Ancient Greek Religion & Hellenic Polytheism: A Reading Guide

digital offering to Lord Árész

im praying to you, oh Swift and Mighty Árész, that you keep those who protest in the upcoming days safe, and that you can lend them your strenght to fight against the oppression 。.:*:・'°☆

Hello! I just found your blog in a search for the perfect dinner recipe for my birthday next week! Do you have any suggestions?

What about a classic steak dinner?

WITCHES STEAK DINNER 

Twice Baked Potatoes And Rosemary Garlic Butter Steak are a perfect match of flavor for a classic steak dinner. Make on a Friday night while dancing to light 50s music while the smell of warm food fills the air.

Ingredients:

For the Steak

2 New York Strip Steaks

Salt and Pepper (Enough to coat the two pieces evenly)

Fresh Parsley - protection, strength, vitality, passion, dispel negativity

Fresh Thyme - prevent nightmares, dispel negative vibrations, courage, purification, cleansing, good health.

Fresh Rosemary - clarity, wisdom, truth, cleansing, purifying.

Fresh Oregano -  happiness, tranquility, good luck, health, warding, inducing prophetic dreams

5 Tablespoons Butter for the Steak

3 cloves garlic for the steak

Olive Oil

For the Twice Baked Potatoes

9 tablespoons melted butter

7 tablespoons half and half

Half bag of shredded cheddar cheese

Bacon bits

3 potatoes

2 pieces of chopped garlic

Directions:

1. Wash and cut potatoes in half, place on parchment paper flesh side down. Pierce with a fork. Put in oven on 400 degrees for 45 minutes or so.

2.  Strip the herbs of their stems and chop all together until very fine. Crush fresh garlic. Transfer about a handful of herbs and all of the crushed garlic into softened butter. Mix well until combined.

3. Take half of the butter mixture and rub it into the steaks very thoroughly

4.  Cool potatoes for 15 minutes. Scoop the flesh out of the potatoes and into a bowl but leave a border. Cover with a thin layer of melted butter. Add chopped garlic, cheddar cheese, bacon, half and half, and salt and pepper. Put the mixture back into the skins and make a mound. Sprinkle a little more cheddar and bacon on top to form a nice crust. Put into oven for another 15 minutes or so.

5.  Bring out your skillet, add olive oil and turn on high. Wait until the skillet gets hot. Now add in your steak. Allow the steak to cook for 3 minutes without touching it. Cook for 4 extra minutes on the other side if you like medium.

6. Every once and a while, baste steak to keep flavorful. Right before taking the steak off the heat, put the remaining butter on the steak and let it melt.

Magic For The Disabled

A few things that I do when I’m at my lowest. Made specifically for disabled people, but anyone can do these! See this post for low energy witchcraft ideas not directly related to disabilities.

Enchant your blanket for a good night’s rest

Enchant your coffee/juice/water/NyQuil/whatever you’re drinking to aid in recovery

Enchant food to aid in recovery

Place sigils around to aid in recovery, memory, etc.

Keep relaxing herbs/stones/etc. around

Cast a sleep aid spell (I have a bag with lavender and amethyst hanging on a bedpost)

Cast a recovery spell (I have another bag with a variety of protection and rest herbs and crystals)

Enchant fidgets or objects used to stim to calm you and to never break

Use energy magic instead of physical spells.

Use art/writing/etc. magic! Draw sigils, deities, write spells, recipes, shopping lists, etc.

Stir and infuse good energy/banishing into teas or coffees.

Keep some supplies nearby (i.e. tea lights, a lighter, grimoire, oils, etc.).

Use showers, washing of face/hands, etc. for cleansing.

Brush out the bad energy when brushing your hair.

Ward health aids or mobility aids against breaking and bless them to work quickly and well.

Use apps or websites for sigils, spells, etc. (VirtualCandleSpell for digital candle spells, Craiyon for sigils).

Keep room sprays near you and bless them to serve a certain purpose.

Make emoji/song spells! Use corresponding emojis and charge them with intent. Use corresponding songs, put them on a playlist, charge them, and listen to it whenever you want to cast it.

Use makeup/skincare as glamours.

Use sunscreen as protection!

Use wax warmers and melts instead of candles.

Use oils in diffusers instead of candles or incense.

Enchant anything you use daily.

PSA: Aphrodite isn't just romantic love, the ancient Greeks had 7 words for love!

eros: your typical love, romance, sex, all that. typically what Aphrodite is known for.

philautia: self-love (which is SO SO important!)

storge: parental love, the bond that parents and children have with each other.

ludus: playful love - banter, teasing, flirting as a joke with your friends.

pragma: longstanding love, that is built upon trust and respect for one another. can be any type of relationship.

xenia: hospitality, a love and care for strangers and the people around you.

agape: true, unconditional love. the love everyone should aim to feel for others and to let others feel for them.

Lady Aphrodite is all of this! She tends to like hearing about relationships (in my experience), and She's always willing to lend some advice!

ANGEL’S AWARD WINNING LEMON POPPY SEED BREAD

Sooo, I know I haven’t posted in awhile but it’s because I’be been very busy recently. Never the less, here is a recipe for you guys that I love! This bread is famous among my friends, town, and family for *ahem* being pretty good…

Anyways from my kitchen to yours, here is the recipe!

Did You Know?: Poppy Seeds are sacred to the god of sleep, Hypnos, and the god of dreams, Morpheus. Demeter, created the poppy so she could sleep.

Ingredients:

½ cup oil

½ cup melted butter

3 tbsp poppy seeds

Juice and zest of 2 lemons

1/3 cup whole milk yogurt (plain)

1 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

A pinch of salt

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

3 eggs, divided.

1/3 cup buttermilk

2 tsp Madagascar vanilla extract (Any will do)

1 ½ cup granulated sugar

For The Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp leftover lemon juice

Preparation

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Butter a large loaf pan and line it with parchment paper. In a kitchen aid cream your butter, sugar, and lemon zest. Beat in egg yolks, vanilla, yogurt, buttermilk, and lemon juice (leave a little left for your glaze.)

In another medium-sized bowl add in all of your dry ingredients and gently combined them slowly with a spatula into the wet mixture until just completely mixed. 

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form, in thirds, fold the whipped egg whites into the batter. Add in poppy seeds. 

Pour batter evenly between two loaf pans and let bake for 50 minutes or until completely done. Poke the cake with a stick and if it comes out clean, it is fully cooked.

Combine all your glaze ingredients and drizzle over the cooked loaf.

Floral Spell to Bring Joy to Another

A spell to bring a friend joy when they need it.

You will Need:

💐 Azaleas 💐 Lilies 💐 Witches Grass 💐 Orange Ribbon 💐 Yellow Ribbon

Steps:

💐 Lay out the flowers and organize them as you like best

💐 Take your orange and yellow and begin wrapping them around the stems

💐 “In your time of sadness and murky skies, I bring you light and joy. These flowers will give you the joy you deserve, and bluer skies.”

💐 Tie the ribbons in a bow and kiss the tie and hold the stems in your hands as you do. Visualize the bouquet glowing yellow like the sun and remember the times you saw your friend smiling, laughing and enjoying themselves. Put those memories into the kiss to bring back such things.

💐 Present the bouquet to your friend and have them keep it somewhere they can see it often.

Aphrodite loves sex workers and victims of sexual assault and intersex people and people who are insecure about their body/self harm and nonwhite people and queer people and fat people btw. pass it on

Protection Salt

Salt is one of the fundamental ingredients when performing protection magic, and while just plain salt is perfect for your spells, there are plenty of ways to punch it up to get a little extra protective power out of it.

You Will Need:

Coarse white salt

Essential oils - eucalyptus, orange, & pine are my favorites

Protection herbs - I usually use rosemary, pine needles, mugwort, bay leaves, and pennyroyal, but use whatever you vibe with!

A stick of cinnamon

A jar to keep your finished salt in

Measure out however much salt you want to use onto a plate. Mix in the essential oils first and make sure you get the salt well coated. You don't want it to be soggy or anything, but you want more than a few drops in there.

Then mix in your dried herbs! You can do this with a mortar and pestle as long as you're careful not to actually do any grinding. I usually mix mine in my cauldron because then it also picks up ash from spells and herbs that I have previously burned in the cauldron and that gives it a little extra magical kick.

Purify your jar with a little incense (I like sandalwood) and then fill it halfway with your salt and herb and oil mixture. Situate your cinnamon stick in the middle and then carefully pour the rest of your salt in around it.

And viola! You made your very own protection salt!

What to put in your hellenic journal and why it helps

Building a kharis with gods using a religious journal is really helpful. It helped me keep my information and my thoughts related to the Gods organized. It can also help beginners if they are uncomfortable reciting hymns out loud.

What could be put inside it:

Every day write one delphic maxim and write how you interpret it or what you think about it

Make a shopping list for your altar and offerings

Compose prayers

Hymns/ prayers to your patrons and Hestia, Nyx, Helios, Hypnos

Write something as if you are conversating with the Gods.

Important information on deities

Favorite offerings, incenses, and libations of the Gods

Important Callendar events, festivals, and key info on celebration

Quotes from the most famous books of Gods that you relate to or want to remember

Instructions on composing prayers

What afterlife means in Hellenismos

What defines hubris, agos and miasma

7 pillars of Hellenismos and their meaning

Do some drawings for the Gods as a devotional act

Include your personal experiences with the divine and how it affected you

Write down the signs you saw during the week

You can also decorate it with the images of Gods

Delphic Maxims:

https://www.tumblr.com/bluemorfedbutterfly/746793310790828032/delphic-maxims-pt1-the-delphic-maxims-are-a?source=share

Different flowers and the Hellenic deities they correspond with: a masterlist:

🌸🏛️🌸🏛️🌸🏛️🌸🏛️🌸🏛️🌸🏛️🌸🏛️🌸🏛️

- Anenome 🌹Aeolus, Aether

- Aster 🌹 Astraea

- Amaranth 🌹Artemis

- Allium 🌹Poseidon, Hecate

- Asphodel 🌹hades, Nyx, Persephone, Hecate

- Bluebell 🌹Circe

- Buttercup 🌹Apollo

- Black eyed Susan 🌹Tyche, Nemesis

- Bleeding heart 🌹Aphrodite

- Chrysanthemum 🌹 Heracles,

- Carnation 🌹Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares, Dysnomia, Zeus

- Cornflower 🌹Demeter

- Crocus 🌹Apollo, Hermes

- Cosmos 🌹Astraeus

- Cyclamen 🌹Persephone, Hekate

- Dandelion 🌹Apollo, Hekate

- Daisy 🌹Hebe, Hephaestus, Artemis, Persephone, Aphrodite

- Daffodil 🌹 Apollo, Eirene, Proteus, Hades

- Delphinium 🌹Poseidon, Amphitrite, Britomartis

- Daylily 🌹 Hyperion, Aether

- Forget me not 🌹 Mnemosyne, Dionysus, Zeus

- Foxglove 🌹 Artemis, Ares

- Gardenia 🌹Athena, Aphrodite

- Geranium 🌹Circe, Aphrodite

- Gladiolus 🌹 Apollo, Nike

- Goldenrod 🌹Demeter

- Heather 🌹 Heracles, Hera

- Heliotrope 🌹 Helios

- Hollyhock 🌹Hestia

- Hyacinth 🌹 Apollo

- Honeysuckle 🌹 Aristaeus, Hestia

- Iris 🌹 Iris, Pistis

- Jasmine 🌹Aphrodite, Athena, Morpheus, Nyx

- Lily 🌹Hebe, Hekate, Hera

- Lily of the valley 🌹 Persephone, Melinoe, Prometheus, Hades, Hekate, Nyx

- Lavender 🌹 Asclepius

- Lilac 🌹Pan

- Morning glory 🌹 Apollo, Eos

- Marigold 🌹 Apollo, Deipneus, Dionysus

- Nasturtium 🌹Hephaestus, Nike

- Orchid 🌹 Dionysus

- Peace Lily 🌹Tyche, Harmonia, Hera

- Poppy 🌹Ares, Asclepius, Epione, Morpheus, Hygeia, Demeter

- Peony 🌹 Aphrodite, Apollo

- Pansy 🌹Apollo, Dionysus

- Phlox 🌹 Eros

- Rose 🌹Aglaea, Aphrodite, Clymene, Eris, Eos

- Sunflower 🌹 Demeter, Apollo

- Sweet pea 🌹Aphrodite

- Snowdrops 🌹Chione

- Tulip 🌹 Eirene, Aphrodite

- Violet 🌹Aphrodite, Persephone, Zagreus, Dionysus

- Veronica 🌹Demeter

- Vervain 🌹Artemis, Aphrodite

- Water Lily 🌹Tethys, Zagreus, Hera

- Yarrow 🌹 Aphrodite, Hermes, Pan

- Zinnia 🌹 Zeus

🏛️🌸🏛️🌸🏛️🌸🏛️🌸🏛️🌸🏛️🌸🏛️🌸🏛️🌸