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Has anyone actually made up their own pantheon?

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    #31
    Re: Has anyone actually made up their own pantheon?

    Ermm, Potter may have more influence than I do but he sure as hell ain't older than I am and I'm not particularly old.
    life itself was a lightsaber in his hands; even in the face of treachery and death and hopes gone cold, he burned like a candle in the darkness. Like a star shining in the black eternity of space.

    Yoda: Dark Rendezvous

    "But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun." Suddenly his voice sounded to Will very strong, and very Welsh. "At the very heart, that is. Other things, like humanity, and mercy, and charity, that most good men hold more precious than all else, they do not come first for the Light. Oh, sometimes they are there; often, indeed. But in the very long run the concern of you people is with the absolute good, ahead of all else..."

    John Rowlands, The Grey King by Susan Cooper

    "You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve", said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth; be content."

    Aslan, Prince Caspian by CS Lewis


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      #32
      Re: Has anyone actually made up their own pantheon?

      Originally posted by MaskedOne View Post
      Ermm, Potter may have more influence than I do but he sure as hell ain't older than I am and I'm not particularly old.
      I botched it, because I was condensing several minutes of talking. I'm sure you could find the clip on YouTube by searching "Imaginationland III I Learned Something Today" or something similar.

      Comment

        #33
        Re: Has anyone actually made up their own pantheon?

        Not a prob, I don't necessarily object to the premise. Potter becoming an enduring symbol, I may object to but that's a minor issue.
        life itself was a lightsaber in his hands; even in the face of treachery and death and hopes gone cold, he burned like a candle in the darkness. Like a star shining in the black eternity of space.

        Yoda: Dark Rendezvous

        "But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun." Suddenly his voice sounded to Will very strong, and very Welsh. "At the very heart, that is. Other things, like humanity, and mercy, and charity, that most good men hold more precious than all else, they do not come first for the Light. Oh, sometimes they are there; often, indeed. But in the very long run the concern of you people is with the absolute good, ahead of all else..."

        John Rowlands, The Grey King by Susan Cooper

        "You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve", said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth; be content."

        Aslan, Prince Caspian by CS Lewis


        Comment

          #34
          Re: Has anyone actually made up their own pantheon?

          Originally posted by MaskedOne View Post
          Not a prob, I don't necessarily object to the premise. Potter becoming an enduring symbol, I may object to but that's a minor issue.
          I totally hear you. I debated whether or not to even include that snip, because everytime I hear that speech my boyfriend and I sigh a bit.

          Both tangential to Harry Potter and to following "invented" pantheons:

          The His Dark Materials series by British author Philip Pullman somehow really slipped under the radar due to its publication being very close to the Potter series. However, it's truly literary fantasy in my opinion--very thematically grounded.

          In retrospect, I think it's sort of like a satanic bible for children, in that many of its concepts seem really LaVeyan. But, anyway, one of its features, the concept of animal daemons, has actually been turned into a sort of spiritual philosophy (not really a religion) in that many people, identifying as daemians, not only have adopted the idea of a daemon in the sense of an anima/animus or the romantic demons/geniuses, but largely follow Pullman's particular brand of daemons.

          So, I guess, that's the most modern example I can think of in terms of following a spiritual concept created in someone else's fantasy.

          Comment

            #35
            Re: Has anyone actually made up their own pantheon?

            Originally posted by Siloh View Post
            ... I've been going down the rabbit hole of what it means to worship a pantheon of your own invention. What it has told me so far about my beliefs--in case the OP finds this helpful--is this.

            -I think that belief in a thing makes it real
            -I think that the more prevalent and well-fed the belief, the more real power it holds
            -I think the invocation of a believed thing, even if belief has degenerated, changed, or essentially ceased, is a powerful invocation
            -I think the practitioner's belief is central to their individual access to a power, for even if millions believe something, the invocation of that belief without your own belief (even if your belief is merely that something is real because it is believed by others!) makes the practice futile
            -THEREFORE I think that my belief in a pantheon, self-invented or otherwise, hinges entirely on whether or not I can believe in such deities, which entails at minimum that I believe in the real nature given things by belief alone, which is more like belief by proxy than it is whole and unquestioning devotion

            I typed out more of my personal rabbit hole adventure, but then I got lost in myself. So I guess the above is all I got right now for that....
            I could not have put it better myself. Thank you! Without boring everyone with the details, I can tell you that supposedly "fictitious" characters are as accessible to us as any deity ever was. Maybe even MORE so. We must understand the malleable and adaptive nature of energy. It has a certain self-organizing quality to it. Energies, concepts, archetypes, emotions and beliefs coalesce into what is, for all intents and purposes, a REAL entity. This entity is intelligent, fully functional and able to interact with us. Strange but true.
            sigpicFor something different, visit my blog: http://theunknownwizard.blogspot.com

            Comment

              #36
              Re: Has anyone actually made up their own pantheon?

              I've talked a bit about this elsewhere, but since I finally blogged about it (after getting Chickadee's permission and sitting her down long enough to get a list and descriptions), I figured I'd share with you her pantheon.


              Mother MoonFather Mountainthe Star SistersGramma PlanetMr. NeptuneThundererGaiaKaiasthe Sun KingMimiGarnet, Citrine, Topaz, Aquamarine, Emerald, Sapphire, Amethyst and OpalHana, Trys and KoruIrisSaTana
              Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
              sigpic

              Comment

                #37
                Re: Has anyone actually made up their own pantheon?

                I don't. But I believe the gods to be literal, separate, divine beings with clear personalities and "minds". I don't believe in the notion of the gods merely being a set of human labels placed upon an amorphous, nebulous divine force. I do not believe that "belief makes it real" in regards to divine entities.

                Comment

                  #38
                  Re: Has anyone actually made up their own pantheon?

                  Originally posted by Louisvillian View Post
                  I don't. But I believe the gods to be literal, separate, divine beings with clear personalities and "minds". I don't believe in the notion of the gods merely being a set of human labels placed upon an amorphous, nebulous divine force. I do not believe that "belief makes it real" in regards to divine entities.
                  There are people that believe that gods are "literal, separate, divine beings with clear personalities and "minds"" and still have their own pantheons of modern gods. Who says there aren't deities still being born, and making themselves known? Even the gods came from somewhere.
                  Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
                  sigpic

                  Comment

                    #39
                    Re: Has anyone actually made up their own pantheon?

                    Yes, but those gods would then be real deities. I'd still doubt their claims, but I'm more open to the possibility of those being real. I'm willing to accept the idea of someone coming into contact with previously-uncontacted deities.

                    The OP, in their first sentence, asks about fictional deities. Not just fictional names given to actual gods. Flat-out fictional figures. I just don't get that. I mean, I don't really care if someone else wants to believe in such things. But I don't have to believe them or agree with them in any way.

                    Comment

                      #40
                      Re: Has anyone actually made up their own pantheon?

                      Originally posted by Louisvillian View Post
                      Yes, but those gods would then be real deities. I'd still doubt their claims, but I'm more open to the possibility of those being real. I'm willing to accept the idea of someone coming into contact with previously-uncontacted deities.

                      ...and what exactly makes a god real?

                      Or for that matter, how exactly do you *think* a god is born, seeing as apotheosis doesn't seem like a good enough method for you?
                      Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
                      sigpic

                      Comment

                        #41
                        Re: Has anyone actually made up their own pantheon?

                        Is it a bad thing that my first two answers to that question are flippant?

                        Other than that and speaking only for myself, it depends on the deity. Going by mythos, some Gods just are, some bring themselves into being without obvious cause, some are born of other gods and some are other entities elevated to divine/semi-divine state.
                        life itself was a lightsaber in his hands; even in the face of treachery and death and hopes gone cold, he burned like a candle in the darkness. Like a star shining in the black eternity of space.

                        Yoda: Dark Rendezvous

                        "But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun." Suddenly his voice sounded to Will very strong, and very Welsh. "At the very heart, that is. Other things, like humanity, and mercy, and charity, that most good men hold more precious than all else, they do not come first for the Light. Oh, sometimes they are there; often, indeed. But in the very long run the concern of you people is with the absolute good, ahead of all else..."

                        John Rowlands, The Grey King by Susan Cooper

                        "You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve", said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth; be content."

                        Aslan, Prince Caspian by CS Lewis


                        Comment

                          #42
                          Re: Has anyone actually made up their own pantheon?

                          Originally posted by MaskedOne View Post
                          Is it a bad thing that my first two answers to that question are flippant?
                          From you? Never!

                          Other than that and speaking only for myself, it depends on the deity. Going by mythos, some Gods just are, some bring themselves into being without obvious cause, some are born of other gods and some are other entities elevated to divine/semi-divine state.
                          That would be my line of thinking as well...there are a goodly number of deities that started out as people, or stories. Who am I to say whether or not they are 'real'? Real is like beauty--in the eye of the beholder, or in this case...the devotee/worshipper/dedicant/believer.

                          It seems like a bit of hubris to say that one's couple million year old imaginary friend is more legitimate, than someone else's couple year old imaginary friend...particularly if someone tries to use that as the excuse for why one's imaginary friend isn't imaginary (which is a common line of reasoning when this topic comes up).
                          Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
                          sigpic

                          Comment

                            #43
                            Re: Has anyone actually made up their own pantheon?

                            I suppose the reason I would be uneasy worshiping a two-year-old God is that it seems to put a lot of trust in a single person's imagination. Old deities give me a sense of reliability because they have withstood a test of time at some point, and were experienced by multiple people throughout multiple generations. Obviously, newer deities may exist, but it is because of that sense of reliability that I gravitate towards the old. Sort of the same way that you don't know a book will be a "Classic" until it reaches a certain age.
                            If you want to be thought intelligent, just agree with everyone.

                            Comment

                              #44
                              Re: Has anyone actually made up their own pantheon?

                              Originally posted by thalassa View Post
                              ...and what exactly makes a god real?
                              Don't play dumb. You're not stupid, so don't feign it.

                              Or for that matter, how exactly do you *think* a god is born
                              I'm speculating here, but I would figure that they would be created by other, previous gods.
                              As for method, I don't know.

                              Comment

                                #45
                                Re: Has anyone actually made up their own pantheon?

                                Originally posted by Louisvillian View Post
                                Don't play dumb. You're not stupid, so don't feign it.
                                Please. Don't be an ass just because you don't like the question.

                                Its a serious question--one we've managed to have multiple discussions on around here.

                                Real is subjective.

                                A deity that is a symbol is just as REAL as a deity that is a literal entity--its a simple matter of pragmatic belief. Its not hard to have an imaginary friend--billions of people manage it. Some of use just acknowledge that our friends might be imaginary, and aren't hindered by it. And if that, indeed is the case, a "real" deity is only as real as its symbolism. Which makes the symbol more powerful...and more intellectually complex. And if its the symbol that has the power, there's no reason that a modern symbol isn't just as good as an ancient one.

                                Unless of course, your original comment was an exercise in being deliberately antagonizing or obtuse. In which case, I'm not the person playing dumb.
                                Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
                                sigpic

                                Comment

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