Anyone here deal with the divinities of the "underworld", like Hades, or Osiris? I mean, you could call upon Pluto to send you some money by lighting a green candle and placing it on a black altar - then dig a hole in the ground and send the god some brandy down said hole. He might help you.

Of course, nothing says sincerity like one's own blood dripping down that hole during the night to *really* grease the wheel, so to speak.


Note : This little ritual is just an amalgamation of what I know of ancient Greek worship of Hades/Pluto and things associated or appropriated to him via epithets. YMMV.

I've never had dealings with an Underworld deity personally (my patron is a Moon Goddess, and I had a relationship with her before I went fully goth). Your ritual makes sense to me though, on a deep level, simple but powerful and if I did have a relationship with said deity/s I could see myself doing something like that (though requests for money are tricky as the wording has to be precise or I imagine the spell could have some serious consequences ).

Yeah, asking for money in the right way is *important*. I'd hate to ask for enough money to "never work again" but then end up diagnosed with some horrendous degenerative disease.

Exactly... or have a loved family member die and you inherit it

Send requests for money via Anubis, it's his job to judge people and see that they get what's coming to them.

Today I stopped in at Enchantments, a pagan supplies shop located on East 9th Street in New York City's Gothtown (a.k.a. a gothy section of the East Village). I took a few pictures to share with y'all in this thread.

The first pic is of the wall of herb jars. It reminded me a lot of the old Magickal Childe (a very old occult shop that went out of business years ago, that used to be over on West 19th Street).

There are a couple of beautiful black cats who reign over the Enchantments. Their names are Medea and Eros. I took their pictures, too:

Herbs
Medea
Eros

Out of respect for the witches running the shop, I didn't take pictures of any of the altars.

-- Nephele

I wish i lived close to a pagan shop. The closest is 80 miles

We have a shop called Enchantments here too. It's not the best, but it's new and the only one in my town. I prefer the goth/pagan/piercing shop in the town a few hours away. I could blow a paycheck in under fifteen minutes there.

My patroness is a sun goddess, among other things, rather than a moon goddess. It's always felt kind of ironic to me, but I don't argue. My future hubby and I are busy crafting our own weird little traditions, as he's a Norse Pagan (but not Asatru). How are you coupled pagany goths working out your shared paths?

If it's not being very nosy, may I ask the name of your Goddess? It's fine if you prefer not to answer

You're fine! It's weird...the name I first knew her as was only "The Lion Goddess", which I later came to associate with Sekhmet. So I did a bunch of research into sun goddesses and came to an annoying conclusion that she was just a facet of The Goddess (being a hard polytheist this is still confusing) and simply refer to her as such, or Aphrodite for simplicity's sake. I did a bunch of research into Aphrodite for my Greek literature class and connected her to several Middle Eastern goddesses. That's a complicated answer for you!


*freaking grammar*

Thank you for your answer... and you're right, it does sound complicated, but the beliefs of most pagans are fairly complex... that is the nature of paganism

I just take it one day at a time. This is quite complicated for me to answer at the moment. I'd say we work it out by being open and honest about our beliefs and not scorning the other for ever thinking anything differently than I myself think of things.

Apologies if this has been asked before (my memory is not what it was) but I was wondering about forms of divination after reading a reply in the "things that comfort you" thread and it made me wonder about the subject.

Personally I've never really connected with tarot, scrying, meditation and the more complex forms of divination. Weirdly, for a "Greek" I feel closest to runes... even though they are not really connected to the Greek pantheon I follow, as they are considered Norse. Maybe it is because there are less runes than there are tarot cards, and my trying to recall the meanings for the dozens upon dozens of tarot cards is something I have tried in the past and failed miserably at (even the technique of just putting the meaning book away and studying the cards until you reach your own meanings... and then you check the book to see if they tally, failed for me, so I gave up on tarot... as much as I wish I could get on with it).

There are a more manageable amount of runes for me and so I created my own set using pebbles I found in the garden, which I cleaned and dried. Then I drew the symbols on them with a permanent marker pen and for about a week I kept them under my pillow (in a small bag) so that they picked up my vibrations (or something like that ).

Anyway, my question is, which form works best for you?

I feel closest to the tarot. My mind thinks in pictures so interpreting them is really easy for me. I have been told by a good portion of the people that I do readings for that it scares them how accurate I am. Which makes me uncomfortable because I try so hard not to scare people, there is a long story behind that. Meditation is what works best for me if I am trying to get a read on myself, I tried with tarot once and felt like I was swaying the meaning to my favor.

Lately I have been dreaming, seeing, and just feeling a strong pull towards butterflies. I don't have any idea what to think about this. I know they are sacred to my goddess. I meditated on my goddess to speak with her and in a way she told me that someone wiser than me would be able to help me out. So I was wondering if any of you could help me?

For me, I prefer Tarot, Pendulum, and Candle Wax.

1. Tarot: I have one tarot deck and one only called The Gothic Tarot by Joesph Vargo. It also comes with a compendium which is about a 300 page companion book which goes in depth with each of the 72 cards. It has rarely failed me.

2. Pendulum: I love my pendulum. I have not gone into the depths that I could go with it, but what I have done has me knowing that it truly works for me most of the time.

3. Candle Wax: I read in a book about candle magic and I've been hooked since. There is something called candle divination that is my true calling. I tend to make my own candles for it. You need to have wax that drips though. You ask it a yes or no question then light the candle- and wait. If it drips to the right the answer is yes, if it drips to the left the answer is no. If it does not drip, or drips in the front or back then the answer is unsure and you may need to ask again at a later time. There was NEVER been a time I have preformed this when it was wrong.

Example: When we applied for our last house I wanted it more than I had ever wanted anything. So after sending in our application for it, we created some candles for candle magic and divination. We colored the candles green and yellow (green for money and prosperity; yellow for new beginnings). We preformed our ritual and when it was time to light the candles we asked all the candles the same question- would we get the house.

We checked on the candles later and to our surprise every candle (and there were quite a few!) had the wax dripping to the right. I should also note we lite some candles I had not made as well. All had dripped to the right. The large candle we created and a wax stream that went a good 5 inches or so away from the actual candle it was so prominent. The next day we received the call that we got the house.

I also delve into animal divination, cloud divination, etc...

For a good many sources on the subject I'd recommend Scott Cunningham's book called "Divination For Beginners".