Thank you, my dear. I could use the luck!
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So pleased you were moved by this challenge.
And thank you for your kind words.
Garnet
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I have always had this pull and I believe it was of Horus. I even had a pendant of the Eye of Horus and I believe there are Higher Powers that when called upon they are there for us. I did this entire devotion and I feel stronger for it with the help of Horus.
Light a red candle during this devotional.
Incense for Horus:
Galbanum, Frankincense.
Offerings to Horus:
Raw meat, Grapes, Cereals, Onion, Beer.
Horus is the high, celestial God and healing God in Egyptian mythology.
He is considered the initiator of Egyptian civilization. Horus is represented as a hawk, or a man with a hawkās head, wearing a double crown. The falcon hieroglyphic was used since predynastic times to represent the idea of God as the creator.
Horus was a god linked to the royalty that guarded the kings, whose center of worship was Nekhen, the religious and political capital of ancient Upper Egypt. As a solar god, Horus defends the boat of Ra, with the help of Seth, against the great serpent Apophis. He is also the protector of Osiris in the Egyptian underworld or Duat.
Invoke Horusā power to help you find courage, strength, mental clarity, and prosperity.
Devotional text
To Horus who was born of Isis, I offer my praise.
O son of Osiris, true heir to his throne,
O savior of your father, contender with your uncle.
O Horus who joined the two great lands,
who wears the double crown, O king of gods,
O God of kings, I call to you, O Horus.
Upholder of the right and the good, defender of order,
guardian of Maāat whose work is unending,
I honor your constancy, I honor your might.
Yours is the nerve to face what may come, whatever
the chances, whatever the risk. Yours is the will
to persevere through any misfortune, any restraint.
O Horus, give me your strength,
Give me the victory in each of my battles.
Help me to move forward no matter what the circumstances.
Where my strength ends, yours begin.
I come before your Eye of protection
To strengthen me and calm the wind,
the sea, the storm, and everything that rises against me.
Give me the courage to strive
to be the person that I should be.
Open my eyes so I can see clearly around me
And fight for what I want and deserve.
Do not let me sink into the sea of misfortune.
Make me live in victory.
I pray to you, O Horus, grant me, your grace,
grant me the gift of integrity, grant me the strength
to do what must be done, the will to pursue the true and the just.
Horus who was born of Isis,
the child born of magic, born of death into life,
I call to you with reverence; I call to you with faith.
Yours is the heart to fight the good battle,
to struggle and strive and to succeed. O Horus,
mighty overcomer of obstacles,
Share with me, O God, your gift of determination.
Blessed Be
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Wow, thatās lovely @debra2!! Way to knock the challenge out of the park!
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Thank you @Amethyst I took some time to think about this one.
sorry, the pic is a little out of focus.
Blessed Be
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I did some research on Celtic dragons today and I learned a lot of interesting things!
There are two depictions of Celtic dragons: one has four legs and wings, the other has no legs or arms and a serpentine body with wings (similar to a Chinese dragon).
They existed in a world parallel to ours. Wherever they traveled, they created a Path of the Dragon, a place of great energy (basically ley lines). Homes and temples were built along these lines.
The dragon, though powerful and dangerous, was a symbol of life and fertility. They were the keepers of knowledge and treasures of the universe. The Ouroboros, a dragon biting itās own tail, is an enduring symbol of the cycles of nature.
Pic from cleanpng.com
When Christianity took root in Ireland and Great Britain, the dragon became a symbol of death, destruction, and famine.
Master Stoorworm is one of the most famous dragons from Celtic mythology.
Pic from spookyscotland.net
He was a sea dragon who ate more than he should. Every morning, he would yawn seven times. When he did, his tongue would extend and swallow seven random objects in a nearby town. The men who lived there agreed that Master Stoorworm had to be slain. Even though the reward was the kingās daughterās hand in marriage, all of them ran away in fright at the sight of the sea dragon. One man, however, grabbed an iron pot and peat, took a boat and let Master Stoorworm swallow him. Inside, he set his liver on fire, killing him. The sea dragonās body was said to become the country of Iceland.
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Very interesting @Kasandra! I had come across them when I started studying the Morrigan as a lesser known association. More commonly she is associated with Crows & Ravens.
The story of Master Stormwood was very insightful too. I hadnāt heard that story before. Thank you for sharing! Great job & research!
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Youāre welcome!
I just realized it should be Master Stoorworm, not Stormwood. My phone and spellcheck. 
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Very neat, @debra2!
Okay, thatās cool. I wonder if the guy got out before he transformed into Iceland though? He deserved his princess after all that! Great job @Kasandra
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He managed to paddle out, but they didnāt say what happened to him afterward.
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Well, letās just say the king rewarded him, shall we? LOL!
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For my challenge entry I am choosing to discuss Hecate. When I began my more focused path in the craft with Spells8, I almost immediately had this pull to learn and discover anything about Hecate. It was a very strong pull to gain as much knowledge about her that I could, almost as if satisfying a hunger or thirst.
Over the past two years, I feel a closer connection to her and I am ever grateful to her and Spells8 for this.
Hecateās name has several possible meanings. āShe who works Her willā is the most commonly accepted, but āthe far-off oneā or āfar-darting oneā is also suggested. Such names suggest that Her power is far-reaching.
An alternative derivation, āmost shining oneā, is borne out in representations of Hecate from the forth century BCE which show a young goddess of both beauty & power, carrying a torch & wearing a headdress of stars. āHecateā is the female equivalent of āHekatosā, an obscure epithet of Apollo, with whom She is sometimes associated.
The Olympians āadoptedā Her after they had defeated the Titans, but She was not of the same kind, and never lived amongst them. During this time Hecateās power was still recognized: Zeus gave Her dominion over Heaven, Earth and Sea, and they shared the right to grant or withhold gifts from humanity. Hecate was worshipped as Goddess of abundance & eloquence. She is still generous to those who recognize her.
Hecate is sometimes referred to as a triple goddess. Classically She was part of a group with Persephone and Demeter. Contrary to modern Pagan assumptions, Demeter represents the old crone woman, Persephone the wife woman, and Hecate is the Maiden. Every early Greek representation of Hecate shows Her as a young woman. It is only much later that She is represented as Crone.
In Mytilene on the eastern coast of the Aegean Sea, near what was Troy, there are Temples of Demeter, where the women would go to the annual festival of Eleusis to celebrate fertility rites. There is ample evidence that Hecate was honored there too, perhaps as a guide for initiates into the Mysteries.
But Hecateās power was to fade. In later myths, She is represented as a daughter of Zeus who rules the Underworld and the waning Moon. The Greeks began to emphasize Her darker aspects; Hecate as Goddess of the Dead & Queen of Witches. She was increasingly depicted as roaming the earth on moonless nights in the company of baying dogs and the hungry spirits of those dead who were not ready to die, those who were murdered or not given appropriate burial rites. No other Greek deity attracted such atmosphere of āevil and debased superstitionā how did Hecate become transformed from a popular, bright young Goddess into a dark and terrifying hag? Perhaps we will never know for certain, but there are some fascinating clues.
Hecate has long been associated with crossroads where three roads meet. Itās commonly suggested that the crossroads symbolize Hecateās triple nature and all-seeing ability, but there are deeper mysteries. After crossing the River Styx, a newly dead ancient Greek soul found themselves at a place where three roads meet to be judged. One road led to the Elysian Fields, the abode of the blessed, reserved for the great and the heroic. The second path led to the Fields of Asphodel, for all whoād led a blameless but ordinary life. Criminals or those who had angered the Gods followed the third road to Tartarus, a sunless land of punishment.
But crossroads are also seen as ominous and dangerous places. In many traditions, this is where suicides and criminals were buried. Were the two aspects associated or confused in some way? Itās notable that it is specifically crossroads where three roads meet that are sacred to Hecate, whereas any crossroad is deemed as ominous.
From :sacredwicca.com
Hecate has various myths associated with her, and adventurous tales about her so I encourage anyone with a spark of interest about her to dive in and explore.
Some of the sacred things to Hecate include:
All Wild Animals but more specifically dogs, horses, bears, boars, lions, and snakes. But her most sacred creatures are those of darkness and the earth such as ravens, owls, crows, snakes and dragons. Interestingly also the Frog because of its ability to cross between two elements.
āThe Earth began to bellow, trees to dance
And howling dogs in glimmering light advance
Ere Hekate came.ā
The Aeneid, book VL. Virgil.
There are many misrepresentations of Hecate, painting her more so in a malevolent light but the Hecate Iāve sensed and honor is more so as discussed in a previous post with @anon87969570 , as a teacher and guide. Not to say that she canāt unleash any of her light or darker wrath upon situations, but mostly I feel that she guides, protects, and welcomes learning about her and the craft.
Blessed Be,
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Iām taking this challenge in a different direction than originally intended. Iām going to be discussing my workings with the Elementsā¦ Earth, Water, Fire, Air.
I use a representation of them on my altar whenever I do a spell. I use things that I have whether itās a candle flame, incense, herbs, chalice of water, small succulent plant, crystals, my wooden pentacle, container of moon water, it depends what I have out at the time.
I never really thought about why I do that when there are other things that I do that are either unorthodox or irregular, this is 1 of the things that when I do my spells, they donāt feel right unless I do this too. I also donāt work with the elements except for when Iām doing my spells.
I suppose itās like calling the quarters without verbalizing it & not saying their associated invocations. I do ask them to remain present throughout the spell.
I believe that magic is partially the movement of energy & the elements help the energy move to where it needs to go & assists with how it gets there. Whether thatās turbulent or smooth, direct or indirect, & of course not at all. So I ask them for assistance & to join me in my workings. The same way I would have a statue, the crystals, colored candle, herbs, plants, incense, metals etcā¦ of the deity that I am requesting protection or assistance from during my workings. (Currently Brigid)
The way I remember the elements for my practice is:
Earth: Grounding/Centering/Stability
Air: Cleansing/Growth
Water: Cleansing/Charging/Flowing/Emotions
Fire: Protection/Release/Change/Transformation
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For this weekās challenge I wanted to see if I could find more info on Persephone.
This morning I stumbled across this fascinating video on YouTube:
Iām working on a summary of the video, but it shines an interesting light on the kidnapping of Persephone by Hades.
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First, thanks for sharing this personal moment! And second, I have also felt like I was called/chosen/recruited/(picked by a spiritual team captain). I donāt know what it is called, but it happened.
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Iāve been having a quiet time of contemplation for a few months now, maybe even a Dark Night of the Soulā¦ my interest in my Craft has mostly been revolving around shadow work, and both my forum contributions and my contact with any deities very minimalā¦ before that I had some very intense contacts with the Triple Goddess, Selene, Hekate, Brigid and Lilith. The Moon and darkness still bring me comfort, and I resonate with both water and fire, but it feels less personified, somehow.
Thatās until last week. For the first time in two months I had a tantra coaching session, and beautiful experiences of moving and transforming my vital energies within my body with my breath. Then we did some exercises where we moved the energy between us. Itās an interesting experience to feel someone elseās energy in your chakras, itās the same energy as weāre all of the same divinity, but thereās a subtle difference in how it breathes.
When it comes to higher powers in Tantra itās all about Shiva and Shakti, and their eternal dance in their different forms. Often it seems to get simplified down to masculine and feminine, but thereās so much more to it Iāve foundā¦ to my delight I found this beautiful explanation in my all time favorite book Urban Tantra, Second Edition: Sacred Sex for the Twenty-First Century by Barbara Carrellas:
TANTRA CAN BE PRACTICED BY ANY AND ALL GENDERS. The myth that Tantra is an exclusively heterosexual couplesā practice has kept more LGBTQ+ people out of Tantra than any other misrepresentation of Tantra. How did this myth start? How did Shiva, the essence of consciousness, and Shakti, the essence of energy and power, become reduced to male and female, heterosexual lovers? Perhaps itās because Tantra is able to accept and contain āAll That Is,ā which means not only opposite poles but everything in between the poles of good/evil, sacred/profane, higher/lower, earthly/spiritual, yin/yang, light/shadow, and male/female. In our Western society where most everything is regarded as either/or, nothing is more polarized than gender. Therefore, the Western mind reasons, if Tantra unites opposites, it must require āoppositeā genders (as if there were such a thing as opposite genders!). Gender is not two bins into one of which everyone must be dumped. As we are now seeing, gender is more of a rainbow spectrum along which everyone can find the particular shade of the color that looks the best on them.
Not opposite as in opposing, but complementary.
Right now Iām reading a book about Shakti and some of her aspects (the ten Mahavidyas), which Iāve found intensely interesting and illuminating. The book is Shakti Rising: Embracing Shadow and Light on the Goddess Path to Wholeness by Kavitha M. Chinnaiyan. It explains the connection between Shiva and Shakti beautifully.
In tantric philosophy, the masculine force is called Shiva, and Shakti is his dynamic energy. In the beginning, there is only undifferentiated, timeless potential, or Shiva-Shakti together. The first movement in creation is that of self-recognitionāShiva turning to look at himself is Shakti, his I-Am. Shakti is Shivaās power to experience himself. Creation is said to begin at this instant of seeming separation of Shakti from Shiva. Seeming because they are inseparable, just as fire can never be separated from its heat. Shiva is unchanging awareness while Shakti is his dynamic force who brings creation to life. While he provides the backdrop for creation, she performs all its functions as Dasha Mahavidya, which translates to the āten wisdom goddesses.ā They are Kali, Tara, Tripura Sundari, Bhuvaneshwari, Tripura Bhairavi, Chinnamasta, Dhumavati, Baglamukhi, Matangi, and Kamalatmika. As you will see in this book, the Mahavidyas are not mere consorts of male deitiesāhere, Shakti takes center stage to bring forth time, space, evolution, and destruction.
It all feels intuitively right to me.
I learned on my practical lessons that I have a strong intuitive connection to Shakti in me, and I can feel it. My connection Shiva in me is a little underdeveloped, and is something Iād like to address eventually, especially if non-duality is something that I want to pursue this lifetime. Right now Iām quite content resting in Kaliās sacred darkness and thankful for her loving and merciless blade that shapes me by slicing off everything that isnāt me.
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I feel off with going off Daylight Saving Time, but glad weāve gained another hour back!
Anyway, I have been doing research on Ancient Egyptian dragons. There are a lot!
The most famous is Apep (or Apophis), a sea serpent who is the bringer of chaos.
Pic from worldhistory.org
Ra, the sun god, sailed on a great barge across the sky from dawn to dusk and then descended into the underworld at nightfall. The sun godās barge was actually pulled by twelve gods through the body of Ankh-neteru, a serpent god, entering through the tail and exiting through the mouth.
Nehebaku, a servant of Ra, was another serpent god, but with human arms and legs. The world actually rested on his body. He guarded the entrance to the underworld and was one of the gods who accompanied Ra on his nightly journey through the underworld.
Pic from wikipedia.org
There, Apep would attack the barge and it is said that an eclipse was the sea serpent swallowing the barge.
Aker, who represented the earth, resided where the western and eastern horizons of the underworld met. He would bind Apep as Raās barge entered the underworld. It is said that a red sunset was the blood of Apep, meaning Ra had triumphed over the sea serpentā¦ for now.
Not much is known about Denwen, a fiery serpent, just that he is pure evil and almost destroyed the Egyptian gods with an inferno. Thankfully, a Pharaoh thwarted his plans!
The serpent became a symbol protection for the pharaohs. Their headdresses contained the Uraeus (a cobra) symbol. It is believed the cobra would spit fire at any approaching enemies.
The Wadjet was the serpent guardian of the Pharaoh sent by Osiris himself. The Wadjet also controlled the Nile and was the patroness of lower Egypt.
Pic from livingwithmagick.com
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What a nicely written article. Thank you so much.
Garnet
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[Long post warning 
Iāll try to condense it where I can so that you can read the full thing if you want, but you donāt have to 
]
TLDR: I've been SUPER busy. If you want to see more details, you can expand and read a bit about what I've been up to.
Itās been FOREVER since Iāve had much free time, so Iāve been working in different elements of my personal Craft where I can. Unfortunately, I tend to be someone whoās a glutton for punishment when it comes to anything that has to do with learning, and Iāve been making it harder and harder on myself.
On top of going back to school to study judicial court reporting, I am continuing working through the Introductory Herbalism course through Herbal Academy that I talked about in a previous post. I also decided to REALLY treat myself by signing up for the Alchemical Herbalism course through The School of Evolutionary Herbalism. (Iāll hopefully have time to write up a review for the Herbal Academyās Introductory Herbalism Course when Iām on winter break from classes!) But I digress
I also started taking an āintro to Judaismā course through a nearby-ish synagogue AND signed up for another discussion group at that same synagogue that covers the 613 mitzvot (commandments) that Jews follow (to varying degrees).
What I popped in here to say is that Iāve been continuing my work with Hekate and Hestia. I donāt really feel comfortable sharing too much about my work with them because itās gotten to the point where it feels much deeper and much more personal than when I wrote about it previously. I will say, however, that I give offerings to them, light candles for them, and ask them for guidance/support.
Starting to explore Judaism again.
In addition to working with Hestia and Hekate (and occasionally others), Iāve been starting to get back in touch with my interest in Judaism by, again, very personal methods and study, including the classes I mentioned above. TLDR: I was raised in a vaguely āChristianā household, but Christianity never felt right to me. When I learned that Judaism was a thing (I grew up VERY sheltered!), I developed a yearning in my soul to explore it.
As strange as it probably sounds to anyone with any knowledge of Jewish theology/philosophy/etc., I have found a way to honor the God of the Abrahamic faiths and to continue working with Hestia, Hekate, et. al. Having limited free time to do any deity work, Iāve had to find ways to get the most out of that precious time. Having less time has forced me to put in more energy and effort to honor and work with my deities, but I have grown more in even just the past few weeks alone than I did in the past few years combined.
Reading back through this post, I realized that it sounds kind of snarky with how Iām saying that I donāt want to go into too much detail about my personal work with deities. I didnāt intend it to sound that way, but I just didnāt want to publicly share too much detail. If youāre wanting to hear more about it or anything, please feel free to message me and Iāll be happy to talk about it 
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@Jewitch I love reading how youāre exploring so many avenues of knowledge. Kudos to you! And I donāt think you sounded snarky at all, honoring our deities and honestly our craft in itās essence can be as private or public as we see fit.
Good for you for your diligence in learning.
Blessed Be, 
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