I am very strong on ancestor worship, not my immediate ancestors, but the gods of my ancient ancestors. I know for a fact my surname, Shelton, is the name of a few towns in England, but I have a good bit of Irish in me, and obviously English. My mother's maiden name is Williams, but not from the english williams, but the german line. Her Great Grandpa immigrated from Germany around the first of the 20th century. I dont think he ever learned good english. For a few years I have been strictly honoring the Irish side, I have great respect for the mother Danu whom would be considered my patron goddess. I've also been having some thoughts go out to Bile lately. Others include Brigid and Cernunos. For a while I have been seeing pairs of Ravens and this is leading me to believe that I need to honor the germanic side with Odin. How would I go about doing that and would I also need to honor Frigga and the other Aesir while at the same time honoring my celtic dieties. This is the reason I've been posting my threads of this subject nature lately but I want you all's opinion, especially the opinions of Fjordnellson(sp),heron, and zoomie.
There's absolutely no reason why you can't honour both - choose the pantheon that's appropriate for the occasion. Since both of these pantheons are in your ancestry (and probably a lot of British/our descendants), it's not as though you're choosing one that's completely alien to the land you have spiritual ties to, such as the Japanese kami. For example, if you wanted to work with Runes, the obvious choice to be called upon in rituals surrounding them (if any, personally I don't have much truck with ritual) would be the norse pantheon, particularly Odin (wisdom, hidden knowledge). For a more Celtic celebration of the Sabbats (which, let's face it, a lot of modern Pagan celebration is) then go for Brigid, Cernunnos or another Celtic god(dess). Just try not to play pick'n'mix with the gods, call on those that are appropriate to the occasion. Pick'n'mixing pantheons (like some I've seen that call on Isis and Cernunnos) is a very "fluffy bunny" thing to do. And if you DO pick'n'mix, and I've just given you the deadly insult of fluffy bunny; well, eclecticism is all very well but we need SOME consistency.
Nah I dont do anything remotely similar to that, I try and stick with the old traditions(or what I know of them). I was into Wicca at an early age and a lot of the mixing goes on among some of them. Not all of them are into that, my girlfriend practices witchcraft but she is somewhat agnostic. I've been doing some heavy thinking and self reflection on the subject and I have came to my own conclusion that its perfectly ok because in some of my research the two types of people mingled together and of course the Vikings ruled the British Isles at one point in history. Not only that but it would probably be more disrespectful to them to not observe both sides. I still would like to hear everyones input and opinions and thank you Quoth for yours.
hey, don't mention it. Me, I'm more than likely half celtic half viking - that basically makes up most of the basic stock of England. ireland & Wales are pureish Celt, Scotland are Scot (obviously) and Pict, with maybe some Celt in there as well. Your hair colour can give you a clue as to your nationality: brunettes are Celtic, blondes are anglo-saxon and Vikings are strawberry blonde, with the occasional rehead. Although redheads pop up in each group. That's just a generalisation, but it seems to hold true for lots of people, except when there's LOTS of mixing going on, and it doesn't take into account other nationalities.
I saw a program on the telly months back, they DNA tested a handful of people in Britain, to see where there ancestry came from. So all these people were guessing they would be mostly Irish or Scottish, and some assumed they would have a German or other European link, etc. In fact, most of the people had a middle eastern link, apparently it is the most common dna link for people in the uk. The thing is, recent memory will probably only tell you that your mum originated from Germany, or that someone lived in Ireland, but think back in British and European history, all sorts of changes have gone on. At the height of the Roman Empire, it was not uncommon for people to travel between all the countries within it. That includes North Africa, the mediterranean, the middle east, and europe, but only as far as Scotland, I think. The germanic countries are also a mix of people spreading from Russia, across to greenland, iceland, and even the eskimo people. So it's really difficult to pinpoint a race that you actually belong to, even to pinpoint just two or three, because they are all a huge mix of history. I found it really fascinating to watch this programme, I started out thinking that I am pretty much English, having traced my family tree back 200-300 years and found nothing outside these shores, but I have changed my thinking now, looking at the bigger picture. I'd love to get my DNA tested one day, if only it weren't so darn expensive!!
i only really honour the gods from my ancestry aswell, celtic ( i am abit scottish, irish and welsh), norse (i have found viking and norman ancestors in my family tree), i am mainly english. but at the same time, i also honour the gods i feel drawn too, even though they may not be part of my ancestry, for example i feel drawn to native american spirituality, south american (mayan, inca and aztec) and egyptian. but there is the slight possibility that i am connected by blood to the native american line ( an ancestor of mine might have come from canada, so there could be native american blood there ) and it is said that the irish are descended from an egyptian queen called Scota. i think its fine to worship who ever calls to you. but idealy, i like to keep it ancestral. so for you, there would be no problem worshipping the norse gods as well as the celtic ones, im sure that would have happend when the vikings landed in celtic countries. hope this helps. blessings xxx
Ravens are also a symbol of the Celtic Goddess the Morrighan, so you might also want to look into that. She is a very powerful goddess as well.
i honor everything, seen or unseen, that hugs me back. their names, if they even have or use names, are their own, and unknown to me, who has trouble remembering names anyway. some of my unseen friends are like little furry creatures, others like huge blobs of energy of varying hugeness. =^^= .../\...
