviously, I can’t speak these aloud).

Energies of the North, Earth, and Body… I welcome you
Energies of the East, Air, and the Mind… I welcome you
Energies of the South, Fire, and the Inner Spark… I welcome you
Energies of the West, Water, and the Emotions… I welcome you

I then touch the Gaia statue and continue…

Energies of creation, evolution, and balance… I welcome you

I touch my father’s kila and the mirror of my grandmother and continue…

Beloved ancestors that wish to bestow love and wisdom… I welcome you

I light incense.   Usually this is a combination of Nag Champa and Frankincense. I then stand before my altar and take a minute to center myself again so that I am not distracted when I decide to continue.  Gratitude comes next…

Thank you for this beautiful new day and all of the opportunities it presents to me to improve myself and the world around me.

Thank you for my safe and secure home, my beautiful and loving sister, my trusted friends, my lovely Luna, and my beloved partner.   Thank you as well for the love of my mother and loving care others around me.

Please guide my feet along today’s path so that I may…. (changes from day to day)

Examples:  Enjoy the day to the fullest, have safe travels on today’s journeys, have a productive day filled with accomplishments and small pleasures, etc.

I then pick up my daily draw deck for the month and I begin to shuffle.  As I shuffle, I am requesting…

I ask that you provide me with a positive message to carry with me throughout my day and foster perspective.

I repeat this as I go through riffle shuffling then switch to a seesaw overhand shuffle until a card falls out (or jumps out).   Sometimes more than one card comes out (as you’ve seen in my daily posts).   If it is more than two cards, I will put them back and ask for an answer that involves less cards.

Once I have my card of the day before me, I will take a moment to sink into the image and really -feel- the card, then return my attention to my altar to close things out with…

Please accept my gratitude as I strive to learn from your messages and follow your guidance.  Today, and Every Day.

I then blow out the candle to close things out, and snuff out the incense.

From there, I will go to the bed and lie down with my legs up the wall.  I will settle into a piriformis stretch position, and then meditate (usually to the guided meditations provided in the Calm app on my phone).

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Once my meditation is done, I will then head out of the bedroom and feed Miss Luna, get my tea made (complete with collagen peptides added), make a couple pieces of toast with peanut butter, and get my probiotic yogurt out.  With tea, toast, and yogurt in hand, I then sit down to take my morning medications and eat.

From there, my day diverges into whatever else I have to get done or do throughout the day, any other shifts I need to work, business tasks that need completed, etc.  But, my mornings up until that point?  They’re pretty much the same every day except Saturdays.

Where My Perspectives Have Changed

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment

So, last month on  YouTube, MIRTHandREVERENCE did a video answering a subscriber’s question about how her practices and perspectives have changed over the 40+ years she’s been on her path.    I really like this question, and decided I wanted to share my own experiences concerning the differences between how I was raised, and what I practice now.

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I think that the biggest difference is the use of deity.   In my parent’s home, we had the God and Goddess of the Pagan’s wheel of the year.  We also had Buddha, Sanshin, and Quan Yin.   My father had a shrine, my mother had an altar, and there were small statues set out in reverence to these deities throughout the house.

I never really felt comfortable worshiping deities, and once I had left my parents home soon after I turned sixteen, I stopped.  That isn’t to say that I stopped my faith, only that my faith changed.  I did not personify my faith, but rather reach beyond the faces and “deities” to the elements and the energy of creation, evolution, and balance itself.   This is where my focus lies in my devotionals, petitions, and invocations.

Along that same line is the difference in how much worship and prayer is involved as a whole.   I spend less time on my knees in front of a shrine or altar, and more time within nature, bonding and appreciating it all.  I also do a good deal of my worship standing or active within nature.

Group gatherings.  Meh.

Growing up, my parents attended many group gatherings with like-minded folks.  They had circles and they had munches.   They sought out a pagan parenting mentor (who you know as Z) to assist them in guiding my sister and I along a similar path.

Other than with my sister?  I don’t worship with others.  I have no interest in sitting in a coffee shop talking about deity and ritual.  I don’t need others energies and intentions and motivations screwing with my spellcraft.  Just… not for me, I guess.  I suppose you could say that I just don’t “play well with others” in that way.

There is much that has remained the same in the separation of those fifteen-ish years, but above are the most notable differences that have developed over time to transition my faith from that of my parents into something that works for me alone.

 

#GrumpyWitchTag (non) VR to Yarrowen and Heather Carter

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment

I wouldn’t say I’m necessarily a “grumpy witch”, but I think the questions are more about the things you either don’t like or don’t connect with, rather than really being grumpy. This tag first came to my attention in Heather Carter’s channel, and then I forgot about it a bit until the other day Yarrowen also did a response to it.

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So here’s the questions and my answers to them…

1. Do you have a least favorite time of the year magically?

The second half of Summer.  I’m just not a fan.  It’s all about the heat, the lack of rain, the HEAT…. and, well, everything drying out and becoming crunchy.

2. Is there an herb that you don’t like working with or never seems to work in your practice?

No, although there are herbs and other plants that I avoid working with due to allergy issues.   Some of these include, but are far from limited to, juniper, alder, tobacco, marigold, linden flower (and lemon tree in general), and hibiscus flowers.   IF I work with these, I have to be extremely careful not to allow them to touch my skin or get near my face.  A flu mask, long sleeves, and doubled up latex gloves are a must, and sometimes eye protection as well.

3. Is there a stone or crystal that you don’t like working with or never seems to add anything to your practice?

Ugh.  I can’t work with nuummite.  It’s energy is too “heavy” and just drags me down when I come in contact with it.   That said?  My sister uses nuummite as a paperweight (with intention spellcasting) on her stack of little paper thin girl pad things?  WTF are they called?  Liners?   She uses them with those and swears by it.

Aside from that, I’ve learned a few lessons about where not to use certain stones because they are not suited to it (or I am not suited to their influence in that way of using them), but I it isn’t that I don’t like to work with them or don’t find them useful in other ways.

4. Is there anything that “bothers” you about your deity or your practice?

Um… well, honestly?   The shit that bugs me is that I just don’t have enough time to commit to it as I’d like.   That really doesn’t have anything to do with my practice though, and more to do with just being busy and overworked. I don’t work with specific deity, tho.

5. What do you do when a spell doesn’t work?

Review, reflect, revise, and try again.  OR…. evaluate if it’s something I really want or need in the first place, as sometimes when shit doesn’t work, it’s telling you that whatever it is is just not meant to be.

6. Have you ever done a meditation or astral work that did nothing for you?

I don’t do astral work, but I do meditate regularly.  And yes.   There are times when I just cannot manage to settle and focus for my meditation.  I wouldn’t say it does nothing for me, just that it doesn’t have the amount of a desired effect as I’d like.

7. Is there an element that just doesn’t work for you?

I don’t connect as strongly to fire or air as I do to earth and water.  I don’t really consider any of them not working for me though.

8. How do you get out of a witchy rut?

Usually?  I take a break and wait it out.   If I’m not “feeling it” I don’t do it.  I figure that it’s the universe’s way of telling me I need to take some time to let up and just relax for a bit.

9. How do you deal with life getting in the way of your practice?

The best I can?   I mean everyone has responsibilities and obligations to deal with.  Everyone has people that need our time and things that require looking after that have nothing to do with your practice.  It’s a part of life.   Like other parts of my life, I strive for balance.  Sometimes I mange it… other times, not so much.

Some of the ways I strive for balance is by trying to carve out specific time for different things, setting up methods of accountability (like this blog for my daily draw and Saturday check ins), and pre-planning/pre-working some of the things needed to prep for upcoming busy times.

10. When you have all of these negative feelings about your practice, what do you do?

I think I pretty much answered this in the eighth question.  I take a break and wait it out, or I may reach out to others for a different perspective to help me find balance a little faster if I think it will help.