Alternative Evolution of Hellenic Pagan Reconstructionism
I’ve been wondering about this a lot after listening to nearly every damn podcast of Raven Radio, and more and more feel kind of depressed how things turned out, because 40 or so years of Heathenry and/or Asatru made a lot of the people in that community or communities much better bullshit detectors. There really aren’t that many recon communities that have evolved this well in comparison that I know of, at least the ones fluent in English. Sorry, no, Celtic Reconstructionism Paganism doesn’t count, partly thanks to much of the bull promoted by popularizers like Peter Berresford Ellis.
Way too many people still believe tons of stereotypes about Ancient Greeks, like they were all metropolitan neo-Platonist philosophers who rejected superstition, and somehow Greek culture disappeared after the rise of the Christian era. It’s all bullshit, even worse we have pagan authors who still promote it. There isn’t much of an interest in actual Greeks themselves unless it often caters to nationalist bullshit denying Macedonian culture and agency, partly due to the ignorance-often willful-of the modern history and politics of the Mediterranean and Balkans on the American side.
Maybe if you’re lucky enough to have spent a lot of time reading copies of progressive and activist publications like The Nation and Z Magazine and socialist-commie magazines in your teens you get a good idea that every place around the world is very unfair and sucks in some way, so you learn to be more careful about what “side” is best to be on when it comes to political activism. If any, that is. I’ve seen pagans just give uncritical lovey dovey crap to fascist groups and political parties like Hindutva in India because Polytheism is still considered a sign of the Ultimate Good in the Pagan Community and Monotheism the Ultimate Evil, so who cares what violent campaigns, especially against the indigenous and Adivasi they’ve helped promote. Who cares if Hindu Fundie creationists want to screw with US textbooks to promote pseudo-historical lies. Fall for the propaganda that the Adivasi in India are just a wide-eyed fanatical Maosit rebel problem and ignore the big corporate land grabs that continue all over the world, in aid with the governments. Vilify the people who are fighting back against the corporate fascists, because if the government is ran by pagans it can do no wrong. But I can’t blame the American pagans too much, because they’re raised in ignorance about the rest of the world.
So face it, Hellenic pagans have more to learn from the Heathen community than they can imagine, and I’m not speaking of Indo-European studies. I think we should go further than that of course, but every little bit helps.
ETA: I have this feeling I should have added that this doesn’t mean I think Heathenry isn’t completely free of bullshit, there will always be bullshit out there because no one is perfect, and Raven Radio’s Disr episode was ludicrous because of its Midwives apologia crap they decided to air-sorry guys, but it’s not uncommon at all for animals giving birth or laying eggs to die in pain in the wild, it happens all the time. Iit’s only because of the fact pregnancy was medicalised that the death rates of mothers and babies declined. Abortions, at least when they’re legal, are almost always safer than giving birth.
I’m honestly slightly confused here by the points you have made. I was just wondering if you could help clarify them for me. I mean this with a lot of respect when I say this. To the extent of my knowledge modern Heathenry/Asatru has been around longer than Hellenic recon. Hellenic recon to my knowledge first took it’s roots in the mid 90s in Greece and took about five years or so to spread to English speaking countries. I agree that Hellenist have a lot to learn from more experienced and older groups but it seems like it hasn’t really had much time to develop in English speaking countries and it’s numbers haven’t really grown much. You also say “Way too many people still believe tons of stereotypes about Ancient Greeks, like they were all metropolitan neo-Platonist philosophers who rejected superstition, and somehow Greek culture disappeared after the rise of the Christian era.” Hellenic recon has always been about trying to reconstruct Ancient Greek religion not Ancient Greek society or culture so I’m confused as to why adopting theology set up by philosophers and rejecting superstition has anything to do with Hellenic recon today or why there should be more focus on how the ancient Greeks lived aside from their religious practices. Most of the Hellenic recons I have come in contact are usually very well read in Ancient Greek history and know that Greek culture didn’t just disappear but they do recognize that many Greeks decided to convert to Christianity and some were killed if they didn’t. You also say “There isn’t much of an interest in actual Greeks themselves unless it often caters to nationalist bullshit denying Macedonian culture and agency” Again as I said before the Hellenic polytheists I have come across are well read and do not deny Macedonian culture. In fact the only groups that I can think of doing such a thing are in Greece and I can’t confirm if they deny Macedonian culture or not. Maybe I just haven’t been around enough Hellenic recons but I really don’t know what you’re talking about. :/ Are you sure you’re not mistaking Hellenic recon with Hellenic neo-paganism? The Hellenic recon community isn’t perfect but I haven’t seen those issues in the circles of Hellenist I have spoken to about Hellenismos. Am I missing something?
