These questions may seem a bit dense to some, but I am not familiar with praying. Never really grew up religious or have any experience with it. Despite that, I would love to start a daily/nightly prayer journal for a deity. Do I need to address the deity by name at the start of each prayer? Does there need to be some sort of goal/intention behind my prayer, can I speak to them more like a friend (casual: relaying my day, speaking of challenges, thanking them, etc) or be formal? Should I leave an offering each night in gratitude? If I do offerings, how can I dispose of them the next morning? Any advice would be amazing! I know I just let off a bunch of questions, but I am grateful for the help.
Hello lovely I’m Tracy from England. Loki is my patron deity. Ok. Prayer. I’m very informal with Loki. The Norse gods, I find, are very earthy, and get right involved in your life, so we chat. Odin is said to wander the earth, disguised as a human, checking it all out for example. I have an altar to Loki indoors, and I have a very casual one by a tree in my garden (it’s just a stick and a rock). Each morning I light a candle, make him and me a coffee/tea (although Loki won’t have tea ), and then I go outside and we just chat, about anything. We chat throughout the day, how you’d talk to your best friend. Offerings, I always give him a portion of my dinner each night, I light his candle whenever I’m home. Nothing formal. Each deity is different, so you’ll get a feeling, but I tend to keep things friendly and that draws me closer. Formal worship/prayer makes them distant I find. Just me . Hope this helps
I’m in the same boat – never had to deal with any religious stuff growing up – and had to face the same questions when I started.
You don’t have to. But it might help you focus on them, which is why I do so.
There doesn’t have to be a goal or intention. But keep in mind that intentions can be as simple as showing your appreciation for their existence or a small thing that has happened in your life! It doesn’t need to be grand.
You can also speak as formally or informally as you feel comfortable. But again, this is preference. Some fear the deities will cause harm on them if they aren’t formal or polite enough, or if they don’t bring offerings, or come to them with thoughts that aren’t serious. You don’t have to follow that, but it’s up to you if you do – not us.
If you feel like it, you can. But you don’t have to. Often, prayer itself is seen as a form of dedication or offering, especially since your giving, at the minimum, your time and thoughts.
Depends. For many, it’s okay to simply throw them in the bin. For others, they prefer to bury them or dispose of them in a more natural way. But do whatever’s most comfortable for you.
Sorry, that probably wasn’t very helpful. But give it time. You will slowly find what you’re comfortable with. There’s no rush.
I use to pray when I was forced into Christianity. When I switched to being pagan I quit praying. But I have very recently ( about 4 days ago) invited Loki to work with me. He was very receptive. Like @tracyS and @starborn have said, there is no need for formality. Just have a chat with them. I talk with Loki all day, asking his advice, telling him thank you for guidance, just general chat.
Your prayers are your own. Between you and your deity’s. Do what feels right and comfortable to you.
You can pray any way you want! It’s up to you. I usually give thanks for my daily blessings, ask for healing, and just generally chat with the Lord and Lady. If you have a certain deity it would defiantly help if you named them, I think. Kind of like getting their attention in a crowded room.
As for offerings, I use incense. I have this aversion to wasting food, and picking flowers so they can die doesn’t seem fair. So, incense it is! But it’s all up to you.
There’s been a lot of prayers shared here in the forum, both in the Weekly Challenges and on their own. Take a deep dive and see what you can find!
Thank you all so much for your help! Your advice is amazing, and has definitely helped me get a better understanding of prayer and what I can be doing.
@tracyS hello! I love the idea of having an outdoor and indoor altar, even if the outdoor altar only consists of a stick and a rock! Haha that’s super cute to me. Your connection to Loki is extremely inspiring, as you guys seem bonded through almost everything. Awesome! I hope to one day get that comfortable with goddess Diana, or this new deity I feel calling me (who this post is about), but I just started my journey not too long ago so I’m new to everything. All of your advice was extremely helpful, thank you!
@starborn I am glad to know I’m not alone in feeling lost while starting out with this. Thank you for the information & reminders! I usually think of intentions as something grand, so it’s nice to know it can be something simple. I find I sometimes struggle with what to say during prayer, then ramble and feel foolish or like I’m wasting their time. I never thought of my prayer as a form of offering, but it’s pretty cool to think of it that way. I have an offering bowl though, and am interested in doing some tangible offerings too! Maybe I will choose a special discard area outdoors for my offerings, as I kinda hate the idea of throwing those things in the garbage/down the drain. You were very helpful to me! Reaching out at all is helpful in my opinion. I do need to give it time, too, as I’m a beginner with everything. It feels great to learn! I appreciate your help! Blessed be
@Mystique if you don’t mind my asking, how did you ask Loki to work with you? How did you reach out? I am interested in doing the same with the deity this post is about, just to test the waters. Thank you for the advice! You’ve definitely been able to help, it’s nice realizing that I don’t need to be so rigid with my approach to magick.
@Amethyst okay, great! I will try a more casual approach to prayer, to start anyway and see how it feels. I have a hard time remembering long, pre-made prayers. I love the idea of using incense as an offering! I will definitely be sure to include that in my practice. I will also dive into doing a bit more research on some prayers here in the forum. Thank you for the well wishes!
You’re welcome. If I had a dollar for every time it has helped me to be reminded of the simple things, I’d be ballin’ outta control.
You’ll be more comfortable and confident with time. But until then, you’re welcome to share your journey along the way. Many of us have done so here and it’s helped us with our confidence a lot, just to have people listen and be cheering for us.
As far as reaching out to Loki, I had signs he was reaching out to me. I had dreams about him, strange things (like practical jokes) around the house, hun just constantly being on my mind. So I did a lot of research on him, asked other amazing witches in this coven about him and finally decided it was time to reach out. I lit a candle, had an offering for him (which he didn’t prefer but was very nice about telling me what he would prefer and said he accepted what I had because I was new to him) and sat and meditated. I just asked him if he was willing to work with me and listened in my meditation to what he had to say.
Little late but, I was raised in a Very Catholic home. (Honestly I have no idea how I managed to get confirmed) So when I first returned to my practice in 2020, I had a strong aversion to prayer.
I have learned quite a bit about it & I do have a morning & evening prayer for each of my deities. I use them whenever I can, they are more before I go to sleep or to sinply say good morning. I do mention them in the prayers & a couple I say in what would be their language, which is rarely used anymore. But I have a couple in their original language from their origins.
Other times I speak to them, ask them for guidance, meditate to connect with them. I do have certain rituals I will do woth or flr them.
However you choose to do it should be comfortabme for you. If it doesn’t feel right, then as long as you are respectful & speaking from the heart you’re doing it right.
I grew up in a Christian home…
prayer for me from the beginning was not something typical…
I used to talk like my acquaintances just everyday…
prayer and invocation are almost the same…
now we pray to Hekati
I start by reading the ancient Orphic hymn and then I just talk to her like this…
You’ve had some excellent advice already so I may just be repeating what you now already know:
Praying can be whatever you want it to be. I do tend to use their names as I work with multiple deities from the Egyptian pantheon and therefore it helps to send my words in the right direction. I like to sit at my altar in the morning and say a prayer to my deities. I ask Osiris for his guidance and wisdom, Horus for his strength and protection and Isis for her love and compassion. This was a prayer I wrote myself, not one from a specific text or scripture. Writing your own gives it meaning and shows your dedication.
Sometimes though I “chat” with them throughout the day e.g. If I am driving to work and thinking about something that I will be doing at work, I talk to Thoth (I’m a teacher and he is God of wisdom)or I chat to Bast if I am worried about family (or my cat ). These aren’t formal prayers…i just say what comes. Sometimes I think to myself that I am speaking nonsense ubut I believe that they will know what it is I am trying to say…they know we make mistakes.
I offer incense to my deities in the morning and I light candles for them while I am at home. A .or of the time though, I simply offer them my love and gratitude when I have finished speaking to them.
As for disposing of offerings, I place the food offering on my altar if I am doing a formal ritual and the consume it at the end of the ritual as this was the practice of the Egyptians. It may depend on the deity you are working with and which pantheon they are part of.
Sometimes I do meditations and speak to them that way by visualising us meeting. I ask questions and the fact that I hear immediate responses assures me it’s from them, not me making them up. I even just say good night and thank you to them too when I go to bed.
The key here is that there is no right or wrong way to pray. Do what feels right for you. If you feel you are getting a positive response or positive vibes from it, it’s a sure sign that your deitiy is pleased with and has made a connection with you.
Prayer is so personal and you can do it however feels right to you. Every morning I go to my altar which has statues of Odin and Freya, I give an offering to Them in my offering bowl, then say a prayer of gratitude for all my blessings and a request for protection for the day.
Yesterday’s offering I pour onto the ground/earth for the earth to receive back.
You can pray silently or out loud. You can address Source/The Universe/God/Goddess etc. However you see deity. You can recite prewritten prayers found online or just say what’s in your heart. There is no wrong way. Just begin @amandakay
There are a lot of different ways you can pray - conversation, formal prayers, feelings, etc. Sometimes I can’t find the words so I just let my emotions flood through me and hand them over to whoever I’m praying to. I have a video on my channel about prayers as a pagan if you’d like to check that out, too How do pagans pray? || Tips and advice for pagan prayer [CC]
), and then I go outside and we just chat, about anything. We chat throughout the day, how you’d talk to your best friend. Offerings, I always give him a portion of my dinner each night, I light his candle whenever I’m home. Nothing formal. Each deity is different, so you’ll get a feeling, but I tend to keep things friendly and that draws me closer. Formal worship/prayer makes them distant I find. Just me 
. Hope this helps 
Haha that’s super cute to me. Your connection to Loki is extremely inspiring, as you guys seem bonded through almost everything. Awesome! I hope to one day get that comfortable with goddess Diana, or this new deity I feel calling me (who this post is about), but I just started my journey not too long ago so I’m new to everything. All of your advice was extremely helpful, thank you! 
I do need to give it time, too, as I’m a beginner with everything. It feels great to learn! I appreciate your help! Blessed be 
Thank you for the advice! You’ve definitely been able to help, it’s nice realizing that I don’t need to be so rigid with my approach to magick. 
I will also dive into doing a bit more research on some prayers here in the forum. Thank you for the well wishes!
). These aren’t formal prayers…i just say what comes. Sometimes I think to myself that I am speaking nonsense ubut I believe that they will know what it is I am trying to say…they know we make mistakes.
