{"id":4032,"date":"2012-04-05T20:59:09","date_gmt":"2012-04-06T02:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4032"},"modified":"2012-04-06T09:51:07","modified_gmt":"2012-04-06T15:51:07","slug":"adding-new-gods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4032","title":{"rendered":"Adding New Gods"},"content":{"rendered":"

P. Sufenas Virius Lupus wonders about how new gods are added to polytheist pantheons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Something that will often happen, particularly with reconstructionist-based practitioners, is that further research into a particular deity and their connections leads to “new-to-me” or various other re-discovered deities that are then taken into one’s personal pantheon. Or, suddenly, a deity emerges in one’s experiences that one hadn’t paid attention to previously, or gets one’s attention in some fashion or other; whether they are readily identified or if it takes some study to figure out who they are, such encounters often occur that expand one’s personal network of divine relationships.\u00a0 . . .<\/p>\n

What about the less-frequent (but nonetheless possible) reality of totally new deities, though? How does one deal with this issue when it arises? I have yet to see any modern Pagan or polytheist treatment of this matter, nor any conventional training and education on when and why it can occur, nor how to handle it when it does. And, while it might not be that frequent of an occurrence, I suspect that we are going to see a lot more of it in the near future as our community expands and the world continues to change.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He goes on to discuss how today’s Pagans might deal with the emergence of new gods, including an ancient oracular practice<\/p>\n

The blog made me think, for example, of how the Santa Muerte cult<\/a> has grown, moving even beyond people with roots in Mexico. The image has been around a long time\u2014go into any folklore museum in New Mexico, for instance, and you will see the similar Do\u00f1a Sebastiana in her car<\/a>t, a relic of the old lay brotherhood of the Penitentes<\/a>. Does that make La Santa Muerte a “new” goddess, or just an upgraded one?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

P. Sufenas Virius Lupus wonders about how new gods are added to polytheist pantheons. Something that will often happen, particularly with reconstructionist-based practitioners, is that further research into a particular deity and their connections leads to “new-to-me” or various other re-discovered deities that are then taken into one’s personal pantheon. Or, suddenly, a deity emerges […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,41,32,40],"class_list":["post-4032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-religion","tag-mexico","tag-new-mexico","tag-polytheism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-132","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":556,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=556","url_meta":{"origin":4032,"position":0},"title":"Japanese deitiesPart of the interaction\u2026","author":"Chas S. 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Help!) that mentioned one man whose mansion had something like a mosaic of images of Mao Zedong.The reporter seemed bemused, since Chairman Mao (1893-1976) was after all\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2824,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2824","url_meta":{"origin":4032,"position":2},"title":"Talking about Tlaloc, 2","author":"Chas S. 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Clifton","date":"August 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This puts a new spin on the phrase \"rush hour of the gods.\"In the gods' haste to resolve the matter, some of the souls were apparently misplaced. In one instance, an adherent of Buddhism slated to be reborn into an Ohio family was temporarily reincarnated as a tree sloth. And\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"polytheism\"","block_context":{"text":"polytheism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=polytheism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5073,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5073","url_meta":{"origin":4032,"position":4},"title":"Gerald Gardner and the Question of Polytheism.","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently reviewed Philip Heselton's latest biography of Gerald Gardner, but I did not have time to discuss one of his final observations, written in a too-brief closing chapter, \"An Assessment of Gerald Gardner.\" Heselton writes, \"Indeed, he really didn't, I think, have any of what we might call 'spiritual'\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"nature religion\"","block_context":{"text":"nature religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=nature-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1058,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1058","url_meta":{"origin":4032,"position":5},"title":"Review: Written in Wine","author":"Chas S. 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