Multiple Regions of Paganism

Can they all work together?

  • Yes

    Votes: 5 83.3%
  • No

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I don't believe in deities

    Votes: 1 16.7%
  • I'm undecided

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    6
  • Poll closed .

Caitlin Black

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Just a question that will help give me an idea over what angle to use with a book I'm planning.

There are many historically Pagan regions - Egypt, Greece and the Romans come to mind easily. As a Pagan, do you feel that the deities are representative of ideas or absolutes, and you can mix and match from the different historical regions. Say, Isis from Egpyt and Selene from Greece, working together.

Can they all work together? Or do you think you have to pick one region and stick to it? Do you not believe in deities at all? Are you undecided?

Thanks in advance. :)
 

Kitty

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JMO here... but a lot of the various deities all stem from the basic structure of 3 female and 3 male in terms of masculinity and femininity.... it depends which aspect of a deity resonates more with the individual.

You could follow Cernnunos and feel an affinity with Neptune... or Aphrodite and the Crone... like you mentioned.

Some circles are more puritan but I guess that depends on the coven. Personally, I'd rather follow the 'male/ female' principle instead of the label.

...hope that helps :)
 

ChronicSelfEditor

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I'm assuming you mean in current times? I'd say yes because in my opinion the gods and goddesses do represent ideas and can be mixed together. It's historically evident to me because they all had different names for the same dieties.
 

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Modern Neo Pagans are very different from ancient Pagans, in lots of ways; one of them is that many "paths" are quite comfortable with mixing deities from various cultures--the sort of "eclectic Neo Paganism" that Kitty is referring to.

That said, there are some very strong reactions from a number of POV about cultural appropriation.

I know as a Celticist (that is an academic specialty, not a path) I sometimes have to hold my breath and count to ten wrt to not responding to some of the assertions about people's personal religious belief as Neo Pagan Celtic practioners--it is their belief, so I have to respect that.
 

Caitlin Black

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Yeah, it's for fiction. Did I not mention that? It makes my cast of characters a lot easier to keep track of if there's just one set of deities to worry about, and have them hold influence in a bunch of different regions.

So I guess Zeus and Odin would be the same guy in my book. :)
 

Mr Flibble

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I didn't like to assume.

Hmm, depends on how it's handled, but it could be jarring to have a mish-mash. Then again, you could say they all had a big war x thousands of years ago and these are the ones that are left.


In which case Odin would clearly win, what with Thor backing him up. :D
 

Kitty

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Yeah, it's for fiction. Did I not mention that? It makes my cast of characters a lot easier to keep track of if there's just one set of deities to worry about, and have them hold influence in a bunch of different regions.

So I guess Zeus and Odin would be the same guy in my book. :)

Depending on the age you'll be writing in, you could always lead it in, saying he's changed his name from A to B over the millennia. That might help with that :Shrug:


I think it'd be Uranus and Odin, unless I've screwed my mythology again... He was considered the first god born from Gaea, I think...?
 

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As has been stated, if you are staying within a neopagan framework, I think an archetypal view of deity works. If you're referencing ancient paganism, or a specific culture, depending on how you handle that, it could be dicey.

Be well!
 

Ruv Draba

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Published fiction is not religion, and any tolerance we may extend to syncretic religious beliefs doesn't apply when we're buying books for our entertainment. If a book insists that Apollo was god of the afterlife (because Osiris was, and they were both sun-gods), or that Thor wed Aphrodite (because Hephaestus did, and they both owned hammers), that won't be a book I'll finish.
 

frimble3

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Maybe Aphrodite had a thing for guys with big hammers? She was only fooling around with Ares to get Hephaestus all worked up, and maybe do a little hammer-swinging.
 

WildScribe

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I believe that the deities are all facets and manifestations of a single great divinity, which is divided primarily into male and female by our attempts to understand it, and then further into specific personalities. So, yes, they can work together because they are all different (though sometimes very similar) facets of one greater whole. Of course, this being divinity, even a facet of the divine may have sentience of its own, which is why I pray to specific deities when I wish specific kinds of attention.
 

Jenan Mac

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Just a question that will help give me an idea over what angle to use with a book I'm planning.

There are many historically Pagan regions - Egypt, Greece and the Romans come to mind easily. As a Pagan, do you feel that the deities are representative of ideas or absolutes, and you can mix and match from the different historical regions. Say, Isis from Egpyt and Selene from Greece, working together.

Can they all work together? Or do you think you have to pick one region and stick to it? Do you not believe in deities at all? Are you undecided?

Thanks in advance. :)

There are as many flavors of Pagan/Neo-Pagan ias there are practitioners. If you are working in an historical setting, you probably should keep it more appropriately timely. OTOH, if you're going for a modern timeframe, I'm not sure you can come up with a combination someone, somewhere isn't already sworn to.
If you're going to call it Wicca, or some variety thereof, yes-- the male/female dyad is traditional. (If you're calling it Gardnerian or Alexandrian, do your homework, and expect people to yell anyway.) If not Wiccan, though, as long as there's some inherent flow and logic-- which any writing should have, religious or not-- you're probably in the ballpark.
 

Jenan Mac

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Published fiction is not religion, and any tolerance we may extend to syncretic religious beliefs doesn't apply when we're buying books for our entertainment. If a book insists that Apollo was god of the afterlife (because Osiris was, and they were both sun-gods), or that Thor wed Aphrodite (because Hephaestus did, and they both owned hammers), that won't be a book I'll finish.

If the author can make an entertaining enough job of it, I might-- assuming it is intended as fiction. If it's intended as scholarly...well, there's enough crap out there making ridiculous claims in the name of Super-Duper Sparkly Paganny Goodness that someone will probably buy it.
 

Caitlin Black

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Just to clarify - the only historical parts of this novel will be about what this particular Goddess felt when Christianity arose - no actual "this happened" stuff that needs to be accurate.

And the relationships between the deities in my story aren't historical either - not "not accurate", but full-on "not relating to historical stories"... The bulk of the story is set in modern times, and the only love interest is human.

Further, no deity will be mentioned by name, but rather alluded to by means of what they represent and what they're responsible for... with probably a neat little disclaimer that "most gods performed different responsibilities in different regions" or something... I don't know.

But the key point is that it's not meant to be historical. And by referring to deities by attributes instead of names, I guess different Pagans can give them different names based on which deity they think most fits those attributes.

And while the names aren't mentioned in the text, I'll know which ones are which from my notes. So there will be continuity...

If that helps the discussion at all?
 

Kitty

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errr... okies...

If I understood right, you'll be using a specific period in history, just not writing a historical fiction...

If that's the case, you'd probably be better off using 'period' gods/goddesses as there'll be those few out there who'd want some sort of authenticity (yeh, I'ze be anal like that).

If there's no real signifiers to indicate what time it's set in, then yeh, pick n choose what works best :)
 

Caitlin Black

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The "flashback" past scenes are all in a time AFTER the major regions of Paganism had been worshipping for a very long time... no new regional Pagan deities have really become popular since a fair bit before the "period" of my flashbacks. Hence wanting to use an overview kind of approach, cos otherwise I might get bogged down in regional deity politics (which is so not what the story is about).

But the bulk of the story (probably 90%+) is set in modern times with a limited number of divine beings...

I just made this poll cos I wanted to know whether the other 10% could be open to a new interpretation that suits me best...

Which so far I'm thinking it will. :)

Thanks all!
 

Ruv Draba

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One of my favourite pagan gods stories was Roger Zelazny's science-fantasy story Lord of Light. It featured humans as Hindu gods, and two humans as the Buddha. Zelazny kept to traditional lore, yet managed to tell his own tale of humanity, faith, and morality in his own setting. The lesson for me is that we don't have to include every human faith to capture something important about the human condition.

That's not to say that differing cosmologies can't work together (I'm currently working on a story told by a Muslim magician who vies with Christian and Judaic mages), but I think it's generally best to keep the flavours separate. :)
 

StephanieFox

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I'm saying 'yes' because I think deities are metaphorical. It's OK to mix metaphors.
 

PrincessofPersia

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I know this is an old thread, but this forum seems dead, which is a shame. Personally, I don't mix and match, but plenty of people have in the past. Isis, for example, was worshipped by the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, etc. That's a classic example of assimilating a foreign god into another religion.

I didn't like to assume.

Hmm, depends on how it's handled, but it could be jarring to have a mish-mash. Then again, you could say they all had a big war x thousands of years ago and these are the ones that are left.


In which case Odin would clearly win, what with Thor backing him up. :D

Neil Gaiman put a ton of gods together (and he did a good job of it, if you ask me) in American Gods, including Odin. :p


Published fiction is not religion, and any tolerance we may extend to syncretic religious beliefs doesn't apply when we're buying books for our entertainment. If a book insists that Apollo was god of the afterlife (because Osiris was, and they were both sun-gods), or that Thor wed Aphrodite (because Hephaestus did, and they both owned hammers), that won't be a book I'll finish.

While I agree with your sentiment, I'm not sure where you got that Osiris is a sun god. While Osiris does have some involvement with the sun, he is not a solar deity.