Jsraven7 - Corvid - Tumblr Blog

Please, Ares, give courage to those who are protesting against racists.

Please, Athena, protect them because they are still fighting for their rights.

Please, Zeus, take care of them, be a shelter for those who need it. 

any erebos devotees / worshippers please interact !!!! i'm starting out with erebos worship and it would be great to know others that hold devotion to him !!!!!

I am open for questions tonight if anyone has any! It can be about my personal practice (I’ll answer what I am comfortable with!) or just general hellenic polytheism questions! 🖤

Please reblog if you vote! 🧡

Whether you’re a devotee or a worshipper, you’re not always gonna be at your best, and there are gonna be times - maybe lots of times - where you may not feel you can give 100% to your deities. You may not even be able to talk to them at all.

That’s why I LOVE devotional jewellery or any other kind of devotional item that you can carry with your person. Just the simple act of putting on a necklace or a ring or something similar is such an amazing way of showing your deities “hey, I’m still here. I still love you. I still carry you with me.“

My Zeus prayer beads are now up on my shop! More in stock soon! I’m so proud of them, they look so pretty

I finally started a journal for devotionals to the Gods. I choose a God that I worship each day and a prompt to write to them about in the journal. I really hope to feel more connected this way!

Lord Hermes, please kindly accept this e-offering <3

i cannot express how grateful I am for having found my gods♡

⚔️ARES EDIT⚔️

My first rating on my shop is five stars 🥹 I couldn’t be more proud. I am happy to be part of the community and share prayer beads with others.

while i’m sure it’s certainly cool to be chosen by a deity for worship/devotion, i think there’s something beautiful about choosing them instead. having little to no signs from a deity, but seeing them and saying “yes. yes. yes. you are the one i want to devote myself to. work on myself for. be a part of your life as you are mine.” as a practitioner and then setting forth. i personally feel like we don’t have many options in life, so it’s nice to be the one to decide.

Please reblog if you vote. 🧡

Hello there! I am a person who was raised in a Jewish culture/religion and for quite some time I have been feeling a pull towards Hellenic Polytheism, I have been researching about the religion too, I have started worshipping Apollo, etc.

For a very long time I have wondered, do Hellenic people pray in different times of day? Do you pray before eating? In Judaism, we pray every morning, pray before we eat at Shabbat, etc. Do those customs exist in Hellenic Polythiesm? Are prayers a must?

If so, how are prayers/hymns constructed? Can a simple practitioner like me create my own prayer?

I apologize for so many questions, this religion is so interesting, I have never felt so pulled into something like this in my entire life.

Hi there! No worries! I'm happy to answer your questions. 😊

Just to preface, I will reference more traditional ways of worship and pretty much talk about how the ancients did it, as I personally rely on historical accuracy in my practice to a certain degree. You don't need to strictly do everything the traditional way, though! It might be a little difficult when getting started, so don't be too hard on yourself if you don't get some things or can't do some things!

How to pray

Perhaps you already know it, so I'll keep it short:

Ouranic [Heavelny] Gods - stand with hands outstretched in the air and palms facing upward

Chthonic [Underworld] Gods - hands mustn’t be raised, and the prayer should be murmured

Einalic [Sea] Gods, Nymphs and spirits of the earth - arms must be spread wide towards the sea; the hands are also be facing the cult image

If you happen to be in need of holding something, e.g. a text/prayer written down, keep it in your left hand and (if needed) outstretch your right hand. Kneeling wasn't very common, but clutching the knees of statues or touching its base might've happened at times.

There's also this somewhat mysterious thing called Proskynesis. I'm in the process of doing more research about it and I'll be writing a longer post about it. Essentially, it's like "blowing a kiss" to the god/gods". There were some accounts of people doing it for the Sun [Helios], e.g. in the morning or when approaching a statue in a temple, however, I'm not sure how common it actually was. It might've become more popular in the late classical period or Hellenistic period due to Alexander's The Great desire to popularise ruler worship but that's a talk for another time. I personally sometimes do it, e.g. perform proskynesis towards the sky/clouds for Zeus. It's not a requirement, though.

When to pray

When it comes to prayer, one would pray in the morning or even give an offering to the gods, e.g. pouring libation. One would also pray in the afternoon or any time prior to supper which was the most important and the biggest meal and in the evening at any time following the supper and before sleeping. Evening prayer might've been considered quite important (obviously, not everyone did all of that every single day; it was considered quite pious).

It was also customary to pray before meals and offer the first (and sometimes the last) bite of the food to Hestia, whether by burning it or placing it at the domestic altar. However, nowadays I've seen that some people simply dedicate the first and the last bite to Hestia by stating it's for her if they can't physically offer it.

Although prayer might seem quite important in Hellenic Polytheism, IMO it's not a MUST. No one will force you to pray and if you can't pray for some reason (e.g. a disability) there are other ways you can honour the gods, e.g. devotional acts or offerings.

Construction

You can absolutely create your own prayers and/or hymns and make them personal to you! They can be as simple or as complicated as you want them to be.

I write some of my prayers but I also find this website to be very helpful and I highly recommend checking it out! The author has written various types of prayers for plenty of the Hellenic Gods. It's quite easy to search for them, too.

Shameless self-promo but you can also check out my Hellenic cheat sheets. They include basic prayers and hymns.

Hymns

Hymns are usually used for praise and often accompanied by burning incense and giving offerings to the deity.

You begin by addressing the deity/deities. If you'd like to incorporate some Greek into your practice you could say something like:

(When addressing multiple deities)

Greek: Ἔλθετε, Θεοὶ μάκαρες, ἀθάνατοι! Εἰσακούσατε προσευχήν ἐμοῦ! [Élthete, Theoí mákares, athánatoi! Eisakoúsate prosefchín emoú!]

English: Come, blessed, deathless Gods! Hearken to my prayer!

(When addressing a single deity)

Greek: κλῦτε μευ εὐχομένου λαῶν ὕπερ εὔφρονι θυμῷ! [Klýte mef efchoménou laón ýper éffroni thymó!]

English: Hear me with gracious soul as I pray on behalf of mankind!

The Homeric Hymns and Orphic Hymns are probably the most famous and often are a go-to among Hellenic polytheists but they're by no means the only hymns out there! You can find those hymns and some other less popular ones on websites such as Theoi.com and Hellenicgods.org. I also recommend checking out@hymnstothetheoi on Tumblr for more wonderfully written hymns.

This great post, for example, explains how one could go about writing a hymn based on The Orphic Hymn to Pan, so it might be helpful if you'd like to write hymns yourself!

Prayer

But let's talk about what a potential prayer formula could look like.

Let's try to write a super simple prayer together:

1. Who & why?

First, you need to decide whom you'd like to pray to and why.

Since you mentioned Apollo, let's go with that! We'll pray to him for, let's say some artistic inspiration.

2. Appropriate attitude & posture

It depends on the "type" of the deity you'd like to pray to. I already mentioned it above.

Apollo is an Ouranic deity, so when praying to him, one should stand up with outstretched hands, palms facing up.

3. Identification and addressing the deity

This stage involves naming the god and listing some of his epithets relating to some functions of the deity or even family relations. You can find awesome info about that on Theoi.com.

So let's start!

Hear me, O Phoibos [Bright] Apollo,

Radiant son of Thundering Zeus and Blessed Leto,

Brother to swift-footed Artemis.

4. Mythology

Mythology is often mentioned in prayer. This can be followed by a recounting of some relevant myths, which act as symbola or attributes and the functions of the god.

Let's continue:

Leader of lovely Muses,

Apollo Khrysolýris [Of Golden Lyre] whose lyre plays the sweetest of songs,

He whose gentle voice soothes mortal ears,

Your skill is unequalled.

5. Justification

Here we could mention something to justify our intention of this prayer by establishing what you have already done to honour that god. It might feel weird at first but assure you, it's not guilt-tripping the god to help you and it was commonly included in ancient prayer!

Apollo Kharopiós [Bringer of Joy],

If I've ever sung You praises,

Hear my plea and grace me with your aid!

6. Petition or Praise

Now we ask for what we'd like to receive and state the purpose of the prayer (or just give praise).

In dance and song the artist and the poet pray to You for inspiration and for revelation;

And so now I, too pray You kindly bestow Your divine gift of inspiration on me!

7. Vow/Promise

Usually, prayers (especially those asking for a favour) involve some form of offering for the deity. Outright demanding something from Theoi is not exactly respectful. Reciprocity, or Kharis, is the foundation of our relationship with the gods. You give - they give sort of thing or Do ut des (yes, it's Latin and yes, it's a Roman phrase but it functioned like that in The Ancient Greek Religion, too).

Apollo Mousêgetês [Leader of Muses; as the preceding],

I pray for your favour.

As a token of gratitude, I will present you with an offering of frankincense!

And done! The whole prayer looks like this:

[3] Leader of lovely Muses,

Apollo Khrysolýris whose lyre plays the sweetest of songs,

He whose gentle voice soothes mortal ears,

Your skill is unequalled.

[4] Leader of lovely Muses,

Apollo Khrysolýris whose lyre plays the sweetest of songs,

He whose gentle voice soothes mortal ears,

Your skill is unequalled.

[5] Apollo Kharopiós,

If I've ever sung You praises,

Hear my plea and grace me with your aid!

[6] In dance and song the artist and the poet pray to You for inspiration and for revelation;

And so now I, too pray You kindly bestow Your divine gift of inspiration on me!

[7] Apollo Mousêgetês,

I pray for your favour.

As a token of gratitude, I will present you with an offering of frankincense!

Here's another link to a great explanation on how to pray, although this one is also about asking for something. I know it's a TikTok but Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts is an ancient historian and I think she explained it very well using an example of Chyses praying to Apollo in The Iliad making it a bit easier to understand.

I hope this clears some things up!

I think you might also find this post helpful. I talk there about some basic things, such as "the pillars of Hellenism", literature, clothing etc.

I just got my first sale on my store! I’m so excited! Praise the Gods for my shop having such a wonderful beginning!

　　　　　　　　　　　　　Dionysus: 　　　　　　　　　God of wine and madness

E-Offering For Apollon

My shop link is in my “About me” post or my bio! I’m so happy to finally get started! And thank you all again! 🖤

My shop has already gotten a few visits and I’m very excited! Unfortunately until I learn a bit more, I can only ship in the US for now. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.

I have officially opened my shop! Bear with me as I upload more listings, and work to increase my items and inventory! I have to ship beads in and it takes a week or two. I appreciate all support and thank you all for your suggestions and encouragement! https://www.etsy.com/shop/RavenSmithing

Etsy

RavenSmithing - Etsy

Shop items by RavenSmithing.

My family is still staying in half of the church that wasn’t affected by the bombing because there is nowhere else to stay other than tents. They are limited to one small meal a day and one shower a week. They are sleeping on the floors, but no one can sleep since there is bombing everywhere around them. Even when there is no bombing, they can still hear the loud buzzing sound of the military planes above them, which would keep anyone who hears it awake. Along with everything, My grandma has diabetes and osteoporosis, so she can’t walk. She has to take her insulin medication along with many others; however, she has run out of many of her medications.” Am on my knees requesting for donation. Target $450

I am sorry for everything you have gone through. If anyone can donate, I ask that you do so!

Hello

hope that you are well

Please help us,May God bless you 🙏

I'm Etaf from Gaza Palestine

I am a mother of five smart children.

speaking to you with a heavy heart on behalf of my family who urgently need help.

The war has destroyed everything we own.

It destroyed everything my husband and I built for these children.

Now we don't have anything, We do not have the price of rent, food or education.

read and Share the link on my pageThe fixer

,My campaign has been verifiedBy Operation Olive Branch . 🌿

If you are able to donate, Do not hesitate to do so and rest assured that God will reward you because we are in dire need of that. And share the link on social media that would be kind of you. May Allah make you happy all your life dear Thank you. 🙏

I am so sorry for everything you have been through. If anyone can donate, do so!

I should hopefully be setting up my shop soon! I’m very excited! For now there will be only beads for Lord Apollon, Lord Helios, and hopefully Lord Zeus and Lord Hypnos soon!

I haven’t been too active in a while! If anyone has any helpol questions, I’d be happy to help with what I can!