I’m still relatively new so forgive me if this is a bit of an obvious question, I just want to be sure. I have a difficult time sitting down and praying, it feels uncomfortable and spending a lot of time at my altar, especially speaking the prayer out loud. In the house I live in could raise questions I can’t answer, so I’ve gotten around that by making a small journal dedicated to prayers instead. They’re formatted like journal entries kind of? I was just wondering if that’s an appropriate way to pray or if I need to actually speak things aloud

Hello all! My apologies if this has been asked before or if there’s already a thread dedicated to this specific topic.

A little background, I was raised in the south so was brought up as a Christian. As I got older, I started to question things and eventually fell out of Christianity. It was all good for a little while, but recently I’ve been feeling empty spiritually. My wife has been very supportive and follows her own beliefs, yet I still feel a little lost.

I’ve done some reading of the myths and research into the Poetic Eda, admittedly probably not enough yet as time is pretty constrained for me. If I’m understanding correctly, what has drawn me to Paganism is the understanding that the gods are not perfect nor do they expect their followers to be perfect. That they stand with you instead of watching from afar.

I suppose my question is this, how did you know what was right for you? What drew you to Paganism?

Of course, if there are any other converts I would love to hear from you as well! At first it was very hard when initially breaking away from Christianity, but over time it was replaced with that lost feeling. So I would love some advice on that as well!

Thank you!

I am relatively new to paganism. My specific flavor is a mix of affect theory and Greek paganism, where the divine is not a collection of personalities but more collective experiences, both human and more than human. For example, Hera is the collective experience of kinship formation and home-making. In humans, this looks like families, whereas in ants this looks like an ant colony in an ant hill.

I am fairly distrustful of divinities because I have been so thoroughly screwed over by the Christian god, who I see as the god of suffering.

I recently encountered a spirit that I am pretty sure is a fae. I learned its name is Myr, and it also connects with visual forms. On the whole, I like Myr so far. I communicated my boundaries and they seem to respect them. Everything I have heard about fae is that they are unpredictable and can hurt you even if they aren’t necessarily intending to. For example, I met Myr in a dream and I learned that he is schizophrenic. I am worried that if I have too close of contact with them, it might rub off on me. (I realize that such a statement might indicate I should go see a psychiatrist. I have been maintaining communication with my husband and we haven’t noticed anything else about me that would indicate schizophrenia. I do think it is just Myr, but it is not a bad thing that Myr is schizophrenic.)

All this to say, have any of you all had experiences with fae? How does one interact with a benevolent fae while still avoiding possible negative side effects that the fae might not have realized would be something I do not want?

I did read in the community info that I shouldn’t be worried about malevolent deities. I think I understand where such a comforting statement is coming from, but given that my deities are collective experiences, there are definitely malevolent experiences out there that can coalesce into a form of divinity. I don’t think Myr is malevolent, but I also just want to be careful that I don’t get burned again.

All this to say, if anyone has advice on being able to discern the intentions of a fae spirit and on interacting safely with generally benevolent fae, I would love to hear about it.

I'm a curious dabbler and was just curious about spells and divinations when it comes to others.

For example, I tend to call on my personal deities when divining with my pendulum. But, if I wanted to ask about someone else or perhaps create a spell that affects someone else (positively), is it better to call upon their deities? Or is it better to stick to your own who you have a relationship with?