Hello, Everyone
So tonight we honor Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom. I really feel drawn to Athena, especially since I'm trying to get my GED. I feel that praying to her will help me to pass, though I'm not sure if other Hellenists will think this way. Athena is more than just a goddess that I honor when I need her help on something, but she's the goddess of Athens, of Greece, of everything. She is over education, democracy, and even the very foundation of freedom. It's her that we look up to and thank for all the things that we have.
Athena is my goddess, even though I honor many, and I will be honoring her tonight. I hope that you all have a good one and I'll see you tomorrow.
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Friday, September 26, 2014
Agathos Daemon (September 2014) and my plans for October
Tonight will be honoring Agathos Daemon, the good god. He's sometimes depicted as a snake and it's not uncommon to see someone that practices Hellenism to have a framed photo of a snake. Now if I've mentioned this stuff before then I'm sorry and I won't be repeating myself next month. I don't have a framed photo of Agathos Daemon, but I'm going to change that next month. Honoring the Agathos Daemon is the last observance connected to Hecate.
Another thing that I'm planning on doing next month, regular calendar, is to buy my Ares mini statue. His libation is in November but Amazon.com is claiming nearly a month before I can see him. I'm not about to buy two statues and I can't 'use' Poseidon until after his libation. And I'm talking about his statue not what others might get from that line. I do have a photo of him so I'll be using that instead.
I'm also getting Benzoin in since the kind of incense that some of the gods take is too expensive and I'm pretty sure that the gods don't want me to spend a ton of money. I'm picking up a prayer book written by The Temple of the Greek Gods and a blank book. The reason that I'm buying a blank book is that Chris recommended that we start writing down our hymns and prayers. It's not like a Book of Shadows, it's a record of our religion and not of our spells. As I said before we need to keep a written record of our religion in the modern text before it's taken from us.
I hope that you all have a good one and I'll see you tomorrow.
Another thing that I'm planning on doing next month, regular calendar, is to buy my Ares mini statue. His libation is in November but Amazon.com is claiming nearly a month before I can see him. I'm not about to buy two statues and I can't 'use' Poseidon until after his libation. And I'm talking about his statue not what others might get from that line. I do have a photo of him so I'll be using that instead.
I'm also getting Benzoin in since the kind of incense that some of the gods take is too expensive and I'm pretty sure that the gods don't want me to spend a ton of money. I'm picking up a prayer book written by The Temple of the Greek Gods and a blank book. The reason that I'm buying a blank book is that Chris recommended that we start writing down our hymns and prayers. It's not like a Book of Shadows, it's a record of our religion and not of our spells. As I said before we need to keep a written record of our religion in the modern text before it's taken from us.
I hope that you all have a good one and I'll see you tomorrow.
Book Review: The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan
So I've decided that it's time to do another book review. And this was is for The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan. This is the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympian series and it's where we find out that the Greek gods didn't vanish, they just went to another part of the world. What I really love about this series is that we have the Greek gods in the modern world and it's the same problems that the gods had before. Percy is accused of stealing Zeus Master Bolt, the weapon that was made for him that helped him defeat his father.
Percy goes on a quest with Annabeth, daughter of Athena and Grover. They have to go through many parlous challenges including Medusa, the Lotus Eaters, Gods, and much, much more. In the end he finds out who stole the bolt, will not tell, and who is causing all the problems. I really enjoyed this book, as I've said before, and I would recommend it to anyone. Of course, it's not a good study of Greek religion, but it does peek the interest in the gods.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Pyanepsia (2014)
Tonight began the Athenian month of Pyanepsia. And even though the book on Hellenic prayers isn't something that's based on what we know of Greek prayers I still use it. Why, because I don't turn down anything that makes practicing my religion a bit easier. Tonight we honor our ancestors and the household gods. Since I'm writing this at 10:21 at night I will tell you that I've already done my ritual. I really felt moved by not only my total connection to the gods but also not binding myself to what others think that I should be doing.
The point of religion, no matter what it is, is to connect with the divine. As the Head of the Temple to the Greek Gods has said, we need to write down our rituals and we need to make a record of our own practices so that we can give the Greek religion it's rich history. And I'm going to agree with that. So, in the spirit of what he has said, I'm going to get a book and start writing down my own experiences with this faith, which will include prayers, hymns, personal accounts, and much, much, more.
It might not be totally how the ancients did it, but we don't live in the past. We live, in the future.
The point of religion, no matter what it is, is to connect with the divine. As the Head of the Temple to the Greek Gods has said, we need to write down our rituals and we need to make a record of our own practices so that we can give the Greek religion it's rich history. And I'm going to agree with that. So, in the spirit of what he has said, I'm going to get a book and start writing down my own experiences with this faith, which will include prayers, hymns, personal accounts, and much, much, more.
It might not be totally how the ancients did it, but we don't live in the past. We live, in the future.
Thursday, September 18, 2014
25th Day: For Horkos and the Erinyes
One of the first things that I did was read what the hymns were to each god. One of the things that I noticed was that it was talking about the Fates. That's the first hymn that's given. The Fates were three women which represented the Past, Present, and Future. In later myths they are the daughter of Zeus and Thetis. My belief is that they were sired by Zeus as part of how he wanted the universe to run. The next hymn is to the Furies, which were the three that, according to Greek myth, could drive a person's mad. They punished both the living and the dead.
To me it's strange that the author would chose to honor both the Fates and the Furies. Though, I guess, the author has made a connection that will take me time to understand. I wish you all well and I hope that you have a good night.
To me it's strange that the author would chose to honor both the Fates and the Furies. Though, I guess, the author has made a connection that will take me time to understand. I wish you all well and I hope that you have a good night.
Animal Sacrifice
I'm going to be doing two blog entries, one of them is very important and I believe should be talked about. Last week the animal rights people managed to get a small part of the country of India to outlaw animal sacrifice. The animals can't be sacrificed at the temples or the grounds connected to them. They claimed that the animals suffered and that the religion needed to adapt to modern times. They believed that it's not needed to be done in honor of any god.
What really made me mad was that pagan supported this move, not even thinking, or caring, that they were supporting the ending of a practice that was important to other pagans.This is my main problem with the fluff bunnies, and I'm going to call them just that. They are so against what other cultures are doing that they personally believe that what they do is somehow wrong. How about I go and kill an animal in honor of Artemis and lets see how quickly I get painted as some evil person. If animal sacrifice is something that a pagan culture does, then don't support others that wish to intrude on what another culture is doing.
Support them or get the hell out of the pagan community.
The first thing that the Greek Orthodox did was outlaw animal sacrifice when they were forcing their religion on the Greeks and the Roman Catholic Church on other cultures. It's one of the first steps that's done to get rid of a religious groups rights. To see pagans supporting this tells me a great deal about the face of the pagan community as a whole. Oh but they'll go on and on about how their being persecuted while supporting animal sacrifice being outlawed. Before long the whole country of India will outlaw this practice and the animal morons can go away feeling happy that they are doing the same thing that the church did.
And while I'm sure that the Indian government will not go as far as outlawing Hinduism. The outlawing of animal sacrifice is just leaving a very foul taste in my mouth. One of the things that I had first asked, when I became a Hellenist, was about animal sacrifice. Someone told me that, while they don't do it, they will not turn up their noses to a Hellenist that does practice this. It tells me a lot about the Recon community as a whole compared to the Wiccan/Pagan community as a whole.
When I defended the rights of Hindu's to sacrifice animals someone asked me, "I thought that all pagans love animals." Well, yes, I do. But their not hurting you and their not hurting others. Sometimes I think that some of the Christian hate against the sacrifice of animals is still going on in the Pagan community. A lot of them don't even believe in worship of the gods or honoring them. They go and on about how it's like Christianity.
The gods were given animal sacrifice and some even went as far as human sacrifice. There has been evidence of this in the Minoan sites that have been discovered. It has also been discovered that the people most likely ate their human sacrifice, which was shocking for me. Still, to see a practice like this, which has managed to survive in-tact, to be outlawed is outrageous. Personally I hope that other courts does not outlaw this, because it's sure to go underground.
You can't just expect a whole group of people to abandon this practice and I sure hope they fight like hell when the authorities come and try and force these new 'religious' law on them.
What really made me mad was that pagan supported this move, not even thinking, or caring, that they were supporting the ending of a practice that was important to other pagans.This is my main problem with the fluff bunnies, and I'm going to call them just that. They are so against what other cultures are doing that they personally believe that what they do is somehow wrong. How about I go and kill an animal in honor of Artemis and lets see how quickly I get painted as some evil person. If animal sacrifice is something that a pagan culture does, then don't support others that wish to intrude on what another culture is doing.
Support them or get the hell out of the pagan community.
The first thing that the Greek Orthodox did was outlaw animal sacrifice when they were forcing their religion on the Greeks and the Roman Catholic Church on other cultures. It's one of the first steps that's done to get rid of a religious groups rights. To see pagans supporting this tells me a great deal about the face of the pagan community as a whole. Oh but they'll go on and on about how their being persecuted while supporting animal sacrifice being outlawed. Before long the whole country of India will outlaw this practice and the animal morons can go away feeling happy that they are doing the same thing that the church did.
And while I'm sure that the Indian government will not go as far as outlawing Hinduism. The outlawing of animal sacrifice is just leaving a very foul taste in my mouth. One of the things that I had first asked, when I became a Hellenist, was about animal sacrifice. Someone told me that, while they don't do it, they will not turn up their noses to a Hellenist that does practice this. It tells me a lot about the Recon community as a whole compared to the Wiccan/Pagan community as a whole.
When I defended the rights of Hindu's to sacrifice animals someone asked me, "I thought that all pagans love animals." Well, yes, I do. But their not hurting you and their not hurting others. Sometimes I think that some of the Christian hate against the sacrifice of animals is still going on in the Pagan community. A lot of them don't even believe in worship of the gods or honoring them. They go and on about how it's like Christianity.
The gods were given animal sacrifice and some even went as far as human sacrifice. There has been evidence of this in the Minoan sites that have been discovered. It has also been discovered that the people most likely ate their human sacrifice, which was shocking for me. Still, to see a practice like this, which has managed to survive in-tact, to be outlawed is outrageous. Personally I hope that other courts does not outlaw this, because it's sure to go underground.
You can't just expect a whole group of people to abandon this practice and I sure hope they fight like hell when the authorities come and try and force these new 'religious' law on them.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Trying To Explain Things To Bonehead Wiccans
I'm not the kind of person that believes in bashing other people's beliefs but I really need to get this off my chest. One of the things that we make very clear is that, as Hellenists, we don't practice magic. Of any kind! On Facebook a Hellenist was asked by Wiccans about why he uses herbs but doesn't do magic? Well the simple answer to that is that just because we work with herbs, as offerings, doesn't mean that were practicing magic.
They were confused by this whole notion that working with herbs doesn't equal working magic. And what's really sad is that when you say that you honor Hecate it means, at once, that your a witch/Wiccan and that she's your patron goddess and all that stuff. This is one of the many things that causes arguments within the both camps of Hellenists and Wiccans. So the point that I'm trying to make within the context of this post is that just because a Hellenist works with herbs and honors the gods, doesn't mean that their doing magic.
I think that, as long as you have Polythiest that don't follow how other pagans do thing that your always going to have this argument. And personally, it needs to stop.
They were confused by this whole notion that working with herbs doesn't equal working magic. And what's really sad is that when you say that you honor Hecate it means, at once, that your a witch/Wiccan and that she's your patron goddess and all that stuff. This is one of the many things that causes arguments within the both camps of Hellenists and Wiccans. So the point that I'm trying to make within the context of this post is that just because a Hellenist works with herbs and honors the gods, doesn't mean that their doing magic.
I think that, as long as you have Polythiest that don't follow how other pagans do thing that your always going to have this argument. And personally, it needs to stop.
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