Shadow Hellenic Paganism
Unlike many of my pagan counterparts, I did not come into the path due to a backlash against organization religion or oppression by my elders. I was raised by my grandparents, who never attended church themselves, and only forced me to go a few times each year. That was the trend of my religious life, at least in an organized way, until I was twelve.
Still, I developed my own path, mainly based on what we'd consider spiritualism today. When I was about five or six, I began to see an apparition in my home. I saw her for years, and over time, we were able to communicate. I called her Charlotte, and from what I understand, she was a war widow. Today, I realize she wasn't connected to the house, but instead to me. When I finally moved from that house, she came with me, and has been with me ever since. During the same period of time, I also had encounters with Mary, and she was my only religious figure until in the fourth grade I began to communicate with Athena as well.
In terms of how religion has effected my life, I've spent an inordinate amount of time studying Gnosticism, Mary, and Classical Paganism. While my family is not Jewish, and has not been at least since they arrived in the United States back in the 1730s, my given name is Hebrew. It was my study that allowed me to find the same deities in Phoenician, Judiac, Hellenic writings, and the Old Testament.
In 2003, a family of entities/deities made themselves known to me, a collective the Greeks thought of as Nyx, Thanatos, etc. I had already adopted the name Fate in pagan circles, around 2000, so this arrival made perfect sense to me. The Fates were said to be the daughters of Nyx, after all. At the time, however, I thought it was odd that Nyx was referring to herself as Nox, the lesser-known, Roman version, of the same being.
Now, I know it's because these beings are not deities. They are pre-Islamic djinn, capable of being good or bad, and working magic independently of humans. The names are just the labels used by humans to better understand the individual roles of each djinn, who in turn, are part of the larger, cohesive, collective. Each has a primary role, although they can choose when or how they work toward it, and each has the ability/capability to fulfill the role in ways that may, or may not, be to the benefit of humans. There is an ultimate end result for each djinn, although the collective does not necessarily have a single deed that must be done. As a collective, we don't have a single side, good or evil, for which we're fighting. Additionally, it's up to the individual djinn, at any particular point or in a particular human manifestation, to decide what side they want to play for or to choose sides when the time is right.
It is important note here that in some cultures, djinn are considered the same beings as demons and fae, the primary differences being they may not always be darker in nature, and geography. For instance, whereas most fae kin I've spoken to remember lush forests that are consistent with European areas, mine are all surrounding a desert landscape. There are djinn of water and the ocean, known as the marid, and I do wonder if the name is somehow linked to mermaid. Something more to study...
Still, I developed my own path, mainly based on what we'd consider spiritualism today. When I was about five or six, I began to see an apparition in my home. I saw her for years, and over time, we were able to communicate. I called her Charlotte, and from what I understand, she was a war widow. Today, I realize she wasn't connected to the house, but instead to me. When I finally moved from that house, she came with me, and has been with me ever since. During the same period of time, I also had encounters with Mary, and she was my only religious figure until in the fourth grade I began to communicate with Athena as well.
In terms of how religion has effected my life, I've spent an inordinate amount of time studying Gnosticism, Mary, and Classical Paganism. While my family is not Jewish, and has not been at least since they arrived in the United States back in the 1730s, my given name is Hebrew. It was my study that allowed me to find the same deities in Phoenician, Judiac, Hellenic writings, and the Old Testament.
In 2003, a family of entities/deities made themselves known to me, a collective the Greeks thought of as Nyx, Thanatos, etc. I had already adopted the name Fate in pagan circles, around 2000, so this arrival made perfect sense to me. The Fates were said to be the daughters of Nyx, after all. At the time, however, I thought it was odd that Nyx was referring to herself as Nox, the lesser-known, Roman version, of the same being.
Now, I know it's because these beings are not deities. They are pre-Islamic djinn, capable of being good or bad, and working magic independently of humans. The names are just the labels used by humans to better understand the individual roles of each djinn, who in turn, are part of the larger, cohesive, collective. Each has a primary role, although they can choose when or how they work toward it, and each has the ability/capability to fulfill the role in ways that may, or may not, be to the benefit of humans. There is an ultimate end result for each djinn, although the collective does not necessarily have a single deed that must be done. As a collective, we don't have a single side, good or evil, for which we're fighting. Additionally, it's up to the individual djinn, at any particular point or in a particular human manifestation, to decide what side they want to play for or to choose sides when the time is right.
It is important note here that in some cultures, djinn are considered the same beings as demons and fae, the primary differences being they may not always be darker in nature, and geography. For instance, whereas most fae kin I've spoken to remember lush forests that are consistent with European areas, mine are all surrounding a desert landscape. There are djinn of water and the ocean, known as the marid, and I do wonder if the name is somehow linked to mermaid. Something more to study...