What to put in your hellenic journal and why it helps
Building a kharis with gods using a religious journal is really helpful. It helped me keep my information and my thoughts related to the Gods organized. It can also help beginners if they are uncomfortable reciting hymns out loud.
What could be put inside it:
Every day write one delphic maxim and write how you interpret it or what you think about it
Make a shopping list for your altar and offerings
Compose prayers
Hymns/ prayers to your patrons and Hestia, Nyx, Helios, Hypnos
Write something as if you are conversating with the Gods.
Important information on deities
Favorite offerings, incenses, and libations of the Gods
Important Callendar events, festivals, and key info on celebration
Quotes from the most famous books of Gods that you relate to or want to remember
Instructions on composing prayers
What afterlife means in Hellenismos
What defines hubris, agos and miasma
7 pillars of Hellenismos and their meaning
Do some drawings for the Gods as a devotional act
Include your personal experiences with the divine and how it affected you
I think pagans are very strong people. The lack of pagan representation, lack of temples, communities and overall acceptance of our religion hurts deeply. There is a reason why many people, including me, take big breaks from paganism. It is indeed very hard to stay consistent. The amount of doubts all of us are having when doing a certain practices is unimaginable, but we try, sometimes fail and try again. What I wanted to say is that no matter if you step away or feel like you are failing what you are doing is important . It keeps our religions alive and going. No matter how oppressed we are, we will not yield and we will continue to believe.
kinda confuzzled. half of the research ive done/people say we celebrate yule or the solstice but the other half says we don't. is it a preference? someone plz tell me. i just wanted to be properly educated and im a bit lost T-T
rare cults, festivals and some crazy devotional acts
The title "Mother of the Gods" was given to multiple deities: Gaia (the Great Mother of the Olympian Gods), Rhea (mother of Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia), and Demeter (also known as the Mountain Mother). However, the name that is commonly associated with her is Cybele. In myths, Cybele drove her lover Attis insane for his infidelity, which led him to self-castration (there were actually men who castrated themselves in her devotion; they would get exiled from Rome or, in some places, become eunuch priests). Cybele started mourning, and it introduced death in the natural world. Then she resurrected him, and it brought the world of nature back to life.
Cult at Cyzicus
Cyzicus was the first Greek city to adopt the cult, and it lasted for a thousand years. The festival took place in the sanctuary on Mount Dindymon with animal sacrifice as a central role in the ritual. Young men would dance in armour. Music would have been created with flutes and drums, so it would be loud and noisy instead of the quiet melodies that lyres provided. Quoting the Homeric Hymn: 'She loves the clatter of rattles, the din kettle of drums and she loves tthe wailing of flutes' Poet Pindar also mentioned girls singing at night to the Mother and to Pan.
Cult in Athens
In Athens, there was a festival known as Galaxia in honour of the Mother. It was names after a barley porridge that was eaten in the festival. We do not posses the information of how the festival was celebrated, but we do have a vase that depicts how it would look like
Two cult statues surrounded by worshippers, some of them with flutes. The male figure behind the Mother of the Gods is actually Dionysus. Some people also hold snakes.
The Cult of Corybantes
In Erythrae and Athens there was a cult of the Corybantes that was mentioned frequently in Athenian literature. Plato in Euthydemus, for example: 'They are doing the same things as in the teletai of the Corybantes, when they perform the enthronement around the person who is to be initiated. And now these two are simply performing a choral dance around you, and as it were they are dancing in play, so that afterwards they can initiate you.' This initiation is proposed as a cure for madness and was therapeutic in purpose.
Credit to the creator of the dividers: @steviebbboi
I have sources for all the information provided. I mostly used a few books and a research paper.
Pelanoi (singular: pelanos) are a type of traditional offering in ancient Greek religion, especially in Hellenic pagan practice. Pelanoi were small ritual cakes or flatbreads, usually unleavened, made from barley or wheat flour and mixed with honey, olive oil, wine, or milk.
1 cup of whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons barley flour
1/2 tablespoon of instant yeast
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3/4 cup water
4 tablespoons of extra flour for dusting
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Passive Time: 4 hours
In a bowl, fold the flour, the yeast and the salt together. Add the warm water. Keep folding with the spatula until all the flour is moistened.
Place the sticky dough onto a floured surface and knead it until the dough becomes smooth, which should take 2-3 minutes. When kneading, always sprinkle some whole wheat flour on your surface and your hands so that the dough does not stick.
Transfer the dough into a floured bowl and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let it rest at warm room temperature for about 3 hours until doubled in size.
Place the dough onto a floured surface. Flour your hands as well as the dough and fold the dough over 2-3 times. Fold the dough over with no added pressure.
Line a loaf pan with parchment paper and dust it with extra flour. Leave the dough ball for another hour until it has doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 230°C or 450F. Place a baking dish filled with hot water on the bottom of the oven. Steam is important for your pelanos to form a proper crust.
Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the baking dish filled with water. Bake at 220°C for another 30 minutes until golden brown.
Anyone can participate regardless of how long you’ve been a Hellenic polytheist! My hope is to use these questions to reflect on the year, and repeat next year to see what has changed, and hopefully to continue doing that every year!
Answer in as much or as little detail as you see fit. You are allowed to skip any questions that you are uncomfortable answering. These questions can also apply to heroes, not just deities. You can pick specific deities to answer each one, or answer the questions with all the deities you worship. This might apply to other Pantheons and I’m happy for it to be used as such. Feel free to tweak some of the questions to fit those pantheons if you’d like!
Please link this list on your posts with your answers so that it is easy for others to find if they want to participate too after seeing your answers.
THIS IS TO BE DONE DURING DECEMBER, I’M JUST POSTING THE LIST NOW SO PEOPLE CAN FIND IT!
Have fun!
DAY ONE: Who was the first deity you began worshipping? Do you still worship them now? If this has been answered before: how has your worship changed since last year?
DAY TWO: Which deity did you most recently start worshipping? Were you called to them or did you reach out first? Do you think there were specific reasons behind why you were drawn to them?
DAY THREE: How long ago did you start Hellenic Polytheism?
DAY FOUR: Are there any deities you don’t currently worship but want to learn about?
DAY FIVE: How much have you bonded with your deities?
DAY SIX: What’s one way you incorporate Hellenic Polytheism into your routine (daily, weekly, monthly, etc?)
DAY SEVEN: Are you openly a Hellenic Polytheist offline? How does being open/not being open effect your worship?
DAY EIGHT: Do you have altar(s)? If you do, how do you use it? If you don’t have one, do you want one? Why/why not?
DAY NINE: Is there a practice that’s common among other Hellenic Polytheists that you’re skeptical about?
DAY TEN: What’s something you’ve learned about Hellenic Polytheism that you wish you knew sooner?
DAY ELEVEN: What is the clearest sign you’ve received from a deity?
DAY TWELVE: Do you do food offerings or libations? What do you do with the food/drink after you’ve offered it?
DAY THIRTEEN: Do you write your own prayers?
DAY FOURTEEN: Do you have any hobbies that fit any of your deities’ domains?
DAY FIFTEEN: How has your worship changed you?
DAY SIXTEEN: If you could give one piece of advice to someone who’s just starting in Helpol, what would it be?
DAY SEVENTEEN: Send out some love! Are there any Helpol blogs here on tumblr that you follow and really like?
DAY EIGHTEEN: How can you best describe your relationship with each of your deities?
DAY NINETEEN: If you had to assign one song to each of the deities you worship, what songs would you choose?
DAY TWENTY: Do you have a favourite aspect of Hellenic Polytheism?
DAY TWENTY-ONE: Are there any retellings/adaptations of greek mythology that you LIKE? Why/why not?
DAY TWENTY-TWO: Is there an aspect of Hellenic polytheism you haven’t yet gotten to try but hope to in the future? Do you have any other Helpol-related goals for next year?
DAY TWENTY-THREE: What’s a bit of UPG you have with your deities?
DAY TWENTY-FOUR: What’s an offering you’ve made that you’re really proud of?
DAY TWENTY-FIVE: What was the most surprising thing you’ve learnt about Hellenic Polytheism or your deities?
DAY TWENTY-SIX: Do you celebrate any festivals? Which ones or why not?
DAY TWENTY-SEVEN: Share a fun fact about one or more of your deities which you think is underrated or not well-known
DAY TWENTY-EIGHT: What is your favourite myth?
DAY TWENTY-NINE: What is an aspect of your deities you really appreciate?
DAY THIRTY: Do you have a visual interpretation of your deities? Is this different from usual depictions you see of them?
DAY THIRTY-ONE: Share a positive experience you’ve had this month/year with one or more of your deities
I’m not saying you can or cannot do anything in your own craft and practice. I am not an authority over anyone but myself. This is just something I don’t see talked about.
I see really polarizing opinions of God Spousing, but I wish there was room for discussion surrounding the topic. It’s okay to critique something and bring a new awareness to something that is an active practice in all the different pagan paths, without it being destructive.
My main concerns surrounding God Spousing are Doubt, Consent, Psychosis and Delusions, and Boundaries.
It’s a personal opinion of mine to have a healthy amount of doubt in any religious or spiritual path is good. This just means allow room to be wrong. If science can ultimately prove that these beings only exist in our imagination, that’s cool! Nothing to be ashamed about, just a new discovery to work with. I think we can agree that if your practice has been helpful, then that’s what really matters.
That being said, most religions rely on faith. Science cannot prove, as of today, that spirits or deities exist or don’t exist. Which means there’s no real evidence to suggest your deities are real, and to doubt their existence is just recognizing this fact.
If you absolutely believe, to the point that there is no other reality then the one where gods, spirits, and magic exist and everyone else is in denial about it, then I think that’s a problem. I’ll get more into that later.
CONTENT WARNING ‼️
I mention SA and consent in this next bit. The section that goes into Boundaries will mention mental health, psychosis, and delusions.
Onto CONSENT. This is a major one, for me. I’m a survivor of SA, and I have parents that don’t understand consent. I have been working on this with a therapist for 5 years, and I can confidently say that I’ve learned a lot about what it means to me.
I don’t personally feel like you could pull any amount of tarot cards or have any amount of dreams that would ever prove that a deity has given you permission to enter into a romantic relationship with them. Most of the deity interactions are unverifiable human experiences, meaning you BELIEVE them to mean something. You don’t KNOW these things to be true, or as a fact.
So if you don’t know you have permission and you do it anyway, where is the line in the sand? How do you know you haven’t crossed a threshold that you can’t come back from? If these beings really mean something to you, would you risk their choices by assuming for them based off biases you see in your cards, dreams, runes or whatever?
This is where BOUNDARIES come into the mix. I have been working with a therapist for 5 years to deal with all sorts of things, but one of them was to set boundaries within different areas of my life. One of them being, spirituality.
As someone who has experienced reality breaking psychosis, I can tell you, it can ruin your life. It might set you back financially, to the point you need to restart your whole life from scratch. It can be disabling and overall life threatening. It’s not some word to be thrown around to describe having a unique or strange relationship with spiritual practices. Just because you don’t understand it, doesn’t mean it’s psychosis.
That being said, if you genuinely think and act as if you can get consent from a being in another realm to be in a romantic relationship with you based off what you interpreted from whatever means (tarot, dreams, divination in general), then I suggest taking a step back. There are no boundaries there. That is a delusion wrapped in spiritual tissue paper.
If you wanna role play and do it because you don’t think they actually exist, and you’re just having fun. That’s cool! I think there could be real therapeutic value in that. There’s no harm in being a fan to any pantheon. Regardless of how serious some people take themselves to be, it’s not a moral or ethical failing to use the myths as fandom fodder.
However if this is a real spiritual path, and you intend to engage with it on a religious level, then I implore you to set boundaries with yourself as to not lose your autonomy of the mind and to respect the deities as separate entities to yourself.
(What I mean when I say “autonomy of the mind” is the fact that when you lose control of your delusions it can break your sense of reality and cause psychosis.)
Psychology Definition of Delusion: a persistent false psychotic belief regarding the self or persons or objects outside the self that is maintained despite indisputable evidence to the contrary
But what is the indisputable evidence of the contrary??? This is a good question, if you ultimately can’t admit that your religion is based on faith, UPG, myths, and so on, then that is a delusion. Because we know these things can’t be proven to be true/as a fact.
Now since it is based on faith, how do you get consent as a fact? You don’t. This is the fallacy here.
Anyways…
These are just my viewpoints on why I believe people should be wary of God Spousing. You can disagree and practice however you want to. Like I said I’m not an authority over you. If you want to ask me any questions and further discuss, please do so! Maybe I missed something! I’m open to being wrong.
i say this literally every time someone gets criticised publicly, but if you're going to post something publicly on a public platform then by default the public is completely reasonable in reacting publicly to the public post on a public platform
why do people think they're ✨magically✨ immune to criticism when they're being actively harmful in a shared space? why do they always act so surprised when people inevitably retaliate when they are doing this right in their face? like it's ridiculous
I am currently doing some works on lesser known facts about different cults and worships. Meanwhile, for all gamers out here here are some games that have Greek gods/myths/worships in them:
- Titanquest 1/2 (ARPG game a lot of locations in Greece, worship of the gods)
- Assasins Creed: Odyssey (historically accurate temples, very good for research)
- Immortal Fenyx Rising (mostly tells myths, very engaging and colorful. Also funny as hell)
- Hades 1/2 (rogue-like, amazing art, you can give offerings to different gods even the uncommon ones)
- Stray Gods (role playing musical, modern day Greek gods)
- Age of Mythology (a strategy game where you can build a Hellenic civilization)
I personally played all of them except Age of Mythology, highly recommend especially if you took a break from Hellenism.
I have a question. I'm new to Hellenism and I don't know much about it yet so I decided to ask you. If I made an offering to a god ( Apollo in this case ) and I called this offering 'good for nothing' (in vulgar way) in later conversation with someone. And when I realised it I felt the god was upset and i tried to give him offerings and I said sorry multiple times, then is it possible he forgave me? I really want him to forgive me and I really love Apollo as a god.
Hi, try to refrain from saying that in the future :) My best advice is learning from your mistake. But you did everything right in the end, Apollo wouldn't be upset. An offering and a few prayers will make it alright
I will do a post about hellenic journal and what to add inside it. It really helped me built a relationship with the gods and be more organized, having everything in one place is really helpful so follow me if you don't want to miss it!
Example Modernisation of an Ancient Greek Festival
For times when you want to go all-out and make a fuss! Festivals were exciting events and a celebration of the people and their gods.
Firstly, dress up! This is a fun event, a party even, so try wearing something that gets you in the mood or mindset. Traditionally people would wash or at least wash their hands beforehand for purification.
Light a candle and/or incense and call your god/s. Say a prayer or hymn, or just tell them how great they are and that you want to share in this festival with them. Traditional actions also include a procession toward the sacred space, scattering barley (likely for purification) and making an offering/sacrifice
Festivals were held for a multitude of reasons and featured many different ways to honour the deity or event happening that day. Below are some examples and how you could celebrate in that way, alone or with others.
Imagery
Statues - dress the statue, decorate with necklaces, garlands, flower crowns, or anoint with water/oils
painting/picture/drawing - place flowers around it/hanging from the frame, anoint with water/oils
shrine/altar space - decorate however you see fit. Crystals, flowers, images, random bits and bobs, etc. Wreaths, flowers, offerings, items/imagery/colours sacred to the deity
Contests
backyard sports
card games
board games
video games
arm wrestling
races
Plays and Performances
tv shows/movies
plays
stand up comedy
playing an instrument
read poetry aloud
sing (along with the radio!)
dancing (the shuffle with your dog totally counts)
set aside a plate for the deity (called theoxenia)
Seasonal
seasonal fruits and vegetables
new wine/alcohol
celebrating/saying thanks for the warmth of summer
warding off the cold of winter
praying for a good harvest
praying for the prosperity and wealth of the family/household/city
rememberance
These are not every day activities and do not have to be enacted for every festival. But if a bit of fun and partying sounds like a good idea, go for it!
Something that always irks me is when people act like Ancient Greek religion DOESNT have rules. Or that they varied too much to be applicable.
Obviously, that’s not true.
Rules did vary depending upon region (sacred laws). But they’re still rules. There’s some pretty overarching rules such as these, which are historical:
Do not violate Xenia
Do not break your oaths
Do not abuse supplicants
Do not allow agos
Do not allow murderers
Try to approach the gods while washed (which there is leeway here depending upon the situation but for example, priests HAD to be ritually ‘pure’).
Bury the dead
Respect the Pythia
Do not steal from temples
Obey sacred laws (temple-specific rules)
Etc etc
Sacred laws did vary some. Certain sanctuaries required a different level of ritual purity than others, and some allowed you to take the wood for example from temples. But that’s the exception — not the rule. There was also multiple different levels of purity. Also blood isn’t polluting, it’s actually purifying.
Pagan religions actually do have rules. Even if they’re not applicable anymore (such as ‘respect the Pythia’ because there is no Pythia), knowing why they’re there is so important. These rules can take on new meaning, especially for revivalists, but they still exist.
Sources: Understanding Greek religion, The Oath in Ancient Greece, On Greek Religion, The Seer in Ancient Greece, A companion to Greek religion, Inner purity and pollution in Greek religion, etc.
hellenic journal @bluemorfedbutterfly - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
