devotional moodboard for Hestia, goddess of the hearth

There'll be NSFW themes as he is the god of wine and ecstasy!

Offerings

Wine/Intoxication

Alcohol, specifically wine

Grapes

Wine corks

Wine glasses

Shot glasses

Goblets

Corkscrews

Sparkling cider

Grape flavored things

Cheese

Weed/hallucenigens

Nips (small alcohol bottles)

Bottle opener

Beer/soda tabs

Alcohol bottles with cool labels

Fruit/fruit seeds

Theater/Plays

Play/theater scripts

Play/movie tickets

Masks

Costumes

Nature

Pine cones

Fennel 

Wildflowers

Fig/fig newtons

Ivy

Leopard/cheetah print

Honey

Bull imagery

Donkey imagery

Bones

Antlers

Dead/preserved animals

Hiking gear

Seeds

Dolphins

Depictions of big cats

Wheat

Barley

Ecstasy

Concert/festival tickets

Various drugs (use safely!)

Sex toys

Your favorite music

Misc.

Locks of hair

Shaven beard hair 

Pride swag

Extravagant clothes/clothes that make you feel good

Devotional Acts

Wine/Intoxication

Drink alcohol/get drunk

Go to a wine tasting

Make wine

Eat grapes

Trip intentionally/spiritually

Learn about substance abuse/recovery

Destigamtize drug users

Learn about harm reduction

Use drugs safely 

Theater

Attend a play

Write a play/film/musical

Make home videos

Write poetry

Act

Dress up

Go to the movie theater

Nature

Go to the woods

Dance/sing in the woods

Meditate in the woods

Learn wilderness safety and first aid

Learn what to do when encountering a wild animal

Go off the beaten path

Explore new areas

Pick up litter

Forage

Recycle bottles

Grow fruit

Try new fruits

Ecstasy 

Attend concerts/festivals

Attend/throw parties/celebrations

Have sex

Masturbate

Have threesomes/swing/whatever your in to

Finally give into that one kink you’ve been repressing (you know the one)

Do drugs (responsibly)

Learn about consent/establish boundaries with partners

Death/Rebirth

Dionysus is a god of rebirth and resurrection. This association comes from his birth stories and has resulted in epithets like “twice-born.”

Learn how to preserve dead animals

Learn about different life cycles (plants, animals, etc)

Learn about your ancestry 

Foreigners

Dionysus is also seen as a foreign god with unknown origins. He also traveled through and invaded India.

Learn about immigration in your area

Learn about different cultures

Try foreign foods

Learn a new language

Learn about your ancestry 

Help immigrants in your area

Misc.

Grow your hair out

Manifest/Keep a manifestation journal. Sexual/creative energy is linked and can be used to manifest

Shed your old self

Self-reflection/self-exploration

The Gods are not trans-friendly.

The Gods do not ‘support’ queer people.

The Gods ARE trans. The Gods ARE queer.

The Gods are transgender, They are transsexual. ‘Trans’ means ‘beyond, across’.

The Gods are beyond gender. Beyond sex. Beyond flesh. Beyond normality and norms— thus, They are queer. They are trans. They are on the other side of gender, of sex— on the side we cannot even begin to understand.

The Gods are transsexual and transgender and queer not (only) within our human understanding of transness— They are not trans in the way we humans are trans.

But They are still trans. They are the original transness. The ultimate transsexuality.

Transness as a transition from a state to another state, from a form to another form— from Their divine form to one we humans can behold without being consumed by Their inherent queerness. From Their divinity to words we humans can attempt to understand and think of without being utterly lost in the enormity and infinity of the divine.

Transness as a journey, a constant state of evolution within the world— evolution of the world itself, for the Gods are the world, are beyond time, beyond space, yet constantly changing.

The Gods do not love trans worshippers despite their transness, despite their queerness. The Gods love trans worshippers for their transness. They love us because we are trans. Because we are queer.

As we defy norms, we become closer to Them— trans people are humans, mortals, but I firmly believe that there is something inherently holy in transition. To change yourself, to think the limits of the body and to alter your own flesh is to create, is to destroy. To understand how limitless the world is— how flesh and sex and gender are human things, social things, that are made by us and can be expended and transgressed— is to take a step towards the Gods.

The Gods love you. You are made in Their image. Or maybe— you make yourself in Their image. And that is beautiful.

Devoting my skin care to Lady Aphrodite,

Devoting taking care of myself to Lady Aphrodite,

Devoting doing my hair and makeup to Lady Aphrodite,

Devoting taking care of my body to Lady Aphrodite,

Devoting painting my nails to Lady Aphrodite.

~ 🌷 This will be a long post! 🌷 ~

- Spend time in nature (go hiking, meditate outdoors, collect some river water, make some sun water, plant something etc)

- Interact with your pets (example, dogs are often associated with Hekate so you could play with them or take them on a walk etc.)

- Donate to a shelter or charity in the name of your deity.

- Create a protection charm to add to your dog or cat’s collar. Our companions need protection sometimes too!

- Do your self-care as an act of devotion to yourself and your deity (you could do your skincare as devotion for Aphrodite for example.)

- Have a cleansing bath or shower. You can create a pouch full of cleansing and protective herbs to use.

- Make a piece of artwork for your deities. It could be a painting, clay vase, etc.

- Make a playlist of songs that give you positive energy or remind you of your deity.

- Make a journal or scrapbook about the things you love about your craft to remind you why you are practising.

- Do a daily card pull in the morning. This can be to see how your day will go or what you should be focusing on etc.

- Stir intentions into your drink in a morning (anti-clockwise to remove negativity, clockwise to bring in positivity. You can also say what you wish to manifest for that particular day. You may need an extra boost of inspiration for example.)

- Do some spell work with your deity. Ask them to give you aid with it or to protect you whilst you are doing it.

- Consider enchanting an item. It could be jewellery, a plant, a decorative item in your home etc.(If you would all like, I can make a post of how I personally like to enchant objects.)

- Tidy up your home. This one may seem a bit odd but please read my explanation as to why it is important to take care of your home. Different rooms in your home can be associated with different parts of your life. If you want to manifest something in part of your life, You need to take care of your home in order for your manifestation to work. Your kitchen is connected to your health and health of your household. Your bathroom is connected to your finances and the flow of finances in your household. Your bedroom is connected to the happiness and prosperity of your romantic relationships. Your living room is connected to your relationships with your friends and family.

- Learn how to read candles. Candles are commonly used as an offering to deities and for manifestation workings but sometimes you can have other entities trying to communicate with you via the candle flame. I personally have had ancestors messing about with candles, Not just deities.

- Use colour magick associations when picking out your outfit for the day. For example black is most commonly used as a protection colour.

No seriously

The poets of our mythology worshipped these deities too, if they create it why can't you?

Recognize the symbolism of the gods, recognize the symbolism of these tales. I consider my play of my dnd character Saix to be a devotional act to Hypnos, as he was a cleric to Remnus(God of Sleep), and ended up taking the role of sleep god for Himself. Do not be too strict, for the symbols of the Gods are fluid in their interpretation.

I didn't have the time or the safety to avidly read mythology when I first started, and sometime into my practice I had realized - you more or less do not need it. I see it as - it was once UPG. And technically speaking, you too can create mythology of your gods. They won't see it as disrespect - they enjoy you're doing your own forms of worship. That you're having fun with it. Because it shows a piece of you, a piece of them, and a piece of you two together. Which is beautiful.

Giving them their own symbols, their own associations, epithets, and so on. In my experience, it can even bring you that much closer and have that much more of a personalized relationship with that deity.

You can of course use the already documented mythology readily available as much as you want, there's nothing wrong with that; but there's always so much more information to be learned about our beloved gods. What was true for the people that had written all their mythologies may not be true for you, and a part of the joy in deity work is learning about them in your own style, if that makes sense haha. Expanding your perspective on your deities is a wonderful experience for the both of you. For all the good, bad, and in between.

The doodle you make or the picrew you use, the poorly executed poetry or basic bare bones prayer will ALWAYS be better than AI generated offerings.

I am sick of having my feed flooded with practitioners, pagans and other polytheists using AI. Specifically deities like Brigid should never be offered AI in my opinion, it’s essentially a slap in the face.

AI generated spells aren’t shit, it’s what a computer assumes will work based off of what it can gather from internet trends and research. MAKE IT YOURSELF, ask a human for help anything but AI.

I decided to write this after reading Timothy Jay Alexander’s old homophobic statements. Here are some tips for what to look for in sketchy people in Hellenic Polytheism and Hellenismos - I hope they are helpful!.

Talk of restoring our religion to its “rightful place”

An “ethnic” or “racial” focus to their worship

Focus on having and rearing children with the same religion (ie., indoctrination to force continuation of our faith)

Calls for violence

Labeling people who ask for basic respect or rights as whiny, etc.

Saying our faith is superior to any other

Fixation on hatred for monotheistic religions

Bigotry

Claiming that a big event is coming, or that they themselves are important to some big scale cosmic event

Using free speech as a “get out of jail” card for any bigotry

Insisting on calling oneself a polytheist instead of a pagan

Appropriation or tokenization of non-neo pagan or non-pagan religions (i.e. Hindu, Shinto, etc.)

Refusal to take criticism

Refusal to use accessible language

For Twitter, check who they follow. Even self-proclaimed “liberal” or leftist accounts often follow fash. Confronting them on these accounts is helpful especially in gauging their reaction to fascism. If they’re a decent person they’ll be disgusted and unfollow the fash, if they’re not so great they might snark at you or something.

Elitism and pretentiousness, “I’m better than you no matter what I do” mindset

Condemnation of animal sacrifice

Claiming to be oppressed for being pagan

Insisting that Greek paganism be called “Dodekatheism”

Refusing to do or read any research; becoming defensive when someone tells them their claims are unfounded or their sources are unreliable

Claiming ancestry is necessary to practice Hellenismos (or Hellenic Polytheism etc.)

Refusal to acknowledge or address White Supremacists in their friend circles (goes with the who they’re following point)

Charging prices for research

Updated 23 February 2022

The Homeric Hymns: http://www.theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns1.html              

The Homeric Hymns, translated by Apostolos N. Athanassakis are also available to read online for free: 

https://archive.org/details/homerichymns00home 

https://archive.org/details/homerichymns00atha

https://archive.org/details/homerichymns0000unse

The Orphic Hymns: http://www.theoi.com/Text/OrphicHymns1.html

The Orphic Hymns, translated by Apostolos N. Athanassakis:   https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780891301196

The Delphic Maxims: https://www.scribd.com/document/186693295/Delphic-Maxims

Many other primary sources from ancient Greece can be found in English translations at theoi.com, which is a fantastic resource for information about the Theoi.

Modern prayers to the Theoi:

Hearthstone: https://greekpagan.com & https://greekpagan.tumblr.com/ Note: downloads of Hearthstone’s two books of Hellenic prayers can be purchased at https://www.etsy.com/shop/HearthfireHandworks

winebrightruby: https://winebrightruby.tumblr.com/devotional

Some of the best and most essential sources to start with - and for continuous reference, in my opinion:

Adam, John. The Religious Teachers of Greece. Clifton, New Jersey: Reference Book Publishers, Inc, 1965.  https://www.giffordlectures.org/lectures/religious-teachers-greece

Adkins, Lesley and Adkins, Roy A. Handbook To Life In Ancient Greece https://archive.org/details/handbooktolifein00adki

Betegh, Gabor. Greek Philosophy and Religion. https://www.academia.edu/4990433/Greek_Philosophy_and_Religion

Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion  https://archive.org/details/greekreligionarchaicandclassical

Angelos Chaniotis, “The Life of Statues of Gods in the Greek World’” Kernos  [Online], 30 | 2017, posted on October 01, 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/kernos/2492 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/kernos.2492

Dignas, Beate, and Kai Trampedach, eds. 2008. Practitioners of the Divine: Greek Priests and Religious Figures from Homer to Heliodorus.Hellenic Studies Series 30. Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies.  http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.ebook:CHS_DignasB_and_TrampedachK_eds.Practitioners_of_the_Divine.2008

Dillon Matthew. “Household, Families and Women” in Kindt, J. Eidinow, E. (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Religion in the Ancient World, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2015. https://www.academia.edu/7974646/HOME_AND_HEARTH._THE_CLASSICAL_GREEK_EXPERIENCE_OF_DOMESTIC_RELIGION_in_Kindt_J._Eidinow_E._eds_The_Oxford_Handbook_of_Religion_in_the_Ancient_World_Oxford_University_Press_Oxford_2015

Furley, WIlliam D. and  Jan Maarten Bremer. Greek Hymns: Selected Cult Songs from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period. Part One: The texts in translation.Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2001.  https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/uploads/tx_sgpublisher/produkte/leseproben/9783161586552.pdf

Garrett, Jan. Did Socrates ‘Teach New Deities’? Or: Homer’s Gods, Plato’s Gods  http://people.wku.edu/jan.garrett/pgods.htm

Hesiod. Theogany  https://www.theoi.com/Text/HesiodTheogony.html 

Hesoid. Works and Days https://www.theoi.com/Text/HesiodWorksDays.html

Kearns, Emily. The Nature of Heroines in The Sacred and the Feminine in Ancient Greece edited by Sue Bundell and Margaret Williamson, Routledge, 1998. pp. 96-110.  http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic1500680.files/kerns%20nature%20of%20heroines.pdf

Kindt, Julia. “Personal Religion: A Productive Category for the Study of Ancient Greek Religion?” The Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. 135, 2015, pp. 35–50., www.jstor.org/stable/44157346

Kitts, Margo. What’s Religious about the Iliad? Religion Compass 7/7 (2013): 225–233, 10.1111/rec3.12050 Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2013.  https://www.academia.edu/5744383/_Whats_religious_about_the_Iliad_Religion_Compass_7_7_2013_225_233_draft_version_

Koutoupas, A. “The Meaning of Reciprocity in Ancient Greek Religion.”  https://www.academia.edu/12126893/The_Meaning_of_Reciprocity_in_Ancient_Greek_Religion

Meyer, Marvin.The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook: Sacred Texts of the Mystery Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean World   https://archive.org/details/ancientmysteries0000unse_p7i2

Morford, Mark, P.O., Lenardon, Robert J. and Sham, Michael. “The student companion to Classical Mythology, Tenth Edition”: https://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780199997329/

Otto, Walter.The Homeric Gods  https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.4448/page/n5/mode/2up

Petrovic, Andrej, and Petrovic, Ivana. “Introduction” in Inner Purity and Pollution in Ancient Greek Religion Vol I.  https://www.academia.edu/30262742/Introduction_in_Inner_Purity_and_Pollution_in_Ancient_Greek_Religion_Vol_I

Pirenne-Delforg, Vinciane and and Francesca Prescendi. Feeding the gods? Sacrifice and representation of the divine.   https://books.openedition.org/pulg/1604

Rask, K.A. “Devotionalism, Material Culture, and the Personal in Greek Religion.”  https://journals.openedition.org/kernos/23

Seznac, Jean.The Survival of the Pagan Gods: The Mythological Tradition and Its Place in Renaissance Humanism and Art, Princeton University Press, 1953. Chapter One, pp. 11-36. http://people.bu.edu/bobl/paganchristian.pdf

Smith, William. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities John Murray, London, 1875. Articles on Greek and Roman religion, including divination, festivals, funerals, magic, priestly officers, and rituals: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA/Religion/home.html

Von den Hogg, Ralf. “Images and Prestige of Cult Personnel in Athens between the Sixth and First Centuries BC” in Practitioners of the Divine: Greek Priests and Religious Officials from Homer to Heliodorus, edited by Kai Trampedach, and Beate Dignas. Kolloquium. pp 107-141 http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/2166/1/vdH_Images_Prestige_2008.pdf

Webster, Michael. Reading Hesiod’s Theogany. 2005.   https://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/Hesiod2.htm

Webster, Michael.

Ways of Interpreting Myths

. 2005.   

https://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/ways.htm

Weddell, Poly. Touching the Gods: physical interaction with cult statues in the Roman world. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/555/1/Touching_the_Gods.pdf?DDD3+

Whitmore, Emily. Personal Religion in ancient Greece.  https://www.academia.edu/8729313/Personal_religion_in_ancient_Greece

Woodward, Roger D. The Cambridge Companion to Greek Mythology https://archive.org/details/TheCambridgeCompanionToGreekMythology/page/n1/mode/2up

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Find more information at my Masterpost of Resources for Hellenic & Roman Polytheism: https://honorthegods.tumblr.com/masterpost

reblog with ares content <3