The following exegesis comes to us from a Facebook post, where a Greek polytheist provides a detailed analysis of Medusa within Hellenism.

She is a grandchild of Gaia whose primordial children were inherently unstable, violent, and not conducive to life as we humans understand. Their gradual defeat at the hands of the Olympians and of the Heroes of Mankind was necessary in order to shape the world into the pleasant blue globe that has allowed us to thrive. Her parents, Phorcys (the old spirit of the Sea) and her mother Ceto (roughly equivalent to a biblical Behemoth) represented the terror…

Recently a series of photos circulated online showcasing the Greek Gods with black models. The collection was created by Ana Martínez and Mario Ville from the International Center for Photography and Film in Spain. Depending on the audience, the reactions varied. My personal opinion is that the photos are stunning. I was blown away by the vibrancy and power captured in the photos. Ana and Mario were successful in expressing the essence of the Gods.

For example, the photo of Zeus (model Ricardo Nkosi) very much is recognizable as Zeus because (for me) the hair was on point and was…

As someone who’s been around the block, spiritually speaking, I’ve come to discover the greatest lie circulating the ‘spiritual but not religious’ crowd. The greatest lie is that you should “accept all things with an open mind, or you are being narrow and closed-minded.”

It is a common habit for spiritual people to engage in all sorts of traditions and practices. Tarot, astrology, numerology, crystal healing, witchcraft, reiki, yoga, meditation, and so on. You can find people engaged in numerous of these practices simultaneously. There is nothing wrong with engaging in these activities, per se. The problem of practicing various…

The following comes from an unpublished Hearth of Hellenism blog entry from 2017.

Mark Twain is credited for saying the following:

History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes

It is a very compelling statement. I do think history plays out in cycles and patterns. Eventually, with enough time, events begin to match up with similarities if you are looking close enough.

There are trends occurring in the United States that echo events and trends from Late Antiquity (roughly 4th-7th centuries). Both today and in Antiquity, Christianity was a destructive force in their societies. One thing, in particular, that was…

I was going through a difficult time. Seeking advice from the Gods, I picked my Loeb’s copy of Aesop’s Fables, asked my question, and opened it to a random page. The fable that I had turned to was The Departure of a Well-Sated Guest:

A man was holding a fine dinner party in the city, after sacrificing. His dog met another dog, a friend of his, and invited him to come to dinner at his house. The other dog came, but the cook picked him up by the leg and threw him over the wall into the street. When the…

Women in classical Athens lived restricted lives famously marked by lower legal status compared to their free male counterparts. Never the less, women were not universally treated as inferior humans unworthy of respect and dignity. Various evidence from classical Athens informs us of the high-value women held in families and in the city.

Women held one of the most important roles within Athenian society, the occupation of the midwife. Older women who were no longer able to conceive a child were the best women to become a midwife. …

It is sad that The Hierophant gets a bad rep; his image has been unjustly tainted. He has wrongly been associated with the evils of organized religion. As more people reject institutional religions and their dogmas for a personal path offering an unmediated relationship with divinity, The Hierophant became a villain. Sensing an aura of orthodoxy and institutionalization, many have had difficulty appreciating and understanding him.

One of the problems with this card is the confusion caused by the juxtaposition of a Catholic image, the Pope, with the title of the High Priest of the Eleusinian mysteries. …

“Never in my life did I think I would like to see a dictator,” the woman told the crowd. “But if there’s going to be one, I want it to be Trump.”

The following quote comes from a Trump supporter speaking at a Steve Bannon event which appeared on the latest episode of Showtime’s “The Circus” — see video coverage from The Damage Report for me. As a polytheist, I see this woman’s desire as a symptom caused by monotheism’s degradation of the soul. …