Warning! If any of these questions make you uncomfortable/ you don't want to answer them, that's 100% ok!! It's up to you whether or not you choose to answer them!
.・゜-: ✧☾ ☽✧ :-゜・.
Which gods/goddesses do you frequently worship/work with?
How long have you been a Hellenic Pagan?
Why did you decide to start worshipping?
What was the first god/goddess you started worshipping? Are you still working with them?
Do you have any altars (physical or digital)? What are some things that are on them? How long have you had them for?
What are some small everyday tasks that you dedicate to the gods? Who do you dedicate them to?
Have you ever had any dips in faith? If so, what made you start believing again?
Do you own any devotional jewellery? Where/When did you get it?
Do your friends/family know you are a Hellenic Pagan?
Have you ever been to Greece/Rome? Do you plan to go there in the future?
What are some things you associate with specific gods/goddesses? (Colours, Plants, Hobbies, Foods, Books, etc)
What are some tips you would give to beginners? (if you aren't a beginner yourself)
Are there any devotional acts you haven't done yet and would like to do at some point?
Have you ever taken an oath for/to a god?
What are some memorable signs you've gotten from the gods?
I saw a post on the Teen Hel-Pol community about things to devote to the gods in everyday life, and I was going to just reply to the post but decided it would be better to make a post about it in case other people wanted to know too <3
(I also had too much to put in a single comment haha)
I used to struggle with the same issue of wishing I had more small things to devote to the gods, so here's my list so far:
My current favourite is making/finding a playlist on Spotify or another music app and devoting it to a certain god, and then listening to it as a devotional act
Devoting some jewellery that reminds you of a god and then wearing it
Eating certain foods/drinks that remind you of that god (ie: seafood for Poseidon, etc)
Going on a walk/walking your dog (if you have one) in the forest for Artemis or Pan, or on the beach for Poseidon or Aphrodite, or something like that!
Just looking after yourself. Getting good sleep and enough water/food, etc. This can be to as many gods as you want it to be for.
Reading a book about Greek mythology or listening to a podcast about Greek mythology and dedicating it to the gods/a specific god you are reading/listening about.
If you want something kind of funny, I recommend Myths and Legends by Jason Weiser on Spotify. Here is a link to a playlist with his specifically Greek mythology based episodes
(some of his older episodes are a little rough around the edges. I recommend his series where he does an episode about each Olympian, which I've made a playlist for here. He is still making them, so it only has some of them gods. I will update the playlist when new episodes are released.)
Just keep in mind, that these episodes are based more on a "telling the stories in an entertaining way" way than a "respectful to all the gods and keeping in mind that this is an actual religion" way. He can be a little disrespectful to the gods, and sort of treats them like fictional characters, rather than deities, but if your ok with that (and you double check with your gods and let them know that you don't agree with everything he says, etc) then I 100% recommend it. I find them very entertaining, and are great for devoting listening to to the gods <3
Just reading any sort of book that reminds you of a god (like a romance novel for Aphrodite, etc)
This can be great, because sometimes you have a book you really want to read that isn't about Greek mythology, but you still want to devote
This one is less of an "everyday" thing, but learning a new hobby/picking up an old hobby and devoting it to a god, like baking for Hestia, or surfing for Poseidon, or something like that.
Anyways this is my current list! If I think of anything else I'll add it, but I hope this helps <3
May the gods be with you!
The quality is shit cos my camera is rlly bad but it's the best I can do
(Ignore the super dirty window. It's always behind a curtain so it never gets cleaned)
The good thing about having a window sill that is always behind curtain, however, is that it's super great for putting an alter on when you don't want your family to see!
See? They'd never think to look behind it :D
More detail about each thing under the cut ↓
A little trinkets bowl that my grandma got me. One of the birds is pink and idk it just reminded me of Lady Aphrodite.
The dice sitting in the bowl is a dice from my first ever set of dice (I play dnd and have quite a few of them).
I have dedicated the entire set to her, but decided to just put one on her altar because
A: There isn't really room for all of them
and B: That way, I can still use the dice when playing if I need to make an important roll and want to ask her for good luck
The dice is purposefully set so that 5 is showing because I googled it and it said sometimes Lady Aphrodite can be linked to the number 5?
A necklace my friend got for me. It reminded me of Lady Aphrodite because its pink, and also because there are some like, iridescent beads which remind me of pearls.
I've offered it to Lady Aphrodite and sometimes wear it as a piece of devotional Jewellery
It's sitting on a shell that I found. It's really big and unbroken (aside from a few small chips). It's also pink, but it's kinda hard to see it in the picture.
You can also see the bottle of nail polish in the background. I've also offered that to Lady Aphrodite, so when I wear it it's a devotional act to her, kind of like devotional jewellery, but with nail polish. I don't have a picture of it by itself like the other things cos it's not that interesting tbh. Just a bottle of pink nail polish.
(Ignore how messy the lid is. Idk what happened to it 😭)
(I had to use flash to get a good picture cos my camera was not focusing)
These are called Moon Blocks. I got them from Taiwan, and people use them at temples there to ask yes or no questions to the gods (kind of. That's a bit of a simplified way of saying it, but it's sort of the gist. If you want a more in depth explanation for how they're used let me know and I can explain)
I use them when I have a question for the gods (I don't have a deck of tarot cards yet, so this is sort of the only way I have to get answers. I guess I could try using the dice but idk if that's a proper way to ask the gods questions or not)
This is an empty can of Monster that I rinsed out and poked holes in with a needle. There are fairy lights inside.
Monster cans are SOOO pretty imo so I chose this one cos it was pink and also I asked Lady Aphrodite if she wanted this one or another can that I had and she said this one so yeah.
I sort of use this in place of a candle because I don't have a good candle yet and also my family doesn't know I worship, so I wouldn't be allowed to light candles.
I'm also thinking about making some little pink/white paper hearts/stars to add, so if I end up making those I'll show you.
Anyways yeah! Thank you for taking the time to read all of this if you made it this far!
It's not the more intricate altar, but it's me making do with what I have, with limited space, so I'm pretty happy with it for what it is <3
Hi I heard you could repost anon asks to the hel pol community?
I have something I wanted to ask the hel pol community but I wanted to do it anonymously and saw ur post so thought I would give it a try?
(I think u also mentioned smt about a candle emoji so here: 🕯)
Uhh so here's my question:
I've been having a little bit of a dip in faith recently? Like, sometimes I feel like I'm just going through the motions of worshipping and praying, and I don't really believe in the gods.
Like, I'm scared of doing things that could 'prove' the gods don't exist. For example, I sometimes flip a coin to get simple yes or no answers from the gods (not sure if it's exactly orthodox, but I don't have any other way to ask questions easily), and I'm scared of asking questions that I will know the definitive answer to in the near future.
Like for example: asking Lady Athena if I did well enough on a test I just took to pass it.
Because I'm worried I'll get one answer (for example: yes you did enough to pass) and then when I find out in the future, the answer I got from the gods will be incorrect (like failing the test Lady Athena said I would pass)
I'm not really sure what to do about it, because I really enjoy worshipping the gods, but I want to believe more in them, and I was wondering if anyone had any answers specifically to my last point about asking questions.
Anyways, sorry for the kind of long message, thanks for letting me use ur ask box for this 🤍
9. Do your friends and family know your a Hellenist
My family does not know, but I was thinking about maybe telling my mum? It would take some explaining, but I think maybe I could get her to understand?
My (immediate) family is not religious, so at least there wouldn't be an issue there.
As for friends, I have one really close friend who knows, and I talk about helpol related things with them.
I've mentioned a few times to my other friends that I am a Hellenist, I just don't really talk about it with them, and some of them have probably forgotten haha
3 on list? my brother and i got in really differently so I'm always curious
3. Why did you decide to start worshipping?
ok so first I'm going to have to go on a bit of a rant about how I view religion so be prepared for that
Now, keep in mind I know my view on religion is quite different from other people's but please respect that this is the way I view it, and I will respect how you view it <3
Ok so pretty much, the way I see it, if there was a god or a group of gods that either made and/or look after humanity and the world, surely they would understand that worshipping different gods and having different belief systems is kind of a core part of human nature?
Like I see lots of religions saying how "Our god/s is/are the only real gods out there and if you worship any other god you will go to [the equivalent of hell in said religion]"
And I just kind of don't understand that way of thinking? Like if there are god/s out there, surely since they created humans they would understand that that's just how humans are.
Different cultures worship different deities, because they have different values/different things they need to pray for.
For example, lots of Roman gods focused on aspects of war because the Romans were often at war, and valued things like strength and discipline in their culture. This means that those were the gods that they needed/best fit with values they held highly.
To me, this means that whenever anyone worships any gods or deities, no matter the religion they're from, the god/s that are out there just kind of count it as worshipping them, no matter what name the people praying use.
The "real" god/s could be the christian God, or could be Greek gods, or Norse gods, or all of them combined, or a new god or set of gods that no one knows about.
And whenever someone prays -say for example, when I pray to Lady Aphrodite- whatever god/s there are will take notice of me praying/offering something and whether or not the god that notices is really Lady Aphrodite, they still take notice of the prayer/offering and are thankful.
So, that's how I see religion, now onto how I personally chose to worship the Greek Pantheon.
First of all, the reason I chose to believe in any gods at all is because I find it comforting to think that that is are higher being/s that can control the outcome of things (because quite frankly, having no control over the future what so ever is terrifying)
And it also means that when bad things happen, I can remember the gods, and think "Well, this is what they have decided to do, so they must have a good reason for doing it"
As for why I chose to worship the Greek Gods specifically,
I've always been really interested in Greek Mythology, and after I read Percy Jackson (which I know if very different to actual mythology and stuff) I started looking into it more and I just found that the community was so accepting and it seemed so chill, and since I was most interested in Greek Gods, and I had been wanting to start worshipping someone for a while, I decided I would try it out, and I am very glad that I made that decision!
TLDR:
It's a core part of human nature to have different cultures and worship different deities, so surely whatever gods are there would understand that and not care who you worship.
I chose to worship Greek Gods simply because those are the gods I am most interested in :)
Ok, rant over! Thank you for reading all of that if you did. It's kind of hard for me to put how I feel about religion into words so I hope this made sense.
I know it's quite different to how lots of other people see the gods, but once again, please respect my opinion. You definitely don't have to share it if you don't want to, but this is what I choose to believe.
15: Have you ever gotten any memorable signs from the gods?
Yes!
One from Lady Aphrodite, when I was asking for a sign on whether or not there was hope for me and my crush (kinda a silly thing to ask about but I was in full blown gay panic and I needed her opinion) and since I was on holiday in a place with lots of fish, I said "if there is hope could you send me a pink fish" and the next day when I went snorkelling I saw a PINK and green fish!! And it came up to me like 4 times during the course of the hour(ish) I was there!
(Me and my crush did end up together so there definitely was a chance!)
Found this picture online of the kind of fish I saw (the one I saw had a bit more pink on it but this is the same species I think?)
The other time, I was on a plane, and the airline I was flying on has like a quiz that plays on a screen during the flight (it was a short flight) and I was listening to music and kinda absentmindedly doing the quiz, and a question came on that was like:
"Which airport does the movie "Terminal" take place in?"
And I had no clue so I was just like "New York Airport?"
And I kind of jokingly said to Lady Athena like hey, give me a sign you're there and make my answer right (very much in a joking manner, I wouldn't say something like that seriously to the gods)
And when the answer came up it said "JFK airport" and I was like "aww" (Cos I don't know my US airports)
But then in brackets it said like "(In New York)" and I sat like bolt upright in my seat haha
Anyways yeah those were the two main times I can remember!
