In general, I’m not a fan of making offerings and performing rituals. To be honest, I’m lazy, but that doesn’t mean I don’t understand their importance. When I need to do them, I do. Those who work with the elements, gods, and goddesses will have to get used to performing rituals and making offerings. It’s part of the job.

If you work with these energies, understand that these entities and deities have been around for a long time. They existed before you were born and will be here long after you’re gone. Time means nothing to them. They have established patterns that others who came before you used to communicate and work with them. If you want to work with them, you need to do the same, at least in the beginning. As your relationship with the deity grows, they will let you know how “informal” you can become with them or not.

To work with them, you have to approach them correctly. They are used to being spoken to in a certain way. Sometimes, particular words need to be used. There are also different tools you need to have. It depends on the tradition.

When I worked with a Peruvian-trained shaman, he always poured a small glass of wine onto the Earth to express respect and gratitude before he started all his ceremonies. A friend of mine went to the Southwest on a mini vacation. She felt ill at ease while she was there. I told her to make an offering of tobacco and/or alcohol to the spirits in the area and ask for protection. She felt better after making the offering.

The ritual and/or offering will depend on who it is and what you want. Make sure you know who you’re dealing with before you start asking for favors. Some deities are known for being kind and merciful, others are not. Some are temperamental. You piss them off at your own risk. Case in point, someone you should not fool around with is Hawaiian Goddess Pele. She is a fierce protector, but Pele is also someone who will burn down your house.

I have a friend in the metaphysical community who works with her. My friend used to own a metaphysical store. It burned to the ground. She’s convinced that she did something to annoy the goddess. Pele’s element is fire. She can use it to protect or destroy. As a Hawaiian, she is the goddess I respect the most. She’s most active on the Big Island, but there are many legends of her visiting the other islands as well. If you don’t believe how protective she is about what is hers, there are hundreds of stories online of people who took rocks from the Big Island without her permission and ended up mailing the rocks back after suffering major bad luck.

My point is that if you want to work with these ancient energies, be sure you understand the expectations that come with it. People often think that working with the basic elements of earth, water, wind, and fire is not a big deal. Most of the time, it’s not, but those elements are powerful and often work together to cause significant destruction. An underwater earthquake can cause a tsunami. A hurricane uses wind and water. A tornado consists of wind and earth. A wildfire is fed by earth and wind.

While rituals and offerings can be complex and even last several days or weeks, they don’t have to. If all you have is five minutes to make an offering to the deity you want to work with, often that is enough. Provided you make the time later to do the whole shebang they’re used to having. Again, it depends. Some deities/energies require the whole enchilada before they will even listen to you, and to do less than the complete ritual is considered an insult. Remember when I said some of them were temperamental?

The bottom line is that performing rituals and ceremonies or leaving offerings is a personal choice for every practitioner. I think it’s to everyone’s benefit to understand the deities in your area. If you’re having trouble with something on your property, sometimes a small offering can change the energy and make it more comfortable. I had a friend who had a statue in her backyard specifically made to put offerings on it for fairies. She never put anything on it. Her flowers were always wilted, and even her grass struggled despite careful watering. One of our other friends suggested she put some sugar water in the fairy offering dish of the statue for a few days and see what happens. She did. The flowers didn’t take long to perk up, and the grass was green. I’m not saying that because she made the fairies happy that they took care of her yard, but it’s a heck of a coincidence, and I don’t believe in coincidences. I think she made the offering, and it was accepted. This is what can happen when you perform a ritual or make an offering and do it right.