Hellenismos
The Return of Persephone
The Greeks themselves did not actually have a word that meant "Religion." Hellenismos itself is a word coined by a Roman Emperor, not by the Greeks themselves, and even then the religion of the Greeks had already undergone great changes due to influence and suppression by Christian zealots, not to mention the centuries of influence from the great amount of cultural exchange that took place during the Hellenistic age that followed the death of Alexander.
The term we use today, Religion, speaks of a concept that is both foreign and yet intimately tied to the ancient Greek psyche. Religion, you see, was not a separate concept to the Greeks from their culture. In fact, it has never truly been a separate thing in any culture, not even our own, where religion to this day continues to plague us as we desperately struggle against the ideals of one religion being forced upon all of us.
Modern people often make a clear distinction between say Spirituality and Religion, because we have decided that one is good while the other too often leads to war and dispute rather than unity.
So, Spirituality is the inner sense of connection with something greater than ourselves, Be it a divine spirit or something else, it is a guiding principle that is inherent to all of us. It is the inner self, the inner turmoil and emotion that is part of every single one of us every single day.
Religion, however, is external. Religion is the passing on of ideals, philosophies, and beliefs from one person to the other, sometimes based on culture, sometimes on books, sometimes simply on the word of another. And religion is also practice.
Because Hellenismos is such a strongly orthopraxic (focusing on the proper forms of ritual) rather than orthodoxic (focusing on proper belief) it actually correct to call Hellenismos a "religion" because a great deal of our practice is based on external input.
My personal concepts of religion can vary a bit, but in general I tend to conflate spirituality and religion into a single concept. No spirituality is ever purely internal, and no religion is ever purely external, so my religion is a combination of these things. The internal sensations and reactions to the world and what I learn from religious and philosophical texts, of which there are many in Hellenismos, including some that could not really, in all honesty, be classified as religious texts at all.
Religion, to me, is that feeling of not being alone in the presence of the Gods in tandem with the act of lighting my Hestia candle every morning. They cannot be separated anymore than my heart can be separated from my chest.
The term we use today, Religion, speaks of a concept that is both foreign and yet intimately tied to the ancient Greek psyche. Religion, you see, was not a separate concept to the Greeks from their culture. In fact, it has never truly been a separate thing in any culture, not even our own, where religion to this day continues to plague us as we desperately struggle against the ideals of one religion being forced upon all of us.
Modern people often make a clear distinction between say Spirituality and Religion, because we have decided that one is good while the other too often leads to war and dispute rather than unity.
So, Spirituality is the inner sense of connection with something greater than ourselves, Be it a divine spirit or something else, it is a guiding principle that is inherent to all of us. It is the inner self, the inner turmoil and emotion that is part of every single one of us every single day.
Religion, however, is external. Religion is the passing on of ideals, philosophies, and beliefs from one person to the other, sometimes based on culture, sometimes on books, sometimes simply on the word of another. And religion is also practice.
Because Hellenismos is such a strongly orthopraxic (focusing on the proper forms of ritual) rather than orthodoxic (focusing on proper belief) it actually correct to call Hellenismos a "religion" because a great deal of our practice is based on external input.
My personal concepts of religion can vary a bit, but in general I tend to conflate spirituality and religion into a single concept. No spirituality is ever purely internal, and no religion is ever purely external, so my religion is a combination of these things. The internal sensations and reactions to the world and what I learn from religious and philosophical texts, of which there are many in Hellenismos, including some that could not really, in all honesty, be classified as religious texts at all.
Religion, to me, is that feeling of not being alone in the presence of the Gods in tandem with the act of lighting my Hestia candle every morning. They cannot be separated anymore than my heart can be separated from my chest.