Reconciling Multiple Spiritual Traditions

[Freomæg]

In my introduction thread I made some mention of how I reconcile Celtic and Germanic spiritual paths. A suggestion was made that I start a thread dedicated to that precise topic, so here it is.

I believe it's possible to collaborate most Pagan forms of spiritual practice into one legitimate path of your own (or your own folk, as with Britain) without undermining established traditions - particularly when connecting two such similar folkish strains as Celtic and Germanic Paganism. The pairing of, say, Native American with Germanic spirituality is possible even, to a certain extent - but not as compatible as two neighbouring, ethnically-similar spiritual traditions.

Here are my views on the the practicality of this. I'll concentrate mostly on the bonding of Celtic and Germanic tradition as it is the combination I am most familiar with.

I'll start by clarifying that all spirituality worldwide has a common conceptual origin. 40,000 years ago or so, what we now call 'Shamanism' came to exist. This occured at roughly the same time the world over. The idea of 'journeying' to an immaterial spirit-world took flight, often by the use of hallucinogenic drugs. Shamans obtained knowledge from the spirit-world to aid activities in this world such as healing, hunting and science. Soon the Shamans encountered recurring gods and spirits in the spirit-world, the importance of seasonal and astrological events, in spiritual matters, became significant and were marked by festival and ritual. Thus, Paganism is Shamanism in origin and all key elements of every Pagan tradition share the same key principals. In reconciling different forms of Paganism, it is these commonalities that should be focussed upon.

It is widely observed that the gods of different European pantheons have their counterparts elsewhere. Example: The Roman god of war Mars compares with the Germanic god of war Týr/Tīw. Indeed, in Occult texts, the major planets of our solar system are asigned to the major gods of the pantheons and the planet Mars is known as 'the warrior planet'. In the same texts, Mars is Tuesday's planet. Seeing as the word 'Tuesday' is synomynous with Tīw's Day, it becomes clear that both Týr/Tīw and Mars carry the same significance and are one another's counterpart. Similar comparisons are drawn throughout the major gods, planets and days of the week.

Possibly even before the gods, were the symbols.



The snake or serpent devouring its own tail is among the most ancient of all symbols. Known as the Ouroboros to the Greeks, Jörmungandr or the Midgard Serpent to the Germanic, Aidophedo in West African traditions, Quetzalcoatl to the Aztecs, Adisesha in Hindu tradition - to name a few. It represents cyclicality, rebirth and immortality throughout and is an excellent example of how the serpent or snake was of foremost importance in all early forms of spirituality.

To focus more on the commonalities between Celtic and Germanic tradition, I'll use the examples of the Valknut and Celtic Trinity.


Valknut


Celtic Trinity (or Triquetra)

Through my studies, it seems both essentially represent the three realms and their seamless connection (represented by the unicursal nature of the design).

The Valknut's three interlocking shapes and nine points suggest rebirth, pregnancy, and cycles of reincarnation. The nine points are also suggestive of the Nine Worlds (and the nine fates) of Norse mythology. Their interwoven shape suggests the belief of the interrelatedness of the three realms of earth, hel, and the heavens, and the nine domains they encompass. The Valknut is also an important symbol to many followers of the Odinist faith, who often wear it as a symbol of the faith.

Source

The Triquetra has similar connotations and is often used by Germanic Heathens in place of, or as well as the Valknut. Sources claiming that the Valknut belongs to Odin are not neccessarily incorrect, but I would contest that the core concepts of the spirit-world, the three realms and symbolism are probably older even than communication with the gods. My guess is that the Valknut would have been adopted by Odin at a later date.

Interesting to note that ancient Northern-European rock carvings (such as runes) are often very angular, whereas ancient British/Celtic carvings were more rounded and organic (such as Ogham).


Newgrange, Ireland


Kylver Stone


In conclusion, my method of reconciling Celtic with Germanic spiritual traditions is to focus almost wholly upon the commonalities. This often involves emphasis of the earliest, most universal concepts, with the festivities and rituals of choice being the ones most strongly established in my land (usually Celtic). Britain IS a Celto-Germanic country and so it has been vital to find a way to converge the two paths into a single uniquely-British one. The gods are more difficult. You can either bring them all together, or focus more upon the nameless, archetypal characteristics of Tyr/Mars, Woden/Mercury, Thunor/Jupiter and Venus/Freya whilst opting not to commit to one name or another (I realise those are Roman, not Celtic gods, but they're easier to compare due to the Occultic synchronisation of gods with certain Roman-named planets).

Hope some of you made it to the end of that and if anyone has anything to add or correct, please do. I'd be interested to hear everyone's thoughts on this.

[Psychonaut]

I believe it's possible to collaborate most Pagan forms of spiritual practice into one legitimate path of your own (or your own folk, as with Britain) without undermining established traditions - particularly when connecting two such similar folkish strains as Celtic and Germanic Paganism.

I'm definitely starting to lean in this direction myself. While I certainly understand the merits of strict reconstructionism, I've lately found myself wondering why I was only concerned with reconstructing the religion of one group of my ancestors. For those of us whose ancestry lies in Germany, France, Switzerland or the Isles, chances are your ancestry is more Celtic than anything else (if the distributions of R1b1b2 mean what we think they do). My first thought when attempting to reconcile this was to go back to the common root of both Celtic and Germanic paganism: Proto-Indo-European polytheism. However, since that's entirely conjectural, it wouldn't make for a good religion at all.

What I've been doing of late is intentionally using ambiguous names that could refer to a Germanic God just as easily as it could a Celtic (or even *gasp* Latin). For example, when I step outside, I hail the Sun, Moon, Day, Night and Dawn, and I call them by those names. I hail the Spear God and the Queen of the Heavens. I hail the Lord and Lady of the Wood. And so on. I think it helps that I've never been too hung up on the Norse perspective and was always a lot more interested in Continental polytheism (since that's where my roots mostly lie). I still don't think I'd be OK with mentioning the specific names of deities from disparate pantheons in the same rite, but a certain level of ambiguity is certainly making me feel more at ease with my Gallic ancestors.

I'll start by clarifying that all spirituality worldwide has a common conceptual origin. 40,000 years ago or so, what we now call 'Shamanism' came to exist...

An excellent rundown of Shamanism. I've just got one thing to add. Some variety of ancestor veneration and funeral rites are observed in, I think, all Paleolithic cultures. We know that this definitely formed part of the core of Germanic religion and probably early Celtic as well. I think it's important to note that, due to the practice of ancestor worship, most Paleolithic and Neolithic religions probably would've been what we call Folkish nowadays. In any event, we know the Celts were, thanks to their 'protector of the folk' Toutatis. So, I think that the ethnic component should certainly go up as another commonality that Celtic and Germanic faiths shared, and I see no reason why the ideas can't be fused together into a Celto-Germanic identity.

[Jägerstaffel]

As someone of Germanic-British Isles blood, I have to agree with you both.
There doesn't have to be an incompatibility in the way we venerate our traditions or our ancestors.

I think it's very likely that both sides of my bloodline had a very similiar view of the world and our place in it and for me, as my Heathenism is more of a celebration of what I consider my ancestor's ideals - it makes it easier to reconcile the differences in the beliefs.

[Lyfing]

Shamanism was probably the first go at spirituality, but just because the mythologies of the planters and astrologers came after shamanism doesn't mean they are some sort of an evolution of it. In fact, they may very well do nothing but take away the individuality of the shamans in favor of a "holy society."

Joseph Campbell in his Primitive Mythology has explained this better than I can, so here is what he had to say..

The highest concern of all the mythologies, ceremonials, ethical
systems, and social organizations of the agriculturally based societies
has been that of suppressing the manifestations of individualism;
and this has been generally achieved by compelling or
persuading people to identify themselves not with their own interests,
intuitions, or modes of experience, but with the archetypes
of behavior and systems of sentiment developed and maintained in
the public domain. A world vision derived from the lesson of the
plants, representing the individual as a mere cell or moment in a
larger process that of the sib, the race, or, in larger terms, the
species so devaluates even the first signs of personal spontaneity
that every impulse to self-discovery is purged away. 'Truly, truly,
I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,
it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." n This noble
maxim represents the binding sentiment of the holy society that
is to say, the church militant, suffering, and triumphant of those
who do not wish to remain alone.

But, on the other hand, there have always been those who have
very much wished to remain alone, and have done so, achieving
sometimes, indeed, even that solitude in which the Great Spirit, the
Power, the Great Mystery that is hidden from the group in its
concerns is intuited with the inner impact of an immediate force.
And the endless round of the serpent's way, biting its tail, sloughing
its old skin, to come forth renewed and slough again, is then
itself cast away often with scorn for the supernormal experience
of an eternity beyond the beat of time. Like an eagle the spirit
then soars on its own wings. The dragon "Thou Shalt," as Nietzsche
terms the social fiction of the moral law, has been slain by the
lion of self-discovery; and the master roars as the Buddhists
phrase it the lion roar: the roar of the great Shaman of the mountain
peaks, of the void beyond all horizons, and of the bottomless
abyss.

Primitive Mythology, page 240

So, with the above in mind, we can see how the two world views differ to the point of being opposites. Hardly could have one came out of the other, even though they may spring from the same source, namely man-kind.

The conflict between these two world views can be seen in the mythologies of anywhere they came into contact. In our Teutonic mythology with the Jotuns, the binding of Loki, and maybe even the war between the Aesir and Vanir. Again I will let Campbell explain further..

I do not know of any myth that represents more clearly than
this the crisis that must have faced the societies of the Old World
when the neolithic order of the earth-bound villages began to make
its power felt in a gradual conquest of the most habitable portions
of the earth. The situation in Arizona and New Mexico at the
period of the discovery of America was, culturally, much like that
which must have prevailed in the Near and Middle East and in
Europe from the fourth to second millenniums B.C., when the rigid
patterns proper to an orderly settlement were being imposed on
peoples used to the freedom and vicissitudes of the hunt. And if
we turn our eyes to the mythologies of the Hindus, Persians,
Greeks, Celts, and Germans, we immediately recognize, in the
well-known, oft-recited tales of the conquest of the titans by the
gods, analogies to this legend of the subjugation of the shamans
by the Hactcin. The titans, dwarfs, and giants are represented as
the powers of an earlier mythological age crude and loutish, egoistic
and lawless, in contrast to the comely gods, whose reign of
heavenly order harmoniously governs the worlds of nature and
man. The giants were overthrown, pinned beneath mountains,
exiled to the rugged regions at the bounds of the earth, and as
long as the power of the gods can keep them there the people, the
animals, the birds, and all living things will know the blessings of
a world ruled by law.

Primitive Mythology, pages 238-239

Now, to go a bit further, we are living in a different world where the emphasis is once again on the individual, on making man-kind into gods.

The prophecy is the same as that of the Eddic Twilight of the
Gods, when Loki will lead forth the rugged hosts of Hel:

Then shall happen what seems great tidings: the Wolf
shall swallow the sun; and this shall seem to men a great
harm. Then the other wolf shall seize the moon, and he also
shall work great ruin; the stars shall vanish from the heavens.
Then shall come to pass these tidings also: all the earth shall
tremble so, and the crags, that trees shall be torn up from
the earth, and the crags fall to ruin; and all fetters and bonds
shall be broken and rent. . . . The Fenris-Wolf shall advance
with gaping mouth, and his lower jaw shall be against
the earth, but the upper against heaven, he would gape yet
more if there were room for it; fires blaze forth from his eyes
and nostrils. The Midgard Serpent shall blow venom so that
he shall sprinkle all the air and water; and he is very terrible,
and shall be on one side of the Wolf. . . . Then shall the
Ash of Yggdrasil tremble, and nothing then shall be without
fear in heaven or on earth.65

The binding of the shamans by the Hactcin, by the gods and
their priests, which commenced with the victory of the neolithic
over the paleolithic way of life, may perhaps be already terminating
--today--in this period of the irreversible transition of society
from an agricultural to industrial base, when not the piety of the
planter, bowing humbly before the will of the calendar and the
gods of rain and sun, but the magic of the laboratory, flying rocket
ships where the gods once sat, holds the promise of the boons of
the future.

"Could it be possible! This old saint in the forest has not heard
that God is dead!" 66

Nietzsche's word was the first pronouncement of the Promethean
Titan that is now coming unbound within us for the next world
age. And the priests of the chains of Zeus may well tremble; for
the bonds are disintegrating of themselves.

Primitive Mythology, page 281

And, again, further..

With this we come to the final hint of what the specific orientation
of the modern hero-task must be, and discover the real
cause for the disintegration of all of our inherited religious formulae.
The center of gravity, that is to say, of the realm of mystery and
danger has definitely shifted- Nor the primitive hunting peoples of
those remotest human millenniums when the sabertooth tiger,
the mammoth, and the lesser presences of the animal kingdom
were the primary manifestations of what was alien—the source
at once of danger, and of sustenance—the great human problem
was to become linked psychologically to the task of sharing the
wilderness with these beings. An unconscious identification took
place, and this was finally rendered conscious in the half-human,
half-animal, figures of the mythological totem-ancestors. The animals
became the tutors of humanity. Through acts of literal imitation—
such as today appear only on the children's playground
(or in the madhouse) —an effective annihilation of the human
ego was accomplished and society achieved a cohesive organization.
Similarly, the tribes supporting themselves on plant-food
became cathected to the plant; the life-rituals of planting and
reaping were identified with those of human procreation, birth,
and progress to maturity. Both the plant and the animal worlds,
however, were in the end brought under social control. Whereupon
the great field of instructive wonder shifted—to the skies—
and mankind enacted the great pantomime of the sacred moonking,
the sacred sun-king, the hieratic, planetary state, and the
symbolic festivals of the world-regulating spheres.

Today all of these mysteries have lost their force; their symbols
no longer interest our psyche. The notion of a cosmic law,
which all existence serves and to which man himself must bend,
has long since passed through the preliminary mystical stages
represented in the old astrology, and is now simply accepted
in mechanical terms as a matter of course. The descent of the Occidental
sciences from the heavens to the earth (from seventeenthcentury
astronomy to nineteenth-century biology), and their concentration
today, at last, on man himself (in twentieth-century
anthropology and psychology), mark the path of a prodigious
transfer of the focal point of human wonder. Not the animal
world, not the plant world, not the miracle of the spheres, but
man himself is now the crucial mystery. Man is that alien presence
with whom the forces of egoism must come to terms,
through whom the ego is to be crucified and resurrected, and in
whose image society is to be reformed. Man, understood however
not as "I" but as "Thou": for the ideals and temporal institutions
of no tribe, race, continent, social class, or century, can be
the measure of the inexhaustible and multifariously wonderful
divine existence that is the life in all of us.

The modern hero, the modern individual who dares to heed
the call and seek the mansion of that presence with whom it is
our whole destiny to be atoned, cannot, indeed must not, wait
for his community to cast off its slough of pride, fear, rationalized
avarice, and sanctified misunderstanding. "Live," Nietzsche
says, "as though the day were here." It is not society that is to
guide and save the creative hero, but precisely the reverse. And
so every one of us shares the supreme ordeal —carries the cross
of the redeemer—not in the bright moments of his tribe's great
victories, but in the silences of his personal despair.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces, pages 360-362

One last thing. I think this way of going about reconciling ourselves is wonderful, and I offer one last quote ( finally.. ) from good 'ole Joseph Campbell..

The norms of myth, understood in the way rather of the "elementary ideas" than of the "ethnic", recognized, as in the Domitilla Ceiling (Figure 1), through an intelligent "making use" not of one mythology only but of all the dead and set-fast symbologies of the past, will enable the individual to anticipate and activate in himself the centers of his own creative imagination, out of which his own myth and life-building "Yes because" may then unfold. But in the end, as in the case of Parzival, the guide within will be his own noble heart alone, and the guide without, the image of beauty, the radiance of divinity, that wakes in his heart amor: the deepest, inmost seed of his nature, consubstantial with the process of the All, "thus come." And in this life-creative adventure the criterion of achievement will be, as in every one of the tales here reviewed, the courage to let go the past, with its truths, its goals, its dogmas of "meaning," and its gifts: to die to the world and to come to birth from within.

Creative Mythology, pages 677-678

Later,
-Lyfing

[Freomæg]

I certainly understand the merits of strict reconstructionism

Me too. And for a Scandinavian Germanic, southern Italian, or perhaps even a Welshman it would be most prudent to exercise a strict form of reconstructionism, because the ancestry is relatively singular. But for people like us it feels more wholesome and honest to acknowledge all of our significant ancestral ways.

I've lately found myself wondering why I was only concerned with reconstructing the religion of one group of my ancestors. For those of us whose ancestry lies in Germany, France, Switzerland or the Isles, chances are your ancestry is more Celtic than anything else

Yes and I think that in these places - particularly the Isles - Celto-Germanicism has become a group all of its own, rather than merely being a way to describe the mixture of two distinct groups. Here, we've had 1,500 years of Celto-Germanicism, and whilst most of that time lies within the jurasdiction of Christianity, it's still a lot of time during which pre-Christian Celtic and Germanic folklore and belief have become inextricable from one another. I've never felt right opting to acknowledge Germanicism at the neglect of Celticism, or vice versa.

I still don't think I'd be OK with mentioning the specific names of deities from disparate pantheons in the same rite, but a certain level of ambiguity is certainly making me feel more at ease with my Gallic ancestors.

That's something I'm not comfortable with either but the key, as you said, is ambiguity. The character, strength and significance of each god is what matters - not the name. My intuition tells me that the gods are comfortable with being recognised by multiple names, if need be. During meditation, I'm open to the possibilty of encountering Thunor, but that he might introduce himself to me by an unfamiliar name. I could then choose to use that name when referring to him. Thunor might only be named "Thunor" because one ancient Germanic encountered him and introduced the rest of his tribe to "Thunor". Had everyone in that tribe encountered that same god directly, who's to say they wouldn't each have returned with a completely different name for him. This ties in to the points Lyfing made.

I think that the ethnic component should certainly go up as another commonality that Celtic and Germanic faiths shared, and I see no reason why the ideas can't be fused together into a Celto-Germanic identity.

As with language, I'm certain Celtic and Germanic spiritualities are two adjacent branches on the same tree with a not-so-distant connection.

Shamanism was probably the first go at spirituality, but just because the mythologies of the planters and astrologers came after shamanism doesn't mean they are some sort of an evolution of it. In fact, they may very well do nothing but take away the individuality of the shamans in favor of a "holy society."

I see your point Lyfing and it harks back to that old critique of 'religion being a perversion of spirituality'. But in my opinion, rather than early religion being the antithesis of original spirituality (Shamanism), it is the 'perversion' or development-of, if you like. This in the sense that I don't believe religious-Paganism would exist had it not been for earlier, pre-religious contact with the spirit-world. But I take your point that they are in some contrast to one another. As I mentioned above in my reply to Psychonaut, religion (even non-oppressive forms of early Paganism) was based on the idea that a select group of people would relay their direct experience with the otherworld and its spirits, whilst the majority would take this as faith. One example being that Thunor is only called "Thunor" because one person was introduced to him by that name.

So, with the above in mind, we can see how the two world views differ to the point of being opposites. Hardly could have one came out of the other, even though they may spring from the same source, namely man-kind.

I respect your insightful opinion on the matter, but I can't see them as opposites. For me, the core of all pre-Abrahamic religion is belief in the spirit-world(s). Two systems which carry this same core have something vital in common, to my eyes.

[Psychonaut]

Me too. And for a Scandinavian Germanic, southern Italian, or perhaps even a Welshman it would be most prudent to exercise a strict form of reconstructionism, because the ancestry is relatively singular. But for people like us it feels more wholesome and honest to acknowledge all of our significant ancestral ways.

Exactly. Like I've said elsewhere, being French is a bit tricky when it comes to dealing with pre-Roman meta-ethnic labels, because none of them exactly fit. The only reason I've ever been concerned with any type of meta-ethnic label to begin with is because my particular ethnic group arose during the Christian era and has no pagan tradition of its own to reach back to. While I'm certainly more comfortable with the Germanic mythos, lately, ever since I uncovered some actual Gauls in my family tree, my Celtic roots just seem to have been calling.

Looking back I can see where I've wrongly tried to convince myself and others that I was more Germanic than Celtic when that may not be the case at all; I'm not really sure. The reason for that was certainly, what I see now, as a false "need" for a singularly Germanic religious expression. A lot of that probably stems from my utter hatred of those fluffy Wiccan types, but, regardless, it doesn't seem to have been the healthiest phase.

During meditation, I'm open to the possibilty of encountering Thunor, but that he might introduce himself to me by an unfamiliar name.

It may not be a wholly appropriate response, but upon reading this I was immediately reminded of a passage from Nietzsche's Antichrist that I'd been reading just today:

The fact that the strong races of northern Europe did not repudiate this Christian god does little credit to their gift for religion--and not much more to their taste. They ought to have been able to make an end of such a moribund and worn-out product of the decadence. A curse lies upon them because they were not equal to it; they made illness, decrepitude and contradiction a part of their instincts--and since then they have not managed to create any more gods. Two thousand years have come and gone--and not a single new god! Instead, there still exists, and as if by some intrinsic right,--as if he were the ultimatum and maximum of the power to create gods, of the creator spiritus in mankind--this pitiful god of Christian monotono-theism! This hybrid image of decay, conjured up out of emptiness, contradiction and vain imagining, in which all the instincts of decadence, all the cowardices and wearinesses of the soul find their sanction!--

I wonder if our "need" for religious singularity might not, in part at least, be an instinct leftover from Christianity. All of the evidence leads us to believe that our ancestors were truly pluralistic and had no problems adapting their faiths during times of migration or conquest. So, why should we, peoples forged from disparate groups, cling to the identity of only one of our ingredients? Is the sum not stronger than the parts?

I've also got one question for you, Cythraul. On a more practical note, how do you, personally, reconcile the seasonal festivals?

[Freomæg]

I've also got one question for you, Cythraul. On a more practical note, how do you, personally, reconcile the seasonal festivals?

I'm going to be completely honest and say that I don't pay great attention to the festivals. The Winter Solstice and Samhain are the ones I primarily celebrate. Firstly, I've never been keen on the concept of honouring certain deities at certain times because I feel they're available to me at all times; Secondly, my form of spiritual practice is less about gods and more about my own personal spirit allies.

If I put more sway in seasonal festivals, I'd reconcile them by acknowledging the ones most inextricably linked to the traditions of my ancestral land. For example, Beltane/May Day is paramount within British tradition. I'm less interested in whether this is Celtic, Germanic, Roman, Gaelic or Brythonic than I am in the fact that it is British. In other words, whichever Celtic and Germanic festivals have prevailed most in Britain are important to me. I'll let my country's tradition choose which ones I adopt.

[Psychonaut]

If I put more sway in seasonal festivals, I'd reconcile them by acknowledging the ones most inextricably linked to the traditions of my ancestral land.

Excellent. We've worked out a similar arrangement based on our American holidays. The Yuletide and Easter go without saying; then come November, we coincide our Harvest festival with Thanksgiving. I'm very keen on working pagan traditions back into the holidays that already exist in our cultural matrix rather than having my kids be the only ones in town who don't celebrate Yule on December 25th. We certainly don't have traditions that are as far reaching as you guys, but we're trying to made due with what we've got.

[Baron Samedi]

I accidentally posted in the "Celts and Germans" thread, but I will say again that I am ALL FOR codifying some "system" where Celtic and Germanic belief can be syncretic.

I think that the stigma of "dual trad", especially for two folk groups that were confused constantly anways, needs to end.

[Lyfing]

Could any of you all recommend some good things to read on about Celtic Mythology..??

I've always been just way off into the Germanic Sphere, and now, all of a sudden, I find myself wondering about just what it was these Celtic folk ( of which I am no doubt a part of ) were messing around with..??

About all I know of is Queen Meave, with her Mother Right ( as Campbell told me about ) with The Cattle Raid of Cooley. And, Cuchullin.

Cernunnus, the horned god, the images of him, always did something to me..

Tell me more..??

Later,
-Lyfing