A while ago, I offered a pancake to my Goddess [as an offering]. I was delighted to find, the next morning, that the pancake was gone. Which normally means that the offering was accepted.
I’ve told quite a few people about my pancake offering… and almost all of them have a problem with me offering my Goddess a simple thing. They call it silly. They call it flat. They call it absurd. They call it me being mentally ill.
Listen: the gods, unless they have specifically asked for something, do not care what you offer them. It could be a pancake, or water, or milk, or the smoke from your cigarette, or a daily walk, or even an offering of the breath you breathe. What matters is that your offering…. Comes from your heart.
The gods don’t want anything half-assed, this is what I have come to understand. You could offer your goddess or God all the things a recipe for devotion [found online or in a book] says that he/she likes… and your offering not be well-met or accepted.
Believe it or not, I’ve had this happen.
I used to take recipes and make devotions and offerings.. and the next day, I KNEW that they were not accepted, nor appreciated. Why? Because it didn’t come from me.
Sure, I made the items/meals/etc, but there was no personal touch to the offering or devotion. There was no piece of me.
When I threw the recipes away and started offering my goddess what I had, what I could give, of ANYTHING [yes, even a pancake], I found that She almost always accepted the devotion. I had taken the time to decide what to give Her, to prepare it for Her. I put myself into my devotion, no matter what it was.
And THAT’S THE POINT OF AN OFFERING: to give a little bit of yourself [or all of yourself] to the gods. They don’t need money or food or spirits. 1) they aren’t human and their lives don’t depend on what ours do and 2) THEY GAVE ALL OF THIS TO US.
So… next time you make an offering to your gods, try something a little personal, a little mental, a little crazy.
Offer them something from YOU… even if it’s a pancake.
QueerGalaxies 