(note ; this is not roleplay, fictionkin, or delusion, though roleplayers, fictionkin, and delusional people are allowed to interact. this is pop culture paganism. please do not call me delusional, as this can cause me to doubt my experiences and reality, which can send me into pyschosis.)
before this post starts, i just want to say that this post isnt meant to be taken as "absolute truth". take what resonates with your own personal practice, and leave behind what does not.
who is Madokami ?
Madokami is a character from the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Canonically known as "Ultimate Madoka", she is a canon god character, and is the law of cycles.
domains
love, the law of cycles, karmic destiny / potential, salvation, life and death, wishes, magic / magical heroes, protection, time (past, present, future), hope, purity / innocence, generosity, compassion
associations
The colors red, pink, white, gold, and galaxy colors, love / symbols representing love, sticks or twigs, bow and arrows, bows and ribbons, flowers, stars, soul gems, feathers
titles
The law of cycles, the savior of magical girls / heroes, protector of magical girls / heroes, she who keeps away witches
offering ideas
Flowers, sweet foods, drinks, or candies, heart shaped objects, crystals or gems, shiny objects, star shaped objects, acts of love or compassion, good deeds, self care, making people or yourself happy, objects that are colored red, pink, white, gold, or galaxy colors, art,
altar decoration ideas
Flowers, sticks or twigs, heart shaped objects, crystals or gems, shiny objects, objects that are colored red, pink, white, gold, or galaxy colors, star shaped objects, art, bows or ribbons
before reading, please keep in mind that this post is based on my experiences and my thoughts on these topics. if you disagree, i'd love to hear from you in the comments or reblogs!
what's even the difference?
a conpantheon can be defined in two ways:
1) a pantheon that a person creates from the ground up through thoughtform manifestation. this includes the stories, names, faces and domains of the spirits.
2) a pantheon that contains spirits that already existed, the practitioner just gives names, faces, or general stories to them.
thoughtform creation is something i would consider a fairly advanced bit of magic. that doesn't necessarily mean you need to have any amount of years under your belt, just that you need certain skills to be well developed before you can start, and im not really there yet.
the hardest part is anchoring thoughts to form, whether that be a physical or astral one. im still designing a ritual for this, and i don't even know if ill end up sharing that.
to me, these are two different kinds of conpantheons, but the ideas for how they form don't have to be mutually exclusive
spiritual servitors, on the other hand, fulfill the two below criteria:
1) they fulfill a specific purpose or purposes
2) they only exist for that purpose, or for a specific time period
spiritual servitors are manifestations of the practitioners will, and are almost always temporary. if the same spirit is recreated over and over again, though, that would seem to fit under this term as well.
why one or the other?
a conpantheon often works better for practitioners who feel called to certain spirits or domains but can't connect with existing deities or spirits that have been named and fleshed out already. to me, i basically stumbled headfirst into this shit. i just felt so drawn to these animals and the environment around me that i started creating them in my head before i even knew what a conpantheon was. i felt drawn to these stories, these names, these faces.
a spiritual servitor often works better for witches or pagans who already have a number of spirits or gods at their side, or if they're not at the point to be keeping up with the maintenance of a full pantheon.
creation and maintenance
the best way to create a conpantheon, in my experience, is just to start writing shit down. the more you write, whether it be full thoughts or partial glimpses, the further you'll get. meditate often, pull some cards or throw some bones, go on a walk. try to see the undercurrents of energy that flows all around us, find where they meet and give it a name. introduce yourself. take notes and pictures and just breathe it all in. this is your journey, not anyone elses, and that's what's beautiful about this experience. there's no one here to judge you, no one to make your choices for you. it should be terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. this is the spell i use for upkeep of my conpantheon, on top of regular offerings.
for spiritual servitors, there's often a certain ritual surrounding their creation. from what i've seen, most people will take an idea or a spell, create a sigil for it, and then imbue that sigil with its own power. kind of like sicking your dog on someone--it only goes where you tell it to go, and it will "come back" (end) when it's done.
in my opinion, you could absolutely elevate a spiritual servitor to a conpantheon, or ask your conpantheon to act as a servitor, which is why i conjoined these ideas into one post. the line between the two is fairly grey for a lot of practitioners, and that's totally okay! these are terms to serve us, to describe what we're doing, not dictate it.
She is kind and bubbly in the most bright way. She is the grandchild of Helios (the sun) and it shines through with her personality. She is joy, but only the kind of joy you find after a long period of pain. She is generous but not naive. Her worlds are genuine and true but dont take that for granted. She knows what she wants and never speaks without knowing. She is in love with humanity and in love with the world. A helpless romantic with the scars to prove it. If she is angered she has the feminine rage of a thousand ancestors, she has felt the grief and heartbreak of the world and uses it in her defense.
✦ Appearance (UPG)
She will appear to everyone differently and every myth has a different perspective about what she looks like.
To me she has sun tanned olive skin, littered with freckled showing her favor from Helios. Her eyes glimmer golden from her divine heritage. Her black hair is full and curled, she usually wears it in the traditional Minoan style along with her clothes. However she never wears shoes and her hands are covered in callouses from her adventures. Her body is lean as she is/was a dancer. She wears a crown of stars given to her by her husband.
✦ Epithets
The Keeper of The Labyrinth
The Most Holy
Princess of Crete
Consort of Dionysos
The Heartbroken
The Abandoned
The Hero
✦ Mythology
Ariadne, daughter of Minos, was the Cretan princess who helped Theseus defeat the Minotaur. Abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos, she
Inquisitions: Conversion, Vengeance, Anger, Heresy, Sin
Blessings: Chaos, Evil, Destruction, Madness, Fire
Areas of Influence: genocide, deicide, devastation, insanity
Known Worlds active on: Al’Terre, Erda, Kana
Divine Realm: The Fourfold Prison (simultaneously Heaven, Hell, Axis, & the Abyss)
Petitioner Traits: the “vicious" are transformed into a monstrous form by Vardaak’s very presence. Instead of the limbs they possessed in their mortal lives, massive spider-legs sprout out; likewise instead of their mortal faces, they possess horrid pits surrounded by fangs, eyes, and twitching chelicerae. The vicious increase their base-land speed by 10 ft., gain a climb speed equal to half their new base speed. In addition, they gain a +4 Racial bonus to Perception checks, and replace their Slam attack for a Bite attack which deals damage based on their size.
Sacred Animal: Bats, Snakes, and Spiders
Holy Symbol: a double headed Axe with a demon’s face for each blade.
Other Info: Vardaak appears in myth and visions always as a massive scaled beast combining features of a Bat, Spider, and a Snake bearing three horrific hydra-like heads. He actively seeks to destroy all of creation and the gods that over see it, and as such only the most insane or blood-thirsty choose to revere him. The only deific ally Vardaak tends to find is from the apathetic Kardest, who calmly awaits the end times, and whose followers occasionally find common cause with Vardaak’s own. Those that fight Vardaak’s dark cults fear that Vardaak may be an ascended Demon, for if it’s possible that one Demon can achieve true divinity, they fear what may follow in his footsteps.
Vardaak is known to be bound within the Fourfold Prison, a place which simultaneously exists within his Abyssal realm and that of his most ardent opponents. Who even to today battle him, his Petitioners and his Abyssal allies, seeking to contain or destroy him. Nonetheless, on very few occasions Vardaak has managed to temporarily escape his prison realm, when he does, kingdoms (if not entire worlds) fall, and from the ashes spring such monsters of myth and legend as the Festering Ulunat, the End-Singer Volnagur, the Monarch Worm Chemnosit, the Firebleeder Xotani; and most feared of all, the Armageddon Engine itself, the Tarrasque.
Special: Secret, city-dwelling cultists to Vardaak will occasionally take the Urban Acolyte faith trait (Heroes of the Streets) so as to take the special Riot(Chaos) Subdomain (Heroes of the Streets) to wreck havoc in established, otherwise peaceful civilizations.
also called The Mother, the serpent takes the form of a striped black and white California Kingsnake. she is the mother of all of The Children, and was once a regular snake living a regular life. for some unknown (to me) reason, when she laid an otherwise unassuming clutch, The Children hatched out. she was elevated to an otherworldly spirit by The Mimic, who deals in all things death.
the spirits of my pantheon are not gods, they are spirits representing the consciousness of their entire species. they are separate entities, but there is a little bit of them in their wild brethren. they are not meant to represent all the phenomena or domains of the gods, but rather form an incomplete, hodgepodge mix that is their family. they exist within me, just the same as they can exist in you, if you wish.
the children do not eat meat or plants or insects like the members of their species, but feed on mental, physical, and spiritual energy. this sounds like a bad thing, but to me it is a minor sacrifice for their presence.
CRYSTALS: serpentine, amber, aragonite, zebra jasper, black and white agate, carnelian, honey calcite, obsidian, smokey and milky quartz, lava rock
HERBS: burdock, mandrake root, carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic, leek, fenugreek, red raspberry leaf, black cohosh, clover
DEVOTIONAL ACTS: going on road trips, keeping snakes, interacting with your family (especially younger members), sitting in front of a fire (could be a candle or a fireplace too), reading a book while curled up in a blanket, drawing spirals
TAROT CARDS: 10 of cups, 6 of cups, wheel of fortune, the world
taking the form of the widely known and widely beloved, the raccoon. the Corruption, like raccoons, finds its space in the dirty, dingy, and claustrophobic parts of life. he hides behind corners and waits to strike, slinks into the sewers when an adversary arises. you'd have to know him to look for him, and so few do.
DOMAIN: thievery, the night, scavengers, stalking and watching, things moving in the night, the dark
COLORS: green, grey, black
CRYSTALS: green and white aventurine, malachite, azurite, pyrite, black and regular moonstone, star jasper, snowflake obsidian
HERBS: moonflowers, acorns and other nuts, velvet sage, rosemary, pine needles, sweet gum pods, horse chestnuts
DEVOTIONAL ACTS: taking a five finger discount, going on night walks, star or moon gazing, feeding wildlife (where it is safe and ethical to), taking out the trash, cleaning your space
TAROT CARDS: the hermit, the moon, the star, fourof pentacles
