The cultural perception of occult practices has evolved over time, largely due to the rise of various texts and scriptures that arose during the 1st century CE, which contain content that vastly contradict the purposes and intentions behind a lot of indigenous and esoteric practices. Practices such as gnosis, Hellenism, and Greco-Egyptian magic, etc, were originally meant to obtain higher spiritual knowledge whatsoever and to obtain harmony with nature and the dieteis they obey. However, trejectories that villianize those practices, such as the Roman Empire stormed in advance of monotheistic standpoints alongside other cultural canon events, unfortunately have distorted the core values of those practices, associating them with evil or recognizing them as nothing beyond fiction; devaluing the history of their entire existence. This misrepresentation overlooks their origins and disrespects the respect they continue to hold in religious societies that still exist today.

Approximately around 323 BCE-30 BCE, when Apollos’ urine ran through the gardens of Athens and Aphrodite’s silver breath dictated all the fair maidens of Cyprus, being a pagan was pretty much a normal thing; it was actually a mainstream thing to do, and it was nothing niche or underground about it. However, it’s funny how “normality” switches horizons depending on the day and age, because now, if you’re a Hellenic Pagan, people would either look at you funny or be confused about it, and it’s apparently super niche now. This applies not only just on Hellenic Paganism, but to any theistic/spiritual practice group that is not a part of mainstream religions of 2025; they are brutally slandered, and it’s normalized to a concerning degree. I went to the movies the other day to watch this new film called the Conjuring and sure people find it “scary” or “entertaining” and all those slanders around the demon “Valak” and on a surface level sure you take it all in but on a deeper level this is someone’s esteemed deity by the way, this is some figure someone invoke with forms of offerings, prayers and mediations just like you would at a church, a temple or a mosque by the way. Why is it that it’s socially unacceptable to slander or mock deities of mainstream religions, especially mainstream ones, but it’s so normalized to slander esoteric and occult religious societies? In 2025, anything unconventional looking is a demon, and etymologically, it cannot be more ironic because the word demon derives from the Greek word “daimon,” which just means “divine power,” and in fact, demons have never carried inherently negative connotation around them until later times. Similar to demon, the word gnosis also etymologically came down from a Greek word that means “knowledge,” and as a matter of fact, in the esoteric world, finding gnosis just means educating yourself constantly throughout your life and aiming to obtain as much knowledge as you can. Now that it’s clear that it is a misconception that esoteric practices, demons, gnosis, or other principles of esoteric practices are not in fact evil and in fact preaching for very healthy human rituals like searching for knowledge, I wouldn’t understand a morally right reason to attack one or other esoteric practices.

Furthermore, a lot of what we think of as “modern culture” actually started as religious practices, which would be a part of “esoteric practices” as modern people would say, it’s just that people have stripped the sacred meanings away over time. The Olympics, for example, didn’t start as a sports competition. The first recorded games in 776 BCE were held in honor of Zeus at Olympia, and athletes trained for years as a devotional act to Zeus; it was a way to praise the Gods through strength, discipline, and what we would call athleticness? There was even a sacred truce called Ekecheiria, which stopped all wars during the games so people could travel safely to worship. That’s how seriously they took their faith. But now, the divine part has disappeared, and the games have become more about national pride and just pure athleticness, which is still very respectable, but the focus has shifted away from its initial center, which was: the gods. Theater arts also has the same story, nevertheless. The Cult of Dionysus used ritual performances to honor him. People would dance, sing dithyrambs (hymns), and act out myths about life, death, and transformation. These ceremonies were so powerful that they eventually evolved into full drama plays/theater, and that’s how Greek theater was born; from worship. When you go see a play or a movie today, you’re enjoying something that is a product of Dionysian practices, which to me is super cool. And then there’s Pythagoreanism, which people usually associate with just mathematics. But Pythagoras was more like a prophet than a mathematician. He founded a philosophical and spiritual community in Croton around the 6th century BCE, teaching that numbers weren’t just for counting and they represented “divine order”. To Pythagoreans, the entire universe was built on harmony, and understanding mathematics was a way to understand the gods. They believed in the music of the spheres, that planets created a kind of cosmic music through their movements. Their daily life was full of ritual too: vegetarianism for spiritual purity, silence for inner focus, and constant study to reach divine knowledge. Well, and just a matter of context it wasn’t “science” versus “religion” back then, it was both, blended together as a collective path toward spiritual enlightenment.

As a Hellenic polytheist myself for 6 years, I have learnt that one of the core values of my practice is to not seem overly condescending in the judgements I make; however, perhaps I believe my claim should be a fair judgement since it is apparent to me that I’m getting less and less tolerant about the slanders surrounding my beliefs(most of them is just pure prejudice). Being complaint on this matter push me further into my very personal despondancy rather than ecstasy because the world today is the way it is, so no, we do not need to rip down every single modern aspects of the olympics, theater arts, mathematics or other things etc; all I am really asking for is proper crediting, respect and the eradication of extremist slanders. As a matter of fact, this approach not only applies to the esoteric practices but also in other areas such as philosophy, culture, and even actual individual human beings, because disagreeing with someone’s belief should not directly translate to mockery or prejudice; human rights are a non-negotiable exception. There are tons of niche societies with their own sets of values and practices; just because one is not within your awareness yet does not mean it’s fictional.