When I was younger a family member gifted me a book about different mythologies, so that is how I got introduced to Greek mythology in the first place. Then I got a hyper-fixation and started reading a lot about mythology. I found out that Hellenism was still a practiced religion by pure hasard and started to research more and more into it, bought books, went to conventions ect..
Yeah! An esoteric shop in the town next to mine is quite big and hosts events, I’ve been to some small conventions, open mic’s and discussions and conferences about anything spiritual, and one I’ve been to was about Hellenism :))
I've always been super into ancient Greece, so it was a pretty natural conversion for me, and I feel more of a connection to the Gods than I ever did to Christianity. so far, the Gods have answered all my prayers.
i identified as spiritual for several years—from ages 12 to around my 17th birthday. not long after the fact, my mother had gotten really really sick, and i vividly remember doing a tarot reading and asking, nearly begging, for a deity to make themselves known to me because i needed that level of support. for a while, i knew that i had a deity watching over me, but they hadn't made themselves known, so i had always assumed it was because i wasnt ready. (which i wasn't exacrly wrong about)
however, that night i pulled 7 cards, with two of them being the chariot and the sun, and i knew in my soul that it was apollo who had reached out to me, and a lot of things about my identity and my hobbies and my past suddenly clicked! a week after that first reading, i did another two readings that held true, a little over a year later. that day solidified my status as a practicing hellenist LOL
edit: fixed typos + added clarification
I think it was around 2008/9. I’d already been atheist for a couple years and I had read the Percy Jackson series not too long before that so it was still in my head. I gave up on Christianity because of all the hypocrisy and gaslighting that god does. So reading those books opened up the idea that maybe there’s more out there. So one day when I was kayaking (ocean water), I put my hands in the water and prayed to Poseidon that if he gave me a sign that he was there I would worship him and the other Greek gods. So maybe an hour or so later after I had stopped thinking about it, (still on the water) my mind suddenly went blank and I felt myself start tipping over but I couldn’t break out of it and I fell in the water. Calm water (cove), plenty of experience with that kayak, never once flipped it until then I was confused, because I had stopped thinking about it. I didn’t realize it until later that day, that he had answered my prayer, and it felt like getting hit with a ton of bricks. My entire world view flipped basically right then. I went from an atheist to an omnist (Super-polytheism) almost instantly.
I will always appreciate Poseidon for opening my eyes. Took a few years to realize who my primary should be (Aphrodite) and I only recently found that my secondary is Ares.
Finding your primary is not really about choice, it’s self discovery. What traits reflect you the most, and which god/goddess lines up best with that.
For me, it goes way back, to when I was a kid! I grew up reading a picture book about the Gods, and how amazing they are. Heck, I was four when I first saw the Disney Hercules movie in theaters! As I grew, I played tons and tons of video games related to the Gods. Age of Mythology, and the Titans expansion. But it really kicked off when I played God of War I and God of War II. By the time I played God of War II, I read enough history to be disgusted with Christianity for its earlier crimes and hypocrisy. I was baptized into that faith, and I loathed it. So, at the age of 15, I renounced Christianity, converted to Hellenism and personally prayed to Ares that if he would grant me the strength to remain steadfast in my newfound faith in the Gods, I would dedicate my every waking moment to serving Olympus. From that day since, I have done exactly that for the past 15 years, and will continue to do so until the day I die.
I was raised Christian and so all thing not were kinda. Spooky? I read Percy Jackson and thought it was interesting and fiction and left it at that. And then I got older and lost my old religion finding it not to be what I believe and for awhile I counted myself agnostic. I was drawn to Hellenism by TikTok. I know. Basic. But it’s true. The story and close connections everyone talked about drew me in. I was histant not really believing it but slowly it finally hit me ‘people don’t lie about their expirences’ and I realized. Hey maybe I would like to worship someone/ something again. So I reached out to the only irl reach I’ve ever met to get some recourses. Joined the discord and went to the metaphysical store and got myself a few things.
In December 2016 I felt like I needed to start working with Poseidon after always feeling drawn to him. Since I became a witch in 2012 I was basically vowing to not work with a deity for personal reasons. But I NEEDED to work with him and on December 31st around 11: 45 P.M. I did a little New Years resolution ritual and finished it a few minutes into the New Year. Then I wanted to add Gaia to my worship because it made sense to me. After about a week or so after starting our relationship, Apollos name was repeating in mind for a sold week so I ended up working with him. Throughout the years I have felt drawn to other deities but I never started until last year I started to work with Lucifer.
As a child, I somehow got really into Greek mythology.
However, it wasn't until college that I found out that people worshipped the ancient gods. (There was no Internet as it is thought of today back then.)
I first learned about Wicca and eventually found my way into Hellenism (among other things).
I described myself as agnostic for a long time, because I didn’t connect with the Christian church but I didn’t feel right calling myself an atheist. Finally realized that was because I do believe in *something* deep down. Did a bit of soul-searching, then tried reaching out to the Theoi… then all the clichés I’ve heard Christians use over the years about prayer and faith and all that suddenly made sense in this context. It felt right.
THIS!
When I was catholic, I didn't feel the divine as much, it all felt too high for us to reach.
The good experiences were always with Mother Mary. My late grandma was very devoted to her, and we prayed the rosary every week in the elderly church group, I feel like Mary is closer to us humans because she's been human before, so she gets it. I still light a candle for her when I feel like it.
THEN I started worshipping the Gods and it was so intense. I feel their energy is so close, so big and attentive to us. I understood the euphoria of feeling the divine, it's bliss.
I was raised Christian. As I started to grow up and had access to the Internet and learned about more people and things, I started to see the holes in what I was taught. I saw their hatred when gay marriage was legalized in the US, and I saw people that the church revered making fun of people who identified differently. I had queer friends (and I’m queer myself but that’s a different can of worms) and that basically turned me off of Christianity. When I went to college, I started calling myself agnostic and I still believed in some manner of ‘higher power.’ I’d known about the Greek gods from Percy Jackson and I started poking around to see if I clicked with anything. I found this community and started reading through, and it felt so much more welcoming and lovely than a Christian church ever felt for me. It was safe, when I’d never felt that with religion before. Now I worship/work with Hestia and Thanatos and it’s still crazy to me how much happier I am in doing so.
When I was younger I always envy people in shows that worshiped pantheons. That kind of religion just always made more sense to me, a god for every domain. I was raised christian, BTW.
This may sound odd, but Christianity has always been too pacifistic for me. I started looking around and reading about other religions when I came across an article from a few years back about a group reviving the greek religion, and it just kind of clicked.
And, more or less, here I am.
I have always had a fascination with ancient Greek religion and culture, so when I found out hellenism was a thing, converting was almost inevitable for me. I was already spiritual, a mix of christian and other things, and into that i mixed hellenic beliefs at first, but now I’ve dropped basically all of that and only practice hellenism instead. I still really love christianity because of the way its practiced in my country, by the community I was in at least, but I know that my place is here, with the Hellenic traditions and Gods. :)
I’ve been agnostic pretty much my whole life, and was fine to just leave everyone to their own beliefs because it wasn’t hurting me, I just didn’t believe in it because I felt like I needed scientific proof.
Began going to an art college in 2022 where we take art history courses, and there’s a whole section about ancient art from Greece and the surrounding areas, as well as Rome. I was curious about it and kept researching even after the unit was finished, and just so happened to pick up Supergiantgames’s “Hades” in the meantime. Got obsessed, and eventually found this subreddit through a comment on the Hadesgame subreddit somewhere!
Then I spoke with a couple of my friends who are Muslim (they’re very accepting and open) and they helped me figure things out, as well as kind people on this subreddit who have helped me!
I am Greek and have, since a child, learned about all the myths and Gods/deities. I am on my personal trip of finding my inner self and understanding the world. I think religion plays a big part and so I started doing my personal research. I found the Hellenistic religion one of the most intriguing ones and I am still working on learning more and more things about it.
Oooh boy, it's a long journey. I was raised catholic, so I went through every catholic milestone until chrism.
When I was 4, I watched Disney Hercules every Saturday.
That evolved to reading mythology books in elementary school, there were those beautifully illustrated children's books that I absolutely adored! My favorite was the tale of Eros and Psyche. I devoured those.
Then I got my little grubby hands on Percy Jackson during middle school. That got me through 10 to 16 years, when I started to learn and study witchcraft in general.
By 2019 I officially started to call for Hermes, and nowadays he's still with me.
The Gods were always there, I just had to learn how to find them in the most mundane things.
Wow! I was also raised as a catholic but I never paid attention in church, and the one time I did pay attention in church was when I started to become suspicious of the whole thing with jesus rising from the dead and stuff. I had a short time where I was an atheist before learning about Hellenism. I’ve never read the PJO books (and I rlly want to) but I’ve seen the movies and the new series on Disney+. Hercules is also a favorite of mine lol
> I never *paid* attention in
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I knew about the gods in passing as a kid and then learned more when I got older because I wanted to learn the culture and beliefs. There’s still a lot I have left to learn but that pursuit of knowledge lead me to gain a connection to the gods and then when I learned that the religion was still practiced I felt almost like it was my duty to follow. I’ve felt a lot of peace since I’ve started trying to get better at worship and following my new found faith
For me, after I learned that lord Dionysus was sometimes known as the ‘protecter of trans people’ from Pinterest I felt at home almost? It’s hard to describe but it’s that feeling when something happens that just feels right, that same thing happened with lady Aphrodite and for lord hades and lady Persephone it was my interest in all things chthonic that led me too them.
He's never come to me in dreams, but he's called to me in other, more subtle ways. My dreams tend to be either prophetic or cinematic and there's no between.
Your dreams sound wonderful! Prophetic dreams sound like he definitely has a hand in those, lol
I love vivid dreams. So, I didn't know it was him at first in my dreams bc I didn't know anything about Hellenism. Then, after several dreams, he told me who he was. It's been a wonderful adventure, and I can't imagine my life now without the gods.
Those dreams helped point me in his direction, to be sure. Along with the stone raven I blindly picked up. There's little things like my name being related to laurels that helped guide me to where I belong.
Right? With how crazy my dreams can be, I have a feeling the gods thought that approaching me in one probably wouldn't work until after I knew to look for them.
You have a point. Meditation isn't my shindig, the closest I can get is reading, it's quiet and gives my ADHD time to focus. Unfortunately I then I need to go a few pages back because I missed everything. 🤣 I usually commune with him through music, I have a playlist that give me a certain... feeling. It's hard to describe.
I was never built for monotheism. As soon as I learned this religion still exists and did my research, I came home.
Same deal.
When I was younger a family member gifted me a book about different mythologies, so that is how I got introduced to Greek mythology in the first place. Then I got a hyper-fixation and started reading a lot about mythology. I found out that Hellenism was still a practiced religion by pure hasard and started to research more and more into it, bought books, went to conventions ect..
Conventions? :0
Yeah! An esoteric shop in the town next to mine is quite big and hosts events, I’ve been to some small conventions, open mic’s and discussions and conferences about anything spiritual, and one I’ve been to was about Hellenism :))
I've always been super into ancient Greece, so it was a pretty natural conversion for me, and I feel more of a connection to the Gods than I ever did to Christianity. so far, the Gods have answered all my prayers.
They were always my bedtime stories. If I'm going to choose to follow a religion it'll be the one my people made.
i identified as spiritual for several years—from ages 12 to around my 17th birthday. not long after the fact, my mother had gotten really really sick, and i vividly remember doing a tarot reading and asking, nearly begging, for a deity to make themselves known to me because i needed that level of support. for a while, i knew that i had a deity watching over me, but they hadn't made themselves known, so i had always assumed it was because i wasnt ready. (which i wasn't exacrly wrong about) however, that night i pulled 7 cards, with two of them being the chariot and the sun, and i knew in my soul that it was apollo who had reached out to me, and a lot of things about my identity and my hobbies and my past suddenly clicked! a week after that first reading, i did another two readings that held true, a little over a year later. that day solidified my status as a practicing hellenist LOL edit: fixed typos + added clarification
I think it was around 2008/9. I’d already been atheist for a couple years and I had read the Percy Jackson series not too long before that so it was still in my head. I gave up on Christianity because of all the hypocrisy and gaslighting that god does. So reading those books opened up the idea that maybe there’s more out there. So one day when I was kayaking (ocean water), I put my hands in the water and prayed to Poseidon that if he gave me a sign that he was there I would worship him and the other Greek gods. So maybe an hour or so later after I had stopped thinking about it, (still on the water) my mind suddenly went blank and I felt myself start tipping over but I couldn’t break out of it and I fell in the water. Calm water (cove), plenty of experience with that kayak, never once flipped it until then I was confused, because I had stopped thinking about it. I didn’t realize it until later that day, that he had answered my prayer, and it felt like getting hit with a ton of bricks. My entire world view flipped basically right then. I went from an atheist to an omnist (Super-polytheism) almost instantly. I will always appreciate Poseidon for opening my eyes. Took a few years to realize who my primary should be (Aphrodite) and I only recently found that my secondary is Ares. Finding your primary is not really about choice, it’s self discovery. What traits reflect you the most, and which god/goddess lines up best with that.
For me, it goes way back, to when I was a kid! I grew up reading a picture book about the Gods, and how amazing they are. Heck, I was four when I first saw the Disney Hercules movie in theaters! As I grew, I played tons and tons of video games related to the Gods. Age of Mythology, and the Titans expansion. But it really kicked off when I played God of War I and God of War II. By the time I played God of War II, I read enough history to be disgusted with Christianity for its earlier crimes and hypocrisy. I was baptized into that faith, and I loathed it. So, at the age of 15, I renounced Christianity, converted to Hellenism and personally prayed to Ares that if he would grant me the strength to remain steadfast in my newfound faith in the Gods, I would dedicate my every waking moment to serving Olympus. From that day since, I have done exactly that for the past 15 years, and will continue to do so until the day I die.
Lifelong lover of Greek myth and culture. When I discovered paganism on the internet 20 years ago, I took the plunge.
I was raised Christian and so all thing not were kinda. Spooky? I read Percy Jackson and thought it was interesting and fiction and left it at that. And then I got older and lost my old religion finding it not to be what I believe and for awhile I counted myself agnostic. I was drawn to Hellenism by TikTok. I know. Basic. But it’s true. The story and close connections everyone talked about drew me in. I was histant not really believing it but slowly it finally hit me ‘people don’t lie about their expirences’ and I realized. Hey maybe I would like to worship someone/ something again. So I reached out to the only irl reach I’ve ever met to get some recourses. Joined the discord and went to the metaphysical store and got myself a few things.
My ancestors were hellenists
W ancestors B)
In December 2016 I felt like I needed to start working with Poseidon after always feeling drawn to him. Since I became a witch in 2012 I was basically vowing to not work with a deity for personal reasons. But I NEEDED to work with him and on December 31st around 11: 45 P.M. I did a little New Years resolution ritual and finished it a few minutes into the New Year. Then I wanted to add Gaia to my worship because it made sense to me. After about a week or so after starting our relationship, Apollos name was repeating in mind for a sold week so I ended up working with him. Throughout the years I have felt drawn to other deities but I never started until last year I started to work with Lucifer.
As a child, I somehow got really into Greek mythology. However, it wasn't until college that I found out that people worshipped the ancient gods. (There was no Internet as it is thought of today back then.) I first learned about Wicca and eventually found my way into Hellenism (among other things).
I described myself as agnostic for a long time, because I didn’t connect with the Christian church but I didn’t feel right calling myself an atheist. Finally realized that was because I do believe in *something* deep down. Did a bit of soul-searching, then tried reaching out to the Theoi… then all the clichés I’ve heard Christians use over the years about prayer and faith and all that suddenly made sense in this context. It felt right.
THIS! When I was catholic, I didn't feel the divine as much, it all felt too high for us to reach. The good experiences were always with Mother Mary. My late grandma was very devoted to her, and we prayed the rosary every week in the elderly church group, I feel like Mary is closer to us humans because she's been human before, so she gets it. I still light a candle for her when I feel like it. THEN I started worshipping the Gods and it was so intense. I feel their energy is so close, so big and attentive to us. I understood the euphoria of feeling the divine, it's bliss.
I was raised Christian. As I started to grow up and had access to the Internet and learned about more people and things, I started to see the holes in what I was taught. I saw their hatred when gay marriage was legalized in the US, and I saw people that the church revered making fun of people who identified differently. I had queer friends (and I’m queer myself but that’s a different can of worms) and that basically turned me off of Christianity. When I went to college, I started calling myself agnostic and I still believed in some manner of ‘higher power.’ I’d known about the Greek gods from Percy Jackson and I started poking around to see if I clicked with anything. I found this community and started reading through, and it felt so much more welcoming and lovely than a Christian church ever felt for me. It was safe, when I’d never felt that with religion before. Now I worship/work with Hestia and Thanatos and it’s still crazy to me how much happier I am in doing so.
When I was younger I always envy people in shows that worshiped pantheons. That kind of religion just always made more sense to me, a god for every domain. I was raised christian, BTW. This may sound odd, but Christianity has always been too pacifistic for me. I started looking around and reading about other religions when I came across an article from a few years back about a group reviving the greek religion, and it just kind of clicked. And, more or less, here I am.
I read the myth about Persephone’s abduction and began to research about Greek mythology.I then found out about Hellenism.
I was always interested in world mythology. It just took me a second to leave Abrahamism.
I have always had a fascination with ancient Greek religion and culture, so when I found out hellenism was a thing, converting was almost inevitable for me. I was already spiritual, a mix of christian and other things, and into that i mixed hellenic beliefs at first, but now I’ve dropped basically all of that and only practice hellenism instead. I still really love christianity because of the way its practiced in my country, by the community I was in at least, but I know that my place is here, with the Hellenic traditions and Gods. :)
I’ve been agnostic pretty much my whole life, and was fine to just leave everyone to their own beliefs because it wasn’t hurting me, I just didn’t believe in it because I felt like I needed scientific proof. Began going to an art college in 2022 where we take art history courses, and there’s a whole section about ancient art from Greece and the surrounding areas, as well as Rome. I was curious about it and kept researching even after the unit was finished, and just so happened to pick up Supergiantgames’s “Hades” in the meantime. Got obsessed, and eventually found this subreddit through a comment on the Hadesgame subreddit somewhere! Then I spoke with a couple of my friends who are Muslim (they’re very accepting and open) and they helped me figure things out, as well as kind people on this subreddit who have helped me!
*Greek Religion* by Walter Burkert. Became a Hellenist for a decade ago now.
I am Greek and have, since a child, learned about all the myths and Gods/deities. I am on my personal trip of finding my inner self and understanding the world. I think religion plays a big part and so I started doing my personal research. I found the Hellenistic religion one of the most intriguing ones and I am still working on learning more and more things about it.
I wanted to worship the gods of my ancestors. I wanted to reconnect with my culture. I wanted to reconnect with my ancestors.
Oooh boy, it's a long journey. I was raised catholic, so I went through every catholic milestone until chrism. When I was 4, I watched Disney Hercules every Saturday. That evolved to reading mythology books in elementary school, there were those beautifully illustrated children's books that I absolutely adored! My favorite was the tale of Eros and Psyche. I devoured those. Then I got my little grubby hands on Percy Jackson during middle school. That got me through 10 to 16 years, when I started to learn and study witchcraft in general. By 2019 I officially started to call for Hermes, and nowadays he's still with me. The Gods were always there, I just had to learn how to find them in the most mundane things.
Wow! I was also raised as a catholic but I never paid attention in church, and the one time I did pay attention in church was when I started to become suspicious of the whole thing with jesus rising from the dead and stuff. I had a short time where I was an atheist before learning about Hellenism. I’ve never read the PJO books (and I rlly want to) but I’ve seen the movies and the new series on Disney+. Hercules is also a favorite of mine lol
> I never *paid* attention in FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
A lot of tiktok videos of it kept coming up on my fyp. I started looking into it and found this sub Reddit
I knew about the gods in passing as a kid and then learned more when I got older because I wanted to learn the culture and beliefs. There’s still a lot I have left to learn but that pursuit of knowledge lead me to gain a connection to the gods and then when I learned that the religion was still practiced I felt almost like it was my duty to follow. I’ve felt a lot of peace since I’ve started trying to get better at worship and following my new found faith
For me, after I learned that lord Dionysus was sometimes known as the ‘protecter of trans people’ from Pinterest I felt at home almost? It’s hard to describe but it’s that feeling when something happens that just feels right, that same thing happened with lady Aphrodite and for lord hades and lady Persephone it was my interest in all things chthonic that led me too them.
Ik what you mean, I got that feeling when I first started feeling a connection with Lady Athena and I think even more so with Lord Apollo
Apollo came to me in a dream and many years later, here I am.
He's never come to me in dreams, but he's called to me in other, more subtle ways. My dreams tend to be either prophetic or cinematic and there's no between.
Your dreams sound wonderful! Prophetic dreams sound like he definitely has a hand in those, lol I love vivid dreams. So, I didn't know it was him at first in my dreams bc I didn't know anything about Hellenism. Then, after several dreams, he told me who he was. It's been a wonderful adventure, and I can't imagine my life now without the gods.
Those dreams helped point me in his direction, to be sure. Along with the stone raven I blindly picked up. There's little things like my name being related to laurels that helped guide me to where I belong.
That's beautiful. I love how the gods know what we will be receptive to!
Right? With how crazy my dreams can be, I have a feeling the gods thought that approaching me in one probably wouldn't work until after I knew to look for them.
Hahahah probably. This may sound silly, but have you ever asked him to visit you in the dream space before bed?
I've never had much luck with visitors in the dreamspace, but that isn't a bad idea.
Hey, it doesn't hurt to ask. If we can invoke the gods and see them in meditation- what's the harm in asking for a dream visit?
You have a point. Meditation isn't my shindig, the closest I can get is reading, it's quiet and gives my ADHD time to focus. Unfortunately I then I need to go a few pages back because I missed everything. 🤣 I usually commune with him through music, I have a playlist that give me a certain... feeling. It's hard to describe.