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Author Topic: Finding my path and deities  (Read 8819 times)

arete

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Re: Finding my path and deities
« Reply #15 on: February 28, 2020, 12:18:33 pm »
Does anybody have any ideas on how I can find my path and find the deities that fit with me?
Deities that fit with you??? ???

arete

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Re: Finding my path and deities
« Reply #16 on: February 28, 2020, 12:25:28 pm »
Deities that fit with you??? ???
In my opinion, deities don't fit nor do fit. Deities aren't clothes. ???

PerditaPickle

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Re: Finding my path and deities
« Reply #17 on: February 28, 2020, 03:44:28 pm »
In my opinion, deities don't fit nor do fit. Deities aren't clothes. ???

So I don't know whether you were actually expecting an answer, and also here I go speaking for others again... but I don't think it's worth getting hung up on the word 'fit' here - substitute 'resonate' or 'speak' (metaphorically) to, if you like.
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Micheál

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Re: Finding my path and deities
« Reply #18 on: February 29, 2020, 06:11:09 am »
This is something I thought about as well. In terms of my job, I work in a hospital as an orderly so I have been looking at deities associated with healing and the medical profession but few have jumped out at me specifically. The only ones that I have listed that I can think of are Sulis and Athena/Minerva. I actually visited Bath, England several years ago and visited the Roman baths where her temple was. I enjoyed it there.

I have noticed that some of the deities I am interested in have cross-cultural associations and it's something I've used to try and figure out where it should take me not no avail.

The only ancestral connections I have to any of the pantheons is the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic. I have no Greek or Italian ancestry, nor Egyptian (or North African) and nobody I know is a Hindu. I was initially drawn to Asatru when I first started looking into Paganism but found that the longer I studied about the religion, the more I was turned off by it due to some of the religion's members and their attitude and I decided to look elsewhere.

However, a few years later I decided to look into Asatru again. The whole time whilst I researched, I felt close to the Nordic gods, but something felt...off. There was a sense of something not feeling right, a sense that they were almost the deities I sought, but not quite. I began to look into ethnic Germanic pagan variants like continental German paganism. Of all those I looked into, only Anglo-Saxon paganism stood out to me but as time went on, my interest in it waxed and waned.

I have also researched various elements of Celtic Paganism. I have Irish ancestry and I am a Hibernophile at heart. I am very fond of Irish culture and Ireland in general but when I read myths on the Tuatha De Danann, I got a firm "no". I researched Gaulish and Brythonic paganism instead and found some deities whom I felt attracted to, or at least some interest in and others that didn't interest me at all, so I was a bit on the fence about pursuing it.
That is quite a selection of cultures, but it is interesting noting the cross-cultural connections. I particularly like the connection with Athena/Minerva in Bath. Has any more come from that?

One thing I would advise against, though, would be looking at your own ancestry in solely justifying a connection to deity. Now some people do, and are interested in the gods and cultures of their ancestors, but when we feel a connection it transcends plasma and haemoglobin. Things like DNA tests can be interesting and cool, but I see too many people using those to justify their identity instead of their actual cultural affiliations. (I'm guessing you may have seen similar attitudes, or worse, in the Asatru communities?)

Reading the myths is one of the top recommendations when it comes to these things, but it's important to remember that they're only myths. They're essential to have when we lack written records elsewhere, but we can't forget that they're literacy stories where the gods are characters. The Tuatha Dé Dannan as a "pantheon" owes a lot to monks that used them as literacy creations. For instance, a maiden name of my mum comes from a God. He was a son of the Daghdha that in the myths was killed for having an affair. The stories convey a lot on that ancient way of thought, and "personality" perceptions, but it's not something I focus on when connecting to that deity....if you get a "no" though, I need say no more. It's cool you're fond of the culture though, and the gods are very much alive in it.

Sounds like you're putting a lot of thought and time into this. I wouldn't be afraid to start with those rituals and prayers.     
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Re: Finding my path and deities
« Reply #19 on: March 01, 2020, 12:40:21 am »


That is quite a selection of cultures, but it is interesting noting the cross-cultural connections. I particularly like the connection with Athena/Minerva in Bath. Has any more come from that?


There is also a possible connection between Sulis, Minerva, and Brighid.

https://clannbhride.org/articles-and-essays/the-exalted-ones/

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