“Just Trust Your Gut”

I’m starting up a series of drawings focused around each of the moon phases

This is sort of just a cover page, the others are really ambitious and have me a little nervous, but excited!

🔮💞🛫💓🍀🌞🍀💓🛫💞🔮

   ↳ Emoji spell: Good luck with a long-distance relationship.

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Greek Deities.

Thoughts of Hades' love

I keep imagining Hades’ lovestruck, flustered expression when he first sees Persephone

It was probably in Olympus at some meeting that Demeter took her to, and he’s embarrassed by his brothers, teasing him and putting him down, and he catches Persephone watching and he’s blushing so bright and pouting and sulking

And then again when she wanders into his home and he’s just doing busywork, and he’s older now and a little more confident but not by much and he’s flustered all over again, jolted by the presence of this beautiful girl, power in her every step, and remembers how she had stood up to Zeus at that meeting, and how she was stronger than him, and when she asks to stay what is he supposed to do? Say no?

He knows the repercussions but he has such respect for her- that’s how it all started, pure respect, not love, not obsession- and he knows how the others treat young gods. Knows Demeter will leash her daughter to her side like a misbehaving dog. Knows how betrayal feels. And besides, maybe he can learn from her how to be so confident, so self assured. How she captured that power in her walk, in her expression.

When she tells him how she fakes it, he doesn’t understand. She tells him how scared she is. How when she came down here she was about to run back when he had caught her.

“You can never let them see,” she said easily, picking seeds from the pomegranate. “If they see how you feel, they can use that,” Her deep golden brown eyes pierced his, the wisdom in them made him sit back. “And they will drain you.”

It wasn’t long before they came for her. For once, he saw the fear in her eyes. And that, more than any advice she had given, made the mask of confidence and power fall over him. It was easy to tell them of the mistake she had made. She had eaten of his realm, she could no longer go back. It was her choice; he knew he couldn’t keep her and he wouldn’t try. But they didn’t need to know that.

Half of the year, they settled. It was enough for the young goddess and so it was for him. It was hard when she left. How odd, too. He had been alone for his entire life, shunned here, happily deprived of his family. But here he was, lackluster for mourning of his new- what was she now? He supposed she was considered his wife now to the others. To him, she was a friend. Someone to stand beside.

Her return made him warmer than he had ever been. She smelled like sweat and moss and lakes, her tight coiled curls wreathed her head like a crown. It made him want to make her one of her own. She was happy to be back, she said, and he stared. He told her no one had said that about this place before and she laughed, a hearty, shining thing. He felt his pale cheeks grow splotchy.

The love took longer. Hades was a cold place and a colder person. But he would quickly learn what spring does to winter. It wasn’t her beauty that thawed him, though that didn’t help. It was the way she leaned into him as he worked, how she talked and listened, her unabashed joy at the simplest of things. And then the strength, the elegance, the anger. She was a force that he was happy to stand behind. But instead she chose to stand beside him. Never a subordinate, always an equal.

He didn’t realise how warm his heart had grown until he caught himself staring, just like that first day. Her hair in a cloud of curls, eyes bright but firm, her confidence radiating. He was so in love it was stupid. The gods don’t love their spouses. But here he was, locking their fingers together.

She kissed him as if it was something they had done a thousand times before and told him she loved him the same way. When he responded, she looked surprised for the first time. He dragged her closer, whispering it again like a hymn, more for himself than for her. No matter how surprised she was, he was moreso.

Love wasn’t meant for gods. But he wasn’t sure they counted as gods down here. In the depths, they weren’t king and queen they were husband and wife. And he would never stop looking at her and getting flustered.

💫🕊 💋💕

i attract wanted attention & affection.

aphrodite, goddess of love, i am ready to receive.

🔮🌞💐😄💛✨💛😄💐🌞🔮

   ↳ Emoji spell: For someone to be nice and friendly towards you.

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🔮🍀💖🤞💌💐💌🤞💖🍀🔮

   ↳ Emoji spell: Good luck with your love interest.

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Respecting the Gods

Don’t… treat them as tools. Deities aren’t obligated to help you, even if you do everything “correctly” to ask. They’re not vending machines, or a list of correspondences that only gets value from how they best serve you. They’re gods! Instead… treat them like people. (Really high-status people.) Build a relationship before asking big favors. Compensate them for their time. Respect they have their own autonomy. Respect that your will is not the center of their universe. 

Don’t… reduce them into archetypes. Putting Frejya or Aphrodite into just “love goddess” takes out so much of their depth. (Example, both of these goddesses also have warlike aspects.) Putting them into narrow categories and treating all deities that fit as the same can be reductive at best and insensitive to the root cultures at worst.  Instead… address who you’re really talking to. Do your research. See how a god either lines up with or defies your assumptions. See what makes them different from a deity with a similar domain. If you wish to speak to the Horned God, speak to the Horned God, and if you want to speak to Cernunnos or Pan, call them Cernunnos or Pan.  Don’t… ignore the lore. UPG Can certainly exist and add depth, but the lore has survived and is what all these gods are largely founded on. It’s important for us to recognize it and know who we’re approaching.  Instead… do your research beforehand. Did you know Aphrodite is widely considered to HATE pigs and be offended with offerings of pork or images of pigs on the altar? Might be a good thing to know before you accidentally offer some fresh bacon. (But if you recognize the lore and find a way to spin it so it works, more power to you~) Don’t… insult other people’s gods. If those gods don’t resonate with you, they have a lot of meaning for other good people. I’m tempted to say don’t insult your own, either. Playful banter is one thing, but there’s a line between affectionate jabs and straight up disrespect. Find where that line is for you. Instead… talk to other people. If something about a god you don’t worship feels problematic, talk to their followers and devotees and see what they have to say about it. They probably have an approach you haven’t been exposed to. Analyze your own relationships with deities. And if the way you speak about a deity makes someone else uncomfortable or upset, respect their right to feel that way, apologize, and learn from it. Remember that each deity has changed someone’s life for the better.

✨🌸🍩🌺🍬🦋🍫🌷🌸🍦💐🍮🦋🍰✨

An emoji offering to Aphrodite 💖I love you, Aphrodite 💖