Greetings, friends. How are you?
I too am well. This blog is gonna consist primarily of my personal interpretations of reconstructed Proto-Indo-European deities via comparative linguistics and mythology, and attempts to flesh them out in the name of detailed religious practice with possible syncretism (not at all uncommon for IE culture).
There will also definitely be some talk of other deities because I am deeply interested in reconstructing poorly understood deities and their roles, and I believe doing so can help us better reconstruct PIE deities.
The primary sources I use for establishing what deities to reconstruct(and how to do so) are the Senowera/Sénā Swedhā́ document, Arya Akasha, and Ceisiwr Serith's blog. The Senowera/Sénā Swedhā́ document has the widest selection of PIE deities, so it is often my jumping off point, although I do not agree with all of it reconstructions(for example, I find the evidence for Mawortes essentially non-existent. That doesn't wholly invalidate praxis, because of the PIE's clear deification of abstractions, but it's certainly not historical). I highly recommend checking out the Looking At the Deiwos blog here on tumblr. It's a great intro to the deities, uses most of the resources I've mentioned above, and is an all-around great resource. I often feel their entries on the gods are a bit lacking in detail but I am a nerd who obsesses over minutiae and my desire to explore some more complex and theoretical ideas about the gods is why I'm starting this blog.
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DISCLAIMER: I'm not an academic or a scholar, just a nerd. I rarely sight my sources and typically do so improperly because, frankly, that's tedious. I'm not trying to reconstruct the historic PIE gods entirely accurately, others who are far more qualified than I have done that to my satisfaction. I'm trying to, primarily, flesh out the underdeveloped deities with some more speculative reconstruction for current religious purposes.
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I also recommend Ceisiwr Serith's book on the subject, Deep Ancestors: Practicing the Religion of the Proto-Indo-Europeans. It adds a lot of detail to PIE theology, cosmology, and above all else it is an invaluable resource on ritual and it's extremely important structure. Incredible read for those of us who prefer a detailed and ordered look a such a religion. We are definitely gonna get into a lot of other things, as one of the main ideas behind my creating this blog is to expand upon the foundational resources by fleshing out the deities, albeit very theoretically and by potentially engaging in a little syncretism rather than focusing purely on what is reconstructable. We should remember that like most pagan paths, we will enver fully understand and reconstruct the historic practice and our modern one, however much do and should base it on the ancient ways, is still a modern practice. This applies doubly so when talking about Swedhu/PIE religion, as we do not actually have physical evidence of this pantheon even existing, it's pure reconstruction.
My reasoning for this approach is such:
1 - We cannot and never will gain as clear a picture of PIE deities, their characterization, and their function as we have for almost any of their descendant cultures. However, I consider this kind of understanding to be important, if only in a UPG sense.
2 - One of the main appeals to Swedhu to me, and I imagine many others, is its almost all-encompassing pagan nature, with the remarkable diversity of the many descendant traditions. A lot of pagans connect with the spiritual traditions of their ancestors but many also acknowledge a remarkable diversity of ancestry and consequently the many beautiful traditions, especially those of us in the US, whose ancestors can often be from all over world. Swedhu being the common ancestor of so many traditions has a certain appeal to it by encompassing, and sort of reverse syncretising them together if you will.
3 - Syncretism was extremely common among IE religions and seeing as recreating any of them perfectly is both near impossible if not entirely in a practical sense, not to mention the issue of compatibility with modern society, certain alterations are simply a fact of reconstruction. And we can use this to our advantage in the creation of a more detailed theology.
Proto-Indo-European Deities:
Part 1: Introduction and Cognates
Part 2: Comparison of Cognates
Part 2.5: Additional Possible Cognates
Part 3: Leudheros, Aspect or Son?
Part 4: Worunos, King of the Night Sky
Part 6: Character of a God
Part 1: Introduction and Cognates
Part 2: Comparison of Cognates
Part 3: Character of a Goddess
Part 1: Introduction and Comparison of Cognates
Part 3: Character of a God
Part 1: Leudheros, Aspect or Son?
Part 2: Character and Worship
Proto-Indo-European Rituals:
A Place to Start: Introduction to Hearth, Gods, and Ancestors
The Scythian "Ares": Arms for the Arm God
Of the Caucasus or the Steppe?
Hellenic(Greco-Roman) Deities:
Ares/Thracian "Dionysos", A cognate of Rudlos?
Raetic(Etruscan) Deities:
Intro to Etruscan Religion
Part 1: The Black, Forgotten King of the Manes
Part 2: Indo-European God of fire
