Lately, I feel drawn towards Hellenismos and the worship of the Greek pantheon. I don't know why, I am feeling this. Is it doubt for my own path? I am not sure. However, I am going to be looking into it more seriously. Perhaps this can complement my own Gaelic path, I am not sure.
I know there is a strong emphasis on not honoring deities outside of one's pantheon. Sometimes it feels like a commandment: "thou shall only worship gods of [x] pantheon!". I am well aware that if I go down this route it won't be full recon, but I am alright with that. On the other hand, I don't want to be a 'cafeteria' polytheist. The recon method helps me out. It gives me grounding.
I think part of the reason what is drawing me to Hellenismos, is that it has much more to work with. The Irish unfortunately did not write any of there religion down till after Christianization. While the monks did preserve it, it was still not being written down by people that believed in the Irish Gods and goddesses. Ancient Greece, on the other hand did write a lot of stuff down, and later the Romans did as well.
All this being said, I am not stopping being a Gaelic Recon. Maybe not to a 100% as before, but I shall continue it. I still will honor them. I will make sure that in the Gaelic way, I honor them and in the Greek way I honor the Greek gods. I want to make sure that I give proper respect to both, without committing cultural Appropriation. I do wish to make sure that I provide them with respect, which also goes to the cultures as well.
so that is what is going on with me. This typhoon of confusion in my soul. I do not know how long this feeling will last, but I shall see where this new avenue leads. If it does not help me out, then I know to walk away, but perhaps it shall provide what I wish for.
I am probably not the best one to offer advice, since I am not a strict reconstructionist. But I wanted to offer that it is possible to work with multiple pantheons in a way that does not fall into an entire cafeteria mentality, and still can offer grounding.
ReplyDeleteI started out working strictly with angels, actually. I did not even believe in gods. So when I began getting poked at by members of the Hellenic pantheon, I freaked out. It took me at least half a year to warm up to the idea of working with them as well, and that time was a really rough transition for me.
But I made it through, and even though I work with deities from multiple pantheons now, I still feel grounded as I proceed in trying to build up a kind of revival of Minoan tradition. I think you answered your own question when you said you want to honor the Gaelic in the Gaelic way, and the Greek in the Greek way. It is possible to do and be both! You also seem to have a healthy mindset with it, in knowing when to walk away if the time comes.
I absolutely agree with the above comment, and encourage you to do some exploring of Hellenismos. I'm of the opinion that this idea of "only one pantheon!" if more of a Christian holdover than anything ancient (you know, "no other God before me" and all that) - the Romans had no trouble mixing their Gods with others, and in the early Christian times there was a lot of mixing and matching going on. Besides the fact that 'pantheons' would have been a lot blurrier back then; it's likely that most tribes worshiped different deities, after all.
ReplyDeleteI honor both Gaelic and Anglo-Saxon deities, and I do both in a not-strict-reconstructionist-but-fairly-scholarly way. There is absolutely a middle ground between "only one pantheon!" and cafeteria-style Paganism. Only you and the Gods know what the best fit for you will be. So if you feel drawn to Hellenismos, go ahead and explore it. Make offerings, contact the deities. You never know what you'll find!