Day Twelve: Spirits

This might be surprising, just based on how I typically discuss my experiences as a pagan, but I do think pagans focus too much on gods. The focus on gods above other entities makes sense for some traditions (ie Hellenic, likely Roman), since there just was never a focus on other beings historically. However, when it comes to traditions like Heathenry or the Celtic paganisms (etcetc), there is too much of an emphasis on gods.

Animism was common in many parts of the ancient world and that is reflected in the various spirits attested in mythology or archaeological records, or even surviving folklore. Fairies get plenty of attention in various types of Celtic paganism, at least if books are anything to go by, but I rarely hear Celtic pagans discuss what they actually do to appease them. Heathenry has many nature spirits as well, ie Norse Landvaettir.

You don't even have to take pantheons into consideration, really. Many pagans are animists. There is nothing closer to you than the spirits of the land you live on. I feel that pagans would benefit from honoring those spirits more. I'm, admittedly, not very great at it, but it's been something I've been thinking about a lot the past few months.

I typed a few paragraphs about ancestor veneration, but I'm going to put a pin in that for now. Might not even come up for the rest of the days, but I'll get to it eventually.