How To Make Offerings When You Have Pets
How To Make Offerings When You Have Pets
“My dog ate my offering, now what?”
This isn’t working, I think as I watch my cat puking up a cookie that 10 minutes earlier had been an offering to the Goddess. The pile of confection now lay on the floor and what had been sacred now had a less than reverent feel as I went to get a towel to clean it up.
I was new to the practices of polytheism and making offerings beyond just prayer in my apartment already felt strange to my Catholic upbringing. Having my cat eat something completely inappropriate frustrated me honestly. Not wanting to have to emergency rush him to the vet in the future caused me to postpone adding offerings to my practice for a long time which set me back greatly in terms of spiritual growth and development of my practice.
Today, I’d like to cover what I do to make offerings work now. My practice is in a far better place for making offerings to the gods and spirits I work with, and I don’t want anyone else pushed back for years out of nervousness.
Change Your Offerings
Ignore historic offerings for your deity for a moment. What can your pet safely encounter and be alright? I had a huge lightbulb moment when I realized that a glass of clean water offered with intention was a perfectly acceptable offering to many. For much of human history, clean water has been difficult to source and, as Flint, Michigan and East Palestine, Ohio remind us, may get more difficult to find the future.
As such, I’ve changed what I offer to primarily liquids rather than solids over the years so that if my cats get into them, they should be safe. Water and olive oil paired with herbs safe for cats are the standing offerings around my home. I’ve bookmarked the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant list for cats and reference it frequently.
Incense is a historic option that works for many gods and goddesses. Open up a window or take the burning outside to keep your indoor air quality up for you and your pets while letting your offering be carried on the wind.
Use Height and Location To Your Advantage
While performing devotion or spellcraft at a convenient height for altar and shrines is well and good, as soon as your ritual is complete consider moving any food components to be higher up or hidden. Wall shelves above the height where your animals can reach can be beautiful places to leave out offerings for however long your tradition or spell calls for while still keeping your pet safe. For fire safety, I keep any candles burning well above the distance my cats can leap.
Other locations to leave offerings include where your pet can’t access. At multiple apartments, I’ve had patios that I kept off limit to my animals. Also consider unconventional places for storage such as closets as a temporary place. Even the back of the refrigerator will do if you can keep the item isolated until time for disposal.
Dispose Faster
If you work with a liminal deity such as Hekate, taking your offering to a crossroads is likely the default. Consider if similar works for the entities in your life. Keep in mind wildlife, however, and don’t leave things around that would be harmful if consumed by them.
Moving the offering as fast as you can to be disposed of is also a good option. If you can access a fire pit or even a charcoal grill, throwing the offering into the flames is a long traditional way of giving an offering to the gods. If you keep a flower pot your patio or have access to a backyard, burying in the soil is a way of committing the energy back to the earth.
Last Notes
If none of the above work, place the offering in a bag saying something to the effect of “I thank you for serving your sacred purpose”. Then throw it in the trash. I’ve yet to have a god or goddess not understand when circumstances haven’t allowed me to dispose of an offering in one of the other ways described above. Keeping your pets alive and healthy is a top priority and one the gods surely understand.