The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

I have experimented with many faiths and studied even more. I am at the point where I know that I am drawn to working with the spirit world, Hel, the underworld, the realm of shadows or whatever else you might like to call the land of the dead. I am once more looking to seek spirits and divine ones to work with. I lean towards European faiths more then others. Any suggestions of systems and gods/goddesses to work with?

 
Who have you already worked with? Who do you currently work with? Who have you had the best results or most fulfilling relationships with?

I'd hate to suggest someone you've already built a relationship with, and it would be helpful to give more targeted suggestions.

I have experimented with many faiths and studied even more. I am at the point where I know that I am drawn to working with the spirit world, Hel, the underworld, the realm of shadows or whatever else you might like to call the land of the dead. I am once more looking to seek spirits and divine ones to work with. I lean towards European faiths more then others. Any suggestions of systems and gods/goddesses to work with?

 
"Working with the land of the dead" covers a whole lot of territory.  Can you give us an idea of what kind of work that it is you want to do or, alternatively, the purpose for the work?  There are a lot of options for deity and guides, but who I would recommend depends largely on what you want to get out of the work.

Now that I am out I am looking for something more. I dont know if it will be an established path or one I forge out of many various traditions that works for me.

 
You might find the term 'psychopomp' to be of some use in research.

A number of people who do work around dying and death often find themselves working with a variety of deities who have interests in that area, rather than focusing on a particular pantheon, because different people they are helping/supporting/etc. are going to have different needs. (For example, there are some deities who have a particular interest in deaths during battle or war or other traumas, and others who are more interested in death due to illness, or death after a long well-lived life.)

I am drawn to working with the spirit world, Hel, the underworld, the realm of shadows or whatever else you might like to call the land of the dead.

Death has always been my main area of interest. (I'm a Scorpio, what can I say.)

I see the dead as returning to/residing in the Otherworld, which is just as multi-cultural as this world, and with it's own laws of nature. A friend once put it as falling through a rabbit hole, and there being many rabbit holes. And it does seem to be a lot like Wonderland; talking animals, people walking backwards and upside down, time moving differently.

I'd suggest looking at any and all literature on the Otherworld;  fairytales from different folk-religious cultures, superstitions, urban legends. Dead is dead, no matter what religion you are. It's universal. Ghosts are universal. Seeing apparitions on the death bed is universal. That's what you're looking for, those universal "laws" of death and dying. (Or as universal as you're going to get at least.)

One place I've looked is on nursing forums for their supernatural stories. For example, I haven't found a single instance of anyone reporting a god being seen by a patient on the death bed. It's either family members or guardian spirits.  Another resource I found while dealing with my own grief are survivor forums; they share a lot of experiences in their relationships with the deceased either through dreams or waking signs. It's been pretty insightful, especially considering that these are people from many different religious backgrounds with shared experiences.

You can look at death, the gods of death, the Underworld in one specific religious context and take away a ton, but I think you miss the actual awe-inspiring, over-reaching power and sacredness of Death when you confine it to one box. Have your box (heathenry, kemeticism etc), but leave it open, you know? Let some things fall in, but know that the box is just one small part existing in the reality of Death rather than seeing the box as containing Death. This isn't eclecticism..it isn't anything really, but just what is.

That's some general advice from what I've been doing. If you have any specific questions I'll see if I can help with those.

Do you have any good books you have learned and worked with other then mythos from various cultures?

As far as actual physical books go-- that specifically focus on death-- the only one I own is Claude Lecouteux's The Return of the Dead: Ghosts, Ancestors, and the Transparent Veil of the Pagan Mind. C.L. is a former professor but the book itself is more commercial than academic. Mainly I love him because he pulls out a bunch of obscure folklore and superstitions (low mythology), rather than relying on religious texts, and it's a great jumping off point for my main resource: Google Scholar.

Oh, and also The Road to Hel: A Study of the Conception of the Dead in Old Norse Literature. (pdf link). But mostly? Tons and tons of articles on Google Scholar, as I mentioned. What I really enjoy is finding easter eggs in works that don't specifically deal with death. I feel like it gives a more unbiased and fluid picture of death, rather than operating from a religious agenda.

There are also many spirit-worker blogs and books out there if you're looking for a more decisive, personal, practitioner method. I think Galina Krasskova and Raven Kaldera are well-known spirit workers/authors in Northern Traditional methods, though I haven't read anything of their's personally.

Do you have any deities that you have a preference for personally?  Finally have you done any work with Morrigan? As I have done research she seems to call to me more then once.

I feel like Odin is leading me somewhere, but that there isn't necessarily a god of the Other world...but it requires some explanation.

Much like my reading/research habits, I have a traditional pantheon/religion that I 'own' (Germanic-European heathenry [adapting to American culture]), which is also mainly used as a great jumping off point for evaluating and deciphering my experiences of living. However, I allow my spirituality to appear like the easter eggs and I don't try to fix it into any specific context or agenda (easier said then done, sometimes). I feel like that approach is truer to primitive nature-based, folk-based spiritualities.

In many primitive folk-religions (Asian, European, African, South American, etc), there is the spiritual practice of ancestor veneration, and there also seems to be a type of universal process of this. For example, a mother dies and it's the duty of the living to venerate her, to provide her with offerings and honor. Doing so will grant her entry  inside the ancestral 'home', and once there, she becomes an Ancestor. That means that, even when her name has long been forgotten, she is still part of the Ancestral 'pantheon'. It's no longer necessary for any living generations to remember her name; she is forever part of a collective that can chose to guide, assist, provide or punish her descendants.

So, on one hand,  I see early man developing spirituality based on natural experiences with death and the Otherworld, and those ancient Ancestors eventually becoming some of what we now recognize as named gods.  'Odin' could have very well been a one-eyed cave man that became Odin the deity.

On the other hand, my Germanic beliefs don't see the world/universe as having been created, but randomly born and developed from chance. So with that belief, there's an understanding that gods grew and evolved from this chance as well, like any other thing, and are a living part of our world and universe. I believe they would be so abstract, so old, and so continuous that now we simply recognize them as the basic, overlooked elements of our world; like the wind, or the call of a seagull, or the background of our dreams. 'Odin' could very well be an element in all that.

With that said, I actually believe it's both.  Consider God, residing in Heaven with the dead outside of the known universe, watching over the earthly living,  and then think of the opposite; there is no heaven, just this known universe, and the gods and dead are with us.  . It's the Ancestors and the Gods together who exist in butterflies, and time, and rainfall; who lead us and guide us and influence us. They are inseparable, they are our life and our death. The Otherworld then isn't another, separate, heavenly realm; it's here on earth and in the known universe, the Other World is simply experiencing our World in Other ways.

And that's what happens when we're dead... or sleeping, or in trance, or spirit-traveling, etc.

There are also many spirit-worker blogs and books out there if you're looking for a more decisive, personal, practitioner method. I think Galina Krasskova and Raven Kaldera are well-known spirit workers/authors in Northern Traditional methods, though I haven't read anything of their's personally.



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I've read Ravens works, albeit his work on kink and religion rather than death. Fascinating fellow.

Thanks for the advice all. I am looking into all of it. Any more advice or good books please feel free to share.

Nietzsche.  Plato.  Jung.  

Nietzsche especially.  A solid foundation is needed to weather whatever gets thrown at you.