My experiences communing with Apollo
Note: My experiences with Apollo seem to be a bit different from other people’s. This post is about my UPG, my personal experiences, and yours may be different. And that’s ok! :)
Apollo (sometimes Apollon) is the Greek god of many things: health and healing, music, dance, and poetry, prophecy, truth, and knowledge. He also represents light and pulls a chariot carrying Helios, the sun god, across the sky each day.
His personality in Greek mythology can vary from stern and easy-to-anger to kind and warm-hearted. He’s shown to take vengeance, to fall in love (usually with tragic results), and to act as an intermediary between gods and humans.
While many of his devotees describe him as intimidating, distant, moody, or scary, this hasn’t been my experience with him at all.
I find Apollo to be warm and brotherly, like a proud mentor, but we talk to each other like good, lifelong friends. He can be witty and outright hilarious, especially when bantering with Hermes. But he can also be serious and thoughtful and philosophical.
He aids me with research and writing, pushes me to grow in different areas I study, keeps me positive about my chronic illness, and boosts my confidence. He also grants inspired thought during my tarot sessions and provides insightul moments of strong intuition.
I hope that you can use the things I’ll talk about here to connect more closely with Apollo. I know that many people find him hard to connect with, but Apollo can be such a rewarding god to work with.
How do I interact with Apollo?
I practice my devotion to Apollo on a combined altar with the other gods I follow. This might not work for everyone, but for me, it feels like the gods are convened together in a sacred space that replicates Olympus.
On the altar, I offer Apollo handmade gifts, art inspired by his comics, and things that remind me of him. Some of my writing is also dedicated to Apollo, and I offer him the music I make when I play the piano. I play songs for him on Spotify, and I’m working on a playlist.
I ask Apollo for help with my health and the health of those I care about. I ask him for inspiration, especially if I have writer’s block. And I ask him for logic when my anxiety gets out of hand.
He speaks to me through strong intuitive pushes, sudden thoughts that appear in my mind, books that fall open to significant pages, or incidental signs or nudges that I notice around me. We also communicate through meditation and tarot.
Intuitive pushes and thoughts
By this I mean sudden predictive thoughts that appear in my mind. They’re not just “feelings.” They’re more like someone put all the facts together, considered all the logical posibilities, and then generated a thought based on the most objective probability. This is partly how my mind words and partly a function of Apollo, so I think this is why we work well together.
An example of this: I might put a glass of water on a table and then immediately see an image in my mind of the cup getting bumped and knocked over, spilling water everywhere. Inevitably, if I ignore this push, the cup will spill and I’ll be left cleaning up the mess and regretting not listening. If I do listen, the cup won’t be spilled and all will be well.
As another example, if I try to do something, like going out to eat, and everything seems to be going wrong – I stub my toe, I can’t find the shirt I wanted to wear, I’m running late – then I’ll decide not to go. Personally, these obstacles represent a larger trend and I feel like they’re a sign to just stop and take care of myself instead. Inevitably, I’ll have a flare up of my illness if I don’t listen and what was going to be a fun night out will become miserable.
Sometimes I’ll feel a thought so loudly that I absolutely must say it out loud. While I may not even feel strongly about the subject or the words may not agree with my own opinion, I feel compelled to express them anyway.
Sometimes these words so clearly belong to Apollo that my wife has deemed them “inspired speech,” or the words of a god expressed through a devotee.
I’m not yet sure how I feel about thinking of it this way, but I’m open to the possibility. Apollo tends to be the main god who expresses themselves like this for me and I’m sometimes surprised by the things he says. If the connection is really strong, tears start flowing from my eyes for no reason.
Sometimes I’ll see something in the environment around me that just makes me think of Apollo. For example, like a sign on the subway or a comment on Twitter. Signs are very personal, and only you can know if what you’ve seen is a sign from a god or not. Apollo’s signs for me may include the image of a crow in a place I don’t expect it, a sudden reminder on Twitter to drink water or practice self-care, or the sun coming out from behind a cloud.
As the god of knowledge and truth, I associate Apollo with learning, research, and books. I have an unquenchable thirst for learning new things, and I feel Apollo’s presence there every step of the way. Sometimes a book will open to a page I hadn’t intended and something will stand out to me. Or a book that I wasn’t looking for will suddenly stand out and I’ll know it’s what I need to read.
When I want to communicate directly with Apollo, I stand before my altar or sit on the bed nearby and close my eyes. I picture Apollo or a representation of him in my head, like how he makes me feel or things I associate with him. I’m not very formal with him, and I talk directly to him. And we talk about how I’m feeling, self care, and ideas. He helps me work through my thoughts and understand them.
This is in addition to the normal constant mental conversation I have with all of my gods throughout the day. And meditation doesn’t have to look like traditional meditation. I consider anything that gets me into “flow” to be meditation. So if I’m writing and feeling particularly inspired, I think of that as meditation. If I’m soaking in a tub and feeling very relaxed and letting my thoughts flow, I think of that as meditation.
I should say up front that I don’t believe humans have the ability to know the future as a pre-written timeline. (I reserve the right to change my mind, though, in case we discover something new about the nature of time and reality that convinces me.) This may seem like a contradiction since I work with Apollo, a god of prophecy, but let me explain.
I do think that we can make educated and/or intuitive guesses based on our experiences. And I work with Apollo to identify the possibilities and understand and plan for them.
I usually shuffle the cards until enough fall out on their own to fill in my spread. (I also work with Fortuna/Tyche and ask for her help in this part of the reading, to ensure the cards I need to see are the ones that appear.) Then, I walk through each card, what it means, and how it applies to my life and the current challenges I’m facing.
The cards help me look at my problems from a different perspective and get some distance from the emotional, stressful aspects. They let me look at it from a more objective point of view. I work with Apollo throughout the reading, asking him for advice, help with understanding how it’s all connected, and enlightenment as I use the reading to come up with solutions.
(I’ll post a separate post about how I read tarot based on intuitive nudges and prediction with Apollo. Please look out for it!)
Sometimes Apollo’s presence feels like a warm glow or a feeling of well-being. I actively imagine my aura/spirit absorbing that feeling and making it part of myself.
Sometimes it’s more like a sudden brainstorm, where I need to write down all of the ideas before they’re gone. I have so many files of Apollo-inspired thoughts!
I also write poetry for him, then burn it in a small cauldron and offer the words up to him. No one else has ever read those words; I don’t post or publish them anywhere. They’re just between me and Apollo, an offering of creative energy.
There are so many ways to connect with Apollo. There’s no way I could list them all. The main thing to remember is that if you think you may be connecting with him, you probably are and you should follow that train of thought to see where it goes.
It’s been so rewarding following a god like Apollo.
He’s inspired me to take better care of myself, go to doctors, and listen more to my body. He helps me with anxiety and insomnia. I’m truly grateful!
I really hope that this post was useful. I’m very shy about sharing these things, and I’m not sure if it will be helpful. Please feel free to drop an ask if you have questions about anything here. Thanks!
