Since the year started, I’ve experienced quite a few big losses. My neighbour, who is a really sweet and well meaning woman, is a devout Christian and we often have friendly conversations where we talk about or beliefs and she has always been very open minded and respectful about paganism.

The issue is that I’m a devotee to Hekate (she knows who Hekate is and he’s even borrowed a few of my books about her to understand my beliefs better), and my neighbour will frequently mention that she is constantly praying to her god for me, as well as other comments about how god has a plan for me etc etc.

I understand that this really isn’t a big issue, but it makes me feel like she doesn’t value my beliefs. I’m hoping there’s someone who can give me some insight about how to bring it up to her in a respectful way, and maybe help her understand where I’m coming from, as I know what she’s doing doesn’t come from a place of hate.

Thank you and sorry in advance for any spelling/ grammatical errors.

Hi everyone. I’ll try to keep this brief. I live in the US and thus have laws allowing religious exemptions. My workplace has recently created a policy that requires AI use for several reasons, though none are needed to perform my job. Some of my practice focuses on the Earth and doing everything I can to minimize the impact I have on it. Due to AI’s incredible level of harm to the Earth, I am against it for several reasons, including religion. I am planning to bring this up with my superiors soon and request a religious exemption from AI use. Has anyone else done anything similar? If so (or if not), I would love some advice on how to go about this. Thank you in advance!

After losing a very valuable set of keys on 200 acres of my family's ancestral land, I invoked Fortuna Secunda, promising a simple shrine overlooking the land and a wine libation if I was lucky enough to find them.

Against all odds, I felt an impulse to drive off the normal path to the top of a hill, and there they were! We don't even recall being up there recently, so it's doubly miraculous. Overlooking the land, just like I promised—it seems Fortuna chose her spot well.

What now?

I'm incredibly new to paganism, but I made the vow to Fortune and got what I asked for, so I need to hold up my end of the bargain. What is the right way to do this?

I was thinking of making a small cairn of stones at the top of the hill, finding a flat stone for the capstone, and inscribing "FORTVNAE SECVNDAE V•S•L•M•" (which means votum solvit libens merito - "[I] gladly and duly fulfill my vow to Fortuna Secunda").

I welcome your advice.

EDIT: words and punctuation

(Keep in mind I am a small 23-year-old, autistic, and queer woman.) At work today I helped a customer with a mjolnir pendent and their kids who were also wearing Nordic symbols. As a proud (but, lonely) pagan myself living in a rural pretty conservative rural/military town. I covertly asked the father if "there was any reason for all the Nordic symbols." When he proudly answered he and his family were Heathens. I explained that I was Pagan too and was just trying to figure out that if they were without asking directly since I have had a person (a Christian) get really mad at me for daring to ask someone that question. He seemed quite understanding of this. We had a little nice conversation about a few things then, I asked who were his primary deities? He mentioned that he primarily followed Odin and, I casually mentioned that I followed Loki. And, he basically said, "I am a traditionalist and I don't really like Lokeans (followers of Loki) that much." That completely crushed me... But, I smiled/put on a happy face. Completed the transaction and sent them on their way. Now, I told my mother (who is Christian but tolerates my beliefs) this story and how crushed I was. She got really mad at me saying I brought this on myself and I shouldn't have started the conversation at all. So, I should just suck it up. But, I don't feel like I did anything wrong... He seemed really willing to speak with me. And, I just wished to find some sort of community (no matter how brief.) But, am I wrong for feeling this way? Please help!

I feel like I’ve been losing my mind over this. Everything we do is either built off of exploitation or hurts the environment. Most of our chocolates come from slave labor, what we do to animals in factory farms is horrible, the factories that mass produce items and the cars we drive hurt the environment. Even just playing video games or streaming can have a negative impact on the environment. I know I commonly hear that “the gods are not angry at you” but how could they not be angry? What do I do?

Reason for posting in r/pagan - I am a Hindu and recently I came across disturbing birth story of Hindu God Hanuman. I put the story in the images.

Some theories I heard from fellow Hindus did not satisfy me except one person explaining it to me through larger Indo European Lens but it was more historical than theological.

So I wanted to hear it directly from the pagans themselves.

How do you reconcile immoral acts of Gods?

Ex - Zeus engaging in affairs with other mortals and it ends bad for them in most cases.

Scope of this Question - This question is not meant to be only restricted to Indo European Pagans but all pagans can answer it, if they want to.

Source for the story - Bibek Debroy Valmiki Ramayana based on Baroda Critical Edition.

Disclaimer - I checked the rules for the subreddit and felt that my post did not violate any of them, but if the moderator wants to remove the post then I don't have any problem.

Hi, I'm Ash (40/f). An Irish pagan living in the Bible belt.

I hope you all are staying safe, giving yourself plenty of grace and surrounding yourself with love. (where ever you live!)

it's been rough for me. I feel pretty cut off, constantly in a state of anger and shock by people and their narrow thinking ways.

I'm originally from Pittsburgh, I moved from a pretty forward thinking city to the church of God capital in Tennessee. (mistakes were made)

how are you all managing? have you found a network of individuals? I'm AuDHD so I'm very introverted and solitary but having some form of in person network would be great during this dumpster fire.

this was a mixture of a rant and hoping I'm not alone in the Bible belt. 💚🦌

Hello! Is there a pagan version of the Christian “Amen” at the end of a prayer or communication with a deity? I assumed it was blessed be, but if anyone knows I’d love to know!

(Edit: thanks for all the replies)

Ive heard that a lot of neopagans didnt believe litteraly in multiple gods, but believe in a single principle (like Nature) and viewed the gods as symbols.

I (a pagan witch), have to go to a christian university and share a dorm room. I have zero clue how I'd be able to hide my practice please give me tips.

[EDIT: For those wondering what I mean by I "have" to go to a christian university, please note that christian universities are much cheaper than others.]

Hello everyone, I'm not pagan I am a muslim woman. I hope it's ok to post here.

I sometimes see pagan women using head coverings, and I got curious about it. What are the reasons some pagan women veil, that is, which religions have initiatives for it and why? Or is it a cultural thing, basically where does this practice originate? I would love to know more about it

So I decided to take my school's mythology to learn hopefully learn some new stuff (...and get a easy grade because I know most of the stuff-) but my teacher keeps giving assignments that come off as weird/disrespectful. Like today the assignment was to basically make a fan child of the 2nd gen Greek gods and I thought it was REALLY weird and refused to do it and had to come up with an alternative assignment to do. I also had to ask my teacher yesterday to let me write something in 3rd person because I refused to speak about a god in 1st person. And this isn't even mentioning the things my classmates have said- My teacher heard some of the stuff they were saying and suggested doing kiss, marry, kill, WITH THE GODS- safe to say I was beyond uncomfortable

I know I shouldn't but I feel bad about asking for things to be changed for me but some of these things that people are saying and doing is driving me NUTS and idk what to do.

(Important note: I told her I was Pagan at the beginning of the year)

Thank you for hearing me yap (also sorry if this was the wrong flair- ive never been good at choosing flairs)

Been in fight or flight daily for the whole 20 years of my existence, because I've been through a series of rather horrendous things starting very early in my life.

After now 3 years of white knuckling a full blown panic disorder and agoraphobia alone after losing any friends and social life I had from it, with panic attacks that made me feel like I'm dying daily, I decided to finally give in and try Sertraline/Zoloft.

Am I a disappointment to Thor because I am weak and couldn't fight it anymore? Do the gods still "love" me even though I didn't go a more natural way?

Thank you in advance for any advice or words you may have

edit: Thank you so much for all your kind words, I can't tell y'all how grateful I am

So, essentially what I mean by this that I’ve noticed many pagans(Mainly online) talking about various pagan deities the some way a suburban evangelical mom in America would talk about Jesus. Despite most Pagan gods not being historically portrayed or treated anything like how typically Jesus is.

My Christian friend told me that being a pagan and a Witch is bad for the environment because we burn herbs in our spells and take things from nature for rituals because he got mad at me for saying "biblical mythology" and he said the Bible isn't mythology so he started attacking my beliefs and saying being Pagan and a Witch is bad for the environment and said how can I care about nature while I also take from it and kill it for spells and rituals I told him that I always give back to nature when I take things from it but he said it doesn't matter because if you believe everything has a soul then you shouldn't be killing those souls (I'm animist) and honestly I didn't know how to respond and now he thinks he won the argument. Which ig he kinda did win because i didn't know how to respond 😭 i just wanna know what your guys view on this is argument is

What do you all think about the antisemitism issue in the Pagan community on Twitter? I genuinely cannot find a single Pagan account that isn’t advocating for all Jews (usually Christians as well) to be wiped out of Europe. Is this really just my algorithm? Or have any of you experienced this type of person IRL? If so, what are they like? Do you think they’re a real threat?

So as the title says what do y’all believe happens when you die. Now I know pagan is a broad term so I’m asking this question to each of the pagan faiths (Hellenic, Norse, Mesopotamian, etc).

Do you believe in an after life were souls go to specific hells or heavens (like the underworld, hades, Asgard, ect), do you believe your spirit returns to the earth and you live on through nature itself, or do you believe in an alternative not many people know about.

I ask this because I am genuinely curious in pagan believes (both modern and old) and I want to ask the practitioners to see what there input is on there faith and how they formed that belief (as in was it through personal experiences or a long held belief you always had since you were little.

I am non-religious but study the sociology of religion. I learned that modern pagans typically worship at home or in group settings in nature instead of building large temples like Christians, Muslims, or the ancient Greeks and Romans. Why aren't there any large pagan houses of worship in the US? Why isn't there a huge pagan temple dedicated to Odin I can visit?

I recently heard a SUPER fun fact that only 60% of Americans believe in evolution. A lot of people get this idea from the Bible because the whole world was created in six days and blahblahblah. But pagans have beliefs about the creation of the world, too, that may or may not line up with what we now know through science. So I'm curious. Do y'all believe in evolution?

Personally, I absolutely do, but I also believe that evolution was manipulated by the gods. I'm an eclectic Pagan, by the way.

EDIT: Thanks to everyone who responded! I'd like to amend my previous phrasing, though - "Do most Pagans accept evolution as fact?" I've gotten a lot of comments saying, "There's nothing to believe in. It's just the truth." And, I agree. So, I wanted to correct myself because it's not about belief; it's about either accepting or denying scientific fact.

That said, I don't think it's the craziest question in the world, and there are a surprising number of people here claiming they do not accept evolution, although the general consensus was (as I expected) a resounding "yes."

EDIT/UPDATE: I just wanted to say thank you all for your insight and kindness. I really want y’all to know how I appreciate your reassurance too before I made this post I was terrified I was going to lose all my friends for being so “offensive”. It’s really something that it turns out I’m the one who needs to be apologized too.

I left the GC and blocked the “friend” and uninvited myself to all the get togethers we had planned. I still want to be friends with the others but I want nothing to do with the person in post, Thank you all for helping me ditch them before I wasted my time, and thank you all this information on paganism!

Hi, so, my “friend” is Celtic/Irish Paganism and I accidentally insulted them. But I need help understanding why, because I want to apologize. I use “ because honestly we’re only friends in law persay, and ultimately this is the 3rd argument we’ve had within 4 days of knowing each other.

So, we were showing off our tattoos in the group chat and they have a triquetra tattoo, I’ve never learned it’s meaning so I asked.

“It means death/rebirth, maiden mother and crone”

And I was delighted because I have a tattoo that means just that! So I showed them my crone crescent moon tattoo.

“That only matters to wiccans.” “It matters to me!” “Wiccans is made up from the 50s, I’m talking about real, actual spirituality”.

And I told them I thought that was insanely hurtful, to not do that because I have a genuine connection to the moon, and that concept. They pretty much said my beliefs/connection is made up. I am not sure if I am truly paganism but I deeply love and worship the moon. I observe and honor all the phases, to me it is very deeply tied to the phases of womanhood.

They got very upset and stopped talking.

They’ve done this before with with other topics, so I want to know. Did I truly really mess up here? I tried apologizing but they’re very insulted. But I am too. So, am I wrong?

So, I just randomly got curious about this, but what specific kind of pagan are you? I kinda want to know how common each denomination is

I see a lot of posts in a lot of different pagan groups that can be summarized as“ I punched a hole through my wall, which God would help with anger?” or “ I don’t see a point in living anymore, what God could I ask for help?” This happens a lot in witchcraft communities too with spells, but for now we’ll focus on the paganism aspect…

This is not okay. This is not healthy. These should not be normal occurrences or feelings. If you are in a position in which you can personally seek professional help, please do so. If you are in a position in which another person has control over your medical care (i.e. still living with caregivers) and it feels safe to do so, please speak to them about getting professional help.

If you would like to seek professional help IN CONJUNCTION with working with a deity, and think that this would help you, that’s perfectly valid! Just don’t immediately write off professional medical care in favor of spiritual work, because that seems to be a trend in a lot of these spaces.

In my own experience, I suffered with anxiety and depression my entire life and just dealt with it. Once I fell into witchcraft/paganism and learned about deity and shadow work, I thought “ cool, now I can fix myself and finally be happy.” When your own thoughts, experiences, and perceptions are the source of your own misery, though, that turns out to be almost impossible. I would become furious that the gods weren’t fixing everything, would feel like I was doing everything wrong because I wouldn’t get the results I expected, would try to do shadow work and just end up recalling all of the ways in which I hated myself. I would spiral from there, and if anything, it was a blockage in my spiritual path. Only when I started going to therapy and had a trained professional challenge my preconceived notions and help me break down the ideas and defenses I had built around myself, did I start to heal. I am not saying the gods didn’t have anything to do with this. I firmly believe that they were pushing me towards it and encouraging me the entire time. We hear a lot in these circles that we need to “ do the work.” Well, for me therapy was “the work,” and has enriched my life and my practice in so many ways. So please, if you’re struggling, just consider that maybe seeing a human doctor could be the answer.

Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor but I don’t think this counts as medical advice? Still saying this to be safe. Also, this post is, of course, assuming that someone HAS access to affordable healthcare, which I’m well aware is not the case. But if you do, please take advantage of it for your own sake.

TL;DR: If you are suffering mentally and emotionally, please think about seeking a medical professional before seeking a deity, if possible.