Been a few days
Life has been kind of quiet. Which is a good thing, I need some extreme quiet every now and then, though it does mean I don't have much to post about.
Enjoying having internet access and cable again. Mostly up at night, so I haven't been getting out much except for over weekends when the girlfriend is home. Again, I do need my hermit time every now and then, though I do tend to take that to extremes way too easily (on my own, I would probably rarely leave the house at all, hyper introversion in action) and I know its not healthy. Have to start going out and walking around at least once or twice a week in the early evening. I have been talking about Hermes walks after all, I can make that into an excuse.
I spent some time with Loki on Tuesday, first time in a while (he has been absent). The girlfriend had given me a glass that screamed Loki to me (red and black and orange swirled) and would make a much better alter decoration than the glass I currently have on there. Also Loki poked me a couple weeks back to buy him a bag of Atomic Fireballs (dollar a bag, can't argue with that), and it was about time I gave him a few of them. Renee reported to me that Loki is interested in some cinnamon sticks as an offering, and I've been shopping around but they're kind of expensive no matter where you go, so I hope this is a special one time thing. Perhaps as a compromise he also poked me to buy him this apple cinnamon tea (that was on sale) that, when I made him a cup, had a vague watery apple flavor and was mostly a cup of liquid cinnamon (when I got down to the end of my own glass, the flavor was strong enough to kind of burn my mouth a little). I hope he was happy.
I'm thinking right now, instead of instituting an Odin Monday to go along with my Hermes Wednesday, to institute a Norse Monday that I alternate between the two of them. They have both presented themselves as being potentially important figures in my life, and I'd feel bad about paying more attention to one than the other (unless and until I'm told otherwise); at the same time I'm doing well with my small ritual schedule so far and I don't want to overwhelm myself and end up ruining the whole thing.
It would be easier I suppose to try and have a monthly observance schedule instead, except that for one, I'd worry it might be easier to forget to do things with much more time in between (starting out I usually need to be regular but not too regular, and have people bugging me about it), and two I feel I should spend a lot more time with Hermes than merely once a month. Now I'd have Hermes on a weekly basis and others on a monthly if I could figure out what to do when his day inevitably collides with another (I'm not particularly good with having two gods in ritual at once, I always end up feeling the presence of one and not the other; if the point is spending quality time with them, that may not be the best solution).
Speaking of rituals, I'm going to have to come up with another incense offering for Odin. I was using frankincense at someone's suggestion, but that is really not working for me. I have sensitivities to certain smells, perfume and chemical type smells, that can be very unpleasant for me. I'm careful about the kinds of incense that I burn and how much I have going at once, so that those sensitivities don't overwhelm me. The frankincense doesn't send me into coughing fits, but it does give me a headache, after a minute or two I can feel that pressure build right behind my eyes; if I could burn it outdoors it would be no problem, in a small confined temple room its a bit unbearable. Since it isn't beneficial to the gods for me to smoke myself out of the room or become so distracted by the smells that I'm taken out of the ritual, I probably should look into something else.
In Baltimore, you can find Wild Berry incense just about everywhere; that stuff is pretty good for people that can't take most incense. I buy Hermes the strawberry incense (Hermes does have a historical connection with strawberries, a minor one and yet for some reason its something I'm consistently drawn to with him) and that stuff is wonderful; Dionysos usually gets floral scents that I can also handle very well. Loki is poking me about a few certain scents that I can try out for him; now I just need something more mild for Odin.
I'm still working on my devotional essay for Hermes, and I'm determined to have it done by the end of next week. I pretty much know everything I want to say, its just a matter of how to say it at this moment.
I am doing well and life is good right now. :-)
Enjoying having internet access and cable again. Mostly up at night, so I haven't been getting out much except for over weekends when the girlfriend is home. Again, I do need my hermit time every now and then, though I do tend to take that to extremes way too easily (on my own, I would probably rarely leave the house at all, hyper introversion in action) and I know its not healthy. Have to start going out and walking around at least once or twice a week in the early evening. I have been talking about Hermes walks after all, I can make that into an excuse.
I spent some time with Loki on Tuesday, first time in a while (he has been absent). The girlfriend had given me a glass that screamed Loki to me (red and black and orange swirled) and would make a much better alter decoration than the glass I currently have on there. Also Loki poked me a couple weeks back to buy him a bag of Atomic Fireballs (dollar a bag, can't argue with that), and it was about time I gave him a few of them. Renee reported to me that Loki is interested in some cinnamon sticks as an offering, and I've been shopping around but they're kind of expensive no matter where you go, so I hope this is a special one time thing. Perhaps as a compromise he also poked me to buy him this apple cinnamon tea (that was on sale) that, when I made him a cup, had a vague watery apple flavor and was mostly a cup of liquid cinnamon (when I got down to the end of my own glass, the flavor was strong enough to kind of burn my mouth a little). I hope he was happy.
I'm thinking right now, instead of instituting an Odin Monday to go along with my Hermes Wednesday, to institute a Norse Monday that I alternate between the two of them. They have both presented themselves as being potentially important figures in my life, and I'd feel bad about paying more attention to one than the other (unless and until I'm told otherwise); at the same time I'm doing well with my small ritual schedule so far and I don't want to overwhelm myself and end up ruining the whole thing.
It would be easier I suppose to try and have a monthly observance schedule instead, except that for one, I'd worry it might be easier to forget to do things with much more time in between (starting out I usually need to be regular but not too regular, and have people bugging me about it), and two I feel I should spend a lot more time with Hermes than merely once a month. Now I'd have Hermes on a weekly basis and others on a monthly if I could figure out what to do when his day inevitably collides with another (I'm not particularly good with having two gods in ritual at once, I always end up feeling the presence of one and not the other; if the point is spending quality time with them, that may not be the best solution).
Speaking of rituals, I'm going to have to come up with another incense offering for Odin. I was using frankincense at someone's suggestion, but that is really not working for me. I have sensitivities to certain smells, perfume and chemical type smells, that can be very unpleasant for me. I'm careful about the kinds of incense that I burn and how much I have going at once, so that those sensitivities don't overwhelm me. The frankincense doesn't send me into coughing fits, but it does give me a headache, after a minute or two I can feel that pressure build right behind my eyes; if I could burn it outdoors it would be no problem, in a small confined temple room its a bit unbearable. Since it isn't beneficial to the gods for me to smoke myself out of the room or become so distracted by the smells that I'm taken out of the ritual, I probably should look into something else.
In Baltimore, you can find Wild Berry incense just about everywhere; that stuff is pretty good for people that can't take most incense. I buy Hermes the strawberry incense (Hermes does have a historical connection with strawberries, a minor one and yet for some reason its something I'm consistently drawn to with him) and that stuff is wonderful; Dionysos usually gets floral scents that I can also handle very well. Loki is poking me about a few certain scents that I can try out for him; now I just need something more mild for Odin.
I'm still working on my devotional essay for Hermes, and I'm determined to have it done by the end of next week. I pretty much know everything I want to say, its just a matter of how to say it at this moment.
I am doing well and life is good right now. :-)