People engaging with deities as a form of imagination or personal therapy are absolutely valid and are entitled to that expression.
I do think though, that it is incredibly important, especially online, to distinguish occult, religious, and spiritual practices from imagination. I think it is extremely important to respect deity work as work, the Great Work, as a craft that requires practice and focus, that has religious and cultural significance.
My deities and magic are not imagined. The “rules” and logic behind contact are not imagined, they are a science. Studying and practicing occult schools of thought and rituals are not performance. Lucifer is not my imaginary friend. My religion is not a hobby. Making the insinuation that deities- religiously significant figures- are all imagined is extremely disrespectful, especially if you’re speaking to full theists.
I very much do believe there is a major difference between thinking about a deity and contacting them. I think it is reckless to imply that any thought could be them. I do believe you have to practice to achieve effective communication. It is not the default. You are not entitled to that ability, you have to develop it.
I do not believe all thoughts are communion, and I do believe very much that discernment is incredibly important to deity work. Checking results, re-testing, documenting, and tracking so you can be confident that you are actually making contact with the spirit you wish to communicate with is incredibly important. Sensing signs and distinguishing Lucifer’s voice from the noise of my own thoughts is incredibly important. That requires practice, that requires discernment and long term commitment. I cannot simply approach Lucifer and expect that he is going to give me all the answers just because I’m here. I’m not proving I am worthy enough, I am exercising a muscle required to perceive him.
I don’t think anyone needs to meditate on a mountain for months to achieve results or have these abilities. But removing the work from the results, asserting that anyone can just have what extremely devoted hard working priests and priestesses have, by sheer imagination, audacity, and nothing more, is an insane spit in the face to religious sanctity and belief. It takes all of the skill of long term devotion and practice, all the intense learning, and turns it into frivolous performance. Deity work as religion must be respected as such
I don’t know how to explain that occult schools of thought, practices, rituals, are not just ideas. They are scientific concepts that follow metaphysical physics. People have dedicated their lives to understanding these concepts and passing down their knowledge. To imply that these fundamentals are irrelevant is extremely disrespectful.
Acts of devotion are not just done for the sake of chumming it. These are religious acts, there is a spiritual purpose to the exchange. I’m not offering Lucifer bread and wine because he demanded them, or to grovel to him. I’m not earning his affection through offerings. I am providing him with a physical manifestation of my intent, and he does the same for me in turn through blessings and gifts. I am using my power as a physical being to create the world in our image. And I am sharing a piece of my life with him to create a channel for communication.
I cannot achieve these things by simply thinking about Lucifer all day. I do not learn or grow through wanting, I grow through doing. Experience. Trial and error.
Rituals are not done to prove loyalty. They are metaphysical keys, they are incredibly important to the practice of channeling. Tuning yourself so you can receive divine guidance is not an imaginative exercise. Occultism is not just imagination. My gods are not imagined.
I cannot express enough how important it is to distinguish mundane forms of thought from ritualized intentions and trances. I cannot express how important it is that deities and gods, angels, spirits and demons, are not conflated with imaginary friends or fictional characters. That we understand how to effectively contact spirits through method and repeated results so that we can differentiate between ourselves and others.
Whenever I read something that goes along the lines “this is all made up! There’s no real world legitimacy to occult principles! You don’t have to do anything! It’s all in your head and you make all the rules!”
I get disheartened, because people genuinely do not seem to have respect for the practice itself. They see the deity and assume thats all that ever mattered. There is no pursuit to improve skills, communication, resonance. It is all just a fun thought game.
If that’s your goal, to think and have fun, all power to you. Do that. I am not saying anyone is wrong for wanting to have Apollon or Lucifer as an imaginary friend. If that gets you through the day, do that.
But do not enter into religious devotional spaces where people are talking about their real gods, and assert that our rituals, our practices, our devotion and effort, is all irrelevant and performative. Don’t tell seasoned practitioners who do daily rites, who have studied their specific field for years, that you could achieve all they have doing nothing more than thinking.
There is a legitimate metaphysical reason why we light candles and burn incense. There is a logic and science to incantation, invocation, evocation. There is a skill to perceiving, reading signs, and interpreting. There are spiritual muscles that need to be exercised to maintain their function. These are not imagined ideas, these are the real means that practicing pagans use to communicate with their gods.
If you treat all of occultism and deity work like it’s just imagination, that none of the knowledge passed down over generations matters, you simply are not practicing deity work. And that’s fine, no one is required to practice deity work if they don’t want to. Just don’t get mixed up in the wrong places, because you will confuse others at best, and deeply disrespect them at worst.
Know where you are. Respect the difference.
2087
gummygunk
stormborns
snowghoul
blakekathryn
germansingergirl
