THANATOS [DEATH]
Thanatos in Greek Mythology is known as the God of Death. Generally, the Greeks depicted Thanatos as ‘peaceful death’ while his sisters, the Keres, were daimons (spirits) of violent deaths.
Thanatos is thought to be cold hearted towards mortal men and deathless gods alike, earning the fear of mortals as a heartless deity who would show know pity towards those whose times, allotted by the Fates, were up.
He is the son of Nyx and sometimes Erebus, the twin to Hypnos [Sleep] and the sibling to many other spirits who primarily represent negative aspects of life; Strife, Doom, Fate, Violence, etc. He is thought to live in the Underworld, making him a Chthonic deity.
Now, He is very rarely worshipped in modern witchcraft/paganism and Hellenic Polytheism, as He was widely viewed as a negative deity who shouldn’t be trifled with.
I myself am one of few who work beside Thanatos, considering Him my patron who watches over me and teaches me a wide variety of spiritual lessons.
Because Thanatos is not popular among modern witches, a new devotee looking for more spiritual information on Him might feel a bit lost. Fear not little witch, Sinclaire Veil is here to save the day!
Now that we’ve gotten past His mythological aspects, let’s get into the other useful information, starting with His symbolism.
SYMBOLISM:
Being a death deity, and also Chthonic in nature, things such as skulls and bones would be basic, obvious symbolism. You could go further with images of scythes or swords (if you choose to embrace the peaceful death aspect, and not the GENERAL death, the sword should be sheathed/covered). Inverted torches, poppy flowers, butterflies and snakes are all personal to Thanatos. More related to death, animals such as ravens and crows will also work; gravestones, grave dirt, etc. You might also consider personal preferences, such as maybe a rosewood thorny branch, symbolizing the beauty and harshness of death. Make it your own.
Now for offerings, which is everyone’s favorite part!
OFFERINGS:
Cypress, poppies or poppy seeds, grave rubbings, graveyard dirt, snake skins, butterflies, black stones such as obsidian or onyx, grim reaper symbolism, skulls or bones collected humanely, black, purple or red candles, bitter wines (I found Apothic Dark to be His favorite), cigars, black coffee/tea, dark chocolate (think bitter things when offering food…no sugar or honey!); arts, I.e. drawings, paintings, poetry, music…
CORRESPONDENCES:
Colors: black, purple, red
Lunar Phase: Dark Moon
Day: Friday/Saturday
Incense: Opium, Wisteria, Musk, Myhrr, Black Blossom
Herbs/Flowers: cypress, poppies, willow, pomegranate, birch, mandrake, mugwort, african violets
Animals: Ravens/crows, snakes, butterflies
Sabbats: Mabon & Samhain
Practices: Death Witchery, Ancestor Worship/Honor, Spirit Communication, Shadow Magick
So there you have it, the basics of working on a spiritual level with Thanatos. Thanatos is best known for his dark sense of humor, his strict father like nature and his unending wisdom. If you wish to learn of death as a physical aspect or as a concept of death = rebirth, then He might just be for you. He will teach you to look back on your thoughts, words and routines to “kill” the negative aspects that do not serve you as a person. If you make an unnecessary comment, He will be the first to ask, “Was that truly necessary? Did it make you feel better?”. Give Him a chance.
Image Source: Pernastudios.Deviantart.com/ Writing Source: UnderworldOracle aka Sinclaire Veil
I loved it =)
ReplyDeleteI wanted to thank you for writing this article. I have been extremely curious about Thanatos and the concept of rebirth. Thank you for nudging me in a good direction.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this advice. I’m an a thanatos devotee and it’s nice to know I’m not alone.
ReplyDeleteThis is incredibly helpful! Could I possibly contact you regarding questions on the topic?
ReplyDeleteHmm...I would have thought that offerings of life would be more beneficial to Thanatos. Most offerings are supposed to be symbolic of sacrifice and I figured that the best sacrifice to death is life.
ReplyDeleteI admit that I find myself here because of a recent realization. Since I was little I always felt as though Death was there standing beside me. Not in any ominous or negative sense. More that I was touched. I've died a few times(2 via drowning, 1 lead poisoning,1 ego death, and I'm not sure about this last one but I had hypothermia and don't remember much.) I suppose you would call it near death experiences which I don't talk about much, and ever since the first I kind of felt that Death is always with me, guiding me, watching over me.
I've been looking for a path in life for a very long time. Nothing ever seems to fit or suit me. Nothing ever resonates with purpose. Recently however I came across the idea of becoming a Sexton or Embalmer, perhaps even a Mortician or Death Midwife. It made me feel at peace whereas most other options made me feel as though my heart was twisting painfully. I thought to myself for the first time in a long time, "This is what I am meant for, what better way to honor Death?" and since I've been pondering how little I actually talk about Thanatos being an important part of me.
You were right about how in many spiritualities there aren't many who follow this path. Death is something terrible, frightening, threatening and to be feared. Even violent death is seen as something awful. In many cultures working with the dying or deceased is considered taboo. I found this article while attempting to understand this recent realization. I'll admit that sometimes I put aside my spirituality to just live. Do you know if Thanatos or other personifications of Death in Mythos ever had priestesses?
hey love the post but i was also wondering something. i have always worshiped death (both the peaceful and...other side of death) and im right now trying to make an altar for prayers towards Thanatos. now i got the offering bowl and the candles down but im debating whether or not i should get a statue. since there are hardly any statues of thanatos i was thinking of buying a grim reaper statue. please help me in my dilemma. i want to worship thanatos the best way possible.
ReplyDeleteI would like to thankyou, i have a mythology project due and this really helpped
ReplyDeletethank you very much you just saved me I searched the whole internet for some information...
ReplyDeleteI've been recently looking into my patron deity and i could not for the longest time find out who was calling to me. Things like the moon led me hecate or pomegranate to Persephone. But i felt at my core there was someone else. I've always been drawn to a strong father presence, I've had reoccurring dreams of a simultaneously older/ wise man and a young man with a dark beard surrounded by life and death happening at the same time.ive been drawn to animal skins and bones from a young age ( 6) and I've eaten poppy seeds most of my life so much so my mom used to tell me I would fail a drug test I ate too much. I always loved reptiles and since I wasn't allowed to have a snake bought a bearded dragon instead. My mother ( wiccan) coined me the siren when i was 10 because even though death never emotionally bothered me i would get physically ill days or hours before close family members died. And even stranger when i was young I had an obsidian necklace I had bought from a shop in indiana i grew obsessively attached to. I wore it everyday in and out of the shower refusing to part with it. I love butterflies and have always associated them with passed away loved ones since my grandmother passed at age 7. And when i was 11 I grew do attached to birch trees thst I wrote a mini story titled a birch wood. About young girls dieing and being reborn in the wood and effectively " killing" their old family and ties to their old life before returning to the wood to help rebirth others who entered. Another strange thing is I actually attempted to go to bible school at a young age and my friends mom stopped taking me because I didn't stay in service and would play in the grave yard cleaning the headstones and signing to the people. When i was 8 i nearly drowned but minutes before i jumoed off my aunts boat i heard a strong male voice simply say dont.it was deep and not really demanding just there so I faked that my stomach hurt and went below deck. My Aunt ended up hurting her knee and the boat stalled we had to call the life gaurd and i didnt know how ti swim i firmly beleive she wouldn5 have been able to save me that day and thanatos knew my time wasnt up. I dont like dark chocolate or coffee but I'm just so stunned and freaked and unbelievably happy everything fits. So we'll its like my life has just fallen into place.
ReplyDeleteThanatos is who I believe my patron deity is. I have been researching him, but there is not a whole bunch on him. This was super helpful. I have always had an obsession with animal bones and fossils, butterflies (especially) and snakes. This pretty much confirmed my thoughts. It feels very good to finally know who has been with me my whole life.
ReplyDeleteI would be super interested in any sources where you pulled this info, not to in any way discount "revealed knowledge" (i.e.channeled or "felt), but because I'm a research geek and would love more websites etc to dive into. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this. I've always been attached to death. I was never scared of it, and it never made me cry. Especially when it was peaceful. I also didn't know that snakes were a symbol of Thanatos. I tend to see snakes a lot in my everyday life.
ReplyDeleteSo I have always considered myself an atheist not really believing in any deities but recently I had a really dumb breakdown and I am wondering if maybe thanatos or a similar diety helped me. A few days ago my cat caught a mouse but didn't kill it he was just playing with it and I couldn't stand it so I took the mouse from him. My plan was to take it outside and let it go but when I got out there the mouse looked like it was in rough shape and I got super in my head about how scared the mouse must be and that it was super cold outside so I set up a comfy box and brought the mouse back inside so it would be safe and warm but I still was worried the mouse was in pain and going to die. This is when the real breakdown happened I was crying and kept going back and forth on if it was my job to kill the mouse quickly so it would not be in pain or if I should leave it alone because I didn't know how hurt it was and if it would survive or not. I was way more upset than a normal person would be but anyway I had never done this before but i asked for a sign as to what i should do, and i asked for a really specific thing to happen if I should put the mouse out of its misery and a different thing to happen if I should leave it alone and let it go the next day. Even at the time I was telling myself that was a dumb thing to do but then one of the things happened. It was the one that ment I should leave it alone so even though I felt conflicted about it I left the mouse alone for the night and took it outside the next morning and to my surprise the mouse seemed totally fine other than a slight limp but it got out of the box and ran off which it did not seem capable of when I took it outside at night. Anyways this threw me a bit like it could have just been a coincidence but it could have been something more like a deity of some kind helping me out at a time that I was really emotional. I kind of put it from my mind for a while until today when I randomly saw a thing about thanatos (and I went through a phase of being super interested in mythology when I was younger and I had never heard of him) and it just stood out to me that I was asking for help relating to death and painful vs peaceful death just a few days ago and seemingly got an answer to that question. Idk it's just interesting and I truly know nothing about any of this but I had to look thanatos up after hearing a random thing about him. Anyway I'm not really sure where I'm going with this other than thanks for sharing this information and some of your experience.
ReplyDeleteHi I'm a new devotee scince I never had any deity call me before but Thanatos called me is that a bad thing or good should I answer I'm confused
DeleteI'm hppy he loves the bitter dark chocolate I'm the only female in my family that is his patron in wich my mom made a contract for me to be his patron in order for me to live as a baby and not die I'm greatful but someone who deals with more than one deity zeus, hades, Ares. Thanatos is my favorite
ReplyDeleteI live in my house I love snakes and live near a graveyard my house has a lot of poppies around it and I was born on a dark moon phase. New to this but is it bad that thanatos called me I'm needing help on what to do
ReplyDeletehey! not sure if you take questions? im just a littel worried cuz as i was making a resin item to later use as my first ever offering to his brother Hypnos, his name kept covering up his twin's in my head? i assume this is him clameign the item, but i JUST started and a little worried. i do have a hord of dead bugs and bones tho so maybe thats why? im sorry if you don;t take questions, just ignore me if thats not your thing sorry
ReplyDeleteDoes he have a inscense that he likes i may have skipped over it but i didnt see one
ReplyDeleteI've always had a healthy respect for death and have always been fascinated by the topic since I was a child. I already do deity work with one death god, Anubis, and I have a feeling Thanatos has been reaching out to me for a very very long time and I'm just now realizing it (glimpses of a hooded shadow carrying a scythe in the waking world, dreams of skulls, butterflies). Finding information on deity work for Thanatos has been difficult, and so far yours is the only I've found that seem correct in how to go about starting a strong relationship and the best way to practice. Working with Thanatos feels like a daunting task, and a bit intimidating. Fingers crossed I don't piss him off somehow.
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