I'm Jayden. I've used tumblr for a long time but this is a separate blog for my pagan witchcraft practice.
I'm 27 years old and use he/him pronouns. I'm Mexican American.
My practice and beliefs are eclectic but I primarily follow Kemetism. I've started around October 2023 so I'm still very new and learning all sorts of stuff. The deity I worship most closely is Bast. I do admire and respect all kinds of gods and spirits though. I love reading about other paths and religions and keep a curious mind!
This blog is religious/witchcraft-focused and will not involve fandom. However, it will include posts that speak out against bigotry, environmental harm, and other such activism. I believe it's intrinsic to my beliefs.
I won't follow back if under 18. I don't really recommend you follow me below 18 anyway
I'm very against AI "art" and writing. Immediate block if I see it
Weird conspiracies about aliens building the pyramids/ancient societies will also get blocked
The etymology of Nut in relation to origin and meaning:
"In the case of Nut, with Her well established status of a personification of the sky as early as the Pyramid Texts, this perspective is a promising point of departure. The information found therin does not, however, relate to the original position of Nut within a local cult or pre-Enneadic constellation, but to the conceptual basis for Her existence." (Nils Billing 2002:p.10)
+ Name contains elements pot, female determinative t, and determinative for the sky.
+ Later Pyramid Texts carried tendency to increase use of determinatives; Nut was first given anthropomorphic female determinative in pyramid of Ibi.
+ Additional/variant determinatives are the three water signs documented in the Coffin Texts, enhancing the watery aspects of the sky, and the cobra in the New Kingdom.
+ Barta has viewed the phonetic nwt as an indication of Her role as a feminine counterpart of Nwn.
+ Allen has considered the possibility of relating Her name to the root nw(i), 'waters', not as a feminine conterpart, but as a feminine nisbe of the masculine word rendering it nwjt, "She of the waters".
+ Variant determinative (N17) in Pyr. 1629a gives possible reading of the name as 'oval' (nwt), "in what seems to be the original character of Her name" an idea he (Allen) finds related to Her concrete role as sarcophagus. (Nils Billing 2002:p.11)
This is what hieroglyphs and figures in ancient Egyptian temples looked like before their colors faded. They were recreated using a polychromatic light display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, following thorough research.
If this is your kind of thing, new zealand has the world's first life sized re-creation of an Egyptian temple for an idea of how it would have looked back then
[ID: a screenshot of a comic speech bubble. The black text in it reads "No matter how open-minded, socially conscious, anti-racist I think I am, I still have old learned hidden biases that I need to examine. It is my responsibility to check myself daily for my stereotypes, prejudices and, ultimately, discrimination." /ID end]
not exactly upg but like. i have had images of hestia on my altar before and it just didn't do anything for me. i've thought about getting a statue for her, but nothing ever feels Correct with how i see and connect to her.
to me, she is only person shaped when she is like. interacting with other gods. and there aren't a Lot of depictions of that bc she's practically nonexistent in mythology.
and for my altar(s), the ideal representation of her is completely aniconic. a candle is best but i've also been drawn to orange glass pieces for her. (i have an orange glass heart somewhere that was on her altar for a while, i just don't know where it is after our last move)
i think it's bc she is so. completely present. in my mind, the gods draw closer during ritual, or they turn their attention to me, or whatever. but being the Hearth, being the flames that consume offerings, makes hestia kind of like. the whole ground of it all. she IS the altar, the space that i have set aside for worship. i don't have to draw her closer to me, bc she's already there. i'm going to her house in a way.
something that I've noticed in neo-pagan/polytheist spaces is this focus on one or a few deities. while this is a valid approach and seems to be working amazingly for many people, i wanted to write a short defence of a different form of polytheism that, while maybe less visible on social media, is equally viable.
the poly in polytheism necessitates the belief in multiple gods however modern forms of worship take many different forms on top of that. from my years being in pagan spaces on social media I have noticed that to many, being a polytheist means worshipping one or a handful of gods and having very close relationships with them. which deities someone chooses to have this kind of relationship with stems from multiple possible sources, for example, personal interest, the deity's domain being somehow related to a person's life or an inexplicable draw to them.
to me, this seems to be the dominant view on social media of the form that neo-paganism takes, however, after years of exploring my spirituality and practice, I have come to the conclusion that this is not how I want to worship. I am writing this post for more people like me, who are interested in exploring this often less mainstream approach.
an ancient template
reading about Ancient Greek and Roman civilisations I was always struck by the number of minor deities with hyper-specific domains and associations. as a modern pagan, I could not understand the appeal of worshipping such a deity, ie. using so much time and resources to build a relationship for only a handful of niche issues that you could approach them with.
but as I kept reading and exploring, I realised that I was approaching polytheism completely differently than the ancients did. they truly did live in a world full of gods and they did not require a relationship built over days, if not weeks or more, to approach a deity and ask for their aid.
as long as you followed the rules of reciprocity, you could approach any deity that was relevant to your situation because they were the best equipped to help you with your problem. now this is not true for all of the population all the time, there were definitely also for example, people devoted to one deity, but from my understanding, this seemed to be the general form that polytheism took in those ancient civilisations.
the influence of monotheism
I think another feature of online neo-paganism is this expansion of the major deities' domains which then removes the need to worship the smaller deities. now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for expanding the domains of deities, especially if this is done from a revivalist perspective in order to modernise them for the contemporary worshipper. but sometimes I feel like completely unrelated domains are added for the sake of convenience more than anything else, ie. so that someone can keep worshipping the same deity(ies) without approaching others.
this, in my opinion, goes against one of the core aspects of polytheism which is the idea that different gods rule over different domains and have power over them. following this idea, it would make very little sense to pray to Neptune during air travel as he has no influence over the skies. yet, I sometimes see the deities be treated more like monotheistic gods which are all-powerful and can influence anything in the world.
if this is your view of how the gods work, that's fine, but I feel like sometimes people accept it without questioning it much or thinking about their view of theology at all. after mulling this idea over for some time, I realised it made much more sense to approach those specific deities, even if they are much less known or minor because this fits into my beliefs about polytheism much better.
a poly-practice
so, how would a poly-polytheistic practice look like in the modern day? well, there are many ways to go about it but I will just share bits from my own experience.
what I have ended up doing is focusing on different deities as they become relevant in my life - I focused on worshipping Janus at the beginning of the year while also taking the time to pray to Fortuna in moment when I needed her aid. I then did some extra reading on Jupiter, but didn't forget to thank Mars every time I went to the gym. I no longer felt the pressure to have some sort of special "connection" to every deity or "feel their presence", just trusting that they are there and then catching glimpses of divinity in my daily life.
looking into which Roman festivals I wanted to celebrate also opened my perspectives to more deities I would not have otherwise worshipped on my own. like this, I feel like I am building an arsenal of deities I can turn to when I need and of course, it is also vital to remember that I can call on multiple ones at the same time, just like the Romans saw the gods aiding one another in their tasks.
I only have one altar, which is practical and thus quite minimalistic, but there is space for my prayer notebook as well as other supplies that I need for my rituals.
conclusion
of course, this kind of practice results in a much more "impersonal" relationship with the gods, but I never really felt the need to communicate with them directly or things like that, so it fits me well. I find comfort in imagining a world full of gods, who may only know me in passing but who look out for me nevertheless.
in the end, the goal of this post is not to change anyone's mind about how they worship, but to present an alternate perspective which you can learn from but also completely disregard. in the end I am just happy that you were interested enough to reach until the end of this post. thank you for reading!!
The only thing I’m tired of seeing is people telling people what witchcraft is and isn’t. Speak to your own beliefs not others. That being said, as a practicing techno witch, I find this to be completely untrue as Ai is useful for me in my practice.
On the one hand: Web-witch is right to state their opinion of not wanting people to gatekeep how people should practice witchcraft. They are fine in that belief and I agree with them in that singular aspect. People should be allowed to practice how they want so long as it doesn't hurt others.
On sehetep-shenwer's side: I also fully and completely agree that AI generation isn't and shouldn't be considered devotional pieces. There is no human ingenuity going into creating those pieces. It is frankensteined styles cobbled together mcguyver style in the hopes of passing as "artistic creation". There is no passion in AI generation. There is no act of creation that goes on on the practitioner's side. Just Input>Output of machines, now that isn't to say that Technowitchery shouldn't rely on the tools available to their practice. But that AI Slop Generation takes away a fundamental and frankly personal connection you could be forming with your gods by actively attempting to create for yourself.
It is of my opinion that making a collage on Canva YOURSELF is more apt of a way to show devotion than using AI generation to do the work for you. I get that not everyone has the time of day to dedicate to creation and making of things, but if that's something that's truly important to your practice then you'll find the way to make the time.
TLDR: Both of you have points you are correct about, and I personally believe AI Slop is not a good devotional act
Ai is not an offering because you are not sacrificing anything. Offerings are about giving away something of yours as a kind gesture, you cannot give away something you do not own nor created. Thats like stealing something and then offering it to your gods. You are not apart of the object you are giving. Its soulless and shallow. Meaningless.
This is a Kemetic based educational server that’s open to people of all paths. We share resources, knowledge, personal experiences, and you’re more than welcome to share insight about your personal practice as well.
We would love it if you could come join us, and at least make some new friends!
This server is focused on kemetism; however, don't let that steer you away because it is open to everybody | 70 members
food frying, oil spitting, cold rain beating the windowpanes, and she is with me while i dance across the kitchen floor, hestia hallows the unremarkable hours
there are elbows on the dining table, guffaws out on the porch, it is messy and chaotic and imperfectly perfect, hestia is here with us, this family inexpertly stitched together
chicken soup and fresh toast and names spoken by throats of fire, glorious and sublime and nothing to write home about, hearth light reaches deep into this congregation of hearts and leaves within all her spark of compassion
I’m so sick of gender essentialism in modern witchcraft.
The ‘masculine energy’ and ‘feminine energy’ can be very real things in a persons practice but so many people on here are show their asses with acting like women are one and men are a separate other.
First of all, those two are not the only two genders, and second, if you did any research at all you’d know the origins of both feminine and masculine energy are based in practices about each person, regardless of gender, having a balance of these two things.
