I prefer to avoid unnecessarily polarized binary choices. :-)
I think there is a middle ground available between "call on one patron deity for absolutely everything whether it's within their commonly accepted purview or not" and "randomly flail about calling on deities you know nothing about out of a dictionary".
Most cultures have a pantheon of deities with different areas of influence, who can be seen as family to each other in some sense, or at least colleagues. How large or small that pantheon is, how specialized its members are in their functions, and how sharp the lines between their areas of influence are can vary widely from one culture to the next. The Romans, for instance, had an incredibly wide and often highly specialized pantheon of deities -- I can think of no other culture that had a specific goddess of sewers (Cloacina).
My own experience and that of a fair number of other pagans I know is that when you develop a relationship with one deity from a particular culture, there often seems to be a bit of a push felt, either from that deity or just from one's own interests, to get to know the whole family -- much the same way that if you make a new (human) friend, you'll eventually get to know their friends, family, etc. And along with that will often come a sense of who's the best suited within that circle to ask about a particular issue -- again, the same way that amongst your own, non-divine circle of friends, the person you might ask to help you with a computer problem is not necessarily the same person you'd ask for gardening advice, and possibly neither of those are your best and closest friend, but they're all part of your life and part of the same general circle of friends.
And in both cases, it's generally easier and less awkward to ask a favour of someone who you have at least some sort or pre-existing relationship with -- preferable with the person or deity directly, but there may be times when you find yourself referred to a specialist you don't know well, and have to start with something like "Hi, I don't think we've ever really been properly introduced, but I'm a friend/worshipper/whatever of _____ and s/he told me you might be able to help me with this..."
And again in both cases, you need to be respectful and attentive, and not treat the relationship as all take and no give. Be aware that they might want something from you in return, and also that every new relationship formed, be it with a human or a deity, has the potential to change your life, sometimes in unpredictable ways.
Er -- does that make sense? I think I rambled a bit. Anyway, the gist of it, I suppose, is that I don't treat deities all that differently in this regard than I treat people.
Of the Egyptian pantheon, I'm closest to Wepwawet, Opener of Ways. Now, that particular role covers a lot of ground, so I can ask Him for pretty much anything I need... but occasionally He sends me elsewhere. I was working on strength of self (I'm not very good with being assertive) for a while, and I got the distinct feeling that Wepwawet was stepping to the background and had either called in Set or sent me Set's way--at any rate, Set showed up and Wepwawet went quiet for a while, until a large part of the assertion-learning had begun, and then Set went on His way.
It was interesting, at any rate. I felt very much like what misslynx describes - "there may be times when you find yourself referred to a specialist you don't know well, and have to start with something like "Hi, I don't think we've ever really been properly introduced, but I'm a friend/worshipper/whatever of _____ and s/he told me you might be able to help me with this...""
You make sense to me, but that's because I think you're stating the blatantly obvious.
As a specific-pantheon-follower, I may have patrons within that pantheon, but I am certainly part of the family, and thus if I have a concern that's best addressed by speaking to someone in the family who isn't one of my patrons, I'd be a bloody idiot not to go there.
I have no personal contact whatsoever with a god I have a shrine dedicated to, but I offered to maintain that shrine in return for some support getting through a difficult time. I got through the difficult time, I maintain the shrine. This is pretty standard practice, to me; not everyone is god-bothered in the first place, so there's no sense starting from a position of "Who can I pester into responding to this?" as a general case.
That's certainly a plausible historical interpretation, as many ancient cultures dealt with their gods at least sometimes on that basis (and sometimes threatened to withhold standard offerings until certain things came to pass, to boot). And I am a recon.
But I look at it as, well, I've pledged my loyalty to this Family, and the Family looks after its own. That I have no specific personal relationship to one god or another does not mean we are not bound to each other by those ties.
This had a bit of an Aha! moment for me. I've never had a circle of friends. I have individual friends, most of whom don't know each other and almost definitely wouldn't care much for each other if they did. I visit with them separately, one at a time. (I tried the "have big party for all local friends" thing and ended up with isolated islands of people staring more-or-less suspiciously at each other. Haven't attempted such a thing since.)
Given that, I guess it shouldn't be a big surprise that I don't have a pantheon to turn to, just a few personal relationships with individual gods who probably wouldn't enjoy being invited to the same party.
I think there is a middle ground available between "call on one patron deity for absolutely everything whether it's within their commonly accepted purview or not" and "randomly flail about calling on deities you know nothing about out of a dictionary".
Most cultures have a pantheon of deities with different areas of influence, who can be seen as family to each other in some sense, or at least colleagues. How large or small that pantheon is, how specialized its members are in their functions, and how sharp the lines between their areas of influence are can vary widely from one culture to the next. The Romans, for instance, had an incredibly wide and often highly specialized pantheon of deities -- I can think of no other culture that had a specific goddess of sewers (Cloacina).
My own experience and that of a fair number of other pagans I know is that when you develop a relationship with one deity from a particular culture, there often seems to be a bit of a push felt, either from that deity or just from one's own interests, to get to know the whole family -- much the same way that if you make a new (human) friend, you'll eventually get to know their friends, family, etc. And along with that will often come a sense of who's the best suited within that circle to ask about a particular issue -- again, the same way that amongst your own, non-divine circle of friends, the person you might ask to help you with a computer problem is not necessarily the same person you'd ask for gardening advice, and possibly neither of those are your best and closest friend, but they're all part of your life and part of the same general circle of friends.
And in both cases, it's generally easier and less awkward to ask a favour of someone who you have at least some sort or pre-existing relationship with -- preferable with the person or deity directly, but there may be times when you find yourself referred to a specialist you don't know well, and have to start with something like "Hi, I don't think we've ever really been properly introduced, but I'm a friend/worshipper/whatever of _____ and s/he told me you might be able to help me with this..."
And again in both cases, you need to be respectful and attentive, and not treat the relationship as all take and no give. Be aware that they might want something from you in return, and also that every new relationship formed, be it with a human or a deity, has the potential to change your life, sometimes in unpredictable ways.
Er -- does that make sense? I think I rambled a bit. Anyway, the gist of it, I suppose, is that I don't treat deities all that differently in this regard than I treat people.
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Of the Egyptian pantheon, I'm closest to Wepwawet, Opener of Ways. Now, that particular role covers a lot of ground, so I can ask Him for pretty much anything I need... but occasionally He sends me elsewhere. I was working on strength of self (I'm not very good with being assertive) for a while, and I got the distinct feeling that Wepwawet was stepping to the background and had either called in Set or sent me Set's way--at any rate, Set showed up and Wepwawet went quiet for a while, until a large part of the assertion-learning had begun, and then Set went on His way.
It was interesting, at any rate. I felt very much like what misslynx describes - "there may be times when you find yourself referred to a specialist you don't know well, and have to start with something like "Hi, I don't think we've ever really been properly introduced, but I'm a friend/worshipper/whatever of _____ and s/he told me you might be able to help me with this...""
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As a specific-pantheon-follower, I may have patrons within that pantheon, but I am certainly part of the family, and thus if I have a concern that's best addressed by speaking to someone in the family who isn't one of my patrons, I'd be a bloody idiot not to go there.
I have no personal contact whatsoever with a god I have a shrine dedicated to, but I offered to maintain that shrine in return for some support getting through a difficult time. I got through the difficult time, I maintain the shrine. This is pretty standard practice, to me; not everyone is god-bothered in the first place, so there's no sense starting from a position of "Who can I pester into responding to this?" as a general case.
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But I look at it as, well, I've pledged my loyalty to this Family, and the Family looks after its own. That I have no specific personal relationship to one god or another does not mean we are not bound to each other by those ties.
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Given that, I guess it shouldn't be a big surprise that I don't have a pantheon to turn to, just a few personal relationships with individual gods who probably wouldn't enjoy being invited to the same party.
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