diana-thyme

[diana-thyme]

you cannot be anti-immigrant and a Zeus worshipper.

being an anti-immigrant hellenic polytheist is directly against the Gods, and you are not welcome to my blog.

[diana-thyme]

I just saw someone say with full confidence that they use AI to help decipher their tarot readings and I just??? You work and worship God's of the Arts and assume it's okay to use technology that takes away from ARTISTS? And not only that, boasts about it online as if it's a good thing that you are doing when this is also scientifically proven to hurt the Earth as well. It makes no sense to me, sorry.

[diana-thyme]

Stop policing other peoples practice.

I got a helpol "tutorial video" against my will on my tiktok for you page this and I have to rant about, but I believe this is very important.

This person said in their comment section that hellenic polytheism IS ONLY a reconstructionist religion and someone who isn't a reconstructionist shouldn't be in the religion. And their post was about offerings to the gods and in their caption they implied that any offering that wasn't in the video (those being common offering like milk, honey, bread, hymns, etc) wasn't valid.

Here are my thoughts on that:

That's an opinion, not fact, and that opinion can fuck right off. The claim that Helpol is only a reconstructionist religion is fucking stupid, and that's coming from someone who's a borderline reconstructionist. I don't call myself that because I have to adapt to a modern way of practicing to make practicing more accessible for myself. Everyone has to. Including the overconfident poster who said that stupid thought. Unless that poster is currently building temples for the community, they can fuck off. They even told a commenter on their post who challenged that thought that they shouldn't be a part of the religion. It's fucking disgusting. Everyone also shows their love to the gods in many different ways. Just because someone decides to offer the gods something over another something does not mean they do not actually love the gods.

Now in these pictures, there are a good amount of things that I agree with. Yes, people shouldn't treat this religion like some game and treat it seriously. Yes, there is more to this religion than altars. Yes, TikTok has done a lot of damage to this community. But that includes this person's post. Stop speaking for the entire Helpol community. Stop gatekeeping. Stop policing shit that does not affect you.

I'm stressed right now and i don't know if this is a rational crash out💀 If I'm acting crazy, please tell me

[diana-thyme]

Hii! Hope you're having a great day/night! I love your work, and i just had a couple of questions. Am i able to like, begin to establish a relationship with a deity even if they haven't reached out to me if i want to work with them? And if they have reached out to me, (i'm seeing so many rainbows, and i'm an INDOOR PERSON - hence my thoughts of maybe iris?) what should i do? how should i proceed? Any tips AT ALL would be greatly appreciated!! Once again, i love your work, and you're so appreciated! Your blog is such a safe space for me. ❤️

Hello! Thank you so much!

You can always do that. Deities don't have to reach out for you to start working with them. I myself have only had a couple reach out to me initially, and those were (and still are) all worship relationships! Every deity I work with, I started doing so of my own accord.

I've mentioned how to get closer to deities before for worship, and it's basically (in my experience) the same way for working relationships. Learn about Iris, make offerings, erect an altar, do devotional acts, etc. When you work with a deity, you usually want a way to talk as well. Explore that! See if you enjoy just using your intuition, getting signs from her, using tarot, etc. It's completely up to you (and her, of course)!

I always recommend having a period of just worship before working with a deity. Like you said, it's important to build a relationship with her. YMMV, but I find it's easier to build said relationship without the obligations and actions of a working relationship. Then, transition into working with her. Of course, this is just my experience! This is how I do it, but your worship and relationships with deities are completely yours!

Good luck! And please feel free to ask any more questions! I'm glad I can be of help.

[diana-thyme]

Idk who needs to hear this, but the gods do not give a FUCK about race. Race is a human made social construct. Being white does not denote any special aspect of your dna, or your intelligence, or your favor with Olympus.

What skin color they are depicted as, where you are from, what color your skin is, it means nothing to them, because they are not from our society. The ancient Greeks did not consider themselves white, & were not considered white by others. You will not get favor with the gods by being racist.

[diana-thyme]

How TF is Apollo x Hyacinthus pedophilia 💀💀 Zeus x Ganymede is pedophilia Apollocinth isnt

Artemis has a pack of wild lesbians and Callisto was her girlfriend, Apollo had many boyfriends and ignored that, and calling him a pdf file is straight-up homophobic and erasing gay history

This is what Google said

In ancient Greek mythology, Apollo was a bisexual god who had both male and female lovers. He is considered a patron of same-sex love and is often associated with homosexual unions. While Apollo's primary association is with the sun and music, his role in Greek mythology is also intertwined with same-sex relationships.

"PATRON OF SAME-SEX LOVE"

Apollo was skinny and hairless in his statues so HE WAS A TWINK. Hermes, Dionysus, Hades are skinny and hairless too so it isn't just for gay people

WHERE DID I SAY APOLLO'S RELATIONSHIP WITH HYACINTHUS IS PEDOPHILIA, HELLO? I said it was a pederastic relationship, which it categorically was. If you conflate pederasty (a social institution) with pedophilia (a paraphilia), that's your problem. Not mine.

Hyacinthus was a young boy (eromenos) and Apollo was his immortal, elite lover (erastes). It doesn't matter that Apollo is himself a youthful-looking god. He's still fucking deathless, and he occupies a socially powerful role—a role WAY above Hyacinthus's—which made their relationship unilaterally unequal. That's pederasty, babe.

I don't give a flying fuck what Google AI says. Show me a secondary scholarly source where Apollo is described as the patron of same-sex relationships because there isn't a single cultic institution from the ancient Greek world in which that was the case. He isn't described as such in ancient Greek literature, or even depicted so in ancient Greek art. Him having a male lover doesn't make him any more a patron of same-sex relationships than Zeus, Dionysos, Poseidon, or Hermes, who all engaged in homosexual relationships with beautiful youths.

I said it before, and I'll say it again: you clearly aren't a gay man, because you wouldn't be speaking so foolishly.

Being skinny and hairless ≠ being a twink. "Twink" is explicitly queer slang for skinny, hairless gay men, which Apollo is not.

You know how I can tell you have not a single fucking clue what you're talking about? You include HADES in your list of "twinks."

Hades is entirely portrayed as bearded and muscular in ancient Greek and Roman art.

You are out of your element.

You brought your casual interest in ancient Greek mythology and surface-level knowledge to a fight with a lesbian classicist whose current research focus is divine sexuality.

[diana-thyme]

Have you covered Prometheus?

Yep! Right here!

[diana-thyme]

Could you please do something on Morana or Bastet if you haven't? Thank you!

Hello! Currently, I'm not doing other pantheons for my 101 series, so it won't be a separate post. But I can definitely give some ideas here!

Morana is a Slavic goddess associated with winter, death, rebirth, the coming of spring, and dreams. Some potential offerings include:

Fruit/Veggies/Other Crops or Foods

Juniper

Sleeping Aids/Medications

Flowers

Eggs and Eggshells

Straw

Dolls

Ribbon

Depictions of Snakes

Some potential devotional acts include:

Playing/Walking/Sitting in the Snow

Swimming or Otherwise Being Near Water

Keeping a Dream Journal

Celebrating the Spring Equinox

Planting/Growing Plants and Crops

Having Fires Going/Starting Fires

Visiting Graveyards

Bastet is an Egyptian goddess associated with protection, pleasure, good health, childbirth, and cats. Some potential offerings include.

Depictions of Cats

First Aid Items/Kits

Cat Fur/Whiskers/Claws

Percussion Instruments or Depictions of Them

Medications

Figurines or Depictions of Lionesses

Depictions of Snakes or Rodents

Depictions of the Sun

Some potential devotional acts include:

Taking Care of Cats

Getting Your Vaccines

Visiting Animal Shelters

Volunteering at Hospitals/Clinics

Helping Parents/Expecting Parents

Babysitting

Catching Stray Cats (if needed)

Helping Strays

I hope this helps!

[diana-thyme]

hellenic polytheism: good resource posts from tumblr

tumblr should not be a one stop shop for information about hellenic polytheism! however, these are some amazing posts i've found that come with a wealth resources from across the site.

hellenic witch and magic reading list

ancient greek religion and hellenic polytheism: a reading guide

hellenism resources

hermes google drive

hellenic polytheism - free (and reliable) resources

added:

hellenic polytheism - free (and reliable) resources: updated

hellenic polytheism grimoire

would love to see if others have posts they suggest as well.

[diana-thyme]

What are utility pages and how would one utilize them in terms of digital grimoires?

Utility pages are just pages that you can actively use in your grimoire! For example, having a pendulum board written on a page of a grimoire or taping a thin scrying mirror in. I'm honestly not sure how one would utilize them in digital grimoires! Maybe including an online tarot program or even random number generator (for things like die divination)? Or a sigil-producing program? I'd be interested in knowing if you can come up with more ideas!

[diana-thyme]

Have you done any information on Tithonus? :D

Here you are!

[diana-thyme]

Greek Gods 101: Tithonus

Tithonus is a deified prince and the lover of Eos. Excluding the universal offerings, some common offerings include:

Lyres/Depictions of Lyres

Depictions of the Sun/Sunrise

Harps or Depictions of Harps

Cicada Wings/Parts or Pinned Cicadas

Golden Grapevines/Depictions of Them

Mirrors

For devotional acts, some activities that can be done for him include:

Learning/Playing String Instruments

Sunbathing

Watching the Sun Rise

Listening to Cicadas and Other Bugs in the Morning

Reading His Poems/Other Works

Honoring/Worshipping Eos

Learning About Troy

He is not celebrated in any Athenian holidays.

[diana-thyme]

✍🏻Sappho worship guide/suggestions✍🏻

Domain: Poetry, love, beauty, writing, Poetesses, charm, eloquence, people of Lesbos.

Epithets: Richly-endowed, the Poetess, the tenth muse, Mortal muse, violet-haired, lyricist, inventor of the pektis, unrivaled in the grace of poetry, beloved of Aphrodite.

Imagery/symbolism: Lyre, scrolls, laurel, violets, stylus.

Colors: Pink, white, blue, purple, gold.

Animal: Nightingale, dove, Sparrow.

Offerings: Flowers, Candles, incense, art, poetry, lamps, fruits, romantic books, dove feathers, writing utensils, combs, mirrors, perfume, oils, lyre, wine, tea, milk, honey, sweets, bread, jewelry, gold.

Devotional acts: Writing poetry, playing the lyre, singing, reading her poetry, beauty rites, focusing on being more emotional and creative, honoring Aphrodite, feeding Doves/sparrows.

[diana-thyme]

do i have to have a picture of the deity at their altar?

You don't! It's always helpful to have a representation of the deity or something to direct prayers/offerings/etc. to, but it's not required. It's completely up to you! It's your altar, your worship.

[diana-thyme]

my page will never be a safe space to hate on any of the gods. btw!

[diana-thyme]

Normalize falling behind in worship. Normalize not constantly being at 100%. Normalize needing to take a step back in order to keep moving forward. Normalize being imperfect. Normalize being human.

[diana-thyme]

Fighting Consumerism in Magic

aka, little things to distance your craft from capitalism

Let’s all just admit that buying stuff is fun. That said, there’s a big issue of consumerism within the witchy/pagan scene. As magic work and the pagan “aesthetic” becomes more of a commodity in the mainstream, there’s a mounting attitude of needing All The Items in the highest quality (even if we’re not certain we’ll use them,) and big corporations mass-producing cheap stuff to make a buck off of a growing trend. Here’s some things you can do to help detach your practice from that and support other people in the craft:

Go outside. Check your backyard or local park for local plant life, waters, roots, etc. If your work involves things from nature at all, you can probably find a lot of your supplies… in nature. It takes a little more time, but it’s free and then you’ve gathered stuff yourself! 

Make stuff. This one is pretty straightforward. There may be key items to your practice that you can make yourself instead of buying it! That said, I know sometimes spending money is inevitable so I won’t dwell too much on this… let’s talk more about shopping:

Shop mindfully. The price of a lot of items will skyrocket once it has a pentacle or other symbol engraved on it. For example, little mortars and pestles can be very pricey in witchy shops, but you could probably get a bigger one that’s actually food safe for less at a nice grocery store. Antique stores and international markets are now your new best friends.

Support small businesses! Things are cheaper on Amazon, but the extra money goes to support real people, likely other practitioners. If you can, supporting small, local, independent shopkeepers and crafters does a ton of good. It also helps build and sustain a local community. 

Shop based on need. Don’t get something “just in case” (unless it’s banishing or hex breaking stuff; those are decent to have on hand.) It’s tempting to impulse-buy a ton of niche items and ingredients, but unless you have a reasonable idea what you’re going to use them for in the near future, it’ll probably just create clutter for you to deal with later.

Prioritize effectiveness over aesthetic. Ultimately your practice has to work for you, not just look good. I think making your work aesthetically pleasing to yourself can be an important part of really connecting with what you’re doing, but don’t make that desire burn a hole in your wallet and distract you from what brought you to this path in the first place. Altar envy is a real thing. 

Recycle/Upcycle. Use old clothing fabric for an altar cloth. That old trinket dish makes a great offering dish. Enchant jewelry you already own. That jar of strawberry jelly you just finished off will work just fine for that spell. Things can be re-purposed and made into new things.

Analyze your offerings. Special occasion wine isn’t a special occasion if you do it every time. Not every offering needs to be a grand gesture, regular maintenance is more important generally.

Organize trades. Have any pals that also practice? See if you can help each other! You could trade different goods (that old mini cauldron you bought and never used for that abandoned tarot deck, maybe?) but also services. A protection spell for a luck charm. A reading for a reading. You help them with the laundry and they cook you a meal one day. 

As always, the goal is to foster a local community of individuals doing honest work, and shedding the consumerist mindset society taught us to make us spend more money. Take up the idea that you can do magic completely on your own with what you already around you, and if you do want to spend money, see if you can do it in a way that helps the world a tiny bit.  :)