Today (10-18-19) I woke up and felt the need to share. It's been a hot minute since I have last posted but this couldn't wait.
So for starters I lost my job. Due to a small accidental mistake on my end, but non the less dangerous u was fired but given the option to resign. Now before you worry nothing sinister happened and no on would have been hurt but it is something that I had bitched about to management before and they brushed me off and now I'm getting the hammer. I'll accept my mistake but I know for fact that the other half was our HR lady hates me and wanted me gone. I sadly have to scramble for work now as my fiance still hasn't had any luck so our money will be gone soon. I'm scared but I'm not going to lose hope, I know Hades will provide as he ways done, I just need to job hunt.
On a brighter note! One of my two beat friends has exciting news, and I mean we are so close she is my sister more so then my biological one. She and my other who is my brother you guys know him on here as @oracle-of-the-dead well she has been for awhile had a particularly special dream and lately has started looking Into the symbolism of it and Oracle and i's practice. She's done snooping and after letting Oracle and I share our thoughts she has come to a realization that has me giddy. She and us believe Apollo and Artemis are trying to get her to notice them. She is a person who does deeeeep research and gets to the heart of things which does t surprise me, she is a cancer after all !!!
I'm just estatic that she's put so much effort in already, because now I know she takes it seriously ( not that I thought she didn't) but I may now be able to be part of a coven of witches with like minded people. She's already found the cutest and in my humble opinion most perfect leather journal for him. She's an artist so she wanted to connect with him on that front. I won't say too much more because I don't want to share too much of everything until she's more settled but maybe she'll make a side blog and post and share. For now my heart is full, I may have lost my job and took a hit to my own happiness, but nothing can make me feel bad if it means cosmically my dearest friend is to find happiness and the love that comes from the gods. Also she got such a sweet lover boy and bad as lady as her deities she'll be in good hands with them.
Dear Apollo has seen the flame in which we were born
Both say that it was together that we were made
Apollo stands watching with His look that says “My help is not what you need, inside yourself is the means to make this right.” This doesn’t mean he is abandoning me, I have his support, as someone on the side who is willing to catch me should I fall, but He does not need to hold my hand.
Aphrodite is furious, She knows what more I can be and that I am filled with love, but none of the love that I have is for myself and that is no longer how I can live. She is here to help, but She won’t do a thing if I won’t.
I have seen the fires that birthed us, I can feel its warmth and I must let it in if I’m ever going to keep us together.
How long have you been focused on hellenic polytheism and how it all started? (If it is alright to ask you that)
Hi 👋🏻
Don’t worry, it’s okay to ask me anything, if I am uncomfortable with an ask - I will say so.
As for the “How long have I been focused on hellenic polytheism” part of a question the answer is actually pretty straightforward - for a year and a couple of months.
But the second part was.. unexpectedly tricky to answer.
So I think that I should start answering it with my personal… lore, heh (that no one asked for). Long post ahead!
You see, I was not raised in a religious household. I feel like, in general, people in my country and my community specifically, are not really expressive when it comes to religion.. at all. To sum up, I’ve grown up with a vast general theoretical knowledge about basics of a lot of polytheistic and monotheistic religions, but without a religious mindset.
Yet, I was never an atheist. I guess I’ve lived with a mindset akin to “Well, yep, probably there are a lot more spirits, Gods and other beings that we are not aware of. Why not? Thats cool if they are there, watching over us”.
So why was it Hellenic Polytheism specifically that drew my attention in the first place? I guess it started with the cultural influence. Since childhood I’ve read greek myths, encyclopedias about ancient civilizations, loved admiring the Deities statues in museums, loved Disney’s Hercules when I was a child, loved Percy Jackson when I was a teen (I have always jokingly said that I would 100% be an Apollo’s child, which in retrospective is ironic, really).. but I have never really focused on the Hellenic Gods, you know? The thought of “Are they real or not?” have not crossed my mind?
However, last year fucked me up royally.
And, ironically, last year at the same time the shit in my life started to go down, Tumblr has decided to bombard me with posts about Hellenic Polytheism and Apollo specifically. And I haven’t researched it before?
But, I’ve read it all. It piqued my interest, I loved reading about other people’s experiences, their UPG’s, their practices.
Simultaneously, in March, pretty much out of blue, I’ve decided to start going to the oil painting lessons, that provided me an escape I desperately needed. Those lessons came at a perfect time but were not something anyone expected of me. And I was like “Huh, Apollo is the God that resides over arts, right? I’ve read that people do devotional acts to honor Deities? Might as well dedicate my lessons to him, right? Let me paint his portrait..”.
It started simple: painting lessons in honor of Apollo, then reading posts about him, then reading academic research about the Theoi, a lot of learning, learning about Divination practices, slowly getting more and more into it.
Then… a lot of coincidences (or not) started happening. Retrospectively, even those painting lessons were probably a metaphysical nudge from Apollon himself, in all honesty.
So, although slowly, but steadily the Hellenic Polytheism just happened to naturally flow into my daily life. It brought me joy. And the Deities, too, played the big part in it, of course, Apollo and Hades specifically. For that I am forever grateful.
Thoughts on some possible offerings for “closed” Hellenic worshippers.
Recently I’ve finished reading a book dated back to the year 1899 regarding the Hellenic traditions and Hellenic religion.
Some of described rituals (connected to offering) gave me an idea, that I would like to share with those who are interested.
• According to the book, not only boys have sacrificed their hair to Lord Apollon as their reached their adulthood, but also women before marriage
• Ancient alternatives to animal offerings were also baked goods.
For example, as an offering to the Lord Apollon, people who could not afford to sacrifice animals due to their economic conditions baked “cookies” in the forms of a lyre, a bow, arrows etc. They have also baked cookies in the forms of basic sacrificial animals (sheep, pigs, sometimes cows etc.).
The thought that has crossed my mind is that, maybe, if you cannot practice Hellenic religion openly and are looking for the ways to offer something to gods of your choice, you may also bake something in their honour?
I also think that the next time you are off to a hairdresser (or when you cut your hair yourself) you might as well devote this process to Apollon?
Interested in your opinions on the matter, as I am a hellenic newbie myself ☀️
