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The way…they love each other

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I've seen some posts circulating recently that made me want to comment on this topic.

Tolerance is key when approaching practices that differ from your own. In any religious practice, there will always be those who deviate from the norm. This isn't a bad thing. Deviation also doesn't mean that someone isn't allowed to call themselves a Hellenic Polytheist. You don't need to be a scholar to practice this religion. Not every Christian is extremely studied in the history of Christianity. Not every Buddhist is extremely studied in the history of Buddhism. Not every Hindu is extremely studied in Hinduism. Despite HelPol also being an incredibly old religion, people seem to hold other worshippers to a ridiculously high standard (I've been held to this standard myself).

Yes, practicing ancient traditions feels important, but at least some change is inevitable. It has been THOUSANDS of years. THOUSANDS of years of this religion being practiced have gone by - many of those years have been spent in hiding by worshippers, practicing behind closed doors in fear of being persecuted. Practices HAD the change. They HAD to adapt. Practices are still adapting and changing, otherwise no one would be practicing at all.

Beliefs and customs evolve naturally throughout the years, in every religion and culture and practice. This is a natural thing for humans. We change; time changes us. We evolve; life evolves us. Things won't be the stay even just ten years from now, and it's not realistic to expect them to be.

Back in ancient Greece, there were cults and people who practiced WAY different from the norm. Some of those people even led to a change in beliefs later on. Today, we Revere and respect these people. People who were likely shunned and shamed in their own time. Why can't we uplift and respect each other today? What makes it so different?

You don't have to take on these practices that differ from you own. You don't even have to believe in them. What you should at least do is gain a sense of maturity and learn how to approach others with curiosity and not animosity. We worship the same gods, we form relationships with them, and we all already experience judgement from outside people as well. Hatred, judgement, and gossip do nothing to further this community. All it does is further one's own ego. Practice tolerance, understanding, and curiosity. Be willing to hear other perspectives. Don't immediately assume that just because someone isn't doing things the "ancient way" that their practices and beliefs mean nothing at all. They clearly mean something to that person. You don't speak for the gods when you claim that they have poor relationships with the gods that they worship. You don't speak for the gods when you claim that someone is practicing the wrong way. You don't speak for the gods when you judge someone harmfully in private groups of people. You don't speak for the gods when you make passive aggressive posts aimed at someone else. If you feel called to do all of these things, I encourage you to pause and ask yourself why that is. I encourage you to ask why you hold yourself to such unrealistically high standards.

We can respect ancient traditions, but we cannot replicate them to perfection, and that's ok, actually. It's also ok if someone wants to try something that's never been done before. Clinging so tightly onto the past that if fogs your vision with disgust and hatred for new ways of worship IS a harmful practice. That IS harmful, even if you don't outwardly speak on it. It's harmful to yourself.

Take care, everyone, and please be kind to your fellow worshippers. Worship is an incredibly personal thing, and when you attack someone's practice, you often attack something incredibly dear to them. Something incredibly special. Consider that before you go off on a stranger you don't know.

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i think we should bring back ancient greek-style trials of inanimate objects. like YES it may seem like a waste of resources in an already strained legal system but consider: would you not want to see a cybertruck condemned in court and thrown into the ocean

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in the trojaned horse. straight up "tricking it" . and by "it", haha, well. let's justr say. The trojans

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scar-lip

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To The Painters of Pompeii - Jordan Bolton

My first book ‘Blue Sky Through the Window of a Moving Car’ is now available to pre-order! Get it here - https://smarturl.it/BlueSky

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Preach!

Warning: I'm so fucking tired. I am not as nice as the people above my addition.

I see it far too often that when people try to ask questions, they are shamed and told to use Google because other people aren't their personal little teachers.

Humans are social creatures. Humans socialize with each other to learn, no one is "using these people as personal teachers" or "trying to make them work for free" or whatever other stupid shit they come up with, it's beginners looking to people with experience and asking questions and I really don't know why that's such a big deal for people. Like if you're one of the people who withholds answers or shames people for asking questions, you're not cool or cute you're just an asshole.

Research is hard, it's not as simple as just going on Google and asking a question. Thats a good place to start sure, but research and learning is WAY more complicated than that, and not all the answers are just right there on google page 1 or in AI overview (do ya really want someone to rely on AI overview anyways??)

Sure you can get basic information from google, you may find a variety of opinions, but part of the research is talking to other people. The majority of learning about a practice comes from talking to other people who also practice because you can share information and bounce ideas off of people, plus someone who's been in the practice for a while may have information or theories that aren't just readily available with one Google search. And I noticed it's almost always the accounts that parade themselves as information accounts that pull this "use google" nonesense, and if you parade yourself as an informational account you can't get mad when people ask you questions.

As @khaire-traveler said, if you genuinely don't know the answer to a question or maybe you're just tired of answering it all the time, then you can set a boundary or say you don't know. Usually what regular, mature people do when they get repeat questions is they make a pinned post full of FAQs. Or if you're just having a rough time currently and you're burnt out and don't want to answer questions right now, then you can make a post and say that you are currently taking a break. That's fine, you're human too. But what you're not going to do is shame people for trying to use their brains and learn.

It's not just in paganism or witchy spaces that this happens, it's all over the Internet in so many other communities and discussions. But if you're unwilling to talk with people and answer questions and ask questions then you're not much of a community to begin with. Humans communicate. Humans are social creatures. If you can't handle that you shouldn't put yourself in the public eye, and you especially shouldnt act like an authoirty. The people who can't handle that definitely shouldn't be parading themselves as informational accounts.

The Trend of shaming people for trying to learn Really really irks me Because we're already in a crisis where creativity and learning and critical thinking Is under attack. We have created an internet culture where people are shamed for not knowing everything straight out of the coochie and make them afraid of questions or discussions, (gods forbid people make mistakes, right) but then we get upset when people know nothing.

Like, let people ask questions. We all start somewhere and it's better they ask a beginner question and get the answer so they can move on informed versus being afraid to ask questions so just going all willy-nilly and making way more mistakes than is necessary. Nobody knows everything, and if you expect other people to know everything or be perfect at something when they are a beginner, you are the problem and it's time to get off the seat of your high horse.

Besides, the people shaming beginners for not knowing something need to be reminded that they still have a lot to learn to. Even people who have been in a practice for years are still learning. Ask anyone who takes their practice actually seriously and they will tell you straight up that you never stop learning and you never stop asking questions, so to pretend like beginners should know everything or to pretend like beginners have no right to ask questions is definitely a choice.

Also I almost argue that intentionally withholding information from beginners is a tactic to intentionally stunt them so you can continue to feel Superior to other people which isn't a good look.

As someone who spends my whole workday answering repeat questions from kids, I HAVE to laugh when I see people aggressively complaining about beginner helpols asking the same questions. You wouldn't last an hour in the asylum that pays for my health insurance.

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Cursing and hexing to me mean:

Agency

Revenge

Taking my powers back

Putting things into my own hands

Giving deserved consequences to those who have always gotten away with hurting others

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Eir whose names mean grace, gentleness , reconciliation, protection and help is regarded as a goddess and or Valkyrja of healing/medical skills. You can blota to her if you want help with healing ailments and diseases.

Both Poetic Edda and Prose Edda mention her. In poetic Edda she is mentioned as one of the braidsmaids to Menglöd (Menglǫð/ Menglöð) and that Eir and her sisters will answer if someone offer to them.

I decided to draw her with a Bolmört (Henbane) and Läkemalva (Marshmallow). I should buy some and offer some to her next year. Perhaps we could ask for not only healing help but also help with studying, finding herbs.

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This might be controversial, which I try to avoid on this account, but I was thinking.

I feel like people who work in the mental health field Don't take spirituality or religion as seriously as they should. I feel like they're quick to write off any sort of belief system other than the abrahamic religions as simply a byproduct of mental illness, or they write them off as a mental illness themselves.

In training one of the first things that we are taught is that we have to respect people's beliefs and we have to treat them in a way that honors and respects their beliefs, we shouldn't treat them as less than or invalid just because their religion isn't Mainstream, however I feel like way too many people in the field don't honor this rule.

People Who are religious are religious for a reason, they've had experiences that have led them to believe that the gods of their choice are real. Most pagans believe in things like clairsenses and trance work and spiritual dreams and all kinds of things like that. But I feel like a lot of people in the mental health field are really quick to write off basic aspects of different religions as simply mental illness symptoms. Oh you believe that you can communicate with the gods? You believe that you can hear them? Auditory hallucination and schizophrenia. Like no girl, auditory hallucinations and schizophrenia look very different from what people actually experience when they believe they have Claire audience.

As someone who actually has experienced auditory hallucinations and who is religious, trust that auditory hallucinations versus communing with deities is very very different. And people don't need to be shamed or told they're crazy, they need to be given the proper sources to practice discernment.

Like yes, schizophrenia and psychosis and paranoia and religious trauma and things like that are very real and should very much be taken seriously, but I feel like science and the mental health field brush aside spirituality way too easily despite the fact that it has been essential to human civilizations for as far back as we can find. Like sure, we can't prove any religion with science yet, it is up to personal experience but the fact is it's something that is so important to so many people and it's just completely blown off in any research or any professional settings or therapy sessions. And that's really just doing a disservice to people, especially if you're calling them crazy just because they have a religion that isn't mainstream.

I don't know it's just something that I've noticed, and again we're trained to respect differing beliefs and religions and not treat our clients any differently just because their religion may not be in alignment with ours or as popular as other religions, but I really feel like a lot of people in the field are way too happy to just call any religious experience some form of mental illness and that's incredibly harmful because not only is it invalidating people and doing exactly what we're told not to which is treating them like shit, but it's also watering down the actual mental illnesses.

I'm not saying that everyone in the mental health field needs to convert and be religious or whatever, but they need to accept that spirituality has been a backbone for humankind for a long long time, whether you believe in it or not the fact is it is essential to a lot of people and if you're working with people mentally that's something you can't just brush off.

It's just something that I've noticed and thought about a few times and it really irks me. Because it really does seem like anything other than the abrahamic religions gets written off as a mental illness symptom and that's just not right and it doesn't help anybody. There needs to be more effort made to understand the difference between religion and spirituality versus actual mental illness.

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Being "um actually"d around every corner is really exhausting, actually, and one of the biggest problems in the HelPol community.

You do not need to go out of your way to correct EVERYONE. The only two exceptions are

- it's a simple mistake (like calling it "Hellenistic polytheism")

-they're spreading harmful or dangerous information

-they're inaccurately representing a SPECIFICALLY HISTORICAL talking point

THAT'S IT

Leaving people the hell alone is a virtue that we all need to work on

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Thinking about Minoan marine themed pottery. I'm very fond of these octopi.

That's all. This isn't an informative post, they just bring me great joy.

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Ok, we need to talk.

TW for heavy undertones of classism and ableism.

Recently I've seen this growing sentiment online that really concerns me. This being the idea that your worship needs to be materialistic.

Handmade offerings, baked goods, art, all of these things are fantastic offerings, but simply not doable for everyone.

We live in a capitalist society where the middle class virtually no longer exists. Most of us on this website are younger as well, meaning that we've been hit hardest by things like the current recession. These things are important to keep in mind.

Societies all throughout time have gone through changes with their customs, their religion, and their worship, for the simple fact that humans adapt. Hellenic Polytheism was virtually snuffed out entirely at one point and has only relatively recently come back into a slightly more mainstream light. We have no historical records to look at how the religion may have changed over time the way we can look at Christianity and see the same.

That being said, to adapt for your time is natural. It is human. A lot of us, if we had to give only physical offerings, simply would not be able to be HelPols, because of disability, financial status, hidden practice, etc. We just don't have examples of this in recent times.

And that's not to say you shouldn't try to give physical offerings when you can. Even just water is a good offering. But as I said before, that isn't doable for everyone for a vast multiple of reasons. That does not make you a bad worshipper. Your practice is your own.

An altar can be a Minecraft world if you need it to be. It can be a tin, your altar can be the outside world. You do not need a shrine with fancy gifts. Your altar can just be your favorite tree. It's okay. Your altar does not have to be covered in physical things, or have any at all. You don't need a permanent one at all. An altar is a place of offerings. Having a permanent altar is a massive privilege.

I'm also a very firm believer in the idea that devotional activities are good offerings. Things like cleaning up the earth, volunteering, just being a good and kind person, these things that serve the domains of the gods especially. If you are improving the world around you, you are bringing glory to the gods. Argue with the wall tbh, because if you have a problem with people making the world a better place for the love of the gods,I deadass can't help you. To offer improvement to the world we live in is one of the best things you as a worshipper or as a human being can do. Especially in these hard times we live in.

Also come on, let's think about this critically.

Most of the records of altars, festivals, rituals, etc, come from historically wealthy and well-off cities, like Sparta and Athens.What do y'all think poorer people, especially in less wealthy areas, didn't have to adapt their own worship and altars and practices accordingly?

The point of this faith is honouring the Gods and living our lives to do right by them, not trying to act as an ancient Athenian. You can do it if you want to, but you shouldn't enforce your own practice onto others. That's called evangelicalism, and there are plenty of churches that would love that kind of energy that are literally BEGGING for new members.

Times change. Religion changes. People adapt because of their circumstances, and that genuinely shouldn't be a problem to anybody. It is not only for the sake of money, it is for the sake of accessibility. Your worship should not put you in danger of being in debt or missing a meal. Your worship should not put you in danger of flaring up or pushing yourself. Anyone who tells you something contrary to either of those is simply not worth listening to. Nobody worth listening to will tell you to put yourself in harms way.

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Apollo holding the kithara from the Temple of Venus at Hadrian’s Villa (detail)

Attested to Apollonios, circa 150 AD

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This might be controversial but I do think you should follow and engage with other Hellenist who's practice isn't 100% agreeable with your own.

Obviously don't entertain fascist or racists, or give space for anyone who is disrespectful towards any of the gods, but consider still listening to someone's practice, regardless if they are leaning more reconstruction vs. revival, or other internal differences we have of religious beliefs. It is beneficial to have the ability to still digest their takes and observe their practice because you have to know you're able to grow and learn, even from someone you don't view as the perfect vision of Hellenism.

A fool scoffs and blocks or just scrolls past the posts of someone who thinks one way about the gods. But someone who's willing to learn and grow in their faith is able to still give time to read or watch, and afterwards decide what to take from it or not, or even try discussing the topic with the poster. Giving yourself the opportunity to engage with different perceptions within Hellenism is a sign of a developed practitioner.

If you refuse to listen to a different opinion on beliefs for the sake that it is different, then your beliefs were already crumbling away from you.

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my biggest tip for baby helpol/baby pagans:

Don’t trust people online who judge other people’s practice