How I Started worshipping Hades

Hades, god of the underworld, god of wealth and king of the dead is one of the two gods I worship and work with. I myself haven’t been worshipping him for so long however that hasn’t stopped me from worshipping him proudly. Throughout most Media Hades is depicted as evil and a villain, In my experience that is far from the truth. Hades is seen a caring god and is one of the only loyal gods to his wife Persephone.

For me it wasn’t obvious Hades was reaching out to me, in fact it wasn’t obvious to me that the gods were and that’s the thing when they reach out, most people don’t see it immediately or don’t see it till someone shows it to them. With me it’s a mix especially with Hades. When I thought about Hades I used to think of the Disney villain Hades before I learned of the musical Hadestown who I also think of when i think of Hades however once I converted to a Hellenic pagan I started learning about him and saw him in a different way. I was already worshipping Hekate and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to start worshipping other gods, I thought about it but it wasn’t often. so this story is one that made me start thinking that way.

For context over the last about a year I have been dealing with family issues and I’ve landed myself where i’m no longer living with them, my parents aren’t great people so when I moved I worried for my siblings, even though I was the youngest and they were older I still felt guilty for leaving them behind when I knew they would do it for me. My mother is who my siblings are staying with and she’s well in short terms she isn’t emotionally stable has gaslit me in the past and puts a lot of pressure on my older sister and I mean a lot.

My sister is the oldest and tends to be pressure anyway she was also made to practically raise me and my brother since my parents wouldn’t and for that I’m proud of her so when I left I felt bad because I knew the effect it would have on my mum and how it would damage my sister. A few months after I left I had converted and started worshipping hekate. I was learning more about her and learned about her role in the myth of Persephone and Hades which is what made me think of Hades. At the time I was also wondering if any other gods were trying to talk to me so I tried to learn more about Hades however all i could find were the same things that meant Hekate was contacting me so I couldn’t actually tell which is why I moved one. This was in February skip to end of May and June time. I’m at a new place, I built an altar for Hekate and was open with my religion and started learning about it more.

However when you escape a very traumatic environment like my life at home was, it has an effect on you and causes some struggle even though your free. I like to refer it to the after taste like when you taste a bad food and then you still have the after taste of it afterwards. For me the after taste was constant thoughts of my siblings and dreams. In those dreams my siblings were being hurt by my mother, they were trying ot escape and hoping to talk to me for help. the dreams felt vivid, more vivid than most dreams I have. I would remember them often which isn’t normal as usually I forget my dreams by breakfast. As a witch and after I started learning about Hekate, I had heard from Hellenic polytheists about dreams having messages, they described the feeling of the dream like the ones I had experiences. When I learned about that It worried me however I tried to move on.

A common thing people who have constant thoughts in their mind and are overthinking they tend to listen to music to block them out, I do that too, sometimes not music and sometimes tik tok. One day That’s what I was doing and almost every other tik tok involved Hades, I had no idea why, maybe the night before i kept saying his name or was wondering about making a comic involving his character which is what I thought it was.

Anyway the tik toks involved Hades protecting his devotees and helping them, some were about how others worshipped him which left me thinking. It was by night time around midnight, I was struggling to sleep and to add more context during this time there was a trend on tik tok where people would show a family photo describing their past selves and then them now. I was remembering that and thats when it happened. I imagined myself doing the trend with my family and I saw words saying what my siblings were like and it was my sister being overburdened, stressed, crying and worried. Being pressured by my mother and things like that. It made me upset and feel worse about my guilt.

I couldn’t get the thought out of mind for the next hour, I tried distracting myself thinking about the other tik toks I watched that day and started thinking of Hades, and the ones I saw about how he treated his devotees. It made me wonder what would happen if I started worshipping him. Suddenly I had thoughts of words and sentences forming in my head and I started writing them. One thing about me is i’m a writer. So I wrote often and had a notebook on my bedside table.

I started writing a letter, to Hades, one asking for help, asking if he was able to see how my sister was or even help her to see if she’s okay. I started writing a letter and was practically begging for help I was tired of these thoughts. I told him everything, the past I had, my mother and how my sister’s mindset is. I placed the letter on my windowsill and repeated it in my head like it was a prayer, hsortly after i fell asleep. I left the letter on the window for a while. During that time i discussed about getting me a pendalum a few days after I did.

And when I picked up the courage I started using it and asking questions about my siblings to know everything. I was told multiple things that made me cry and worry for them even more so I decided to ask who was giving me the answer, I asked if it was Hekate it said yes, I then asked if it was someone else, if that person was a god and asked if it was Hades, the pendalum said yes and then I asked if he listened to my prayer and he said yes. making me realise the answers were from him helping me and I became happy , with true joy.

Anyway Now I worship him and his altar is on my windowsill where the letter was, I pray to him when I need to and spend time at my altars atleast once a day or every other day. I now learn about his stories and have sent a letter to my siblings with his support hoping they’d respond back. He’s also helped me learn something before they happened which made that situation hurt less than it normally would.

I am forever grateful at what the gods do and how Hades and hekate have helped and supported me even when I haven’t been worshipping them for that long.

sometimes it just takes a rough moment for goodness to come. I hope this story has helped people understand why I worship Hades and helps others see that maybe he’s trying to help them too.