purity vs. cross-cutting ties in paganism
- in a discussion in Pantheon, Glenn responded to me asking if "any of the individuals you worship with participate in any other pagan practices than Asatru?":
That's not what I've seen here in East Central Illinois. There are Asatruar who are active in the local ADF protogrove. And there are others in the protogrove that are active in other pagan practices, creating cross-cutting ties with the larger pagan community. And there's a young man who attends Pagans Night Out (a monthly social) who was raised in Asatru by his dad, and also works with chakras and such. From what I've seen in scholarship about heathens in general, such overlap is more common than not. (Which is not to say that the majority of heathens have multiple practices. All it takes to create cross-cutting ties is one or two folk in a given group that have multiple practices.)
As for the question "Why would we stray...?", what would you suggest to someone who is called both by one or more of the Aesir and is called by some Holy Powers from outside the Germanic cultural milieu? Do you think we have the right to tell the gods who they may or may not call?
And to address another issue that you almost touch on... You write: "the Gods and Goddesses of our ancestors". I am of mixed heritage: Irish, German, Welsh, Scottish, French, and English (that I know of). Who, then, are the gods of *my* ancestors? Should I tell Dionysos to leave me alone because I don't have any ancestors from the Hellenistic world (unless you count the incursions of the Roman Empire into northwest Europe)?
Please note, those really are questions for you to explore, not a veiled attack. You don't need to answer them to me. But I think you owe it to yourself to answer them in your own head. (Or at least think about them. Some of them I don't think have final answers.)