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Aphrodite, oh, Morning Star... Queen of Dawn 💐

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Decay

Acrylic on Canvas

2023

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I'm always happy to answer questions about godspousing if you send me an ask or a DM. I should have anons enabled.

I am, by no means, claiming to be an expert or to be the sole authority on any of this! I just run a community-built godspousing server that's been going for 4 years. So I've learned a few things I can share.

But, for the love of all that is good, stop taking religious, spiritual, or relationship advice from 18 year olds on the internet.

There is no way 18 year olds have enough religious or relationship experience to give good "professional" advice, unless it's plagiarized from someone more experience. It's most likely crowdsourced from other similar age folks.

Discernment isn't just a spirit work thing. It's a real life thing.

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so since Hermes is the greek god of herds and cattle and stuff, does that also mean hes the god of cowboys?

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"oh so you're spiritual but not religious" no actually I am deeply religious in alarmingly carnal and esoteric ways. If you even care.

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omfg

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reblog this if your blog is a safe space on april fools and won’t have any jumpers, screamers, or anything scary or anxiety inducing

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Of course, next up is Chino'ne Artemis <3

I love her to death, and she was the first god(ess) to reach out to me so she holds a special place in my heart, forever and always :)

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the urge to disappear into the forest and become local folklore

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I don't want to delineate what godspousing can or can't be, but I do want to set some expectations that the larger community agrees with.

Godspousing involves choice and consent.

The large majority of people do not arrive on this earth already bound to a deity romantically, nor do the majority of people have past lives where they were married to a deity.

It happens. It's not unheard of. But it's not the normative state of godspousing.

To 'godspouse' someone is to actively choose to be in an intimate relationship with them.

Godspousing is dating. You're dating a god or other entity.

This is why choice and consent is key, because if you're assigned a deity without your knowledge, one that you're already a packaged romantic unit with? There is zero consent involved in that.

There is also zero work put into building that relationship.

Anyone who tells you that you're already in a 'spousal' relationship with a god without your knowledge or prior consent, is selling you the idea that you're a Special Person with Special Privileges.

While believing you're the main character, the Mary Sue, the most unique person ever is part of growing up into an adult, people usually phase out of it by their late teens.

The urge to be romantically locked into a relationship with a god (without your knowledge or prior consent) like a fated pair is the same urge that makes a child want to be a special person with special privileges.

It's the very human desire to be wanted and loved, to be needed by someone or something that cannot and will not abandon you, that is required by the Fates to be there for you.

That's why the fated pair trope is so popular among teenagers and young adults. We all want to be loved and needed.

Godspousing requires work, as it is an active relationship between you and a god.

Just like dating a human requires you to work on the relationship, so does dating a god or other entity.

The idea that a capital-G God loves you innately, without any work put forth, is a Cultural Christian one. Even if you didn't grow up Christian, pagan spaces in the Western world are often built by ex-Christians or were built off of esoteric texts that coopted Catholicism and Christianity.

A god does not love you automatically, but neither do they hate you automatically. Like any other person in the world, they probably lean benevolent to neutral toward strangers.

Perhaps they do feel love toward you if you're a member of their faith, or if you have a prior connection to them.

But the idea that you can be randomly assigned a god that you're automatically 'spoused' to, without dating them, without even speaking to them, who loves you and is tied to you forever and ever... is not what godspousing is.

You build a relationship with the god that you are intimately interested in. The god may ask you out on a date, you may ask them to date -- regardless, you have to do the work.

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not enough fantasy settings talk about street food like c'mon there was street food in ancient times across basically every culture lemme see what weird snacks you can buy off a guy in an alleyway

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“She is in love with the beautiful formlessness of the sea.”

— Sylvia Plath, from “Finisterre” (via violentwavesofemotion)

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“You will die. You will not live forever. Nor will any man or any thing. Nothing is immortal. But only to us is it given to know that we must die. And that is a great gift: The gift of selfhood. For we have only what we know we must lose, what we are willing to lose… That selfhood which is our torment, and our treasure, and our humanity, does not endure. It changes; it is gone, a wave on the sea. Would you have the sea grow still and the tides cease, to save one wave, to save yourself? Would you give up the craft of your hands, and the passion of your heart, and the light of sunrise and sunset, to buy safety for yourself - safety forever?”

— Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

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Naiad Nymph Playing The Aulos - Frecheville Paris (detail)

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VICTORIAN LILY OF THE VALLEY BANGLE Antique Jewelry