#most things westerners call satanic or witchy or dark and mystical are quite normal for us

[alatismeni-theitsa]

I've seen so many posts of Neo-pagans and witches claim they are "working" with deities like Hades and Persephone and they claim they are using tarrot cards and pendulums and crystals and other things to "communicate" with them and I'm just wondering, isn't this a big mess? How they are mixing and matching practices and religions?

Yes, it's a huge mess! I am not going to say "Apollo will NEVER talk to you if you have a crystal ball", nor am I going to say "you must sacrifice a bull each month". But there is a wider trend of pop "paganism" (Greeks don't even use(d) the term "pagan" to refer to Polytheists/Dodekatheists, and we also didn't burn witches!) that makes it clear many individuals treat foreign practices and deities as if they're made just for their consumption and comfort. With a dash of USAmerican Evangelism on the side, usually.

These people do this mix and match, and use the term "work with X deity" because they haven't studied enough and take things lightly. Even though they think they are deep and have tons of knowledge, they are just there for the aesthetic, some Percy Jackson imperialistic influence, and to fill the spiritual void some type of (usually western brand of) Christianity left on them. And they don't step on a local or the Greek tradition to do so. They just bring out some random crystals and tarot cards and they decide they are priestesses of X god (who appointed them??) and they see X deity on the clouds and a piece of tost etc etc

It's not bad to bring your own culture to your faith, however, because of the internet, you have zero excuses for not knowing about and not following the practice in the proper context. It's a deliberate choice to stay ignorant about Greece's oppression and manipulation by the western powers which also have been fetishizing its practices for a long time.

Not to mention, this type of practice is not exactly a product of cultural exchange, like many such cases in the past (where the foreign culture blends organically with the og one). It's a product of cultural hegemony, the hegemony of western empires (usually the countries these people live in) upon Greece for the last centuries. That's why such practices and approaches don't feel natural and organic.