If we take a look at occultism, we will quickly notice the celebration of irrationalism and cultural appropriation. In addition, we will notice, two trends become evident, at least in the Anglo-American branch of occultism — anti-Hellenism and the primacy of self-staging over reason, facts and objective realities. The tragic-comical attempt to turn an ethnic religion into some kind of role-playing game not only emphasises this. Furthermore, the methods used highlight the ethnocentrism at play. An occultist who once claimed: «‹Tribalism›, ‹ethnic›, ‹racial›, ‹folkish›: these are all common buzzwords for the same thing,» even though Hellenes have no concept for «race,» presents a «Declaration,» called «Xenia,» the aim of which is to create «unity within the Hellenic polytheistic and pagan communities» (sic!), although she is an outsider and thus a stranger to Hellenic communities. She as well as many other pagans and occultists not only appropriates other people’s ethnonym, but also tries to change a foreign language respectively the meaning of keywords of an ethnic group’s value system in accordance with her ideology. This colonialist attitude toward indigenous traditions is one of the reasons why the Hellenic people reject occultism, neopaganism and other para-Christian systems of the Occident. It’s just a new emanation of monotheism’s religious colonialism and in some ways the religious wing of cultural globalization.
The particular person belongs to groups who, as YSEE best puts it, «are simply disguised as ‹Hellenists› for reasons that exist hidden within the depths of their own minds.» Obviously we don’t want to maintain any relationship with people who exploit and distort our ethnic tradition, trying to change a foreign culture from the outside and projecting the stereotypes of their own culture onto Hellenes, simply in order to satisfy their personal needs. The only «Declaration» we agree with is the «Declaration of the World Congress of Ethnic Religions» and, most importantly, the «Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality.» The «Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality» is so interesting because the Lakota people have dealt with this absurdity long before neopaganism threw its sombre shadows over Hellenism. If you replace the words «Indian» and «Lakota» in the Lakota Declaration of War by «Hellenic» and «Hellenes,» you will get the Hellenic stance on the use or exploitation of our tradition, whether by spiritual colonialists, nationalists** or other anti-Hellenes.
Cultural appropriation, used as a tool to distort and misuse indigenous Hellenic culture, is not new to us Hellenes. The Christians used the same method to destroy and misuse Hellenismos or parts of the Hellenic tradition for their own needs (for example platonism) at the time of the Christian persecution against our people. Cultural appropriation was used in the context of the Hellenic cultural genocide in order to expropriate Hellenes of their tradition. Now it is used again by the spiritual descendants of those Christians in order to satisfy their colonialist desires. Spiritual colonialists, the majority of whom are practitioners of the para-Christian paths of the Occident (occultism, neopaganism and the New Age movement), do not only attempt to distort parts of Hellenic identity, they are also projecting concepts of their own culture (race, nationalism etc.) onto the Hellenes and judge us based on the imagination of their own society. This ethnocentrism generated by ignorance and their colonialist attitude toward foreign cultures, especially the indigenous ones, is unacceptable since it endangers the revitalization of indigenous cultures. The Hellenes know what cultural expropriation and genocide look like. Therefore, we recognize the signs and know where this can lead. It is time for the UN to step in and finally make cultural appropriation indigenous traditions illegal.
Link to the occultist’s article: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/teaaddictedwitch/2019/11/xenia-declaration/
Link to the Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality: http://www.thepeoplespaths.net/articles/ladecwar.htm
Definition of cultural appropriation: «the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture.» (Cambridge Dictionary: cultural appropriation)
Read also: The absurd fruits of neopagan intolerance
* The Hellenes are an ethnos («ethnicity»), not a «race.» Encyclopedia Britannica defines «race» as «the idea that the human species is divided into distinct groups on the basis of inherited physical and behavioral differences. Genetic studies in the late 20th century refuted the existence of biogenetically distinct races, and scholars now argue that ‹races› are cultural interventions reflecting specific attitudes and beliefs that were imposed on different populations in the wake of western European conquests beginning in the 15th century. The modern meaning of the term race with reference to humans began to emerge in the 17th century» (Encyclopedia Britannica: Race). «Phyle,» the word modern Greece uses for this western European concept, comes from ancient Greek and means originally «tribe» or «clan.» The «phylai,» tribes or clans, were social and political subdivisions of the ethnos.
** Hellenes understand nationalism as one of the many faces of «political monotheism.» The same, of course, applies to the other three main ideologies of modernity (conservatism, liberalism, internationalism). The very concept of nationalism is not only alien to Hellenismos, but it also contrasts the Hellenic understanding of ethnos (as an unhomogenized and polymorphic entity formed by tribes, clans, families and people with a common ethos), and, as we think, the ethnosphere itself. «Nationalism is a modern movement.» (Encyclopedia Britannica: Nationalism).
Hellenismos heute 