Currently, I work with three deities: Anuket, Ammit, and Ganesh. Anuket and Ammit come from the Egyptian pantheon, while Ganesh is from Hinduism.

Anuket, the Goddess of the Nile, is the first deity I ever worked with, starting years back. At the time, I was very new to Paganism and didn’t quite know what to do, or how to get started. After doing research, the general consensus seemed to point toward meditation and letting the gods or your guides speak to you. Feeling some trepidation, coming from my closeted Christian background, I meditated with the intention of meeting any gods who were interested in working with me. A figure popped into my mind, a woman wearing white robes, with a headdress of reeds on her head. A large river gushed behind her. She was very gentle and patient, but would not tell me her name; she wanted me to research her first and see if I could figure out who she was. The images I saw led me to studying the Egyptian pantheon, and from there, I narrowed it down to a couple different goddesses, Anuket being one. After meditating again, she confirmed that she was Anuket, and I started working with her from that point on.

For quite a while, Anuket was the only deity I worshiped. After being indecisive for a long time, I finally decided to worship Ammit. Ammit is a being in the Egyptian pantheon who would devour the hearts of the undead, specifically those deemed unworthy to continue on to the afterlife. Something about Ammit fascinated me for many years; it may have been her combination of three powerful animals (crocodile, lion, and hippo), or perhaps it was the harsh judgment she unleashed. Even so, I kept away from her at first because I was wary of working with darker entities. It wasn’t until I realized darker beings still have a lot to teach us that I took the leap; after all, I can’t just focus on the light or “good” side of the world. Dark deities exist for a reason, and I believe it is important to acknowledge this and respect the place they have.

Ganesh is the most recent deity for me, yet one that has had a close place in my heart for many years (similar to Ammit in this respect). The Hinduism faith always called to me, and I had a great experience visiting a local Hindu temple a few years back. The leaders there were quite patient and kind with us newcomers, and they stressed that anyone can worship the Hindu deities, regardless of their ethnicity or specific religion (I’m sure individual people may disagree, of course, but I’ll take the temple’s word). This was wonderful news for me–even though I loved Hinduism, I was quite happy with my Pagan faith and didn’t know if it was ok for me to mix-and-match these faiths. Receiving the go-ahead to do so cleared up this issue, and so, when the time felt right, I began worshiping Lord Ganesh.

As of this writing, all three deities are represented on my altar and play an important part in my life. I’ll go into more detail on my relationships with each of these three gods in future posts.