Hellenic, Roman and Kemetic reconstructionism

Domain XIV · Western esoteric, divinatory & new spiritual movements · Gianfranco Barbera, Tamara L. Siuda · 1981

What it is

These are not therapies. They are religious movements that aim to restore the public and household worship of the gods of ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt, each organised in one or more named bodies.

Format

• Local groups: a Demos needs at least three adult members in good standing who do not all live in one household. Where there are fewer members, a provisional Protodemos may form with permission. Chartering is free. Each Demos has three officers (Demarkhos, Grammateus, Tamias), must hold at least six…
• Membership grades: Remetj (friends of the faith), Shemsu (full members, after the parent-divination and naming rites), Shemsu-Ankh, and priestly ranks. A permanent temple is in Joliet, Illinois, with a retreat centre that hosts the New Year (Wep Ronpet) gathering.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• It has a General Secretary (Vlassis Rassias in 2017) and a High Priestess (Elena Petri in 2024), a priesthood, and a licensed temple in central Athens.
• Legal status: in April 2017 the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs recognised Hellenic Religion as a "known religion" and approved an Athens place of worship. This lets members register children as belonging to the religion and hold legally valid weddings. The courts have refused the body the status of a religious legal entity, and YSEE has taken this to the European Court of Human Rights.
• Roman. Pietas – Comunità Gentile traces itself to the 1960s and to a community of scholars and professionals founded in 1981 by Professor Gianfranco Barbera. Its guide is the mos maiorum ("way of the ancestors"), an unwritten code of conduct and virtue. Pietas is presented as dutiful reverence for gods, traditions and ancestors, and Cicero's "justice towards the gods" is quoted for it. Its president, Giuseppe…

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Focused work. Goal: treat the presenting problem with the client's ordinary evidence-based therapy, drawing on the practice as a resource where the client wishes. Address any practice-linked difficulties (scrupulosity, divination-driven decisions, discrimination, family conflict, group concerns,…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• the therapist cheering the exit, or discouraging it. Working: the client has a coherent account of the change that they own.
• shame at "insulting the gods"; pressure from others at the feast. Working: the client takes part in the rite without drinking.
• guilt over "wrong" rites; ritual used only to avoid grief. Working: the client experiences the rite as connecting, and grief moves.
• secrecy that isolates the client; the therapist pushing them to come out. Working: disclosure choices feel deliberate rather than fearful.
• breaches of confidentiality in small communities; clergy pulled into a clinical role. Working: the client feels supported by both systems.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.