The Supreme Council of Ethnic Hellenes, commonly referred to by its acronym YSEE, is a non-profit Hellenic organisation established in Greece in 1997. Its primary goal is the protection and restoration of the Hellenic ethnic religion in contemporary Greek society. The group itself estimates that some 2,000 Greeks practice the Hellenic ethnic religion and another 100,000 have "some sort of interest",. The followers of the Hellenic ethnic religion face varying degrees of discrimination in Greece, which has an overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian population. One of YSEE's main goals is to obtain legal recognition for the Hellenic ethnic religion. YSEE is a founding member of the European Congress of Ethnic Religions and hosted its seventh Congress in June 2004. YSEE has also been member of the European Union's action program to combat discrimination.
The Gods have emerged from the “True Being” as a simple multiplication of itself into separate entities, and for this reason, they retain all its qualities, which are immortality, infinity, and knowledge. The mission of the Gods is the establishment and maintenance of the unity and the order of the Cosmos. Thus the true Gods are perfect beings that impose order and possess immortality and knowledge. They infuse the world without any obstructions by acting on it. They are subject to the natural laws that they serve, and they partake in the eternal rebirth and continuous synthesis and decomposition of the forms. As to their nature, the true and natural Gods are perfect, virtuous, immortal, unchangeable, infinite, just, all-wise, eternal, non-personal, without gender, unifying, ethereal and permeate all matter.
Practices
'''Altars'''
The Hellenic Ethnic Religion performs its ritual on altars and hearths, depending on the nature of the deities worshiped at the time. For the Olympian gods, altars are used, which are sanctified surfaces raised above the ground. For chthonic deities and ancestral spirits, we use hearths, which are sanctified surfaces on the ground or in pits. In Hellenic Ethnic Religion, the altar is the most sacred point, the adobe of a Deity, “where the altars are, that is where the Gods are." Because of their nature the altars are points of refuge and whoever touches them is considered invulnerable as if he was “holding the hand of the Gods”.
'''Statues'''
The only thing that can be equated in holiness with the altar for Hellenes is the sacred statue. A statue is every sculpted or other pleasing form which is defined as the icon or symbol of the deity. Either natural, or worked by human hand and of any material for a statue to be “raised” to devotional it must first be sanctified in a special ritual. After the sanctification which is also called “opening of the eyes”, the statue is now the adobe of Divinity, like the altar, and thus it requires respectful handling.
Controversies
YSEE has been criticized for their nationalism and antisemitism by scholar of religion Evangelos Voulgarakis as well as individual members of the Greek pagan community. Voulgarakis in particular points to founder Vlassis Rassias' claim that Christianity is a "sick, schizophrenic Judaic-begotten worldview". Rassias has expressed his contempt for "Judaic-born religions" as a whole. YSEE has also been criticized for refusing to officiate same-sex marriage. Much of its rhetoric is nationalistic in nature, with origins in Apostolos Amyras' white nationalist ideas of race. Aristoteles Kalentzes, a convicted Neo-Nazi, has been officially and informally embraced into the community. Much of YSEE's online presence consists of decrying Christianity, yet scholar Evangelos Voulgarakis has noted the parallels between the Greek Orthodox Curch and YSEE. For example, while calling the Greek gods unknowable, Vlassis Rassias validates the use of visual representations of the gods for ecstatic experiences. YSEE's attacks on Christianity are based on the nationalistic claim that Orthodox Christianity is a "dictatorial foreign dogma" and thus not truly Hellenic. Rassias posits the Hellene as the "model for humanity" worldwide, mirroring claims of Western Civilization now heavily criticized by scholars, especially in Classics. Furthermore, the alleged positive traits that Hellenes display "...seem vague and tautologous and certainly do not point to anything unique which other peoples do not display. Rassias claims that the characteristics and the ethnicity of the Hellene are an indivisible, integral set and must be taken as a whole..."
