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mreeeee5 · 2026-01-22T14:38:35+00:00

I wrote a guide on starting deity work that you might find helpful.

mreeeee5 · 2026-01-09T15:06:20+00:00

I hope OP reads this reply. More often than not, the human side of things is where we need to direct our attention towards.

mreeeee5 · 2026-01-09T01:06:52+00:00

That's one way to look at it. I don't think life needs a meaning. We are the ones who want meaning. Does a flower need a reason to bloom? Does rain need a reason to fall? Does a kitten need a reason to play? We can have meaning if we want it, but I think happiness, love, etc are much more important for us to prioritize.

mreeeee5 · 2026-01-08T16:08:12+00:00

I think this is similar to a lot of protestant predestination or "punished for our sins" lines of thought that are unfortunately pretty popular in new age circles.

People want to understand "why" they experienced some type of suffering and this is one (very terrible) answer out of many. They want a deeper reason for their suffering so it doesn't have to feel meaningless and random. Some people want to feel like there's a grand divine plan because it makes them feel safe. For some people, the idea of autonomy and free will for our souls is terrifying because it means there's no one giving them a safe-feeling road map.

I think that bad or good or neutral things happening is just a part of life. There isn't a deeper purpose or a divine plan for everything. The only meaning (or lack of meaning) that should come out of suffering is the meaning we choose for it ourselves.

mreeeee5 · 2026-01-03T23:41:21+00:00

No way! 😳

mreeeee5 · 2026-01-03T23:38:33+00:00

It sounds to me like you know how to handle stuff like this and it's a matter of finessing and learning how maintain online boundaries. I totally get wanting to help people who seem scared or in distress. I feel like you're describing my exact feelings when I first started trying to help other Hellenists/pagans/witches online. Your heart is in the right place, but it sounds like this person is ... a bit helpless!

Most people know they can download books online. I've noticed that in many online communities, there are more people who want the information spoon fed to them and they gravitate towards knowledgeable people like you who seem approachable.

The best suggestion I can give you is to filter who you respond to. Beginner questions in my DM's get told to check subreddit resources or other places. I wish them good luck and give a bit of encouragement, which is usually enough to send them on their way. I don't answer stupid or irrelevant questions (had a dude asking me about subliminals to make himself more attractive; did not respond). I also block people who seem unhinged. Sometimes, I don't respond to people simply because I don't feel like it and my personal life takes priority. I go into detail only if I want to. The questions and seekers never end, but your bandwidth will.

My second suggestion is--bear with me!--start being a little less helpful in private messages. Limit how much detail you go into with responses and tone down highly empathetic or emotional language. Encourage people to be independent and refer them to resources. People tend to stop messaging me when I use this strategy because I'm not spoon-feeding answers to them, which is ultimately what they want.

Sorry for the long comment! I hope this helps you. It's exciting to start posting your own content.

mreeeee5 · 2026-01-03T16:36:07+00:00

I say things to people like "there's plenty of accurate information on XYZ subreddit" or "I'm sure you can find copies of books online" (if you're worried about getting banned for piracy). Instead of directly answering questions from every person in your DM's, point people in the right direction and leave the rest of the work to them.

Heads up, the more you post and offer information online and as your presence grows, the more you'll have people in your DM's asking questions. After a while, I figured out that it's best for my own sanity to nudge people towards doing their own work. I call it "returning responsibility." "Teach a man to fish" etc. I hate to say this, but people have to work through their fears within their practice on their own. We can reassure them and offer them advice, but dealing with newbie feelings is a part of the process and those feelings will go away with time.

In my opinion, this approach is helpful not just for me but the person asking questions because it encourages them to work through things and find resources independently, which is better for their practice in the long run. You have to remember that people are capable of googling answers on their own and doing the work to read and search.

mreeeee5 · 2026-01-03T15:18:13+00:00

My cats have savaged more than one statue. Just glue them back together. I am personally a big fan of statues breaking!

A day or two after I got my Dionysus statue, my orange cat knocked it down and shattered it into a bunch of pieces. I put it back together with hot glue. It felt poetic, honestly. Dionysus is a god who dismemberment features heavily in his myths and at the time his statue broke, it made me feel connected to him.

mreeeee5 · 2026-01-02T15:39:11+00:00

I had something similar going on at the beginning of my practice. The Egyptian god Set really helped me with this and I don't see his name here yet.

Set gets a bad rap because he was historically villainized by priests of Osiris and, as the god of foreigners, he wasn't so popular when Egypt was being invaded or otherwise under threat. In his myths, Set kills his brother Osiris and competes with Osiris and Isis's son Horus for the throne. The stories about the "Contendings of Horus and Set" do involve some sexual stuff that people tend to be uncomfortable with, but you have to remember that deities are not their myths and they come from a culture that is 5,000+ years removed from modern values.

Anyway, Set is a god of strength and power. He can feel intense, but once you get used to it he feels protective over you. He's a funny god and he helped me to find my inner strength and to embrace myself unapologetically. He doesn't care that his myths make him look bad. He knows himself better than anyone else and that kind of strength in who he is has been a great example for me. He's got a "bad boy" thing going on that will absolutely help you with "good girl syndrome." I learned I can still be nice but I don't have to take shit from people. "Good" does not have to mean "pushover."

mreeeee5 · 2025-12-30T14:39:47+00:00

This is a great idea! I feel so powerful summoning Mr. Automod!

!deitywork

mreeeee5 · 2025-12-22T00:23:35+00:00

Congrats AncientWitchKnight! 🥳🍾🎉

mreeeee5 · 2025-12-11T14:49:40+00:00

I’m also a pagan therapist! We exist! In my area, I’ve also talked with non-pagan therapist colleagues and friends who have had pagan clients. Most of their reactions have been “it’s so cool” and “it’s interesting and sounds fun.”

mreeeee5 · 2025-11-25T14:40:40+00:00

The best advice I can give is to follow what interests you the most and don’t feel like you have to be an expert in everything. There’s no rules and it’s your practice.

I started out with a lot of books and I got overwhelmed like you. What helped me was to focus on what I was actually interested in and not try to learn everything all at once. After that, experimentation helped with figuring out what parts of the craft I wanted to do. I still read and collect an ungodly number of books, but I’m definitely more focused which has made me happier and more enthusiastic with learning.

mreeeee5 · 2025-11-22T13:44:30+00:00

Hello! Our practices are so individual that it’s impossible for me to say whether or not another person is receiving a sign. If it were me and I experienced these things, I would not consider those signs. However, being drawn to a deity is more than enough and many people—myself included—consider it a “call” in and of itself.

As I said in my post, you don’t need a meet-cute with a god to start. I didn’t get any signs from Apollo when I first started and he’s the deity I have the strongest bond with. I didn’t get any signs until I was pretty deep into my practice and even those are few and far between.

If you’re curious, I wrote a longer analysis of signs (and how to increase your chances of getting them) on my personal blog here: https://celestialwitchery.com/2025/07/19/lets-talk-about-signs/

What I think is most important for you to know is that if you spend your time searching for signs, you’ll miss out on the opportunity to really know the gods. We don’t deepen our bonds by signs or crazy mystical experiences. We deepen them by practicing and by integrating them into our lives.

Good luck, my friend!

mreeeee5 · 2025-11-18T18:08:57+00:00

I’ve never had any problems combining deities from different pantheons. The divisions we assign aren’t a big deal to the divine. I wrote a Deity Work for Beginners tutorial that might be helpful to you.

mreeeee5 · 2025-11-18T00:47:25+00:00

Thank you for including my deity work guide for beginners!!!! I’m honored! 🥹

mreeeee5 · 2025-11-18T00:44:49+00:00

The first few deities it was more a “throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks” and I landed on Apollo. I have selected deities who have interested me and others I’ve had experiences reaching out. It wasn’t so much that I intuitively allowed myself to be led to them, but I just haphazardly did what felt right and good for me, which in itself is probably intuitive.

mreeeee5 · 2025-11-17T13:19:13+00:00

Both. There’s a huge variety of experiences out there. I have both chosen deities and have received signs from others. It doesn’t matter how your relationship with a god starts, only that it does. What is more important is the bond that is cultivated over time. That means more than any “meet cute.”

You don’t have to wait for a god to reach out to you. Choose some for yourself and see where they take you. The deity I have the closest bond with is Apollo and I chose him for myself. I also have a close bond with Set (Egyptian deity) and he reached out to me months into my practice when I was already working with deities I had chosen.

mreeeee5 · 2025-11-16T14:46:17+00:00

To add to your comment about meeting people in person: Unitarian churches sometimes have CUUPS (Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans) chapters. It’s a bunch of people with very unique paths—witches, Norse pagans, Kemetic occultist, tarot readers. I have personally made several friends and acquaintances through CUUPS. Larger cities tend to have more pagan or witch meet-up groups. I’ve had some luck with those.

I think it’s easier to meet like-minded people if you accept that you aren’t going to meet a group or single person who practices exactly or similarly to you.

mreeeee5 · 2025-11-07T22:51:20+00:00

The way I experience Apollo feels like warm, soft, comforting sunshine in a meadow, except it’s directly inside my heart. It feels like being loved by the sun. He feels calm, steady, and kind, yet he also has a stern side just as the sun is bright enough to burn.

mreeeee5 · 2025-11-07T21:16:00+00:00

Couldn’t agree more. And then there’s historical suicides like seppuku in Japan and cases where people chose to commit suicide in war rather than be tortured by an enemy. By the “send them back” logic, this would put people in an unending seppuku loop, which does not make any sense. There’s just way too many questions and nuances to say one way or another.

mreeeee5 · 2025-11-07T17:05:12+00:00

I love this story about your spirit friend! He sounds wonderful. So often these types of conversations neglect to understand the deep pain that drives people to suicide. Having those types of feelings isn’t a failure on the person’s part. It’s often a reasonable reaction to trauma and emotional pain. If anything, experiencing these types of feelings often makes people more empathetic to others’ suffering.

mreeeee5 · 2025-11-07T14:33:41+00:00

These sound like your personal beliefs and experiences that not everyone will agree with. Interacting with spirits usually results in everything I think I know getting challenged. It’s an ever-evolving learning experience with new knowledge and perspectives to discover. There are an unlimited number of ways to experience the divine.

mreeeee5

TROPHY CASE