Challenge Entry - Deities & Deity Worship
This week has gotten away from me, I admit and I never really settled on what I was going to do for this challenge. In some ways, I think I put so much pressure on myself to make this big, elaborate, and perfect that I kept putting it off until here we are, hours before the challenge is due and I have nothing.
I guess all I can do is write about my story a little bit although I know many have already read it.
I think the very first time I heard my diety call to me, I was 24 years old, standing out in the New Mexican desert among the rabbitbrush, creosote, and Indian paintbrush, sun on my skin, a typical spring wind blowing through the shrubs with a partial moon clear and beautiful in the sky. I remember stopping, looking up at the moon, and listening for a while. Then I said aloud “I hear you” and meant that with all my soul.
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At the time, I didn’t know who it was except that it was female, I just assumed as I was new to magick and my path, that it was the Goddess. I’ve heard and felt her throughout my 25-plus years since, in the woods, while tending my gardens, running outside, and while working with countless animals, both domestic and exotic.
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A few years ago in the fall, I was called back to Magick. Called back home after I’d wandered from the path so many years ago. I heard the voice clear again and was long past ready to come back.
I picked up tarot again, learned to create potions and spell jars, and wove magick into the things I loved to create, be it custom tarot deck bags, pressed flower luminaries, or a silver tiger claw replica pendant. I never questioned who called me and just assumed I knew without ever really thinking about it.
Until the weekly challenge - Magickal Names and then for whatever reason, I realized that it wasn’t just me being fascinated with her all the time, but that Artemis had been there guiding me all my life.
(My custom cover for my first BoS in 1998)
I suppose in some way I feel embarrassed that it took me so long to see her or to admit it was her calling me all my life. It seems pretty darn obvious in retrospect. I can’t explain why I didn’t realize or accept it sooner, but I finally feel that missing piece of the puzzle settled into place. 
