(originally posted in 2004)

Hm. Been a lot of discussion in several of the email groups I'm in, lately, about the rightness and applicability of following multiple pantheons, or using deities from different pantheons in ritual together.

I suppose I should state for the record that I'm a hard polytheist; I simultaneously believe in pretty much every god or goddess that's been worshipped. An added coda, though; just as Yahweh made covenant with Abraham that He, Yahweh, was Abraham's god, and that Abraham and his people should worship no others, I believe that my chosen pantheons are the Irish Gaelic and Hellenic ones, and that my own specific deities of choice (chosen from both sides, mine and theirs) are Brigid and Diancecht (which I suppose gives me decided henotheistic leanings). I can believe in Jesus as a deity; He just isn't my god.

A good metaphor for this which I heard stated (once upon a time) was major league sports. A man may watch sports generally and enjoy them all, but he has one particular baseball or football team he follows closely. He goes to all their games; he roots for them constantly, no matter how well they're doing; he collects signed balls or other sorts of memorabilia. (Cubs fans are a particularly good example of this). This team is his team, just as the Cardinals or the Bears or the Celtics may be his best friend's team.

The thing is, I've been feeling a call/attachment to other gods and goddesses outside of the Irish pantheon, and it's not just a recent development. While I don't try to call these other deities in ritual with Brigid or Lugh or Danu or Diancecht, the focus and interest I feel coming from them (UPG) is unmistakable.

For example, I've always felt called to the Greek pantheon in general, and to Apollo, Artemis, Athena, and Hermes in specific...so much so, that I have a statue of Artemis on one of my altars. (Haven't been able to find any statues of the others I can afford yet).

Other examples include Loki [1] and Vesta [2]. The eternally-lit flame of Vesta has a certain similarity (in form if not in background) to the candletending I do for Brigid, but I really don't think the call I'm feeling comes from such a misplaced similiarity.

So...I don't know. I feel mixing deities in ritual is a bad idea, IMO, but I'm reluctant to simply ignore these other deities; doing so when they are calling you is never a good idea. Gods don't take being ignored well, I think.

I suppose I'm going to have to do some more research and try to find a safe, aesthetic, and spiritually-satisifying way of honoring all of these deities in a way that will neither leave Brigid et. al. feeling offended, nor make the non-Irish deities feel slighted.

[1] Although recently there was a huge discussion--almost an argument--in one of the Asatru discussion groups I'm part of as to whether Loki could really be considered a god or if he was just a Jotun artificially elevated to a prominent place in the pantheon based on one line of lore in one story and a single church with a stone named for Loki in it. Not being Asatru, though I signed up to those groups to learn more, I declined to offer my own feelings on the matter.[a]

[2] Not Hestia...go figure. I feel absolutely no calling to the rest of the Roman pantheon whatsoever (aside from a possible slight interest in Mercury, which would correspond to the 'call' I feel from Hermes). I certainly won't go fluff and claim it's because I was a Vestal in a previous reincarnation [b], but I'm at a loss to explain it.

[a] Which would definitely be that he was a god. :)

[b] If anything, and if you want to theorize that physical predilections and emotional tendencies are the potential deja-vu-esque manifestation of fragmentary memories from previous incarnations, sacred prostitute in a temple to Aphrodite or Ishtar is far more likely a prior life...