i have a question about becoming a devotee of a deity. some say that you have to be exactly in line with the deity, as in, everything you do has to be a reflection of them and you have to “incanalate” them in everything, embracing their ideals and everything they stand for. but how do you do it if your job, for example, isn’t a domain of the deity you’re a devotee for? should you not be devoted to that deity, even if you feel called to be more involved?
I think things are getting a bit confused. In my mind these are three separate things. Priests/priestesses, devotees, and occupational patrons.
In Ancient Greece a priest or a priestess would have their life pretty much dedicated to a deity, I think. And their priesthood is also their job. In the modern day you will see people claiming to be priests/priestesses, but I have my suspicions about how authentic this is because a lot of the cultural significance of those are kind of lost in Helpol now. At some point I might do more research on ancient priesthood and make a post about this in detail but only if people are interested. I don’t want to step on anyone’s beliefs but I do wonder about the intention behind claiming to be a religious authority. I am open to hearing other people’s views on this, though!
Second thing is devotees. For me, as a devotee of Athena, this simply means She is the deity I am the closest to. I have the strongest kharis with Her and also feel that She’s been very connected to me for my whole life, before I knew about Her. People define devotee differently, but this is how I see it. It’s not a step above being a worshipper, it’s just a slightly different font and a way for me to specify to others that Athena is the deity I feel closest to and know the most about. My personal ideals and sense of identity also align closely with Her domains.
When it comes to having a job that relates to your deities’ domains, this is called an occupational patron. So literally just a patron of your occupation. For me, I’m unemployed but I am a student, so Athena is both my occupational patron and the goddess I’m devoted to — but for others, they may not have a devotional relationship with their patron. If you work in sales of any kind, Hermes would be a patron of yours, but not every Helpol who works in sales would consider themsleves His devotee. Also some deities may not have specific occupations they reside over, so people devoted to that deity won’t have them as a patron but may have some other deity instead.
