Reviews

Kharis: Hellenic Polytheism Explored by Sarah Kate Istra Winter

luvjasmine's review

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hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.75

a great introductory book filled with so much resources and information! it was easy to follow and read!

pestanitasg's review

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informative reflective slow-paced

4.25

paulfortier's review

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hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

alexiasophii's review

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5.0

I finally got around to finishing this book and I loved it! I think it's one of the most complete books on Hellenic Polytheism that I've had the chance to read and I'm so glad I was able to do it. I think this is gonna be a great companion on my journey to improve my Hellenic path. This is a book filled with resources, it has tons of references and plenty of additional resources at the end of the book which is a must! I really really enjoyed it and will recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning more about this path!

foxlyn_wren's review

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informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

battlepoet's review

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informative medium-paced

4.0

faeriekit's review

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informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective fast-paced

5.0

I deeply appreciated this book. The author calls herself a modern reconstructionist, but I would have used the term “revivalist” or “revitalist” for her work. This book strikes a good balance between recognizing the thoughts and mindsets of the worshipers of the theoi in ancient Greece and recognizing that and that people have different needs than the ancient Greeks. The information used has been carefully researched to prune out more ‘modern’ misinterpretations of what worship of the theoi looked like, or who the theoi are and what they represent, by focusing almost entirely on anthropological and other scholarly resources. This clears up a lot of "pagans quoting pagans" problems that often pop up in more recent resources. The resources at the back were soo exciting; on top of a really recent survey of the author's local Hellenic Polytheist population, it’s a really solidly thought-out list of necessary vocabulary and spelling that answers 99.99% of the answers anyone could possibly have while reading the book.

An entire basic sketch of what a personal practice is laid out, a possible yearly calendar, the groups of spirits in Hellenic polytheism that are not the gods, the Greek language, valuable terms... This book really is well researched and provides anything a beginner in the more traditional aspects might need. If you were working with the theoi and wanted to know more about them, I highly recommend this book. I think I first heard of this book from <a href=" https://bookshop.org/shop/teawiththegods ">TeaWiththeGods</a>‘s bookshop page, so it had to be good, but I asked my library to purchase it for me so that others could read it too. Am I glad I did! I really hope this gets into a lot of people’s hands. I learned a lot, I took a lot of pictures of the vocab in the back, and learned a lil' something else about Greek Polytheists. Apparently, the survey found that 30% of Hellenic Polytheists are bisexual. You go, bisexuals. 

bibliophilicwitch's review

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informative inspiring slow-paced

libgremlin's review

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A useful book if you are starting out with Hellenic Polytheism. It's accessible and practical and has a good bibliography for further reading.

nursinggeek's review against another edition

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5.0

This book's approach to Hellenic Polytheism is well-grounded in research and yet shows how Hellenismos can be a living, dynamic spiritual path rather than a static recreation of a point in time in the past. It's a good, concise foundation-builder for anyone either contemplating a Hellenic spiritual path or simply wishing to understand how it is possible that people still embrace this path in the 21st century.