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8/2/2019 WitchGrotto-Mixing Pantheons in Modern Pagan Practice
1/4
WitchGrotto | Mixing Pantheons in Modern Pagan PracticeCopyright Ben Gruagach [email protected]
http://www.witchgrotto.com/2002/04/mixing-pantheons-in-modern-pagan-practice/
Mixing Pantheons in Modern Pagan Practice
[caption id="attachment_76" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Photo copyright Eylon"]
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It has been said by some Wiccan authors that mixing mythological pantheons is bad and should be
avoided at all costs. The usual argument given for this admonishment is that each pantheon, indeedeach deity, has very specific features and should be treated individually. To equate one goddess
with a similar goddess from another pantheon is seen as disrespectful. Each deity, it is argued,
deserves to be treated as an individual. Bringing together deities and elements of worship fromdifferent pantheons is confusing and results in muddled worship and ritual. 1
This argument appears, at least on the surface, difficult to refute if we want to honor the deities as
vibrant, powerful, and alive.
However, it seems the deities themselves are not so hard and fast about the distinctions betweenindividual deities, not as unforgiving when worshippers use different names for them, as we
simplistic modern humans would make them out to be. There is a long history of mixing pantheons
that goes back to the dawn of human reverence of the divine. There are gods and goddesses that
we take for granted today as being individual which are actually composite deities amalgamated inthe distant past from more than one source deity. Why should modern reverence of ancient deities
force them to fossilize when they were clearly organic and changeable in the past?
Ancient Egypt, one of the oldest recorded civilizations in human record, developed from variousgroups into the Upper and Lower Kingdoms prior to their unification around 3100 BCE under the rule
of the first pharaoh, Menes. This bringing together of peoples into one nation encouraged religious
practices to come together, helping to establish ever greater temples and religious dynasties.
Deities were merged, which resulted in combined names in many cases. Amon-Re (or Amun-Ra),Ptah-Nu, and Re-Atum are a few examples.2
The merging of local deities into a larger national deity and the incorporation of foreign deities into
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8/2/2019 WitchGrotto-Mixing Pantheons in Modern Pagan Practice
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WitchGrotto | Mixing Pantheons in Modern Pagan PracticeCopyright Ben Gruagach [email protected]
http://www.witchgrotto.com/2002/04/mixing-pantheons-in-modern-pagan-practice/
a specific pantheon were not limited to Egypt. They happened all around the world any time two
groups of people with different deities met. In Mesopotamia, lesser goddesses merged into the great
Inanna, who under the Babylonians was known by the name Ishtar.3 The spread of Greek culture,largely due to the conquests of Alexander the Great around the fourth century BCE, resulted in the
'Hellenizing' of many cultures and religions -- that is, making the local religions and cultures more
Greek-like.4
With the rise of the Roman Empire, the Greek Artemis became the Roman Diana. EvenChristian mythology adopted Pagan deities in a roundabout way, with goddesses like Brigidbecoming Saint Brigit.5 Imagine that -- a Semitic desert religion adopting a fierce Pagan goddess
from the Green Isle!
Walter Burkert describes how ancient Greek society included foreign deities: 'The Greek pantheonis not immutable. Only a small number of the Mycenaean gods are Indo-European, and Apollo and
Aphrodite probably arrived only later. The fact that a fixed group of Greek Gods was established at
all is due not least to epic art... [for example] The cult of the dying god Adonis is already found fully
developed in Sappho's circle of young girls on Lesbos... For the Greeks it was well known that he
was an immigrant from the Semitic world, and his origins were traced to Byblos and Cyprus.'6
Today, Wiccan practices most commonly draw upon mythology from the British Isles. Despite the
geographical separation from mainland Europe, there has been plenty of opportunity for
incorporation of foreign deities. John and Caitlin Matthews wrote: 'As successive waves of influencehave dashed against our shores, so has the existing coastline of the mythic dimension been
modified and moulded. Yet the persistent retention of certain characters, archetypes and themes is
remarkable, revealing the true nature of British myth. Indigenous features, like our weather (whichthe Irish call 'soft' but which tourists find plain wet), form the prevailing climate of our belief.
Sleeping kings who will come again, hags who become gift-bestowing maidens, wild men with
staves and other-world women with cups, are all part of our composite tradition. Whatever godsand beliefs have been brought to Britain, they have a way of settling in so that the sharp definition
of their origins is gradually blunted until it blends into the ambience of the new homeland.'7
Deities from different pantheons were mixed together in more than just the merging of lesser
deities into greater deities, or the recognition and often integration of foreign deities into a local ornational pantheon. Magickal practices, such as those recorded in the Greek magickal papyri dating
back to the second century BCE draw clearly from such diverse sources as Egyptian, Greek,
Babylonian, and Jewish mythology to achieve their ends8 Witches, wizards, magickians, priestesses,and priests did not shy away from communing with whatever deities they felt would be most
effective as each situation warranted.
For example, a love spell includes the following invocation: 'I entrust this binding spell to you,
chthonic gods, Hyesemigadon and Kore Persephone Ereschigal and Adonis the Barbaritha, infernalHermes Thoouth Phokentazepseu Aerchtathoumi / Sonktai Kalbanachambre and to mighty Anubis
Psirinth... '9 Within this one incantation, we find Kore (Greek), Adonis (Greek, adopted from Semitic),
Ereshkigal (Assyro-Babylonian), and Anubis (Egyptian) along with others. The ancient magickianwho wrote this spell obviously didn't think it was a bad idea to mix pantheons!
Modern Wicca continues this tradition of eclecticism at its very root. One of the foundation ritual
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8/2/2019 WitchGrotto-Mixing Pantheons in Modern Pagan Practice
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WitchGrotto | Mixing Pantheons in Modern Pagan PracticeCopyright Ben Gruagach [email protected]
http://www.witchgrotto.com/2002/04/mixing-pantheons-in-modern-pagan-practice/
pieces, the Charge of the Goddess, makes this point clear. It starts:
'Listen to the words of the Great Mother; she who of old was also called among men Artemis,
Astarte, Athene, Dione, Melusine, Aphrodite, Cerridwen, Cybele, Arianrhod, Isis, Dana, Bride and bymany other names.' Again, we see within a single ritual passage the presentation of goddesses fromvarious different pantheons all together: Artemis (Greek), Astarte (Canaanite version of Ishtar, also
adopted under this name in Greek culture), Athene (Greek), Dione (Phoenician/Greek), Melusine
(Irish/Scottish/French, possibly Scythian), Aphrodite (Greek), Cerridwen (Welsh), Cybele(Phrygian/Greek, eventually merged with Rhea), Arianrhod (Welsh)... you get the picture.10
Getting to know a particular deity or small group of deities thoroughly through the study of their
myths is a good way to get started on an intimate relationship with these particular expressions of
the Divine. We should be careful to not allow our focused studies to blind us to the larger picture,
though, of how our revered deities and pantheons connect with the rest of the mythological world.As the Greco-Egyptian god Hermes Trismegistus put it succinctly, 'As above, so below.' The ecology
of myth is the same as the ecology of life on Earth: everything is connected.
References:
(1.) 'Deity' chapter, Ellen Cannon Reed's The Heart of Wicca, Weiser: 2000.
(2.) Introduction to Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero's The Magical Pantheons, Llewellyn: 1998.
(3.) 'Inanna's Family Tree, ' page ix, Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer's Inanna: Queen of
Heaven and Earth, Harper & Row: 1983.
(4.) Entries on 'Hellenism' and 'Hellenize, ' Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary, Lexicon Publications:
1988.
(5.) Entry on 'Brigit/Brigid/Bride, ' John and Caitlin Matthews' The Aquarian Guide to British and Irish
Mythology.
(6.) Pages 176-179, Walter Burkert's Greek Religion, Harvard University Press: English translation
1985.
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WitchGrotto | Mixing Pantheons in Modern Pagan PracticeCopyright Ben Gruagach [email protected]
http://www.witchgrotto.com/2002/04/mixing-pantheons-in-modern-pagan-practice/
(7.) Introductory section, pages 12 and 13, John and Caitlin Matthews' The Aquarian Guide to British
and Irish Mythology, Aquarian Press: 1988.
(8.) Introduction to editor Hans Dieter Betz's The Greek Magical Papyri In Translation, University ofChicago Press: 1992.
(9.) Page 44, lines 335 to 345, editor Hans Dieter Betz's The Greek Magical Papyri In Translation,
University of Chicago Press: 1992.
(10.) See individual entries for each goddess in Janet and Stewart Farrar's The Witches' Goddess,
Phoenix Publishing Co.: 1987.
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