Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Offerings

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Offerings

    I have improved in my walk greatly since last picking all your brains, and thought I would come back for a little bit more.

    I felt compelled to give an offering. I will take care of WHAT I give and don't need any ideas for that, but I feel like it should be something more elaborate than simply lying it on my altar. I'd like some steps, or things I could incorporate to make the whole thing really feel like "Yes, I have heard your command and here is your faithful servant complying."
    No one tells the wind which way to blow.

    #2
    Re: Offerings

    Offer the goods or items to someone that really needs them.

    Since I don't know what you're offering, I can't offer you more suggestion than that, other than an example.

    If your gifts are cakes and ale, why not get something reasonably healthy and some apple cider to give to the homeless?

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Offerings

      Originally posted by Roknrol View Post
      Offer the goods or items to someone that really needs them.

      Since I don't know what you're offering, I can't offer you more suggestion than that, other than an example.

      If your gifts are cakes and ale, why not get something reasonably healthy and some apple cider to give to the homeless?
      I agree with Rok. If you've got something to give away, give it to someone who needs it. Unless it's something you can't give away then I can't help you! Except, I can suggest you still try to find something that you can give away
      [4:82]

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Offerings

        Unless to whom you're offering has a specific name or from a certain path I wouldn't worry. I'd say if you MUST have something formal put it on a dish specially put aside for offerings. This not only shows some respect to the Being but it helps your mindest; it creates a bit more of a sacred intention.
        my etsy store
        My blog


        "...leave me curled up in my ball,
        surrounded by plush, downy things,
        ill prepared, but willing,
        to descend."

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Offerings

          Originally posted by Bjorn View Post
          I have improved in my walk greatly since last picking all your brains, and thought I would come back for a little bit more.

          I felt compelled to give an offering. I will take care of WHAT I give and don't need any ideas for that, but I feel like it should be something more elaborate than simply lying it on my altar. I'd like some steps, or things I could incorporate to make the whole thing really feel like "Yes, I have heard your command and here is your faithful servant complying."
          Not sure if this is the direction you're looking for, but if you want to formalize the action you could write a prayer and recite it as you lift the offering up to the gods before placing it on the altar.
          "Gardens are not made by singing "Oh, how beautiful," and sitting in the shade." - Rudyard Kipling

          Mathbatu: A Canaanite Polytheist's Blog
          Sparrow Wings: A Personal Blog

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Offerings

            If you are following a deity in a traditional manner, there are likely already prayers, procedures, ect in place for an offering for that deity...but if you are offering to a more unconventional deity, or you are trying to establish a more personal and contemporary worship, I think the best way would probably be to see what *feels* appropriate. You can ask, or you can just follow your instincts. One think I would not do though, is give something that is traditionally taboo, whether or not you care about the traditional aspects...its just a wee bit (IMO) disrespectful). Personally, I give things/action that are appropriate to what/who I am offering them to in places/ways where they are appropriate to be given.

            For example, an offering to the Ocean (under whichever guise She is wearing on a particular day) can be anything from picking up trash from the beach to goldfish crackers from the kids (generally on fishy, calm days) to blood (mine) or something hand-carved that will float and be carried by Her tides to whomever she deems worthy of it, or to no one at all.

            An offering to the spirits of a place is usually best done (IMO) in the manner of the spirits that are thought to live there, when I have gone canoeing in Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario, the family that owns the outfitter that we use is descended from both the old Voyageur fur traders and the Ojibwa, and there are places in the park that it is traditional to leave kinnickinnic as an offering:

            Dry tobacco was placed at the base of a tree or shrub from which medicine was gathered, and a pinch was thrown in the water before each day of wild rice gathering to assure calm weather and a bountiful harvest. Before setting out in a canoe, a safe return was assured by offering tobacco on the water. On journeys or hunts, Indian men paused for a smoke and left a pinch of tobacco as an offering when they encountered certain features of the landscape, including waterfalls, misshapen trees, oddly shaped rocks, and lakes or islands said to harbor spirits. When storms approached, families protected themselves by placing a small amount of tobacco on a nearby rock or stump. Tobacco was placed at graves as an offering to the departed spirit. Requests to elders to relate oral traditions or other special knowledge were accompanied with a gift of tobacco.

            http://www.mpm.edu/wirp/icw-166.html
            ...there are quite a few of those locations in the park, from graves to waterfalls to *strange* places in the park, and often storms, etc. Out of 8 10 day trips, I've only had 1 go bad, and random coincidence that it might be, it was the one where the person in charge blew off the tradition and didn't take anything of an offering into the park.

            When I am at a Civil War battlefield, I leave an offering of water. Old battlefields have a *energy* about them that very few other places have... Men died on those fields, some of them luck enough to die instantaneously, but many of them bleeding to death in agony under a sweltering sun...the least I can do is honor their spirit, their memory and their death by giving them a drink, even if it is 150 years after the fact.
            Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
            sigpic

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Offerings

              There are times when it is better to "feel" your way than it is to "think" your way. If you feel that you should do or offer a certain thing, then consider doing what you feel.

              However, don't throw the baby out with the bath water - if you feel like doing something utterly innane, like slitting your writsts for your god, pay attention to that part of your brain that says "this is stupid."

              In my particular path, work and attention are the offerings that one makes - this is a good deal because it pays off on both sides of the fence, and if it turns out that there is only one side to the fence, it still pays off.
              Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Offerings

                Thank you, everyone!

                The offering will be found through nature since it was a specific animal guide who asked for a tribute. I have studied this animal and know along the lines of what an appropriate offering would entail - this is going off of what you said, Thalassa about giving the right thing to the right entities.

                As for the offering itself, it is nothing that anyone would find useful: more like foraging for things this animal would recognize and appreciate. And, perhaps this is a bit strict, but I always thought that offerings should be something that kind of hurt to give away, something that was an actual sacrifice, so I always throw in a few silver coins.

                I just wanted some help turning it into a ritual. I can feel my way around my path all right, but I often come here for inspiration because it means more coming from people I know have used the suggestions given than found from some generic site online.
                No one tells the wind which way to blow.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Offerings

                  I did a ritual offering with my pagan group a few weeks ago. It involved a drinking horn full of home-brewed mead, but we added a lot of other things. We passed it around, and had everyone drink a sip to ask for the blessing, then we asked Sventovit to turn his own drinking horn over our circle, and fill it like a cup with blessing- just as we did likewise for the offering. To me, an offering is often the central pillar of the ritual that everything else is built around, but the rest I think can be more up to you, and has to do with what you're asking for.
                  If you want to be thought intelligent, just agree with everyone.

                  Comment

                  Working...
                  X