One small confession: offerings to the Gods don't actually happen precisely when they should in my household, especially now that the morning light is actually morning darkness. Winter exhausts me.
Incense takes about 40 minutes to burn, and I prefer to perform morning offerings after I shower and dress. Sometimes I wake up with enough time. Sometimes, I don't. As a day rolls on, the likelihood of an offering decreases. I try to remain mindful of when these offerings need to take place because it helps me budget time. Offerings motivate me to stumble zombie-like downstairs as my excited cat tries to trip me.
I don't leave incense burning when it has more than four or five centimeters left (I have a large offering bowl) because I am worried about it falling or the cat upsetting it, and I try to make sure it is completely finished before I rush to the bus stop. Ritual devotions, which encompass both the lunar month's holy days and my personal offering schedule, frequently, but not always, happen beforehand. Depending on how long I work, I may not get back home before the Hellenic day ends at sunset.
Sometimes, as with votive offerings, I resolve the issue by making an extra offering the following morning. With temporally-sensitive offerings (offerings tied to specific days of the lunar month), I don't make offerings the following day and instead try to do something else --- keep aspects of the Gods in my mind on their sacred days, change my behavior in honor of them. Altering a habit, even temporarily, is often more difficult than striking a match and reciting hymns for ten minutes.
Does it bother me that I sometimes fail to carve out special time for the Gods in my schedule? Yes. Devotional time relaxes me. I enjoy lighting candles, burning incense, and making libation as much as (I hope) the Gods enjoy receiving them. Lacking the time to make offerings also means that I have failed on another sensitive topic --- keeping myself productive.
However, I think I once nearly missed the Kyklos Apollon ritual due to a fresh burst of creative writing, so perhaps keeping myself on task isn't the issue.
How do you deal with working ritual and devotion into your life?
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8 responses:
You might keep some powdered incense on hand for rushed mornings... even a pinch in a candle flame or small alcohol fire (say, a couple of alcohol-soaked cotton balls) might do...
I can't say I'm a busy man but it often takes weeks or even months before I get to clean my altar. I feel guilty all the time but I don't do anything about it, either. It's embarrassing.
As for offerings, I have all the time to perform them yet fail to do so regularly (once a week at best). The same works for exercise and writing. I am glued to my computer most of the time and it's getting unhealthy. Argh. I think I need help.
I use tea light candles (Yankee Candle has frankincense!) and just reuse the same one. :) I keep it lit only long enough to do whatever it is I'm doing and then blow it out and let the smoke take my prayers, hymns, what-have-you, to the gods. I use dry herbs or spices for most of my offerings, and so I can leave them on the altar as a kinda fragrant potpourri for quite awhile. I don't do as many libations lately, since I just moved and still getting my sacred space organized.
I save incense for more elaborate devotions or rituals, as I only have the stick kind, it's messy, and like you said, it takes forever. Not that I'm trying to rush my devotions, but it does get challenging to juggle everything sometimes.
There are some days where all I have time for is saying a quick prayer or reciting a quick hymn before I dash out the door.
I don't use incense for offerings indoors, though I do have some Nag Champa for Dionysos at his outdoor shrine. I don't get there all that often though. My offerings tend to be of poetry or food, and except on the day I set aside for each of my gods, I will simply offer them some of what I'm eating when I bring it to my room. Last night it was popcorn, and I offered it to Nyx, Dionysos, and Hecate (but not to Aesclepius because it had lots of butter lol).
Once a week (sometimes... I've gotten bad about it since starting up seminary) I do the NA weekly ritual, and I offer water and barley to each of my gods, and then I have offerings for my ancestors. I try to clean those up the following day, but I admit sometimes they sit for 2 or 3 days.
Like others, I use herbs instead of incense. They burn very quickly, and can be tossed into a candle to burn. Or alternatively, I'll put herbs into the water in the top of my diffuser (bowl on top, candle under, makes steam), and let that simmer while I do other things.
Admittedly, I pay no attention at all to the "day ends at dark" thing. For me, it would cause so many complications to my life that I would forget all the time. :) So if a ritual is done on the 17th day of the month, I make no difference between doing it at 2pm, or 9pm.
In my experience, Apollon loves whatever he receives, whenever it is given - I don't personally find him to be picky about offerings.
(Even if all you can do at some stage is kiss your fingers and touch the head of a statue, he likes it, as it's a sign of affection and is received as a blessing; I do this all the time [technically I kiss my first two fingertips, touch the statue, then touch my forehead in a 'blessing given, blessing received' motion], even when just in general passing, and have received no negative 'feedback' from it whatsoever.)
I think the idea of your morning ritual is lovely, and no doubt so too does Apollon, but if it's getting in the way of your living your life (making you late for the bus, etc.), I wonder if Apollon might actually be a little concerned about that? I doubt that he wants to be the source of frustration, anxiety, etc.!
Essentially, if it gives you peace of mind to have a ritual, I'm sure that it doesn't matter when it's done, only that it's done - because not only does it compliment him, it makes you feel good too, and I've always found him to be wonderful at sharing the love.
Regular morning devotions went out the window when my daughter was born. Now I try to work in a prayer before nighttime and an occasional libation in the morning. Then there are public rituals, there was one of those today.
@Erik » So ... alcohol-soaked cotton balls? Could you explain more, perhaps? I would not have been the person designated to maintain the fires in a prehistoric camp site.
@Aldrin FT » I totally get that "glued to my computer" thing --- I'm the same way sometimes, and then I wonder what I am actually accomplishing by being online. Frequently, it results in incresed productivity ... sometimes not, though.
@Khryseis_Astra » I have the stick kind, too. However, I have discovered that one of the Shoyeido frankincense types (the box with ~20 sticks) remains in a solid cylinder after burning. Really easy to clean up. The sticks burn for 15-20 minutes, so they're what I prefer to use. Offering tea light flames sounds pretty good. For a while, I wanted to offer birthday candles, but I couldn't find any holders that weren't plastic birthday cake things. Some craftsman/woman out there needs to develop this niche and put some holders up on Etsy. :)
@Allyson » I don't offer food as often as I once did because it takes a while to clean up. Simmering herbs in a diffuser is a great idea, though.
I use the Hellenic day system. It generally means that offerings must be made in the morning during winter.
@Ge » Most of my morning rituals are not for Apollon, actually ... I just do the weekly Kyklos one, along with his sacred day on the 7th of the lunar month. Even without the rituals, I would still have to wake up before dawn.
I blame our former American President for extending Daylight Savings Time until the beginning of November just because some Maine businesses complained that 4:30 sunsets made them lose customers and revenue. I find it very difficult to wake up in darkness, and that makes my entire morning suffer. It made my first two months of study abroad in the UK very mentally stressful, too.
@Haukur » Wow. How old is your daughter?
Five months old, and still a very irregular sleeper.
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