As a person who worships, primarily, Celtic and Norse deities, I say yes, you can worship deities from different pantheons. The Romans did it all the time so why not? It’s not like there’s a rule against it
Same here. I am Celtic but I do acknowledge Norse (and other) deities. It is hard to ignore the Norse when looking at the days of the week. 😀 One thing I have never observed (some may have!) is the Heathen/Pagan community attacking the pantheon of a "different" culture.
@@random2829 and the Germanic/Norse world imported the idea of weekdays named for gods from the Roman Empire, happily accepting that Tyr was Mars, Wotan was Mercury, Jupiter was Thor and Frigg was Venus and so on. If syncretizing was good enough for the ancients, it’s good enough for me.
I really like this video! Thank you so much, Ocean, for making it! I really think I needed to hear this as it helped me better understand my praxis and worship of Gaulish deities (it is very syncretic in of itself with a mixture of local celtic deities alongside roman ones).
As a largely eclectic Pagan with a heavy emphasis on science within my belief system - who has recently and unexpectedly had Loki come into my practice - I feel like as long as the culture behind the pantheon is something you vibe with and learn about in an appreciative vs appropriative way, go for it. I lean into the Greek concepts of Chaos and Gaia and the Titans vs the Olympian gods because that's what I was introduced to first. Because I was raised Christian and have no freaking clue what my ancient Pagan roots truly were. (Likely more Celtic but no way of really knowing for sure). I have found connection in the Norse and Hindu cosmologies but never ever thought I'd actually end up with a deity alter. Life is full of surprises, so of course it was Loki who tapped me on the shoulder, so to speak. 😂
I see myself more of multi traditional with Christian and Shinto. Keeping to the tradition and separation kind of helps with any schism that tries to form. But it can be a battle
Honestly, our gods, who have gone without worship for so long, are probably just happy we made a space for them in our lives. I have heard it put thusly: say you go on a regular picnic. You usually leave a small apple slice off to the side to keep the ants away from your food. The ants know this. You are a food source. Now, say some of the ants start beinging you offerings of twigs and leafs and ant dew, things that are special to the ants. Say some of them do a little circle around you before going to eat the apples slice. Well... now these are your special ants. You may care for them in some steange way. You may care about the maintainance of their habitat. You may find someone to care for them if you ever move away. I feel the gods are like that. We are the ants with our silly little rituals and the gods see our observances and are just happy to see us paying attention to and appreciating their efforts.
Thank you for the very informative video, I found it very helpful as someone who borders in between the two, I've also found that approaching the altar with ultimate respect and acknowledgement with an effort and promise to improve, generally returns a warm and beneficial response, or connection in terms of forming a relationship. Have you heard of the "Hvel"? I read somewhere that it is supposed to be equivalent in some form the the chakras of Hinduism, might be a good idea for a video in the same branch. Thanks again for the great content 🙏
I'm not sure if others do this but I pray to Celtic (Gaulish) and Anglo-Saxon gods and where applicable I pray to gods who share identities across these two religions as one god (ie- Thunor and Taranis, Camulos and Tiw, etc) but in ritual or prayer honoring a specific god or asking for a specific god's favor I focus on one god. For example I might make regular prayers, naming a god as both Tiw & Camulos and asking them to protect my home while I am away. But when I want to make a more significant offering, for example i went out to a marsh and made an offering to Woden. I'm sure someone out there feels I'm doing it wrong, but I feel that this is the best way for me to honor these gods and I now have a life-changing promotion at work and a strong and healthy daughter on the way. I have nothing but love, awe, and gratitude to these gods and if it's not presumptuous of me to say so, I feel I've been appropriate in my worship.
I really appreciate you approaching this topic as it hits close to home. In regards to Orthopraxy, there is the "little" problem of the fact that many ancient traditions required human and/or animal sacrifice. Something of which I'd say MOST people in the modern era frown upon and shy away from. (Thankfully...) I consider myself a Syncretic-Pantheist. I worship nature first and foremost, but I accept and honor other traditions. In practice, I tend to align most with the Shinto Pantheon and the practices of Onmyodo (Shinto with elements of Taoism, Hinduism, and Buddhism) - though Wicca (and by extension often related faiths such as Celtic Druidry, Norse Heathenism, Greco-Roman Hellenism, Egyptian Kemetism, and even Native American practices such as those of the Nahuatl people) is also of great interest to me. So I guess I could also call myself an Onmyo-Wiccan if I wanted to take a specific moniker for my approach. While I do primarily express myself either neutrally as a pantheist or more practically as a Shintoist, I am definitely not wholey exclusive in my approach. Though that in and of itself is pretty much par for the course with Shinto given its interconnected influential history with the rest of Asia. I guess, in a way I'm a little bit of ALMOST everything, but completely dedicated only to nature.
The farther on I go, the more I suspect that people who say only certain people should do only certain things in only certain ways, are actually trying to compensate or achieve some other personal goal irrelevant to broader Heathenry. Like ethnic/racial nationalism, or a need for control, or other reasons. This may happen subconsciously or deliberately but it is not historical. Historical polytheism in most regions was much more of a syncretic continuum, if not a diverse hodgepodge.
If this wasn't a common practice thousands of years ago, the Hebrews wouldn't have needed to make "worship no other gods before me" their number one rule in their list of top ten rules.
'Taking the waters' at Bath was a common treatment for wealthy British throughout the last few centuries. This meant it was one of the places to be if you were rich and wanted to socialise. As such it's a common setting for regency romance novels... the soap operas of their day.
Hopefully this could help some ppl. I practice a form of "reconstructed" more modern Dalecarlian Swedish/Norse paganism with like some fun Celtic bits and a few others thrown in. I never really thought about it before, but I guess I'm more or less syncretic. I have one altar for all gods/dieties in my father's house. (Attempting to build a second but as a poor college student it hard.) It's mainly based off of later closet type altars. I try to do a very historical approach in terms of what we have source wise, but I have no issues with deviating from them when I feel something is impractical in the modern era. Thats just how religion, especially folk/pagan religions go naturally. All of the idols on it are norse, but not purposefully. One is a traditional lughnasadh corn-leaf doll, but I do honestly subscribe to the theory that he's p much the same god as Loki so I use it interchangeably. I also do include some Christian stuff because it is more or less heavily excepted by the rural Dalecarlians who could be considered late-"surviving" pagans. St. Michael killing the dragon for instance is HUGE in the Ovansiljan area (and kind of all of sweden if u notice the symbolism everywhere). I'd love to get a small statue of it and add it to my shrine. I also have always had a connection to Persephone and other gods. Just cuz of being a history nerd my entire life and seeing the fluidity of pagan beliefs at a young age, I've never really held any reservations about praying to Yngve Frej and then also Persephone. I actually enjoy it because they share many symbols which I can include on my altar and other areas to represent them both.
I conceptualise tradition (ancient or contemporary) as directions given by other people. Those directions lead to there destinations just fine, but I get a better understanding of the landscape by looking at various different directions to what sounds, to me, like the same place and then setting off to find my own way. I look back at the various directions if I'm feeling a little lost, orienting myself by one perspective or another to get my bearings, but ultimately try to find the way myself. This is easier with some deities, solar gods for example, as the destination is clear but the way there is not. Early on, I relied on multiple sources and perspectives to find my own way to the Sun, starting with Hellenic and Roman solar venerations, and later with a sprinkling of Thelema and syncretic magick (I found the PGM very useful in that regard. Getting idea of how the power of the deity was invoke and why was like getting a partial set of coordinates). Ultimately, Orpheus started with no tradition, but through opening his spirit and senses to the gods; the way that became tradition presented itself, it needed only to be navigated.
I relate to freya norse goddess. And Hathor bastet the most but also sekhmet Sophia inanna. Im just interested in thecmythologies as history the mesopotamian eygptian greek norse. My dna is mostly irish scandinavian andbalkan and baltic. So a right mix
I am Syncretic with Native American Practices and beliefs, specifically from the Wintu tribe of North California in my Heathen practice. Alot of the native American beliefs center around ancestor veneration, and spirits easily comparable to land Vættir. However this might be leaning a bit towards the Heathen side of things in my practice, due to there being more historical information on the beliefs. Which is really sad when I try to put it into words like that. Sad due to the lack of information BTW, not the act itself.
As a Pagan I have a hard time calling it a religion. I have hear many call it a community, I follow this. I believe in thanking the Gods not worship. My I have your thoughts on this. Thank you!
I'm a polytheist and I would argue that I'm probably more syncretic. Considering I venerate Gods from the Norse, Hindu, and Tengrism pantheons. If I were to go the multi-traditional route, then that would be a lot more work... lol
Started the listen and my first thought was “Hoo, boy, people not thinking syncretism happens haven’t heard of the Romans.” Epona immediately came to mind.
The fact that this came out as I’m constantly questioning my practice and the validity of it, being a Filipino heathen and wanting to venerate my ancestors, but not wanting to invoke the Filipino deities. I considered multi-traditionalism and invoking the Filipino and Norse deities at the same time, but having to worship two pantheons at once in two ways was too overwhelming for me. Too much to keep track of. I felt like being in touch with my culture meant abandoning the Norse completely. And I was stuck in binary thinking. So, I decided I’d worship the Norse pantheon and syncretize that with venerating my Filipino ancestors. Thank you Ocean, for your insight here, and on Reddit. You’ve validated my experiences.
@@OceanKeltoi I actually feel… homored ??? that I inspired you… one of my favorite heathen content creators to make a video. This is automatically one of my favorite videos lmao
I actually have come across several other Filipinos that also practice European based forms of polytheism, I specifically recall a presentation about native Filipino traditions at one of the Indica Polytheist conferences, th-cam.com/video/74vLagvIvK4/w-d-xo.html Watched & it was very interesting & I didn't know anything about Filipino cultures before this. I also found this- th-cam.com/video/6OzwR6WfVLE/w-d-xo.html Hope that helps!
Syncretic polytheism just makes more sense to me. Cultures all over the globe and all across time would adopt deities and practices over time, mingling those elements in with their own beliefs and traditions. I doubt any of them felt as if they had 'broken' their practice. That said, I can also appreciate Traditionalism for preserving history in its own way.
yea. like, with the history of cultures being taken from people and repainted while the very same people were stopped from practicing their faith, it's reasonable to have some skepticism to the idea of syncreticism. that said, ultimately spiritualism is most crucially about finding your path, and what deities you ask for guidance with that goal is between you and the gods.
I agree, Eric. I feel that part of the human experience has always involved in some way an evolution, mixing and even inventing new practices; it doesn't sound strange at all to me, therefore, that a heathen might hold in high regard as a religious symbol the Web of Wyrd (for example) even if we do not have historical evidence for anything like that existing in the ancient tradition, but still giving it validity for what it symbolizes under a modern lens of heathen spirituality. Same goes with forms of syncretism. Furthermore: nowadays is becoming more and more commong to be descendant in some way shape or form of different cultural heritages. I for example can claim with certainty given my family history, nordic ancestry, as well as roman ancestry and native american ancestry. As a politheist, it becomes hard to choose and "stick" to a single one while ignoring the others, it feels disrespectful to my own heritage; as an extention of that, it also feels weird to approach worship from a multi-traditional point of view. My blood, after all, is a mix from all these different peoples, not a set of three separate things. I think my faith should reflect that.
I'm a Norse pagan but syncretize with Hecate. She's on my altar along with Freyja, Thor, Eir, Odin, and Loki. I worship all of them in a Norse style. I haven't made any Hellenists or Heathens mad yet, but there's plenty of time for that to change.
As a person that mainly focuses on syncretism, I always have this idea of "Oh, my praxis doesn't make any sense to other people" then realized that the key words there is "To other people". It makes sense to me and my own praxis. Ever since I was a little kid, I always loved mythologies and learning different pantheons so it makes sense that my praxis is an echo to that passion and love for many pantheons and numerous deities from said other pantheons
absolutely! I just sometimes get afraid that the frameworks it creates make communication hard. for example, and this is like the one case where it's based in a specific tradition and not derived from own study but, I am a discordian and in discordianism Chaos is defined as "the presence of both order and disorder without clear distinction". the fact that most people simply mean "disorder" when they say chaos has caused one or the other confusion in my life. at the same time, I needed to understand that chaos is made up of both to stop rejecting anything that lacked disorder and realize the order innate to that rejection. and in the long run, these occassional misunderstandings have spared me a lot of the discord and strife that may otherwise have emerged from my continued belief that order and structure could never be worthwhile pursuits. evidently, for some people they are, and sometimes I need to be more welcoming to my own need for hodge too.
The idea of anyone pushing back against syncretism at all, or just being weird about it in general, baffles me as someone who can literally look up how the Celto-Germanic Magusanus got blended up with Hercules along the Germanic limes by Romanized soldiers, or leaving a European context behind, the centuries of blending between Buddhism and Shinto in Japan that not even imperial decree could separate effectively. Sometimes I genuinely wonder if these people have actually done any significant research on how religions, or cultures in general, work.
IMO, "deep Christianity" (persistent attitudes from Christianity present in a person who is no longer a Christian) probably has a lot to do with it. People in Christian cultures are conditioned with Yahweh being portrayed as rejecting all other deities and being obsessed with "purity" of religious practice and belief in his worshipers. Getting religious chocolate in your spiritual peanut butter is _bad._ So the impulse is to seek the "purest" form of worship of a deity that can be found in historical sources, sort of a Pagan version of Sola Scriptura. Ironic then, that Yahweh, who was all about exalting himself over the other gods and being history's first recorded atheist ("I am the LORD your God, you shall have no gods before me! Besides me there is no god," etc.) went and got himself turned into a threesome. 🤣
@CrushingNihilism euro centric of you to assume that A. The commenter is synchronising European traditions, or B. That any or everyone has to follow the specific teachings of one guy. There's no one way to be pagan, and no single correct way either
@CrushingNihilism I'm white myself, i've nothing against us, and I meant what I said. Sure, aristotle is important, but that does not mean anyone who does not follow how he did things is wrong. And what do you mean he laid the ground work for Eastern thought?, Asia had its own philosophers, the Middle East, China, India and Japan are, amongst many reasons, so distinct from Europe because of their different philosophies. He did influence Islamic scholars, but not to the same degree as Europe. Aristotle was very important to Western thought, yes, but his influence was mostly contained there, waining the further you get from here.
@CrushingNihilism in your first reply to the commenter you say that their 'problem' is, to paraphrase, that their not following aristotle. I'm saying that there's nothing wrong with not following aristotle
This was fascinating! I particularly enjoyed hearing the story about Juno Regina. Being a heathen, its probably safe to say that my praxis is done almost primarily in the heathen tradition. I haven't experimented much in the way of synchretism, but I have went out of my way to worship the Gods of other traditions when I travel. For example, I held ritual to Aphrodite when I visited Cyprus a while back, but that ritual was done in my usual, I suppose, heathen, way. I would be interested in exploring other traditions more, however as you mentiomed spiritual burnout is a thing and life is pretty damn busy! Once again, great video Ocean
Same here. I'm also Irish and am drawn to the Norse gods and goddesses, especially Hela and Loki. Still am having to to hide it from those close to me sadly.
This video reallllly resonates because, despite my best efforts, I still have the Christian worldview I was raised in. (Holy Latent Christianity, Batman!) That hasn't stopped various intermediary spirits from different traditions being drawn to me. Through meditation, they have told me repeatedly (and often) that they don't care that I was raised Christian. They love me for ME and they want to work with me regardless. Who am I to argue? The closest thing I have to an altar is a sketchbook with drawings resembling temple and/or sanctuary rooms. They seem content with that.
this is very sweet and wholesome. I have actually been lately reconstructing my very own branch of Christendom. well, I call it 'post-christianity' but that's mostly because Christian traditions like their names. I was raised Christian and have a lot of trauma from it. I used to downright oppose anything to do with Christianity or really most monotheism, and have lately found that this grudge bred animosity in me. So I tried letting go of it, and didn't find a way to. so now, I am pursuing the path of reinventing Christianity from an angle I find more inviting to the chaos that makes me myself. the first step I've taken is essentially to conclude that existence is the word of god. everything that is an expression of Them. and you are allowed to hate that. there are many things that, from a human perspective, are very much worth hating, some that are even good to hate at times, but it does not change that these things are simultaneously perfect, cosmically speaking. they are perfect because they are the exact things that will change into a world more righteous than the current one, and pursuing that change to the best of your current ability is what it means to be righteous. And sometimes, the path to these ends is littered in collaboration with demons. Lucifer, Lilith, Asteroth. They aid in molding that perfection into whatever it may become as much as any part of all creation. sorry for the rambling. this just made me want to share that. I don't know if there was any point to it, I just felt drawn to share.
@@sourwitch2340 Thank you for sharing. I appreciated your comments. It can be difficult to separate the negative away from the positive in Christianity. Based on what I've read here, you seem to have found a way that works for you. I hope you continue to enjoy your path -- there's no telling where you'll end up!
@@sourwitch2340 I’ve had a lot of the similar issues with my Christian upbringing and the fact that being the dominant religion where I live (Mississippi😳) I don’t see my neighbors acting out the real underlying message at the core of that faith (unconditional love and empathy for all people, radical socialism basically, and a practice that is private and personal and not done in public to garner recognition) I don’t personally agree or practice Christianity mostly cause I think it’s been really watered down with ulterior motives and Christian god seems a little bipolar but I think it will take some modified modern take on Christianity to ever draw these people away from the Christian right wing wacko political thing that on the current trajectory will be the ruin of them and everything all of our ancestors have been trying to build for future generations to this point
As usual, another awesome video! I was so glad to see the bit about Sulis Minerva and Bath in there - the Roman baths there is one of the coolest places I've ever visited, and the history there is even cooler.
Also: yeah, Catholics are really Syncretists. In Latin America they have lots of saints and "beatos", and they are considered more than ok by the Catholic Church. Specially because many Saints are in charge of different things, and many are also Patrons of cities/countries. Which makes them clutching their pearls over pagans a bit...ironic LOL
Great video and nice to see a new video again. For someone who follows several... This was nice to watch. As a Finn myself, I mainly worship ancient Finnish gods, such as Ukko the god of thunder, Tapio the god of forests and hunting, Ahti the god of water and fishing, Tuoni the god of death and the ruler of Tuonela (the afterlife) and of course Väinämöinen the hero and god of knowledge, wisdom, poetry, but as I said others I worship gods outside of my Pantheon ancestors like Ra, Odinn and Quetzalcoatl.. But yes, the video was good and nice to watch, have a nice day or night and may Päivätär and Kuutar bless you. Kiitos
Multi-trad just seems odd to me... bc from my point of view, the way you worship is what determines what branch of polytheism are fit into, not necessarily which gods you worship. For me, I think the only time I really get annoyed with people is when they assume that all polytheist traditions are the same as what they've read or seen about Wicca. Wicca is fine, but if that's what you're doing call yourself Wiccan, godsdammit! I've seen this so much in Hellenistic circles that it can be hard to find other recons.
@@crushinnihilism I will say that one thing I don't do is follow the exact same festival dates as are included with most Attic calendars. I do follow the lunar month to hit the sacred days for each deity, but for holidays... the climate I live in is very different than Greece, so a lot of their festivals don't really make sense for me to follow. I do try to understand the whys behind them though, and insert similar celebrations when they make sense according to where I live (and tbh, they often coincide with the wheel of the year, but I don't use the Wiccan names, nor do I use the same correspondences)
As someone from Brazil, where there's a lot (really, a lot) of syncretism directly affecting our culture, it never even crossed my mind the idea of multi-traditionalism. It's an interesting thought, but saying that syncretism is a lack of respect just sounds like a lack of understanding how religions and people work. Things get mixed up, we usually incorporate our culture in our religion even unconsciously. There's no problem in wanting to keep your practice as historically accurate as you can if that's what you want and what feels right, but there's also no problem in incorporating modern aspects or things from your other practices if that's what feels right. Most gods are not viewed as immutable entities carved in stone, they evolve and learn and change and grow in their own ways.
E aí, cara! Sou um exemplo de politeísta sincrético. Sigo deuses Greco-Romanos, Mesopotâmicos, Iorubá, Hindu, Tupi, Andino e Wiccanos. Abraços de Porto Alegre!
anti-syncretic Norse Polytheists give me the most exvangelical vibes like. Binch why are you trying to re-create The Church of Christ in this here pagan space? Norse people were really like 'more is definitely more. I know Thor got me but this image of Christ can't hurt. Hope the weather holds for fishing, inshallah.'
Amazing video, as always! As a kemetic pagan that uses both reconstructionism and eclectic praxis (therefore, syncretic), we usually study that reconstructionism in Kemet isn't just a matter of HOW, but also WHEN and WHERE. If I were to limit myself to the practices of one specific place and period of time, I probably wouldn't have enough source material to back up basically... anything. That said, I don't engage in praxis with gods outside that pantheon, not because there is a problem with it, but because with a religion so extensive in both geography and time spam, there is no single thing that I needed to "look outside" of a pantheon I'm already "in sync".
Over my journey, I’ve been a single traditionalist, multitraditionalist, but now I personally do call myself Syncretic, which fits that a good 2/3 of my time being a practitioner has involved Rome! And as it is now, the very nature of my religious journey as a Gallo-Roman polytheist is drenched in historical syncretism as well. So while I certainly understand multi-traditionalist’s, it simply isn’t where my practice now lies.
Over four or five decades, I've gone from non-theistic Paganism to Neo-Celtic reconstructionism trying to create an actual practice to feel closer to the gods and my faith. Last year, I finally figured out that all the times Odin has appeared in my thoughts and daily life might have been because he's been trying to attract my attention for many (many) years! Since diving into my study of Norse Paganism and Heathenism, I've come the closest I've ever felt to a deity (or, frankly, any non-human energy at all) in Odin. Somehow, he seems "real" to me, more than pretty much any god. I still honor the Celtic gods, too. Been mostly playing it by ear, but it felt wrong somehow to have Odin or Freyr share altar space with Brigit and the Dagda, so I set them up in different areas. I don't have a regular practice with any of them (yet), but I love the comfort of my home being full of little gods (that is, statues) surrounding me. I think practice will work out for me as time goes on. Meantime, I have a lot more studying to do. Thanks for your channel. I really appreciate your scholarly approach and your presenting style. Subscribed immediately. :)
Syncretism is actually so valuable as someone who works with both the Norse and Slavic gods, one group having significantly more information on the tradition than the other. It is good that I can use what I know of my Slavic roots to expand and make the tradition something that is predominantly Norse polytheism with a bit of something extra added 😊
As someone who has gone from being an eclectic pagan to a hellenic pagan to... well I guess I would be a Greek/Roman syncretist now.. I appreciate this video!
Syncretism. There being a name for how I feel spiritually is such a relief. I always felt trapped not exploring other spiritualities with my strict Christian background but I also didn't want to forget about the Christian God because I still have had spiritual experiences there as well. Nothing I feel is extremely traditional. I'm spending a lot of time looking into different cultures/spiritualities. I'm still looking around, taking bits and pieces into how I deal with spirituality and now I feel more comfortable knowing this isn't some modern age thing. Unfortunately, I'm still living with strict Christian family members, so I have to practice in private.
As an archaeology student, I wrote my thesis on syncretic beliefs as evidenced in grave goods. The whole point of my paper was to showcase the physical evidence of syncretic practice in Scandinavia, and it was clear from all my research that archaeologists who specialize in religion agree that syncretism was common and normative. It never would have occurred to me that people think syncretism is ahistorical. It was clearly done. As for my own practice, I draw heavily on the archaeological research I've done. Meaning I mix and match and make a practice that works for me, in my time, in my context--just as countless people throughout history. I started as a fundamentalist Christian who liked fantasy and magic, then a Christian who dipped into tarot and tea leaf reading, then a Christian angry with the church who turned to Christian witchcraft, then a nontheistic witch, and now someone who pays respects to the Norse gods and still practices witchcraft. I'm not comfortable calling myself a Heathen, as I have not done much in the way of regularly creating reciprocity. Guess I'm a casual? Still working it all out. But anyway, thank you so much for this! It was very interesting to listen to!
I worship the Norse gods and had been working with the Inca/Qoya gods, slowly trying to get close to them. My ancestry is mostly Qoya+Argentinean Criollo+Italian ancestry...It's already a mess, being a Norse pagan is already a bit awkward knowing my ancestry. My altar has a place for the Incan gods and the Norse gods, and I share an offering dish because I lack space. It's ok. I think everyone should do with their Hearth as they please, we should let people worship whom and how they please as long as it's not something harmful
I like this video a lot because I've secretly been struggling with this idea of am I allowed to worship Celtic, Norse, and some native american traditions at the same time. Honestly my Cree aunt has much to do with my path into paganism and I truly feel affinity to the Morgan, thor, Jord, and Odin. I've just been uncomfortable talking about it. I deal with enough judgment being pagan already. I've been having a similar internal conversation of, "there was a time these practices didn't necessarily have a name" and I think you've helped my internal dialog with this video and allowed myself to give permission to this world view while staying authentic.
Hey it's alright I'm a blend of Native American,African and Hellenistic traditions it's a journey. Your journey whatever you are led to take solace in I suggest you take it
@@urubutingaz5898 yes look at Jackson Crawford’s video called “ (Real, Historical) Rune Spells “ for more info on this galdr. I’d love to ask Crawford more but I’ve been shadowbanned. I don’t blame his channel and I don’t necessarily deserve the credit for a lot of my research so it’s cool. I must be onto something if I get banned! Carry the torch for me gentlemen. My videos have been pretty much squelched.
I like to think pagans hold a missing key to understanding Christianity in an esoteric rather than exoteric sense. So long as you don’t get accused of devil worship and witchcraft. How many Christians speak Aramaic, Medieval Latin or Hebrew? Not a lot. At least I’m trying to recover old Norse !
Hermes and Anubis started giving me signs that I should work with them around the same time. I also kept coming across information about Hermanubis, a composite deity who had a boom of popularity during the Roman Empire's rule in Egypt. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to worship two deities, or one. While I was trying to figure it out, I had a dream where I felt them, as two beings, having this kind of best friend energy in their interaction. They were separate entities, but when they got together on certain projects here on Earth they could work in such perfect harmony that they could easily feel like the same person. One such joint project, at this moment in time, is me: my life path and goals and the kind of guidance I need from them. So, I literally made them a shared altar, with statues representing each and offerings to each but a shared cloth, and I typically invoke them together. On top of all that, I am not a Hellenist or a Kemeticist. I just talk to spiritual entities and sometimes one of them is like, "hey, I'll be here for a while, gimme an altar." 😆
The kemetic God Djehuti (Thoth) was likened to Hermes by some ancient Greeks familiar with kemetic theology. Maybe even considered the same entity. Thoth and Anubis are closely affiliated in kemetic theology. Thoth records the results of Anubis's weighing of the hearts against the feather of Ma'at, whom is Thoth's wife.
I tend to syncretise the Norse and Continental germanic gods, and also include medieval Dutch practices in some of my worship, as I feel it connects me with my ancestors. Great video!
I’m a heathen but I worship Dionysus (the only Greco-Roman God I worship). I know the Romans syncretized Odin with Hermes, but tbh UPG for me says Odin and Dionysus should be syncretized and tbh, I think it makes more sense.
I'm a Norse-Gael syncretic Heathen. I find my approach to be both practical and based in historical practice due to the intermixing of Scandinavians with the people of Scotland and Ireland, all of which whom I'm descended from. Great video topic; Cheers! 🍻
Whenever someone tells me there's a right and wrong way to approach my spirituality, and that I'm doing something objectively wrong by not copying them, I just think wow so you're just a spicy Catholic then, huh?
The: "thou shalt have no gods before me." Is a distinctly monotheistic thing. It speaks to the selfishness of monotheistic gods, and is a very narrow-minded concept. Making offering to your neighbors gods is just being a good neighbor.
Shamanistic values from all pantheons have led me to the singular belief of creation or a higher cause, order or unseen order of reality, Indigenous oral stories and traditions as well as artwork depicting a story or message, values etc, not only native American, Asian, African, Nordic International multitheism of sorts, Shiva, Odin, The creators I tend to read historical sagas, Eddas or manuscripts in order to pay the respective deities their due diligence to avoid conflict or contradictions as much as possible but international shamanistic spiritual practices
Currently my practice is a multi tradition one with the Egyptian Gods and the Greek Gods. The only reason I haven't combined these paths even though they did so in history is I don't have any sources outlining a Greco Egyptian ritual and I'm not good at improvising?
I don't think the gods care if we worship them baised on how they were historically or if you synchronize them. At least according to a lot of modern pagan upg and history the gods seem to respond ok to syncretism. I think syncretism is perfectly okay as long as you understand where that God came from and acknowledge that. For example I'm mostly norse but I've had celtic gods reach out to me and I've called out to both the morrigan and thor in the same prayer sevrel times and those prayes have been answered each time. I've had dreams were both hekate and hel work together go give me a vision. The vision being in more if a heathen context yet hekate was completely ok with working with hel in said context. Plus at least with hekate she seems to have been adopted into other traditions other then greek according to history. So some gods can work together despite being of different practices. Similarly some gods if the same practice might not work well together. And then also look at it at least from Celtic or heathen standpoints the problem with that is there are so many different Celtic religions Gaelic being just one of them that combining for example an irish deity with a british one even tho both are celtic it's still technically religious syncretism.
Thank you so much for this video Ocean! I’ve been made to feel wrong for worshipping multiple pantheons. As someone with multiple interests & ancestors all over Britain and Europe, with ties to Rome and Egypt this hit home for me. I don’t feel whole leaving one out.
one could say that all polytheistic practices that are available to us are syncretic, that syncretism is all we have left to work with, and that we're fooling ourselves if we try to claim otherwise
okay I think this one of my favorite vids of yours!! it's always bothered me how some people talk about syncretism especially since, like you've pointed out, there's tons of historical precedent for it I've always considered myself a bit of both (largely because I keep my family/cultural practices separate) but when it comes to non-Native stuff syncretism as always been easier for me as an individual but yeah based video as always
I was raised in a strange Christian pseudo church, the philosophy of Christianity is my background. God, Christ, “holy spirit”. Although people call Christianity monotheism, technically it’s 3. I bought a statue in 2016 of Cernunnos and he’s just in my room I rent. To protect my room, since I don’t have a house, just a room. Cernunnos/ Gwyn Ap Nudd presented himself to me in a dream showing me runes carved on a standing stone. If I hadn’t watched Outlander I’d have called them rocks, and if I didn’t have an art history degree I’d have probably ignored it. It’s called Ogham. And now I believe he is as real as Christianity’s God, although he may go by many names. I play videogames, I played Hellblade and in doing so, learned more about Celtic and Pictish history. Also, the Norse mythology. So, throughout my life, I went from monotheism to atheism to agnostic to non-religious, spiritual. I believe only what I see and nothing I hear. Cernunnos showed me the runes and said my name has a specific meaning in Ogham. Interestingly, he didn’t speak. Also after researching and learning about Ogham, I found out is not a spoken language. I have Celtic /Irish heritage, strongly in my genetics. Also in 2004 was told by a past life reader that I was a Celtic herbalist in a past life.
I've been a follower of the Norse for the better half of a decade. The Slavic gods came a callin' not too long ago, and now I've incorporated them in my worships. The ancients involved other pantheons, Simargl comes to mind. Syncretism is entirely valid, and I am and always will be unashamed to worship multiple pantheons.
Ocean! I had to go back as I knew I'd missed the first pun. This was good. It's sad to think there may be 'practice policing' even in Heathenry, but heck, I guess no culture is safe. No religious practice , in my opinion, just like no race or ethnicity, could ever be 'pure'! That seems laughable to me. I've been seeing shorts with Ragnar Lothbrok , and his son's, family, etc. and loving them! Got to say, they did better than earlier films. I couldn't get the show, when it was on. And, got to hand it to Ivar the Boneless. His name did survive through history, as he wished. I also loved how they showed the artistic mastery, much of which still shows today. Floki was cool, too. Great to hear you, hope all is good in your world. 👍💙💖🌞💥🥰✌
I follow Freya and Hestia dually, primarily. I light a candle every night for Hestia and take care of as many cats as possible for Freya. I planted flowers for my home that I hope please both of them. I have a Norse Altar for Freya and a witchcraft altar that includes my Hellenistic Worship. I also have fondness for Persephone and Sigyn, both of whom represent balance to me AND were my first connections to each pantheon and opened the pantheons up to me. Plus I have a teacup of booze for the fey and others that may be around my home to keep the peace.
Welcome back!! Glad to see/ hear you!! Thanks for sharing today's topic..as usual you are right on point!! Interesting twists !! As I mentioned b 4, I am a polytheist! And work with Celtic n Native American beings/ deities!! As well as Norse Pagan deities ......Lol! Thanks for sharing this gift of talent and dedication...it does help in many ways!! 👍🐺🧙♂️🦊👍
My practice has been developing in the last three years. As I evolve, my perspective has shifted from a theistic worldview to an animist world view. As a direct consequence, I have found my prescribe shifting from multi-traditionalist to syncretic. Also, at the beginning, I was studying more ceremonial magic associated with Celtic traditions. I, too, have shifted to Norse traditions, but more emphasis on northern folk traditions rather than worshiping the Gods per se. I’m learning about observing blots, and studying the literature as well, but I feel the pull of the Vanir and spirits of the land, and am developing and nurturing those relationships daily.
As of recwntly, I have converted to Norse Paganism, and I feel drawn to the Norse gods; Tyr, in particular. However, since early childhood, the Egyptian pantheon has always captivated me as drawn my attention as well. Thank you, Ocean, your video has given me some clarification. I believe I'll embrace the gods from both Norse and Egyptian pantheons with a synchretic approach, as a start, to it and see how it feels over time or where it leads me to.
When I was young I was in a polytheistic club and they always said the one should not work with multiple pantheons at the same time. I always thought something was slightly fundamentalist about the way they presented it.
I recognize all gods (including the crossovers of related religions, I.E. Norse, Saxon, Greek, Hindi, Slavic, Celt... all related). I worship one set however.
The history of Serapis you described really aligns with my own practice, and I'm glad to see some more specific historical justification for my beliefs. I believe in all gods, but see many of the deities I personally venerate as being simultaneously the same as _and_ distinct from gods from other traditions. I saw another commenter joke about "medium-rare polytheism", but that genuinely feels accurate to my practice. One of my gods, for example, has her own name, her own stories, and her own associations. She is very much her own person with her own unique history, however on Imbolc I intentionally venerate her under the Celtic tradition as Brigid. On all other days I treat the two as distinct, but on Imbolc I venerate them as one person. To me, it simply feels important to honour that connection, especially on days I have "taken" from the Irish tradition, if not out of respect for the gods then _at least_ out of respect for the Celts.
I have Northwest European ancestry, over 99% of it. so I'm interested in Celtic/Gaelic/Britannica/Pict/Dutch-Germanic/Norse. I love your videos. The information that you give is really helping me to integrate the customs into my life. I will join later this month. 3/17/2024 ....I could say a few words, but I won't.
My practice is focused on Celtic and Hellenic gods. I have them both on the same altar because space is tight. Syncretism has just always made sense to me (and is my favourite thing to research)
You say the existence of the gods is "consistent with experience". But I would find it helpful to hear about the experience(s). To use a Christian term, some polytheist "testimony". Like our heathen ancestors, I like stories and I'd like to hear peoples' stories. You'd think it would be easy to find on the internet, but channels and sites are so often "how to..." or "you should do...", "I can sell you...", or a scholastic dive into sources. But where are the personal stories?
As a person who worships, primarily, Celtic and Norse deities, I say yes, you can worship deities from different pantheons. The Romans did it all the time so why not? It’s not like there’s a rule against it
Same here. I am Celtic but I do acknowledge Norse (and other) deities. It is hard to ignore the Norse when looking at the days of the week. 😀
One thing I have never observed (some may have!) is the Heathen/Pagan community attacking the pantheon of a "different" culture.
Hello fellow Norse-Gael!
@@random2829 and the Germanic/Norse world imported the idea of weekdays named for gods from the Roman Empire, happily accepting that Tyr was Mars, Wotan was Mercury, Jupiter was Thor and Frigg was Venus and so on.
If syncretizing was good enough for the ancients, it’s good enough for me.
@@LuxPerp I certainly can not argue with that! ❤
Same here, fellow Norse-Gael Heathen.
Ocean, you've done it again. Thank you for what you do!
I really like this video! Thank you so much, Ocean, for making it! I really think I needed to hear this as it helped me better understand my praxis and worship of Gaulish deities (it is very syncretic in of itself with a mixture of local celtic deities alongside roman ones).
As a largely eclectic Pagan with a heavy emphasis on science within my belief system - who has recently and unexpectedly had Loki come into my practice - I feel like as long as the culture behind the pantheon is something you vibe with and learn about in an appreciative vs appropriative way, go for it. I lean into the Greek concepts of Chaos and Gaia and the Titans vs the Olympian gods because that's what I was introduced to first. Because I was raised Christian and have no freaking clue what my ancient Pagan roots truly were. (Likely more Celtic but no way of really knowing for sure). I have found connection in the Norse and Hindu cosmologies but never ever thought I'd actually end up with a deity alter. Life is full of surprises, so of course it was Loki who tapped me on the shoulder, so to speak. 😂
I see myself more of multi traditional with Christian and Shinto. Keeping to the tradition and separation kind of helps with any schism that tries to form. But it can be a battle
Honestly, our gods, who have gone without worship for so long, are probably just happy we made a space for them in our lives.
I have heard it put thusly: say you go on a regular picnic. You usually leave a small apple slice off to the side to keep the ants away from your food. The ants know this. You are a food source. Now, say some of the ants start beinging you offerings of twigs and leafs and ant dew, things that are special to the ants. Say some of them do a little circle around you before going to eat the apples slice. Well... now these are your special ants. You may care for them in some steange way. You may care about the maintainance of their habitat. You may find someone to care for them if you ever move away. I feel the gods are like that. We are the ants with our silly little rituals and the gods see our observances and are just happy to see us paying attention to and appreciating their efforts.
Thank you for the very informative video, I found it very helpful as someone who borders in between the two, I've also found that approaching the altar with ultimate respect and acknowledgement with an effort and promise to improve, generally returns a warm and beneficial response, or connection in terms of forming a relationship. Have you heard of the "Hvel"? I read somewhere that it is supposed to be equivalent in some form the the chakras of Hinduism, might be a good idea for a video in the same branch. Thanks again for the great content 🙏
"Multitraditionalism is more respectful of historical worship than syncretism"
Historical worship: syncretism all over
I'm not sure if others do this but I pray to Celtic (Gaulish) and Anglo-Saxon gods and where applicable I pray to gods who share identities across these two religions as one god (ie- Thunor and Taranis, Camulos and Tiw, etc) but in ritual or prayer honoring a specific god or asking for a specific god's favor I focus on one god.
For example I might make regular prayers, naming a god as both Tiw & Camulos and asking them to protect my home while I am away. But when I want to make a more significant offering, for example i went out to a marsh and made an offering to Woden.
I'm sure someone out there feels I'm doing it wrong, but I feel that this is the best way for me to honor these gods and I now have a life-changing promotion at work and a strong and healthy daughter on the way. I have nothing but love, awe, and gratitude to these gods and if it's not presumptuous of me to say so, I feel I've been appropriate in my worship.
I really appreciate you approaching this topic as it hits close to home.
In regards to Orthopraxy, there is the "little" problem of the fact that many ancient traditions required human and/or animal sacrifice. Something of which I'd say MOST people in the modern era frown upon and shy away from. (Thankfully...)
I consider myself a Syncretic-Pantheist. I worship nature first and foremost, but I accept and honor other traditions. In practice, I tend to align most with the Shinto Pantheon and the practices of Onmyodo (Shinto with elements of Taoism, Hinduism, and Buddhism) - though Wicca (and by extension often related faiths such as Celtic Druidry, Norse Heathenism, Greco-Roman Hellenism, Egyptian Kemetism, and even Native American practices such as those of the Nahuatl people) is also of great interest to me. So I guess I could also call myself an Onmyo-Wiccan if I wanted to take a specific moniker for my approach.
While I do primarily express myself either neutrally as a pantheist or more practically as a Shintoist, I am definitely not wholey exclusive in my approach. Though that in and of itself is pretty much par for the course with Shinto given its interconnected influential history with the rest of Asia.
I guess, in a way I'm a little bit of ALMOST everything, but completely dedicated only to nature.
The farther on I go, the more I suspect that people who say only certain people should do only certain things in only certain ways, are actually trying to compensate or achieve some other personal goal irrelevant to broader Heathenry. Like ethnic/racial nationalism, or a need for control, or other reasons. This may happen subconsciously or deliberately but it is not historical. Historical polytheism in most regions was much more of a syncretic continuum, if not a diverse hodgepodge.
Regarding orthopraxis, I volunteer to be the head of the Asatru Inquisition but only if I get to wear cool red robes
If this wasn't a common practice thousands of years ago, the Hebrews wouldn't have needed to make "worship no other gods before me" their number one rule in their list of top ten rules.
'Taking the waters' at Bath was a common treatment for wealthy British throughout the last few centuries. This meant it was one of the places to be if you were rich and wanted to socialise. As such it's a common setting for regency romance novels... the soap operas of their day.
Hopefully this could help some ppl. I practice a form of "reconstructed" more modern Dalecarlian Swedish/Norse paganism with like some fun Celtic bits and a few others thrown in. I never really thought about it before, but I guess I'm more or less syncretic. I have one altar for all gods/dieties in my father's house. (Attempting to build a second but as a poor college student it hard.) It's mainly based off of later closet type altars. I try to do a very historical approach in terms of what we have source wise, but I have no issues with deviating from them when I feel something is impractical in the modern era. Thats just how religion, especially folk/pagan religions go naturally. All of the idols on it are norse, but not purposefully. One is a traditional lughnasadh corn-leaf doll, but I do honestly subscribe to the theory that he's p much the same god as Loki so I use it interchangeably. I also do include some Christian stuff because it is more or less heavily excepted by the rural Dalecarlians who could be considered late-"surviving" pagans. St. Michael killing the dragon for instance is HUGE in the Ovansiljan area (and kind of all of sweden if u notice the symbolism everywhere). I'd love to get a small statue of it and add it to my shrine. I also have always had a connection to Persephone and other gods. Just cuz of being a history nerd my entire life and seeing the fluidity of pagan beliefs at a young age, I've never really held any reservations about praying to Yngve Frej and then also Persephone. I actually enjoy it because they share many symbols which I can include on my altar and other areas to represent them both.
I conceptualise tradition (ancient or contemporary) as directions given by other people. Those directions lead to there destinations just fine, but I get a better understanding of the landscape by looking at various different directions to what sounds, to me, like the same place and then setting off to find my own way.
I look back at the various directions if I'm feeling a little lost, orienting myself by one perspective or another to get my bearings, but ultimately try to find the way myself. This is easier with some deities, solar gods for example, as the destination is clear but the way there is not. Early on, I relied on multiple sources and perspectives to find my own way to the Sun, starting with Hellenic and Roman solar venerations, and later with a sprinkling of Thelema and syncretic magick (I found the PGM very useful in that regard. Getting idea of how the power of the deity was invoke and why was like getting a partial set of coordinates).
Ultimately, Orpheus started with no tradition, but through opening his spirit and senses to the gods; the way that became tradition presented itself, it needed only to be navigated.
I always assumed syncretic meant multiple credos at the same time. Thanks for the build out!
I relate to freya norse goddess. And Hathor bastet the most but also sekhmet Sophia inanna. Im just interested in thecmythologies as history the mesopotamian eygptian greek norse. My dna is mostly irish scandinavian andbalkan and baltic. So a right mix
I am Syncretic with Native American Practices and beliefs, specifically from the Wintu tribe of North California in my Heathen practice.
Alot of the native American beliefs center around ancestor veneration, and spirits easily comparable to land Vættir. However this might be leaning a bit towards the Heathen side of things in my practice, due to there being more historical information on the beliefs.
Which is really sad when I try to put it into words like that. Sad due to the lack of information BTW, not the act itself.
Celtic syncretic here, with Sulis Minerva , Egyptian Deities, worshiped in the "Celtic" style
As a Pagan I have a hard time calling it a religion. I have hear many call it a community, I follow this. I believe in thanking the Gods not worship. My I have your thoughts on this. Thank you!
Jesus Christ - TWO puns in ONE video?!
I'm a polytheist and I would argue that I'm probably more syncretic. Considering I venerate Gods from the Norse, Hindu, and Tengrism pantheons. If I were to go the multi-traditional route, then that would be a lot more work... lol
I struggle with the idea of Jesus, but, i accept their being a ultimate God, a creator.
And quite possibly he created all other Gods too.
I do whatever i want.
Ocean, you get that insta-like just for the pun!
Great video as always.
Started the listen and my first thought was “Hoo, boy, people not thinking syncretism happens haven’t heard of the Romans.” Epona immediately came to mind.
Also Isis. She was very popular among the Romans.
The Egyptian goddess Isis was brought to Britain by the Romans
Or Persephone coming to the Ionians from Sumer.
And Mithras
The fact that this came out as I’m constantly questioning my practice and the validity of it, being a Filipino heathen and wanting to venerate my ancestors, but not wanting to invoke the Filipino deities.
I considered multi-traditionalism and invoking the Filipino and Norse deities at the same time, but having to worship two pantheons at once in two ways was too overwhelming for me. Too much to keep track of.
I felt like being in touch with my culture meant abandoning the Norse completely. And I was stuck in binary thinking.
So, I decided I’d worship the Norse pantheon and syncretize that with venerating my Filipino ancestors.
Thank you Ocean, for your insight here, and on Reddit. You’ve validated my experiences.
Yeah, this was in part a response to your post. Thanks for inspiring the video!
@@OceanKeltoi I actually feel… homored ??? that I inspired you… one of my favorite heathen content creators to make a video. This is automatically one of my favorite videos lmao
I actually have come across several other Filipinos that also practice European based forms of polytheism, I specifically recall a presentation about native Filipino traditions at one of the Indica Polytheist conferences, th-cam.com/video/74vLagvIvK4/w-d-xo.html Watched & it was very interesting & I didn't know anything about Filipino cultures before this. I also found this- th-cam.com/video/6OzwR6WfVLE/w-d-xo.html Hope that helps!
Syncretic polytheism just makes more sense to me. Cultures all over the globe and all across time would adopt deities and practices over time, mingling those elements in with their own beliefs and traditions. I doubt any of them felt as if they had 'broken' their practice. That said, I can also appreciate Traditionalism for preserving history in its own way.
yea. like, with the history of cultures being taken from people and repainted while the very same people were stopped from practicing their faith, it's reasonable to have some skepticism to the idea of syncreticism. that said, ultimately spiritualism is most crucially about finding your path, and what deities you ask for guidance with that goal is between you and the gods.
I agree, Eric. I feel that part of the human experience has always involved in some way an evolution, mixing and even inventing new practices; it doesn't sound strange at all to me, therefore, that a heathen might hold in high regard as a religious symbol the Web of Wyrd (for example) even if we do not have historical evidence for anything like that existing in the ancient tradition, but still giving it validity for what it symbolizes under a modern lens of heathen spirituality.
Same goes with forms of syncretism.
Furthermore: nowadays is becoming more and more commong to be descendant in some way shape or form of different cultural heritages. I for example can claim with certainty given my family history, nordic ancestry, as well as roman ancestry and native american ancestry. As a politheist, it becomes hard to choose and "stick" to a single one while ignoring the others, it feels disrespectful to my own heritage; as an extention of that, it also feels weird to approach worship from a multi-traditional point of view. My blood, after all, is a mix from all these different peoples, not a set of three separate things. I think my faith should reflect that.
I'm a Norse pagan but syncretize with Hecate. She's on my altar along with Freyja, Thor, Eir, Odin, and Loki. I worship all of them in a Norse style. I haven't made any Hellenists or Heathens mad yet, but there's plenty of time for that to change.
Hail Hekate! ❤
I have a similar practice but syncretized with Veles. Germanic and Slavic Gods work surprisingly well together.
@@tylerpape4382 I mean look at the early kievian rus and polabians.
As a person that mainly focuses on syncretism, I always have this idea of "Oh, my praxis doesn't make any sense to other people" then realized that the key words there is "To other people". It makes sense to me and my own praxis. Ever since I was a little kid, I always loved mythologies and learning different pantheons so it makes sense that my praxis is an echo to that passion and love for many pantheons and numerous deities from said other pantheons
Same here.
absolutely! I just sometimes get afraid that the frameworks it creates make communication hard. for example, and this is like the one case where it's based in a specific tradition and not derived from own study but, I am a discordian and in discordianism Chaos is defined as "the presence of both order and disorder without clear distinction". the fact that most people simply mean "disorder" when they say chaos has caused one or the other confusion in my life. at the same time, I needed to understand that chaos is made up of both to stop rejecting anything that lacked disorder and realize the order innate to that rejection. and in the long run, these occassional misunderstandings have spared me a lot of the discord and strife that may otherwise have emerged from my continued belief that order and structure could never be worthwhile pursuits. evidently, for some people they are, and sometimes I need to be more welcoming to my own need for hodge too.
Yes!! I agree completely!
The idea of anyone pushing back against syncretism at all, or just being weird about it in general, baffles me as someone who can literally look up how the Celto-Germanic Magusanus got blended up with Hercules along the Germanic limes by Romanized soldiers, or leaving a European context behind, the centuries of blending between Buddhism and Shinto in Japan that not even imperial decree could separate effectively. Sometimes I genuinely wonder if these people have actually done any significant research on how religions, or cultures in general, work.
IMO, "deep Christianity" (persistent attitudes from Christianity present in a person who is no longer a Christian) probably has a lot to do with it. People in Christian cultures are conditioned with Yahweh being portrayed as rejecting all other deities and being obsessed with "purity" of religious practice and belief in his worshipers. Getting religious chocolate in your spiritual peanut butter is _bad._ So the impulse is to seek the "purest" form of worship of a deity that can be found in historical sources, sort of a Pagan version of Sola Scriptura.
Ironic then, that Yahweh, who was all about exalting himself over the other gods and being history's first recorded atheist ("I am the LORD your God, you shall have no gods before me! Besides me there is no god," etc.) went and got himself turned into a threesome. 🤣
@CrushingNihilism euro centric of you to assume that A. The commenter is synchronising European traditions, or B. That any or everyone has to follow the specific teachings of one guy. There's no one way to be pagan, and no single correct way either
@CrushingNihilism I'm white myself, i've nothing against us, and I meant what I said. Sure, aristotle is important, but that does not mean anyone who does not follow how he did things is wrong. And what do you mean he laid the ground work for Eastern thought?, Asia had its own philosophers, the Middle East, China, India and Japan are, amongst many reasons, so distinct from Europe because of their different philosophies. He did influence Islamic scholars, but not to the same degree as Europe. Aristotle was very important to Western thought, yes, but his influence was mostly contained there, waining the further you get from here.
@CrushingNihilism in your first reply to the commenter you say that their 'problem' is, to paraphrase, that their not following aristotle. I'm saying that there's nothing wrong with not following aristotle
@CrushingNihilism I'm saying that you telling another pagan that their pagan-ing wrong is incorrect.
This was fascinating! I particularly enjoyed hearing the story about Juno Regina.
Being a heathen, its probably safe to say that my praxis is done almost primarily in the heathen tradition. I haven't experimented much in the way of synchretism, but I have went out of my way to worship the Gods of other traditions when I travel. For example, I held ritual to Aphrodite when I visited Cyprus a while back, but that ritual was done in my usual, I suppose, heathen, way. I would be interested in exploring other traditions more, however as you mentiomed spiritual burnout is a thing and life is pretty damn busy!
Once again, great video Ocean
I am Irish. I feel really drawn to Norse paganism and Irish paganism, so I practise both.
Same here. I'm also Irish and am drawn to the Norse gods and goddesses, especially Hela and Loki. Still am having to to hide it from those close to me sadly.
This video reallllly resonates because, despite my best efforts, I still have the Christian worldview I was raised in. (Holy Latent Christianity, Batman!) That hasn't stopped various intermediary spirits from different traditions being drawn to me. Through meditation, they have told me repeatedly (and often) that they don't care that I was raised Christian. They love me for ME and they want to work with me regardless. Who am I to argue? The closest thing I have to an altar is a sketchbook with drawings resembling temple and/or sanctuary rooms. They seem content with that.
That is such a sweet offering. Lots of time and care put into it
@@danicalandros7806 thank you; they seem to like it...
this is very sweet and wholesome. I have actually been lately reconstructing my very own branch of Christendom. well, I call it 'post-christianity' but that's mostly because Christian traditions like their names. I was raised Christian and have a lot of trauma from it. I used to downright oppose anything to do with Christianity or really most monotheism, and have lately found that this grudge bred animosity in me. So I tried letting go of it, and didn't find a way to. so now, I am pursuing the path of reinventing Christianity from an angle I find more inviting to the chaos that makes me myself. the first step I've taken is essentially to conclude that existence is the word of god. everything that is an expression of Them. and you are allowed to hate that. there are many things that, from a human perspective, are very much worth hating, some that are even good to hate at times, but it does not change that these things are simultaneously perfect, cosmically speaking. they are perfect because they are the exact things that will change into a world more righteous than the current one, and pursuing that change to the best of your current ability is what it means to be righteous. And sometimes, the path to these ends is littered in collaboration with demons. Lucifer, Lilith, Asteroth. They aid in molding that perfection into whatever it may become as much as any part of all creation. sorry for the rambling. this just made me want to share that. I don't know if there was any point to it, I just felt drawn to share.
@@sourwitch2340 Thank you for sharing. I appreciated your comments. It can be difficult to separate the negative away from the positive in Christianity. Based on what I've read here, you seem to have found a way that works for you. I hope you continue to enjoy your path -- there's no telling where you'll end up!
@@sourwitch2340 I’ve had a lot of the similar issues with my Christian upbringing and the fact that being the dominant religion where I live (Mississippi😳) I don’t see my neighbors acting out the real underlying message at the core of that faith (unconditional love and empathy for all people, radical socialism basically, and a practice that is private and personal and not done in public to garner recognition) I don’t personally agree or practice Christianity mostly cause I think it’s been really watered down with ulterior motives and Christian god seems a little bipolar but I think it will take some modified modern take on Christianity to ever draw these people away from the Christian right wing wacko political thing that on the current trajectory will be the ruin of them and everything all of our ancestors have been trying to build for future generations to this point
The Gods of the Pun have blessed this one aggressively!
Please don't change, Ocean!
As usual, another awesome video! I was so glad to see the bit about Sulis Minerva and Bath in there - the Roman baths there is one of the coolest places I've ever visited, and the history there is even cooler.
Also: yeah, Catholics are really Syncretists. In Latin America they have lots of saints and "beatos", and they are considered more than ok by the Catholic Church. Specially because many Saints are in charge of different things, and many are also Patrons of cities/countries.
Which makes them clutching their pearls over pagans a bit...ironic LOL
Great video and nice to see a new video again. For someone who follows several... This was nice to watch. As a Finn myself, I mainly worship ancient Finnish gods, such as Ukko the god of thunder, Tapio the god of forests and hunting, Ahti the god of water and fishing, Tuoni the god of death and the ruler of Tuonela (the afterlife) and of course Väinämöinen the hero and god of knowledge, wisdom, poetry, but as I said others I worship gods outside of my Pantheon ancestors like Ra, Odinn and Quetzalcoatl.. But yes, the video was good and nice to watch, have a nice day or night and may Päivätär and Kuutar bless you. Kiitos
Multi-trad just seems odd to me... bc from my point of view, the way you worship is what determines what branch of polytheism are fit into, not necessarily which gods you worship.
For me, I think the only time I really get annoyed with people is when they assume that all polytheist traditions are the same as what they've read or seen about Wicca. Wicca is fine, but if that's what you're doing call yourself Wiccan, godsdammit! I've seen this so much in Hellenistic circles that it can be hard to find other recons.
@@crushinnihilism I will say that one thing I don't do is follow the exact same festival dates as are included with most Attic calendars. I do follow the lunar month to hit the sacred days for each deity, but for holidays... the climate I live in is very different than Greece, so a lot of their festivals don't really make sense for me to follow. I do try to understand the whys behind them though, and insert similar celebrations when they make sense according to where I live (and tbh, they often coincide with the wheel of the year, but I don't use the Wiccan names, nor do I use the same correspondences)
As someone from Brazil, where there's a lot (really, a lot) of syncretism directly affecting our culture, it never even crossed my mind the idea of multi-traditionalism. It's an interesting thought, but saying that syncretism is a lack of respect just sounds like a lack of understanding how religions and people work. Things get mixed up, we usually incorporate our culture in our religion even unconsciously. There's no problem in wanting to keep your practice as historically accurate as you can if that's what you want and what feels right, but there's also no problem in incorporating modern aspects or things from your other practices if that's what feels right. Most gods are not viewed as immutable entities carved in stone, they evolve and learn and change and grow in their own ways.
E aí, cara! Sou um exemplo de politeísta sincrético. Sigo deuses Greco-Romanos, Mesopotâmicos, Iorubá, Hindu, Tupi, Andino e Wiccanos. Abraços de Porto Alegre!
The idea of Freyja and Frigga also comes to mind as Syncretic. Some swear they are one and the same, others that they are separate goddesses.
anti-syncretic Norse Polytheists give me the most exvangelical vibes like. Binch why are you trying to re-create The Church of Christ in this here pagan space? Norse people were really like 'more is definitely more. I know Thor got me but this image of Christ can't hurt. Hope the weather holds for fishing, inshallah.'
YES!
I'm happy to see Ocean didn’t end up going to Waffle House with Suris, but made a new video instead!
But will have to watch the video later, I’m on my way to see an old stone ship not so far from here!
Will watch the video later!
Amazing video, as always!
As a kemetic pagan that uses both reconstructionism and eclectic praxis (therefore, syncretic), we usually study that reconstructionism in Kemet isn't just a matter of HOW, but also WHEN and WHERE. If I were to limit myself to the practices of one specific place and period of time, I probably wouldn't have enough source material to back up basically... anything.
That said, I don't engage in praxis with gods outside that pantheon, not because there is a problem with it, but because with a religion so extensive in both geography and time spam, there is no single thing that I needed to "look outside" of a pantheon I'm already "in sync".
The puns keep getting better and better ocean
Over my journey, I’ve been a single traditionalist, multitraditionalist, but now I personally do call myself Syncretic, which fits that a good 2/3 of my time being a practitioner has involved Rome!
And as it is now, the very nature of my religious journey as a Gallo-Roman polytheist is drenched in historical syncretism as well. So while I certainly understand multi-traditionalist’s, it simply isn’t where my practice now lies.
Over four or five decades, I've gone from non-theistic Paganism to Neo-Celtic reconstructionism trying to create an actual practice to feel closer to the gods and my faith. Last year, I finally figured out that all the times Odin has appeared in my thoughts and daily life might have been because he's been trying to attract my attention for many (many) years! Since diving into my study of Norse Paganism and Heathenism, I've come the closest I've ever felt to a deity (or, frankly, any non-human energy at all) in Odin. Somehow, he seems "real" to me, more than pretty much any god.
I still honor the Celtic gods, too. Been mostly playing it by ear, but it felt wrong somehow to have Odin or Freyr share altar space with Brigit and the Dagda, so I set them up in different areas. I don't have a regular practice with any of them (yet), but I love the comfort of my home being full of little gods (that is, statues) surrounding me. I think practice will work out for me as time goes on. Meantime, I have a lot more studying to do.
Thanks for your channel. I really appreciate your scholarly approach and your presenting style. Subscribed immediately. :)
Syncretism is actually so valuable as someone who works with both the Norse and Slavic gods, one group having significantly more information on the tradition than the other. It is good that I can use what I know of my Slavic roots to expand and make the tradition something that is predominantly Norse polytheism with a bit of something extra added 😊
As someone who has gone from being an eclectic pagan to a hellenic pagan to... well I guess I would be a Greek/Roman syncretist now.. I appreciate this video!
Syncretism. There being a name for how I feel spiritually is such a relief. I always felt trapped not exploring other spiritualities with my strict Christian background but I also didn't want to forget about the Christian God because I still have had spiritual experiences there as well. Nothing I feel is extremely traditional. I'm spending a lot of time looking into different cultures/spiritualities. I'm still looking around, taking bits and pieces into how I deal with spirituality and now I feel more comfortable knowing this isn't some modern age thing.
Unfortunately, I'm still living with strict Christian family members, so I have to practice in private.
awesome as always. glad to see serapis being talked about!
As an archaeology student, I wrote my thesis on syncretic beliefs as evidenced in grave goods. The whole point of my paper was to showcase the physical evidence of syncretic practice in Scandinavia, and it was clear from all my research that archaeologists who specialize in religion agree that syncretism was common and normative. It never would have occurred to me that people think syncretism is ahistorical. It was clearly done.
As for my own practice, I draw heavily on the archaeological research I've done. Meaning I mix and match and make a practice that works for me, in my time, in my context--just as countless people throughout history. I started as a fundamentalist Christian who liked fantasy and magic, then a Christian who dipped into tarot and tea leaf reading, then a Christian angry with the church who turned to Christian witchcraft, then a nontheistic witch, and now someone who pays respects to the Norse gods and still practices witchcraft. I'm not comfortable calling myself a Heathen, as I have not done much in the way of regularly creating reciprocity. Guess I'm a casual? Still working it all out.
But anyway, thank you so much for this! It was very interesting to listen to!
I worship the Norse gods and had been working with the Inca/Qoya gods, slowly trying to get close to them. My ancestry is mostly Qoya+Argentinean Criollo+Italian ancestry...It's already a mess, being a Norse pagan is already a bit awkward knowing my ancestry. My altar has a place for the Incan gods and the Norse gods, and I share an offering dish because I lack space. It's ok.
I think everyone should do with their Hearth as they please, we should let people worship whom and how they please as long as it's not something harmful
Why is it weird to worship the norse gods?
You dont need norse "ancestry" or whatever its called
I like this video a lot because I've secretly been struggling with this idea of am I allowed to worship Celtic, Norse, and some native american traditions at the same time. Honestly my Cree aunt has much to do with my path into paganism and I truly feel affinity to the Morgan, thor, Jord, and Odin. I've just been uncomfortable talking about it. I deal with enough judgment being pagan already. I've been having a similar internal conversation of, "there was a time these practices didn't necessarily have a name" and I think you've helped my internal dialog with this video and allowed myself to give permission to this world view while staying authentic.
Hey it's alright I'm a blend of Native American,African and Hellenistic traditions it's a journey. Your journey whatever you are led to take solace in I suggest you take it
Its been a wile ocean wekcome back
Its a interesting topic one if been doing and wondering about thanks for clearing things up for me
"Home is where the hearth is" is what I thought you were gonna say in the opening lol
There’s an old runic engraving to ward off a rash that calls upon Thor, Enoch and Jesus. A pretty bizarre combination of deities.
Interesting! do you know more about the archeological context of this find?
@@urubutingaz5898 yes look at Jackson Crawford’s video called “ (Real, Historical) Rune Spells “ for more info on this galdr.
I’d love to ask Crawford more but I’ve been shadowbanned. I don’t blame his channel and I don’t necessarily deserve the credit for a lot of my research so it’s cool. I must be onto something if I get banned! Carry the torch for me gentlemen. My videos have been pretty much squelched.
That's pretty interesting but also really cool.
I like to think pagans hold a missing key to understanding Christianity in an esoteric rather than exoteric sense. So long as you don’t get accused of devil worship and witchcraft. How many Christians speak Aramaic, Medieval Latin or Hebrew? Not a lot. At least I’m trying to recover old Norse !
The old gods never really died in Europe, they just got absorbed and rebranded into the cult of the Roman Catholic Saints.
I love how the answers to these issues always comes down to, shut up your both wrong because you are both valid
Hermes and Anubis started giving me signs that I should work with them around the same time. I also kept coming across information about Hermanubis, a composite deity who had a boom of popularity during the Roman Empire's rule in Egypt. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to worship two deities, or one. While I was trying to figure it out, I had a dream where I felt them, as two beings, having this kind of best friend energy in their interaction. They were separate entities, but when they got together on certain projects here on Earth they could work in such perfect harmony that they could easily feel like the same person. One such joint project, at this moment in time, is me: my life path and goals and the kind of guidance I need from them. So, I literally made them a shared altar, with statues representing each and offerings to each but a shared cloth, and I typically invoke them together. On top of all that, I am not a Hellenist or a Kemeticist. I just talk to spiritual entities and sometimes one of them is like, "hey, I'll be here for a while, gimme an altar." 😆
The kemetic God Djehuti (Thoth) was likened to Hermes by some ancient Greeks familiar with kemetic theology. Maybe even considered the same entity. Thoth and Anubis are closely affiliated in kemetic theology. Thoth records the results of Anubis's weighing of the hearts against the feather of Ma'at, whom is Thoth's wife.
I tend to syncretise the Norse and Continental germanic gods, and also include medieval Dutch practices in some of my worship, as I feel it connects me with my ancestors. Great video!
I’m a heathen but I worship Dionysus (the only Greco-Roman God I worship). I know the Romans syncretized Odin with Hermes, but tbh UPG for me says Odin and Dionysus should be syncretized and tbh, I think it makes more sense.
I'm a Norse-Gael syncretic Heathen. I find my approach to be both practical and based in historical practice due to the intermixing of Scandinavians with the people of Scotland and Ireland, all of which whom I'm descended from. Great video topic; Cheers! 🍻
It brings me a lot of joy to find so many of us in this comment section lol ❤
Whenever someone tells me there's a right and wrong way to approach my spirituality, and that I'm doing something objectively wrong by not copying them, I just think wow so you're just a spicy Catholic then, huh?
The: "thou shalt have no gods before me." Is a distinctly monotheistic thing. It speaks to the selfishness of monotheistic gods, and is a very narrow-minded concept.
Making offering to your neighbors gods is just being a good neighbor.
As the wise prophet Hannah Montana once said: “Mix it all together and you know that it’s the best of both worlds.”
Shamanistic values from all pantheons have led me to the singular belief of creation or a higher cause, order or unseen order of reality,
Indigenous oral stories and traditions as well as artwork depicting a story or message, values etc, not only native American, Asian, African, Nordic
International multitheism of sorts,
Shiva, Odin,
The creators
I tend to read historical sagas, Eddas or manuscripts in order to pay the respective deities their due diligence to avoid conflict or contradictions as much as possible
but international shamanistic spiritual practices
Currently my practice is a multi tradition one with the Egyptian Gods and the Greek Gods. The only reason I haven't combined these paths even though they did so in history is I don't have any sources outlining a Greco Egyptian ritual and I'm not good at improvising?
I don't think the gods care if we worship them baised on how they were historically or if you synchronize them. At least according to a lot of modern pagan upg and history the gods seem to respond ok to syncretism. I think syncretism is perfectly okay as long as you understand where that God came from and acknowledge that. For example I'm mostly norse but I've had celtic gods reach out to me and I've called out to both the morrigan and thor in the same prayer sevrel times and those prayes have been answered each time. I've had dreams were both hekate and hel work together go give me a vision. The vision being in more if a heathen context yet hekate was completely ok with working with hel in said context. Plus at least with hekate she seems to have been adopted into other traditions other then greek according to history. So some gods can work together despite being of different practices. Similarly some gods if the same practice might not work well together.
And then also look at it at least from Celtic or heathen standpoints the problem with that is there are so many different Celtic religions Gaelic being just one of them that combining for example an irish deity with a british one even tho both are celtic it's still technically religious syncretism.
Thank you so much for this video Ocean! I’ve been made to feel wrong for worshipping multiple pantheons. As someone with multiple interests & ancestors all over Britain and Europe, with ties to Rome and Egypt this hit home for me. I don’t feel whole leaving one out.
Syncretism is only taboo if your religion specifically says “thou shalt not worship other gods”, like some arrogant and hypocritical religions
This is an amazing video, I love the way you explain things like this
Soft polytheist be like: "go ahead they're all the same gods/archetypes anyway".
one could say that all polytheistic practices that are available to us are syncretic, that syncretism is all we have left to work with, and that we're fooling ourselves if we try to claim otherwise
After wacthing this video,I have decided that I'm more comfortable with syncretism. Thanks ya!
okay I think this one of my favorite vids of yours!!
it's always bothered me how some people talk about syncretism especially since, like you've pointed out, there's tons of historical precedent for it
I've always considered myself a bit of both (largely because I keep my family/cultural practices separate)
but when it comes to non-Native stuff syncretism as always been easier for me as an individual
but yeah based video as always
You're back!
I've been missing you.
I was raised in a strange Christian pseudo church, the philosophy of Christianity is my background. God, Christ, “holy spirit”. Although people call Christianity monotheism, technically it’s 3.
I bought a statue in 2016 of Cernunnos and he’s just in my room I rent. To protect my room, since I don’t have a house, just a room.
Cernunnos/ Gwyn Ap Nudd presented himself to me in a dream showing me runes carved on a standing stone.
If I hadn’t watched Outlander I’d have called them rocks, and if I didn’t have an art history degree I’d have probably ignored it.
It’s called Ogham. And now I believe he is as real as Christianity’s God, although he may go by many names.
I play videogames, I played Hellblade and in doing so, learned more about Celtic and Pictish history.
Also, the Norse mythology.
So, throughout my life, I went from monotheism to atheism to agnostic to non-religious, spiritual. I believe only what I see and nothing I hear. Cernunnos showed me the runes and said my name has a specific meaning in Ogham. Interestingly, he didn’t speak. Also after researching and learning about Ogham, I found out is not a spoken language.
I have Celtic /Irish heritage, strongly in my genetics. Also in 2004 was told by a past life reader that I was a Celtic herbalist in a past life.
I've been a follower of the Norse for the better half of a decade. The Slavic gods came a callin' not too long ago, and now I've incorporated them in my worships. The ancients involved other pantheons, Simargl comes to mind. Syncretism is entirely valid, and I am and always will be unashamed to worship multiple pantheons.
Ocean! I had to go back as I knew I'd missed the first pun. This was good. It's sad to think there may be 'practice policing' even in Heathenry, but heck, I guess no culture is safe. No religious practice , in my opinion, just like no race or ethnicity, could ever be 'pure'! That seems laughable to me. I've been seeing shorts with Ragnar Lothbrok , and his son's, family, etc. and loving them! Got to say, they did better than earlier films. I couldn't get the show, when it was on. And, got to hand it to Ivar the Boneless. His name did survive through history, as he wished. I also loved how they showed the artistic mastery, much of which still shows today. Floki was cool, too. Great to hear you, hope all is good in your world. 👍💙💖🌞💥🥰✌
I follow Freya and Hestia dually, primarily. I light a candle every night for Hestia and take care of as many cats as possible for Freya. I planted flowers for my home that I hope please both of them. I have a Norse Altar for Freya and a witchcraft altar that includes my Hellenistic Worship.
I also have fondness for Persephone and Sigyn, both of whom represent balance to me AND were my first connections to each pantheon and opened the pantheons up to me.
Plus I have a teacup of booze for the fey and others that may be around my home to keep the peace.
Welcome back!! Glad to see/ hear you!! Thanks for sharing today's topic..as usual you are right on point!!
Interesting twists !! As I mentioned b 4, I am a polytheist! And work with Celtic n Native American beings/ deities!! As well as Norse Pagan deities ......Lol!
Thanks for sharing this gift of talent and dedication...it does help in many ways!!
👍🐺🧙♂️🦊👍
Is it correct to say that when you have an altar in the kitchen the will of the gods is served?
My practice has been developing in the last three years. As I evolve, my perspective has shifted from a theistic worldview to an animist world view. As a direct consequence, I have found my prescribe shifting from multi-traditionalist to syncretic. Also, at the beginning, I was studying more ceremonial magic associated with Celtic traditions. I, too, have shifted to Norse traditions, but more emphasis on northern folk traditions rather than worshiping the Gods per se. I’m learning about observing blots, and studying the literature as well, but I feel the pull of the Vanir and spirits of the land, and am developing and nurturing those relationships daily.
When you say 'historical examples of syncretism' the entirety of known human history comes to mind.
Thor and Perun, Ostara and Vesna...significant overlap between some Norse and Slavic deities.
As of recwntly, I have converted to Norse Paganism, and I feel drawn to the Norse gods; Tyr, in particular. However, since early childhood, the Egyptian pantheon has always captivated me as drawn my attention as well. Thank you, Ocean, your video has given me some clarification. I believe I'll embrace the gods from both Norse and Egyptian pantheons with a synchretic approach, as a start, to it and see how it feels over time or where it leads me to.
When I was young I was in a polytheistic club and they always said the one should not work with multiple pantheons at the same time. I always thought something was slightly fundamentalist about the way they presented it.
I recognize all gods (including the crossovers of related religions, I.E. Norse, Saxon, Greek, Hindi, Slavic, Celt... all related).
I worship one set however.
What would you think of a roman/heathen syncretic calling Tue “Mars” and Othin “Mercury”, Friggj and Frøyja “Venus”, Thor “Jove”, and so forth.
ayo OCEAN you saw me a yule
The history of Serapis you described really aligns with my own practice, and I'm glad to see some more specific historical justification for my beliefs.
I believe in all gods, but see many of the deities I personally venerate as being simultaneously the same as _and_ distinct from gods from other traditions. I saw another commenter joke about "medium-rare polytheism", but that genuinely feels accurate to my practice.
One of my gods, for example, has her own name, her own stories, and her own associations. She is very much her own person with her own unique history, however on Imbolc I intentionally venerate her under the Celtic tradition as Brigid. On all other days I treat the two as distinct, but on Imbolc I venerate them as one person.
To me, it simply feels important to honour that connection, especially on days I have "taken" from the Irish tradition, if not out of respect for the gods then _at least_ out of respect for the Celts.
Jeeze man you haven't posted since last year!
Yeah time to get back in the saddle
"... the kitchen sync." 😛
You should Collab with styxhexanhammer666. Would be a great conversation.
I have Northwest European ancestry, over 99% of it. so I'm interested in Celtic/Gaelic/Britannica/Pict/Dutch-Germanic/Norse. I love your videos. The information that you give is really helping me to integrate the customs into my life. I will join later this month. 3/17/2024 ....I could say a few words, but I won't.
My practice is focused on Celtic and Hellenic gods. I have them both on the same altar because space is tight. Syncretism has just always made sense to me (and is my favourite thing to research)
You say the existence of the gods is "consistent with experience". But I would find it helpful to hear about the experience(s). To use a Christian term, some polytheist "testimony". Like our heathen ancestors, I like stories and I'd like to hear peoples' stories. You'd think it would be easy to find on the internet, but channels and sites are so often "how to..." or "you should do...", "I can sell you...", or a scholastic dive into sources. But where are the personal stories?
I love the soap opera pun
Just take the example of Isis, one of my deities to illustrate that eclectic paganism is completely valid.