Brainstorming Worship - online shrines? devotional posts? other ideas?

[Jack]

Several months ago I began a concentrated magical campaign to get my wife into a good, permanent job that she enjoyed. It was slow going through a lengthy temp period but she's now got an offer and starts next week. In conjunction, I promised my primary goddess, Mara, that when my wife got a full time job, I'd do something to draw attention to her awesomeness where people can see it, probably in the form of one of those e-shrines.

I've seen quite a few e-shrines, both the basic nshrine model and the more complex ones like Per Sebek and the Northern Paganism sites.

I know the value of them has been discussed here before, but that's not what I'm interested in debating. I'm more interested in what can be done with them - what would you find useful on such a site that you don't normally see? Is there some other alternative online you think would be more useful?

Mara's the primary goddess in the Latvian pantheon, but she's virtually unknown in the English-speaking internet. There's some research to collate, but not a lot. I've written some devotional poetry and stuff, but I feel like she's a goddess who deserves more attention. She's awesome, and has helped me numerous times, and I think other people would like her too, but I'm not sure what the most effective way to do that is.

Thoughts?

[Sulischild]

Thoughts?

Apologies in advance, these particular thoughts may be inarticulate and useless...

I think a link between the online shrine and IRL actions would be nice.  For instance, as part of my work with Sulis I support water-related projects through Kiva when I can, and I think some who follow Brigid support Heifer International.  Could there be a link from the shrine to appropriate ways to take mundane-world action?  (With NO pressure or 'sell', because sometimes there just isn't the $ to do what you'd like to and people shouldn't be shamed for that.)  

That doesn't have to mean money to charity, either.  It could be real world action like Meals on Wheels, letter writing/petition campaigns, visiting the elderly, knitting beanies for the homeless, whatever fits with the portfolio of the particular deity honoured at the shrine.

I sometimes go through nShrine and leave a candle at empty shrines where appropriate (not the ones to cartoon characters or the ones that appear to have a private function) with a little note saying something like 'we're strangers, I'm just leaving this as a token of respect'.  I don't like the idea of a roster - because life happens - but maybe a widget somewhere visible showing shrines that haven't been tended lately so they don't get overlooked?

The functionality to upload art/poetry/photos of altars, rather than the tiny text box nShrine gives you, would be nice.  But it'd require someone keep an eye on things, or a 'report' button, because inevitably some jackass will misuse it...

On that note, if that's possible maybe have it that devotions are split up into pages like forum threads are, with the most recent at the top, so it doesn't end up with massively long pages with a zillion images that take forever to load.  Or should they expire and disappear after X time?  I'm undecided - I can see you not wanting your art to vanish after a fortnight, but I think it reflects the transitory nature of individual offerings, too.

[Snowdrop]

Thoughts?

 
I like the Northern Paganism shrines because they're pretty thorough.  I've never visited an online shrine as an act of worship itself, but I find them useful to get ideas from.  So, say you build your Mara shrine --- I'd be curious to visit it to understand who Mara is, not so much to light a candle.  I think my ideal shrine would have a mixture of basic "Who is this?" materials, some prayers or other writings, relevant artwork or other images, offering ideas, and so forth.  What makes shrines interesting is that they're evocative of the deity involved in lots of different ways, not just through their contents but through the color scheme, the layout, etc.  

As silly as it probably sounds, I felt like I understood Freyr a lot better as soon as I clicked on the Northern Paganism shrine to Him, just because of that picture of the hand brushing through the grain.  Something suddenly clicked in my head when I saw that, and I went, "Oh, so that's who Freyr is."

[Fireof9]

Several months ago I began a concentrated magical campaign to get my wife into a good, permanent job that she enjoyed. It was slow going through a lengthy temp period but she's now got an offer and starts next week. In conjunction, I promised my primary goddess, Mara, that when my wife got a full time job, I'd do something to draw attention to her awesomeness where people can see it, probably in the form of one of those e-shrines.

I've seen quite a few e-shrines, both the basic nshrine model and the more complex ones like Per Sebek and the Northern Paganism sites.

I know the value of them has been discussed here before, but that's not what I'm interested in debating. I'm more interested in what can be done with them - what would you find useful on such a site that you don't normally see? Is there some other alternative online you think would be more useful?

Mara's the primary goddess in the Latvian pantheon, but she's virtually unknown in the English-speaking internet. There's some research to collate, but not a lot. I've written some devotional poetry and stuff, but I feel like she's a goddess who deserves more attention. She's awesome, and has helped me numerous times, and I think other people would like her too, but I'm not sure what the most effective way to do that is.

Thoughts?

 
I think a shrine like an nshrine one is a great idea. You could do something like a blog in dedication to her, with a link to the nshrine at the blog.

I have a few nshrine's and I love it when people light a candle and leave a personal message. It feels good to know that there was a place that they could do that. I also get a smile when I recognize the name as someone that posts here ( though it does not mean for sure its the same person I am aware )