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Day 16 of Hellenic Polytheism

If you could give one piece of advice to someone who’s just starting in Helpol, what would it be? by @wisdom-devotee

ONE?! Thats just not fair.

Practice and learn at the same time. Do not wait for signs, divination, or "callings" to start worshipping the Theoi. Theoi dot com is fallible so use multiple sources.

But thats just one 😬

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FOR THE LAST TIME

👏 APOSTASY is the rejection of a faith after having professed it;

👏 HERESY is selective belief in only some of the tenets of a faith one professes, or belief in tenets contrary to those of a faith one professes;

👏 BLASPHEMY is derogation of the honour due to God.

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we’ve been curious for a while. reblog or don’t, we don’t care

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Fun and easy habits to develop as a pagan!

Or, a few ideas of routine pagan stuff I personally engage in, or wish to start engaging in.

Opening the curtains and taking a quick moment to appreciate the daylight (or the darkness) of the outside. Draw from it the energy you will need for the day!

After waking up, saying a short prayer to a deity of your choice (you could very well change it up based on your intent, or always pray to the same if you are devoted to one in particular). A simple “Good morning. I will try to honor you today” shows that you’re thinking of them!

Taking a little time every once in a while to learn about local plants, trees or fauna! Little by little, you’ll learn to recognize them when out in nature. Nothing more rewarding!

Playing a song, or simply instrumental music that reminds you of your spirituality when doing chores, preparing for the day or the night, etc.  Useful if the day-to-day makes you feel disconnected from your spirituality! 

Every once in a while, cleansing a spiritual space by simply cleaning it out before lighting a fragant candle or incense. Always makes me feel refreshed!

Focusing on a picture of a deity/deities (or spirit/spirits, or ancestor/ancestors) of your choice in adoration. What can they teach you today? How can you honor them? If a new and inspiring idea comes to your mind, why not note it down!

Diffuse a smell (either by candle, incense, essential oil diffuser or else) while getting prepared for the day! If such a topic interests you, you could learn about how different smells affect us, and how you can use that in this specific ritual. With what intent do you wish to start your day?

If you have a book/books on mythology that pertains to your deity/deities or their related culture, why not read a few pages every once in a while, just for fun! Like the song/music I mentioned before, this an easy way to start your day thinking of your spirituality.

Looking up art: depictions of deities, or if you worship nature spirits, pictures of the animal or plant the form of which it takes.

Adopting a deity’s symbol for the day! You can do that by wearing a piece of devotional jewelry, or even drawing a rune/sigil/symbol on your skin so as to keep the deity in mind.

If you’re reading this, it means you use tumblr! Why not use such social networks to talk to other pagans who share your practices? There’s lots to learn from each other! Plus, you may make good friends this way. 

Look outside, observe the weather. What color’s the sky? How strong is the wind blowing? In what direction are the clouds being blown? Stay in tune with nature! You may even become able to tell which signs foretell which weather events! 

Make stuff you find in nature into amulets. For example, if a leaf, rock, acorn, fallen branch or else catches your attention, why not bring it home as a lucky charm? If you possess such a skill, you could even make it into jewelry!

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public libraries are so sick. there are five books I want to read and they're all relatively new so they're only available in hardback which is so expensive but it just cost me $0 to place holds on them. five books for zero dollars. it requires nothing but clicking a button and then going to the library to pick them up when they're ready. zero dollars. that's crazy

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There are only two guarantees in life:

Death

People are going to be assholes on any positive Zeus and/or Hera post

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One time Ares specifically asked for My Vodka. I’m no man to say no to that. So, Ares seems to like toffee vodka.

Unusual Offerings

For the past few months, my life has been really hectic. I've been in the process of moving, I went through a really hard break-up, and I've been adjusting to being single, being in a new town, having a new job, etc. Throughout all of this, Lady Aphrodite has been so understanding and lovely and helpful, and I've felt guilty because I know I haven't been showing her enough attention or giving her offerings like I should.

Recently we got some fresh locally-grown strawberries, and I thought "Ooh I bet she'd love to have some!" But when I went to get her some strawberries, I realized that there weren't any left. Then I got the image of honey in my head. I've given her honey in the past and know that she likes it, so I decided to give her some honey as an offering. Unfortunately when I went to get the honey, there wasn't any. We haven't bought any yet since moving.

At this point, I was not really sure what to give her. I said, "Lady Aphrodite, I really want to give you an offering that you will enjoy, but I'm having trouble finding something. I'm going to go to the restroom. If you have any preferences for an offering, please tell me by the time I come back."

I went in the bathroom and I was immediately drawn to my bottle of honey-colored shower gel on the side of the tub. I picked it up and looked at the fragrance notes - apple and vanilla. It wasn't honey that she wanted, it was this. I thanked her for the guidance and put some of the shower gel in a little dish for her. A few minutes later I looked outside and saw a bumblebee happily buzzing around, which I took to be a sign of her approval.

Sometimes our deities surprise us with the offerings they ask for. If you feel drawn to offer your deity something other than their documented offerings, there is nothing wrong with that. The most important thing is to listen to your deities.

Feel free to share some unusual offerings that your deities have asked for or that you've given them. I would love to hear!

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⚔️ Ares ♂

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Goddess Hestia: Home Blessing

Lady Hestia, goddess of home, family, and shelter,

I ask for your blessing upon this home.

Watch over and protect those who live here.

May love and devotion, which burn so brightly in your heart,

blaze in our hearts as well.

I honor you first and last, Great Hestia,

goddess of sanctuary.

Be welcome in our home for all time.

Prayer to Hestia when blessing a home.

Alternate design of this post.

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I often worry about why the gods spend time interacting with me and other people.

I feel I am lesser than them, and like… why would a god hang out with a human?

But I think honestly..it��s just such a pointless question to worry about. I could wonder all day every day and use my worries to invalidate my own practice. but it wouldn’t change anything.

Because they are there nonetheless, because they have answered questions and prayers. And because I can feel their love and sometimes their displeasure too.

Whether I feel worthy of these interactions really is irrelevant at the end of the day. Because they are happening and I should just be happy for that.

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Made my own wheel of the year because I was sick of finding different dates on every wheel I found .

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Oh my god, food extract is not the same as an essential oil.

Food extract is the flavoring of something cooked down into a carrier oil or alcohol that is safe for human ingestion.

Essential oil is the pure extract of the plant refined down and distilled for concentrated medicinal purposes to a significantly higher strength than simply adding ground up mint leaves to your water. The two are not comparable in any way.

Cinnamon extract and cinnamon essential oil are not the same thing.

One is about 100 times the strength of the other and can also cause acute organ failure. I’ll give you a hint, it’s not the food extract.

Sweet gods I’m not trying to be mean, I want you to be aware and safe and stop putting yourselves and others at risk. Please.

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Oh my god, food extract is not the same as an essential oil.

Food extract is the flavoring of something cooked down into a carrier oil or alcohol that is safe for human ingestion.

Essential oil is the pure extract of the plant refined down and distilled for concentrated medicinal purposes to a significantly higher strength than simply adding ground up mint leaves to your water. The two are not comparable in any way.

Cinnamon extract and cinnamon essential oil are not the same thing.

One is about 100 times the strength of the other and can also cause acute organ failure. I’ll give you a hint, it’s not the food extract.

Sweet gods I’m not trying to be mean, I want you to be aware and safe and stop putting yourselves and others at risk. Please.

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What’s your stance on white Americans appropriating local European folk traditions? Does this count as cultural appropriation? Or is it Volkist to say so?

Your question appears to frame Europeans as if they're all white and culturally monolithic/interchangeable.

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Guys.

Y’all.

I…

I just. I just… i have discovered something. And I have laughed too much. I have laughed every time I have tried to explain it to someone. I cannot get through this.

Look. Okay.

There are two things you need to know, here.

First: There’s a style of Greek pottery that was popular during the Hellenic period, for which most of the surviving examples are from southern Italy. We call them ‘fish plates’ because, well, they’re plates, and they’re decorated with fish (and other marine life).

Like this one, currently in the Met:

Or this one, currently in the Cleveland Museum of Art:

They’re very cool. We’re not 100% sure what they were for, because most of the surviving ones were found as grave goods, but that’s a different post.

The second thing you need to know is that when we (Classics/archaeology/whatever as a discipline) have a collection of artefacts, like vases, sculptures, paintings, etc. and we do not know the name of the artist, but we’re pretty sure one artist made X, Y and Z artefacts, we come up with a name for that artist. There are a whole bunch of things that could be the source for the name, e.g. where we found most of their work (The Dipylon Master) or the potter with whom they worked (the Amasis Painter), a favourite theme (The Athena Painter), the Museum that ended up with the most famous thing they did (The Berlin Painter) or a notable aspect of their style. Like, say, The Eyebrow Painter.

Guess what kind of pottery the Eyebrow Painter made?

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"damn I'm crying over an insect" "why am I having such strong feelings over how the sky looks" "it's weird how happy this small thing made me feel" THAT'S BECAUSE YOU LIVE HERE!!!! you live on this earth. everything all the time is an experience, no matter how common or mundane. this world is unique. so are its small moments. it is good to enjoy a tiny thing. you love the world even at its smallest scale.

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alright this is annoying me! medusa wasn’t a rape victim in greek mythology!

 there’s no existing greek poet who ever wrote about that origin for her. she was born a gorgon with her two sisters stheno and euryale. perseus’ who was roughly about a teenager when he killed medusa, did so to save his mother because the king of the island they washed up on, wanted his mother, and wanted to rid himself of perseus, so he charged perseus to bring him the head of medusa, a vicious gorgon, in which the king was sure that perseus would be turned into stone like many many others. athena & hermes aided him; athena gave him a shield & hermes gave him his winged sandals. using this mirror athena gave him, he was able to turn the tides on medusa because he could see her reflection without being turned to stone, he then cut her head off.

stop using ovid’s version as the greek version, roman and greek as much as people love to make jokes that romans copied greeks, they have their differences including this myth.