Thursday's Thoughts

Can I serve the Gods of my Ancestors?

Being a polytheist can be hard enough under the larger umbrella of the term Pagan without added dramatic bullshit. Most pagans now self identify as pantheist, New Age, or even atheist (seriously?) that for those who actually worship and are called into service of the Divine it gets pretty ridiculous.

Sacred Ibis in flight

Polytheists tend to get the cold shoulder and shunted towards the outside. Which is fine, I don’t much like playing on the swings with people I don’t like anyway.

Now don’t get me wrong, it isn’t like all polytheists are one big happy family either.  There is a great deal of infighting and who is doing what wrong.  There are in fact few polytheists that I admire, let alone like, outside of my local community.  In this I am very fortunate; most of the people where I am are polytheistic as well.  This makes it nice; to have real touchstones and flesh and blood people to talk to.

I took a stint away from the online pagan blog-o-sphere for a few years and got behind the latest ‘You can’t do it that way!’ trend.  Then for some ungodly reason I started reading The Wild Hunt again.  I made the same mistake I always do, I started reading the comments section.

Internet rule…DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS SECTION!!

It seems that the latest trend amongst them all, a few that enrage me, is that as an American I should not be worshiping any gods but the gods of this land.  Now, I’m white. I am a straight, white woman (you won’t hear me call myself Caucasian because my family didn’t come from the Caucasus Mountains). As far as we can prove there is not one drop of First Nation blood running through my veins.  There is rumor and conjecture but nothing more to make that a solid fact.  When you see me you would think I stepped off a boat from Germany or some other Northern European country. I am told I can’t worship the gods of this land because my family isn’t First Nation.

Honestly, I respect their traditions too much to even try.  I am not called by their Ancestors, spirits, and Gods. Read and educate myself, fuck yeah! I love to learn, but I won’t step into where I am not called.

Mother of Ravens by Leo Tomasic

I am called by the blood that is still tied to lands across the ocean.

In reality though, who the hell has the right to tell me what gods to follow when the gods themselves called me into their service.

See, I didn’t just flip open a book at random, throw a dart and decide that was the two Gods I was going to dedicate the rest of my life to. In point of fact I had very little say in the whole matter.  At least one of them has dragged me kicking and screaming the entire way.

Don’t believe me, if you could ask my friends and those in my coven you would know, I did not take this as a happy camper and still some days tug at the reigns that hold me.

Honestly, when it comes to it, no one has the right to tell me who and what I can do or can follow or what Gods I serve.  They are not the personal mouth piece of the gods; whom I have discovered can tell me what they want very clearly.

I read, I research, and I journey and divine. I have done what I can to prove that I am not totally crazy.  I honor, respect, and serve the Gods to the best of my abilities and then push harder.

My service is to Them and no one can take that away. Scoff, scorn, and disagree all that they desire, but in the end I have to do what is right and what I am called to do.