I'm reading Maureen Reddington-Wilde's essay about Aphrodite in Devoted to You: Honoring Deity in Wiccan Practice so I thought I'd look into Hellenic Pagans a bit more. Maybe I can find something that resonates with me.

First I did a search on Reddington-Wilde's name and came up with a link to Thiasos Olympikos, a Hellenic "coven". They have some ritual structures, poetry and stuff like that on their site.

Next I searched on "hellenic reconstructionism" and the first hit was to an LJ community, sanegreekrecons. The fact that they feel the need to stress that they are sane bothers me a bit. But they had some useful links in the user info.

Among those links was an overview of Kyrene Ariadne's Hellenic Cults, Traditions and Practices. Judging from the list, some groups within the Hellenic community don't encourage mysticism. The article about mysticism seems to indicate that Hellenic reconstructionists are trying to set themselves apart from generic Neopaganism in a similar way as Asatruars do from "Wiccatru". Ariadne also has a list of FAQ links.

Having read a bit more I must say that the emphasis on telling others what is hubris and what isn't does put me off the concept a bit. The idea of the Nordic Jante Law seem to permeate some things I've read.

Also, in some places it seems that Hellenic reconstructionists believe that if they don't jolly along their deities with regular sacrifice and devotions, the deities will get cross with them and punish them. I think I've had enough of the angry-deity-in-the-sky-with-big-stick type of religion to last me a lifetime, thank you very much.

I'll probably research a bit more before I decide this isn't for me. Besides, I can always do what those pesky Neopagans do -- borrow the bits I like. :-)

Tags: aphrodite, religion