for Artemis! 🤍

i’m very new so please feel free to give me any suggestions or helpful tips that you wish someone had told you when you were starting out (but please be kind!)

Ive been considering worshipping/working with a god for a while now. But I have a question, what god (if there is one) is best at helping you through struggles with mental illness? I struggle a lot with depression, SH, ADHD, anxiety, and OCD. And I'm just wondering if there's any way any god can help me lift this burden. If this is a terrible question I'm really sorry, I'm just very curious 😅 and if you do answer thank you <3 I'm going to take everything into consideration.

I'm very new to this and very broke 😢😢 if there's any tips or things I can add please let me know!

I'm new to Hellenism and was wondering about prayers. Are they specific, or similar to christan prayers? Im surrounded by a christian family and have only been exposed to those types of prayers

Saturnalia (1783) by Antoine-François Callet

Just in time for the start of December, the community has hit 50k members. We’ve seen a lot of expansion lately, and the moderation team understand that a flood of newcomers can be frustrating for old hands, and we also know that people with sincere questions get frustrated when they are met with a wall of disgruntlement, but we ask that more experienced people can be patient with those seeking information that they don’t have, and that newcomers are equally patient with them. We hope we’ve created as safe and welcoming a community where people can explore their spirituality as we can, and we hope to continue that work going forward, into the new year and beyond.

On that note, the moderation team would like to wish all members, contributors and visitors a happy holiday season. Whether you’re celebrating Brumalia, Saturnalia, the Poseidia, Dies Natalis Solis Invictus, Khoiak, Yule, Christmas, Hanukkah, or another holiday from your culture, we hope you do so with good cheer, fellowship with humanity, generosity and kindness, and knowing that the gods smile upon you. This time is rough for many people, but many northern cultures celebrate this time of year as a reminder that, however dark the year gets, the cold nights will get shorter, and the warm days are coming. In the south, it is often a reason to come together and enjoy the height of summer together before the year begins to cool. But until then, we have each other.

And if, like many people, you receive a gift that might be getting regifted or resold, remember to still receive it with gratitude, and spare a thought for the people across the centuries who have had to make the best of bad gifts and didn’t have Amazon or Ebay. The poet Catullus wrote of his exaggerated disgust at getting a book of terrible poetry from a friend, and planned to get him back with a book just as bad.

If I did not love you more than my own eyes,

my dearest Calvus, I should hate you,

as we all hate Vatinius, because of this gift of yours;

for what have one, or what have I said,

that you should bring destruction upon me with all these poets?

May the gods send down all their plagues upon that client of yours

who sent you such a set of sinners.

But if, as I suspect, this new and choice present

is given you by Sulla the schoolmaster,

then I am not vexed, but well happy,

because your labours are not lost.

Great gods, what a portentous and accursed book!

And this was the book which you sent your Catullus,

to kill him off at once on the very day

of the Saturnalia, best of days.

No, no, you rogue, this shall not end so for you.

For let the morning only come, I will off to the booksellers,

sweep together Caesii, Aquini,

Suffenus, and all such poisonous stuff,

And with these penalties will I pay you back your gift.

You poets, meantime, farewell, away with you,

back to that ill place whence you brought your cursed feet,

you burdens of our age, you worst poets.

O my readers — if there be any who will read

my nonsense, and not shrink

from touching me with their hands.

• Catullus, Carmen 14

Hey guys I seem to post a lot here because I seem to second guess myself A LOT and don't wanna do the wrong thing.

But this all started 2 days ago where I was praying to the gods & goddess and I decided to call out and ask if one of them(no one specifically) can help support me because I feel majorly stuck. I used my tarot cards and was given some really nice advice and I asked to know who was speaking to me and instead of getting a straight forward answered I was told to look out for signs and wait for them to give me hints of who they were. 2 days later (today) I was walking to work(which is around a 30 min walk) and I was just admiring the sky because the sun was setting and then I saw a cloud shaped like sparrow which I knew that they could be connected to Aphrodite and then 20 minutes later when I was closer to my job I saw another cloud shaped as a rose which I also know that could be connected to her and I'm wondering if I'm just over hoping or she is giving me signs that she was the one I was talking to.

First a bit of context, next year (2025) will be my last year of high school.

Today I was listening to a Epic song and I thought how funny would be if a placed that song on class (because my English teacher sometimes let us put music on class) and how my best friend would be the only one to get how much I love Epic, but then it hit me that she won’t be in the same school as me next year, she’ll go to a more ‘preparatory to college’ school. We been in the same class since 4 grade, she’s literally like my sister and now I won’t see her everyday anymore. I’ll turn to her seat next year and she won’t be there…

I started crying and light up a candle to Queen Hera and started to vent, I poured my heart out and in the end I felt so much better. Like…it was different from just a usual venting, it felt more peaceful. I’m still sad and a bit afraid of how next year will go but I’m more confident. 💖

Mostly thrifted stuff as we are on a bit of a tight budget ar the moment.

My pet cat recently went missing and she suggested that i ask a god for help and i was thinking about Artemis. Im not too familiar with reaching out to greek gods other than what my mother does.

I was thinking of offering something to Artemis but im not sure what. Aswell as what to do when asking a god for help.

My mother tried doing a reasing on the missing cat but we wereng getting too specific answers. Help?

i was wondering what are some good easily accessible offerings for Lady Aphrodite. there's this guy i really like and i was wondering if i could pray to Lady Aphrodite to help me get him but i was wondering what offerings to give her

hi guysss, i’m looking for some inspiration and things to incorporate into my daily practice, so i’m curious what you guys do!

People get too paranoid of hubris, I mean with good reason yes, but it needs to be within reason, usually when people in the mythos get punished for it, they usually say "I am better than God" [I seek refuge in the Gods against these vile thoughts]

HOWEVER to say that we are LIKE the Gods like as beautiful as Aphrodite or as handsome as Ares are both perfectly fine and these were well attested to in both myth and practice.

PART I: THE BASIS FOR HUMAN DIVINITY

I will start with a quote from Blessed Pindar

Nemean 6 For Alcimidas of Aegina Boys' WrestlingNemean 6For Alcimidas of Aegina Boys' Wrestling ?465 B. C.

"There is one race of men, one race of gods; and from a single mother we both draw our breath. But all allotted power divides us: man is nothing, but for the gods the bronze sky endures as a secure home forever. Nevertheless, we bear some resemblance to the immortals, either in greatness [5] of mind or in nature, although we do not know, by day or by night, towards what goal fortune has written that we should run. "

We share in the essence of the Gods, yet we understand that we are imperfect and prone to flaws unlike the Gods, one yet different, we are divine in origin

Our friendship with the Gods is possible through a fundamental cosmological relationship. Humanity has divine origins. Hesiod tells us in Works and Days that “…from the same origin are sprung gods and mortal men.” The vast orphic literature also testifies to our divine origins.

First (I have sung) the vast necessity of ancient Chaos,
And Cronus, who in the boundless tracts brought forth
The Ether, and the splendid and glorious Eros of a two-fold nature,
The illustrious father of night, existing from eternity.
Whom men call Phanes, for he first appeared.
I have sung the birth of powerful Brimo (Hecate), and the unhallowed deeds
Of the earth-born (giants), who showered down from heaven
Their blood, the lamentable seed of generation, from whene sprung
The race of mortals*, who inhabit the boundless earth for ever.*

(Orphic Fragment Arg. v. 12)

We humans bear the very image of Lord Dionysus, we are from Him and we are of Him. [TW: >!mentions of suicude!<]

“Four kingly reigns are transmitted from (the teachings of) Orphéfs (Ὀρφεύς). The first is the reign of Ouranós; Krónos receives this kingdom by cutting off the generative organs of his father. Following Krónos, Zefs (Ζεὺς) becomes king after hurling down his father to Tártaros. Next, receiving the kingdom from Zefs, Diónysos, who, they say, by means of a plot of Íra (Ἥρα), was tore apart by the Titans, who also tasted his flesh. And, Zefs, thus angered, struck them with thunderbolts, and from out of the soot of the vapors rising up was produced the mud from which men are born. Therefore, it is absolutely not allowed to commit suicide. This is not, as the dialogue seems to say, because the body is bondage, for that is obvious, and he (Σωκράτης) would not have spoken of it as esoteric teaching, but, rather, >!we are not permitted to commit suicide !<because our body is from Diónysos; we are a part of him, certainly, that is to say, composed from the soot of the Titans who had tasted of his flesh.”- ORPHIC FRAGMENT 220 OTTO KERN.

One aspect that the Abrahamic religions stripped away from us is this understanding of our divinity, and our divine origins, in Abrahamic cosmology, we are reduced to mere toys at the mercy of a god shackled to the skies, but in our old and venerable faith, the Gods are around us, that all of humanity are in a perpetual alliance with the Gods, and that we have a share in Their Divinity, that we are all manifestations of God.

PART II: HISTORICAL AND MYTHOLOGICAL BASIS

There is historical and mythological prescendent for comparing in similitudes to the Gods.

For an example in Sappho's wedding poem

"Raise the roof beams high,
Hymenaeus;
Raise them high, carpenters!
The bridegroom is coming,
equal to Ares;
larger than the largest man!"

Sappho, (Fragments) 104–117 (Wedding Songs)Sappho, (Fragments) 104–117 (Wedding Songs)

From the Atrium of the House of Pinarius in Pompeii:

“If anyone does not believe in Venus, they should gaze at my girl friend”

Consider the Iliad: Paris is selected by Zeus to judge a beauty contest between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. If Aphrodite was without question the most beautiful then what is the point of a contest? All three Goddesses bribe Paris with gifts: Hera with kingly authority, Athena with wisdom and strategy near her own, and Aphrodite the love of the most beautiful woman.

Aphrodite’s beauty in her myths is symbolic of her authority over the arts of beauty and attraction.

Even mortal rulers who also kept faith to the Gods, used to refer themselves as being like the Gods, Domitian styled himself as Dominus et Deus (“Lord and God”), Commodus used to depict himself to Herakles and even Emperor Nero used to equate his singing skills to Lord Apollo, along with many Emperors who used to depict themselves as Lord Jove.

Marcus Antonius dressed as Dionysus and referred himself as Dionysus so much so that Seneca the Elder describes that: “the Athenians came to him on his arrival with their wives and children, and saluted him as Dionysos”. Furthermore, the Panathenea festival in 38 BC was celebrated in honor of “Antonius, the new god Dionysos”

So no you wont be committing hubris for telling your habibi that they are as pretty as a Goddess, but not only that but we need to get into the mindset that the Gods are allies of humanity, yes They are Lords and Powers that move the very Earth, yet we participate in the Kosmos as much as Them and that The Gods and us all stem from The One.

Thats concludes my musings, may Jove bless you all.

Is there a god or goddess I can "talk" to or pray to about finding good job and being hired there?

Khaire! I am very new to hellenic polytheism and practicing not exactly in secret but for now I am avoiding doing it too openly as I am still getting the hang of it. I am planning on worshipping Hermes but as he is a chthonic deity I am unsure how to proceed with food offering. I know "No eating food offerings to chthonic deities" and that those offerings can be respectfully disposed of by burning, burying, etc. As I am not very open with my practice and I am not really comfortable burning or burying food it would be noticable if I were to (respectfully) dispose of good food in the compost. Now, I was wondering, would feeding the offering to a pet for "disposal" be appropriate?

For example, if I were to offer a chthonic deity a carrot or an apple and afterwards feed it to my horse (after clarifying for the deity that I mean it respectfully) to dispose of it, would that still cause a problem as it technically has been ingested, just not by me? Or would it be okay because it returns to nature similarly as if I were to pour some water out or bury the food offering?

Does anyone have a cat who jumps on the altars? I'm thinking of relocating my altar somewhere else onto a higher shelf, for example, but I'm not sure if that's gonna work. I'm just afraid she might accidentally throw sth off, a statue, for instance, and it's gonna end up in pieces. Maybe someone has some tips for me? Thanks in advance.

I worship Athena and Aphrodite, in my dreams I was rearranging their altars but for some reason I put down a 3rd altar in between, the candle was blue and I somehow knew it was a goddess for some reason,

I wonder why is that?

I celebrate my Ancestors every December, and add their photos and a candle for them onto my Household Altar. I just felt like sharing.

Hestia (Center)

L>R Agathos Daimon (Divine Ancestor) Kwaku Anansi (Family Story; Tradition) (UPG Synchronized to Hermes) Bastet (Household Protection; Fertility) (Synchronized to Artemis) Venus Cloacina (plumbing; clean water way) (Roman) (Synchronized to Aphrodite)

this is up on Marketplace about an hour from me and obviously The whole thing is going to be heavier than I can imagine but if it's Her I may have to somehow figure out how to get it.

Either way, how beautiful!!! 🖤

Hi I hope this is ok to ask here but I'm not sure where else to ask, I tried looking it up. But I relapsed the other night and I'm wondering if it's ok to still worship while they heal? I'm not bleeding anymore of course but in still injured I guess ?

Again sorry if this lisnt allowed

Hey I need some help. I suffer from intrusive thoughts all the time while trying to pray... like I'm praying aprodithe and I just thinks bad things about her and my head keeps talking to myself like "oh she is such a ..., wtf you don't think those things?" Do you think the gods are mad? I try to apologize in my head but then it's just intrusive thoughs while I say sorry "you are not sorry you are a liar" and other insults on me and on deities. I'm just tired of the voices, and I don't know how to help it so I'm just hoping they are not mad. (I have autism diagnosed but maybe I suffer from ocd too plus i have a bad story with religions since i was a witness of jeova even if it wasnt exacly my choice)

One of the questions i ask about polytheism and polytheistic theology is the why the gods are related to nature. The question was reminded when i read Pliny the elder and i wanted to know what you, as a philosopher or an interested in the subject, believe about the nature of the gods.

I personally believe the gods are connected to nature because of the reason they are multeplicity: the path to become a god is an initiatory travel i think, and that same travel is then the manifestation of a god's substance and natural element. Just like in our world with intellectuals who can develop in many ways with many philosophies and thoughts on the world, i think the gods too are like that and are related to the elements both because of their illumination and the travel some of them made from souls to become one.

But i'm eager to see what you think since i'm reading about neoplatonists and are being excited by the ancient studies about the nature of the divine which is no easy task!

So i was doing an offering, and reading tonight. I have been praying and giving devotions to Lilith (Grey/yellow) , Lucifer(red/black), and Hekate(melted down purple). Her candle burned down so fast and wouldn’t go out when i tried ending the ceremony. I mediated on it, and i think i know the message, but curious what everyone else’s opinion might be! I’ve been practicing consistently for a few months now and this is the first time something like this has happened so i am overly excited. Tysm!

If I mainly worship Greek gods would it be disrespectful to also worship Roman gods?

Hey guys so I gave Lilith and Persephone pomegranate seeds on the same day; I always leave offerings for over a week

The altars are right above eachother

Liliths molded within 5 days

I forgot about Persephones for like 2 weeks and not a single spot of mold

Did Lilith not like the offering :((

i tried bibliomancy with apollo; i was asking for imput or advice on a situation with my dad. (for context my dad is a terrible person) anywaysss the passage of the odyssey i landed on said something like “he ended up being very ill to deal with” (i dont really remember the exact quote) whether he meant that my dad is a pain in the ass or not it made me laugh and made me feel a bit better lmao