vilixrie

[vilixrie]

Psyche, Goddess of the Soul..

I call upon butterfly hearted Psyche! Pure soul, bride of Love and mother of Delightful Hedone!

Charming Goddess and full of grace. Whose beauty captured the hearts of men and gods alike! Daughter of humanity, passionate soul who bears the love of the most beautiful winged Eros!

Tested soul you are, Persevering Psyche! Who showed us that to change is to suffer, and to suffer for the greater good and the brightest future. Your inner strength unmatched and deservedly earned a place among the gods, beside your golden-haired husband for all of eternity!

Praise to be the Reborn Goddess of the soul, Wise and loving – may you guide our mortal souls and tender hearts, and accept these words of devotion! Blessed be!

I just started worshipping Psyche and made a prayer for her. Forgive me if it's not that good hehe.

[vilixrie]

some ideas for worshipers of psyche!

.... this blog is slowly but surely turning into a psyche sideblog- anyways! here are some ideas if you are curious about psyche, heavily upg since she was not worshiped by the ancients. but things in purple do have backing to them in her story and worship of other gods, and italics is specifically things i have found she likes

epithets

- of the clear mind

- of therapists

- blooming

- bringer of hope

associated animals:

- butterflies and moths (her most well known symbol, you've seen this one)

- ants

- sheep and rams

- hummingbirds

tarot cards:

- the lovers

- the star

- 9 of wands

offering ideas (other than universal offerings)

- imagery of her animals

- jewelry, perfume and makeup

- flowers, preferably ones with a nice smell

- calming teas and foods

- chocolate or chocolate flavored things

devotional acts:

- read her story (you can read it in theoi.com!)

- take care of your mental health (and take your medications if you have any!)

- honor her husband, daughter, and mother-in-law

- research psychology

- research her animals

- journal

- dedicate your psychology related appointments to her

some prayers to her:

- to psyche, by greekpagan

- to lady psyche when taking medication by @/praise-to-the-theoi

- hymn to psyche by @/kait-blackhound for the countrydionysia event

- hymn to goddess psyche by reddit user ErenaVsdv

- to psyche, the hope bringer by me

- unnamed psyche prayer by me

[vilixrie]

MYTHS VS HELLENIC POLYTHEISM : What’s the difference? What to actually look out for?

I’m going to start this blog off very blunt at first and then I’m going to dive deeper in, first off:

Mythology ≠ Religion.

That’s as blunt as I can actually get. Now, to dive in deeper,

“How are they different?”

Well, we first need to take a look at the actual definition of mythology.

See how it says “exaggerated”? Yeah, exactly. Myths are a collection of stories that are often made over the top and fictitious to often serve as a “moral of the story” and a lesson to people reading them, to show aspects of humans and how their live and act and what their ethics are. How does that work? Well, usually when you read myths (I’m going to put the story of Icarus here because it’s the most famous one), they tend to deliver a certain message to the reader, for example with the Greek myth Icarus who got too close to the sun despite the warnings given to him, depict a lesson on the consequences of not listening to someone/disobeying. Usually, it just serves and life lessons and are NOT supposed to be taken so literally. Like no, you aren’t gonna make wings and fly up to the sky and fall in a LITERAL sense…

You can take Alaska Native story telling as a reference who use these stories to teach the community, or serve as lessons for their heritage. (Or in my culture what we have is called “Zārb Ol-Māssāl” which are a series of poems or stories that tend to deliver a message to the reader on their actions.)

The whole point of myths is to tell a story in hopes that the reader or people passing down these stories will understand them on a deeper level instead of looking at it in a literal and surface sense. It allows people to connect with these stories on different aspects like love, loss, grief, etc… and to use them to create a path to share these stories with future generations. Believe it or not, myths actually serve as a powerful tool to keeping a culture alive. Why do you think Greek myths and Nordic myths are so popular?

Now, here comes the question on,

“Well why is it so bad to take these myths literally when it comes to religion? Aren’t they stories from these religions?”

Myths - although do share a purpose to aspire and teach - become way too mixed with the concept of religion at times and messes up the whole narrative. And in Hellenic Polytheism, it’s very VERY common for non-HelPols to mutter a “But Zeus was a 🍇ist!” Here or a “Hades kidnapped Persephone!” There. And this can be VERY damaging to the religion as a whole.

Now say it with me:

The gods are NOT their Myths.

Read that again. It’s exactly what’s written there.

During these myths, the gods are depicted more as characters instead of spiritual and natural beings. Think of the gods not as people, but as energy. A force of nature like spirits. Shoving these energy forces into a corner and labelling them as this and that is extremely disrespectful because you’re just throwing their spiritual depth away like it’s a cartoon show. The gods aren’t your characters you can headcanon. They’re actually forces of nature.

Most literal readings use the myths as a way to corner people who genuinely practice this stuff and force them to explain the “cheating” and “affairs” that they’ve seen from these stories, which creates a stigma around these people to explain themselves and it makes them view this practice as absurd and disgusting. What’s even worse is that the myths usually make people completely block the theological interpretation and place the gods as being only this and that. Hellenic Polytheism is a RECONSTRUCTED religion. Say it with me now:

RE. CON. STRUC. TED.

Which means it has evolved through studies and modern day practice. Basically let’s say back then the Greeks had their temples to worship the gods but now, modern day HelPols don’t actually HAVE those huge temples to go to since most are destroyed, so we make our own small, roomy altars for the gods since we have no other choice. Get my point?

And not to mention, most people who name Hellenic Polytheism as an absurd religion full of people who defend 🍇, are often conditioned by Abrahamic religions and use THEIR teachings into Polytheistic religions like Hellenic Polytheism. In Abrahamic religions, most stories are actually taken literally and seriously so when you see myths from another religion trying to tell you about the consequences your actions have on yourself and others and it’s not ACTUALLY what the text LITERALLY says then they lose their shit. These misinterpretations can often lead to memes and pop culture references that are harmful stereotypes for a VERY REAL religion

(Cough cough looks at Lore Olympus COUGHHHHHHHH)

So yeah, generally not so good.

But then you must be asking:

“If they’re all myths, then how are the gods related? How is Apollo the son of Zeus if it’s just a myth?”

Great question! And I’m here to explain the concept of “branches” to you.

Let’s place Zeus and Apollo as a point here. Who is Zeus? Well, Zeus is the “Sky Father” of Olympus. He is often seen as the highest order of the Olympians. What about Apollo? Well, Apollo being his “son” often shares the divine authority with him for example with music and prophecy and the sun. Which can all also be traced back to Zeus like an archetype relationship, like a branch. They share things in common and cosmic functions to be connected to each other on a more spiritual basis rather than “blood”.

You can also see them as metaphors! Like how Zeus is Apollos “father”. But what they really mean by this would be something like:

Zeus is … -> order and kingship. A divine authority.

Apollo is -> prophecy and light. Shares a piece of that divine authority with Zeus.

It’s a symbolism. And not only does Hellenic Polytheism use this but other systems like Egyptian, Norse, Hindu, etc… use these as well to connect divine authority and spiritual power.

Yes the gods are “related” but not in the way us humans actually think of when the word “related” comes to mind. It’s more of a spiritual thing connected by forces of nature.

Have a wonderful rest of your day. 🤞🏻

[vilixrie]

Digital Offering for Aphrodite! 🩷🕊️

All pictures are from Pinterest!

[vilixrie]

Update: the Hellenic Polytheism document is now 62 pages long 💀... (Here's my original post for info)

Still not sure, but maybe it'll be done by the end of the week?

[vilixrie]

Hello!! I am currently working on a whole document dedicated to Hellenic Polytheism. I made it for myself originally as my notes but I decided to share it here once I'm done because it might help other people too : D. It's basically a collection of information a new HelPol like me will typically need. I made sure that the info I got is from reliable sources. I also credited those sources just in case.

I'm open to all opinions and suggestions regarding it. I'll be posting here for updates!

[vilixrie]

Hello everyone!

My name is River, also called Riela. I am a fairly new Hellenic Polytheist, worshipping the gods for about 4 months in total! I am a revivalist and I mainly worship Aphrodite. I worship Hypnos as well.

I will be posting my HelPol journey here in hopes of connecting with others, learning new things and just having fun in this app!

This will also serve as my personal blog so there will also be some random stuff here lol.

Blessed be.