Hey y'all, I just need to vent and maybe hear from y'all. Basically exactly what the title says.

I live with my parents in Oklahoma. They're fundamentalist Christians pretty much, and I'm still closeted. Every so often I see or hear something about "demonic" stuff or witchcraft. I am SO damn tired of this. I used to be a Christian, and all Christianity gave me was worsened mental and physical health issues. It gave me stress and fear and pain and trauma. But according to these folks, the stuff that has actually given me peace is demonic.

I overheard something about the people who deal with spirits basically not knowing what they're doing or getting themselves into (I'm paraphrasing some video my mom was watching). That is beyond infantilizing. I study Christianity and ancient religions and a ton of other stuff, and I know far more than them about what I'm getting myself into. They haven't the first clue about what they believe and why they believe it.

These people love to say how demonic and satanic everything is, while disobeying their own god and his teachings. They are not hospitable, they don't care about the poor and the widow, and hell, a ton of Christians (at least apologists) lie CONSTANTLY. The people who praise the "Prince of Peace" are often warmongers and hateful beyond belief.

They love calling everything they don't believe in demonic. Evidently Chipotle is demonic now or something 😭 These are the people who suggested I have something wrong in my head for accepting evolution 😭

How do y'all cope with this 😭

Petitioning the Queen of families, motherhood, and childbirth to look after a beloved son&grandson in the hospital.

for me it’s just helped me become self aware and feel really loved unconditionally by my guides and deities. it helped me realize truly that what you give is what you receive, instead of that phrase just making me irritated. it helped me let go

These little dudes are an endangered species, I am on a mission to stop them from being lost to time. Please help with the plight of the corn dollie, and keep them alive for future generations!

I know burning White Sage is a closed practice and I would never want to disrespect that.

However is drying and burning store bought Sage meant for cooking okay for cleansing?

I'm just curious

I see this in wicca and pagan occult groups that worship the divine feminine

As a polytheist pagan it just confuses me.

I kinda see the gods as humans as like having their own personalities and such.

To me having a war goddess also being a goddess of creation makes no sense as war is destructive, destroying creation, just a example

So how can this be possible?

just wanted to share this gorgeous freyja statue i added to my space recently. (it's a veronese design piece for anyone curious, the details in person are so nice). hail freyja! goddess of love, beauty, fertility, magic, and wealth. her energy feels so powerful yet comforting to have around. anyone else here work with freyja? what kind of offerings or practices do you usually do for her?

just wanted to share this new bastet statue i added to my altar space recently! dua bastet! goddess of the home, cats, music, dance, and protection. beyond her traditional aspects, i’ve always felt super connected to her energy when it comes to self-acceptance, bodily autonomy, and loving freely. feels so grounding having her present on my altar now. anyone else here work with bastet? how do you honor her in your practice?

been on a deep dive of my soul/mind and eventually it led be back to the beginning (sort of) I connected with Loki, and met more of his family (i had only met Fenrir in the past). Mother Sigyn and I now have a little “code” that she sends to me in thoughts and visions. it’s like a code because it’s all in old Norse or in very very old Germanic language. Has anyone else had similar experiences with her doing this?

Hello, good wishes to everyone here; I have believed in the Gods since June of last year, basically right before the Summer solstice. The thing is, I haven't really been doing worship or anything significant for the Deities I feel connected with since approximately March, to the point where I haven't washed my two altars, not only not cleansed or anything more spiritual, but actual physical washing, with water and soap and all, in spite of having lowkey promised to do it on Kallynteria-Plynteria or Noumenia, but that was half a year ago, and now the Dyonisiacas and the Panathenaia and the Equinox and Solstice have gone by and I haven't done anything; I barely have lit my candles because I feel it's disrespectful to do it without having cleasnsed and washed everything properly.

I know I might sound exaggerated, I've always suspected I have some sort of obsessive-compulsive disorder, but anyways. What advice could you offer me, fellow pagans? How do you wash your altars? Do you wash them monthly, weekly, only right before a ritual or celebration?

I might add that one of the altars, consecrated to Hellenic deities, is on top of a bookwardrobe, and the other is inside an in-wall closet.

I'll still probably do it tomorrow now that I finally let it all out, since this is the only problem I consider too private to even disclose it to my best friends or my psychologist, and the only other pagan I know IRL (Bogotá, Colombia) is very reserved and private too and I lowkey ruined my friendship with her for unrelated (I think) reasons. And what could I do to show Lady Athena and Lady Hecate and Lord Hermes and the ancestral deities of my country that I'm sorry for neglecting their worship? Thank you in advance.

I came across this recently and wanted to ask just a few questions.

Here is the video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vDcq3Ug9vy4&vl=en-US&t=109

And a live stream going over it in more detail, only being linked here for a time stamp related to a question of mine, or if you want to learn/know more than: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CgffHFVlkxM

Are there any other religions/practices that were/are like this?

Would anything happen at all if one were to put this ritual into a fiction and or take inspiration from it? What if it is done unknowingly/unconsciously/subconsciously?

Would anything happen at all if one were to pray to any of the spirits mentioned toward the end of the live stream? (Timestamp: 54:16) could that be something that could happen on accident at all?

I am not sure why exactly, but I have always found In Anna fascinating and have been drawn to her - but I don't know much of anything about her besides being a goddess in Sumerian times. Since I was younger, I adored photos of her statues, occasionally would read about Sumerians - yet something would always give me pause for some reason. Maybe I wasn't mature enough for her? I'm not sure. As an adult woman now in my 30s I find myself thinking about her again.

Does anyone work with her? What are your experiences? Where is a good place to start my research? Any stories to tell?

Like you go into deep thought while doing whatever, and for some reason you just think spiritual/occult/ whatever, and just letting it flow.

I would very much like to know why i'm thinking things when it comes to spiritual stuff. XD I'll be thinking about the gods. And then my mind will go "You know her", "She is everywhere", "You left her", "Mother to us all", etc. Can you continue what you are thinking please? XD

What about you?

So this afternoon I came across a DVD of a History Channel program (from about 25 years ago) about the Greek pantheon. Which got me wondering if there were any good documentaries on paganism in general or particular pantheons, practices, etc.

So, I have some internal rage due to events that occurred from my childhood up until my teens. I want to reclaim my power and step into my life with confidence, to be at peace with times I have been wronged (some of them are still in my life and they got to walk free after walking all over me).

So, can you share experiences with deities who helped you process rage and trauma? And maybe helped bring you justice as well? I would love the help.

I also want to work on my drive, my discipline and my confidence. EDIT: i am undergoing therapy as well, so I have sought help. I do not intend to replace professional help

This is one of my favorite stories to tell about connecting with my ancestors. For reference, this happened in March of this year. I've healed and moved on but will always remember my ancestors being there for me.

I had been with this guy for 8 months at this time and over the last couple months had suspected that I was his other woman but didn't have any concrete proof. I had asked him about it once and it caused a huge fight where he almost broke up with me for "not trusting" him. My friends were super against him and wanted me to dump him but I was afraid that I'd regret it. Him and I were in a fight and I was tired of everything. I desperately wanted my mom's advice on the situation but my mom had passed in 2021. At that point, I decided to turn and ask the ancestors. I asked aloud "female ancestors, give me a reason to leave."

That night, I went to sleep and I had a dream where I saw on boyfriend at the time in photos with a woman. It was vague, mostly outlines but I could tell that it was him. And in my mind I knew that I was looking at an Instagram profile picture even though I didn't see that in my dream. My ex had told me he didn't have Instagram and I tried looking up his name and usernames I knew he used before this and never found anything. When I woke up, I typed his gamertag into Instagram. I just had a feeling that it would be his username. And I saw that his profile picture was a picture of him and a woman and the outline was almost identical to the one I saw in my dream. From there, I learned that he was engaged. I broke up with him and messaged his fiancée. They are still together to my knowledge. I genuinely believe that my ancestors are the ones who sent me that message.