D is for Dates with Deities

No, I'm not writing about about Valentine's Day or Godspouses - instead, these 'dates with deities' are one way I've found to help create and maintain a consistent practice.  Picking a certain day of the week or month on which to give offerings to a deity or spirit, it becomes easier both to remember and stay motivated to do that.

I first realized this when I began Flamekeeping for Brigid.  My Cill uses a 20-day shift, which means that every twenty days, I have one full day set aside for honoring Brigid.  Having one day specifically set aside, combined with the fact that my Cill-mates were relying on me to tend the flame on my day, made it so that I haven't missed a shift.  Noticing this, I decided I would experiment with one more 'date' - every Thursday, I make an offering to the house spirits.  Once I decided a day on which I needed to make an offering, it became so much easier to consistently do it.  Since then, I've added a few more days for other deities and spirits, and it's amazing how helpful it's been to my spiritual practice.

Though it may seem crass or undignified to some to schedule time for the Gods, when you have a busy life or tend to procrastinate, you have to find a way to make time for those things that are important to you.  If scheduling days for specific deities doesn't work for you, even scheduling a specific time during the day to do devotionals can be helpful.  Whether you wake up early, stay up a bit later, or if you have an extra bit of time mid-afternoon, setting aside some special time helps to create and also establish a routine that you can stick with even when things get busy - and that's the core of any devotional practice.