One of the questions I get the most is how to start worshipping. Here's some advice is you struggle with that as well.
I don't believe you have to start or stop worshipping. You can start the act of worship through ritual but having faith is something that happens internally and over time. Religion, to me, is the process of finding personal truth. For me, it’s also a way to reconcile my many thoughts about Divinity with the experiences I have had with it. Which practices I use gives me a framework to do what I feel that needs to be done. What I felt that was needed to be done was to start worshipping the Theoi through the ways of the ancient Hellenes. That is why it was natural for me to progress into it.
Worshipping the Theoi, really, is a personal experience. If you practice like me, be prepared for twice-daily rituals, a lot of reading to understand the ways of the ancients, a lot of thinking about modern practices that still hold the intent of the ancient practices but can be sustained in the modern social and economical climate, and an extensive festival practice. If you don't practice like me, well, you might only do a few of these things or more of these things.
My post on ritual and sacrifice in Hellenismos will help you understand what we do and why we do it. For the practice of Hellenismos, I’ll link you to my videos on how to prepare khernips and how to perform a simple libation. The rest can be inferred from the information in these three. You should also read up on arete, kharis, miasma, xenia and hubris.
My post on ritual and sacrifice in Hellenismos will help you understand what we do and why we do it. For the practice of Hellenismos, I’ll link you to my videos on how to prepare khernips and how to perform a simple libation. The rest can be inferred from the information in these three. You should also read up on arete, kharis, miasma, xenia and hubris.
As a general note, I think I should 'warn' you that Hellenismos is a religion that thrives of repetition. You will be doing the same things over and over and over because that's where its strength is. Walk to your bomos (altar), cleanse yourself with water that has had something burning tossed into it (khernips), recite a hymn to the God(s), make your offerings, say your prayers, and make sure not to catch the house on fire during any part of it. That's basically it. You can get a lot more elaborate but it will still come down to procession, cleansing, hymns and prayers, and offerings.
There is a little more to household worship. We follow the 'Mên kata Theion', the 'sacred month'. We build our personal household worship with Theoi dear to us. This doesn't have to focus on the major Gods every day, that's what the sacred month is for. Practice the Hene kai Nea, Noumenia and Agathós Daímōn.
How you make it through this first period is dependent upon only yourself, I fear. My advice is to read as much as you can, ask questions to anyone willing to answer them, and to invest in a few books that will help you along greatly. Join Facebook groups, join Elaion, seek out others of your faith and just go for it. The Gods will not punish you for messing up when you had no way of knowing better. They have never punished me for it, at least.
Once you get a handle on your practice comes phase two, and this is also the final phase: shaping your practice. You will never have a practice that you are fully satisfied with, that's fully perfect--not if you keep investing time and effort into your studies, into your rituals, into developing yourself. A religion is more than the rites you perform; religion is a lifestyle and it seeps into the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the people you meet, the person you become and everything else there is to you. No one is defined by a single aspect in their life, but your religion does say something about you as a person.
Developing your practice can be a hard thing to do, and it requires you to have an intimate knowledge of yourself, of your needs and desires. What do you want to get out of your religion? Why did you get into it? What religious baggage do you take with you? And most of all, perhaps, what are you willing to do for it? Are you willing to turn your life around if the Gods desire it of you, or would you rather just have a religion as a hobby? Both are fine, but you need to figure out the answer going in.
Developing your practice is a beautiful thing, and everyone does it in his or her own way. Because of that, we all have something to teach, and we will always have something to learn from others. This is why community matters so much, and it is part of the reason I blog: to make information available but also to make myself available to you. If you are starting out, or even if you're shaping your practice, there will invariably come a time where you just don't know what to do. Reach out, to me or someone else, and allow other to help develop your practice. Honoring the Gods is and was never the job of one man or woman: we do it together, all of us, in our own little way.
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