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    What drew you to your pantheon?

    Whether you revere the Hellenistic, Kemetic, Roman, Celtic or Germanic Gods; or any Gods of any past civilization; or even just nature itself. What was it that drew you to the pantheon that you revere?

    #2
    Re: What drew you to your pantheon?

    Bast did. (Inpu probably helped, but He's so quiet it can be difficult to tell with these things.) Before that, I didn't have much interest in the Netjeru. Hell, before Bast I didn't even like Them.

    I did a virtual 180 overnight and now can't get enough of the Netjeru or Egyptology in general. I had no idea what I was missing.
    Blog: http://thestarsafire.tumblr.com

    Kuchi wa wazawai no moto (the mouth is the origin of disasters)

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      #3
      Re: What drew you to your pantheon?

      Well, I had originally been drawn to Celtic mythology and gods, and one day I stumbled upon a little Nordic "primer" so to speak. It was rather fluffy, very broad in scope and information, but something sort of clicked.

      One day in a bookstore, I decided to buy a set of runes (unfortunately, accompanied by the book by Ralph Blum), and began working with them for a while. I made my own set out of clay shortly after. What really solidified it all for me, though, was while I was poking around in an esoteric shop. I came across a very simple Mjolnir pendant made out of copper, and just had to buy it. The shop keeper had mentioned that she didn't even know that she had that item in the store.

      M&H

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        #4
        Re: What drew you to your pantheon?

        I was drawn to Celtic mythology through many paths, including my Irish heritage, my love of poetry and my interest in metal-smithing (which I sadly have yet had a chance to go after). I came across the goddess Brigit, and found her to embody many of the ideals I hold dear, and the idea of the Celtic "enech" or face has really empowered me to try to improve myself as a person.

        I was also very drawn to Brigit by her healing domains, which as a Psychologist this is very important to me!

        Naturally after learning about Brigit, I began to study other Celtic deities, and well, here I am today.

        (not an interesting story per se, but hey, you asked! XP)

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          #5
          Re: What drew you to your pantheon?

          I can't say i'm drawn to any specific pantheon as I do not honor, worship or pray to any entire pantheon of gods / goddesses and other semi-divine entities to be found within any of them. To me failing to pay such honoring and worship to the entire pantheon and all its gods / goddesses suggests one does not follow a pantheon but may have an affinity towards a select individual or individuals regardless of the pantheon they hail from.

          For instance I am blood bound to Artemis and Hecate / Hekate from the Hellenic pantheon yet they also exist outside of said pantheon. Yet I identify them to the Hellenic pantheon for most would not recognize the Anatolain, Thracian or Carian influence nor the fact they are not typically part of the Hellenic pantheon though they have been conflated with it as Hellenic influences spread. The same with Artemis being created in the name of Artumes, Aritimi in the Etruscan pantheon of Gods / Goddesses due to Hellenic influences before all of that becomes conflated with the later Roman pantheon of gods / goddesses which see's Diana become conflated in many ways with Artemis as well.

          The main pantheon's I even in part identify with are the Hellenic and Kemetic. However, so much hellenization occurred in ancient Egypt it becomes difficult to say whether the Bastet or Pahket I speak to are the elder Egyptian goddesses or the Hellenized versions equated to Artemis. One would think it relatively easy to identify but about the only one I can safely say is Egyptian is Mafdet who never really was hellenized.

          God wise Sekor / Seker is the main God I have ever dealt with though he more appropriately comes from the Middle Kingdom period of Kemetic history. Though he may in fact be a minor aspect of Ptah who carries many of the same attributes and abilities so one must know of Ptah to understand Sekor / Seker to a degree. Yet he to is Kemetic in pantheon and did not seem to have been hellenized though Pahket is also tied to the Middle Kingdom period and is heavily Hellenized and conflated with Artemis.

          I admit I am a stickler for terms many times. Which is why I do not tend to accept or acknowledge a Celtic pantheon of gods / goddesses as it is a language group of many tribes that had many various gods / goddesses. To many try to place all things Celtic into one vast pantheon of gods / goddesses yet most of them are nothing more than Irish gods / goddesses identified to the Celtic period of Ireland with few cross overs to Europe and that branch of Celtic language groups. Cerrnunnos one such example as his image has only ever been found in one area on one item yet suddenly he is the Woodland Deity of the Celtic Pantheon. Yet he is splashed all over the net as an all encompassing Celtic God of the forest and woodland beasts of the Horned God variety.

          So for the general audience I simply say Hellenic or Greek and Kemetic or Egyptian. Figure everyone knows who the Egyptians and Greeks are even if they do not know the terms Hellenic and Kemetic as it pertains to them. Then when I speak on the Hellenization of the Med I touch upon Roman, Etruscan and some North African and Iberian pensiula conflating of the Hellenic gods / goddesses into their local beliefs.
          I'm Only Responsible For What I Say Not For What Or How You Understand!

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            #6
            Re: What drew you to your pantheon?

            Originally posted by monsno_leedra View Post
            -snip-
            As a comment from a Celtic practitioner, I know on my end, I keep my pantheon fairly secluded to just "Ireland" but still call it Celtic because its simpler than saying "The Irish Pantheon" or the "Tuatha De Danaan." And for the case of Cerrnunnos, I believe it all comes down to the fact that so much of the history is missing, that when one little thing is actually found, we have to cling on to it...

            The Hellenic and Egpytian pantheons have the upside of written stories, and a better survival, the Celtic "Pantheons" spread throughout Europe were fairly forgotten or decimated due to the death of the oral stories through the druids being hunted down by the Romans. We make do with what we have when we can't find anything else, better to breath life into something than nothing at all.

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              #7
              Re: What drew you to your pantheon?

              Originally posted by Unus Mundus View Post
              As a comment from a Celtic practitioner, I know on my end, I keep my pantheon fairly secluded to just "Ireland" but still call it Celtic because its simpler than saying "The Irish Pantheon" or the "Tuatha De Danaan." And for the case of Cerrnunnos, I believe it all comes down to the fact that so much of the history is missing, that when one little thing is actually found, we have to cling on to it...

              The Hellenic and Egpytian pantheons have the upside of written stories, and a better survival, the Celtic "Pantheons" spread throughout Europe were fairly forgotten or decimated due to the death of the oral stories through the druids being hunted down by the Romans. We make do with what we have when we can't find anything else, better to breath life into something than nothing at all.
              Personally I'd rather go with Irish Pantheon or Irish Celtic than just call it Celtic. In so many ways it robs the people of who and what they were and their individuality as a tribe or nation. In many ways it's equatable to trying to suggest a Native American Pantheon because so much has been lost of those peoples history as well and it takes less knowledge or time not to learn or identify as best one can from where the knowledge comes from. Their culture and stuff also being passed via stories and tales and going back in antiquity as well, yet they still try to retain their identity.

              It's like I find it interesting for instance when people speak of Epona (Eponia) as being Celtic but her stories seem to be found only in the area of present day Northern France and parts of the Benelux countries of Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. So the actual identity of the tribes or nations that lived in that area are forsaken in the name of trying to make her Celtic. When only the language they spoke was a Celtic family of languages and their actual spiritual beliefs could have been anything.

              Granted a lot of Greek and Egyptian knowledge has been preserved. But then its also been heavily romanticized and spliced to suggest many things that there is no historical or mythological material to support. Especially so when it's so called strengths are cast out of proportion to make it some ideal of civilization to be sough in order to regain a once romantic time. But written history seldom matches the reality of physical history or the stories passed down about it.

              But that is just my own slant upon using the word so I do not expect others to do so in the same light.
              I'm Only Responsible For What I Say Not For What Or How You Understand!

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                #8
                Re: What drew you to your pantheon?

                Originally posted by monsno_leedra View Post
                -snip-
                Hmm... you do make a good point there, I concede!

                I guess I just never thought of it that way, so I didn't really think twice when saying "Celtic" not really thinking that it sort of could take away another Celtic subgroup's deity. I only worship Irish gods anyway, so saying "Irish Pantheon" will probably be what I do from now on. Of course I'll still be part of the Celtic overarching group, but I won't just call it "Celtic" anymore without specifying more closely who I worship.

                Although I do still feel revering a wider Celtic pantheon isn't a horrible transgression (since I'm sure at some level overlap did happen, considering it even happened between non Celtic and Celtic groups), I see that trying to claim them as "our own" is also a little rude.

                Thank you for enlightening me a bit today.

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                  #9
                  Re: What drew you to your pantheon?

                  The idea of the pantheon drew me to the pantheon.
                  "Fair means that everybody gets what they need. And the only way to get that is to make it happen yourself."



                  Since I adore cats, I might write something strange or unusual in my comment.Cats are awesome!!! ^_^

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                    #10
                    Re: What drew you to your pantheon?

                    After christianity I simply went searching for something else. I came across the poetic Edda in a bookstore, started reading, and felt in my blood that the beliefs of my ancestors were right for me.

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                      #11
                      Re: What drew you to your pantheon?

                      Originally posted by GardenOfShadows View Post
                      Whether you revere the Hellenistic, Kemetic, Roman, Celtic or Germanic Gods; or any Gods of any past civilization; or even just nature itself. What was it that drew you to the pantheon that you revere?
                      I'm an eclectic but wanted to answer that I was drawn to an eclectic path by deity - both in terms of not wanting to limit my interaction with deity to one culture and in terms of seeing the amazing interactions that can happen across pantheons.
                      OO

                      Book of Spirals is my author site.
                      The Sentient Hillside is my blog.
                      Spiral Tree is an ezine for pagans I co-founded.

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                        #12
                        Re: What drew you to your pantheon?

                        Originally posted by monsno_leedra View Post
                        Personally I'd rather go with Irish Pantheon or Irish Celtic than just call it Celtic. In so many ways it robs the people of who and what they were and their individuality as a tribe or nation. In many ways it's equatable to trying to suggest a Native American Pantheon because so much has been lost of those peoples history as well and it takes less knowledge or time not to learn or identify as best one can from where the knowledge comes from. Their culture and stuff also being passed via stories and tales and going back in antiquity as well, yet they still try to retain their identity.
                        Here's the exception that proves your rule

                        I feel drawn to Sulis, Arnemetia and Belenus. Apart from feeling a connection I can't explain in words - being called to by Sulis and Belenus, it's a geographical link that drew me to these deities based on where I live or have lived.

                        These are all deities which were worshipped in the area of land now known as England (take note - i said England specifically, not the UK!: Sulis was known to be worshipped in Essex and Somerset (Southern England), Arnemetia in Buxton/Derbyshire (Northern England) and Belenus across most of England). They are Celtic deities originally worshipped by the p- and q-celtic speaking tribes that used to live on this bit of land before the Romans, Angles, Saxons etc. invaded. They were not (as far as i'm aware) worshipped anywhere else in the UK, thus are not part of a Cornish, Welsh, Scottish or Irish-Celtic Pantheon. However, to call them part of an English-Celtic or Brythonic Pantheon feels completely wrong as the term "English" actually refers to the Anglo-Saxon invaders that came later and Brythonic refers to other parts of the UK too.

                        So what would I call this pantheon? It's definitely Celtic, their original areas of worship are more or less geographically the same but I honestly don't know what subgroup i'd label my pantheon as, so I stick with "Celtic". Any ideas - bearing in mind there may not be an appropriate label?
                        Last edited by SilverSerenity; 29 Sep 2013, 09:17.

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                          #13
                          Re: What drew you to your pantheon?

                          Just off the top of my head but I though that was generally addressed as Brittonic Celtic. Granted I can't tell you which specific clan as there was something like 7 known clan's that occupied Southern Britian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hallstatt_LaTene.png http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ma...hons_Picts.png
                          I'm Only Responsible For What I Say Not For What Or How You Understand!

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                            #14

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                              #15
                              Re: What drew you to your pantheon?

                              My grandfather. As a child in his 'work shop" more like the basement of the house he would be down there doing wood working He would be making wooden runes and then he would sit me down and tell me stories. Even when we would be at Church afterwards we would go to the workshop and he tell me more and more stories of Odin, Thor, Loki, etc.

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