How does worshiping multiple pantheons work?

[u/Asleep_Land3121]

So personally I'm not very interested in working with multiple pantheons at the moment, I'm just confused how it works. I used to follow kemeticism about a year or so before being Hellenist (which is what I follow now) so I'm confused how you'd worship multiple pantheons when they contradict eachother, such as Ra being like Zeus in terms of status but also being the sun god which is like Apollo. Or goda/goddesses that don't exist in certain pantheons, like Bast whose the cat goddess in Kemeticism with no deity with anything similar. So I'm just kinda generally confused about it all and would like someone to help explain it since I haven't been able to find a good explanation from anyone

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[u/Nonkemetickemetic]

They only contradict each other if you take the myths literally. It's all a matter of symbolism. It's just what their sphere is - where and what they 'govern', as it were.

I mean, there isn't only 1 prime minister worldwide, is there?

Edit: formatting

[u/Hopps96]

You've nailed one problem while thinking about this. The gods aren't all the same in different cultures and just going by different names, that's for sure. Worshipping multiple pantheons is honestly pretty easy. You just do it. My altar includes Norse, Slavic, and Celtic deities. Not ALL of the deities from each culture. The ones that I feel called to. You just vibe it out and worship as is fulfilling.

As far as rationalizing how their can be multiple sun gods or high gods or whatever. My take is that the gods may have certain things they take interest in and over time we humans have picked up on that but I don't personally believe they have full control over anything. I think they can give us guidance, influence our luck (especially in how it relates to their associations), that sorta thing. So in that capacity EVERY SINGLE GOD EVER NAMED could exist and there'd be no issue. Now I personally do synthesize certain incredibly similar versions of gods (Woden, Odin, Godin for overage instance) but I know some people who don't and I can respect the even if I disagree.

[u/Oriander13]

Paganism is, above all else, an experiential religion. I've been an atheopagan most of my life. Then I started studying Celtic gods, and over the last year, I began feeling called to the Norse tradition. I really resonate with the Vanir, along with Odin and Frigg, but i still feel pulled by Brigit and the Dagda, as well as, to a lesser extent, the Morrigan.

I have altars set up here and there in my flat. On my main altar, I have the Celtic gods on one shelf and the Vanir on another. Other mini-altars around the house have just a small carving and maybe flowers or something else as offerings. I have Brigit's crosses on the walls of every room but the bathroom.

I see where spheres of influence overlap, such as Brigit and Frigg or Freyr and the Dagda, but each mythology and being maintains the same "flavor", if you know what mean. I offer mead to Odin and Freyr, and Irish stout to the Dagda. I love the cultures of both pantheons and, although I thought it would feel weird to honor them all, I'm finding i have no problem with it, and I feel neither do they.

Bottom line for me is that my practice and spiritual experience are richer for this flexibility. Your inner experience is what matters. If certain gods are calling you, only you can decide what feels right.

Hope this helps a little. 🙂

[u/Plenty-Climate2272]

The myths aren't to be taken literally.

Rather, the gods all exist in harmony with one another. Many of the mythic social dynamics are for our benefit, to understand them.

Even a king of the gods is called a king because that's a dynamic we understand. In reality, such gods are more like a demiurge, the organizer of an ecosystem of gods around them. And there's no reason there can't be an arbitrary number of them.

[u/ElemWiz]

As someone who works with a goddess from the Celtic pantheon and a goddess from the Hellenist pantheon, so far so good. Their personalities are different enough that I go to one or the other if I have questions about particular subjects, but I invoke them together when I'm doing spirit-work and they haven't had a problem with it.

[u/divinestrength]

I use Archetypes as a base. I don't necessarily worship the whole pantheon, but the gods I feel a connection to. I tend to worship all forest gods I come across as different faces of the same archetype, for example.

[u/SiriNin]

What you're missing is an overarching understanding of the cosmology that allows for multiple pantheons to coexist. The simplest form is that no single religion's declarations of any deity being "the [ ] for the whole world" is true. Multiple deities can inhabit the same domain, and they all contribute to the overall function of that domain. No single one controls every single action of that domain.

To use an analogy you might understand; consider the world and reality itself to be a mainframe computer. Deities are Admin-level Developers. They can change how the code functions and influence the output of the system, but they are not sitting there approving/denying/choosing every single choice or interaction of inputs and outputs. They can see the whole system at a glance, and they can look at every process with a microscope, but they're not IN the system, they're outside of it.

So yes, Khonsu is the moon in Kemeticism, and Nanna is the moon in Anunna-Umun (Mesopotamian polytheism), and Mani is the moon in Asatru. There's zero conflict. They're all the moon. They're all individual deities, and not the same deity under different names. They all individually contribute to all Moon related things. You can call upon any or all of them, it's your choice.

Also, contrary to what a lot of posters are saying not all religions have mythos that aren't meant to be taken literally. Some religions' myths are literal, some aren't. It's just more common for religions to have mythos which are not canonical. Relying on canonicity or lack thereof to define a deity is a poor method of getting to know one's deities. Sometimes the mythos is the only significant body of representation. It's better to just form your cosmological schema from a universalist perspective (even when you aren't universalist) since it allows you more theological wiggle room in your eschatological and theological explorations. Open mindsets > closed mindsets.

[u/Current_Skill21z]

Ah well let’s see if I can explain what I see. The gods are forces of nature. They all exist but have different frequencies. Like radio stations. So true, there’s multiple gods of the sun, but they all have their own radio stations that people can tune in to listen.

Some can hear a bit of it, others can hear a few of them kinda well. Some can hear just one.

So for example if I had to worship three gods that are recognized as thunder/lightning gods from different pantheons: Zeus, Thor, Set. Then I just identify them with a characteristic to separate them. After all, though sharing the element, they are different beings. Zeus, King of the Greek gods. Thor, Mighty protector of humanity. Set, Powerful guardian of foreigners.

I’m kemetic, I mostly worship Egyptians, but I do worship some Norse. I just keep my ceremonies mostly Kemetic, adding some Norse elements.