As some of you may know, Jow and I will be opening Trevia soonish in the next few months. My question is, if we want to do work for a client who works with different deities than we do or do an incense for a deity we don't work with, how do you work with deities like that? I'm working on a sekrit project involving Eruzlie and (a) I don't work with Her (b) I don't really want her "moving in" and (c) she's notoriously easy to offend. How do I work with her on a contractual business level and then . . .leaving so soon? Here's your hat, here's the door, without offending Her and other potential deities.
I've never worked with deities on a contractual level, usually I wound up getting invested in them and starting a relationship. Tips?
Edited to add: Really, I think what I'm trying to figure out is that while I would never take on a "service" request that I couldn't reasonably fufill due to moral, pantheon, layperson issues, what about standard pagan store supplies? Like candles and incense? Is it necessary to have any kind of relationship to make items in honor of a deity? Should these items come pre-"zinging" or is it up to the practioner? Is research and formulas enough to make these items?
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11 comments:
heh...
Yeah, about that...
Did you ever see the blog posts I made about the Crystal skull I made? I was having a blast. I researched crystal skulls and stumbled across an Aztec God of Sorcerers, Tezcatlipoca. So I consecrated it to him!
And baaaaaaaad shit happened!
And now I don't fuck around with gods and other spirits I don't understand or trust. My recommendation would be to avoid dilettante projects with spirits with bad reputations. If properly initiated and experienced adepts of a tradition have problems when working with a spirit, I take that as a warning that my uninitiated ass shouldn't be messing around with it.
A good point. I do work within her pantheon and I'm not *opposed* to having her per se but I don't want to become a huge clearing house of the gods. As for the aspect I plan on working with, people are divided, some say she's a pain in the ass and v. particular and some say her reputation is over exaggerated.
The thing I have in mind falls under hoodoo perview so it's something I am comfortable with doing and it's not a . . . huge specific initiated working, more like a small run of the mill hoodoo work.
I think I'm also feeling reluctant because in this scenerio I feel like I might be meant to do work with her, she doesn't have a tempestuous relationship with my main patroness unlike some of the other Yoruba goddesses and I've never clicked as well with Aphrodite as I would prefer.
Sigh. The big issue is where would I put her in the house if I'm being honest.
But again, I can't keep picking up gods and become a crazy god lady.
* Yoruba orishas, excuse me.
Oh and link to the crystal skull post, please? :)
Dude, I totally had to redesign my whole blog to get you this link. You gotta scroll down and work your way up for the whole story.
Ok, maybe I only had to click a couple of things and research some label issues, and I needed to anyway. One of those things I've been meaning to get around to. Blogger hurts sometimes, and I have to remind myself what I pay for it.
I hear you, blogger sometimes makes me want to put an envelope opener through my ear. But worth it to now have Your Great Skull Adventure all neatly organized!
I definitately see what you mean. I guess I wonder if in pretendland, one of us had a brick and mortar magical store and we needed Freya incense and none of us work with Freya, is it possible to make it and have it "zing"? Is it possible to do so without her wanting to move in? What would be required? Research, discussion? Or would formulating it correctly count enough and it's up to the practioner?
These are questions I am curious about. I mean, with a service, unless I felt (a) I could do it from a layperson's standpoint or (b) already worked in that arena so I could do it, I would say no of course.
But what about candles and incense?
Establish boundaries right at the outset. Make a conjuration outside your home to her and leave an offering. Explain what you want from the relationship and tell her how you are willing to pay. Ask if this is ok and do a divination to confirm.
If so, than proceed as you normally would.
If not, than let it go.
Do not let gods and spirits dictate your life. I am thinking about making that the 10th principal of Strategic Sorcery
@ Jason - do you see this as a non-pantheon specific general principle that can be used sort of across the board in these sort of issues?
I agree about not letting gods and spirits dictate one's life, our senior druid always says just because they come knocking at the door doesn't mean we have to let them in. I was a nanny for a long time and I've been an Executive Assistant for even longer so I'm pretty going with being firm with boundaries and pushing back. :)
When I think about the Skull thing, it was a temporary malady that passed. No big deal now. And I picked a god of the dead. Friggin' brilliant.
Maybe just don't go whole hog into her, only create the incense as a physical thing, and establish at the outset the boundaries of your relationship. "Freya, I'd like to consecrate this incense so that anyone who uses it to contact you gets your spirit in their presence. Thanks, have a candle and some incense." Then leave the thing your consecrating in the smoke and/or light from the offered candle, and you're done. No need to get her an altar and a shelf by the TV.
Heh, yeah, Jasonian methods are appropriate. :D
I am a stuffy, stuffy goat of a woman, but here are my stuffy goat thoughts: If it were me, I would just restrict myself to purely thaumaturgical methods if I were doing something for a client. Seems like the obvious solution.
When it comes to deity-specific products...I think if there are any traditional offerings/forumulas that can easily be assembled, packaged and sold, it shouldn't matter who did the assembling. What the deity cares about is the person who does the offering, I think. If it's a product that's meant to evoke the deity rather than just propitiating them, then...what Jason and R.O. said.
(Also, I would hazard a guess that Norse and Celtic deities might enjoy a candle better than incense. I know I've never had success with offering incense to Celtic deities - they turn up their noses!)
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