homewardskies

[homewardskies]

We're now half way into year 2025 and I do agree the following are fascinating and interesting and all, but if you're white then these ain't for you, so leave them alone. Leave them alone!

Lilith

Santa Muerte

White sage

Palo santo

Shamanism

brujería

Voodoo

Hoodoo

Limpia con huevo

Kabbalah

Orishas

Totems

Tulpas

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Prayer for the Start of the Week

To the Norns and the Divine, as the Web is Woven

As the sun rises and the wheel turns, I greet the dawn of a new week. Before me lies the unwoven thread, The path not yet tread, the story not yet told.

At the well beneath the great tree, I honor the Norns Urðr, who remembers, Verðandi, who is, Skuld, who waits with what must be.

Wise weavers of fate, Spinners of threads both bright and shadowed, May I walk with awareness of your work. May I meet what comes with strength and grace.

I call to Odin, wanderer and wise one, To Freyja, mistress of magic and might, To Frigg, keeper of deep knowing, And to all the holy powers who guide and guard.

Bless my steps as the days unfold. May I speak with truth, act with honor, Love fiercely, and walk rightly.

May I find joy in the work of my hands, Clarity in the stirrings of my heart, And peace in the patterns of the web.

This week, may my deeds ripple outward As offerings upon the loom of fate.

Hail the Norns. Hail the gods. Hail the spirits and ancestors. Hail the weaving of wyrd.

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"Ratatosk is the squirrel's name, who must scurry

about on Yggdrasill's ash;

the eagle's utterance he must bring from above

and tell to Nidhogg below."

-Grimnir's sayings, The Poetic Edda (Trans. Carolyne Larrington, 1996)

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“Give Aphrodite a red candle!” “Give her a blue candle!” Give her a candle of your favorite color. Tell her why you love it so much; is it just comforting or does it symbolize something to you? When you see that candle you’ll think “aw I love that color!” That’s literally what some of her epithets personify her as, that feeling of love and warmth! Just an idea idk 🤷‍♀️

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I've noticed this as well! And it does seem to be a rather unhealthy, unhelpful mindset, probably carried over from previous experiences and backgrounds.

Obviously, everyone has their own views on this, but mine is "why wouldn't they care about us?" The universe is always giving unto itself, 100% interconnected and dependent on each ecosystem, species, and natural force working in tandem. We see this reflected in various forms of Paganism. The gifting cycle, Kharis/Xenia, whatever you wish to call it!

For me, offerings are me paying thanks, bringing my contribution to the potluck, if you will, to the natural and spiritual cycles that already exist beyond me. The Gods are part of this, and so just as I care about the spiders in my room, the people in my neighborhood, or the preservation of wetlands, the Gods, in the same notion of thought, care about us!

The idea that they wouldn't care, in my uneducated opinion, comes from the oppressive power structures in religion that have dominated the world for the last few hundreds of years. In other words, it's an idea that was perpetuated by institutions that require human fear of an angry, disappointed divine entity to exist. I don't believe it has a place in modern pagan belief systems.

If I might inquire from the polytheistic community,

What in the ever-loving FUCK is with this seemingly common attitude that the gods view us as nothing more than a speck in the universe, not remotely worth their time or affection? That we are worthless to them unless there is some special reason they should pay us attention? That they don’t have a care for us at all?

I escaped that mindset from a cult I was forced to be in, foolishly thinking I’d be safe from it in polytheism, but instead it seems to just get reinforced, discouraging me from it altogether. That cult taught me that I was worthless to my god; that I was no more than the dirt under his divine feet, and that it was a privilege to be loved by him and seen as worthy by him, even though I was fundamentally worthless and pathetic. I don’t ever want to feel that way with any god ever again.

The lack of certainty when it comes to the gods makes it so hard for me to subscribe to one mindset or another. I can neither confirm nor deny that the gods care about us, that they care about me. So it feels really easy to be swayed from one mindset to another. It’s hard to feel like people saying “the gods care about us—about you!” Isn’t just some kind of self-soothing gesture instead of a fact.

I’ve been away from polytheism for over a year now due to the struggles I have with it + my mental health, but this mindset a decent chunk of people have about it puts me off of coming back to it. Why would you even worship gods who could not give less of a shit about you? More importantly, why do you feel the need to push those views as a fact when nobody can know for certain save for their own experiences?

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"Gladsheim a fifth is called,

there gold-bright Valhalla

rises peacefully, seen from afar;

there Odin chooses every day

those dead in combat."

-Grimnir's Sayings, The Poetic Edda (Trans. Carolyne Larrington, 1996)

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Can we like, stop making Hades out to be a bad guy in Greek myth and zues to be a good guy. Honestly Hades is like not even evil in most Greek iterations. Zues is the one who fucked everyone and caused issues. Zues is the fuckup, Hades mostly just wanted a wife. And in most iterations she willingly went no trickery and willingly wanted to stay. And after thousands of years Demeter is still upset about it. Persephone willingly stayed Hades isn't evil, and neither is the location known by the same name.

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Holidays, Offerings, and Other Ancient Praxis in Paganism: It's Not an Exact Science

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A lot of people just starting out have questions about the specific details of their praxis, which isn't necessarily a bad thing! Beginners, I've noticed, especially want to know how many holidays, what to do for them, when exactly they are, etc. Some are caught up in wondering what acceptable offerings are, how they should offer, and how should they pray. And these are all very reasonable questions from a beginner's perspective. The problem is that pagan religions, particularly those that are reconstructed from ancient belief systems, (in other words, not new age religions like Wicca) are not that easily simplified; there isn't one secret collection of knowledge on how to get it "right."

So, I wanted to break down a few of the difficulties with reconstructing historical traditions that you might run into and also remind you that maximum accuracy isn't always the goal.

1. Timeframe

The first problem we run into for recreating really anything, is that some traditions (ahem, especially Hellenic and Kemetic paganism) have a lengthy history. Those civilizations spanned thousands of years, so their religion did not exist in one singular, unchanged form for the countless generations it was practiced. If you want a modern example, we can look at holidays popular in modern culture, like Christmas, that have already changed and adapted over the course of maybe the last 200 years.

Now, put that into perspective for figuring out holidays from ancient religions. There is no single answer for how to go about Paganism because there wasn't just one correct way to practice when these religions were "alive." The best we can usually do is guesstimate based on surviving records and fill in the rest with our own UPG and experience. And that leads us to the second struggle:

2. Lack of information

This is a bigger issue for pagan traditions like Norse, Celtic, or Slavic. These people relied far more on oral tradition, well up to Christianization. Because of this, we don't have a super detailed idea of what certain aspects of the practice looked like, particularly from further back in their history. There's a bit we can infer from anthropological findings and secondary sources, although those aren't always reliable since many were retold from a Christian perspective, and we then lose the context.

3. Localization

This isn't so much an issue as it is something to simply be aware of. Ancient pagan civilizations were not monoliths of culture and belief; different regions had different practices. In Hellenic Paganism, for example, there were different deity cults that were city-specific. Just as culture changed over time, it also changed over space, so the recorded history of holidays in, say, Athens, wouldn't be the same as a rural village fifty miles north of Athens.

This is one that can really inform our modern practice because I'm fairly certain that the average practitioner isn't living like folks were back in those times. We can localize according to our own cultures, geography, and lifestyle, just as they had to do. Example: Olives and wine were a central part of Ancient Greece and many offerings were centered around this. I, however, live in the southern US. Instead of stressing about the cost of imported Olive Oil, I will instead pick honey suckles, offer a locally brewed Stout, or set aside some Crawfish.

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Now, this is all to say, don't get weighed down by the finer details of your practice, especially if you're a beginner, because the "right way" is in itself an oversimplification of the change inherent to spiritual practice. Even when the religion was still "alive," it was not a single, uniform structure (deconstruct that Othodoxy, ya'll).

Yes, a pre-made calendar is a good frame of reference for worship, and yes, a guide on how to pray to each God would have helped in the beginning. But odds are, you live in a different environment than ancient people, under different circumstances than the religion was originally practiced, and most of the original context under which they practiced no longer prevails. So you have room to create your own path.

Don't get stuck in the "learning phase" because your whole practice is the learning phase.

[homewardskies]

"Now Iapetus took to wife the neat-ankled maid Clymene, daughter of Oceanus, and went up with her into one bed. And she bare him a stout-hearted son, Atlas"

-Hesiod, Theogony 507 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.

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Excellent resource! It's been difficult to find good info on Hero Cults.

Funnily enough, I once spoke to a guy who included Technoblade in his hero cult. A little strange but hey, food for thought.

Hellenic Polytheism: Hero Worship

Ήρως-Íros-Hero

I’ve casually included hero worship in my own practice, but I’ve never really dug down into it. I knew enough to have a passing understanding and to know what hero worship looked like on the surface, but I’ve been working towards a deeper understanding of it lately. My hero worship until recently has been limited mostly to honoring a hero in relation to a Theos during festival days.

Hero worship was a prominent part of worship in ancient Greece though. Large cities could be home to several hero cults. Cults were built around not only famous figures who were possibly only legends, but around city founders, oracles, athletes, war heroes, and those who were regarded as having divine parentage. Heroes ranged from local entities, honored only in Their own town, to the great legends of epics who were known throughout Greece.

What defined a hero could be difficult to pin down, but it did center around a deceased person who was no longer completely mortal, and was not a Theos. At times the line between deity and hero was hard to define though, especially when looking at heroes who were credited as being of immortal decent.

Redfield notes that a hero was not a figure for emulation, but rather one who could not be ignored.

Types of Hero Worship

James Whitley recognizes and categorized five types of hero worship.

Oikist cults- dedicated to the worship of founders of varies tribes and cities

Cults to named heroes- these were wider spread and worshiped well known and named heroes. Think of Odysseus.

Local hero cults- these were tied to local heroes. These figures weren’t usually wide spread, and didn’t feature in epics. They were relevant only to local worshipers.

Cults at bronze age tombs- preexisting tombs would sometimes have hero worship develop around them as people created stories about who had been buried there

Oracular hero cults- cults of worshiped also developed around oracles and other hero figures who were thought to give prophecy

Hero worship, though similar in practice to ancestor veneration, differed in several ways. First, ancestor veneration was a private affair, tied to families; while hero worship involved an entire polis. Heroes would be worshiped by the city and surrounding areas, as opposed to being worshiped just by the family of the deceased. Second, hero worship didn’t necessarily involve lineage. There might not have been anyone who claimed to be descended from a hero, but that hero would still be worshiped. Thirdly, since ancestor worship was tied to the family, it was often local; hero worship could be local and tied to a gravesite, but could also extend beyond the area where they hero was said to have lived and died.

Most heroes were not thought of as having become deities. They were treated as honored dead, and thought to dwell beneath the earth in Haides’ domain. As such, most of Their worship was khthonic in nature. The term applied when sacrificing to heroes is en-agizô literally meaning ‘I take part in the pollution. Some differences applied to the worship of heroes as opposed to other venerated dead, which I’ll discuss further down. The worship of heroes, and the cultic practices applied to that worship however, appear to have grown out of ancestor veneration, and thus closely resemble the same rites used for the beloved dead and ancestors.

They were also often regarded as local fertility entities. Fertility in the sense of agricultural fertility, as well as for livestock and communities. A good example of this is the cultic worship of Adonis, where women would plant roof top gardens in His honor and it was thought that if the gardens grew it was His blessing of fertility being given.

Hero worship often centered around a tomb or other relic. Several places may have claimed to be the true burial grounds of well known and famous heroes. Also, different cities may have had their own way of tying their worship to a more famous hero. For example, Sparta boasts the tomb of Leonidas. Pausanias also writes of a tree-grove in Sparta which holds a hero-shrine to Cynisca, who was a daughter of a Spartan king. And Sparta also held a sanctuary to Helen, even though Therapne lays claim to Her tomb, and Rhodes claims sanctuary to Helen at a tree where legend says She was hanged.

How to Worship Heroes

As with all Hellenic worship, my first suggestion is always to learn about the entity you want to honor. Read their stories, learn about their worship throughout history, and find things which may be especially relevant to them.

When approaching the worship of most heroes, I’d suggest a khthonic approach. Bothros altars, unmixed libation, offerings given in full, and night time ritual are all elements of khthonic worship.

Eschara altars, low-lying altars, may also be used to burn offerings for heroes. Pausanias seems to imply that eschara style altars were more commonly used for offerings given to heroes than bothros were. The difference being that a bothros is dug into the earth; and an eschara is still an elevated surface like that of an ouranic altar, though it is much lower to the earth.

Khthonic offerings, and thus offerings given to heroes, were historically given in full to the entity being honored. This means food would be fully burned, and libations would be poured out completely. Some heroes who had come to be regarded as Theoi, like Heracles, received offerings in an ouranic fashion, but it was less common.

Types of Libations Given:

water

wine

oil

milk

honey

blood when seeking prophecy

Other Types of Offerings:

Flowers

Fruit

Meat

Votive Offerings

Devotional Activities:

Another possibility for worship is devotional activities. Athletic competitions and processions seemed to be common activities dedicated to heroes in ancient Greece, regardless of specifics.

Beyond that though, you can look at what things may be especially relevant to a hero, and find ways to apply those to your worship. What is the hero in question known for? What feats did They accomplish? What skills did They possess, that can be taken up by modern worshipers as a form of devotion?

Bringing Hero Worship Into the Modern Era

All of this presents an interesting place for modern worshipers. Most of of don’t have access to the places where the heroes of old were worshiped, so we don’t have access to Their tombs and sacred places. Most of us also don’t have any established local heroes.

We can certainly continue to venerate the well known heroes of epics and myth, even without access to Their cultus sites. But it poses the question of whether the hero is with us or not, since The tended to be regarded as localized entities. It puts us in a place where we have the opportunity to examine why a hero might be interested in our area, or if it is our worship which draws Them.

Many aspects of how we worship heroes now have moved closer to the ways in which we worship the Theoi. Idols and symbols of the heroes are used to bring Them into our homes. The nature of Their cult worship has shifted to make Them more accessible to the modern worshiper. Their worship has spread far from the local areas which They may hold sacred.

It also begs the question of how we should go about establishing local heroes for our own areas. One option, when available, is to draw on local heroes who are almost more legend than human and explore cultus options with them. Another is to look at city founders and other prevalent figures in our areas.

There is caution to be had though in building new hero worship. For one, we know that the people we are looking at venerating were real people, and most likely not worshipers of the Theoi. You could argue that we have an obligation to take into account how they would feel about being worshiped. Are they someone who would have aspired to hero status? If they would not be pleased by being worshiped, then is it truly alright for us to worship them? Currie quotes Millar that “heroization has been said to involve ‘a de-personalization of the deceased’, whereby ‘the heroized dead were released from the attachments of the actual life’.” He also writes how the approach of the hero cult separated the person from their posthumous alter-ego of hero, but that these ideas marginalize the hero cult and does a disservice by separating the person from the hero rather than embracing their transition.

Historically, heroization was sanctioned by either an oracle or by an assembly. With no renowned oracles in our time, and no assemblies, I would argue then that the approach should be a combined one of divination and discussion with the communities we do have available to us.

Sources and further reading:

http://www.uh.edu/~cldue/3307/herocults.html

G. Ekroth, The Sacrificial Rituals of Greek Hero-Cults

Carla Maria Antonaccio, An Archaeology of Ancestors: Tomb Cult and Hero Cult in Early Greece

Pausanias, Description of Greece

B. Currie, Pindar and the Cult of Heroes

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Sketch of Idun

[homewardskies]

"Pillars" of Hellenic Polytheism... A Rant

Time for me to be grumpy annoying person again

"Seven Pillars of Hellenic Polytheism" often called Seven Pillars of Hellenismos do not exist. Even with people that are like "my interpretation of," there is no interpretation to be had. Because the entire concept you are interpreting is based off Timothy Jay Alexander an ableist, sexist, homophobic-sympathizer — Link

⭐️Disclaimer If I am completely wrong and it was made by someone else please correct me

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TJA's list is made up by his own conglomeration of different Classical philosophers especially Sallustius born in 89 BCE and presented as if part of the ancient religion. His list:

Ethike Arete: the practice of habitual excellence; ethics

Eusebia: reverence, loyalty, and a sense of duty towards the Gods

Hagneia: the maintenance of ritual purity by avoiding miasma

Nomos Arkhaios: the observence of tradition, religious law, and customs

Sophia: the pursuit of wisdom, understanding, and truth

Sophrosune: the control of self through deep contemplation

Xenia: the adherence to hospitality and the guest-host relationship

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Most other online lists go:

Xenia

Kharis

Eusebia

Hagneia

Arete

Sophia

Sophrosyne

Which is very similar to TJA's original. I have also seen people add to them and drop the word "seven." Such as Katharmos, and one list with like 10+ that I've never heard before.

Kharis is sometimes defined wrong, not always but I've seen some claim "giving to the gods without expecting anything in return".

Hagenia makes zero sense because humans are fundamentally pure and miasma is not what modern Hellenic Polytheists think it is — Link. Also I really encourage you to read the TJA post's section on his views of miasma before you consider this one

Sophrosyne this may come from four cardinal virtues temperance (Prudence, Courage, Justice being the others — Wikipedia)

I have personally stated that Arete being fundamental without a historical source and I will go change that because I don't like my previous conception.

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This grouping of 7 (and its derivatives) is not fundamental concept to the ancient religion. The ones that seem truly entrenched in history, and thus based on that are fundamental to Hellenic Polytheism imo are:

Kharis: it is absolutely fundamental

Robert Parker is adamant: “almost the whole of Greek cultic practice is in fact founded … on the belief or hope that reciprocity of this kind is a reality.” link also link

And its not even on TJA's version.

Xenia: it is ubiquitous and even the epithets of the Gods Zeus Xenios & Athena Xenia.

"Theoxenia (‘theoxeny’), in myth and cult the entertaining of a god or gods by humans, usually at a meal. The thought pattern is old, and reaches beyond the Graeco-Roman world. In Homer, the gods are said to ‘meet’ or be present at a sacrifice; more specifically, at Od. 17. 485–8 they roam the earth in disguise, testing the moral qualities of mortals. This is the germ of the typical theoxeny myth, in which a deity is given—or refused—hospitality, and after an *epiphany effects a reward or punishment. ‘Failed’ theoxenies are exemplified by the story of *Pentheus, while successful ones form an aetiology for very many cults, especially of *Demeter and *Dionysus. In this pattern the host is often worshipped as a hero (see hero-cult), having been instructed by the deity and thus become the cult's first priest or the introducer of a new technique such as viticulture (see culture-bringers)." — Theoxenia by Emily Kearns Link

"Ubiquitous in ancient Greek culture, the ethical principle of xenía may broadly translate as hospitality to strangers, doing so through taking interpersonal, political, and architectural form. Since xenía includes the accommodation of foreign guests, some evidence of xenía in architecture is logically found in houses and hostels" — On the origin of the architect: Architects and xenía in the ancient Greek theatre by Simon Weir Link

Quick look on wikipedia shows Xenia in the Iliad, Odyssey, Argonautica, as well as Platoism

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"But" I hear you typing "this is a modern religion so the modern 'Pillars of Hellenic Polytheism' are useful!"

No they aren't. The only well known religion that uses the word "pillars" (in English) to define religious practice is Islam.* In Islam they are absolutely fundamental and non-negotiable. They even use a number just like this concept. Type "pillar religion" into Google and it'll prove my point.

So making a list of "pillars" is going to give newcomers the wrong idea, that these things are fundamental. When they aren't. That they have to try and work them all into their religious practice which is daunting. When they don't. I don't really care about "my interpretation of it" "my spin on it" etc

You are "interpreting" a concept specifically created by a bigot.

I'm not telling you that using them is immoral (it isn't), I absolutely cannot change your practice, I can't even change your mind about the usefulness. You can ignore me. I am a stranger on the internet.

But I am going to share my opinion because damn do I hate seeing posts sharing it as Helpol Religion 101. I needed to rant because there are dozens of posts on tumblr; and blogs other than tumblr; and from plenty of reconstructionists.

*Christian Martin Luther used it once but I've never heard a single Christian use it and its not commonly held doctrine among laity

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The pre-Christian Norse spiritual worldview is animistic, which means that it's informed by direct experiences and observations of nature, interpreted through the lens of human experience and feelings. You know how we watch snow swirl around think that it looks playful, or watch a wildfire and think that it looks angry? It involves that kind of thing.

But when most people think of pre-Christian religions, they tend to imagine later forms of Greek and Roman polytheism. The problem here is that these Greeks and Romans had begun to think of divinity in more abstract, transcendent ways, and had begun to imagine the gods as rulers of things rather than the spirits of things.

Loki isn't the lord of mischief, he's the spirit of mischief. He's in the little voice telling you make that shitpost and to stop caring about being "cringe." He's in your cat's impulse to knock something off the counter to watch it bounce or roll. Loki manifests in every accidental innuendo and hilarious typo, in every spilled cup of coffee, and every paperwork mix-up. (This is why he's a shapeshifter! He can be anything!)

So when media depicts a Loki riddled with repression and shame - say, for example, a Loki who sneers at modern media or the culture of the common folk - it's depicting a Loki who can't really Loki. That poor spirit has been bound and gagged.

Certain popular media has depicted Thor and Loki as some kinds of opposites, but when we consider the animist perspective we can see there is a serious problem with this. Loki and Thor being depicted as companions isn't some random whim; it's a reflection of the reality that thunderstorms bring chaos.

A Loki informed by Norse mythology shouldn't be complaining about Thor's "oafishness" or whatever, he should be encouraging him to wreak even more havoc. Loki shouldn't be here out of some real or imagined obligation, he should be here because he expects he's going to have a pretty good time, and because he hopes to make the situation as ridiculous as possible.

Loki being the spirit of mischief is also why depicting him as hostile to humanity isn't really in the spirit of the pre-Christian Norse worldview. Mischief and chaos are not anti-human; they're just realities of the world that humans inhabit. I get how it's easy to infer that Loki must have something against humans due to his oppositional role toward the Aesir in the Ragnarok story, but that's an extremely Christian reading of the narrative. The story is simply describing the collapse of civilization and end of the world as we know it through Norse animistic comprehension. Loki only has an issue with the Aesir, who bound him in a cave to be tortured with serpent venom. Humanity is neither here nor there for him.

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Through a curtain of smoke and light

Can I glimpse at his hall.

Man of grey presence,

Warmer than fire,

Greater than fate,

Older than time.

Feathers hover about,

A crown adorning his brow,

They hover like specks of dust

And cast moving shadows.

Many a worlds have his eyes seen,

Many a mountains and seas,

Much suffering and joy,

And countless crossroads.

Struck by awe I stand

At the feet of greatness

For he smiles upon me

And talks without speaking.

“Welcome are you,” says he,

“where the ancestors of mankind now feast.”

Art: Valin Mattheis

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pagan is not a self-given title. any non-christian religion is pagan. historically and contemporarily any religion with more than one god is pagan. that includes the Japanese, Aztec, Polynesian, and whoever else. if you are not the Catholic church and have more than one god then you are a pagan.

You would've been right in this a few hundred years ago. That is no longer how the term is used in academic or pagan circles. Paganism generally refers to contemporary religions, particularly "dead" religions that have no continued line of practice being revived, typically in North Africa/Europe. To name a few, it includes Celtic, Norse, Slavic, Hellenic, Roman, Kemetic, and Sumerian paganism (as well as other New Age religions like Wicca).

Indigenous religions and other polytheistic but still-practiced religions are grouped separate because they are fundamentally different from those listed before. They never stopped being practiced.

I'm assuming you're coming from a Christian background, which is the issue. "Pagan," as I've heard, is still used to say "not Christian" in that specific cultural context, but that's no longer what it means outside of that.

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"Now Thaumas married a daughter of deep-running Oceanus, Electra, and she bore him swift-footed Iris, the rainbow."

-Hesiod, Theogony 265 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.)

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"Yggdrasill's ash is the most preeminent of trees,

As is Skidbladnir of ships,

Odin of the Æsir, Sleipnir of horses,

Bilfrost of Bridges, Bragi of poets,

Harbor of hawks, and Garm of dogs."

-Grimnir's Sayings, The Poetic Edda (Trans. Carolyne Larrington, 1996)