Woo Hoo! I got the first letter of my post title to be this week’s letter!
So devotion, seems ambiguous, there a few ways to define devotion, from dictionary.com
de·vo·tion
dɪˈvoʊ
noun
1.
profound dedication; consecration.
2.
earnest attachment to a cause, person, etc.
3.
an assignment or appropriation to any purpose, cause, etc.: the devotion of one's wealth and time to scientific advancement.
4.
Often, devotions. Ecclesiastical . religious observance or worship; a form of prayer or worship for special use.
This oddly enough seems to be something people struggle with. So often newer pagans who don’t really have a grasp yet on just how umbrella the term is or what they mean when they say they are a new pagan start out confused. So often, because of how the term tends to be connoted, people come under the impression that they need to devote themselves to a deity of some kind, or they need to find a patron god and goddess, and devote themselves to them. If it is something you really want to do, go for it, but if it is something you are struggling with, DON’T DO IT!
Can I stress that point again, if it feels wrong DO NOT DO IT!
Doing things because you think it is the right thing to do, but you don’t understand or truly believe it is a bad plan, it has always been a bad plan, and it likely always will be. I’m not saying that any minor discomfort about change should stop you, any differentiation from your “norm” is going to feel a little awkward at first. Moral compunctions about doing something, or you don’t understand why you are doing it, the thing is best left un-done. Making a pledge to a deity you may find later fails to speak to you, or does not make you feel right, is a generally bad idea, wait until something feels right, or you really understand the point of why you are doing it. Once it makes sense or you realize you have a reason to do it, or even feel called to do it, by all means do it. Don’t feel like you need a pair, a god and goddess, or that they have to be all from the same pantheon, or know that sometimes an unexpected deity will call to you, and when something like that happens you will know it has happened. If one calls to you and you are lucky enough to have a connection like that, you will know, and it will likely feel more right than picking something out of a book, just to do it.
Devotion has more than just the one meaning though. I have only gone over some of #2, but #3 comes up a lot, craft tools and whatnot. They are oft discussed, and held by many people in extreme esteem. There are also different opinions and schools of thought as to what can be considered a craft tool. Many want their tools only used for craft purposes, consecrated and purified, and never touched by another. This is fine, if you can afford to have tools specifically for witchy purposes, many of the tools made for such purposes are quite expensive, and sometimes unnecessary. For example, my first athame was a swiss army knife, given to me by a member of the church I grew up in when I joined the army. I was not going to cease to use the multi-purpose tool for the purpose it was designed for, (this thing was amazing for working on my assigned truck!) I just added a use to its already, frankly, extensive list. Yes I cleaned it before any symbolic or ritual use, or use in cutting herbs, but it still meant a lot to me, and to me it felt like it was more powerful since I used it day to day, rather than letting it sit on a table not having a purpose any more. I suppose it is another one of those things that some people find more effective one way and others, another.
I feel like most of these definitions are already pretty much covered under #1 with profound dedication but #4 is slightly more difficult for pagans. There are whole walls of books dedicated to nothing but devotions for the different Christian faiths, but not so much for pagans. Well there is a very good one online, run by Thalassa, and has a number of contributors as well.
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