All about Offerings - A concise Guide on how to give Offerings to Deities and Spirits

Offerings.. They're a complicated and very subjective topic. Since I'm getting the same questions about how to give Offerings to deities and spirits over and over again in the comment sections of my videos I thought I'd make on concise video on the topic. In this one we'll talk about where to give Offerings (at an altar, a temple, a church, out in nature), how to dispose of Offerings as well as when to dispose of them. I hope you enjoy this little concise guide on Offerings!
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Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:47 - Where to give Offerings
06:35 - How to dispose of Offerings
11:30 - When to dispose of Offerings

[@omikrondraconis5708]

Please don't give fertiliser as an offering. Ecosystems are adapted to a specific nutrient concentration, so dumping a load of nitrogen and phospohorus on an area can do quite a bit of harm, even kill some plants. Also, especially in highly agriculturally develloped areas, there already is a problem with excess fertiliser in the soil, groundwater and surface water, which leads to the eutrophication of aquatic ecosystems and harmful algal blooms. What I like to give as a (planned and prepared) outdoors offering for any of my deities, is small quantities of rolled oats. They cannot germinate any more and they don't harm birds or small mammals who might get attracted to them. Or, as a spontaneous offering, some of my hair: I always have it with me, it is deeply personal and, to me, meaningful, and I invested quite some effort into it, so it has value. Indoors, I often burn small candles in a special place. In my experience, the most important aspect of giving an offering is that one gives it from the heart, not as a routine, not out of a sense of duty, but the same way one would prepare food for honoured guests or ones family: out of love.

[@TheNorseWitch]

Thank you for the info, I didn’t think of that! I think giving hair is a great general offering! Since I don’t have a lot of that I like to give blood or when in a pinch just saliva. It might not be as special as blood but there’s still my DNA in it so it’s better than nothing I guess 🤣

[@OakRaven]

@@TheNorseWitch Human Hair isn't a good idea to make as an outside offering as if birds take it to use in a nest, it can hurt the chicks, by getting tangled around their legs and cutting off circulation to their legs.

[@TheNorseWitch]

I guess the hair has to be short enough then? Like a centimeter or something, not an entire strand. But birds also use fur so I’d guess as long as the hair is not longer than like fox fur it should be fine?

[@omikrondraconis5708]

@@OakRaven Now there is something I wasn't aware of. Thankfully, my hair is comparable to some dogs' hair and I never left more than one or two.

[@TheNorseWitch]

Love how we’re all learning together here ❤️

[@HORSEZZZZZzzzzz96]

As someone who hates feeling like I'm physically wasting food, I'm absolutely a fan of giving food offerings in the form of "I'm eating this thing and sharing my experience of eating the thing to whatever entity I'm giving the offering to".

[@sarahallegra6239]

I do that too! Especially if I’m eating/drinking something especially tasty, I invite them to experience it consuming of the food/drink with me. They seem to enjoy it!

[@CarolinadelVillar-jt3mz]

I do that, a bit differently. I leave the plate or glass a bit to the side for a few minutes so my deity can experience it first, and then I eat or drink it. I got the idea from the way food is left for the ancestors at night during day of the dead here in Mexico and my deity likes it.

[@justbartu]

I am a Kemetic Practitioner for almost a year now and in my religion, we usually consume our offerings. One of the most common things you can give to the gods is either bread or water, these offerings are usually liked by almost all of the gods in the kemetic pantheon. For me personally Anubis is my patron god and when i offer him something its usually dark coffee, dark chocolate etc. which are all consumed afterwards so nothing goes to waste. If we are offering something not consumable, it is usually something that is easily cleanable or be hidden as a decoration. For example for Anubis we can offer Obsidian, Labrodorite etc. If we can not offer something physical obviously doing something in their name is always a good option. Again for example u can do healing work or support health organizations for Sekhmet and other things for other gods. I find your video so great especially for beginners, thank you for this amazing content !

[@CthulhuW8ingInTheDeep]

Gave my first offering of flowers from my garden to an oak at a park near my house. I'm very new to being spiritual in general, so it was a neat experience. I made a small symbol of earth with sticks and acorns that had fallen around it and placed the flowers in the middle. Thennn I scurried away for fear of judgement from others around me haha. Didnt get much time to really sit with tree after the offering, but I'll be back tomorrow to hang out with it while I read my books :).

[@kylowr3n]

that sounds so nice!! glad it was a neat experience :)

[@djjohnson6195]

I’m not able to dispose of my offerings outside. I keep a separate trash bin under my working altar area that I only use for my practice. So while ultimately, offerings and other witchy trash is thrown away with my regular trash once a week… I keep it separate until then. It is my way of still having respect and honoring those items. 😊

[@MarcinViscardi]

I once heard very wise words regarding food and wine as an offering. Would you like to eat food or drink wine at a party that has been on the table for more than five hours?.... NOPE! So why do you think the Gods will be happy with old food and stale wine? So my offering is always on the altar for about 4-6 hours but no longer.

[@c3ljean]

this is incredibly helpful. I do incense a lot as offerings as i cant really drink due to underlying conditions. I could buy wine of beers and such for freya and thor but since i cant it will as a whole just sit there and collect dust. i do also offer emotions as offerings as freya and thor are very much mentally helpful to me. like if i get angry or frustrated with something i give that energy to freya so we can use that emotion in a more helpful way, and thor is such a fatherly energy he tends to check up after i have my occasional 'fits.' at least thats what i call them 😂 lovely video 💕💕

[@jiliciar.1423]

Thank you for this video because I'm a baby closet witch and I need the answers to these questions today. Also, you're very pretty. 😊

[@AstralHealthGuy]

Great video, on the food offering like you always Google it first. For example in the UK they said never feed bread to ducks . however in the last few years, the bird charities changed their mind as alot of birds started to starve due to being dependent on bread . Always fruit are mostly good but grapes and raisins are highly toxic to dogs

[@nia-chaotic-fool]

in my culture (Buddhism) we offer water in these offering bowls (lots of them, atleast 5 or 6 of them in front of an alter) we also give lots of smoke offerings in incense. If we have fresh fruit we keep them in a bowl before the alter for 3-4 days max, dried fruits for atleast a week. We give some milk in a small bowl (it doesn't go to waste because after we can still drink it) in the morning and take it out in the evening. In our homes and Monasteries we offer butter lamps (big or small)What I like about being a witch is that there are a lot of similarities or things that are quite common in my culture, so getting offering bowls and incense and smoke offerings are very easy

[@ouroborosjormungandr5615]

An offering idea for Jormungandr and potentially others: Have a pendant or charm of some sort, and use it to dedicate the heat you radiate from your body and into it. If you want to make a more active offering, you can hold it in your hands and/or blow hot air at it.

[@velvetrosenevermind]

This is so helpful! I felt so bad dumping the coffee I gave Loki and the tea I gave Freyja, but now I feel better haha 😂

[@auntsteppie45]

I grind my contents in my cauldron and keep the sand for future offerings & spells✨

[@Jen222287]

Hi. My name is Karen. I live in New Zealand. Yes home of Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movies. I am 60 years old and just starting to get into Norse Paganism and Wicca. Still at the armchair stage I am afraid; that is reading and watching videos on the topics. I must say how much I have been enjoying your videos over the last few weeks. On the topic of this video, could you cover your offering in the plastic kitchen wrap you use to keep leftover food fresh in your fridge. I know in my country they have in the past couple of years come out with a biodegradeable plastic food wrap. I don't know if they have such a thing in other countries? But I just thought if you were going to leave your offering out even just overnight and more especially during summer, the plastic wrap would keep your food items from going off for awhile. It would also keep the flies off it. Now completely off the topics of offerings, I see you have a lovely cat that sometimes makes appearances in your videos. Could you on a future video bring him/her onto camera and intriduce him/her to us. I myself am owned by a pedigree female Ragdoll cat named Rose. I don't know if this would be considered disrespectful. But my favourite norse deity is Freya. I know she is a warrior goddess but she is also the goddess of cats. I look at my cat as gift from the goddess, given into my care to live out her mortal life here on Earth until Freya sees fit to call her back to be with her in the realm of the deities. Just as Freya herself was gifted two male kittens from Thor, Bygul and Trjegul who when they grew up pulled Freya's chariot. Sounds alittle silly I know.

[@juliejay5436]

I dig a small hole (back garden, woodland, meadow, etc) and bury the offering along with a hand written note on a small piece of paper. I never leave any kind of plastic outside. In your case, maybe try a paper bag, or bees wax paper, if you feel like burying offerings does not feel right.

[@benstocks7449]

Have you ever thought about writing a book? You should! You’d write a very informative book in my opinion and I’d love it in my collection 📕🕯️😊

[@TheNorseWitch]

I have thought about it and even started one just to see what it feels like, but I realized very quickly that I 1. don’t have enough time for that and 2. my English definitely doesn’t feel good enough for a book 🤣

[@benstocks7449]

@@TheNorseWitch Take your time, and definitely don’t give up on it 👍🏻

[@birgittnlilli9726]

We could need a german book and I think you would give great advice 😊

[@Reed5016]

As someone in the broom closet, trash cans are my best friend in regards to disposing of offerings.

[@zbraal]

Great info. Thank you!

[@elysethefloralninja]

Thank you. I was just trying to work out my outdoor offering place. This has always felt uncomfortable.. i don't have much I can do outside. I compost, but it does seem to take the magic out of it. I do not have a park, because steict rules. I am so happy you've said this about a circle of salt. I've often been told what to offer, but know ir's harmful for the soil. I've also never liked throwing my offerings. It felt insulting. Yay! Another 0erson thinks this way! Thank you for all of you, who asked thes3 questionsm

[@Junk_World_Templar]

I grow a lot of trees, and I’ve been pondering about offering a tree or two? Especially to the Landvaettir.

[@Eos_Galvus]

I do incense offelrings usually if it seems right, though on rare occasions I buy and burn candles for deities. Noone seems at all bothered I need to bin incense ash and sticks though. I live in a very small townhouse so I also share my desk with my altar at the moment. I can't speak for EVERYONE but I do find deities I work with are pretty understanding about it.

[@RoanThorrson]

Thank you so much for the info! Your videos have helped me a lot 😊❤😊

[@TheNorseWitch]

You’re so so welcome ☺️

[@kingvotikdarkest]

❤lovvvu

[@skarinblackraven9212]

So I need to say this. Organic food does NOT mean it's pesticide free, it means it's not synthetic pesticides. "Organic" pesticide is used on organic crops and can actually be more harmful to both people and animals. I'm not saying don't use organic food, but please wash them first. Both because it shows respect to our gods that we are making the offering to, but also ensures the creatures that eat it afterwards are protected from any toxins. This has been my PSA and I will now get off my soapbox.

[@TheNorseWitch]

Agreed, I thought washing it first wasn’t something I needed to clarify 🤣 are there people who don’t?

[@skarinblackraven9212]

Yeah, I've encountered a lot of "health nuts" and have been told in all seriousness that washing the food washed away its nutrients. My jaw hitting the floor was audible.

[@TheNorseWitch]

What the actual fuck 🤣 that person should go read a book.

[@ak-ut7zy]

I give cigarettes as Offering

[@livordeath2]

If i like a trans woman....im gay....???? es pregunta

[@CoffeeDropping]

i keep being a friend of sharing my offerings that are food or drink, i just can't find a respectful way to chuck food n drinks 🥲 and i find in the olden times it would have been a larger sacrifice to give precious food away, but that isn't the case for me now, so i am giving them my morning coffee, my sweet treats, my candy etc, communicating it's a share

[@justin_a_greenwitch]

Does it say the original comment was posted 9 days ago, or am I seeing things lol

[@CoffeeDropping]

@@justin_a_greenwitch it does say that yes

[@TheNorseWitch]

My Patreons get early access to my videos, that’s how they were able to comment that early ☺️