Deity 101

A deity is a dive, supernatural being that is honored, worked with, and/or worshipped. Deities do not have to be classified as a god or goddess; they can include powerful forces, cosmic energies, or historical figures.

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Non-Traditional Deities

• Cosmic Forces + Concepts – abstract concepts like Chaos, Time, or the Universe itself
• The Elements – each element can be treated as a sentient divine energy
• Mother Earth Archetypes – worshipping a collective spirit of the planet “Mother Earth”
• Deified Humans + Saints – figures like Marie Laveau, Joan of Arc, or other folklore figures can be elevated to a deity due to their immense spiritual power
• Spirits + Creatures – angels, demons, fae, nymphs, or other mythological creatures (some work with these without necessarily elevating them to a deity status)
• Pop-Culture – using fictional characters like Gandalf or superheroes as thoughtforms or egregors

The concept of deities varies across paths and communities because witchcraft is highly personal, broad, and generally non-dogmatic. Some practitioners do not work with deities at all, and often choose to focus on the energy of the earth, psychological archetypes, or the innate power within themselves. Working with deities is entirely an individual choice.

Deity Work

Working with deities is more than just worshipping them from afar. It can involve inviting a deity to work with you in spellwork, provide magical assistance or intervention, divination to communicate with a deity, creating dedicated altars for the deity, and providing offerings or exchanges for spiritual guidance. Deities can act as partners, mentors, or even energetic tethers.

Choosing a Deity

Do the research. Look into ancient myths, historical pantheons, and study cultural traditions around the deity you’re interested in. Learn their correspondences like symbols, colors, plants, animals, and foods that are typically associated with them. Determine if the deity belongs to an open or closed practice. Remember, there are many similar deities, so if the one you’re interested in comes from a closed practice, you can find another very similar from an open practice.

Remember, it is entirely fine to learn about closed practices, just not to actually practice them.

Closed Practices = require strict cultural initiations and/or lineage, in order to practice.

Open Practices = can be practiced without initiation or lineage requirements.

Connecting with Deity

Establish an altar space to dedicate to the deity, and place items on it that correspond with the deity. Make sure to cleanse the space, as well as yourself. Cleansing can be done in various ways, but is most commonly done with smoke or salt water. The cleansing process can also help you enter a focused ritual headspace. Take time to reflect and meditate on the deity, then introduce yourself. Speak honestly and from the heart, stating who you are and why you would like to build a relationship with them.

Something to keep in mind – some deities do not enjoy sharing their sacred space with others. Think twice and do the appropriate research before combining multiple deities on the same altar.

Reciprocity with Deity

Give offerings to show appreciation for the deity. Offerings can be item based like wine, bread, incense, or tobacco, or they can be action based like volunteer work, cleaning up nature, or studying. To communicate with the deity, you can use divination tools like tarot cards or a pendulum, or through meditation or dream work. Once a bond is formed with the deity, you can ask them to lend their power to protect or aid you in your practices, or to mentor you as you grow.

Remember, deities are not a pool of free energy to just take from. Nor can you demand, command, or force them to work with you. If their answer is “no,” then accept it. Trying to force a connection will do more harm than good between you and the deity.

Deity Callings

When a deity’s specific symbols, themes, message, or name repeatedly disrupts daily life in ways that cannot easily be brushed off as mere coincidences, the deity may be calling out to you. These calls are often subtle, but persistent and cumulative and not dramatic booming voices or sudden visions that Hollywood likes to portray. Sometimes deities choose to reach out to a practitioner, rather than wait to be “discovered,” to guide the practitioner, offer a specific lesson, embody their archetypal energy, or invite the practitioner to work with them. Deities often seek a practitioner out when their personal values or current path closely aligns with the deity’s domain.

Single isolated events are most likely just coincidences, but a series of identical occurrences – usually 3 or more – can point to a message from a deity. Some ways that a deity may be trying to get your attention is by repeatedly placing their corresponding animals or items in your path, or by repeatedly popping up in various media or conversations.

Sometimes a deity may reach out to you through your dreams, showing their sacred landscape, or figures handing you their corresponding items, or images of them directly. These dreams usually feel distinctly vivid or hyper realistic, and are more memorable compared to typical dreams.

Another way a deity may be trying to get your attention is by shifting your mental focus. Unexplained urges to research them, or their culture or historical time period, having intense feelings of being pulled toward something you previously knew nothing about but now feel in awe or comforted by, or continuously shifting your thoughts toward the deity, all may be calls to pay attention!

Verifying the Call

If you’re a skeptic like me, you may be looking for ways to verify that a deity is calling to you. There’s a few things you can and should do.

First off, don’t jump straight to a conclusion. Remember how I said many deities are similar? Do some research at the deity you think is calling to you, and compare it with similar deities, even if they are from different pantheons. Look at the deity’s history, and even talk to other practitioners who work with that deity. Oftentimes beginners make the mistake of assuming a popular deity is calling to them simply because they like them or its trending on witchtok – only then to later realize that a completely different, maybe lesser-known deity’s traits fit the signs they were receiving. You could easily ruin a potential relationship with a deity because you mistook them for someone else!

There’s a lot of crossover similarities between Hecate, the Morrigan, Kali, Isis, Hel, and Circe. And there’s a lot of crossover similarities between Lilith, Lamashtu, Erehkigal, Lamia, the Empusae, and Pandora.

Use divination tools to open communication with the deity to help verify them. Lay out a tarot spread, or throw runes or bones with the specific intention of asking “who is trying to make contact, and why?”

Ask for a sign. Yeah, you can do that and it’s simple enough. Speak out loud to the deity’s energy and ask for a clear undeniable sign within a set timeframe, if they are who you think they are. Example: “If you are Hecate trying to reach me, show me a skeleton key within the next three days”

Once you verify who’s calling, you can begin the process of building a relationship with the deity and working with them. Remember to maintain your personal sovereignty. You can always decline a deity if you don’t wish to work with them. Simply provide the deity an offering of closure, thank them for their time, and choose your own path.

Open vs Closed Practices

Before we get too much further, let's talk about what the difference is between an open and a closed practice, and why it is so important.

A NOTE: while gatekeeping is generally seen as a bad thing, and is openly preached AGAINST in many witchy spaces, there is a time and a place for gatekeeping. Closed practices are one of those times, and I would personally urge everyone to avoid anyone preaching that gatekeeping has no place in witchcraft. There are times when it is essential and absolutely necessary.

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Open Practice: traditions and paths that are available to everyone, regardless of cultural or ancestral background. These practices are highly accessible systems that don't belong to a single, protected ethnic group.

Examples: Secular Witchcraft/SASS, Green Witchcraft, Kitchen Witchcraft, Wicca (most), Chaos Magic, Tarot, Astrology

Closed Practices: traditions and paths that are restricted to specific cultural groups, and require formal initiation, lineage, or community permission to practice them. These practices belong to specific historically marginalized or indigenous cultures, and are protected to prevent exploitation, distortion, and erasure/whitewashing.

Examples: African Traditional Religions, African Diasporic Religions, Hoodoo/Conjure/Rootwork, Indigenous Spiritual Traditions, Traditional Kabbalah, Brujeria

Semi-Open or Apprentice Practices: technically these traditions and paths are closed to the general public, but they offer a structured, public way to enter through deep study and community acceptance. These practices can be sought out for initiation by anyone.

Examples: Norse Heathenry/Asatru (generally open to anyone interested, provided the practitioner rejects racist/supremacist ideologies and respects the historical lore), Traditional British Wicca like Gardnerian or Alexandrian (requires formal initiation into a coven line, but anyone can seek out a coven to begin the training process)

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Gatekeeping Closed Practices

Gatekeeping closed practices is important because it protects sacred traditions from exploitation, prevents the erasure and whitewashing of marginalized histories, and ensures spiritual safety.

For communities that have faced - or still are - systematic oppression, keeping practices closed is a vital form of cultural survival and self-determination.

Preserving Sacred Contexts

When sacred rituals are taken out of their culture and shared, they are stripped of their original meaning, history, and community ethics. Gatekeeping these practices ensures that practices are taught along side their full context, history, and responsibilities to keep the tradition accurate and intact for future generations.

Protecting from Cultural Appropriation

Throughout history, dominant cultures have colonized marginalized groups, taking their land, language, and resources, and capitalized on their spirituality. This happens in many forms, including mass-market production of tools like smudge sticks, and even selling sacred ceremonies. Drawing a hard line around these practices prevents outside corporations and individuals from financially profiting off traditions that the originating culture was historically punished, enslaved, or even killed for practicing.

Providing Spiritual and Psychological Safety

Many closed traditions involve intense energetic work, interaction with ancestral spirits, or deep psychological shifts that require training to handle safely. Closed practices require initiation to ensure the practitioner is mentally, emotionally, and spiritually prepared to handle the practices without harming themselves or others.

Gaining Community Accountability and Lineage

In an open internet culture, anyone can claim to be an expert after reading a few articles. This leads to misinformation and the dilution of witchcraft. Closed practices rely on a system of elders, priests, or community leaders who vouch for a practitioner's character and maturity. Gatekeeping ensures that no one can misrepresent the tradition or abuse power within it.

Spells vs Rituals

One of the most common mistakes I see is using the terms “spells” and “rituals” interchangeably. While there is overlap between the two, they are very different and can exist entirely on their own and without the other. Most practitioners do both, and usually let one lead to the other, blurring the line between them.

Let’s take a closer look at each.

Spells – an action-based practice designed to direct energy and create specific, external change. Spells focus outwardly to create change, like career success, protection, and healing.

Rituals – a broader, structured ceremony to establish energetic alignment, honoring spiritual cycles, and building a sacred space. Rituals focus inwardly to connect with a higher power, spirits, or one’s own higher self. Performing rituals provides the safe environment to conduct spells, prayer, or formalized sequences like casting circles.

Rituals set the energetic stage, while spells direct that energy towards an intended goal.

Reflection:

• Do you prefer the simplicity and freeform nature of a quick spell? Or do you enjoy the layered complexity of a full ritual involving things like casting a circle, quarter-calling, and deity invocation?
• How do your minor daily habits function as rituals, and when do those routines cross over into spellcraft?
• When planning your craft work, do you often seek to change your environment? Or do you more often seek to transform your own perspective and alignment?