“Domestic Gods” ― An Article About Worship in the Home

Sometimes Google News gives me blather about liberals and Baal worship, but other times it presents some really nice jewels of worship. Take this recent article by Catherine Moye at the Finanical Times, “Domestic Gods”:

John Radford, emeritus professor of psychology at the University of East London, argues that it is the older religions, such as Hinduism and even ancient Greek polytheism, which place the most emphasis on having a religious spot in the home. “At first, religion was not separately magical; it was just part of what you did to make the crops grow and therefore, being just another part of life, it didn’t necessarily require a different centre of worship,” he explains.

Other faiths used the home because, due to persecution of one kind or another, they had no choice. “That was certainly the case with Judaism over the centuries,” he says. “And Christianity grew up in opposition to the traditional religion; it was an alternative religion and therefore they tended to gather in the home for convenience’s sake. The home was the proto-church.”

The article discusses the place of the home in Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, and Muslim worship, and it's a fantastic reminder that all religions, no matter how theologically different they are from Hellenic Polytheism, have similar physical approaches to space and the divine. Some religions even prefer home worship to worshiping in temples, churches, or synagogues.

For American polytheists (referring to polytheists in the Americas, not just from the United States), the home takes on additional importance. Most of us do not have the resources or the time to take trips to Greece, Italy, England, or other countries once dominated by polytheism, where we may visit temple ruins or feel more connection to our Gods in the landscape. We instead make small shrines in our homes for use by ourselves and, if we are lucky enough, our small communities. [Native American holy sites and divinities, while more accessible from a land standpoint, are not open to us for some very good reasons (actually, many good reasons) and I strongly discourage it. Let's not repeat what happened when the ancients tried to syncreticise Zeus with YHVH. Please. That was a disaster.]

These shrines or tributes to the Gods are extremely important from a spiritual standpoint because they anchor us in our traditional spirituality, a collection of polytheistic traditions that once claimed all of Europe and the Middle East.

So, as you celebrate this month, remember that you're taking part in something larger than yourself, even larger than your religion, and that polytheism got there first.

Good luck with relatives, and happy holidays! Io Helios!