Ways to worship without parents knowing/mental rituals?

[Nyktelios]

My mom likes it when I meditate so I have an incense burner and some candles in my room and recently that's been how I've been praying and doing all of that.

I sorta thought of doing mental rituals. Like, I don't know if it's a okay thing to do or not (which might sound silly) but I know I can't do rituals in real life, so I meditate and envision myself doing them and narrate it in my head. It's also a way that helps me stay focused while meditating.

 
Mental rituals are a valid option. I personally never do complicated rituals anyway, I mainly just maintain a shrine to my deities, and pray both out loud and in my head. If you are already allowed to have candles and incense, maintaining a shrine might be an option for you rather than doing large rituals. Shrines can just look decorate, with a deity statue, sacred items, candles, incense, and maybe an offering dish. Depending on your path, that might be an option for you too rather than Wiccan-style rituals.

[Aster Breo]

If you are already allowed to have candles and incense, maintaining a shrine might be an option for you rather than doing large rituals. Shrines can just look decorate, with a deity statue, sacred items, candles, incense, and maybe an offering dish. Depending on your path, that might be an option for you too rather than Wiccan-style rituals.

This.  An altar or shrine definitely doesn't have to look like one.  It can be a shelf where you have a special candle and maybe a couple of items that represent your deity or their attributes.  In a very real way, you can be an altar yourself, wearing specially chosen and dedicated jewelry, for example.

Another thing you can do as an act of stealth worship is study.  If you honor the gods of a certain culture (Celtic, Greek, Egyptian, Norse, etc.), read about that culture.  Books on mythology, history, art, and similar subjects aren't inherently religious and are usually in the library.  Historical fiction and some fantasy can be extremely inspirational.  If you're interested in magic, do some reading about sciences like chemistry, physics, botany, geology, meteorology, herbalism, etc.  The possibilities are literally endless.

[FollowerofOdin]

Mental rituals are a valid option. I personally never do complicated rituals anyway, I mainly just maintain a shrine to my deities, and pray both out loud and in my head. If you are already allowed to have candles and incense, maintaining a shrine might be an option for you rather than doing large rituals. Shrines can just look decorate, with a deity statue, sacred items, candles, incense, and maybe an offering dish. Depending on your path, that might be an option for you too rather than Wiccan-style rituals.

 
I like the mental ritual option myself. If I just want to spend sometime with Odin I'll go outside and pray to him or talk to him. I'm trying out the talking to him as part of building my foundation of my practice. Also mentally doing rituals don't requires statues or anything, just yourself. That's what I discovered right off the bat.

[Shine]

I like the mental ritual option myself. If I just want to spend sometime with Odin I'll go outside and pray to him or talk to him. I'm trying out the talking to him as part of building my foundation of my practice. Also mentally doing rituals don't requires statues or anything, just yourself. That's what I discovered right off the bat.

 
I rather like mental rituals, too, but depending on your tradition, physical--for lack of a better term--rituals have a certain. . . way to them. What I mean is in traditions like Kemeticism and Sanatana Dharma, statues and other ritual tools become a sort of physical bridge between mundane and divine. In the case of statues, those symbolically "hold" the deity in question. In homes, the deity-inhabited statue becomes a sort of guest of honor while in temples, it becomes more like a king/queen/etc. While this can be accomplished in mental ritual, unless you're super terrific at visualization, having physical objects to face, hold, and address can be helpful.

With Odin and Heathenry, it's a bit different, but even Heathen rituals have a certain physical grounding to them.

Mental rituals are (a) great practice in visualization, (b) a valid option for those who can't practice openly, and (c) potentially as powerful as physical rituals, but we're a physical, touch-sensory species, and so sometimes it's good to get out, handle tools, etc. when possible.

[Maps]

 
Remember too, that if your path winds up taking you down a cultural polytheism, many of those societies made a very clear division between the priestly and lay classes. In other words, if you were a farmer or a soldier, you weren't expected to actually conduct high ritual... which were often larger affairs anyways. There was a division of religious labor and everyone had their part to play. Farmers provided edible offerings, artisans provided the idols and tools of ritual, and so on. In other words, don't feel pressured into playing the role of clergy if that's not where your path takes you. So a shrine instead of an altar, prayer instead of high ritual-- those are just as potent and honorable in their own ways.

[FollowerofOdin]

I rather like mental rituals, too, but depending on your tradition, physical--for lack of a better term--rituals have a certain. . . way to them. What I mean is in traditions like Kemeticism and Sanatana Dharma, statues and other ritual tools become a sort of physical bridge between mundane and divine. In the case of statues, those symbolically "hold" the deity in question. In homes, the deity-inhabited statue becomes a sort of guest of honor while in temples, it becomes more like a king/queen/etc. While this can be accomplished in mental ritual, unless you're super terrific at visualization, having physical objects to face, hold, and address can be helpful.

With Odin and Heathenry, it's a bit different, but even Heathen rituals have a certain physical grounding to them.

Mental rituals are (a) great practice in visualization, (b) a valid option for those who can't practice openly, and (c) potentially as powerful as physical rituals, but we're a physical, touch-sensory species, and so sometimes it's good to get out, handle tools, etc. when possible.

 
Oh I agree with that. I do mental rituals because I don't want my mother to know that I'm learning to be a Heathen. She knows that she can't tell me what to do because I'm 33 and my brother would have a fit. But I'm not ready for her to know because I'm not in the mood for a screaming match and the cops calling.