I follow animistic eclectic pagan beliefs and in animism generally plots of land, old trees, rocks and structures can have souls or a spirit that took that area or object as it's "home". In Shintoism, some objects can gain their own souls if they exist for long enough, it's called "Tsukumogami", although those traditionally only develop souls after a period of 100 ish years i still believe that this can absolutely apply to computers and other technologies.

Have you ever been alone in a server room that has incredibly old computers and felt a presence? Like a spiritual thing watching you? I have. Not even in a large mass of computers but individual computers or other machinery like cars and trains as well. It feels alive, I've never felt that with younger tech but older tech has this. Do you have a similar idea of it? Do you think I'm stupid? If so please tell me.

And also i would open another discussion to ask if you have any god that you personally believe is a god of machinery and technology.

Also as an addendum I'm not saying that Claude has a soul or something, I'm proposing that animistic beliefs could extend to modern technology as well.

First picture he has one eye.
Sorry for the repeats.

The pics include vandalism and fossils when the caves

Hello. I'm somebody in their late teens, who's trying to get back into paganism. I had an interest in it back in my mid-teens, but personal issues arose and I dropped it for about two years. I'm trying to get back into it a bit more now.

One of the main things I was sad about regarding paganism was the lack of any organized groups. Paganism varies greatly after all, and it isn't that widely practiced anymore. But I really enjoy shared events, community, a sense of belonging, etc. Basically, I kind of wished for some form of organized practice (though less strict than it traditionally is).

After looking around online, I came across CUUPS. I'd never really heard of this before, but they have a church near me. Though, judging from the photos and videos online, attendance is pretty small and seems to skew much, much older than I am. But still, it's an organized group and looks pretty nice!

I was just wondering if anybody here has any experience with it? If so, how was it? Anything I should know?

Btw this is my first altar.

Hello, I hope everyone is having a good day. Today I'm coming to you all asking for some help in my writing through an eighteen question survey. I'm a philosophy scholar and would love to publish some books one day related to witchcraft practices, but more geared towards developing long-term practical skills that can help with permanent personal growth in your practice.

Critical thinking, discipline, discernment, emotional regulation, and literacy are just a few of the skills I'd like to teach through my writing! I wish these types of skills were more commonly practiced and more accessible to learn, but what's worse is they're steadily being robbed from us with the constant usage of generative AI and short form content, with a plethora of studies to show the signs of cognitive atrophy we as a society are experiencing today. It's prominent in the witchcraft community too where so many new people struggle to develop a long-term practice with natural growth due to the plethora of online sources treating witchcraft like a "get rich quick life hack," not like the deeply rich, challenging, and nuanced practice that witchcraft really is. I want to teach people how to take agency back over their own mind, and therefore their own practice.

The books I'm writing are intended for all experience levels and backrounds, but I want it to be a good source of learning to beginners and those with mental illness and/or disabilities as well. I myself have ADHD, autism, and GAD, but I know what's helpful for me isn't necessarily helpful for everyone, and I'm hoping the results from this survey can help me format books to making academia and skills with slower but more permanent results feel practical to one's life and more easily digestible. This is a completely independent project, so if you have any questions the best way to reach me is through my main social media page, moth-kissed-witch on Tumblr or my work email of willowamanita@gmail.com! The survey is entirely anonymous with no data collection, nor is any information going to be fed to or utilized with AI.

If you'd like to participate, you can find the survey here!

REALLY LAZY way to honor any nature deities? yay or nay?
(Also for any fans of Yellowjackets [which ima guess is some of us.])

And for anyone who hasn’t seen Yellowjackets or doesn’t know what I mean. The show revolves around a group of girls that slowly evolve into a neo-pagan, animistic style religion, where they worship the forest around them as a living being and god.

Edit: I meant this in a “would this offend the gods” way or a “would this be acceptable for worshippers?”

Hey everyone, I'm getting induced in three weeks and have booked a nice hotel the night before with a big jetted tub. I want to have some kind of a ritualistic bath the day before with my husband to help us both be ready for birth and all the work that goes into it. Any herbs I should infuse into the water or crystals I should take with me? I've got really bad pregnancy brain and can't find my books anywhere in my apartment because everything is everywhere right now. I lean towards Celtic and norse paganism and am hoping to have brigid there with me but have never worked with her before. Any help or suggestions are appreciated!

8 days now. I need all the help I can get. Pls teach me . Thank you

so, I had been Kemetic, hellpol, and buddhist. And also, I'm a baby witch. I don't have any kind of spirituality yet, but I might restart hellenic polytheism as a worshipper of Athena.

However, I'm still interested in Hindu (deities), especially Maa kali and Maa Saraswati. I don't feel I can practice Hindu well btw(I don't know why).

I just wanna know how to find one's spirituality path, or even just how did you find yours. I'm really confused. Maybe I'm in middle of transformation now.

I appreciate your opinion/answer/tip/advice.

Just curious on here about what you believe the gods to be

Are you hard polytheist, soft polytheist, or one kinda like a monotheist but believe that all the gods are aspects are part of the one. Or maybe a little bit of everything.

For me, idk. I'm having a bit of spiritual crisis. I feel like rn i'm somewhere in the middle of soft polytheist and kinda monotheist believing that all the gods are aspects of one deity or force. To be determined! XD

What about you?

Hii! I hope I don’t violate any guidelines. Still, as a pagan who practices alone and has only one friend who is interested in my path (she is a pagan but a totally different type) I love to read other pagans’ stories.

So here are my questions, you are welcome to answer only one or all of them.

How did you find your path and what made you commit to it?

Do you worship any divine powers? If yes, who and how did the connection make your life better? If not, what does your practice look like?

Do you have any daily rituals? What kind of holidays do you celebrate? What is one small thing in your practice that you love deeply?

I'm currently living on campus and I dont have an alter for my deity I want to work with yet. Do I always have to offer something when praying (for example, when I prayed to Hygeia to prevent me for getting something, I didnt give offerings. Should I pray again with an offering?) And if so does anyone know easy things I can use to pray to specifically Apollo?

I have been trying to successfully hunt big game for close to a decade. In addition to doing everything I could this year for a successful hunt, I prayed to Athena (whom I think of as my Patroness) for sharp eyes, Diana to help me focus my skills and St. Hubert because I was raised Catholic and I figured he could also help.

I ended up filling my tag in an extraordinarily short time compared to others who were hunting in the same area. I thanked the animal, the saint and gods I petitioned, and promised to adorn the skull with their tokens once I have it cleaned and displayed.

I’m sure it means nothing but it was a little scary. For context, I’ve been a devotee of Hades (and many others, but Hades was the first I ever prayed to) for a little over two years—I haven’t really been praying, though, because of life. 😭

I’m in a crystal emporium with Greek-like pillars; I’ve never been to a place like this. There is gated off door and a man in robes whose face I can’t see motions towards me me and says “You can come in but you can’t go in there.” He pointed at this gated off door, so we go to the back way and midway through the tour he says “never mind you can go in there he wants to see you.” Who the hell is he? I have no clue but I go in the door that is now open and I am in a whole different place, their are strange, different coins, there are wines and all sorts of weird things. A woman comes up to me and she does not look right, I say I am freezing and it reminds me of any time I prayed to Hades, she says something along the lines of, “death is all around you and coming.” I am freaking out, and begin to step away, and I hear a man’s voice say “do not listen to her.” I look immediately to my left and a screech owl is staring at something, the woman vanishes.

The screech owl is huge.

I see other animals, such as a lion which is playing with this little cat, and this tiger-looking thing, but I don’t know because it just looks like a big cat.

The tiger leaps towards me and then all of a sudden I am pulled away and when I look to what pulled me away, there is a dog. The screech owl is gone. I have no clue what dog it was. It looked like a bloodhound mixed with a blue heeler, and he is just staring at me.

All around me I’m hearing voices saying why did you bring her here? You know she’s not supposed to be here.

The tiger is then attacking something, and I am running towards it to stop it. The lion joins in trying to stop the tiger along with the dog.

As I’m running, I say something that I don’t understand. It was probably gibberish. I’m not sure.

And the tiger falls.

It’s just me and the screech owl now, and he stares at me saying wake up.

I wake up after, this. This is one of the few dreams I remember. I’m sure it means nothing but still.

Also, before anyone says anything, I know that Hades is not the god of death, I know he’s Lord of the underworld. It was just scary.

Looking for some local pagan friends (male & female). I’m 27M and am about 20 minutes outside of downtown. Hoping to get a group going of likeminded people. I practice Irish Paganism and Druidism, but am open to a group of mixed practices. And of course LGBTQ+ friendly.

Hey everyone,

I've been interested in spirituality since my entire adult life (a little bit before, actually). And, in all honesty, I don't believe that any spiritual practice or ritual will ever be as fulfilling as having true friends.

Only one time in my life have I ever experienced love. It was from a stranger who felt like he was my father from a past life. I wish I had the courage at the time to ask to stay in touch. I didn't want to leave my hometown out of fear of not being able to find him again.

However, life kind of did its thing and told me that I need to move to the biggest city in my state (I'm American) and I did that. I haven't really made any close friends, but I know I'm meant to be here, at least for right now.

What I want is to have deep, meaningful relationships with people in person. I've spent countless hours going on video chatting platforms, because that's the closest thing that you can get to real life interaction, and while I have had several people who I have stayed in contact with, the best and most profound communications I have had are all people who don't want to stay in touch with me. They're not that blunt about it. They're just "busy". (Biggest lie in the universe.)

Now, I can already see some of the comments that may come up. "Wherever you go, there you are!" I mostly disagree with that. You can't tell me that being a pagan in Saudi Arabia is the same thing as being a pagan in Norway. Having a sense of freedom, having a sense where you can be yourself is so valuable and precious.

This does not invalidate doing internal work. Both are important, your external world and your internal world. Do both. Meditate and exercise.

I'm going to go get a midnight snack at a local convenience store after I make this post and when I finish that, I'm going to set a timer and feel all of my feelings for an hour.

I am willing to do the internal work. Could I do it more? Certainly. But, I think I'm relatively pretty good in that regard.

I just want to go somewhere. But what's frustrating is that I don't know where. I thought about maybe befriending someone through my video chats and that would be a key to whether I would go. One of those people is from Guatemala. You wouldn't normally think to travel to Guatemala as an American, but I thought of it. But I already told you how that went.

I'd assume that the best country is a European country. But I could be wrong. European countries are more equivalent to US states. It's probably worth mentioning that even though I am using the word "country", a different word may be appropriate in certain contexts. For example, Vatican City and the United States are both countries, but the United States is just way too massive that it's not a fair comparison, mentioning a state would be better there, even though I'm using the word country.

In your personal experience, where have you gone to meet pagan friends and find pagan communities? Is it easy to find these people/groups in a particular region? If so, where?

Thank you for reading!

Hello! I have recently discovered that what I was practicing wasn't entirely right for me. I still have a deep respect and care for the gods I was previously worshipping (the Hellenic theoi), but I just don't think that specific religion is entirely right for me.

Would it be disrespectful if I were to gift candles I gave to the Hellenic gods to other deities that I now worship? Even if I don't worship them anymore, I still want to be respectful.

Thank you so much!!