Hellenismos
The Return of Persephone
Ritual is not so important an issue for me. Ritual, like most things, has different meanings to different people. In essence, anything you tend to do in a repetitive manner, especially in a religious context, is ritual.
My daily prayers, lighting of incense, and meditation are a ritual. I do them every morning when I wake, and every evening when I am going to bed. It is part of what keeps me sane, and offers me a sense of connection to the universe and the blessed Gods.
Hellenism, however, offers some basic ideas about ritual that are important to all of us. The ancient sources give us many examples of the rites offered up to the Gods in the form of festivals and private ritual celebrations for the Gods.
The basic concept of a formalized ritual are fairly simple.
The sacred space is either set up or is traditional, but it is set up. Blessing the sacred space is a simple matter, prayers and the spreading of barley or other grain is a symbolic cleansing that removes miasma from a place. And while the symbolic nature of this is fairly clear, it invites the Gods to cleanse the area of any things that are offensive to them.
The gathering occurs in a place other than the sacred altar. People are chosen to carry the water, the fire, the grain, and the sacred implements such as knives. While in ancient times the killing of an animal for sacrifice and feasting was essential, in modern times the knife is mostly symbolic, used perhaps to cut the bread or other food stuffs offered up to the Gods.
Once everyone is set up, the priest (either chosen particularly for this event or traditional) leads a procession to the sacred space. The laws of miasma allow all to attend this, but once at the sacred space, such as the Temenos of a temple or some such, those who are touched by miasma are expected to remain behind.
The torch bearers, water bearers, grain bearers, and bearers of the sacred implements walk with the priest, and the people follow, and upon entering the sacred space, which is normally out of doors, but which in many American climates must, at least during some part of the year, be in doors. The Fire is lit, the altar is consecrated by allowing the participants to scatter grain upon it, and then offering, prayers, and sacrifice are offered to the Gods.
A normal way to approach this is to make vocal invocations of the Gods, beginning with Hestia, the Lady of the Hearth, the Gods of the Cult, and any other of the Gods that hold import to the people of the cult, or to you as a solitary person. The ritual structure is up to you, from here on, and they depend on the God in question, but to close the ritual it is once again deemed important to invoke Hestia, the Lady of the Hearth.
An apparently important aspect of Hellenic invocation, however, is to invoke your own deeds in honor of the Gods. This was, of course, likely important in light of the politicization of religion in ancient Greece. A king or other such leader was expected to not only provide for the city and its people those things that one normally expect from kings, but also to honor the Gods so as to give the Gods good reason to protect the city and grant it their blessings.
This is often interpreted in many Hellenic circles as part of proper prayer and invocation. What this means is that if you make donations to the poor as part of your honoring of the Gods, build them a shrine, throw a fabulous festival, you say so in your prayers. In other word, you would pray something like this:
“Blessed Apollo, lord of light, if I have honored you as founder of the Apollo Foundation for Children’s Health, as builder of a great shrine, as father of this cult in your honor, may you look kindly now upon me”
This always seems a bit strange to me, as I expect the Gods to know what I have done in their honor, but for a king, it makes perfect sense as the people expect to hear what it is he has done to honor their Gods.
I suspect that this is also important for a priest, and I imagine that any cult I found would include a prayer formula that allows for the priest to share with the people of his cult the deeds he has managed in their honor.
My rituals, as I have already stated, are fairly simple. I am a solitary practitioner of this religion with many online contacts. So, here is a basic outline of my morning ritual…
I awake. I proceed to do morning things in the bathroom as we all do, but I also wash y hands and face in particular observance of the cleansing of miasma. I am not even sure why I do this, as I consider the concept of miasma to be a bit archaic, but it is one of my peculiarities. (One of many, I assure you.) I do this by invoking Zeus and Apollo as I wash, seeking their cleansing of my body of all that is unpleasing to the Gods.
I then proceed to my Altar of the Virgins, which sits in my fireplace and holds a lovely statue representing Hestia and a candle that sits before her in a crystal cylinder. I light the candle with a prayer inviting her into my home and life. I invoke Athena, protector, and Artemis, huntress, and then light incense which I set to burn in a cast iron urn filled with dirt or salt (something natural).
In front of the candle is a white decorated box that holds prayer beads and some variety of incense cones and such, and I pull those out when the feeling calls me and I offer up incense before the statuettes of Artemis and Athena. On days when I am drawn to it, I also then proceed to light the candles on all the altars in my home, and I light incense there as well.
On occasion, I make a point of proceeding from altar to altar, room to room, with incense burning in a soapstone burner, and ask the Gods to bless my home. In a way, this is much like the procession in a festival. I call this a blessing, and many neo-pagans do this by way of “smudging.” I do not do this to drive out evil spirits, but to draw the favor of the Gods, their blessings and protection.
I do make a point of offering up a variety of incense and candles, scented in ways I find most pleasing, and with candles, generally scents that I associate with the God or Goddess in some way. Flowery scents with Aphrodite, clean scents with the purity of the virgin Goddesses, pomegranate with Persephone, pumpkin with Demeter, etc.
My choice of incense is a bit more difficult to associate with particular deities, so I don’t try.
Ritual, then, is any action you take in honor of the Gods, and I would love to hear from you on how you do this. I would even love to present some of those here for others to read if you share…
My daily prayers, lighting of incense, and meditation are a ritual. I do them every morning when I wake, and every evening when I am going to bed. It is part of what keeps me sane, and offers me a sense of connection to the universe and the blessed Gods.
Hellenism, however, offers some basic ideas about ritual that are important to all of us. The ancient sources give us many examples of the rites offered up to the Gods in the form of festivals and private ritual celebrations for the Gods.
The basic concept of a formalized ritual are fairly simple.
The sacred space is either set up or is traditional, but it is set up. Blessing the sacred space is a simple matter, prayers and the spreading of barley or other grain is a symbolic cleansing that removes miasma from a place. And while the symbolic nature of this is fairly clear, it invites the Gods to cleanse the area of any things that are offensive to them.
The gathering occurs in a place other than the sacred altar. People are chosen to carry the water, the fire, the grain, and the sacred implements such as knives. While in ancient times the killing of an animal for sacrifice and feasting was essential, in modern times the knife is mostly symbolic, used perhaps to cut the bread or other food stuffs offered up to the Gods.
Once everyone is set up, the priest (either chosen particularly for this event or traditional) leads a procession to the sacred space. The laws of miasma allow all to attend this, but once at the sacred space, such as the Temenos of a temple or some such, those who are touched by miasma are expected to remain behind.
The torch bearers, water bearers, grain bearers, and bearers of the sacred implements walk with the priest, and the people follow, and upon entering the sacred space, which is normally out of doors, but which in many American climates must, at least during some part of the year, be in doors. The Fire is lit, the altar is consecrated by allowing the participants to scatter grain upon it, and then offering, prayers, and sacrifice are offered to the Gods.
A normal way to approach this is to make vocal invocations of the Gods, beginning with Hestia, the Lady of the Hearth, the Gods of the Cult, and any other of the Gods that hold import to the people of the cult, or to you as a solitary person. The ritual structure is up to you, from here on, and they depend on the God in question, but to close the ritual it is once again deemed important to invoke Hestia, the Lady of the Hearth.
An apparently important aspect of Hellenic invocation, however, is to invoke your own deeds in honor of the Gods. This was, of course, likely important in light of the politicization of religion in ancient Greece. A king or other such leader was expected to not only provide for the city and its people those things that one normally expect from kings, but also to honor the Gods so as to give the Gods good reason to protect the city and grant it their blessings.
This is often interpreted in many Hellenic circles as part of proper prayer and invocation. What this means is that if you make donations to the poor as part of your honoring of the Gods, build them a shrine, throw a fabulous festival, you say so in your prayers. In other word, you would pray something like this:
“Blessed Apollo, lord of light, if I have honored you as founder of the Apollo Foundation for Children’s Health, as builder of a great shrine, as father of this cult in your honor, may you look kindly now upon me”
This always seems a bit strange to me, as I expect the Gods to know what I have done in their honor, but for a king, it makes perfect sense as the people expect to hear what it is he has done to honor their Gods.
I suspect that this is also important for a priest, and I imagine that any cult I found would include a prayer formula that allows for the priest to share with the people of his cult the deeds he has managed in their honor.
My rituals, as I have already stated, are fairly simple. I am a solitary practitioner of this religion with many online contacts. So, here is a basic outline of my morning ritual…
I awake. I proceed to do morning things in the bathroom as we all do, but I also wash y hands and face in particular observance of the cleansing of miasma. I am not even sure why I do this, as I consider the concept of miasma to be a bit archaic, but it is one of my peculiarities. (One of many, I assure you.) I do this by invoking Zeus and Apollo as I wash, seeking their cleansing of my body of all that is unpleasing to the Gods.
I then proceed to my Altar of the Virgins, which sits in my fireplace and holds a lovely statue representing Hestia and a candle that sits before her in a crystal cylinder. I light the candle with a prayer inviting her into my home and life. I invoke Athena, protector, and Artemis, huntress, and then light incense which I set to burn in a cast iron urn filled with dirt or salt (something natural).
In front of the candle is a white decorated box that holds prayer beads and some variety of incense cones and such, and I pull those out when the feeling calls me and I offer up incense before the statuettes of Artemis and Athena. On days when I am drawn to it, I also then proceed to light the candles on all the altars in my home, and I light incense there as well.
On occasion, I make a point of proceeding from altar to altar, room to room, with incense burning in a soapstone burner, and ask the Gods to bless my home. In a way, this is much like the procession in a festival. I call this a blessing, and many neo-pagans do this by way of “smudging.” I do not do this to drive out evil spirits, but to draw the favor of the Gods, their blessings and protection.
I do make a point of offering up a variety of incense and candles, scented in ways I find most pleasing, and with candles, generally scents that I associate with the God or Goddess in some way. Flowery scents with Aphrodite, clean scents with the purity of the virgin Goddesses, pomegranate with Persephone, pumpkin with Demeter, etc.
My choice of incense is a bit more difficult to associate with particular deities, so I don’t try.
Ritual, then, is any action you take in honor of the Gods, and I would love to hear from you on how you do this. I would even love to present some of those here for others to read if you share…