some helpol reminders
(from a mostly revivalist perspective)
• candles aren’t reliable for divination. don’t use candles for divination. please at least try to get a pendulum or something if you want to do divination. candles are just too easily influenced.
• no, the gods aren’t mad at you (unless you killed someone or burned down a temple). just because your candle flickered doesnt mean theyre mad. just because they didn’t answer your prayer right away doesnt mean theyre mad.
• the gods CAN reach out to you. it happens to a lot of us. on the other hand, you don’t have to wait for a god to reach out. worship whoever the hell you want.
• you don’t need an altar. you could just have an empty space you dedicate to praying in and that would be fine. also, you don’t need a BIG altar. it could be a mint box or something and that would be fine.
• you’re allowed to eat offerings. if you’re not in a position where you can waste food, just eat the offerings. not everyone is privileged enough to burn or bury all their offerings and in fact the ancients often ate parts of their offerings too
• the myths aren’t meant to be taken literally, but rather metaphorically. don’t disregard them entirely but don’t treat the gods like their myths literally happened and theres physical proof of them happening
• anything can be a devotional act. having a glass of water could be a devotional act.
• offerings dont need to be big or exquisite or expensive. grab a flower from your backyard or something. offerings dont even have to be physical (re; devotional acts).
• it’s okay if you struggle to find information about the religion. not everyone has access to them and it’s privileged to think everyone has to read ten books on the subject (while that would be nice, we need to be gentle with those who struggle to do research on their own).
• gatekeeping isnt okay. it doesn’t matter where someone learned about the religion, they should be welcomed and treated with respect.
• same goes for age, ethnicity, and previous religion if they had one. young polytheists shouldnt be shamed. people who aren’t greek CAN be a helpol (this even happened in the ancient times, generally as long as you could speak greek you could take part in rituals, no matter your ethnicity).
• you don’t have to take part in every single holiday/festival/etc. you could just take part in those for the gods you worship. also, it doesnt have to be complicated. you could just take some time to pray to the gods the holiday is for/about.
remember, your practice is yours. it can be as complicated or as easy as you’d like it to be. don’t let people on the internet dictate your practice.
(but if someone is trying to educate you on a topic you may have gotten wrong, please at least humour them. it’s rude to outright say “No I don’t care”, especially if the topic is regarding actual ancient history)
