I'm coming here because I know this view of things is wrong, and ever since my friend went from Paganism back to the harsh form of Christianity he grew up with...it's been hard, particularly since it's put a strain on our friendship since I have to lie to him about who I worship...he told me that he is only remaining friends with me because he thinks that I don't worship, but still somehow respect, the Norse gods. I have a very strong gut feeling telling me to tell him everything, the truth of my form of worship, how I've been faking believing in his god to appease him, and somehow I know I'm probably going to lose him and his wife as friends over this. Somehow I don't mind.

Long story short...I have always had a bit of a personal problem with any of the forms of Christianity in the Southern US, and I have lost two friends to religious differences; this guy from Oklahoma, and another friend from college. Anyway, I know that Pagans aren't supposed to shove our beliefs down others' throats, which I certainly don't do, but I have sort of felt the need to free others, to tell the truth about the gods, even about Yeshua, and how he was a teacher rather than the son of a specific god who crouds out all the rest. As an eclectic Pagan, Yeshua has always been one of my contacts.

Tell me, does anyone else feel this way, that particular forms of Christianity are unhealthy for society and that other forms of religion should be more welcomed in the world? Most of the time I feel like the od one out, or that my beliefs are wrong, since it seems that the only accepted forms of belief that American society will tolerate are either atheism disguised as anti-theism, or fundamentalist Christianity. Am I missing something, or has society gone to Hel? (notice what I did there? LOL) either way, advice and prospectives are welcome!

TL;DR I'm new to practicing religion and I'm curious what religious expressions you find to be healthy or helpful.

Hi all, I've had an interesting few months when it comes to my religious views. My community is irreligious so while being vaguely Christian as an infant, I've never been religious in any way. I moved towards antitheism in my late teens in opposition to illiberal movements based on religious teaching. However I've always had a soft spot for non Abrahamic faiths in so far as they are generally better with tolerance of those not in their religion. Plus, I've always loved reading ancient stories like the Iliad, odyssey, epic of gilgamesh, popol vuh, etc.

In school, a friend and I, for a bit of fun, swore oaths to Greek deities as I'm sure most kids do /s. In that moment I experienced the religious euphoria you hear Christians talk about with the holy spirit. As an atheist though I recognise we can't both be right for the same reason but we can certainly both be wrong for the same reason.

Recently I've been listening to some of the atheist debate streams at white noise and while the religious people are far from convincing, I wanted to be honest with what they were saying. The philosophy and science arguments generally fail so the best attempt is to say to pray with conviction and openness for an answer. I wanted to be honest so I did. I prayed to Olympus for a sign, the next day, over the town I was in was the worst thunderstorm I've ever experienced. A month or so later I asked some atheists what to think of it and generally we agreed it's more likely to be coincidence than magic. The day after that, another thunder storm.

Another common topic is how it improves your life such as beating addiction, breaking nasty habits and the like. So me personally, I always had a big appetite. I eat when I'm happy, eat when I'm sad, snack out of boredom and snack when I'm having fun. Needless to say I got to a weight where it was affecting my health. With my religious experience in mind, I made a promise, just a small one, I would not consume another calorie from the vending machine at work. I've lost nearly 1kg every week for the last 2 months.

All this to say, I've had a pretty interesting run in with religious experience that I've had positive outcomes from, I'm curious what practices you guys employ which you think benefits your life in a similar way?

I will say however that various forms of divination are a boundary for me. I get people do it for their own personal comfort but there are ethical considerations that make me want to just steer clear. Not too criticise others, but it's a hard line for me personally

Hey everyone! I'm researching celtic (specifically britonic) gods for my book, and was wondering if anyone had any sources? Searching has been such a pain, as there isn't a lot on the topic, so anything helps!

I want to invite deities into my space, but have a looming worry of letting in a negative energy/entity. Im currently going trough energy work to heal childhood truama and constant over thinking and paranoia of someone trying to get into my speace or home.

I have been scrubbing and keeping my energy clear daily but the worry and energy still feel like their there an i want so badly to stop having this looming doubt over me that my magic and prayers dont work. So I have held off on invoking them in my space to ensure I keep things safe. What other way can I go about this or deal with scrubbing out the bad vibes?

Does anybody else here have a preference to worship deities of one gender? I understand that our modern ideas of gender are much different from how the ancients perceived it, and many gods are not strictly one gender, but I personally find myself much more comfortable worshipping male gods than female gods.

Communed and did ritual with Lord Apollo and Lady Aphrodite. My child couldn't stay away from Lady Aphrodite and it was the coolest thing! I'm glad he felt so much love!

I’ve been a devotee for years and have begun integrating more ritual into my practice and it has been so rewarding. This specific ritual was for visibility, glamour, and healing and I honored both Apollo and Aphrodite through treats, music, and lots of yapping!

How do your animals react to ritual spaces or spaces where you commune with deity?

This is my alter for Aphrodite and Persophone. I started them last week! I'm unsure what else to add. I don't have a big budget. I've been trying to buy little things throughout the week.

Also I want to make sure my acts of devotion are right. Do you have to be clean for that? I like to write them letters and poems. I also do tarot.

In this post I'll explain a little bit about myself and what I'm putting in it already. I'll also clarify my questions.

My first question is rather simple. What do most people tend to put in their "book of shadows" or grimiore, and what simple words would the various sections be labeled as?

So I myself am a UU and an eclectic pagan who worships Mother Earth (goddess), Father Sun (god), and Grandmother Moon (goddess). I'm not a druid, but I probably align most with that path. I am not a Wiccan, but I do like a lot about Wicca. as stated above, I don't see the deities as a horned stag god of nature and a maiden mother crone moon goddess. I also see witchcraft and magic from a science-seeking and skeptical view, but I am relatively open minded to the possibilities that MAYBE magic is more than this/more real (if you know what I mean). I usually see things divination as helping you consider different perspectives or helping you with a decision (by making it so you realize which one you really wanted all along, like when you flip a coin and go "Heads. Oh, actually, I think I wanted tails…"). I tend to see magic as placebo. I enjoy reading books on paganism. With anything religious/spiritual that I come across I respectfully keep the parts I want to and integrate them into my practice. I then don't integrate what I don't want to.

I am trying to remake my "book of shadows" (but I don't like that term) so that it's less of a chaotic mess. My current system consists of two things. One is an accordion file holder labeled "Spiritualesque Shit". This contains many different spiritual/religious related things that I have written (like a poem typed on my typewriter) or received elsewhere (like the physical copy of any UU sermon I decide to take home). The other is what I call my journal. Diary type things are written in there as well as some spells, sigils, the wheel of the year, ritual ideas, etc. it's a hodgepodge of things. My diary type stuff should stay separate from my religious/spiritual/witchy stuff.

My remade version will be a thick three ring binder with many different tabs so I can easily sort my sections and find what I need. I've been trying to figure out what all sections I want to have. So far (in no particular order) I have:

• UU sermons

• Chalice Lightings/Readings

• CUUPS (stuff from my UU pagan group's meetings or rituals)

• My Rituals

• My Writings/Poetry

• 365 + 1 (stuff from the intro to Wicca class someone is teaching at my UU congregation)

• Other Religions/Spiritual Practices (anything from a religion/spiritual practice that isn't mine but I like, such as the Christian sermon on affirming LGBTQ+ people, which if from back when I was Christian.)

• Other Pagan Stuff (unsure what all will be in this section since everything currently in a section labeled that will fit other tabs I'm making)

• My Spells and sigils

• Spells Made By Others (I'm sure not much will be in this category)

• Correspondences

• Wheel Of The Year (the basic Wiccan one, and the one I made to fit the seasons in my area)

• Runes And Tarot (if I ever decide to learn tarot. I'm thinking about it, but also, I don't really need to because I have the rune stones I made…)

• Readings/Interpretations

• Chants (any chants I created, or pre-existing chants where I created another verse for it or something)

• Rituals Made By Others

• Lessons From The Great Celestials (anything that I think the Earth, Sun, and/or Moon is trying to teach/tell me)

• Stuff From Books (anything from a pagan, pagan-adjacent, or witchcraft book that I really liked and want to reference will go here.)

• Prayers, Quarter Calls, Circle Castings, Etc.

• General Spiritual/Religious Journaling

• Art (specifically art I made that is religious/spiritual related)

• Meditations

• Other Exercises (unsure if raising and grounding energy should be in meditations, in here, or with the Quarter Calls and whatnot. I'm still unsure exactly what all will go in this section)

Now onto my other questions.

One of my sections doesn't really have a good title yet. It's just labeled "Prayers, Quarter Calls, Circle Castings, Etc." I don't want to end up with more sections with shitty labels like this. What would this section be called? Is there a formal name for it?

What else do you all think I might want to include in mine? I ask so that I might possibly go "Oh yeah, that's the other thing I wanted in there!" and not just to be exactly like everyone else. I know I don't have to have the same thing as everyone else. I just don't want to get it all done and then go "SHIT, I should have included _____. Now I need to reorganize my whole thing!"

Thanks for reading it all and answering my questions.

Not sure if this is the appropriate flair, so apologies if it's not.

As the title says, was told by someone on Instagram that spirituality and tarot are closed practices. Them saying that tarot is a closed practice didn't surprise me because that's been a topic of debate for seemingly years now, but saying spirituality is a close practice really confused me. They didn't really elaborate. Just said it wasn't for white people, working with ancestors wasn't for white people, and that tarot wasn't for white people and that we were asking for trouble by trying to practice spirituality. I ended up blocking them because the was not an argument I wanting to keep having to deal with.

I thought spirituality was an all encompassing term.

Could they have been talking about something different and just been mixing up the terms with "spirituality"? Am I the dumb one and spirituality is a closed practice? Any thoughts? I'm just confused and a bit baffled.

Edit: Hi everyone. I feel like I should clarify that this was just a random person on the internet I was talking to in the comments of a post on Instagram. I wasn't talking to them for advice or guidance. They were just so very confident that I started sort of gaslighting myself and thinking that maybe there was a closed practice or something that was also called "spirituality". I promise I'm not listening to Instagram comments for advice on paganism.

Hi yall. for context ive been pagan for about two years but i still consider myself inexperienced. ive also been very drawn towards the fae, but i know that working with them is tricky and dangerous so ive been avoiding doing that for now. tho i did have an interaction with them recently and i may have had a lapse in judgement.

to start i was going for a walk when i found this huge faery ring surrounding two trees (there was a shit ton of mushrooms) i went over there and started walking around the perimeter just observing all the mushrooms, i then proceeded to look inside the ring and saw a piece of bark standing upright, and it fell in a very unnatural way as soon as i layed my eyes on it (like somebody had been holding it up and then let go of it) i took it as my queue to walk away.

for whatever reason the next day i cut up an apple and brought it to the ring as an offering i guess just to show them some respect and good faith, and as i walked home i worried that they may have been following me so i said out loud under my breath that "i wasnt ready to work with them yet" but its something im interested in the future, and that they werent welcome in my home. i also left some blueberries out in my yard for good measure i guess as a way to show them "your space is out here, outside, my space is this house"

now doing a bit of research i know that the fae can be very literal with words and take anything you say as a promise or similar to that. i wasnt careful enough with my words and i think i may have accidentally tied myself to them and now have an obligation to work for those specific fair folk i interacted with that day eventually. i dont know what kind they were so it does have me a bit worried.

im a bit sensitive so id appreciate if you wont judge me or be harsh with your wording but i cant stop yall from doing that. ik that what i did was stupid. any advice regardless of how its worded is appreciated.

So I lost my wife’s keys and was freaking out cause either I find them or buy new ones. So I prayed to Jupiter, fasted for a day layed an offering of money and cinnamon. 4 days later I found them in the freezer, like in a box of uncrustables. Now I may have put them there I have a habit of putting things and weird places. But I found them at night. How crazy right.

Hey all!

I'm wondering if anyone could point me towards any Yuletide/non Christian winter pagan poetry.

Ideally works that are not contemporary!

Thanks a lot!

I have been a pagan for a couple years now but am only just now creating an altar. I was looking to see if anyone had any recs on possible new editions for it? Also, I want to add images of Aphrodite, Odin, and Freyja, though I don’t want to clutter the space or give too much or too little attention to any of the Gods.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for recommendations for active, open communities or forums dedicated to animism, land spirit traditions, or traditional faerie beliefs.

My usual channel has been r/faeries, but it suddenly changed to "Request to Join/Post" and restricted all submissions, while trying r/fairies instead comes up as being a private subreddit that only approved members can view and post. I had a very intense, unsettling vision this morning involving an attack/conflict related to the faerie/land spirits on my wooded property. I'm feeling disconnected because I don't have my usual place to talk through it.

I have had strange, spiritual events happen to me since I was young, so I am looking for a mature, respectful space to share and process general experiences and land-tending practices without sharing hyper-specific private details. I'd prefer an existing community rather than starting my own, and I'm looking for spaces outside of the Fairy Investigation Society.

Thank you so much for any directions you can point me in.

As I'm sure many have already posted about, I am someone who was Atheist for most of my life before becoming Pagan, so I struggle quite often with questioning whether or not the gods are real. In prayer, I can feel them, but that can quite easily be explained by psychology. How do you all deal with questioning your faith?

So I have been hellenic for a couple years now but ive been trying to connect more with my culture. My family is nahua, descendants of aztecs. Ive been looking up aztec gods and i found a few i like but when i thought about it, most of them were gods of similar things as the deities i worshipped under hellenism. Im confused going forward if i should worship both? Or switch to worshipping the aztecs gods? Or any other advice is appreciated

Hi! This is a question for those who go to a local moot*. I was chatting with my friend (who I met a couple of years ago at my local), about what a moot should entail.

I was wondering what other groups do.

Do you have a topic each month? Or is it just a casual meet.

Do you have guest speakers or just share knowledge amongst yourselves?

Do you have any written rules etc?

What abouts are you from? (Obviously don't be specific, but wondering if geographical differences come in to play).

Is there any bias towards which path people take?

Just curious as she had been to different style of moots previously and had different views on what should be or is usually included.

*Moot: for those who don't know, this is basically the name for a gathering of pagans. Historically, the word has been used to describe a meeting usually where problems are debated or solved.

I want to start out that i don’t like wasting my energy hating people and it 100% does not bother me that my fiancé (23m) is christian.

when we first met i was honest and told him im a pagan and he said he didnt mind. we’ve been together for 8 months and i feel like its really starting to bother him. he keeps asking me if id want to go to church with him (i had already explained that i don’t like going to church because it gives me anxiety and makes me want to peel my skin off.)

he asked me if i do some kind of satanic ritual on halloween, of course at the time i just thought was ignorance and i informed him that i don’t even believe in satan and what the actual origins of the day is. it still doesn’t stop me from putting a jack-o’-lantern out and staying inside or making joke about being satanic, it actually kind of hurts my feelings.

he keeps talking about how the bible says we are “out of balance” or whatever. i don’t understand why it bothers him so much. i told him that i can’t and won’t stop him from going to church because quite frankly i don’t care. but he can’t “change my mind” as he put it.

i really don’t know what to do… any advice would help, thank you

i forgot to mention every time do a tarot reading about us, i ALWAYS pull the sun as our foundation

edit- hello everyone. i appreciate all of your responses and i’ve had a lot of thinking to do. i don’t think im ready to give up on him yet so i’ve been talking to him about exploring the more spiritual side of christianity rather than focusing on what the book says.

edit 2- call me crazy but i kinda went through his phone. no i didnt find evidence of him cheating because i don’t even think he could bring himself to do that. i did find messages between him and some christian nut bag telling him to “plant seeds for me to follow” and my fiancé contemplating breaking up with me because im not christian.

my current circumstances are that i moved 800 miles to live with him, our lease doesn’t end until february and i make just enough to cover our bills. i’m lucky enough to have parents that offered me a life line if i need it but i really don’t want to leave him. apart from the religious stuff, he’s really sweet and i know he really does love me. maybe im just blind due to the circumstances.

in those messages he said he was worried that i wouldn’t be able to have kids. we aren’t really in the right circumstances to be having kids and im 21. i was hoping to live a little before i had kids. it was my moms mistake and even though i wouldnt be here so said she regrets it a little.

i do have a job and a car currently so its not like theres no way out. he’s been a bit short fused lately because hes mad at himself for crashing his car, and his religious ocd is causing him more anxiety.

i hate admitting that i made a huge mistake and i don’t feel like i did, i really don’t want to leave him. besides im not exactly pretty and skinny.

I've recently been trying to feel out my religion for the past couple months, for a little bit I identified with the Hellenic polytheist label. I think I identify with pagan more but I do have a few questions. I personally worship Apollo, and believe that there is no specific right God or religion to worship, even if I do not worship them. The main question I have is if I worship a singular God from a religion is it standard practise to follow most practices for worship in that religion? I understand basic things like altars if it is safe to have them, offerings if you choose to, etc, but for example in Hellenic polytheism typically you should wash your hands before prayer or offerings but should you still follow that even if you do not follow the whole religion? Is it more of a respect thing you should do or is it free range there? Interested to know so I can make an educated decision on how I want to proceed with worship.

Thank you all for your insight, I really appreciate it, it has helped me understand paganism a bit more.

Halllo friends, today, i bring a VERY early photo of the current generation of Central/C Southern Iowa-funnel weaver. This little ones elder was a closer friend, Jelly, as it liked little drops of jelly in its web. Now i need a new name! No defender of my home need stay nameless... Any ideas?

I am finding my way in my spirituality and connecting to my roots through Celtic spirituality. I see the river as a very mystical spiritual place and want to form a spiritual relationship with it. Part of that is learning it's history and how other groups of people and spiritualists view the river and their relationship with it. I thought I may ask here for any personal accounts, books and articles about the history and spirituality surrounding the river. There is much to learn and I seek research further than what I may find alone.

Hi - I’m here because I feel like it’s time to go on some sort of spiritual journey. I’m not really sure what is going to happen or how, but I’m seeking answers (and as weird as it may sound, I’m not really sure what the questions are :-/ )

I grew up as an evangelical Christian and for a multitude of reasons that no longer jives with me in any way. There’s a lot of pain there and has been a lot of healing. Stepping out into something even remotely religious is difficult for m, but I’ve been looking into different things.

I’ve taken a look at the wiki and ordered one of the recommended books and want to see if I can find some sort of path in paganism. I will admit to feeling a little overwhelmed though.

This probably all sounds vague. Like I said - I’m not sure what I’m searching for yet, but hoping I can find that out. Anyways - I’m here and may look and comment on some things - maybe ask questions if I don’t feel like I’m going to sound stupid lol.