Day Thirteen: Pantheons

I typed "pantheons" for my chosen prompt (a bit meta, considering the prompt list), then immediately thought of 50 different directions I could go with this. I thought about the ways pantheons in paganism could be restrictive, but I feel like that's actually better suited for a later prompt.

I'm not 100% sure where I'm going with this now, so...bear with me.

I have personally worshiped deities from several different pantheons and have always had at least some interest in...basically every single pantheon I've ever read about, to varying degrees. I'm a reconstructionist, so when I decide to worship a deity, I try to learn about both the deity in question and the culture they came from. I don't often go super in depth with the culture part, just the parts that are relevant to approaching the deity respectfully (ie ritual norms from the time they were originally worshiped, if such information is available).

That being said, I don't stray too far from what I've already been doing very often. My most recent "outsider" deity, for lack of a better term, is Ereshkigal. I have felt drawn to her since I was at least in my early 20s (like Early early, maybe exactly 20 years old), but never really pursued it relatively until recently. There isn't even any particular reason why not. I am absolutely fascinated by ancient Mesopotamia and have done a lot of reading about both Mesopotamian history and religion just for the hell of it. From what I can tell, however, Ereshkigal was not actively worshiped. This does track with how chthonic deities were viewed in other cultures in the region. This isn't really the place for this though, I'll stay on topic, I promise.

Pantheons I currently focus on are Irish, Norse and Greek. The first pantheon I ever had interest in, however, was the Egyptian one. I've had renewed interest in the Netjeru recently though.

Hellenic (Greek) pagans are so spoiled though. We know so much about how the ancient Greeks viewed their gods and how they worshiped them and what sorts of things they offered them. We have surviving hymns and a plethora of myths. It can make looking into pantheons with less information (ie Sumerian, Baltic) incredibly frustrating, since there is just so much more to base your practice off of in the case of Hellenic paganism.

I still don't know what the hell I'm talking about right now. Sorry lol. Tomorrow might be a little more coherent.