'The beginner's guide to Hellenismos' announcement

Today I am announcing a new series of sorts on Baring the Aegis. Starting tomorrow, I will start a series that I hope to update once a week, which together will form the primer for Elaion I have been struggling to put time and effort in forever. It's going to be the (Elaion) beginner's guide to Hellenismos, and it will contain all the information an aspiring Hellenist needs. During this project, I will have the help of Elaion co-founder Robert Clark, who has previously written many wonderful essays on our religion, and who is more knowledgeable on the subject than I can ever hope to be.

The primer will cover both the view point of someone new to religion in general, as those who came here from a Christian or Pagan background--without making mention of either too much. It will be both a practical and theoretical guide and once it's completed (and edited), it will be added to the standard package a new member of Elaion receives (as an e-book) and downloadable from both Baring the Aegis and the Elaion website in both .pfd and .epub. Other formats to come later, if requested.

You will find the tentative index below, and you will be able to follow along with the progress from this brand new page, aptly named 'The beginner's guide to Hellenismos'. The posts that contain the information from these chapters may be split up, which is why there will eventually be a full document to download.

If you have additions to this index, please feel free to contact me about it either through the comments, Facebook, Tumblr, Google+, or e-mail at baring.the.aegis@gmail.com.

• Introduction
  What is Hellenismos? Who do we worship? Why do we worship the way we do? What is our history?
• The Theoi, heroes and daimons
  Overview of the pantheon, classes of the Gods, and world view.
• Starting a daily practice
  On the importance of daily worship and the tools you'll need to do it--both material and mental.
• Worship
  Procession, purification, prayers and hymns, sacrifice and offerings, prayers of supplication and thanks.
• The festivals
  An overview of all of the major (Athenian) festivals.
• (Modern) magic ...and why it has no part in Traditional Hellenismos.
• EthicsEthical thinking is an essential part of Hellenismos and there are many sources of ethical thought. An overview of the most common and--tentatively labelled--most important ones.
• Philosophy
  A brief overview of the major schools of philosophic thought that can optionally be applied to Hellenismos.
• Mystery cults
  An overview of the major mystery cults of ancient Hellas and why Elaion does not actively support their continued existence.
• Appendix one: Recipes for household sacrifice
• Appendix two: Hellenic reading list
• Appendix three: Terms and terminology