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@jasper-pagan-witch / jasper-pagan-witch.tumblr.com

Jasper | they/them | aromantic-asexual | adult | icon drawn by hamingo

Before You Follow

Hey there, I'm Jasper!

I'm an aromantic, asexual, nonbinary wizard who uses they/them pronouns but will accept he/him when it's funny. I am an adult.

I'm an eclectic wizard with a focus on pop culture and apparently chaos magic, but I'm specifically anti-appropriation. As far as my beliefs go, I'm a kinda-animist cosmic nihilist polytheist.

Important other blogs:

This blog is about my practice or me talking with my pals!

Here are some extra helpful links:

My masterposts:

This blog is safe for mages, witch or otherwise.

This blog is not safe for Messianics, appropriators, """Lilith devotees""", Harry Potter/JK Rowling supporters (even having your Hogwarts house in your bio will get you blocked on sight), religious missionaries, bigots, exclusionists, or assholes. This blog is also anti-essential oils (mostly the unsafe usage of them).

spirits don't have to be your friend. the rock in your backyard doesn't have to behave like a human or be useful to you to deserve respect. there is inherent value in loving the web of spirits that surrounds us without asking what they can do for us.

to be very clear, this is also about not anthropomorphizing nun-human spirits. this is also about decentering human relationships to spirits in the web of interconnectedness.

Any pop culture pagans or people that work with / worship pop culture deities / entities, I'm curious to hear your experiences so I have a few questions! You don't have to answer all of them, just whichever ones you're comfortable with, but if you do all of them then thank you :) I just want to learn more about it personally because I'm beginning to get involved in it myself, so I'd like to hear from others, but I also think it would be good for the wider paganism community to hear about it!

You can answer these on a reblog of this post, the replies on this post, or you can make a separate post entirely and mention me so I can see it! Please do note I will be reblogging your posted responses ( not replies ) onto my blog, because like I said, part of the goal is to spread it to the wider paganism community so that there isn't so much stigma around it, rather understanding and acceptance. If you would not like me to do so, please let me know!

Edit: forgot to add, but you can also answer through my ask box!

Also, if you're an irl magical girl / hero / boy / user and any of these questions apply to you too, please feel free to answer as well!

The abbreviations I'll be using: PCP = pop culture paganism PCE = pop culture entities PCD = pop culture deities PCM = pop culture magic

Questions:

  • What does PCP / PCM mean to you personally? How did you first get into PCP / PCM?
  • Do you combine it with other religious or spiritual traditions? Which ones?
  • How would you describe the difference ( if any ) between worship, honoring, and working-with PCD / PCE compared to historical ones?
  • Which PCE / PCD do you work with? What drew you to them?
  • What type of PCM do you do?
  • How do you tell the difference between a character as-written and the being you interact with?
  • How do you perceive and understand PCP for yourself or as a whole? Do you believe these figures are independent spirits, archetypes, thoughtforms / egregores, or something else? Does the answer differ based on the specific PCE / PCD?
  • How do you approach consent, boundaries, and respect in these relationships?
  • What does your practice look like on a day-to-day basis?
  • Do you use any specific tools, symbols, or imagery connected to your chosen figures?
  • How do you create altar space for a PCE / PCD?
  • Do you have any devotional practices ( prayer, offerings, journaling, etc )?
  • How do you verify experiences or messages from PCE / PCD you work with?
  • Do you think creators/writers have a spiritual role in shaping these beings?
  • How do you handle characters from media with problematic creators or franchises?
  • Do you feel PCP / PCM is recognized or respected in wider pagan communities? Why or why not?
  • Have you met others who practice similarly?
  • Are there books, blogs, servers, or creators you recommend for someone learning?
  • What misunderstandings do outsiders commonly have about your practice? What are some that beginners usually have?
  • What has been the most meaningful part of your practice for you?
  • Have your relationships with these figures changed you emotionally or psychologically?
  • What lessons has your practice taught you about yourself?
  • How do you handle doubt or skepticism in your practice?

If you decide to answer any of these, thank you so much!

This seems like fun, so after a great delay, I'm gonna work on answering all of these!

What does PCP / PCM mean to you personally? How did you first get into PCP / PCM?

Pop culture magic and paganism is just another path and practice for me. I first got into it through Pokemon PCM on Tumblr, but frankly I was working on something like that before I ever got on Tumblr. It just made sense to me.

Currently my main focuses for media are Magic: The Gathering and The Elder Scrolls.

Do you combine it with other religious or spiritual traditions? Which ones?

My overall practice is a damn mess. I am a person who uses what works after studying it and fits it all together by moving pieces appropriately.

How would you describe the difference ( if any ) between worship, honoring, and working-with PCD / PCE compared to historical ones?

I have not personally seen or felt any differences.

Which PCE / PCD do you work with? What drew you to them?

I worship Azura, Daedric Prince of Prophecy and Twilight, the Mother of Roses, and so forth. To be completely blunt, I was drawn to her by her Skyrim voice actress's work during her Daedric quest.

I also work with...let's call them "facades" based on MTG characters for Tommie Kelly's 40 Servants system, as I discuss more on @jasper-and-the-forty-servants when I remember that that blog exists.

What type of PCM do you do?

The same stuff I use regular magic for. Lots of "well let's see if this works".

How do you tell the difference between a character as-written and the being you interact with?

I have not seen any difference because I don't make the separation between the character and the entity. I will freely admit that I find it weird when people act like an entity is absolutely nothing like how they're depicted in pop culture magic/pagan spaces.

How do you perceive and understand PCP for yourself or as a whole? Do you believe these figures are independent spirits, archetypes, thoughtforms / egregores, or something else? Does the answer differ based on the specific PCE / PCD?

My theory is "shit's already so weird that this may as well work" but I do also believe that other spirits might just see the faces of pop culture entities and use those freely.

How do you approach consent, boundaries, and respect in these relationships?

The same way as other relationships, which is generally "I'm not doing shit that I don't want to and you don't have to take my shit either". But said more nicely than I say it online.

What does your practice look like on a day-to-day basis?

*laughs into eternity*

Yeah I don't have a daily practice. I try to light a candle each day but. Shit happens.

Do you use any specific tools, symbols, or imagery connected to your chosen figures?

I do! For Azura, I have an altar set up for her including the Star card from the Skyrim tarot deck among other items that I am not going to share here.

As for the 40 MTG Servants, I have card sleeves with the name and sigil of the 40 Servants drawn on them and replace the cards inside as I find more fitting ones to use as the faces.

How do you create altar space for a PCE / PCD?

The same way I do for everybody else. I clear a shelf or surface, set up some things that make me think of the entity, and sometimes I remember to wipe down the dust.

Do you have any devotional practices ( prayer, offerings, journaling, etc )?

Occasionally. When I'm struck with inspiration or am offering something in return for something else. Mostly it's candle lighting for "regular" offerings.

How do you verify experiences or messages from PCE / PCD you work with?

I don't bother with verification.

Do you think creators/writers have a spiritual role in shaping these beings?

Yes. I don't think I can elaborate further because I'm not sure how to put it in words, but yes.

How do you handle characters from media with problematic creators or franchises?

*looks at Magic: The Gathering* ...Mostly just use what I have and keep quiet about the details.

Do you feel PCP / PCM is recognized or respected in wider pagan communities? Why or why not?

It's definitely gotten more recognized, but whether it's respected depends on who's yelling the loudest this week. Honestly I don't care if it's widely-respected so long as people just keep their nose out of my business if they don't like it.

Have you met others who practice similarly?

Yes, though I'm realizing that I have very little overlap with them in terms of entities we interact with.

Are there books, blogs, servers, or creators you recommend for someone learning?

I did make a masterpost that I keep meaning to re-organize. I also recommend following @devout-khajiit because they're just plain awesome.

What misunderstandings do outsiders commonly have about your practice? What are some that beginners usually have?

One of the few that I've personally experienced is people who don't think that I'm taking it seriously. But again, I don't particularly care what people think about my practice so long as they keep their opinions to themselves.

What has been the most meaningful part of your practice for you?

Honestly, it's the part where I don't feel alone from a spiritual perspective. It makes being alone physically more tolerable.

Have your relationships with these figures changed you emotionally or psychologically?

I'm sure it has in ways that I'm not recognizing just yet, but for the most part I'm just chilling.

What lessons has your practice taught you about yourself?

Mostly that I'm a coward and a shut-in but those aren't necessarily bad things.

How do you handle doubt or skepticism in your practice?

I just do the work regardless, magical or otherwise. Actions speak louder than words and all that.

Thank you so much for putting this together! I apologize if some of my answers sound flippant, but I answered this all in one go and felt like the details would have bogged some of it down.

You know, as someone who loves doing research (I mean, I call myself a wizard because I love the research phase), I can't emphasize enough that sometimes you just have to start doing shit.

You can read as many Tarot 101 books as you want and can check out from the library or acquire otherwise, but you're not going to get a feel for the system until you start pulling cards. If you're scared of being wrong, just admit that you're nervous going in until you build up confidence in your skills.

You can analyze as many spells written by others as you'd like and make theoretical substitutions, but you're not going to get a feel for actually casting a spell until you cast one. Doesn't even have to be a spell you made.

You can fill entire notebooks with information on trees (staring in the mirror at myself), but that's not gonna do much to help you until you go and touch grass and actually do something with the tree. Like talking to it.

You're allowed to be afraid. You're even allowed to just be an armchair witch or whatever we're calling them this week. But sometimes it's fun to just do the thing.

Ultimate Grimoire or book of shadows checklist✨📓✒️🔮

Hey beautifuls,

I’ve compiled a checklist in booklet format of pretty much anything I could think of or find online that you could include in your Grimoire/book of shadows. Please note that this is a very very broad list and you do not need to include absolutely everything listed. Pick and choose what matches your craft!

also if you would like a non-watermarked PDF print version (digital file) I’m offering this for just $3 AUD. You can direct message me here on tumblr or on my Insta account “@beautifulvalleywitch”.

Otherwise enjoy this free version lovely’s 🥰🥰

*copyrighted, please do not share without credit or claim as your own*

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚊𝚠𝚎𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎!! 𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚔 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚋𝚎𝚊𝚞𝚝𝚒𝚏𝚞𝚕𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚢𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚌𝚑💖

Spirit made flesh, or something deep like that

One of my magical experiences involved a potter from Tumblr whom I would not discover until many years later.

Years ago, I worked at a commercial ceramics studio. At this time I was painting and firing many little magical tools - bowls, figurines, and so on.

I wanted an empty vessel to build a servitor (artificial spirit) inside of. I got ahold of a discount figurine and glazed it, whispering it's purpose to it.

Now I was not building the artificial spirit. I was building an empty vessel. A container which was designed to hold a spirit, right. I was actually very sure at that time that the firing process was magically galvanizing, a process of awakening not unlike rebirth from a grave, and so would make a great medium for creation of such things.

I fired the piece and when I pick it up, it's immediately evident to me that something is inside of it. I hadn't created or called a spirit, but one was within.

It initially took on the appearance of the figurine itself (which was a Christmas elf). It spent a few minutes trying to convince me that I was an amazing wizard who spontaneously generated spirits by intent alone, but even back then that wasn't my first rodeo. I demanded it show it's true self.

Its appearance rapidly changed into something I had never seen before. It was like a bipedal wolf-person, but it wasn't a wolf or a person. It's most distinctive feature was it's wolfish head with long, triangular ears that protruded from the skull. It's eyes were slits, and it was a long and lanky creature.

After it revealed itself to me I asked it to leave. It did so, traveling north. I never saw it or anything like it again.

Until several years later I stumbled on @claypigeonpottery's portfolio of their kiln gods.

I just about had a heart attack!

There it was, the same creature. I hadn't thought about that old experience in years and years, but the kiln god was so identical in nature to what I had seen that the entire experience flooded back to me.

I usually try to conclude these things with some kind of pithy wisdom but I haven't got one, except that gods are everywhere and most of them are quite a bit smaller than you'd think.

There’s no actual evidence that Aphrodite was forced to marry Hephaestus, the whole “contest for Aphrodite’s hand in order to free Hera” thing is a weak modern theory that got popular for whatever reason. It’s actually was more narratively interesting that Aphrodite and Hephaestus agreed on an arranged marriage but it didn’t work out.

I know OP here refers to the myth/mythology, but I need to offer the historical background as to why Hephaestus married Aphrodite (it helps understand the myth better imo).

  • Aphrodite was first worshiped in Cyprus. She's the direct evolution of the Great Goddess turned Kypris turned Aphrodite (more historical info on that once I've gathered enough information on that).
  • Cyprus produced tons and tons of copper (Cyprus literally means 'the land/island of copper') and copper at the time was considered the way oil and NatGas are considered today - i.e. it was precious, and with the trade relations between Greece and Cyprus, copper was imported into Greece (as proven by the shipwrecks discovered in the Mediterranean between Greece and Cyprus)
  • Along with the trade copper however, ancient Cypriots (Greek in origin) also imported Aphrodite as a Goddess - that's why she's a bit of an 'outsider' in Olympus. So, Greece's Greeks had to establish her as an Olympian. Yes, they could've gotten her married off to Ares in the first place, but since Aphrodite = Cyprus = copper = metal, they had to marry her off to a god that was somewhat associated with metal and copper, as a means of signifying how the Greeks worked the copper to use it as a material.
  • That God was Hephaestus.

That's it.

I'd also like to say that in many periods of Greek history, the gods were understood conceptually as forces of the cosmos, not as individual characters exactly(this is a generalized statement the exact specifics of what a "god" is varies wildly based on time and location).

What this means is saying that Hephaestus and Aphrodite are married is like saying the Moon and the Ocean are married. It's a way of expressing a connection. The connection between bronze/beauty and the craftsmen who shape it and are inspired by it.

So when we talk about Aphrodite cheating on Hephaestu with Ares, yes, you can read it as a folktale of characters in a messy marriage. Alternatively, you can read it as a description of a connection between crafts, war, and beauty/bronze. Think about the Illiad. How beauty prompted war and how bronze armed the soldiers. Think about how the same beautiful arts are turned from productive craft to destructive weapons. Think about how the beauty of the warrior was widely praised in Greek texts, right alongside the descriptions of how terrible war is.

Beauty is always tied to the craftsman. Love is at the core of art. However, when the drums and horns let loose the cacophony of war, love will leave her peaceful home and journey to the battlefield to inspire great heroics and depravity.

My practice is solitary in that I do not have a coven or a working group. But it would be disingenuous to say that I'm a solitary practitioner.

I am ingratiated into a spirit family. I'm regularly brought into situations. Things happen and the Work happens, right. And I can say this.

Even if you're not involved in a tradition, other people hold the keys all the time.

Someone out there holds the keys, they know how to unlock the door, and they have the steps to keep you safe and walk to the end and back again.

That's not a bad thing! But it's a very hard thing to work with if your core mindset is, "all witches are making everything up, and if you think you learned it, you learned it from someone else making it up."

Nobody has time to forge all the keys on their own anyway. The Current has too many doors! There is no virtue in needless labor.

For any Norse pagans who might not know, there's a popular theory among scholars that Njordr was originally the Germanic goddess Nerthus, who changed into a male sea god as the pagan Norse and Germanic religions grew, which is supported by the fact that their names seem to come from the same root word (Nerþuz) and they share a variety of place names across Scandinavia, among other evidence.

Basically Njordr is a transmasculine icon who protects his trans brothers and devotees and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

Edit: I deleted the original post because there were a number of individuals in the notes I did not want there. Check my pinned before interacting.

My controversial pop culture paganism opinion is that you do have to research the origins of an entity you intend to work with/worship.

This allows you to consider the cultural meanings behind names and also to distinguish between the entity you wish to work with and any potential real world counterparts that could be part of a closed practice.

It also allows you to determine whether or not the media you wish to use in your practice is portraying the entity respectfully, even across adaptations of the same character.

Some JRPGS, anime, manga, and comics will use religious imagery for the aesthetic, conveying visual metaphors as symbolism for the scene; other JRPGs and the like will use it to intrinsically tie the world and characters to a real world allusions of a region's spiritual practice.

And sometimes, the entities you want to work with or worship want to be linked with their other counterparts, receiving the same offerings, or helping you with similar things.

Some people don't want to be confronted with the idea that the Gods of Norse myth weren't actually the Gods "of" anything. In every way that matters, Thórr is not the "God of thunder". Óðinn is the "God of" so many things that it's pointless to try and assign him such a restrictive label. I know it's frustrating to not be able to make these straightforward associations, but it's crucial for Norse mythology enthusiasts to keep an open mind in this regard. When you observe historical worship, a pattern comes up: when a deity rises in popularity, they take up "responsibilities" they didn't otherwise have outside this specific area and period. I'll keep using the example of Thórr. In Sweden, when the Uppsala temple was at its peak, he was viewed as the ruler of the sky. In Iceland, much later into the medieval era, his area of influence extended greatly, as worshippers turned to him for bountiful crops and prosperity. Some sources pertaining to this period also cite him as a protector of the slaves and the common people.

In the case of Scandinavia, when it came to characterizing deities, it's obvious that mythological stories mattered more than the fluid "domains" they were assigned to. Granted, it helps to know that this or that God is inclined to help in this or that area of life. But when you stop to think about it, it's still rather important to take into account the personality of a God before calling upon them for help. Think of how they've manifested in your life—observe the ways in which they've extended their help. This might reveal aspects of them you may not have instinctively noticed. Sure, people will often call upon Eir for a quick recovery from illness. But in my experience, she's also keen to help with friendships, inner peace, green witchcraft... The Gods are like people rather than tools, even from a historical and mythological perspective.

The pre-Christian Norse spiritual worldview is animistic, which means that it's informed by direct experiences and observations of nature, interpreted through the lens of human experience and feelings. You know how we watch snow swirl around think that it looks playful, or watch a wildfire and think that it looks angry? It involves that kind of thing.

But when most people think of pre-Christian religions, they tend to imagine later forms of Greek and Roman polytheism. The problem here is that these Greeks and Romans had begun to think of divinity in more abstract, transcendent ways, and had begun to imagine the gods as rulers of things rather than the spirits of things.

Loki isn't the lord of mischief, he's the spirit of mischief. He's in the little voice telling you make that shitpost and to stop caring about being "cringe." He's in your cat's impulse to knock something off the counter to watch it bounce or roll. Loki manifests in every accidental innuendo and hilarious typo, in every spilled cup of coffee, and every paperwork mix-up. (This is why he's a shapeshifter! He can be anything!)

So when media depicts a Loki riddled with repression and shame - say, for example, a Loki who sneers at modern media or the culture of the common folk - it's depicting a Loki who can't really Loki. That poor spirit has been bound and gagged.

Certain popular media has depicted Thor and Loki as some kinds of opposites, but when we consider the animist perspective we can see there is a serious problem with this. Loki and Thor being depicted as companions isn't some random whim; it's a reflection of the reality that thunderstorms bring chaos.

A Loki informed by Norse mythology shouldn't be complaining about Thor's "oafishness" or whatever, he should be encouraging him to wreak even more havoc. Loki shouldn't be here out of some real or imagined obligation, he should be here because he expects he's going to have a pretty good time, and because he hopes to make the situation as ridiculous as possible.

Loki being the spirit of mischief is also why depicting him as hostile to humanity isn't really in the spirit of the pre-Christian Norse worldview. Mischief and chaos are not anti-human; they're just realities of the world that humans inhabit. I get how it's easy to infer that Loki must have something against humans due to his oppositional role toward the Aesir in the Ragnarok story, but that's an extremely Christian reading of the narrative. The story is simply describing the collapse of civilization and end of the world as we know it through Norse animistic comprehension. Loki only has an issue with the Aesir, who bound him in a cave to be tortured with serpent venom. Humanity is neither here nor there for him.

Pet peeve of mine: When it's assumed Norse polytheism works like Greek or Roman polytheism, when it really does not.

Ill -educated, curious eclectic pagan here. Could you clarify that a bit? Is it that the pantheons aren't treated the same? The practice itself is very different or something else?

I'm looking to be educated so I can understand

Absolutely! I love talking about this stuff.

The short answer is that, the Old Norse religions were structured very differently from Greek and Roman ones.

The long answer requires a little bit more anthropological and historical context:

Religion is ultimately a product of culture. The way a given religion is structured emerges from the worldviews, sensibilities, experiences, and priorities of its people.

All of these ancient pagan religions started more or less the same way; they emerged out of people perceiving things about the world and telling stories about it. However, a religion doesn't really centralize until a society grows and develops things like agriculture and cities. Only then do we start to see a "canon" of myths and orthopraxy and orthodoxy emerge—that is, "how to do the religion."

Regardless of any similar features they may have, all religions have their own unique architecture or "operating system" that they run on. What determines the OS of a religion, is based on what factors shaped the development of the culture it comes from.

Take Rome, for example. Rome was shaped by the environment of conflict pretty much since its conception. Rome's neighboring societies constantly threatened invasion due to Rome's coveted position in the dead-center of the Mediterranean peninsula, which meant Rome started to value control over the land as a result. Religio Romano reflects this: All of the Roman gods are characterized as lords (read: land-owners) of the different "domains" of the world (i.e. "that which you hold dominion over"). A society that did not develop conquest as a value would not have a pantheon of gods that works like this.

Now here's where it gets interesting with the Norse people: Their society never actually got to the point where their religion could centralize, before Christianity swept through. Despite having multiple named gods, its overall structure was and is still mostly animistic, because it was only just starting to develop the characteristics of polytheism by the time of the Christian conversion. However, this late conversion means what remains is not as garbled and corroded as it could have been, giving us this impression that it was more centralized than it actually was.

There's still an issue of USAmerican pagans making the mistake that we almost always make when approaching old European form of paganism: Assuming that we can restore what has been lost by modeling them after Roman/Greek polytheism.

Why we have this assumption is pretty simple: Whenever our nation doesn't know how to do something, we turn to models of antiquity to guide us. After all, our entire democratic republic is based on Ancient Greek and Rome, so the structures found in Grecco-Roman societies are what feel the most familiar and sensible for us.

Unfortunately, this unchecked assumption is the mechanism behind the Imperialization of a lot of these old pagan practices. It's not something we're intentionally doing, of course, but it's something that emerges due to lacking methodology for switching religions; we think switching religions is just a matter of switching gods, rather than a process of changing our entire patterns of thinking.

Rome was very good at giving people the impression that everything about it represents the baseline default for "how to do society," including religion. This is evidenced in the way we discuss religion as a whole, using terms that derive from Grecco-Roman models: Theology. Religion. Cosmology. Pantheon. Deity. Orthopraxy. Orthodoxy. These are all Latin words, and truthfully they only accurately apply to Latin-derived belief-systems.

Heathenry is not one of those, and let me give some examples why:

Take the Old Norse word that we commonly translate into "god" in English: Ás. The actual implied meaning of this is "member of the Æsir." The Æsir are a family of people who live on the other side of the veil—in what we'd call "the Astral" or "the Otherworld" or "the Heavens", etc.—in a sphere called Asgard. But they are not the only kind of people there, for there's also the Vanir, who live in their own sphere called Vanaheim. (If you want to complicate things further, these spheres were not seen as separate from the material world, but rather nested within it, and how this works would take me too long to explain for the scope of this post.)

The names "Æsir" and "Vanir" do not actually describe different "species" of divine powers, but describe affiliations, similar to how we say "the Bloods" or "the Crips" when identifying those gangs. As far as I'm aware, there isn't a word like "god" in Old Norse because the Norse people did not identify these beings as anything other than people. We just gloss these terms as "god" in order to make it clear what their function is to Western readers, who are coming at this from a Latin paradigm.

Same goes with the word jötun, which is often translated as "giant" in English. At first we'd assume jötnar are similar to "titans" by virtue of this descriptor, but they're not. It's more accurate to say that they are "the powers that dwell in environments human beings can potentially visit, but not stay in forever."

Jötnar live in the "countries" we can't tame, such as on the peaks of mountains, in the depths of volcanoes, in the torrential oceans, etc, but this also applies to more abstract countries: For example, the god Loki is also a jötun, but he typically dwells in the "country" of parties, mischief, and entertainment. This is a realm we adore visiting and often invite into our lives, but just like how we invite fire into our lives, it needs a specific designation and cannot engulf our entire existence without harming us.

Compare this to, perhaps, Frigg's hall, which is the "hall" we visit whenever we work on fibercrafting and textile arts. Frigg is not jötun, but she also wouldn't be one because her hall emerges from domestic life, vs. Loki's nonsense, which is a wild thing we invite into the domestic sphere.

"Giant" is typically accepted as a gloss for jötnar because it's not exactly inaccurate—jötnar have energy that feels noisy and big compared to the usual hum of our lives—but this word is once again a gloss.

So...yeah. It's more complicated than we typically want to admit. A lot of people coming into paganism are looking to get a foundation beneath their feet as fast as possible, so they reach out for the most accessible paradigm they can find. But just because a tool is accessible doesn't automatically make it the right tool for the job. Many people end up recreating the Latin and Imperial structures of religion they were trying to get away from this way, and are left wondering why they do not feel fulfilled.

So how should we worship them as an eclectic pagan instead?

  1. Start by doing whatever already feels familiar to you / makes sense.
  2. Let your worship change as you develop a stronger interpersonal relationship with (and deeper understanding of) the deity you're venerating. You have complete freedom.

We end up with the imperial structures only if we don't go to step 2.

Another thing about the Aesir that @skaldish mentions but I'd like to harp on a little further; the Aesir weren't gods of "things" in the way Roman gods were. Thor isn't the god of thunder, thunder was an event that was ascribed to him, but he isn't a Thunder god in the way Mars is the god of war. likewise Tyr isn't the god of war and Odin isn't really the king of the gods in the way Jupiter is for the Romans. That's just not how the norse folk viewed or conceptualized of their religious myths.

This is something I explored as I worked on my syncretic practice (Norse and Hellenic). I found a middle ground, I think, but it leans more towards treating the Hellenic Gods in the way I do the Norse Gods. The Gods, regardless of pantheon, aren't restricted to a specific sphere of influence, although they may be more associated with certain things. I honestly think many Hellenic polytheists would agree with me on this. The more experience you have, the more likely you are to step away from "X is God of_____," and instead find more "X is a God that feels like _____ and this is how they fit into my life/practice."

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