Offerings Immaterial

My Own Altar with Offerings

One of the first questions people ask when they begin working with a particular God or Goddess is how to offer to them. Virtually ever forum I have been in, someone at one time or another has asked this question, "What offerings are good for (insert God/Goddess name)." Inevitably what follows are list of foods, drinks, crystals, incense types, etc. that are either mythologically inspired or have been found to be personally relevant to the particular divinity through upg. I myself have answered this question just as many times as another, with a list of materials and matter I found to have been well received.

This in itself to me is not a problem, if we are able, I cannot see any reason we should not invest in the Gods which help and guide us through our journey of life. However, sometimes I think that our focus on the material aspect of offering is skewed by our lifestyle in the first world. We hear the word offering or gift, and our mind switches automatically to products, gifts, and money. It is sad, but we find our self even in our spirituality viewing a gift as something we can touch, hold, a possession.

It troubles me personally when this line of thinking comes to my own mind, which it has many times, I admit that. Sometimes if I haven't left a bit of food or drink for the Gods and wights for awhile, I almost feel guilty. But it is good because it leads me to question my own assumptions about the value of offerings, and their form.

It makes me realize that no matter where or what I am doing, my mind has been shaped forever by the culture I live in. As an American, we are the consumers of the world. Regardless of our families values, unless we are agoraphobes with no exposure to any outside influence, it colors our thinking. We are brainwashed everyday by advertising and products designed to appeal to our ingrained capitalist mentality that possessions are what we should value.

It becomes so extreme for some that when we do not receive a pricey or covetted gift on a special occasion, we view it as a personal offense. Take for example the million twitter rants from young people every Christmas who spew hatred and disdain at their own families if they do not receive the new Iphone or other trendy device. We call them spoiled brats, but sadly, if we examine our own thinking, most all of us can find an area where we possess the same underlying attitude towards the process of giving.

We become angry or depressed when a loved one forgets our birthday, or our partner doesn't give us a gift on Valentine's Day or our anniversary. We become jealous when our friends take someone else to lunch, or receive a birthday gift that overshadows our own. Sometimes we view people themselves as our possessions unconsciously, and take offense when they present thoughts, feelings, and actions that we do not feel were appropriate or "right" in our own mind. We stay in relationships that are unhealthy, thinking we can mold a person like a hunk of clay into our own "perfect" lover.

And it would seem, if we examine our own attitudes towards spiritual offerings, that competition might be an underlying cause of our attention to the physical when deciding on what is appropriate and desirable to the divine. On the extreme level, it seems that some even compete with others on who can give the most, the priciest, the best physical material to prove their devotion.

But the process can be illuminating, if we take the time to exam our own attitudes along the way. I feel guilt that I haven't given any material to my Gods, and it leads me to ponder on the things I have done. I may not have the time or money to burn some incense, or buy a new crystal, but it also shows me how much my daily activities center around the gods.

My writing, my crafts, the time I invest in meditation and simply enjoying the natural world can all be viewed as gifts to the divine. I realize that most of my days are spent in activities that serve them, be it creating and sharing new rituals, exploring pathways, giving service to those I love, all these are acts of devotion. In our own way, we are all spokespeople of the Gods we believe in, and our actions illustrate that more so than any physical devotions ever can.

I realize that the Gods are always in my mind, constantly showing their influence in my life as time passes just as the culture I live in is expressed as well. I can only hope that the more time passes in their company, the more my own actions and offerings will express their own interests, rather than the capitalist machine which I was born into. It is a long road for all of us, but I feel that their is always hope to break the cycle.

My devotion is time and energy, expressed sometimes more and sometimes less by a physical gift to the Gods. And it seems to me when I ponder it, that they are more than happy with the immaterial offerings we give, and perhaps value this above all.

In Frith
Cena