Prompt: Offerings

When I was first discovering what it meant to have a patron God, I did as much research as I could, and found the amount of information on Hermes as a patron to be woefully lacking. That was, in fact, part of my motivation to create this blog - as a means to give others in that position a little more insight.

Offerings are a bit of a funny subject when it comes to Paganism and Heathenry. It all depends on who you ask, really. Some people are staunch supporters of traditional offerings done in the traditional manner at the traditional times and locations as described in this book or this folklore and so on. Other people are of the opinion that Gods have changed with the times, just as we have, and are perfectly happy with more modern offerings.Some people fall in the grey area between those two - like myself.

If I can give Hermes a more traditional offering of something like wine or honey, I do so, but often times I am unable to do so due to the fact that I am a stereotypical poor student. In my experience - and this is by no means an absolute rule or anything- as long as you make an effort to find something they might like, most Gods are willing to run with it. I've given Hermes all kind of things, ranging from candied ginger to M&M's, Skittles, chocolate-covered espresso beans, jube-jubes, jelly beans, cookies, Lindt chocolate, and cupcakes that I've made... all the way down to the more traditional things like offerings of incense, alcohol, fruit, and honey.

From what I've noticed, Trickster Gods tend to like sweet things. It's an odd quirk of theirs, I suppose.

For example, I once bribed Loki with a lemon meringue pie to cheer up a friend of mine who was absolutely miserable. Suffice it to say, hilarious things happened, and a mental high-five was shared.

I find coffee and tea are also quite acceptable to most of the Gods I've run into - especially any teas that are particularly zingy or fruity where Hermes is concerned- but for the love of all things good and green and/or caffeinated, DO NOT PUT FAKE SUGAR IN IT.

That is the only time I've ever had Hermes seriously irked with me, now that I think about it. I wasn't thinking and I put a sugar substitute into a ginger tea that I was going to offer to Hermes - I can be somewhat sugar sensitive, hence the Splenda-ish stuff- and proceeded to have the absolute worst day for transportation immediately afterwards. Our car broke down in the middle of nowhere, my friend's car (she was kind enough to rescue my family and I) ran out of gas in almost torrential downpour, and... well, I won't treat you to the entire saga but, suffice it to say, I learnt my lesson.


Anubis is an interesting God where offerings are concerned. He likes bitter chocolate, or beer, or coffee, but he's also reportedly rather partial to tootsie rolls and toys. I haven't interacted with him as much as I have Hermes, however, so I don't really have any personal stories to report. I suspect he's partial to particularly heady incenses like frankincense, too, but that's only a suspicion.

A number of people also write poems and other devotional things for their patrons - particularly when those patrons are associated with writing, oration, languages, or anything remotely related to being silver-tongued. I admit, I'm not very good with poetry, am worse when it comes to presenting it aloud, and generally find the entire poetry thing to be a bit awkward - but I write well, and I write as often as I am inspired to. I'm writing a story involving a number of different Gods, and I take the time to present their personalities in a way that they find agreeable or amusing.

Another type of offering I engage in where Hermes is concerned is keeping a dream journal. I have an orange one - his colour- with a Shakespearean script embossed into the cover in calligraphy, and I use it to keep track of the dreams that I feel are significant, or which involve dream-walking of some sort. I tend to dream-walk on and off, you see, and usually end up in terribly interesting places that I'm probably not supposed to be in, but that's a post for a different day.

I also play games like Dungeons and Dragons as a rogue as a strange sort of agon for Hermes, who is a God of chance and luck and gambling. I'm not into gambling, so this suffices for me. I tend to be unusually lucky when I play using a a set of dice I dedicated to him... I'd be afraid of cheating because of that, but Hermes is also a patron of cheaters, liars, and thieves, so I can't really feel too bad about it.

On my altar to Hermes (which has a distinctly orange theme and is rather difficult to miss; subtlety is not my friend) I have a lucky quarter which appeared in my purse one day and has been strangely useful ever since. It's one of those unique quarters that Canada puts out every now and then, and it depicts a buffalo on a hill before a green sun. Don't as me why it's green, I have no idea - but, whenever I need a quick decision on something, I honor Hermes' aspect as a God of chance by flipping that coin. It's mostly worked out in my favor, over all.

Similarly, I have a 'Hermes' Penny Jar' on my altar, where I place all of my spare change (primarily pennies, if you haven't guessed that already.) When it's full, I intend to leave the (rolled) coins in a random location for someone to find.

I could go on and on about offerings and the various experiences I've had, but I think this is sufficient for the time being.