Sometimes when I’m making regular devotions and offerings I can get into this place where I feel like I’m just going through the motions, and I don’t feel connected to my deities. At times like that, I find that continuing through the motions only makes me feel worse. My personal solution to this is to do something new.
Pick a bit you’ve read somewhere about your deities, but don’t know too much about and try to find more information on it. I’ve learned valuable and obscure bits of information about my deities this way. It’s also helped me develop some interesting UPG (unverified personal gnosis), and build a deeper more meaningful relationship with the theoi.
Write a new invocation or prayer. And I don’t mean to find an existing one that you didn’t use before, I mean sit down and write something. For me, this makes me think about what things my deities have done are relevant to me. About how those aspects of my deities affect me and my life, and how I feel about it. It gives me an opportunity to remind myself of why and just how much I love my deities, by showing them those things. It brings all those wonderful things I may not have been thinking actively about to the front of my mind, and I feel closer, more satisfied in my relationship to them.
If you’re crafty, make something for your altar or shrine. Sometimes just rearranging an altar can get me out of those blues, but other times I need a bit more. Google some DIY decorating ideas. Some of ym favorites are simple stuff like paper flowers, wreaths, making vases out of old wine bottles, and embroidering table runners to use as altar cloths. But anything can be done, the ideas are limitless.
If you are capable of it, plan a festival. I don’t always wait for traditional festivals when I’m feeling disconnected from my deities. I’ll often just decide I’m going to have a festival to honor them, for no other reason than I can and I want to. The whole process of coming up with what I’m going to do, getting everything ready, and holding my festival can do wonders to break me out of that rut and get me feeling closer to me deities again.
Keep in mind, I’m veiling as a Hellenist, so I can’t talk about veiling in other forms of paganism. Veiling has historical context in Hellenism. Hellenic women would bind and cover their hair. This typically involved buns, braids, or elaborate updo’s (depending on social status) and anything from thick cloths wrapped around your hair to himations worn over the hair. The himation is a large cloth that is wrapped around the body and can be worn over the head as well, like so:
The below image shows several different ways of wearing and covering your hair that were used by ancient Greek women:
[credit] check out this source for sure as @lykeiaofapollon talks about veiling and himations
Now, beyond the fact that hellenic art is saturated with images of women and goddesses alike with bound and covered hair, we don’t have much historical context. And there are also plenty of images of women without covered hair as well. This is one of those things that establishes that head covering was apparent and available, but not necessarily compulsory.
From there everyone is welcome to draw their own conclusions and come to their own decisions about personal veiling. For me, it’s about closeness to the theoi. I’ve covered my hair during ritual for a while now, with the only exception being celebrations to Dionysus, where if I do anything to cover my hair it’s typically flowers braided into my hair or affixed with clips and bobby pins.
It’s something that feels right to me during ritual. A kind of symbol of devotion. I’m taking the time to do something to visually alter myself before approaching the theoi. It helps clear my mind, helps keep me focused on the theoi, and makes me feel pretty. I had wrestled with the idea of veiling on a regular basis outside of ritual for some time.
On the one hand, as an oath-bound devotee to Dionysus, I want to be ‘wild’ and free, and leave my hair unbound; and I feel so close to him when I don’t even worry about my hair and just let it do whatever. I also had to (and still do sometimes) wrestle with the fact that I was raised in a household that didn’t understand and wasn’t very tolerant to religious head covering. I grew up hearing all the cliche bs about how a woman covering her hair for religious reasons is just being kept down by sexism and doesn’t have any autonomy. As wrong as I logically know that is, sometimes I catch myself thinking that others will perceive my own decision to veil as someone else ‘making’ me do it. This is especially true when I have other women telling me I’m a “bad feminist” for deciding to cover my hair, which thankfully doesn’t happen often, but I’ve had more women comment negatively on my veiling than men.
On the other hand though, veiling is something that’s personally fulfilling to me on a spiritual level. It’s something that makes me feel closer to the theoi as a whole. It’s also something that makes me feel closer to Persephone specifically. It’s an outward symbol of my devotion, and that’s a comfort to me, even if I do veil in a way that’s discreet and ‘fashionable’ most days. I also feel, personally, that it helps keep me from gaining so much miasma. Days when I veil, I just don’t seem to give as many proverbial fucks about the humdrum and the little things that distract me from the theoi, as days when I don’t veil. Even when it’s just a headband, I personally find that I don’t let myself get as caught up in silly little things that are emotionally and spiritually draining for me.
Mind you, that’s not true for everyone, and it’s not going to be the case for everyone. Also a few things on note. While men in ancient Greece didn’t cover their hair, gender perceptions have changed, and I personally feel that anyone, regardless of gender has the option of covering their hair if they want. I also feel that covering your hair is not necessary, and doesn’t make you any ‘better’ of a Hellenist than if you don’t cover your hair.
Miasma isn’t an easy thing to define. Ask twenty people and you’ll probably get twenty different answers. For me, it’s easier to talk about miasma in terms of what it both is, and what it isn’t, rather than to straight up say “it’s this.” Miasma doesn’t have a translation. We don’t have a word for it in english. Rough translations put it at meaning “stain” or “pollution”, but those don’t convey the spiritual, religious, and social connotations of miasma.
It’s important to note that miasma is not akin to sin. It’s not a bad thing, it’s not something you gain from doing bad things, and it’s not some kind of punishment. Miasma is a natural force, a natural occurrence, the same as sweating.
We gain miasma from every day, mundane occurrences. We gain miasma from human activities. Birth, death, illness, work, all of these things bring on miasma. It’s a badge of our humanity. It isn’t a bad thing at all, it’s a sign that we are human.
Miasma, in my own experiences and practices, are best described as the emotional and spiritual gunk of humanity. It’s the things that stick in our minds and weigh us down emotionally, keeping us firmly rooted in our humanity, and the mundane world around us. It’s my opinion and educated hypothesis that miasma doesn’t so much make us unworthy of the theoi, as it distracts us from their presence. My reasoning for this is as follows:
plenty of people report being approached by and working with the theoi with no concept of miasma and ritual cleanliness.
classical literature and stories rarely make mention of heroes cleansing their miasma before being visited by the theoi, while taking time to mention it in ritual settings for those same heroes at different points in their stories.
different practices use traditionally miasma inducing activities, taken to an extreme, as a means of personal cleansing. As an example, look at this passage from Aristotle on the Art of Poetry, “At any rate the Dionysus ritual itself was a katharmos or katharsis–a purification of the community from the taints and poisons of the past year, the old contagion of sin and death.” [and more(all be, not much more) on Dionysian rites and katharsis here if you’re interested]
Which brings us to the next question.
How does miasma relate to your Hellenic practices?
I have a complicated relationship with miasma. On the one hand, it’s a strong symbol of my humanity. On the other hand, it distracts me from the theoi, and can make me feel more distant from them. A notable exception to that being Dionysus. Dionysus seems to embrace the humanity of his followers, rather than be dismissive of it, and if anything, I feel him stronger when I’m steeped in miasma. This is where part of my complicated relationship with veiling comes in as well, but we’ll get to that in the next section.
Miasma, being a sign and result of my humanity, isn’t something I’m going to be completely rid of, ever. I’m not a deity, I’m not a hero, I highly doubt that I’ll ever be elevated to any sort of recognition by the theoi, and I don’t aim to be. Would I be honored? Yes. But is it my place to desire that? I don’t feel so.So, having miasma is something that just is, like the fact that I have hazel eyes. It’s not ever going to change in any permanent way.
However, removing miasma, temporarily as it is, helps me to feel closer to some of the theoi. Removal of miasma and keeping it off as much as possible is important to me for feeling close to Persephone and Amphitrite. As I’ve paid more attention to miasma lately, and cleansing, I’ve felt closer to those two. It hasn’t affected my relationship with Dionysus, and so regular cleansing is something I’m still getting in the habit of, but is a step that I’m taking in my practice. It isn’t central to my practice, but it’s in the top five things probably. The significance of miasma in my practice definitely varies with which theos I’m approaching though.
Removing miasma also helps me to move on from emotional distress. I’ve managed to prevent a panic attack once by stopping and cleansing. It pulled me away from the stress and anxiety I was feeling, pulled me away from the unhealthy excess of miasma due to my mental health, and calmed me down. Reminding myself that the theoi are there, present in my life, and making myself presentable for them has helped a lot with my anxiety.
How do you deal with Miasma?
There are plenty of ways to deal with miasma. And I probably use all of them to varying degrees and in different situations. So let’s just analyze each one.
Khernips- Also known as lustral water or sacred water. Khernips are made from plunging burning herbs (usually of a cleansing variety such as rosemary) into water. Spring water and ocean water are traditional options for the water used, I suggest just making sure it’s clean and you can certainly add salt if you want since salt has cleansing connotations in our society. Anyway, you thrust the burning herbs into the water and being declared as clean and sacred. Khernips should be made fresh, or at least prepared the same day. The most common way of using khernips is to wash your hands and face, and sprinkle it around an area to remove miasma. Classically, it was used as an easy and quick way for people entering a temple to clean themselves of miasma. I’ll prepare khernips for rituals and festivals, but on a day-to-day basis it tends to amount to me washing my hands before i pour libations.
Barley- Barley is used as a cleansing agent in Hellenism. Items stored in barley are supposed to be protected from miasma. You can also throw barley onto your altar to cleanse it. Barley is used primarily for cleansing a space or item, rather than a person. I personally don’t use barley, as there are other ways for me to cleanse items without using food products.
Incense- Used for purification, rather than just scent, incense was/is popular for cleansing a space or room of miasma. I tend to use incense to cleanse my altar. When I make an offering, I’ll light incense on my altar prior to making an offering.
Katharsis and Katharmos- Katharmos and katharsis are ritual means of cleansing that typically involve several steps. The most basic formula for katharmos is to cleanse the person doing the cleansing with khernips, cleanse the space with barley and incense, cleanse the offerings with khernips, and then cleanse the attendees. I’ve done it this way three times in my practice, all for big rituals. As a Dionysian, I’ll be the first to tell you though, that mundane activities can be used to cleanse yourself in a deep an meaningful way. Dancing, singing, drinking, having sex until you feel cathartic from the release of emotions is a form of katharsis, and one I use frequently.
Veiling- Veiling is used in my practice to keep off miasma. It’s a physical reminder of the theoi, and so it keeps me focused on them, and I don’t allow myself to be as easily distracted by mundane things that induce miasma. I veil in ritual for most of the theoi, and I’ve started veiling (occasionally) outside of ritual for Persephone. I never veil for Dionysus. To me, it feels disingenuous to veil and try to keep of miasma for Dionysus. He is wild, passionate, and consuming. He loves humans, and it feels shameful to me to veil before Dionysus, like I’m trying to hide my humanity from him somehow. He does not seem to approve of me veiling when I honor him, but he doesn’t seem to mind when I veil for other theoi. So I veil for Persephone, and I don’t veil for Dionysus. Veiling serves to keep me close to Persephone and other theoi throughout the day, and it seems to (at least for me) help keep my emotions and anxiety in check.
I actually follow a formula for setting up shrines, and it’s the same formula I established for setting up my temple space. For those of you who are unaware, I actually established a consecrated temple space in my garden, that serves as “neutral” ground where I can hold festivals and make offerings in honor of any of the theoi. This formula works on any scale, from a shoe-box shrine, to a temple space, as something permanent or temporary. So, with no further ado, how I make my own worship space:
Step one:
Decide on a space, based on the functionality and the desired use/purpose. Are you make a shrine to pray at? Are you wanting an altar where you can make offerings and have work room? Do you want a small sanctuary or temple space? Decide what you want, the room you have available, and what you want to do with that room.
For this example I’m going to talk about the shrine I set up to Aphrodite.
It’s a dresser top shrine in my bedroom. I wanted a shrine to worship at, but I also wanted to go ahead and turn the whole bedroom into a sacred space. I didn’t consecrate the whole room though, since I wasn’t wanting to make it temple space.
Step Two:
Clean and Cleanse the space. When knotted-vines and I made our temple space outdoors, we actually timed it with our spring clean up of the garden. We had just pruned back all the plants that needed it, we re-sealed the deck, and pulled all the weeds, it was a whole big deal. For my Aphrodite altar, I had just painted my brand new dresser and nightstands, the room itself was pretty clean already.
For cleansing, I’m actually a big fan of using khernips for cleansing in ritual. I made a bowl of khernips, and walked around the room sprinkling the khernips. I also took a cloth and wiped down the top of the dresser with khernips. I then wiped the dresser with a clean, dry cloth; and ran the vacuum over the carpet.
When I had my shoe-box shrine for Dionysus, I cleansed the box by running it through incense smoke.
Step Three:
Make your actual shrine, altar, or temple space. Do this however you want. Put up decorations, use symbols or icons of your deities, or establish items of use in your practice. My temple space has a fire pit in the middle and decorative lights and benches on the deck in our back yard. The shrine to Aphrodite has candles, sea-shells, bath pearls, glitter, pretty jars, and silk flowers. My shrine to Dionysus has a floral arrangement inside a lantern right now, with a candle and two glasses for libations.
Once the space is clean though, I establish my actual worship space.
Step Four:
So, this step get’s a little complicated sounding when I break it down into everything I do, but it’s actually straight forward. My fourth and final step for establishing new sacred space, or re-affirming old space, is to ask the deity the space is dedicated to, to bless the space. The way I do this is to:
invoke the deity through poem and/or hymns
make an offering to them
explain that I’ve cleaned, cleansed, and decorated this space in their honor, as belonging to them, and to better serve my worship of them.
ask them to bless this space and keep it sacred
do something dedicated to them in/around the new space
thank them, and sing another hymn or say another poem for them
make a parting offering
So, how that looks as an actual series of events, and not just generic statements is pretty simple. Sticking with my Aphrodite shrine, I invoked Aphrodite. “Aphrodite Praxis, who loves whom she will. Aphrodite Pandêmos, who is with all of us. Philomeidês Goddess, I call your name with love on my lips. I bring you into my bedroom, to partake of all my romances, to share in all the love I share here.” I then made my initial offering to Aphrodite, which is the lovely bath pearl in one of those terrarium jars. Then I basically said, “I establish this shrine in your name and honor. Lovely Goddess, I ask that you bless this space and keep it sacred to you. May all my actions and devotions before this shrine please you always.” I performed a dedication action, which I’m not going to go into detail, but……Aphrodite, devotional actions, safe to say I enjoyed myself. I thanked her, and left an offering of apple juice on the dresser for a day, before pouring the juice in my garden.
As far as offerings and disposing of them. That’s gonna depend on your offering, and your practice. If you’ve got a houseplant you can pour most liquid offerings such as coffee, tea, water, and wine into the plant. Food offerings can be given to pets or eaten yourself depending on your practice and Please, PLEASE, PLEASE make sure that any offerings given to pets are OK for them to eat. I can give my dogs beef bones or little bits of meat on occasion as offerings to Haides, and it’s pretty cool since dogs are sacred to him. I tend to “share” most offerings to Dionysus, and eat them myself so I’m not wasting food. When I make food offerings to Persephone, I usually will make cookies or bread that I’ll give to other people (if you talk with your neighbors at all you can bring them a plate of cookies or something), you’re doing something that another person sees as nice and generous, while sacrificing something so that you aren’t partaking of it. Bonus points if you’re giving to a family who might be a bit tight on money. Some offerings, like flowers, shells, coins, ect….don’t have to be disposed of. Hang flowers upside down in a ventilated area for a couple weeks and you’ve got dried flowers that you can leave on your altar, place inside a jar for decoration, turn into tea (depending on the type and if they’re edible. Also, don’t use flowers that may have pesticides on them, and rinse or wash your flowers prior to drying them), you can take a needle and thread and string up dried flowers in garlands for decoration. Shells, coins, rocks, other little trinkets and offerings can be saved in much the same way. In using non edible, non perishable offerings you can actually collect them into an impacting altar piece.
I see so many people ask about what’s needed on a Hellenic altar or shrine, so I thought I’d share what I do real quick, since I changed up the altars in my house today.
The Most important thing in my altars and shrines is a bowl, plate, or chalice for offerings.knotted-vines and I have purple wine glasses, carnival glass chalices with grape designs on them, a clear glass dessert bowl on a stem, and a tiny silver ashtray I picked up at an antique shop that has grape designs that we alternate as offering dishes.
The next thing I try to have at my altar is a representation of the deity that altar is dedicated to. For the two of us, this usually consists of flowers that are sacred to Dionysus or Persephone. For Dionysus we also add ivy, and will usually use an old wine bottle as a vase. We also have a jar of amethyst shards we’ve been collecting from Micheal’s for years, and we use that to represent Dionysus too. This doesn’t have to be an image of your deity. Aphrodite? Try using shells. Hera? Peacock motifs are popular right now. Athena? Owls, shields, books, the list goes on. Hermes? A nice pair of shoes maybe.
Those are the two elements I try to always incorporate. When my altar was nothing but a little wooden box in the back of my closet, I kept my jar of amethyst and a shot glass in it. Those two things were all I needed to feel like I’d set up an altar.
Some other items I like to include are still functional and important though. I’ll usually place either candles or an incense holder on my altar. They can be used in katharmos, and add a nice feel to any ritual I do. When I decide to use a candle instead of incense I will usually go with one plain candle that I’ll light while I cleanse the area. When I go with incense I like to use incense cones, but that’s just me.
I also have a nice pitcher that I can use to hold khernips, but I don’t typically include it at my altar. I’ll include it when I set the whole table as an altar, and add a bowl so you can do the whole thing where you pour khernips over your hands and the water goes into the bowl. Otherwise though, when I use khernips I’ll typically just make a bowl of it and wash my hands and face with that. I don’t think it’s necessary to have khernips at your altar though.
Everything beyond that is just regular old decoration. I’ll sometimes include an altar cloth if I feel like it. I may also include candles and lights that are just to look pretty, not to be lit.
If you are planning on using it as a shrine, then you don’t need to worry too much about leaving any free space. If you’re wanting an altar, then I recommend leaving enough room near the front of the altar that you can prepare a bowl of khernips there. If you can prepare khernips on your altar then you should have room to do just about any other altar work you may want.
Offerings are usually pretty easy to make in Hellenic polytheism. You don’t need a shrine space, though it can be convenient to have one. As a general rule of thumb, making offerings follows this (or a similar) structure in HP:
Get the attention of the deity you’re making an offering to, this is typically by calling out their name, and/or some epithets. You don’t have to use epithets, it’s more formal if you do though. Epithets can also give the advantage of telling the theos your calling on, exactly what it is about them you’re about to be praising
Same some nice shit. Tell them why you’re about to make an offering to them. This can be anything from, “This is my weekly offering” to “I think you’re pretty cool” or “Thanks for your help on that test last Tuesday” ect…
Define the offering. This is where you usually tell them what the offering is. Juice, fruit, wine, a bit of jewelry you’re dedicating to them, a devotional act you’re planning on partaking, ect…
Give them the offering. If you don’t have an altar or shrine space, this one can be a bit more difficult. But, there’s always a way to make it work. You can, for example, declare that you’re dedicating a necklace to Aphrodite, and now wear it in her honor, and then put the actual necklace on; or put it in a jewelry box for safe keeping until you do wear it.
Thank them for paying attention and *hopefully* accepting your offering.
