Oblations to Powers Equal and Greater Than Me

You wouldn’t know it if you saw me -  a five-foot-five Hispanic in a Hawaiian shirt, blue jeans, and a pair of black Converse Chucks with no outward jewelry on me signifying any affiliation with the occult.  But I have a love for the gods and a deep respect for the world of spirits that in the quiet unassuming mornings of my home or out in the world when the opportunity warrants, when nobody I is looking, this love and respect is expressed in a manner that probably wouldn’t makes sense to anyone if caught red-handed doing them.  Or worst, it could rile those who are faithful to their particular god or daemon with an equal faithfulness to their techniques of worship that a verbal chastisement, like a fist, is pulled back and ready for impact to show me the error of my ways.

 I don’t claim to be anything more than a run of the mill conjurer and a nut-ball votary, to be honest.  So, if future blog entries offend anyone because my manner of doing things don’t jive with how it’s “supposed” to be done, then understand I have total respect how others who have had the good fortune to have been taught by a qualified teacher or follow a tradition as timeless as the fondest fables and are doing the things the way they were meant to be done, or as close to it as possible.  I don’t mean to offend the dedicated and the dutifully lettered, truly I don’t.   I’m doing my own bhakti yoga, my own devotional, my own kharis for Powers greater than me because it gives me joy to do so.  I divine if the liminal recipients are okay with alternatives, and I ask them if they want anything else in particular like a good host would.

Since I’ve been doing this sort of activity, or did a very rudimentary version of what I do now, back in ‘87, and since I never had a mentor that I was able to sit face to face with and learn the traditional method as you may have, I resorted to the method of burning my fingers through trial and error, but rarely exactly by the book.

 Oh, there were and are many books that found their way in my hands, much to the chagrin of whomever I was living with at that time.  Techniques from various lore coalesced with one another till I was doing things that were incompatible to most magical “currents.”

I started out a long time ago doing all this weird howling and chanting, visualizing this shape and that as most folks did by practicing ceremonial magic from Weiser and Lewellyn books.  When I say a long time ago, I mean Depeche Mode’s “Never Let Me Down Again” and The Smiths “Girlfriend In a Coma” were new and playing in the background as I was casting geometric patterns in the air for the first time.  That’s how old I am.

Now I’m depressed; good going, me.

Over the years – 30 convoluted of them -I learned, I adapted, most importantly, I grew up a little in the way of magic and living my life accordingly to it.  More than a little, I suppose.  From the past 17 years to the present, I faced poverty and career disappointments.  I was married then widowed, left to wallow in my own grief and darkness.  I had a promising career then lost it when other people’s greed sabotaged everyone else’s employment, including mine.  I was reacquainted with poverty, was graced with better employment.  And then I remarried and found happiness once more.

Between those screwball chapters of my life I embraced yoga, meditation, hoodoo, Curanderismo, Witchcraft, ritual magic, and Greek-Roman polytheism thrown in with animism, Pantheism, and Neoplatonism to fight it out for ideological dominance in my brain that rages even today.

 In 2003, weeks before my first marriage, I connected with my Holy Guardian Angel while unexpectedly established a working relationship with the Hindu God Ganesa soon after my angelic connection.  It would seem my HGA directed me to this particular god for reasons even today I’m still trying to figure out.  Be that as it may, I left the Remover of Obstacles behind for other luminaries years later only to find Him again only last year.  He was patient but very determined.  He is a god that seems to want me to do something regarding Sanatana Dharma, but I am yet to find exactly what that is since I do not feel a connection with Hinduism.

 I drunk wine and smoked cigars in the presence of planetary angels and Chthonic spirits.  I have done healings and sent out curses.  Most importantly, I worked hard not to be a complete ass hole 24/7, which is an overwhelming chore I won’t fail to admit.

For over a year, I have given consistent oblations – keyword here being “consistent” - to spirits…good, bad, ancestral, godly, angelic, phantasmal, those that were never alive, and those that are a sentient facet of nature.   I made with offerings that consist of prayers, wine, water, candlelight, fruit, cake, my mom’s tamales, hot buttered biscuits, sometimes Reiki, and always incense.  When it warrants I will throw in music by Simple Minds, Dead Can Dance, or belly dancing beats, depending on my Guests and what it is about the song that resonates or makes me think of them.  They are my very special guests regardless of their ranks or states of mind.  And that’s it.  I don’t ask for anything, no matter how tempting it would be to be another one of those conjurers or votaries that only pray and beseech when they want something right there and then.  My only intent is to be a good neighbor, win their trust, prove my sincerity.  When these spirits feel inclined to be kind or if I am in dire straits, then I will kindly petition their help or their insight. Or maybe they will do so on their own when they observe my world from different angles which I am unable to.

The question I have for you if you have never offered oblations, why would you, as a practitioner of magic, a votary for the spirits and the gods, think that just by conjuring and imploring for something from beings who have no idea who you are or what incentive they have to helping you if they never received regular offerings?  That would be like me walking a few houses down from where I live and asking a neighbor, whom I have never met, spoke with, or even waved hello to for a ride to the office because my Jeep won’t start.

Is it because you think you carry the “spark” of god within you that gives you the authority?  Ha! Good luck with that.  Seriously.  Good friggin’ luck.  You may carry the “spark” of God within you, but buddy some of these beings are the SPARKS!

The world is chockfull of gods and spirits, and some may not give two shits about us as we go about our business.  If we’re not peeving them off for disrespecting their space or their name or whatever aggravates a god these days, both they and spirits will notice benefactions and prayers.  And if offerings are genuine and consistent without tagging them with our wants, we may very well receive a reciprocal response over time because they want to.  Bear in mind, we don’t make offerings with the anticipation that we’ll get something.  We do so out of respect and love for them.  I love my chosen gods and the ones that chose me.  I love my ancestors.  I love my Holy Guardian Angel.  And I could very well love but definitely respect the spirits that inhabit in and around my residence.

How I give offerings is not wholly traditional to any religious or magical group, I admit it and I make no claim that it is.  And by being different in no way says how special or edgy I am.  Getting up at 4 in the morning is a labor of love that is sustained by my ongoing gratefulness and a curiosity about the Unseen.

Before I conclude, I want to make something perfectly clear while I’m on the subject of approaching the gods:  Make no mistake, I am not one of those who believes that a god that represent one characteristic of nature or characteristic of life – love, war, trees, health, etcetera – is also the same god in another geography that goes by the same representation.  They are not.

Let’s take a goddess that represents oceans or rivers in one culture, for example:  She is not the same goddess in a whole different culture across the globe in another body of water. Nammu of Babylon is not Agwe’ in the Vodou tradition.  India’s Saraswati is not the Roman goddess Coventina.  Santa Muerte is not Kali or Hekate.  Get my point?

 Now, Japan’s Benzaiten is a variation of Saraswati because sutras arrived from China, which originally arrived from india.  Dionysus is associated with the Roman god Liber.  Athena is associated with Minerva.  There’s history behind that.  There are variations in their similarities; they are not necessarily complete and total reflections of each other; but there is enough to know that trade, invasions, colonization had a lot to do with their syncretism.

 Just because you “feel” combining gods because they share similar traits or you received your personal gnosis while meditating or doing ritual work does not make it true.  If a god tells you (or you “feel” that a god has spoken to you) that he is the same as another god from a different continent, test the god, question him; question yourself; divine.  Sheesh, pick up a book or two, study, and confirm if it is true. 

The reason I bring this up is that I fear I’m giving the wrong first impression of myself and practice:  Since I honor so many different culturally contrasting gods and can worship more than one on the same day, that somebody may think that I hold the aforementioned wrong view.  I don’t.  I worship as close to how each god was originally worshiped or prefers, with a few modern tweaks here or there, and honor them on their special day with gifts and offerings reflecting their origin.  Ganesa receives sweets, a lit diya, milk and sandalwood incense, and a round of mantra work.  Hekate receives eggs, honey, olive oil, wine, and fruits left at the crossroads during a new moon.   Dionysus receives his wine, a recitation of his epitaphs, and ‘80’s dance music (because I’m weird that way).  I remember their holidays and festivals as a good votary should.

I’m sure in spite of my clarifications and assurances, I’m sure to vex someone.  It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t.

My main point is that we should honor the gods and spirits if this is the path we want to walk.  Burn your fingers as I have.  Read and study.  Do all this in the name of love and adoration.  Most importantly, connect.  Even if all you have to offer is a candle light and libation of wine, or in my case when I was dirt poor and was waiting for agencies to hire me, I offered morning coffee and biscuits.  Whatever you do, do so and you will see a difference in your magic, your devotions, or whatever journey you decided (or in some cases, was decided for you).