Pagan Portals: Hellenic Paganism

Witchcraft blogger Levers debuts with a breezy guide to mixing ancient Greek spiritual practices with paganism. Levers begins with basic explanations of Greek mythology before considering forgotten or controversial practices and ways to modernize them. For example, she explains that animal sacrifice was not common in Ancient Greece, but when it did occur, the ritual provided meat to communities. In updating the practice, she adapts ideas of animal sacrifice by fashioning figures out of wax or clay to use in rituals. Other suggestions for merging concepts revolve around finding common symbols and basing rituals around both the Attic calendar and pagan Wheel of the Year. (One can, she writes, incorporate Greek deities into equinox and solstice rituals.) Following the belief that “research, dedication, observation of the world around us and intuition and practice can be applied to any path,” Levers’s Greek-inspired rituals are open to any type of pagan practice. Witchcraft practioners interested in mythology will enjoy Levers’s spin on folding Hellenistic beliefs into ritual practices. (Mar.)