Back when I started my journey in paganism just about 10 years ago, I was a devotee of Hades.
I don't remember now what specifically drew me to Him at the time. Perhaps it was PTSD, depression, heavy Pluto influence in my natal chart. But I paid regular visits to my local graveyard in the town I lived at the time. It was beautiful, secluded, watched over by old twisting trees allowed to grow freely, and quickly became my sanctuary. I tended the graves there and kept an altar and devotional journal to Hades, where I wrote letters and poetry to Him.
Back then I was simply too inexperienced (and traumatised) to really understand how spirituality and devotional relationships with gods worked. There's a lot of things to learn about communicating with gods and spirits, and how mental health impacts the ability to perceive spirits, and so on.
Jason Miller talks about the projection:perception ratio, where in any spirit interaction, no matter the degree of genuine perception, there is always a percentage of one’s inner bias being projected onto the interaction. This percentage can be reduced with time and experience. However, the degree of projection can always increase during times of stress, fatigue and emotional experiences, it is what one is trying to mitigate with discernment (that well-used buzzword in the occult community).
In any case, after a year or two, I eventually felt too discouraged to continue venerating Him, and went on to explore other deities and pantheons (which resulted in pretty much the same outcome lol). I was operating from a deeply held belief that I was simply undesirable, while setting high expectations of spirit interaction that could not be met at the level of experience I had at the time.
That said, I've always remembered Hades fondly. He seemed to me a solemn, but gentle and conscientious god. He had a calm and fatherly presence. I feel like, even if I didn't recognise it at the time, His influence greatly aided in my healing.
As a god of wealth and the Underworld, He can provide us with the inner resources we need in order to grow and change. Even if you feel like you have nothing, no fight in you left, Hades can unearth the raw materials both physically and spiritually to help you rebuild your life. But He does so quietly, consistently, for those who have hit rock bottom must reclaim their life inch by inch. He is kingly and honourable, taking responsibility for His people, while encouraging them to rebuild themselves with integrity.
Back in April this year, I had a dream of Hades and Persephone - to date the only dream I've ever had where gods explicitly appear. It was an odd dream, and the contents of it are likely of no consequence. Hades and Persephone were leading their spirits through a wild landscape. They encountered a female lake spirit (a Naiad) who demanded a sacrifice of maidens to be appeased, which Hades did not provide. The Naiad grew angry, so Hades exerted His wrath, grabbing her and thrashing her around in all directions before throwing her up into the sky. The Naiad then saw the beauty of the stars and was so impressed that she forgot all about the sacrifice! The Chthonic King and Queen then continued on their way to a small shop selling wooden anamorphic sculptures of dogs and wolves which could only be seen at the right angle.
So, regardless of what the dream meant, it brought Hades back into my consciousness after about 8 years of no contact. He always occasionally came to my mind, and I would always wonder what it would be like to reconnect with him again. I have spent the last 3 years doing daily work with Hekate, training my abilities, learning from my failures. I felt like I might be finally ready to reconcile with the god that I so adored in my youth.
In May, I set up a small shrine to Hades (and Persephone, by extension) with offerings, recited their Orphic hymns, and spoke of how I remembered my time with them fondly and wanted to rekindle our relationship now that I was older and more experienced. Though my life is already quite saturated, I nonetheless wished to have him around, for sentimental reasons.
I did note that prior to this, I had also been seeing a lot of black dogs, a snake and possibly an owl - omens which are also connected with Hekate. It is funny that Hekate and Hades share a lot of similar associations so, I realised I couldn’t actually tell who these omens came from! I’m still not sure to be honest, but I guess it doesn’t matter now.
I was surprised to feel a motherly and fatherly presence with me that remained for the rest of the evening as I settled down to sleep. It was comforting, like I was being watched over by loving parents. A feeling that I’ve never received from my biological parents. It assured me that the manner in which I ceased contact with Hades left no bad impression, and I felt encouraged to pursue a more casual relationship with Him.
Shortly after, I began to see Hades in trance journeys, where He has aided me in healing from trauma. I had not expected Him to show up in my visions during a group drumming journey, but the healing we did together was very effective. In that vision, He guided me to bury my heart in the black, fertile soil of the Underworld where it would root and draw strength from His realm. In moments of stress, fatigue and sorrow, I felt able to access my buried heart and drink of the Underworld’s vitalising force. Three weeks later, Hades appeared to me in a trance journey once more, and returned my heart to me, now suffused with power and ready for my life’s many challenges.
In antiquity, Hades was feared for His role as guardian of the chthonic realms and its denizens, and as a god who passes judgements on mortals. He can be firm, but not simply to punish us as so many historically believed. He is fair, and bids us to take responsibility for our deeds and better ourselves, in life and in death. In that sense I find Him quite similar to Hekate, though in my personal experience, Hades is much more gentle and personable in His approach.
Praying to Hades fills me with a warm and comforting energy like I’ve never felt before. I have been making contact only sporadically, but each time assures me of the depth of His grace and generosity. In matters of healing, I cannot praise Him enough.
He very much feels like an agricultural god (He is known as Plouton and Dis Pater, the wealthy father). I see Him with a broad frame accustomed to labour, and large hands stained with soil. A god who tends the land so that it brings forth the fruits and flowers of his beloved Queen, and a god who tends the spirits of the suffering that they may heal and grow themselves to their fullest potential. He bestows what nurtures the body and the soul. He is the keeper of the River Lethe, which allows us to move on and forget our pain, as well as the River Mnemosyne, which reminds us of our true selves. As such, I can only echo Socrates in extolling Hades as a god of the highest virtue.
And is not that the reason, Hermogenes, why no one, who has been to him, is willing to come back to us? Even the Sirens, like all the rest of the world, have been laid under his spells. Such a charm, as I imagine, is the God able to infuse into his words. And, according to this view, he is the perfect and accomplished Sophist, and the great benefactor of the inhabitants of the other world; and even to us who are upon earth he sends from below exceeding blessings. For he has much more than he wants down there; wherefore he is called Pluto (the rich).
Yes, Hermogenes, and the legislator called him Hades, not from the unseen (aeides)- far otherwise, but from his knowledge (eidenai) of all noble things.
