So yesterday I was at the OB/Gyn doing my yearly thing, and as I was waiting to check out, I looked in the billing office. In the corner, on a shelf, I saw a vase….filled with peacock feathers. I smiled, because I immediately thought of Hera, the Protector of Women….on display in a Gynecologist’s office. Then I started looking, and I saw other things on the shelf that were decorative,…but for anyone practicing Hellenismos…I knew this was an altar to Hera.

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Honestly, I have no stomach for it. That being said, there are some things that are vitally important, that I have great passion and strong views about.

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I had a very good friend of mine tell me that I needed to share more about myself with people. I have pretty much abstained from providing a lot of personal information for a number of reasons. First, I tend to be a very private person. Second, I would rather things that I write about be judged on the quality and truthfulness of what is written, rather than a perception of who I may be. All that being said, I guess there is nothing wrong with providing some information and background so that people will be better able to relate to me.
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Up until November (and maybe after depending on Florida) we are going to be bombarded with politics. This is a Presidential election year, and each of the candidates will be jockeying for your vote. They are going to tell you why they are better than the other person, how their plan will set America back on track, and how the opposing political party represents the end of civilization as we know it. Do I sound a little cynical? Good, I am.

There is one great problem facing America that no one will address. Some may dance around it, some may offers solutions that turn out to be nothing more than band-aids but, in the end, no politician has the courage and fortitude to address it. This may seem like I am going a bit off topic. My blogs are mostly associated with Hellenismos. Well, this one is too. The topic I want to discuss today I closely associate with Hellenic ethics and virtue. At the end of it though, quoting texts will only close ears. I would rather the truth of my words stand on their own.
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I recently had a person email me, asking my thoughts on the Heliogenna festival created by Hector Lugo (at least I believe it’s his creation), from the HellenicPagan Yahoo Group. Can this be considered Hellenismos? Is it valid reconstruction? Should Hellenic Polythists accept it? I felt this was worth a public response.
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Reconstructionism can be defined as a method of reconstructing an ancient, pre-Christian, culturally specific religion based on the scholarly use of the best available evidence, and using actual examples of worship with the most plausible interpretation to create a modern religion. There exist several prime examples of these efforts including Kemetic (Egyptian), Celtic, Hellenismos (Greek), and Religio Romana (Roman). This definition has some very specific points that need to be expanded on to understand Reconstructionism, and to understand why some practices just do not qualify.
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It has been a good number of years since I first encountered the debate over syncretism in the modern reconstruction of the ancient Greek religion. In recent days, syncretism has become the buzzword among several circles, and has been used to justify anything and everything that does not conform to reconstruction. Syncretism is now being used, by some, as a license to attempt moving Hellenismos in the direction of being simply another word for Eclectic Neopaganism. If Hellenismos is unable to be uniquely identified as being based on the ancient Greek religion, it stops being Hellenismos.
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Nietzschean Hypothesis:

1) What does the mutilation of the Herms have to do with Paul of Tarsus?
2) Why is Nietzsche the last initiate and disciple of Dionysus and the Anti-Christ?

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There exists a few misconceptions, fallacies, and misbeliefs regarding Hellenismos that have been perpetuated both internally and external to the movement. Some of this is based on poor communication to those outside, causing some misunderstandings and just poor public relations all the way around. Still, some of these myths about Hellenismos cannot be seen as anything else but intentional.
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Greeks lived and perished for countless generations with out a written language. Instead they practiced the guest/host relationship. The best door to this perspective is in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Here Aristotle describes a method for practicing the guest host relationship. This was how the Greeks lived, they lived what they practiced and practiced what they lived. Today, we pick up a book and read written language about Aristotle’s ethics; then the Greeks lived and practiced this kind of relationship. This was needed to obey the first fundamental law, survival. Arete, the state which produces faithfulness to law, a.k.a. virtue, was a necessity for life.