ToTM: Prayers

July's Topic of The Month is Prayers!

Many people who do practice the craft like to involve prayers.Working with different type's of deities or energies doesn't always require a ritual or a spell.You can sometimes get in contact with them by saying a prayer to them.Usually, you wouldn't need any tools other than yourself but some people like to involve offerings to the god or goddess they're praying to.If you wouldn't mind sharing with us, who do you pray to? Do you usually pray for healing, money, or something else?How often do you pray? Thanks for sharing with us!

Hello, Jaxies here!

I honestly, don't pray to a certain god or goddess I usually just start praying and wish a god and goddess is hearing me. Most of the time I pray for healing and a better understanding of life. I pray every night. Well, sometimes I forget and start to fall asleep so almost every night.

Blessed Be.

~Jaxies~

When I pray it is normally to Kali. I do this on a daily basis though I have no schedule for it. I always have a picture of Kali on my wallpaper on my computer, and whenever I open it I see my Deity, and I say a little prayer. I also will pray at my altar to Her as well, though when at the altar I normally chant a prayer or read something I wrote just for Her. I pray everytime I give offerings on that altar. The things I pray for when I pray to Kali are often for things like letting go of anger, or fear, or another emotion that is getting in the way of me living my life, or for things like being brave and facing my fears. More often, I try to pray to offer Kali something, often this is is my devotion, my love for Her, and my faith in Her. I love saying prayers while decorating Her altar with flowers :)

I also say prayers to Kali when I consecrate items or tools, such as when I made my newest pendulum. I cleansed and consecrated the tools and items used before bringing them into the circle to work with them to make the pendulum, Then when I was finished making it I prayed to Kali to consecrate the actual finished pendulum.

My favortie place to pray is at the local Kali temple near me. There is a big shrine there with images not only of Her, but of other Deities in the Hindu pantheon, such as Durga and Shiva. I love sitting at the feet of the shrine to meditate and pray. When I sit there I focus on breathing in Kali's love and breathing out my devotion to Her. It is truly amazing to be able to do that at a temple made for honorig Kali and I feel blessed because of it :)

I mainly pray to Ares. I have prayed to Enyo, Haides, Hermes, Thanatos, etc. But Ares I have the closest relationship with so his is the most regular. I used to pray daily but I don't as much anymore. I try to weekly if not at least monthly. I do dreamwork and am working on projecting and altered states. So it's not as if it's the only way I spend time with him. I will be working on a godforum ritual and dream sachet for him as well. Heather got me interested in the godforum ritual which is much like deity shadowing, that being a lesser form of channeling.

However, when I do pray I make sure it is of quality. I like bringing different libation, flowers and poupree to mix it up. The incense I use most is frankincense but I have used lemon a bit too which he seems to like.

Libations:

• Cherry pepsi
• Regular pepsi
• Spring water
• Purified water
• Dr pepper
• Cherry dr pepper
• Grape juice
• Strawberry juice
• Orange juice
• Wine
• Jack Daniels
• Wine coolers
• Iced tea

Flowers:

• Birds of paradise
• Red oleander or as I call it, hot pink
• Light pink oleander
• White oleander
• Yellow oleander
• Chrysanthemums
• Poinsettia
• Sunflowers
• Pepper plant leaves
• Purple petunia
• White petunia
• Some other ones I can't think of right now

Food Offerings:

• Red cherry lollipop
• Fancy dark chocolate

Stuff:

• Vases
• 3 Smaller vases for fresh flowers
• Glass roses
• 3 Beautiful cloths
• Handmade purple bead bracelet
• Flower pictures
• Baby Eros statue
• Pink rose dish for poupree
• Baby Eros candle holder
• Red cherry scented candle
• Grante wolf incense burner
• Red glass stones
• Wolf cup for libation
• Small red dice (D6)

Acts:

• Feeding the homeless
• Educating and guidence
• Leading and helping out in my community (SoM)
• Excercising and general physical activity
• Representing him well
• Dedicating personal victories
• Dedicating exposing fakes and morons
• Gardening
• Dungeons and Dragons sessions

Alright, now I will attempt to elaborate on the bullet points above. I've found a lot of times some disrespectful asshat will piss me off, I'll turn off the computer and leave my house to like go grocery shopping or get a bite with my husband...Boom! Homeless person. Randomly driving around, boom! Homeless person. I usually stop and give them a little change or at least buy them a little food on food stamps. I'm honestly not well off myself but it pains me to see someone in need. Like how do you ignore someones plea for help? They want something as basic as something to eat just to survive! "But what does this have to do with Ares?" Since it's usually when I'm mad and he is the restraint of anger I feel he likes to help me channel my anger into something productive. Like putting a smile on someone elses face to help put one on my own. That and he has a surname, Aphneius, which means giver of food, plentyful.

"Ugh! Why so many flowers? He's a war god, like duh!" True, but he is also an agricultural god as well as a god of peace. That in which the Greek Gods can cause, they can also prevent. Mars is more highly ecredited with these though since the Greeks were not very fond of him. The Spartans, Amazones, and Thrakians were, but Athenians not so much. Athena gud, Ares bad, hurdurdur!! It's also good to note that every warrior needs peace, rest, time to breathe, relax, unwind. That is what I seek to give. I feel the war aspect is overhyped and the only thing he is ever recognized for in the first place. But nobody wants to acknowledge what he was fighting for. He has reasons for his actions. Flowers and nature in general can be very peaceful, calming, soothing, and relaxing.

"You can't give deities candy and junk food!" The fuck I can't. It's delicious, I like it. Why not? If he doesn't like it, he can go ahead and let me know. Only way to know is to try and see the results. So far, they have all been good. He's just not very picky. In my experience, he's the guy whose happy with a beer, sandwich, and a football game. I mean that analogy as a simple guy who is easily pleased. It just takes being genuine with him and making the effort to really get to know him.

That and I've researched heavily into shared UPG that he likes Jack Daniels and Dr. Pepper lol. He does and I figured I'd try cherry pepsi too since that is what I like most. Teas are made of herbs which were once living plants, hence agriculture. Juice was once fruits, hence agriculture.

The educating, guidance, and leadership ones are very close to my heart. I never considered myself intellegent or the leader type. It just kind of worked out that way and I do the best I can to like help and stuff. I didn't think much of it for the longest time. But an associate I had back in a Facebook group asked me one day when telling her about SoM, "So you're a Priestess of Ares?" I explained to her, "No no! I'm the Priestess of an online coven!" I by no means consider myself one to this day. We had a long discussion on how too many people call themselves Priests or Priestesses of certain Gods. Like um, you don't elect yourself. Your boss hires you to work for them. Additionally, most are not qualified as they do not know very much about their Deities let alone the holidays and festivals, etc.

So I'm not there yet though I do feel things pushing me that way when I reflect back on it. I've never met a Hellenist I can't stump. Also, being a Priest/Priestess not only means surving the God in question but also doing their work. Like praying on others behalf or helping others. Which to a degree I do but still not to the point I feel necessary yet. I also found ONE guy who I found to be kinda sorta crediblish or so I thought. He's an old user who hasn't logged in in years. He said in his bio he honors Ares and Aphrodite. He used to be a Moderator to my understanding and lead a coven back in the day. So the wheels started turning...When one leaves, another takes his place. I felt really honored to have stumbled upon this. It makes me feel that I am on SoM for an even deeper reason than I thought!

You're probably looking at the Dungeons and Dragons one like, "whaa?" The reason why is a long story but basically, I had a shitty friend who treated me terribly and D&D was my escape. He tried to ruin it for me and in game the Deity Ares and his devotees were always there helping me. Now back then, I knew nothing about Ares. I didn't know Amazones and Sirens were Greek. A lot of pop culture garbage paints Ares as the bad guy. So I kinda had that impression too. But I started researching him when we weren't playing to get a deeper understanding. I was so damn determined he must be a bad guy...But try as I might, I could find anything bad. He always comes to the aid of his children, he helps women in distress. Just generally a great guy.

The funny part is one of the first articles I ever read on Ares was from a site called, "Aspis of Ares". It's still up and running today but the guy Pete who runs it hasn't posted anything new in years. He has this really cool theory that Ares is the creator of D&D which blew my mind! So playing is kinda of like Greek plays that mortals would perform for the Gods amusement. Lots of brutal monster and bad guy slaying, romance, strategy, all the makings of a good story!

The exposing fakes and owning morons part is another big one. I know it might sound a bit aggressive but I get so tired of fluffies using his name in vain. If you want to establish a legitimate bond with him, good for you! That is between you and him and I wish you luck! But when you claim you are his LITERAL child...we have a problem. When you claim he is a God of war and nothing more and try to argue he is not a God of agriculture, I will humble you. If you are disrespectful to him in any way, I will challange your logic. I will never back down on that. I will come at you with every piece of Hellenic text under my belt at lightning speed. I will embaress you and expose you as the fluffel puff, uneducated fraud you really are. Then, I will light my incense and candle to Ares and tell him in great detail of my victory and send him my delicious, tasty, succulant victory vibey goodness to snack on. This she-wolf will devour you and do so with bells on her toes! <3

The purple bead bracelet I made for him I have hanging over the altar. I made myself a matching one I often wear out of the house along with my religious necklace and a red dragon bracelet. It's like a matching friendship bracelet I guess you could say lol. I think I have rambled enough. When I post this, it'll probably be like ten paragraphs long so I'll end my super long rambly bits here lol.

Wait, I lied! I forgot to say I never pray to him for anything but his time, attention, and fatherly affection. I just always want sempai to notice me! <3 I do however feel I recieve many benefits. I've gotten free meals when we go out to eat a number of times if not at least discounts. Like people screwing up our order super bad to the point they replace it and give us our money back. Rude waitresses or cashiers who needed to be fired and probably were which ended with either free meal tickets for next time or part of the bill subtracted. It happens at the same time as us helping feed the homeless often times. If not directly after than usually within twenty four hours.

I also feel he helps me restrain and channel my anger. But also is loving and compassionate to me. So I feel loved, validated and safe. It's hard to explain but I'll try to. It's like the soldier who has seen some shit. He's been through the worst of things. He is so strong. When people see strength they think of how much you can lift. But for me strength is all about how much you can take. So the motivation to keep going on is very meaningful. To be reminded by him I am strong, I do deserve better, it's okay to fight back. To be inspired by him is an honor. That he reached out to me when I needed it the most and showed me such kindness means everything to me. Most humans cannot even be bothered to give a damn about anyone but themselves in my experience lol. So breathing new life into me and reminding me of my power, courage, strength, and pride.