The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

I have been drawn to four very different goddess'.

-Luna
-Brigid
-Persephone
-Freya

What exactly does that mean? I'm trying to really figure out my path. These four have called to me since I was young.

So, here's the thing: 'path' and 'I feel a particular interest in these four deities' are not the same thing. The deities don't necessarily have to dictate the path, or vice versa - there are a lot of other variables.

Let me start with the path.

Some paths are, in fact, very specific about which deities or other entities you honour when you are in rituals of that path. (British Traditional Wicca honours two very specific deities whose names are oathbound. Haitian voudoun honours deities from that tradition and culture. A Pagan religious group dedicated to Brigid is going to focus on Brigid. And so on.

But there are also a lot of paths where there's more flexibility. And even if someone practices the paths that are more specific, they may also (at other times than those ritual) honour other deities. (Depends on the path: there are paths with hard limits about that kind of thing.)

How one honours multiple deities depends on a lot of other factors.

A couple of models of how multiple deities can work:
1) For people who honour multiple deities from the same culture or pantheon, one common practice is to honour the deities on different days, tied together by shared cultural practices - usually days sacred to them for some reason. There might be seasonal or yearly festivals that apply. That's not the case for you in an obvious way because you're talking about different pantheons, but it might be a model you could develop.

2) Another model is honouring deities clearly in different parts of your life. For example, I know some people in the medical profession who honour a healing deity very specifically as part of their work life, but they honour other deities at other times in their day or week.

3) Honouring different deities in different contexts at different times. In the tradition I'm trained in, there is a pair of deities we honour at some rituals, the group I trained in primarily worked with a different pair for lunar rituals, we'd invite a range of different deities (depending on who was leading the ritual and who was designing it, and the goal of the ritual) for Sabbats, and most of us had one to three deities we had independent ongoing interactions with outside the group circles.

And here's the thing: all of those deity relationships are meaningful to me. They're just different. I ask them for different things, and do different kinds of things with them. Just like I have some friends I see once or twice a year, some friends I see every few weeks, and a couple of friends who I'd call in an emergency. All three sets of people are important to me, but how we do things together can be really different.

With the deities invited for the specific rituals, it's a more workmanlike 'here are the tasks we are doing, you have a particular interest in this task' but with some very personal moments as well at times. Like elder folk in a community or hobby or project you care about who help keep things going: you aren't necessarily their best friend, but it matters that you see them on those occasions, and have a mutually productive time together.

(The deities for solar cycle rituals are also like that, but perhaps more distant, except for people who work with that deity regularly.)

With the lunar ritual deities, it was much more like friends who make time to get together once a month: there's a lot more emotional give and take, and not every ritual is high stakes or high intensity. It's a lot more 'We have an ongoing relationship and checking in regularly helps keep it like that'.

With the deities I honour personally, it's much more a daily thing, on some level, it's always a part of the background soundtrack of my life, is I guess the way I'd put it. There are lots of days when I don't do a deliberate conscious "Hey, here I am." (Our relationship is such that that's not the right mode: I do my devotion by what I do, not by prayer.)

What does that mean for you? That's going to depend on you.

Some common stuff people notice about multiple deities:
It can be good to take some time to focus on each interaction deliberately for a while - without making any long-term commitments or promises. At least a month, and maybe a couple of months can work, but in some cases, you might want to take even longer.

(Persephone, for example, is a deity who many people find is very different in winter than in summer, or spring than in fall, and where your local seasonal cycles can affect things.)

Things to pay attention to might be 'what kind of interactions seem to work well' - focused on a task? As a regular part of your daily life? At particular times of the day, week, or month? In some settings (like work or a hobby or with family) but not so much at others?

You might want to commit some time to doing some substantial research and learning - how were they honoured in their home culture? What symbols come up a lot? Which come up less, but feel really relevant to you? Are there phrases or concepts or stories that you find especially relevant?

I also find that reading fiction books that include deities or relevant cultures often shakes things loose for me, when I'm in this mode: even if the history in the book isn't good (and sometimes it's lousy) my inherent reaction of 'no, that's not right' can be really informative to me.

It might also be good to do some meditation, divination, or ritual work designed to get a clearer understanding of why those deities particularly appeal to you, or may be interested in you, or both. (By 'ritual work' here, I mean really simple 'Dear deity, I want to get to know you better' stuff like creating a simple altar of things they like, doing some meditation, trying some praise or other non-specific-commitment prayers, and seeing how that goes.)

Sometimes deities show up and have a very strong presence for a bit, and then 'hand people off' to a different deity. Sometimes it's possible to get a strong presence of, say, a lunar deity and realise after a bit it's not Luna, but say, Arianrhod. Sometimes it's a case of a deity having a specific thing they want to convey to you, and once they've done that, they back out of the picture. Sometimes other things.

This is obviously going to take time if you're going to look at four deities, all at once: you might take the option to do an initial exploration for a month for each, then go a bit deeper (which could also help with the time-of-year parts). Once you've done that, though, you will probably have a better idea which of the deity interactions are most important to you, and in what context, and then you can figure out further steps from there.

So, here's the thing: 'path' and 'I feel a particular interest in these four deities' are not the same thing. The deities don't necessarily have to dictate the path, or vice versa - there are a lot of other variables.

Let me start with the path.

Some paths are, in fact, very specific about which deities or other entities you honour when you are in rituals of that path. (British Traditional Wicca honours two very specific deities whose names are oathbound. Haitian voudoun honours deities from that tradition and culture. A Pagan religious group dedicated to Brigid is going to focus on Brigid. And so on.

But there are also a lot of paths where there's more flexibility. And even if someone practices the paths that are more specific, they may also (at other times than those ritual) honour other deities. (Depends on the path: there are paths with hard limits about that kind of thing.)

How one honours multiple deities depends on a lot of other factors.

A couple of models of how multiple deities can work:
1) For people who honour multiple deities from the same culture or pantheon, one common practice is to honour the deities on different days, tied together by shared cultural practices - usually days sacred to them for some reason. There might be seasonal or yearly festivals that apply. That's not the case for you in an obvious way because you're talking about different pantheons, but it might be a model you could develop.

2) Another model is honouring deities clearly in different parts of your life. For example, I know some people in the medical profession who honour a healing deity very specifically as part of their work life, but they honour other deities at other times in their day or week.

3) Honouring different deities in different contexts at different times. In the tradition I'm trained in, there is a pair of deities we honour at some rituals, the group I trained in primarily worked with a different pair for lunar rituals, we'd invite a range of different deities (depending on who was leading the ritual and who was designing it, and the goal of the ritual) for Sabbats, and most of us had one to three deities we had independent ongoing interactions with outside the group circles.

And here's the thing: all of those deity relationships are meaningful to me. They're just different. I ask them for different things, and do different kinds of things with them. Just like I have some friends I see once or twice a year, some friends I see every few weeks, and a couple of friends who I'd call in an emergency. All three sets of people are important to me, but how we do things together can be really different.

With the deities invited for the specific rituals, it's a more workmanlike 'here are the tasks we are doing, you have a particular interest in this task' but with some very personal moments as well at times. Like elder folk in a community or hobby or project you care about who help keep things going: you aren't necessarily their best friend, but it matters that you see them on those occasions, and have a mutually productive time together.

(The deities for solar cycle rituals are also like that, but perhaps more distant, except for people who work with that deity regularly.)

With the lunar ritual deities, it was much more like friends who make time to get together once a month: there's a lot more emotional give and take, and not every ritual is high stakes or high intensity. It's a lot more 'We have an ongoing relationship and checking in regularly helps keep it like that'.

With the deities I honour personally, it's much more a daily thing, on some level, it's always a part of the background soundtrack of my life, is I guess the way I'd put it. There are lots of days when I don't do a deliberate conscious "Hey, here I am." (Our relationship is such that that's not the right mode: I do my devotion by what I do, not by prayer.)

What does that mean for you? That's going to depend on you.

Some common stuff people notice about multiple deities:
It can be good to take some time to focus on each interaction deliberately for a while - without making any long-term commitments or promises. At least a month, and maybe a couple of months can work, but in some cases, you might want to take even longer.

(Persephone, for example, is a deity who many people find is very different in winter than in summer, or spring than in fall, and where your local seasonal cycles can affect things.)

Things to pay attention to might be 'what kind of interactions seem to work well' - focused on a task? As a regular part of your daily life? At particular times of the day, week, or month? In some settings (like work or a hobby or with family) but not so much at others?

You might want to commit some time to doing some substantial research and learning - how were they honoured in their home culture? What symbols come up a lot? Which come up less, but feel really relevant to you? Are there phrases or concepts or stories that you find especially relevant?

I also find that reading fiction books that include deities or relevant cultures often shakes things loose for me, when I'm in this mode: even if the history in the book isn't good (and sometimes it's lousy) my inherent reaction of 'no, that's not right' can be really informative to me.

It might also be good to do some meditation, divination, or ritual work designed to get a clearer understanding of why those deities particularly appeal to you, or may be interested in you, or both. (By 'ritual work' here, I mean really simple 'Dear deity, I want to get to know you better' stuff like creating a simple altar of things they like, doing some meditation, trying some praise or other non-specific-commitment prayers, and seeing how that goes.)

Sometimes deities show up and have a very strong presence for a bit, and then 'hand people off' to a different deity. Sometimes it's possible to get a strong presence of, say, a lunar deity and realise after a bit it's not Luna, but say, Arianrhod. Sometimes it's a case of a deity having a specific thing they want to convey to you, and once they've done that, they back out of the picture. Sometimes other things.

This is obviously going to take time if you're going to look at four deities, all at once: you might take the option to do an initial exploration for a month for each, then go a bit deeper (which could also help with the time-of-year parts). Once you've done that, though, you will probably have a better idea which of the deity interactions are most important to you, and in what context, and then you can figure out further steps from there.