Spirituality should be a part of someone’s life. To be clear, I am not an atheist partly because I can see the divinity in the world around me, and don’t understand how viewing this as less amazing and miraculous than it is, can be a helpful mentality to have. So I view atheists as kind of the grumpy babies of spirituality who don’t really get the wonder of the Universe, and don’t get that the African idea of the Divine is far different from the “Santa in the sky” myths they were taught the idea of the Almighty is. So when I’m talking about the minimal level of observance, I’m talking about what distincts you from a grumpy baby who benefits all the time from the Divine, but doesn’t appreciate it as Divine.
Nature doesn’t care what you think. We are all Her children. She cares for us and blesses or curses us regardless of what we believe. There is no “quid pro quo”. You can’t buy blessings. Nor can you buy curses. This is not what offerings are for. Offerings and observance are to establish a dialogue so that we can better align with Nature. We are officially opening our eyes and ears to Nature and relating to it in the way that is meaningful to us, exchange, but very well aware that we are not literally trading offerings for blessings. We do these things to hold up our end in an actual physical way. The Spirits don’t need our offerings. We need to give them.
So for the layperson, I would say a good minimum would be some sort of weekly session of giving to your Gatekeeper and Ancestors, meditating, and thanking them for your blessings and lessons for that week. Pick a day that is your “church” day, based on your ancestral or sincerely adopted traditions, and make that your holy day. If you’re lucky to have an African or diaspora group with a weekly gathering, cool. If you have a Unitarian/Universalist gathering, good as well. A mystically inclined roots Yeshua church or study group? Sufist Muslims who are Nubian aware? Also good as long as they don’t have anti-ancestral beliefs. Community is a good thing. Go where you feel welcome, safe, and comfortable. If you don’t find a community that suits you, do your thing at home.
If you are a witch, sorcerer, or spiritual counselor who does any sort of healing through more than talk therapy though, you need to be daily observant. There needs to be some time every day that you address your pantheon. Daily observance needs to be a part of your routine at a level that is easy for you do. It shouldn’t be overly time consuming or complex. It can be something you do as a start or closing for the day, and it’s also a good time to bring up workings that you have ongoing. People in service need this boost every day to sort of recharge the batteries in a way, and keep the dialogue fresh.
If you can’t manage daily, at least do it as often as you can. It is important.
