Laziness and the Gods.

[SatSekhem]

In the "Forgetting" Your Deity, Arienwen posted...

...but my own innate laziness at the moment is barring me from remembering to do my daily or even weekly offerings and such for her.  I keep saying "Oh yeah, I know I need to do that, but I will totally do it later"  and then "later" never actually comes.

 
I was just wondering how this affects others and their connection with their gods. I mean, are you lazy? Do you put off your offerings? Did you kick the laziness's ass right out of your system? If so, how did you do it?

Inquiring minds need to know! :confused:

[Mata]

In the "Forgetting" Your Deity, Arienwen posted...


 
I was just wondering how this affects others and their connection with their gods. I mean, are you lazy? Do you put off your offerings? Did you kick the laziness's ass right out of your system? If so, how did you do it?

Inquiring minds need to know! :confused:

 
I can be lazy (well I am lazy in general heh); so I do sometimes put off doing anything more than quick offerings and prayers. But as time goes on I feel less and less content doing it, so I've been working on drawing out my daily rituals to some degree, when possible.

For me, I've found that when I put more time and effort into doing a ritual or offering, or even just more formal prayers, I feel a much stronger connection. So I definitely think that half-assing things can be a hindrance to connecting with the gods - but I also think that most deities aren't insufferable if you don't offer 5 sets of 2 prayers twice a day with offerings to boot :p

And I totally read the title of this thread and thought "Lazines? what the heck are La-zines? :confused:" haha.

[AlisonLeighLilly]

I was just wondering how this affects others and their connection with their gods. I mean, are you lazy? Do you put off your offerings? Did you kick the laziness's ass right out of your system? If so, how did you do it?

 
I'd call myself a "lazy ritualist" though I can be kind of hyper-intense about other things. I don't do regular offerings of any kind, really, other than prayer and candle-lighting about once a week accompanying my meditation.

For me, the logistics of making offerings is really the stumbling block. Aesthetically, I love the idea of offering herbs or incense or pouring a libation as a daily offering... but I always run up against questions like, "What do I do with the offerings once they've started to accumulate?" and "How do I afford enough incense to light a whole stick/charcoal burner every day?" Several times I've tried setting up an offering bowl on my altar where I can pour water libations during my morning meditation... but inevitably I start to notice that I'm filling up the bowl faster than it's evaporating, so I use that as an excuse to skip a day here and there, until before you know it, I've stopped altogether. I think these are probably all fairly silly reasons... but I find it hard to get over the logistical hump of how to make offerings a regular part of my work without ending up with an altar littered with bits of things.

--Ali

[Devo]

Inquiring minds need to know! :confused:

 
I just do it.

When I'm doing daily ritual (which I've been on hiatus for a while now), I go through phases where I wake up and OMGIWANTTODORITUALRIGHTNOW. And then, the pendulum will swing, and I'll have periods of omgitotallydon'twanttobedoingthisrightnow. I think it's normal. What keeps me coming back is two things.

1. Set asked me to do it. Or required/demanded. Something. I feel an obligation to him.
2. I feel like crap after a while of not doing it.

First one makes sense. Deity says "I want you to pay attn to me" and so you do it. It's probably the second aspect that really keeps me coming back for more. If I quit performing daily rites, after a while, I just start to feel like somethin is missing. And it drives me NUTS. The more I ignore it, the more it bothers me. And I think that feeling is what constantly pushes me through my blah days. Because I know that if I stop, it's only a matter of time before I'm back there.

-Devo

[Stardancer]

I'd Several times I've tried setting up an offering bowl on my altar where I can pour water libations during my morning meditation... but inevitably I start to notice that I'm filling up the bowl faster than it's evaporating, so I use that as an excuse to skip a day here and there, until before you know it, I've stopped altogether. I think these are probably all fairly silly reasons... but I find it hard to get over the logistical hump of how to make offerings a regular part of my work without ending up with an altar littered with bits of things.

--Ali

I love the idea of 'reverted offerings'; when I set out a small measure of olive oil for Athena, it is with the expectation that She will take the energy of it - and then I will pour the physical object into the salad or skillet for dinner later. This removes the 'left over bits'. The same for Sekhmet; a small piece of ham or liver pate, and then I eat it afterwards.

When I light a candle, I will use a tea candle and let it burn out during the day. Buy a big packet in the grocery store and it's really very cheap.

[NibbleKat]

In the "Forgetting" Your Deity, Arienwen posted...

I was just wondering how this affects others and their connection with their gods. I mean, are you lazy? Do you put off your offerings? Did you kick the laziness's ass right out of your system? If so, how did you do it?

Inquiring minds need to know! :confused:

You know, I don't know that I'd list the aversion to do rituals that I have sometimes as laziness so much as ...well. Just like I said, aversion.

When I get stressed, if I have to do anything other than say, watch three hours of Charmed or play the Sims for an entire evening, then I get really buggy.  I can't focus, I can't concentrate, and I sure as HELL don't want to do anything that makes me search inside myself or outwardly for/toward a source of godliness.  

That's what's been happening to me lately. If I sit down at the altar, I immediately want to stand back up again. I want to give offerings and then be up and away, no thought involved.

But to be fair, it's the same with my art, too. When I get stressed, nothing can make me sit down and do it.. it becomes an obligation rather than joy.  Much like being at the altar does.

Stupid stress.

[LyricFox]

In the "Forgetting" Your Deity, Arienwen posted...


 
I was just wondering how this affects others and their connection with their gods. I mean, are you lazy? Do you put off your offerings? Did you kick the laziness's ass right out of your system? If so, how did you do it?

Inquiring minds need to know! :confused:

Take a look at my profile over there. See where it says "lapsed Hellenic Recon"? That's because I'm too lazy for words.

[Firaza]

I was just wondering how this affects others and their connection with their gods. I mean, are you lazy? Do you put off your offerings? Did you kick the laziness's ass right out of your system? If so, how did you do it?

Inquiring minds need to know! :confused:

 
My own laziness has proven to me that I don't have what it takes to be any sort of priest figure in that I cannot muster up the motivation to partake in daily ritual. Just yesterday I planned to do a proper ritual to Anpu and I failed yet again (for the third week in a row!) because I gave my attention to other things. Today, I lit a candle and incense to "make up for it." I feel like that's really all I can manage.

[Malkin]

In the "Forgetting" Your Deity, Arienwen posted...


 
I was just wondering how this affects others and their connection with their gods. I mean, are you lazy? Do you put off your offerings? Did you kick the laziness's ass right out of your system? If so, how did you do it?

Inquiring minds need to know! :confused:

 
Y'know, I used to struggle with this problem - a big part of it had to do with feeling like I didn't know what I was doing. Once I decided on a routine, it got much easier to get up and do it if I had a mind to. But as soon as I started getting really proactive about figuring out what kinds of offerings to make and how often, my divinations started to tell me that I was doing too much - sacrificing too much. So now I'm really not sure what to do! For now, I just make offerings whenever I happen to have some of their favorite foods on hand, and I'm not worrying too much about it otherwise.

[Arynn]

In the "Forgetting" Your Deity, Arienwen posted...

I was just wondering how this affects others and their connection with their gods. I mean, are you lazy? Do you put off your offerings? Did you kick the laziness's ass right out of your system? If so, how did you do it?

Inquiring minds need to know! :confused:

I find that laziness, for me, becomes a problem mostly when other things are standing in my way, and I'm too shy or too passive to change or deal with them.

For example, I've been living at my parents' house right now to save some money before I move into my new apartment around August 1st, and they aren't Pagan (they are very Jewish, in fact), and though they love and respect me, I find it hard to find time to do rituals if they (as well as my two younger siblings) are around all the time...not really because doing a ritual wouldn't be physically possible (all the right materials exist at my parents' house, even a huge, lovely, amazing backyard with trees and flowers), but because of privacy...and because I'm just really too passive and too shy to go up to them and be like, "Hey, parents, give me like an hour alone in ____ room, I just need to do a ritual." It's just a complicated thing for me. For various reasons (me being shy, them not understanding aspects of my religion, the fact that the house is theirs and they have their own "home rules/expectations", etc), I just don't feel comfortable doing regular rituals here. Because of that, I get lazy...I don't work hard enough to make rituals happen in a busy home, and I don't actively work toward doing them somewhere else...I end up saying to myself, "Well, when you move it will get better, so no need to worry and do them now...better to wait and do a ritual without worry than do one hoping Mom or Dad don't walk in..."

It's something I regret about myself...I wish I was strong enough to just DO IT ANYWAY, but I let such feelings and worries about my parents, etc. get in the way sometimes, and before I know it, I'm busy doing other things anyway...I'm hoping that when I do move in two weeks, it really does get better. It should, because I'll finally have the privacy I'll need, and then there's really no excuse to be lazy...! ^_^

[SatSekhem]

You know, I don't know that I'd list the aversion to do rituals that I have sometimes as laziness so much as ...well. Just like I said, aversion.

When I get stressed, if I have to do anything other than say, watch three hours of Charmed or play the Sims for an entire evening, then I get really buggy.  I can't focus, I can't concentrate, and I sure as HELL don't want to do anything that makes me search inside myself or outwardly for/toward a source of godliness.  

That's what's been happening to me lately. If I sit down at the altar, I immediately want to stand back up again. I want to give offerings and then be up and away, no thought involved.

But to be fair, it's the same with my art, too. When I get stressed, nothing can make me sit down and do it.. it becomes an obligation rather than joy.  Much like being at the altar does.

Stupid stress.

 
I completely get this.

[Nehet]

In the "Forgetting" Your Deity, Arienwen posted...


 
I was just wondering how this affects others and their connection with their gods. I mean, are you lazy? Do you put off your offerings? Did you kick the laziness's ass right out of your system? If so, how did you do it?

Inquiring minds need to know! :confused:

Like Devo, I just do it.  

Of course, sometimes I get "lazy".  I used to take breaks when I started to get the ritual blahs.  Then, at one point I realized that I was going to get as much out of my spirituality as I put into it.   I decided to try an experiment, and do ritual daily for awhile,  even if I didn't feel motivated to do it.  

The result, for me, is that ritual has become comforting.  No matter what else in my life goes to hell, I still have my daily ritual as a constant.  That reminds me of the Gods' presence in my life and actually makes it easier for me to get through stressful things.  

Now, even though I don't take literal breaks from ritual, I still take "mental vacations".  Meaning, I go through the motions but I'm not focused.  I try to cut myself some slack if I'm under stress and unable to focus on ritual.  IME Ausir is understanding if I'm doing the best I can.  He seems to still appreciate me going through the motions, even if I'm just going through the motions.  

There are days when doing ritual for Him feels like going to the store to buy flowers for a special date with my sweetie.

Then there are days when doing ritual for Him feels like going to the store on a crappy, snowy day to get basic household essentials because my sweetie needed me to do it.

Both acts say "I love you".  The second one just isn't as exciting and might not even get an enthusiastic "thank you", because it's not "special". It's just what 'ya do, you know?  But it still matters as much, if not more so, then the first option.

[Devo]

There are days when doing ritual for Him feels like going to the store to buy flowers for a special date with my sweetie.

Then there are days when doing ritual for Him feels like going to the store on a crappy, snowy day to get basic household essentials because my sweetie needed me to do it.

Both acts say "I love you".  The second one just isn't as exciting and might not even get an enthusiastic "thank you", because it's not "special". It's just what 'ya do, you know?  But it still matters as much, if not more so, then the first option.

 
I really like this- and it makes me feel better about the days where I was just going through the motions.

Ironically, I had a habit of talking Set's ear off- esp. if I was tired... I'd just sorta ramble on during the 'special prayers/talking' section. He'd actually tell me to STFU and finish so he could go on his way XD Random tangent, but it's what came to mind.

-Devo

[SatSekhem]

Like Devo, I just do it.  

Of course, sometimes I get "lazy".  I used to take breaks when I started to get the ritual blahs.  Then, at one point I realized that I was going to get as much out of my spirituality as I put into it.   I decided to try an experiment, and do ritual daily for awhile,  even if I didn't feel motivated to do it.

 
I think I've come to the conclusion that my lack of ritual isn't so much laziness, but a lack of enthusiasm coupled with the fact that the daily rite and the reason behind my doing it? That just wasn't for me. Now, I'm just... floating and listless while I try to figure this shit out.

[Nehet]

I think I've come to the conclusion that my lack of ritual isn't so much laziness, but a lack of enthusiasm coupled with the fact that the daily rite and the reason behind my doing it? That just wasn't for me. Now, I'm just... floating and listless while I try to figure this shit out.

Maybe you can just make informal offerings for awhile?  And, not necessarily daily.  It's not like it's "daily or nothing."