What I Have Learned
Hindsight is 20/20
It’s been almost a week since I returned home from the Northwest Tarot Symposium, which happens annually in Portland, Oregon. I went to give a presentation on divination in the ancient world and to have fun with my tarot peers. I’ve been reflecting since my trip. Add on to this a midweek visit to NYC to see Courtney Weber give her talk on Hekate to promote her recently published book Hekate: Goddess of Witches – I felt the need to write a reflective blog entry.
The last time I saw my peers was at the 2020 Northwest Tarot Symposium. The conference was in March, right before the world shut down. Only a week after coming home from that event, New York issued its stay-at-home order, and all our lives changed. A lot happened to me during the last two and half years, much of which I’d like not to revisit. Those who know, know the drama that weighed down on me.
The post I am writing isn’t about that drama but what I have learned from it all and what I wish to share. To give some background, in 2017, I expanded my writing interests from Tarot to include Polytheism. I wrote on Patheos between 2017 and 2019. Since my short stint on Patheos, I have had issues with some Pagans online. I realize now how insignificant those detractors are and how much time I wasted on them. We were going through a pandemic, and we all needed something to focus on to distract us from the madness, I guess.
Hindsight is 20/20, and if I could change something about these last few years, I wish I had been better prepared to understand how my Pagan detractors understand the world. This would have saved us all a lot of time and grief. I also wish I had not engaged the Pagan community with any organizational affiliation. If I could do things all over again, I would not have centered narratives that were not my own and would have sought to promote only my voice. While I was never a representative of any organization, some Pagans thought I was and figured attacking me would be a way to attack the organization, which was their primary target. I was just an accessible person to whom their frustrations could be directed at.
So, what have I learned? In this post, I want to reflect on identity and labels. I am not a Pagan, and I do not practice Paganism. I am a Greek-American, and my religion is…. Hmm, what exactly do I call my religion? This is very tricky and complicated. Religious labeling was a significant source of conflict between my detractors and me.
Isn’t Hellenism my religion? Isn’t Hellenism the word for the religion that people who believe in Greek Gods use? There are indeed many Pagans out there using Hellenism/Hellenismos in a religious sense, oddly in the same vein as Christianity. Still, they are wrong because Hellenism/Hellenismos is not a religion.
It took a long time, and someone had to point this out to me – my Pagan detractors are using a very Christian and American view of religion. Religion for them is faith-based. Belief/faith alone justifies them to use the word they think goes with that belief/faith. Much like how Christians are people who believe in Jesus and their religion is Christianity because of their faith in Jesus. Pagans copy this model with Greek Gods. They will style themselves as a Hellenist, a person who believes in Greek Gods and practice Hellenism as their “faith.”
It makes sense if you are an American whose only real lived experience of religion has been through Christianity. I can’t blame them, to be honest; in America, Christianity looms over the very word “religion” itself, where religion is used as a synonym for it. For example, when someone says “religion is dying," they mean “Christianity is dying.” The Christian hegemony in this country runs deep into all narratives and frameworks in which Americans understand the world. The hegemony of Christianity in studying religion is a real problem as well, but that’s for another discussion.
Had I had the proper language that I do now, back then, I would have said from the beginning that Hellenism is not a religion, let alone a faith-based religion like Christianity. While these “Hellenists” love to cite the 4th century Emperor Julian for coining Hellenism as Hellenic Religion, the word Hellenism existed before Julian and lacked religious meaning. It was a word to describe proper Greek grammar free of error. It also simply describes Greek culture and education.
This understanding of Hellenism existed during Julian’s reign; Julian was out of step with his contemporaries in some ways. I will save that for a blog focusing on Julian. Sticking to Hellenism and what it is, to quote Jan R. Stenger, it is “the condition of being Greek.” Libanius, Julian’s teacher, had a complex understanding of Hellenism that “cannot be reduced to a single aspect.”’ (Stenger, J. R. "Libanius and the ‘game’ of Hellenism." In Libanius: A critical introduction, edited by L. V. Hoof. Cambridge University Press, 2014.)
Pagans today think they are correct in using Hellenism as a religious label that they can use simply because they believe in Greek Gods are historically misguided and are culturally appropriating Hellenism from Greeks today, morphing it into an American religious identity for American sensibilities.
So, what is my religion? It is not Hellenism because Hellenism is a complex term. While Hellenism includes religious practices, it also includes things like the Greek language, education, folklore, dances, songs, poetry, and of course, my favorite category-food.
Had I known then what I know now when I started blogging and interacting with Pagans, I would have been better able to express what Hellenism is and offer an appropriate solution. The solution is simple, use a different religious label since Hellenism is not a religion.
The worship of the Gods occurs under different religious labels already. An excellent example of this can be seen in Witchcraft and how Witches “work with” Gods. Unlike Pagan “Hellenists” with whom I have come into many conflicts, I am pretty cool with Witches because most Witches aren’t appropriating my religious identity. They have their practice(s) and relationship with the Gods, which has no bearing on my identity or religious practice.
For example, I don’t get annoyed anymore with how Witches pronounce Hekate because the Witches I know aren’t Greek and should not be expected to say Hekate like Greeks. They are doing Witchcraft, and their pronunciation is their own. My pronunciation is Greek because I am Greek and I am doing Greek things. What is common between us is Hekate, but that does not mean we are religiously identical, much in the same way Christians, Jews, and Muslims worship the same God but are distinct groups.
These developments in how I look at things were solidified when I visited Courtney Weber to hear her speak about Hekate this week. I, the lone Greek in a room full of Witches, was very comfortable. I was able to appreciate what they were doing and what they have. It didn’t take anything away from me because they don’t claim to be doing what I do or claim to be what I am.
Modern Witchcraft provides an excellent example of how one can engage with Gods appropriately without appropriation. As I have always said, Gods are universal, but traditions are specific. If you are a Pagan and want to worship the Greek Gods, that is amazing, and I am happy you want to. Still, though, the label you use to describe your religion can’t be Hellenism because that would be appropriation – it is already used by millions of Greeks, and reducing Hellenism to just religion is, as I have already shown, problematic.
The alternative would be to invent a new term. I have suggested Hellenisticism since much of what is going on today feels more like the Hellenistic period, IMHO. Or you can use Paganism. I am not sure why that isn’t sufficient for Pagans since it is an inclusive term. Either way, I encourage people to think outside the box on this issue and not feel like they must conform to the idea that a preexisting word like Hellenism must be used to gain legitimacy since that is not how religion works, especially in America, where all religions are protected regardless of age or name.
To close, the conflicts I have gone through have helped me figure myself out and grow in the process. It was through those conflicts that I was able to delve deep into the Pagan world, understand it, highlight misconceptions and errors, and offer up productive solutions not just for my own sake but for others who may benefit from these solutions as well. Going forward I aim to promote my voice and my ideas so that everyone can receive something meaningful from me.