Reflections on Following the Athenian Calendar

 

During the summer of 2020, I began to worship the Hellenic gods in an entirely new way. At the time, I would do rituals to ancient Greek gods on a go-by-feel basis. The rituals were largely based on information from a few sources, and they were often done at irregular intervals. The rituals were worthwhile, yet didn’t really have a strong connection to ancient traditions. After reading the books New Stones, Old Temples, and Hellenismos; Practicing Greek Polytheism Today as well as perusing the website of Hellenion, I had come upon potential ways to revive ancient religious practice. In particular, I found the recommendations of Hellenion attractive. Hellenion is a US-based religious organization dedicated to the revival and practice of Hellenic polytheism, according to its website. Hellenion provides a religious calendar for adherents which is based on the ancient Athenian calendar. It also outlines how daily rituals should be performed, identifies the gods whom should be worshipped each day, and provides a lot of other relevant information. It just so happened that I started thinking about the suggestions made by Hellenion as 2020 reached its midway point. This was opportune, as the Athenian New Year was just around the corner. As everything started to align, I made my big decision. I would start a daily spiritual practice devoted towards the Hellenic gods. The practice would be based largely on the suggestions I had found in the two Hellenic reconstructionist books I had just read as well on those I had found on the Hellenion website. With little time to lose, I started to get ready. I studied the Hellenion materials, prepared my altar space and hymns, bought offerings, and mentally prepared for the ancient Athenian New Year, which occurs around the summer solstice. On Hecate’s Deipnon, I started my foray into Hellenic reconstructionism. In the following days, I performed rituals for various gods. Before I knew it, a month had passed, and I had the option of continuing the practice. Prior to starting the new ritual practice, I did rituals that were loosely based on astral magic and ancient Roman religion. As I alluded to earlier, the rituals I did for the Hellenic gods at the time were far less structured, infrequent in their scheduling, and didn’t have a particular rhyme or reason as to why they were done beyond personal feelings or inspiration. My personal gnosis was the reason I worshipped certain deities at particular times. While there were great experiences when I did rituals in a loose and carefree way, there were also a lot of benefits to following the Athenian calendar. In the days and months that followed, I noticed a lot of positives. There were three major areas that were impacted. I will describe them, and then share additional benefits in listicle form.

Upon embarking on a path of Hellenic reconstructionism, I saw some major improvements in certain aspects. One major benefit was that I aligned myself more with genuine traditions of the Hellenic world. There were many minor elements—purificatory actions, spoken verses, rules on offerings—that I added to rituals that were not a part of my general astral magic rituals before. In addition, I found my practice to be more structured. The calendar had allotted deities for certain days, such as Hecate during the dark of the new moon, a great number of gods on Noumenia(the visible crescent moon), Agathos Daemon on the following day, Athena the day after that, and so on. The unmarked calendar days were days that one would worship household deities such as Hecate, Hermes, Apollon Aigyeus, Agathos Daemon, Zeus Herkeios, Hestia, Zeus Ktesios, Hygeia, and Apollon Patroos. The calendar dates were also counted from sunset of the previous day. For example, January 1st would include the hours 6 PM to 12 AM on December 31st, and the day would end at 6 PM on January 1st. With particular gods worshipped on certain dates, it became a daily task to complete the rituals. The Athenian calendar had a set order of gods that should be worshipped on specific dates, all in relation to the solar and lunar calendars. For example, I had to do a ritual for Apollo on a Monday in the month of Hekatombaion on June 28th, 2020. The simple act of scheduling a ritual to Apollo on a Monday had the effect of organizing and structuring my ritual practice. Finally, it was more unified. There was a logic behind the worship of deities, though I might not have been privy to why the Athenians of the 4th century BCE did what they did. The choice of gods to worship, the daily timing, the traditional ways to perform the rituals including purification, words spoken at various points, libations, closing remarks and behavior, the solar and lunar considerations, the festival days, the creation of a set of household gods for the unmarked calendar days, and the monthly repetition of the patterns of worship, all created a unified system. Beyond these three categories of traditions, structure, and unification, I found further benefits that overlap with the three.

A list of the new benefits I personally experienced from making an attempt to follow a traditional religious practice can be found below. Each of these areas of positivity is related to traditions, structure, and unification. However, it should be kept in mind that these benefits are just subjective observations and the act of worshipping in a more unified, structured, or traditional way doesn’t necessarily entail that any of these things would occur. These benefits merely applied to my personal situation at the time. Conversely, it is my belief that doing rituals sporadically or based on feelings, inspiration, or for any other reason can have similar or additional benefits depending on the person and circumstances.

 

1. New Energies

Following the Athenian calendar with a traditionally based ritual practice helps to connect to a variety of energies. Nature, the cosmos, earth, the sky, and sea are full of energies. There isn’t much more to say for the indescribable, except that the experience of new and varied energies gives new feelings.

 

2. Insights 

It can lead to new views and a closer relationship with the gods.

 

3. Enhanced and new relationships with time and the seasons

The act of doing daily rituals in a traditional way helps to structure time and one is able to take the time to notice the elements of the natural world and observe environmental changes. 

 

4. Reflection

It allowed for more time for contemplation. 

 

5. Goodness

Bringing the gods into one’s life more intimately is bound to lead to more goodness.

 

 6.Structure and rules 

Where previously I had experiences of the gods in either a sporadic, weekly, or daily time frame, suddenly I had a daily relationship that had a lot more rules to follow. And it was a good thing.

 

7. Discovery 

A combination of all the above factors leading to a sense of discovery.

 

 

Photo Credits

1. The acropolis in Athens, Greece. Prompt: acropolis blue sky. Photo by Midjourney. Username: @david.k9

2. An ascetic meditating in a cave. Prompt: solar rays around a sage Meditating in a cave with an altar. Photo by Midjourney. Username: @david.k9

3. The celestial spheres and angels. Prompt: a few angels flying in the space outside of the spherical planet venus, Renaissance style painting, elaborate. Photo by Midjourney. Username: @david.k9

4. A fire blazes in a fireplace. Prompt: a fire burns in an old dark stone fireplace. Photo by Midjourney. Username: @david.k9

5. A wooden house in the woods. Prompt: Good and goodness in nature. Photo by neural.love.

6. A sand heart. Photo by CMEarnest. 

7. The crown of King Christian IV, of Denmark. Photo by Ikiwaner.

8. A river in a forest. Prompt: Good and goodness in nature. Photo by neural.love.