Patrons

I will admit that in the last couple months of missed posts, I decided to skip some of Silver's activities, performing specific salutes everyday for a month, performing a shrouded supper. All things that I have done, and as the supper is something we do at Samhain, I consider that to just be a suspended exercise.

But she did talk about Patron deity work. Which is to say the least, fascinating. I find that everyone has a different perception of the job performed by a Patron, or the result of a Patron relationship.

On my personal altar I like to keep the figures un-named and generic.

It allows me to keep my altar dressed at all times. But I feel then when I talk to the Lady she knows who I am communicating with. Each Sabbat has a different Patron deity, Silver mentioned that she selected a different God and Goddess for each initiation that she underwent, alluding to the belief that we have a different patron/matron for each stage of our lives. She also stated that the fountains and springs in her yard had yet different gods attached to them.

So I would like to  purport that the gods as we know them are a lot like the Catholic Saints, which is what made it so easy for the church to amalgamate pagan beliefs.

"A patron saint or a patron hallow is a saint who in Roman Catholicism is regarded as the tutelary spirit or heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family or person. Supposedly, patron saints, having already transcended to the metaphysical, are able to intercede effectively for the needs of their special charges."

If you lay claim to a God or Goddess and declare yourself to them, they should be at the core of most of your magick. This is a decision that you should take seriously, work your way up to a personal patron, choose one for your property, one for your home, one for your family and then one for you. This isn't the sort of  relationship that you should walk into blindly, so do your research.

If I had the space I would have a different altar (set up and least) for each branch of my practice, my family traditional path, the Celtic Path and Faery Craft. But I don't, so what I have done is collect a series of artifacts and sorted them into smaller boxes, that I call spirit houses so that depending on my working I can dress my altar appropriately.