I often suggest that people establish a “basic devotional routine” to help them get through spiritual rough patches. However, it was pointed out to me that I wasn’t exactly explaining what I meant by that.

A basic devotional routine is a tool for keeping oneself open to the spirits and powers when it is most difficult. It is not a full devotional practice, but incorporating one into your practice when times are better helps keep you going when things get tough.

Basic devotional routines are exactly that- simple, habitual acts of worship conducted on regular basis, preferably daily. By establishing a low threshold for success and performing these acts every single day, we create a “groove” of right action- a habit of holiness. The basic routine is only a trickle, but it creates a path for other, stronger flows- in both directions!

It helps keep the lines of communication open even when our bodies and minds are not fully functional.

Scope

Your basic devotional routine needs to fit into the confines of your life. I’m fortunate enough to have permanent space in my apartment for a couple of small altar cabinets, though their location is not ideal.

Because of my situation, I tend to think in terms of altars, but many people don’t have that. Their sacred space may be extremely limited, both in time and in physical volume. For example, a number of bloggers have written about travel altars- some as small as a candy tin!

My goal in this article is to provide a general guide to the concepts of a basic devotional routine so that you can craft one that fits your life. If I suggest something that doesn’t work for your tradition or your space, don’t do it. Instead, focus on the underlying goal of what I suggested and aim for that.

If all you can do is set up a tiny altar for five minutes and offer a few drops or water or the flame from a match- that’s what you do.

Characteristics

I believe there are five criteria for a successful basic devotional routine:

1) It can be accomplished with minimal physical exertion

This is critical for individuals who suffer from severe illness or pain. However, even the healthiest individuals sometimes get sick. Making sure the acts of worship can be accomplished when you are tired, achy, brain-fogged, and out-of-sorts is important.

2) It can be accomplished in five minutes or less

Being able to complete the acts of worship when you are late for work is important. The time requirement should be small so that “I’m in a hurry” isn’t an excuse to skip the basic devotional routine. It will still happen, but your goal is to make it happen as rarely as possible!

3) It involves spiritually cleansing yourself

Not only is this polite behavior before the gods and ancestors, but it helps to focus you on the task at hand. It aligns your inner self and physical self with the acts of worship. It might even help you feel better.

4) It involves a simple offering

Offerings are important and a full devotional practice should incorporate as much offering and sacrifice as you can handle. On the other hand, a basic devotional routine needs to keep the offering simple. That way, “I can’t afford it” isn’t an excuse.

5) It involves prayers of thanksgiving

It is important that we name the gods, spirits, and ancestors we are praying to. However, in a basic devotional routine, it is important to keep it simple. It should be possible to accomplish your prayers while “falling down” tired, in pain, and a bit nauseous. Again, sometimes our human limitations will sometimes lead to interruptions of the routine- our goal is to minimize them.

Physical Acts

The specific actions that you undertake should be determined by your tradition and the preferences of your gods, spirits, and ancestors. That said, here are some basic actions that you should consider:

• The act of cleansing yourself
• The act of clearing away any old offerings
• The act of presenting a new offering
• The act of prayer

Each of these will be specific to your situation, but as you develop and practice your basic devotional routine look for ways to economize.

There is a tendency in our faiths to look down on Catholic liturgy, but it did evolve over the course of a couple thousand years of priests trying to keep up their religious praxis whilst suffering from things like freezing cold, dysentery, and bubonic plague. If you watch one of their priests, there is an economy of movement to their ritual.

Of course, your basic devotional routine shouldn’t be anything so complex as a Catholic mass!

My point is that there is benefit to muscle memory and doing the same physical actions in the same way but with slight improvements each time. It is a form of programming. This means that each physical step of the basic devotional routine offers an opportunity for the body to snap our minds into the correct mindset for worship.

I’ll describe steps of my personal routine as I come to them, but take note that I’m trying to keep the physical difficulty minimal at each step.

Duration

I want to stress that when I said “five minutes or less”, I was referring specifically to your basic devotional routine. If, once you’ve completed the basic routine, you have the time, energy, resources, etc. to do more- do so.

If you suddenly feel the urge to sing a song for a deity or to bring a piece of chocolate to your aunt- do it. If you can undertake the basic routine twice a day- do it.

This article is about laying a minimal (very minimal) foundation under your devotional practice. In no way should it supplant or reduce the other acts of worship you undertake.

Cleansing

For many of you these techniques will be tradition-specific. However, if your tradition doesn’t yet have a standard “quick cleanse”, here are some suggestions:

Running Water

Using cold water, rinse your left hand, then right hand, then pour water into your left hand and use it to rinse out your mouth. Then rinse your left hand and the vessel holding the water with the remaining water:

Obviously, most of us do not have a Temizuya in our homes. You can follow almost the same routine at a sink. Simply wash your hands normally, then switch the water to cold. Follow the same basic routine as above using the tap water.

This is what I usually do for cleansing when I can. Despite taking only seconds, the ritual complexity of the action cultivates mindfulness, and can sometimes help to snap me into the correct headspace.

Blessed Water or Oil

These typically need to be provided by someone versed in a specific tradition. For those working with Hellenic deities, Khernips is  recommended, especially if you are reconstructing ancient practices. Certain other traditions use blessed salt water, others water that has been boiled in a special pot in a special way.

There are also similar sorts of anointing oils, often with herbs or spices, that are similarly used.

The important thing about including any of these into your basic devotional routine is that they must be made ahead of time and be easy to use in the moment.

You may be able to purchase these from a botanica or other supplier, but ideally you want to be able to have access to this cleansing agent even when money is tight.

As with the perfumes below, the application is typically quick- a ritual washing or anointing, though the specifics vary. Be aware that what we are looking for here is a home practice, so be careful not to overcomplicate it.

Perfumes and Herbal Tinctures

Aside from specifically blessed materials, like holy water or an anointing oil, many traditions also recognize the potential for sweet-smelling things to provide spiritual cleansing. This is especially true for home use by the laity.

There are countless recipes out there, and even some commercial products that are widely used- such as Florida Water.

If you are going to use these in your basic devotional routine, you might want to choose something you can make yourself. This reduces the chance that affordability could prevent you from keeping up the habit.

That said, Florida Water, Kananga Water, and the like are pretty darn inexpensive. There are also plenty of recipes and instruction videos on the Internet for making them.

Typically, these are applied to the hands and the hands are then used to anoint the face and/or top of the head. Some might also be sprinkled on the body or feet.

Smudging & Flame Purification

These are the smokiest and most potentially dangerous techniques, but with practice it is possible to quickly use smoke or the heat of a flame to drive pollution away from yourself.

I’m not going to dwell on these because of the risk inherent in doing them swiftly, and because the five-minute time limit means that we probably can’t leave them burning. Personally, I like to let fire live until its fuel is consumed.

However, if you are already lighting incense or a candle as an offering, wafting the smoke or hot air over your face and hands while praying for purification is a legitimate technique.

Offerings

If it is allowable in your tradition (or if you are uncertain and unable to verify), clean water is my recommendation.

Depending on your circumstances, other offerings might be appropriate- grain, smoke of some pleasant sort, the flame of a candle, and many others. All of these make great offerings in general, but obviously there are situations where those might be unobtainable and our goal is to never be without an offering.

Unless you’re dead, you can always offer some form of water. If you think about it, blood, sweat, and tears are all water offerings in extremis- though of course our goal here is day-to-day offerings.

Have a particular bowl, glass, or other vessel for the offering regardless of what it is. If you can, keep a spare or two of similar size and functionality. That way if the current vessel is unfit for some reason, you can swap in a replacement without seriously messing up your routine.

Personally, my base offering is a small bowl of tap water. I pour out the old water- it’s generally better to put old offerings outside, but that’s not always an option for everyone. With water at least, I know it’s going fairly quickly back into the environment.

I run the tap water until it’s cold and check the bowl for yucky things. If it needs more thorough cleaning, I swap to a spare. Either way, I rinse the bowl four times before filling it. I then use my hand or a clean towel or paper towel to dry the outside.

Finally, I present the offering.

To reiterate, you should absolutely give other, more valuable things than water to your gods and ancestors if you can. However, this article is about establishing a habitual offering that you can always give, no matter your circumstances.

If, for some reason, you cannot even offer water, use your breath. Breath is a powerful spiritual force. The important point here is that you need to do it consistently. Don’t make your routine offering something situational- it becomes too easy to skip it because the “timing wasn’t right” or the “situation never came up”.

Prayers of Thanksgiving

One of the primary benefits to us humans of engaging in a basic devotional routine is that we habitually remind ourselves that there are good things in our lives. That’s not the main reason for doing it, of course, but it can be helpful to recognize that this practice has concrete psychological benefits as well as important spiritual ones.

After cleansing and while presenting your offering, name the gods, spirits, or ancestors you are most trying to connect to. Remember, despite what you might read on the Internet, most people aren’t having two-way conversations with a patron deity on a regular basis.

Indeed, it is questionable whether most of us have a specific patron(ess). Historically, many traditions viewed most people’s relationships with the gods more situationally and less like a marriage.

For most of us, prayer often seems unidirectional- way say things to spiritual entities and whether or not they reply, we don’t usually notice it.

That is okay. Our goal with a basic devotional routine isn’t to force a conversation, it is to be available. It is to be present before our gods and ancestors in a way that shows respect and gratitude. It is to be as open to Them and as thankful and loving as we can under the circumstances.

Part of that is repetition. Have a set greeting naming a small number of deities, spirits, or ancestors. Then extend that with a general greeting including other friendly entities with whom They work.

For instance, you might invoke the messenger deity of your pantheon to carry your prayer. You might name the household or hearth deity of your tradition. There are any number of deities that might be appropriate- they might even change on a daily basis, but try to always invoke a consistent deity or two every single time.

For instance, “Good morning, Hermes, who carries divine messages swiftly and true. Good morning, Hestia who protects my hearth and home.” This might be a consistent part of your routine whereas the greeting “Good morning, Asclepius who heals all illness,” might be an occasional insertion if you are going to give thanks for getting over a  sickness.

Note that the idea here is to have a consistent core of prayer that you can amend as need be, but which you can fall back on if your body and/or brain are struggling to keep it together.

I typically follow with a general invocation like, “Good morning, my gods- all those who guide and protect me, my family, my household, and my people.”

As far as physical actions, I hold my hands in the typical modern “prayer” fashion in front of my bowed head. Other traditions have other prayer poses. If I’m able, I also bow a bit deeper with each greeting message, though with my back I’m not always able to.

Following the invocation, I gently clap my hands twice in time with saying “thank you.” As with my cleansing action, this is a modified version of one form of Shinto prayer praxis.

Though I’m not specifically a follower of Shinto, theirs is an extant animistic polytheism tradition with an essentially unbroken tradition into prehistory. If I’m at a loss for a way to do something, I’ve found they often have good techniques. Plus, unlike a number of traditions that have consistently been looted by people who look like me, there are at least some Shinto traditions that welcome outsiders to learn from them.

After clapping, I give a list of things that I’m thankful for. It is good to have a stock phrasing, for instance:

“Thank you for your guidance and your grace. Thank you for your protection and your patience. Thank you for your blessings and your bounty.”

Or perhaps:

“Thank you for today. Thank you for all that you have given, all that you have done for us, and thank you for all that you continue to do.”

The important point is to have this stock phrasing to get you in the groove- to help to put you into the headspace where you can be truly grateful. Add to the thanksgiving if you can.

Don’t stop to overthink the gratitude. It doesn’t really matter if a deity specifically reminded your friends about your birthday or not. The gods are automatically responsible for your friends having the mental energy to care about your birthday instead of starvation, dysentery, and being eaten by wolves!

If you’re feeling grateful, thank them and move on!

Be earnest, be sincere, speak from the heart here. The ritual words above are there to get you started, but the important part is to get your emotional gratitude flowing.

A lot of the time, especially if you aren’t in a good place, that won’t happen. It’s okay. Your goal here is to keep putting yourself into a place where it CAN happen, even if it’s only once in awhile.

Heck, I broke down in tears one time offering Them a slice of cake. At first I thought it was because I didn’t want to give up the cake, but I realized that it was actually because I was so thankful for the cake I did have.

That sort of revelation can only happen once you internalize that your gods, spirits, and ancestors are real, meaningful entities with their own agency and feelings.

Establishing a basic devotional routine helps this process by “wearing a groove” in your mind. I’m doing this, every day, because They are real and They are distinct from me.

Once I finish giving thanks, I simply close with “I love you.” I have yet to find a good substitute for “Amen” and “So mote it be” is a Masonic thing, which makes it also monotheistic. Hence, “I love you.”

Separation

I do a separate version of this routine for my gods and for my ancestors, but I have specific spaces for each of them. In your tradition or under your circumstances, it might be better to honor them in the same place and/or at the same time.

Some traditions have a single unified altar at which the gods are greeted and thanked first, then the ancestors, and then the local spirits. In other cases, local spirits might come first (since they are physically closest), followed by ancestors (who are closer to the gods), and then the gods Themselves.

Regardless, unless Someone specifically tells you to do your basic devotional routine with a specific separation, do it in the way that makes sure you do it.

Missing A Day

It will happen.

First, you need to prioritize doing your routine again as soon as possible. You are trying to build a positive habit here. If you can, it is better to do it at a different time than usual rather than to skip a day.

Second, don’t beat yourself up. I’m not saying that you let yourself off the hook, I’m saying that you apologize, make good, and move on. Recognize the lapse and take corrective action. Generally speaking, your gods, ancestors, and spirits have other things going on- if you miss a day it’s not the end of the world.

That said, your regular acts of worship are important, so it is vital that your energy goes into sincerity and consistency. If you punish yourself for forgetting a specific deity or missing a day when you are sick, human psychology will push you to resent your basic devotional routine.

That is the exact opposite of the goal we are trying to achieve. Don’t cut yourself a lot of slack, but don’t fall into the trap of self-loathing. Never treat your basic devotional routine like a New Year’s resolution to stop eating fast food!

Final Thoughts

We are all human and we all have limitations.

Establishing and sticking to a basic devotional routine helps us to maintain a spiritual focus, even for just a few minutes, in spite of our limitations and distractions.

It can also serve as a foundation or framework for larger devotional acts. When you practice your routine every day, you might start to notice that on certain days you have more time and energy.

Add to your routine on those days- include additional offerings, sing hymns or recite poems for Them, burn candles or incense. Perhaps on those days you clean the whole altar area or serve Them tea and cookies and invite them to visit.

Your basic devotional routine should never be the end-all-and-be-all of your devotional practice. But having one and holding to it can mean the difference between having a practice at all and just being swept along by life.

-In Deos Confidimus