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Please interact with this post if you are

Aphrodite devotee

Amphitrite devotee

Anthea devotee

Hellenic polytheist

I’d like some pagan moots to follow

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- @academic-vampire

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Ancient Greek Religion & Hellenic Polytheism: A Reading Guide

I’ve been wanting to make something like this for a long while, and talking to my friend @olympianbutch today gave me the push I needed to do so. When I was starting out as a Hellenic Polytheist years ago, this is the kind of resource I needed. So I hope you all enjoy and find this helpful!

Introductory Reading:

Ancient Greek Religion by Jon D. Mikalson

Athenian Popular Religion by Jon D. Mikalson

Greek Religion by Jan N. Bremmer

On Greek Religion by Robert Parker

Hellenic Polytheism: Household Worship by LABRYS

Comprehensive Guides:

Greek Religion by Walter Burkert

Companion to Greek Religion edited by Daniel Ogden

Understanding Greek Religion by Jennifer Larson

Rethinking Greek Religion by Julia Klindt

The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion edited by Esther Eidinow and Julia Klindt

Polytheism and Society by Robert Parker

The Gods and Theology:

Ancient Greek Cults by Jennifer Larson

Theologies of Ancient Greek Religion edited by Esther Eidinow, Julia Klindt, and Robin Osborne

Underworld Gods in Ancient Greek Religion by Ellie Mackin Roberts

Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World (Routledge Series)

Offerings and Sacrifice:

Personal Experience and Materiality in Greek Religion by K.A. Rask

Singing for the Gods by Barbara Kowalzig

Smoke Signals for the Gods by F.S. Maiden

Sharing with the Gods by Theodora Suk Fong Jim

Primary Sources:

Theogony & Works and Days by Hesiod

The Homeric Hymns

The Orphic Hymns

Sources for the Study of Greek Religion by David Rice and John Stambaugh

Greek Religion: A Sourcebook by Valerie M. Warrior

Ancient Greek Religion: A Sourcebook by Emily Kearns

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A prayer to Aphrodite Urania

Written by yours truly

Aphrodite Urania, tender-hearted, golden,

Daughter of the sea, emerged from sea foam.

Revered goddess of the happiest lover and the broken hearted;

O Lady of Love, lover of immense Ares,

Dominant and threatening, poweful pair of strength and love.

With the rose that blooms under the heart of the young, starry-eyed admirer,

Under the heart of the broken-hearted, comforter of the despairing,

Partner to the inconsolable.

O lovely-tressed daughter of a noble father,

O beloved giver of life and intimacy,

Come, beauty of Olympos, daughter of Cyprus,

Come, with your swans over your domains of the sea,

With your sweet laughter you usher joy and delight into our lives.

She who sharpens passion and triumph; kindling the fire of life.

Fairest goddess of the sea and the sky, with domination over the froth of the oceans and the tenderness of new lovers and experienced marriages.

O Aphrodite, within all of love’s actions we see your touch, beloved amongst the worlds,

Come, O beautiful and comely goddess,

I summon you with sacred words and pure soul.

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𝐴𝑝ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝐴𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑎

𝐹𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝐹𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑠, 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔

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🐚A prayer to Lady Aphrodite🌟

Beautiful Lady Aphrodite

foam-born, golden goddess

I call to you this moon-lit venus night

I thank you for the beauty you’ve bestowed upon me,

and the love you have brought into my life so abundantly

please aid me to be more self-assured and self-loving

please protect and guide me as I strive to improve my intuition and confidence

glorious, smiling Aphrodite

I honor your beauty with these acts of self-care in your name

Hail Aphrodite 💓

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Sometimes appreciating and communing with nature means accepting the limitations of where you live.

I used to feel bad when I read so much about meditating outside, sitting in stillness with your eyes closed. I thought these writers had to be much better pagans and witches than me to accept the consequences of that in order to be close to nature.

Then I was lucky enough to visit the UK a few years ago and I realized there's just not the same kind of bugs there. These people weren't somehow ignoring swarms of mosquitos to meditate. They weren't better pagans than me; they lived in a different place.

Since then, I've tried to adjust advice to fit my home. I do nature walk meditations instead of sitting by water and I accept that I can't be out for hours when the temperatures get into the high 90s in July. Once I started working within the limits of Florida, I felt a lot more at home in it.

Now I understand that loving nature doesn't have to look the same in every place and that's okay. You're not a bad witch or pagan because you have to adjust your practice to your home.

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Today is the spring equinox for me…welcome back to the surface lady Persephone!!

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| Just a reminder to people : You do not need an altar for deity work. You do not need to spend a lot of money on offerings or rituals. You do not need to hold yourself to the standard of other people's practice. This is your journey and your relationship with the gods. They understand what you have and they understand whats available or any circumstance you are in. I am a strong believer that, if an offering or devotional work is with good intentions and done so from the heart, it's more than good enough and your deities will be more than happy and accepting. Even if it's not a historical offering or even if it's something simple like saying good morning in your mind, they take notice and they love you for you. Having an altar or performing rituals is great, I have an altar myself! However, it's not a necessity, especially if you cannot make one/have one.

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I block accounts run by polytheists who make entire portions of their content/personality about despising Christians/"exposing" the "lies of Christianity," btw.

If you spend so much time hating another religion, you probably aren't keeping up with the responsibilities you have to your own, and I stand by that. 🤷

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I'm not an active worshipper of Lady Aphrodite but she was my inspiration today

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Absolutely be political in your worship.

Aphrodite isn't called Pandemos (of All People) so you can sit around and let the big names capitalise love and serve it only to those who can afford to pay past the persecution. Hermes isn't called Oeopolus (Shepherd) so you can sit around and let a bunch of power-hungry wolves lead a flock of influencable sheep. Apollo isn't called Paean (Healer) so you can sit around while wealthy corporations serve healthcare only to those who can afford not to die. Athena isn't called Ambulia (Counsellor) so you can sit around while the people are being fed propaganda against each other to divert them from the real enemy at the top. Dionysus isn't called Eleuthereus (the Liberator) so you can sit around while freedom is only granted to those whose skins have the acceptable colour while the others die in chains. Zeus isn't called Xenios (of the Foreigners) so you can sit around while the borders are closed to those who need it and only open to those who can give back the money.

The Gods stand with the oppressed, and so should you.

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the fandomification of paganism

hello everyone! first of all, thank you for taking the time to read this post. I want to preface it by saying that it is based on my opinion and observations and it's coming from a genuine place of care for the community. I don't mean to attack anyone or deny anyone's experience, I simply want us to reflect on the path that online paganism has been taking in recent years. with that being said, I hope you can continue reading with an open mind and limit your critiques to those actually related to my points, framing or conclusions. thank you!

there is something that I've been noticing in online pagan spaces lately, a shift which has me worried and feeling disconnected from much of the community. it seems to affect the way we think and talk about our deities which then seeps into the rest of our practices and communities.

I think we have already witnessed many large ways in which it manifests. the most recent and widespread example that I can think of was the whole "the gods are mad" thing on the eve of the US presidential election. some people were adamant that the gods were emotionally affected by the affair as if they themselves had a personal stake in it. now, I don't mean to say that the gods don't care about human affairs but the general consensus after this whole debacle seems to be that the gods are generally quite distant from stuff like this as they have no stake in things like human politics beyond potentially how it affects their worshippers. I agree with this general idea and I think what is likely happening is people are projecting their own opinions and feelings onto the gods because it is important to them that the gods seemingly agree and can sympathise (i wrote a bit more about this situation here if you're interested in reading it).

so from this one example, but potentially many more that I or you reader have experienced, i think what we are seeing is a certain trend (and I don't mean this in a negative way) of the gods as much more human-like. this is not necessarily a bad thing, many pagans see the gods as much closer to humans than I do (I see them as much more non-human or superhuman and just completely out of our realm of understanding). but what i usually see this being accompanied by is a certain belief that the gods are always around and very invested in every tiny aspect of our lives. in some people's practices, they seem to serve a more companion role and their importance as gods is severely downplayed.

I think this want for spiritual companionship is completely understandable and normal, this is after all one of the reasons why people can decide to become pagan or religious in general. but I think at times I see this move into a territory that I find problematic. I call it the "fandomification" of paganism.

I've been struggling with how I want to describe it because as much as I want people to be able to worship and practice however they want, I genuinely think that some of these behaviours cause problems in our communities and I want to address that from a place of good faith. with the knowledge that this might ruffle some feathers I want to say the following: I think some people treat the gods too much as manifestations of their favourite blorbo from a tv show or book rather than the powerful spiritual beings that they are.

I think that the idea that anyone can immediately communicate with the gods through a candle flame or a pendulum has led people to believe that they always have the ear of the gods and that the gods care and have opinions about every little thing that we can think of. I think skits on tiktok have popularised the erroneous idea that the gods can have snippy little conversations among themselves and practitioners and that they have beef amongst themselves.

what I honestly think is that many people have lost the respect and awe of the gods and made them into their personal entertainment clowns and that really rubs me the wrong way. this is not the way I want to engage in my religion, and once again while I do not wish to compel people to adapt their religion to what I believe, I have definitely noticed a growing schism between pagans who think like me and pagans who do not. I think it may be time for us to reflect on this development and how we want to tackle it going forward in relation to the future of our pagan communities.

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I’ve seen numerous of people saying that there are beginner deities and hard deities. Here’s the thing: do not allow people to stop you from working with deities. You are allowed to work with any deities you wish, and there is no such thing as certain level deities.

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you can be an aphrodite devotee and not love yourself

you can be an aphrodite devotee and be asexual

you can be an aphrodite devotee and be aromantic

you can be an aphrodite devotee and not be ready for a relationship

you can be an aphrodite devotee and not be stereotypically feminine

you can be an aphrodite devotee no matter your situation

there is no wrong way to worship 💖

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Happy Aphrodite Day 💞

To honor Aphrodite, I am going to try to meditate as well as pray. Possibly do some divination with my tarot spread? I am not sure. I am also including honey into my breakfast for her (& Freyja).