Offerings

Offerings are an important but often neglected portion of magick and developing relationships with those that abide in the spiritual world. The Qabalists have a saying, “As above, so below.” In this world, we give gifts to show our appreciation to each other flowers to lovers or sick friends, small gifts to say thank you for some nicety and let us not forget exchanging gifts during winter celebrations. Things cement relationships, show love and respect. Those that abide in the lesser seen realms appreciate them in the same way and have the same effect.

That said, this is a portion of practice I have long neglected but with reason. I am a hard core theurgist. I have made offerings to the gods in front of human witnesses. The deities in question have glanced at them and paid them no mind. What I hear during these moments, is ‘your work is your offering’. I believe that is because most of the deities I have reached out to are known, in at least one of their aspects, to be theurgic by nature. Therefore, they respected the work I was doing and viewed that which I was giving up, the part of me that infers with full manifestation of my soul, as my offering to them.

The offerings that I have made successfully of a more substantial nature have been a quid pro quo. I give you this, so you will do that. Those have worked or at the very least, not been viewed with indifference. Many such beings understand the concept of payment for service rendered. Some, like any good merchant, will try to cultivate a relationship.

My late friend Chris Greenwood had a saying, “Know who you are hanging out with because it is the innocent by stander that gets shot!” He was right. Some of these beings you do not want to hang out with. And, just like any commercial relationship, you can close the door on the salesman trying to sell you something you do not need.

Last night, my angel or my intuition kept pestering me to read Jason Miller’s fine book The Elements of Spell Crafting. At first, I couldn’t find it and gave up. Prompted again, I looked and still nothing. One more time and my eyes went straight to it. When I saw page 80 with the title, Embrace the Power of Offerings, I knew why I was there.

During the day, I had been asking a new deity that has proved immediately useful how to form a better relationship with him. Offerings. So, I followed the instructions in Jason’s book this morning. I didn’t just offer to that deity but all the classes of beings and used Jason’s formula with a slight personal alteration.

When this ended, I turned as advised and looked around my backyard. I saw something that I didn’t see that said thank you. He introduced himself by a common name and said that he had never lived in my home but was attracted by the offering. He felt friendly. I also noticed that one of the swings on our broken swing set was moving. This was not a subtle thing. The chain lone chain and the board that hung from it were not just moving in a slight breeze. The movement was significant. There was no breeze.

I felt different. I felt as if the universe responded in more ways that I was aware of. This practice will continue.