European Paganism on Native American land...

I was doing some research and reading in old threads on the forum and this idea popped into my head.

This is applied to those of us that follow some type of Celtic or Germanic traditions(The goddess Danu... or Woden, that sort) and live in North America.

Not wicca, or celtic wicca or anything of that sort, but reconstructionalists(sp?) or people who follow a bloodline spiritual tradition.

Do you honor all your gods and spiritual beings of your ancestors/land, or do you also honor the local native american(could be Cherokee, Creek, Mohawk, Pueblo depending on where you live since every tribe had their own myths) Gods/ spirits.

I have always been somewhat torn on this subject, as I also have a great deal of Cherokee blood in me, but not as much as I have English/German. And all opinions and discussions are greatly welcomed.

 

everywhere in n & s america IS native american land, any 1 spot may have been used by several ttribes at several times
i believe the native peoples never fopught wars over religion/spirit because honouring 1 is honouring all, the myths celebrations traditions and cerimonies may vary widely but all honour the spirit in all things
so to answer your question, yes to all

 

From what I've read several North American Native Cultures had a general term for the main "deity" and usually was some sort of word for "great spirit." They were mostly panentheistic as well, so I guess what you describe really fits it.

The big exception would be the Central and South American Native Cultures, Aztecs, Mayans, Incas, and Olmec all were mainly polytheistic.

 

I am not terribly interested in European (i.e. Germanic, Celtic, etc) paganism or Native American, BUT I highly recommend "Pagan Europe" by Jones and Pennick.


Very well written and reearched. It's a history book and not a book of rituals or anything.

 

The local spirits are not Native Americans....they are nature spirits. The tree knows nothing of what a "native American" is, nor does it bother with the label "Europeans" either. I honor my ancestors, my gods, but one thing that was always a part of my ancestors religion was adopting the local spirits as their own.

That means if you had a goddess of the river, but that river was left 1000 miles behind you, you did not replace the spirit of the river that is in your new land, you naturally paid tribute to the one that was there.

Though the mythologies of a people use various names, many of the spirits it speaks of is earthwide...not local...such as the Fomori of the Chaos, and the Danaan of the Order...Chaos and Order, universal.

Again, spirits know no ethnicity, and care not of what the ones doing the offering are either...Gods and ancestors are what matter when it comes to blood....spirits of nature all depend of where you are.

I always say, We all have the same Mother (earth), it is our Fathers (tribe) that make us different.

 

Yeah I understand what you mean and it makes a whole lot of sense. I was just using those terms because I didn't have a whole lot of knowledge in the area and didnt think of it that way.

What also spawned this was that certain deities are tied to certain features of the land, not just spirits.