In one of my many conversations regarding Hellenismos, an individual told me he did not believe there was any good “basic” information regarding the ritual practices from the many sources online. The accusation seems to be that most new to Hellenismos should independently sift through volumes of texts, extracting the basics of practice, and as a result, most conversations were over the newbie’s head. Doing a quick search, I was actually surprised how sparse and scattered the most basic information was, and while I have addressed these more basic topics in The Beginner’s Guide to Hellenismos, I wanted to create a Quick Guide for those who are new. A Quick Guide is a document that is not intended to be all-inclusive, but provides the bare-bones essentials to start. No one can look at this work as all that is needed, but it does provide basic information for a person to create a working practice while continuing to learn.

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The performing of ritual sacrifice seems to be the most worrisome religious act for many who are new to Hellenismos. There is some fear involved in burning items as offerings to the Gods. Some misconceptions exist that the process is complicated or difficult. Among others, there is even an idea that the act of sacrifice is an out dated, antiquated method of worship that has no place in modern society or religions. In this post, I want to address the different forms of sacrifice, the different types, a proper method for performing them, and (in the process) dispel a few myths on the subject. While there is some crossover with the acts of libation and votive offerings, I am going to leave them as a separate issue, and discuss those at another time.

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