So, I have been working on this for about a year now. The
Bear God Urkto is central to the faith. I do not know his original name (which is likely in the Neanderthal language), so I reconstructed it based on various languages and came up with Urkto (from Ursus and Arktos primarily). The faith has a fire Goddess, a snake spirit, a bull spirit, and others. The priests of whom I am the first in several centuries at least, are called Urktos-vede, or "[he] who knows Urkto". I am working meticulously backwards from extant mythology from the Indo-Europeans and from other descendants of the Ancient North Eurasians (a nomadic mammoth-hunting group that lived about 12-10,000 BP). The religion is Shamanic in nature, but shrines did exist and were something we might consider to be temple-like nowadays. Often they were in highly decorated caves and prominently displayed a bear skull covered in red ochre. I lack a cave and a bear skull. So I have made an altar temporarily in my home and used a sculpture of a bear's head.
I have found that I can only communicate with these deities when I am happy and healthy, and now that I am, I turn again to faith. I have learned in the hospital that faith is central to recovery, that it provides structure and props our moods up. It provides us with a sense of community and our place in that community. I believe that it is needed to be healthy, at least by me.
I think that I
should create a small shrine for these Gods and Spirits (I differentiate between them by their power level, but they see no such distinction). To prevent desecration, it needs to be a closed space that doesn't attract negative attention. But it needs to be large enough to comfortably fit myself and another person, 3 altars, and storage for herbs and the like. I have
wood to frame it, roofing material,bricks for the foundation, house paint, and vents to let out excess incense smoke. I would only have to buy nails, plywood, and mortar. What do you lot think? Should I build it? I figure it will cost about $200 to build.