Greetings My Witchy Reader,
Many people have asked me as to what constitutes an acceptable offering to a Goddess or a God and when that may be a good time to give one. Well this can be quite a philosophical discussion and one could sit and debate and have a grand time discussing varying degrees of offerings.
So, please understand, here I discuss my personal views of this subject as a witch and magickal practitioner and elder in the magickal world for over 30 years. That does not make my concepts any more valid than anyone else's, they just make them mine.
Most times when one wishes to give an offering to a Goddess or a God one does so when they have worked with you and helped bring to you your desires when you have cast a spell or a prayer and things have worked in your favor. It has seemed typical that people would put something next to a statue of the specific Deity, something they would be associated with and would give them pleasure. Such as Aphrodite coming from the foam of the ocean, is said to enjoy pearls and perhaps a bowl of sea salt, beautiful sea shells, even a polished stone of aquamarine because of it's color of water and water influences.
Some harvest gods could be appeased with an offering of bread or crops from the field, at one time a sheaf of wheat was left unharvested standing in the field "John Barleycorn" as an offering to the gods of the harvest.
Yet when I read the wonderful research out there on this topic, one of the foremost and authoritative works on Gods and Goddesses can be found in "The Witches Goddess" and it's companion piece "The Witches God" both written by Janet and Stewart Farrar and both of these incredible resources are still in print and should be in any serious magickal practitioner's magickal library, I remember my ancient history. It's one of the things I teach and it's important to take into consideration in this matter, I believe.
When you wish to give an offering, what at one time in ancient time would be 'a sacrifice' something of great value to give thanks and to show gratitude to the gods, the small, pretty or tasty items mentioned above seem sweet but inconsequential. Lets look again, shall we? For someone who may have cast a love spell and had asked Aphrodite's help, and the spell caster's true love came into their lives they would very likely have made a trek, of perhaps miles on foot to go and gather sea shells, to collect precious sea salt, to find semi precious stones and polish them, so they shone like a drop of solid water like the aquamarine.
A person who wanted to give thanks to a harvest god would give up a piece of bread that could feed a hungry member of a large farming family, where every single scrap of bread was eaten and none went to waste. Even leaving a sheaf of wheat with its kernels in the field was a sacrifice as they could not be used to make flour or any food to be eaten. They would be consumed by the birds in the field. Willingly left out. A true offering. A sacrifice.
So today I look deeply and consider offerings in a way many do not. But I am not saying all do not, as I do know many who do as I do. I believe an offering should be as in the old days, to put you out. To be a chore that is inconvenient for you, requires effort and causes you to go out of your way to help or benefit another.
Also, I don't feel that simply stuffing currency into a jar on a counter or writing a check, even a big one is the same thing. That's easy, and does not require any energy, hardly any effort. Because it is against human nature to write a check for more than you can reasonably afford.
So what am I talking about, specifically? These are some of the offerings I have done myself over the years, and always to give back to the Goddess and God for their gifts to us.
On Christmas Eve I deliver cookies to the first responders in my home town, the fire departments and police station, as I try to keep it in mind that while everyone is enjoying their holiday these people need to be away from their homes to keep you safe.
One morning I woke up with the voice of a woman in my ear, I know it was the Goddess, and she told me to get 4 backpacks and fill them with all sorts of equipment that will keep homeless people outdoors during our New England winters warmer, and safe from freezing. I filled them with gloves, socks, emergency heating foil blankets, granola bars, bottles of water, led flashlights, chemical hand heaters, chocolate bars, and some spare money in each backpack. I asked a police officer I knew and she distributed them to four homeless veterans she knew lived outdoors.
Have collected "Toys for Joy", for under-privileged children and distributed them at a local church. We have a pick up truck so we did that for years.
Planned, prepped and cooked a Thanksgiving dinner at a local church for 200 people every year for 13 years before we handed that job off to another generation of people who still do it today.
Picked up bagged and boxed Thanksgiving and Christmas food baskets at the local food pantry to be delivered to people in the local community many of them shut ins and the elderly.
Collected non perishable foods to be brought down to the food pantry.
Collected sets of socks, gloves, scarves, hats made into Christmas packages, wrapped and delivered to the local homeless shelter, with prior phone calls to make sure every man, woman and child had a "warm" present delivered on Christmas Eve.
These are just a few of the things I have done in the past few years, and you may find other different areas that you may wish to give offerings. An offering should be something that causes you to put in effort, it may be inconvenient, uncomfortable and may even cause others to become disagreeable with you as you do things which might inadvertently inconvenience them, as you may not be as available for a moment or they may not understand why you choose to spend an entire afternoon chaperoning a girl scout troupe on a nature walk when everyone else is going to the ball game. Or why you wish to plant trees in a field that you own, wishing to regenerate poor soil and help the earth when everyone is going to Broadway that weekend.
Or the sideways glances you receive when you say you wish to set up honey bee hives and not to harvest the honey but to only help the decimated bee colonies. And everyone with a fear of bees treats you like you have the plague even though they are as docile as lambs. No, it;s not always easy to walk this path. There are a lot of choices and many areas where you could go to give your offerings. You don't even need to give an offering. It is more for you than for the Gods, but that is another story for another time.
Blessings, Ms. Faith
Live, Laugh and Always Love,
Especially Under the Full Moon, Think of Me!!
© 2010-2018 Faith M. McCann. Portions of this blog posting may include materials from my book “Enchantments School for the Magickal Arts First Year Magickal Studies.” For more information, see www.enchantmentsschool.com or go to the title of tonight's discussion and click, it will link you to my school's website. Please note that the copying and/or further distribution of this work without express written permission is prohibited.
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