Greek and Roman Witchcraft??

[silvrsnstr]

Does anyone know of any Greek or Roman Paganism? They have a Goddess of magick, so Paganism is the next logical step, right?

Blessings,
Crimson StarRaven

[Mairwen]

I know some Greek and Roman Reconstructionists. Does that count? :p

[silvrsnstr]

Depends on what Reconstructionists means :)

Blessings,
Crimson StarRaven

[Shy Hawk]

There is Greek Paganism...of which I am a great fan. It's called Hellenic Paganism by many...and I'd be glad to share my sites with you...(as I can't share my books with you). lol

Biblioteca Arcana http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/
Omphalos http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/OM/
Hellenic NeoPagan Calendar http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/3310/
Hellenic Paganism http://www.geocities.com/athens/parthenon/6670/
Online Greek Temples http://pagan.drak.net/hellenion/temples.html
Delphic Oracle Webring http://pagan.drak.net/lolandrea/delphi.htm
Hellenic Religion http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/7773/

Be careful, often times online Greek calendars are conflicting...so don't take anyone that you find to be correct....unless you are positive.

PS Hope that's what you wanted and I didn't just paste that there for nothing....:D

[Silver Venus]

Thank you silvrsnstr for starting this thread, and thank you Shy Hawk for the brilliant links!!! I too am a big fan of Hellenic Paganism and have visited some mbut not all of those sites before! I feel very connected to Apollo, Aphrodite, Persephone and Artemis :)
Heres some other links to have a look at.

http://www.hickorytech.net/~rajchd/hellen/
http://www.ecauldron.com/recongreek.php
http://www.monmouth.com/~equinoxbook/hellen.html
http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Religion_and_Spirituality/Faiths_and_Practices/Paganism/Traditions/Hellenic/

[Shy Hawk]

I'd better check those out straight away! Thanks a lot!

[Spirahl]

Thanks Folks! I've been looking into this too, and have found a few of these links, but not all. Great minds...!
Could someone please clarify for me, the difference between Roman Paganism and Stregheria?

[Silver Venus]

In my mind they are the same thing ~ the word "Stregheria" in Italian means "Witchcraft" and Ive heard that before but not much else being seperate from Roman paganism ~ so I did a search for ya ;)
http://stregheria.com/
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/4914/teachings.html
http://www.angelfire.com/co/wytch/strega.html
http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/2886/strega.htm

[Sage Witch]

My understanding was that Stregheria is Italian witchcraft, probably based more on the folk magic of the middle ages than on Roman "myths" (hate that word for this purpose). I could be entirely wrong though. I'm too lazy to check out the links at the moment. ;)

[Spirahl]

Thanks Silver, I'll check those out. 'I've also heard Stregarians referred to as "Romani's" but I'm wondering if that is more a term of ethnicity. I've also heard Romani's referred to as "gypsies" and I find the term "gypsy" confusing too. I've never been able to figure out if they are one cultural group that moves around a lot, or if they are many peoples who are lumped together because they have certain things in common, or both... anyway, hope I'm not getting too OT, just that I often find answers lead to more questions...:crazy: ...!

[Shy Hawk]

You'll get some info on Yahoo, if you type in gypsies, or Romani or Roma. ....you may find some other names as well.

[Myst]

Hm I thought most Strega were more into Catholicism then Roman myth?

Anyways thanks for all the Hellenic Paganism links, I'm heavily into it too.

[lyricfox]

Good morning Crimson StarRaven.

++Does anyone know of any Greek or Roman Paganism? They have a Goddess of magick, so Paganism is the next logical step, right? ++

(I caught up with this site over on a Delphi forum and hopped over.)

I saw some of the posts further down, and I think I recognize a couple of posters here from The Cauldron and The Thicket. :o)

I'm an Hellenic Reconstructionist Pagan, so the only thing I'll mention is the Greek part. I'll leave the Roman part to someone else.

There's quite a bit of confusion on the witchcraft issue. Hellenic Recons are generally hard polytheists that don't practice witchcraft within the bounds of the religion. Essentially, if the Ancient Greeks didn't include it in their worship/festivals, we don't either. (Also, please keep in mind that when I speak of witchcraft, I'm referring to something akin to Wicca.) Now, that doesn't mean there aren't some who practice some forum of magic, but generally, we wouldn't include it as a part of our religious worship.

Since you're mentioning a Greek goddess of witchcraft, I'm going to assume you're talking about Hekate. What seems to be forgotten most of the time, is that the darker aspect of Hekate didn't show up until much later in history. If you take a look at some of the early references to Her, you'll find a much different picture.

Unfortunately, a lot of the information on Her is very contradictory. My first recommendation is to look to primary sources when talking about the Greeks. You'll find that the way people worshipped and viewed deity are quite different than some of the modern interpretations you see in Wicca and eclectic neo-Paganism. It can be rather murky at times, but it's usually an interesting trip.

I hope this helps. :o)

[lyricfox]

Good morning Crimson StarRaven.

++Does anyone know of any Greek or Roman Paganism? They have a Goddess of magick, so Paganism is the next logical step, right? ++

(I caught up with this site over on a Delphi forum and hopped over.)

I saw some of the posts further down, and I think I recognize a couple of posters here from The Cauldron and The Thicket. :o)

I'm an Hellenic Reconstructionist Pagan, so the only thing I'll mention is the Greek part. I'll leave the Roman part to someone else.

There's quite a bit of confusion on the witchcraft issue. Hellenic Recons are generally hard polytheists that don't practice witchcraft within the bounds of the religion. Essentially, if the Ancient Greeks didn't include it in their worship/festivals, we don't either. (Also, please keep in mind that when I speak of witchcraft, I'm referring to something akin to Wicca.) Now, that doesn't mean there aren't some who practice some forum of magic, but generally, we wouldn't include it as a part of our religious worship.

Since you're mentioning a Greek goddess of witchcraft, I'm going to assume you're talking about Hekate. What seems to be forgotten most of the time, is that the darker aspect of Hekate didn't show up until much later in history. If you take a look at some of the early references to Her, you'll find a much different picture.

Unfortunately, a lot of the information on Her is very contradictory. My first recommendation is to look to primary sources when talking about the Greeks. You'll find that the way people worshipped and viewed deity are quite different than some of the modern interpretations you see in Wicca and eclectic neo-Paganism. It can be rather murky at times, but it's usually an interesting trip.

I hope this helps. :o)