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 Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 5:29 pm
I like to think that the Gods I call on in my rituals are always there, even if I don't fully experience their presence.
Last full moon I did a ritual outside under a large Maple tree. I called on Diana as in the Diana of Strega not Rome. I did a reading out of the Gospel of Aradia and prayed hard asking her to guide and guard me as my path continues.
The wind was blowing but the candle was always lit. It seemed to me that it was going to go out at times, but the candle magically changed positions as in the flame altered where it was facing with out my touch,
I offered Kaluah which is a creamy liquor useually mixed with milk or coffee. As I left and picked up the wind had stopped. I grab my ritual supplies and I start to head inside. Just as I turn my head to blow out the flame, it goes out on it's own.
That was my first real experience with the deities I have worked with in a very long time. I think it may have been because the ritual was done outside and not inside.
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Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2011 6:07 pm
I always experience the gods' presence in ritual. If they're not there I'll assume something has been done wrong and make steps to correct it.
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Sanguina Cruenta Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 6:34 pm
Perhaps I was able to notice it more because I called a specific deity and the ritual was outside under an oak tree (which again has it's own magical/religious connotations) for the first time. I also called on the spirit of the land (whom I have given offerings to before) in my ritual, and I felt the presence like something I had only experienced once a long time ago in another outdoor ritual as a teen. The only other self written out door ritual I have performed.
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Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 9:26 pm
Maybe it means Diana of the Strega is the goddess you're meant to follow, if the other gods you have worshipped aren't paying as much attention.
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Sanguina Cruenta Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 3:38 pm
It's possible. Though I think she is one of many. I wouldn't know where to start aside from Aradia. I don't even know if there are any Strega in my area.
I think I may just need to do a couple of the deep trance rituals I have done before in order to return to those conversations where I have experienced them.
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Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 3:48 pm
But to what end? Work with the deity who's listening to you first. If the gods are ignoring your rituals, there's something wrong. Your fingers are in a bunch of pies, and if you're not listening you'll miss something.
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Sanguina Cruenta Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 12:18 am
To get to know the deities that are calling me more. One of the other times I have truly experienced deity was a time I used an invocation and had the goddess in me through out the ritual. My fiance noticed the change and it was rather different.
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Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 11:24 pm
When I was first getting to know various aspects of generic NeoPaganism, I felt a lot of happy, warm, fuzzy feelings of contentedness and like I was headed in the right direction.
Cue the night of my first solitary ritual, and just about everything goes awry. Candles burning weirdly, wax getting everywhere, incense sticks knocking over, everything else knocking over... but most importantly, a really, really intense of foreboding and like I was in big trouble.
So I whipped out my tarot deck and did a 10-card Celtic cross spread, and I drew all of the cards people don't really like to draw, like Death, the Tower, the 7 and 10 of Swords, and all "good" cards were reversed.
I took this as a sign that the God I had previously paid my attentions to--the Christian God, specifically of the Catholic variety--was upset with my new switching of things. Or I suppose "the God" and "the Goddess" were pissed. So I basically had to sit down and say that I wasn't doing this out of rebellion or anything, but a deep need to connect back with my spirituality and the divine. And then everything stopped being really hectic. I felt a sudden sadness and departure.
We of the pre-initiate (and initiate) Gardnerian variety like to draw down deities into our High Priests and Priestesses. Drawing down the Moon was a core element of every esbat and Drawing Down the Sun the same for the eight sabbats. That's a pretty good way to get into contact with a deity. I am usually terrified of Them, though sometimes They are playful and fun. And sometimes they quote Thelemic verses at us.
Most of my regular deity contact comes through dreams, prayer, divination, and meditation, not really through rituals. Except Catholic mass, for whatever reason.
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Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 1:24 am
I have a pretty intense relationship with Ishtar. Normally, I don't ask her for anything. I'm already set in the love department, though when we decide to have kids, I suppose I'll turn to her then. Normally I turn to her for my more...devious acts, you could say, which are extremely rare. Normally, I invoke her in order to pay her homage during intercourse. This seems to keep her pleased and I've never had an instance where she didn't "show up." She was pretty up front about wanting my attention before I ever even thought to look for a patron god/ess, so I suppose it makes sense.
I've worked with other gods and goddesses before, but I've never had a connection with any of them like the one I have with Ishtar. I have a good relationship with Tammuz, though it's not as intense as the one with Ishtar. Ishtar can be very capricious. While my relationship with her is strong and she always seems ready to work with me, she can get very impatient. At first, it was difficult working with her because of that, but now that I know what she wants, it's fairly easy to please her. Tammuz is much more forgiving. He doesn't seem to mind my blunders, or if I forget to pay homage to him. He's very patient and I suppose he would have to be to be her lover.
I think a persons personality is the biggest factor in how they will develop a relationship with certain gods. For me, I like a challenge, and that's exactly what Ishtar has offered me. While I love and respect Tammuz, he doesn't offer me the challenge I need to push myself, so our relationship isn't as strong.
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Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 9:10 pm
My connection to the Lord of the Underworld was cemented last week during Samhain. I performed a rite to basically show me where death and life intersect and why the cycle exists. During the great rite between my fiance and myself I actually saw through the God rapidly transforming into all of the Gods I worship how they are all connected and how all five of the Gods seem to be connected in some way to this Sabbat,
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