Why do you worship the gods/spirits/forces you do?

[Jack]

Most think Moon Goddess = dogs because well "they bay at the moon". In the old lore the Moon Goddess's chief animal was cats, for they guarded the underworld / the spirit world for her [Hecate, Artemis, & Diana all have association with felines].

 
I'm curious which old lore you're referring to? I'm much more familiar with Hekate being associated with her black dog and Artemis with her hunting hounds. I'd love to read more about that if you can point me to a source.

[Darkhawk]

Most think Moon Goddess = dogs because well "they bay at the moon". In the old lore the Moon Goddess's chief animal was cats, for they guarded the underworld / the spirit world for her [Hecate, Artemis, & Diana all have association with felines].

 
Even Wikipedia knows that Hekate is associated with dogs.

I'm not finding any confirmation of the other claims there or on theoi.com.  (Greek and Roman not my field, and my lunar Powers are male, anyway.)

[YungMeatRabbit]

I'm interested in knowing why you worship the specific deities you do. Who do you work with? What started your relationship with them? Why do you continue investing time into them? Are you deeply committed to them, or is your relationship with them temporary? Which relationships do you consider most important, and why? Or are they equally important to you?

Ignore/modify the questions as you need to. They're only supposed to serve as prompts.

 
I primarily worship Hathor, Amon-Ra, Atum, Geb, Nut, Tefnut, Shu, Zeus and Hades.  I also make offerings to the rest of the Egyptian pantheon.  I suppose my story of why I worship the Egyptian pantheon is a story of redeemption.  I started honoring the Egyptian pantheon last December when I felt drawn to them one night.  I had been unable to find the right Pagan path for myself and was sick of changing pantheons.  Against my better judgement, I swore an oath to worship the Egyptian gods for a year.  I offered to them for a few months, but a bunch of personal stuff happened in January and I felt like the gods didn't care about me even though I was making offerings and putting in "work" on my side.  This caused me to go back on my oath and become essentially an apatheist.  

In May, Imdecided to go back to Paganism.  At first I kinda leaned Celtic (specifically Gaulsih), although it was mostly just honoring my ancestors and the landwights.  But I remembered my oath and reluctantly started making offerings again.  

Then I had some experiences with the Egyptian deities that explained why it seemed like my offerings had been fruitless earlier.  I won't go into details because I don't like to share my spiritual experiences, but I eventually came around and returned to the Egyptian pantheon.  I vowed to make enough offerings to make up for all the days I was apatheistic and after I had made those offerings, to update my oath, this time for five years.  Kemeticism feels right for me and I know I won't regret this decision.

As for Zeus, I've always been both fascinated and terrified by him, ever since I first read about Greek mythology as a kid.  I had made offerings to him before (I dabbled in Hellenismos before I decided on Kemeticism, as I touched on earlier.  FYI, my Pagan journey has been "Weird Angsty-Teen PseudoPaganism" (4 months)>Pseudo-Asatru (2.5 months)>"Weird Angsty-Teen PseudoPaganism (5.5 months)-went atheist-Converted to Asatru and did it right this time (3 months)>Greek (1 month)>Kemetic (2.5 months)>Animist (1.5 months)>Kemetic)* and I felt like there was some kind of connection there.  So even though I'm Kemetic, I honor Zeus.  As for Hades, I started honoring him when I went back to Paganism after apatheism because I wanted to honor a chthonic deity.

I also honor my ancestors and the landwights because I feel like since they're "closer" to me, they're more personally invested in my well-being than the gods-nit to say that the gods necessarily aren't.

*I know this looks like I can't stay in one path for a while.  However, I feel like I jut had to try a few different paths and then eventually find the one that worked for me.

[Mivi]

I'm interested in knowing why you worship the specific deities you do. Who do you work with? What started your relationship with them? Why do you continue investing time into them? Are you deeply committed to them, or is your relationship with them temporary? Which relationships do you consider most important, and why? Or are they equally important to you?

Ignore/modify the questions as you need to. They're only supposed to serve as prompts.

 
Honestly I started worshiping them because they came to me. Before that, I actually had not realized that Korea even had our own indigenous gods. It was thrilling to see that we did.

I continue to invest in them because they afflicted me with spirit sickness and so I "must" - but I suspect they didn't make it as hard on me, because it didn't take much for me to want to worship them. I've always been interested in polytheism since I was quite young.

Our relationship is likely to be life long, as for most Korean shamans.

I only worship the gods I personally serve. I haven't had any just drop by quite yet, as far as I know. But the ones I will be serving for the rest of my life are the most important.

I view my divined Father (Sobek-Ra) on equal level.

[suzker]

Who do you work with?

My main is one of the Norse deities. We are hmm... very similar in mannerism and persona. I work with a few others. Ancestral spirits, there is an old legend of a forefather that death itself could not even chain, and nature/land spirits.

What started your relationship with them?

Mutual respect.

For example I said I work with land spirits. I respect what I work with and all that is here. Even 'nuisances' like bees and other such bugs. It is quite comical to watch the watering of the gardens because it is almost like a dance - I water one section and instead of coming back to sting me for disturbing them the bees & hornets merely "switch places" as I go about my business. Even if I mistakenly hit one or three with the water, they just move a few inches off rather than get excited or leave. I've even had large hornets fly right by my head and all I've done is move slightly to the side rather than start flapping my arms around.

In return my garden is one of the best in the neighborhood. The trees out front. The last four years my neighbors have had to pull their trees down due to blight. My neighbor to my right is going to pull his last tree down as it is dead, revealed a few weeks ago when the storm front that rolled through snapped a number of the upper branches like twigs despite how thick they were. My trees were once likewise sickly, however, though I thought I'd have to cut one of them down this spring it has done a complete 180 turn around. Did I do anything special to it? If you count watering as special, sure.

I even have a plant in the house that should be, by all rights, dead. It was, when I was in Europe for eight months, watered less than a cactus by my brother. But well it is very much alive.

Why do you continue investing time into them?

........

Are you deeply committed to them, or is your relationship with them temporary?

Committed. There are some spirits and gods that one does not want to play musical chairs with for they will bite and bite hard if you are foolish enough to be fickle with their regard.

Which relationships do you consider most important, and why? Or are they equally important to you?

Depends but mostly all equal.

[Merlick]

Who do you work with?

When I first set out on my spiritual journey about twenty years ago I worked with all kinds of gods from different pantheons, mostly egyptian, babylonian and greek but it didn't really fit.

Only when I started working with the norse gods I felt like I had come home and I've been worshipping them ever since.

What started your relationship with them?

I had a personal crisis. My whole life had gone downhill but I hadn't yet hit rock bottom. That's when they came into my life the rough way. Seems like I didn't need a helping hand back then but rather a firm smack on the head to get my gears back up and running.

Why do you continue investing time into them?

Because it feels good? Because it feels right? I can't give any reasonable answers to this question, because belief is something that can't be grasped by the brain. It's a feeling deep inside you, in your heart or in your soul and it tells me, that I'm on the right track.

Are you deeply committed to them, or is your relationship with them temporary?

While my experiences with other gods and pantheons were nothing more but flirts, this goes much deeper. And yes, I'd say I'm committed to them.

Which relationships do you consider most important, and why? Or are they equally important to you?

Although they are all important to me, there are a few where I feel a deeper connection due to certain aspects. Thes are Odin (rune divination), Freya (magic), Bragi (writing) and Loki (mischief, trouble and chaos:D: - my boss would agree that we share the same qualities).