#hellenic paganism

[assistedbytherats]

Tensely getting vaccinated as a devotional act to Hermes (mild fear of needles)

Update: the nurse had bead bracelets and a crystal necklace and black nail polish and we chatted and they were so cool

Update 2: I fucked up and didn’t realize there were multiple, I only saw the sign ups for flu, so gotta go for round two 🤡

Update 3: not a moment after, “let the sun shine” started playing over the radio, I think Apollon is here w me tryna encourage me to go back and get the others. I am bud, lemme eat dinner first <3

[patience-and-prayers]

Offerings don’t need to be expensive or bought

I’ve noticed throughout the pagan community that there’s a compulsion to associate offerings and their value, with monetary value. Even though so many people on so many platforms have tried their best to bring this to light, I still even find myself questioning if my hymns and natural offerings are enough.

I truly believe that in between religious corruption and capitalism, pagan spaces have been heavily influenced by consumerism: a value that’s so far removed from the origins of our practice. Most of the worshippers in Hellenic polytheism, (and many other pagan practices) are low income! As someone who works two jobs, lives with their working boyfriend AND lives without certain utilities (I have water powered housing), the cost of living is still way too high for the average person.

With limited time, money, and patience, sometimes I just say thank you. Sometimes I just spend some time outside, or find cool leaves and those offerings go to my deities. Pinecones, bottle caps, cute flowers. All of these are real examples of offerings I’ve made.

Using affordable materials has drastically changed my relationship with the Gods… it’s improved by so much! I feel closer, down to earth with these beings, and I’m able to afford my groceries doing so. I sing a hymn in the car or say thank you, and though it doesn’t require much, they appreciate it the same (if not more so)!

May the Gods look down and smile at their worshippers, especially the ones who need them the most.

[hell-yeah-satanism]

e offering for aphrodite

[cherrycolaboy]

Casual ways to connect with your deities

-Pray to them or just just talk with them and tell them about your day

-Light a candle and say your thanks

-Offer your meal/snack to them or bake/cook with them or for them

-Watch a movie in their honor

-Offer your morning drink to them or make a cup for them

-Assign them a plant and take care of it as a devotion to them

-Listen to music that reminds you of them

-Say good morning/good night

-Thank them for the things you see that you consider beautiful

[ts-witchy-archive]

Low Energy Devotional Activities and Ways to Connect with the Gods

Let's be honest, religion and consistent practice can be HARD, especially when you're chronically ill, disabled, mentally ill or neurodivergent. This is a list of lower energy practices you can do to connect with your Gods when you're having a rough day.

Pray. You don't have to say the prayer. You don't have to do the full cleansing and offering. Just think about the prayer. It could be as simple as "'Deity Name', thank you. I'm thinking of you and appreciate you."

Dedicate any self care you do to the Gods. You've got to take meds? awesome. it's now a devotional activity.

If you can, light a tea light candle. You can think about who you're dedicating it to as you're lighting it.

Tell them about your day. Have a simple conversation with them (again, this can be in your head if needed).

Offer some water! Water is a great offering if you don’t have the energy to cook, collect or buy something.

Incense is also a great offering because you can light it then forget about it and your house won’t burn down (if you follow regular safety measures). 

Resting. Your deities want you to be okay. Dedicating your rest to your deities is especially great if you feel guilty for allowing yourself time to heal.

Turn on a video of someone reading mythos! 

Put on a deity playlist. There are plenty of pre-made ones on Spotify. 

Veil or bind your hair! Whenever I’m low energy I’ll throw my hair in a ponytail and bind it that way. It doesn’t have to be extravagant. 

Make a Pinterest board for them!

Post on a digital altar! There are plenty of discord servers that have digital altars and temples. You could also make a devotional Tumblr blog. 

Change your phone lock/home screen to something that reminds you of your Deity.

I hope this is helpful to anyone who needs it! Take care of yourself first and foremost. If you don't think you can manage something on this list then thats perfectly fine too! you're not a bad person for not being able to do something spiritual or religious. Ultimately, these things are not a necessity. Don't stress :)

[themodernwitchsguide]

altars for greek gods

this post includes hades, persephone, artemis, apollo, aphrodite, hermes, and hekate. for part 2 including zeus, hera, poseidon, hestia, hephaestus, dionysus, ares, demeter, and athena click here.

keep in mind that typical offerings to any god includes meat, wine, grain (specifically barley), honey, and incense (myrrh and frankincense would be period appropriate), but i'm listing some specific offerings that can be given if you'd like

colors can be used for candles, banners, decor, whatever you want

HADES

Colors: black, red, and white for association with death. purple and metallics for association with riches/wealth

Offerings: mint, asphodel, white poplar, pomegranate, coffee, cinnamon, elm, money, chocolate

Crystals: gemstones, black crystals (obsidian, black tourmaline, smokey quartz, etc.), pyrite, hematite, labradorite

Animals: black ram, owl, serpent, Cerberus

PERSEPHONE

Colors: purple, pink, yellow, green for association with springtime. black and metallics for association with Hades. white for purity.

Offerings: pomegranate, flowers, grains, asphodel, lavender, rosemary

Crystals: amethyst, gemstones, moss/tree agate, milk quartz, jade, lepidolite

Animals: deer, ram, bat, talking birds (including parrots)

APHRODITE

Colors: red and pink for love/sexuality. white and blue for association with the ocean. gold for association with, well, gold.

Offerings: roses, chocolate, shells, myrrh, gold

Crystals: rose quartz, pearl, emerald, opal, aquamarine, rhodonite, rhodochrosite, ocean jasper, morganite

Animals: swan, dove, hare

ARTEMIS

Colors: white, blue, black, and grey for association with the heavens. brown and green for association with nature/the hunt.

Offerings: moon shaped foods, frankincense, cypress, mugwort, amaranth

Crystals: morganite, moonstone, aventurine, selenite, celestite, moss/tree agate, amethyst, quartz (specific dendritic), labradorite

Animals: deer, wolf, wild boar

APOLLO

Colors: yellow, white, and blue for association with the heavens. red, orange, and pink for healing. purple and green for the Oracle

Offerings: sun shaped foods, bay leaves, laurel, cypress, playing music, poetry

Crystals: sunstone, amber, calcite (specifically honey and yellow), quartz (specifically rutilated or clear), rose quartz

Animals: cow, snake, hawk, crow/raven, cicada, swan

HERMES

Colors: green and gold for money/luck. white and brown for travels.

Offerings: money, crocus/saffron, strawberries

Crystals: jade, malachite, fluorite, pyrite, lapis lazuli, citrine, alexandrite

Animals: tortoise, ram

HEKATE

Colors: purple, blue, and green for magic. red and black for association with underworld

Offerings: garlic, saffron, crossroad dirt, black salt, ashes, sage, cedar, yew

Crystals: labradorite, obsidian, hematite, black tourmaline, amethyst, bloodstone, serpentine, lepidolite

Animals: wolf, boar, serpent, lion, horse, cow

[thrashkink-coven]

I love seeing prayers and stories of devotees who worship Gods that I don’t worship.

Actually, I’ve always been like this.

I love hearing the tales of religions that I don’t subscribe to. Even if I don’t agree with every Christian, I do enjoy hearing Christians talk about how wonderful Jesus is and what he means to them personally.

I enjoy hearing Muslims talk about their prayers, how they reserve time out of their day for their God.

I enjoy hearing Jews sing their psalms, I love hearing about how they prepare their food, how they consider God’s hands in their meals.

I love hearing about Hellenic rituals and Semetic celebrations. I love learning about the different holy days among different groups of pagans.

I love learning how different people have incorporated different Gods, acts, and customs into their faith. I love hearing about their myths and legends, the stories they tell their children before bed.

I love hearing about the different ways that humanity has connected to their personal idea of God.

I don’t worship Apollon or Shiva today, but I am so delighted to hear the prayers of those that do. It’s like I’m getting to feel the mist erupting off of a waterfall. Or hearing the echo of a song that I do not know the lyrics to, but I can still hum the melody. I can feel the notes permeate my mind, even if I don’t know what they mean.

I love that there are people who worship these Gods that I do not worship. I’m happy that there is so much diversity among humanity that we have enough love in us for all of them.

For the ones that even I don’t know the names of, or felt the warmth of. Someone has.

That’s a very very good thing.

[posthumous-pagan]

the struggle

[underworldhadess]

Hypnos & Thanatos by ofensky

[nappingwithvultures]

it's okay to ask your Deities for help when you have nothing to offer in return, especially when you're scared

[royal-wren]

A little appreciation for the domains of a deity that don't get much attention/recognition. I'm making this because I do think it would be lovely if the aspects mentioned below got more attention, and additions not mentioned are welcome so long as it's an obscure part of them. This was going to be just a few and then I got carried away and did the main Twelve Olympians

A little love for:

Apollon as the God of Foreigners (the Arcadian friendship's harmony with Hermes being the god of travelers/way-god couldn't be any louder)

Aphrodite as a Goddess of the Arts (anything love-themed falls to her by default)

Ares of Civil Order, Defender, and Of Courage

Artemis as the Goddess of Dancing and equal Leader of the Mousai

Athene as the Goddess of Carpentry, Metalwork, and Sculpting

Demeter as Friend of Peace and Law-Giver

Hephaistos as the one with a delicate touch that creates beautiful works of art (It isn't so much unknown but honestly the thing I love most and not the first thing one thinks of with his talents/image)

Hera as the Skillful Bender of Language, Bender of Oaths and Promises

Hermes, God of Peace/Diplomacy, Divine Protector of All, as well as a God of Poetry and Knowledge (rightfully the other half to Athene)

Hestia of the Earth, Earth Dwelling and Delighting in the Works of Man, The One That Made Buildings

Poseidon of Fertility, the Plant Nurturer, and Holder of the Earth

Zeus of the People, Gracious and Merciful, Of Refuge, Counsellor

[assistedbytherats]

Accompanying friends as they go thrift shopping, not to buy anything myself, just to look at stores and walk around with them, as a devotional act to Hermes

[hestiashearthfire]

You do not need a sign.

For the love of the gods, just pray. You do not need to be called. You do not need to be contacted. Just pray.

[apple-piety]

If you’re finding it difficult to carve out a practice for yourself, you’re just having a normal response. We were never supposed to do this. Polytheism is not an orthodoxy that we can divert to based on dogma and texts. It’s an orthopraxy, the likes of which were always intended to be practiced by the community, the polis, with the guidance of elders and experts. Because of the march of time bringing forced Christianization, colonization, and capitalism enforcing rugged individualism, we’ve been left with little choice but to carve a tiny piece for ourselves.

We’re doing fantastic, considering we’re rebuilding from the scraps and ruins of long gone empires.

[temple-of-eternal-hera]

There's nothing more romantic to me than Hera and Zeus in Their celestial aspects. She's the Goddess of the Sky and Stars. He's the God of the Sky and Storms. I bet They just dance around in the aether making pretty colors sometimes.

[ts-witchy-archive]

16 Ways to Connect with the Gods when you don't have an Altar

So I'm currently away from home for 10 days (pet/house sitting) and I don't have an altar space with me. I have my tarot deck and that's it. I decided to write this list incase it might help someone else who is away from home or is just in the pagan closet. Enjoy!

Read your Deity's myths or listen to people read myths on youtube

Sit outside and just think about them

Set your phone background to something that reminds you of them

Wear their colours or symbols

Make or listen to a playlist dedicated to your Deity/Deities

Do a digital offering on tumblr or another site

Just talk to them about your day

Write some poetry for them. Anything can be poetry, it doesn't have to be good

Scroll through their tags on social media

If you have coloured shoelaces wear their corresponding colours on your shoes!! (I can't believe i didn't think about this earlier)

Do your make up to honour them

Talk about them in a (dedicated witchy/pagan) discord server

Do something nice for someone. I know it's cheesy but it's cliche for a reason. For me it definitely makes me feel closer to my Gods

Draw/make art of them or one of their symbols

Youtube ambiance videos are great! If your Deity has an association with fire, water, birds, communal spaces or music there are heaps of videos on Youtube that you can play. Think coffee shop ambiance (communal space), waterfall/rain/water ambiance, nature/bird chirping ambiance, fire place ambiance, studying at the library ambiance, etc. endless possibilities

Draw their sigils/symbols on your face with skin care

I hope this helps!! Feel free to add any other tips. I tried to keep these relatively accessible for everyone.