if you dont mind, i was wondering how your belief system works if you have 2 pantheons that you love... when you see the sun, do you think apollo or lugh? in death do you go to the other world? or do you go thro the river styx... just stuff like that
You know, that’s a question I ask myself all the time. Regarding your example of Apollo vs Lugh, I actually more so think of Helios and I don’t associate Lugh with the sun that much. But I get what you’re saying. Even for deities that preside over the same aspect, say like war for the Morrigan or Ares, there’s still a difference. It’s the feeling that’s the difference, though I don’t mind having multiple deities preside over the same thing. Even in one pantheon, like the Hellenic, many deities have the same or similar responsibilities.
Death and the afterlife is where I have the most questions. My truthful answer is that I have no clue, but I don’t mind that. I do believe in the afterlife but the specifics are blurry and I’m okay with that.
My belief system works by keeping what’s different separate and what’s the same together. That sounds weird and it is, but it’s what works for me. For instance, when praying to Zeus I tend to cover my hair but I don’t cover when praying to Brighid. Each get their separate altar, and I perform three different prayers each day (one to the Hellenic gods, one to the Gaelic gods, and the third to my ancestors). Their holy days are their holy days, so I don’t pray to Persephone on Samhain and I don’t pray to Lugh during the Eleusinian Mysteries. What’s the same is a lot of values, like hospitality and honoring one’s family, so I incorporate that into my everyday life and how I worship.
However, days that I honor that are part of my personal calendar (April Fools Day, the 4th of July, Memorial Day, the first day of crab fishing) I tend to have an overlap of deities that I pray to. Specifically, on Veteran’s Day, I pray to Ares, Athena and the Morrigan. So far I have encountered no problems with this kind of mixing.
In my opinion, worshiping two pantheons in the manner that I do is difficult but doable. I make sure to respect both and keep with certain traditions but I keep things open for what works for me. Additionally, I’ve only been doing this form of things for almost 2 years which isn’t a lot of time! I’m still learning, I’m still seeing how I can do this respectfully whilst keeping things truthful for myself. I couldn’t give up either pantheon, and trust me, I tried. I thought the only right way was to worship one pantheon, but when I tried to reject the Gaelic gods, I felt so wrong. And when I tried to reject the Hellenic gods, it felt wrong as well.
I’m sorry if I rambled and it didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but if you or anyone else has any additional questions, I’d love to answer them.
