Hey, to all the people who are sad we as Hellenic Polytheists don't have a temple to worship in:
We never had temples to worship in, that was never a thing.
I keep seeing posts of people lamenting that we no longer have places to worship the gods in, in the same way people use churches and other places of worship today, but as someone with a degree in this, that was never officially a thing. This is what I mean when I say people need to deconstruct from their previous religion because the religions are different and what you might miss from one, you'll bring to the other, like missing a place of worship.
The temples were solely places to either hold things given to the gods, like thank you offerings, etc. or in some cases, where you got your prophecy told (Delphi), or some people slept in temples for Asclepius in order to dream of cures they believed the god would give them.
The ancient Greeks worshipped the gods in nature and had little altars in their homes.
This is why there were so many sacrificial altars outside in nature or outside the temples.
I understand it can be frustrating not having a place to worship because religious places of worship are great places to find like-minded people and find community, but the ancient Greeks didn't have to do that because the religion was a government mandated religion. Their literal governments would do things with the whole city-state outside of the temples. The closest thing we got to that were mystery cults but those were usually for the elite and still did things outside just in more secluded areas: (LINK)
Most of the time people weren't allowed to go into the temples, just priests, and the very few people that were allowed (to either drop off a gift, dream of a cure or get their fortune told) had very strict rules on making sure they were super clean because the priests would have to clean after them and they really didn't want to do that.
My point is that if you are worshipping the gods in nature (especially outdoor areas that inspire you because they believed a god resided in those areas) or in front of your altar at home, you're already doing what the ancient Greeks did.
Places of worship later got popularized with the rise of mystery cults in Rome and Roman Christians needing a secret place to worship, usually in someone's house which would later get converted as official places because of the persecutions.
I understand it can be frustrating to not have what more modern religions around you have but I need Hellenic Polytheists to understand that official places of worship were never a thing in the ancient Greek world.
They are worshipped in nature because the gods ARE nature itself.
So understand that your place of worship is all around you, and the gods will always be with you whenever you need them, as soon as you need them, and I think that's beautiful.
