Artemis/Diana

[Middleagedseeker]

Greetings all! Just wondering if anyone works with Artemis or Diana? Are they easily contacted? I have heard that some Goddesses/Gods can be aloof and distant, or hard to get any response from? I know when I worked with the Hindu God Ganesh, he was very quick to answer and I felt at home with him from the start. I'm very interested in learning more about and working with Artemis and Diana and I have let them know. Any ideas/suggestions?

[Siona]

Everyone is different in how they interact with different deities, but generally speaking Artemis was considered an important deity, and was widely worshiped in the ancient world, so I would imagine she is at least somewhat approachable in general.

I know some find Artemis and Diana to be the same deity, which is not necessarily an incorrect view, but to me since it is likely that they had different origins, and were worshiped in somewhat different ways, I tend to treat the two as separate, so I only really have information that will be relevant to the more Greek approach... That said, the article on Artemis on Theoi is a good place to start for historical information, including her historical titles, attributes, and some information on offerings. There's also a book list here with a few Artemis specific books, and some more general books on Greek religion if you're interested in that side of things.

Contacting Artemis is a bit like contacting any other deity, really... Since you've worked with a deity before, you're probably familiar with how to do that. My general advice is to learn about the deity, make a small shrine to them if you're able to do so, see what days are sacred to them (in Artemis' case it was the sixth day of the month, which was timed to the lunar cycle - the first day of the visible new crescent moon was day one), see what sorts of offerings were liked by the deity, how they were worshiped, what areas were sacred to them (and spending time in such areas if you can), and so on. Greek religion, in general, was big on acts of worship over words, so making small offerings regularly would probably be a good start - but traditional hymns and personal prayer certainly also play a role.

[Middleagedseeker]

Thank you so much Siona!