Mythology, gods or goddesses you feel close to

[Nemia]

Which mythology and which mythological figure do you feel especially close to, which interests you?

I love Greek mythology since my childhood - Eos, Hekate, Hestia were always my favourite goddesses, and I found the groups like Horai, Moirai, Hesperids and all the different kinds of nymphs most fascinating. I'll never forget discovering the list of different nymphs in a lexicon of mythology, and the tingle I felt all over when I realized that for the Greeks, they really lived everywhere in the natural world, and what we lost... I must have been 12 or 13, and had already a little bookshelf full of mythology books.

Egyptian mythology is wonderful, too - I have a statuette of Bastet and one of Isis with her son...

Germanic mythology is interesting, too - again, I always feel closeness to goddesses, not to gods, isn't that weird? I love reading about Germanic and Celtic mythology but the different gods and goddesses are less clearly defined in my head - probably because I look at so much art and the Greeks, Romans and Western art since Renaissance are so obsessed with Greek/Roman mythology.

Sometimes, I believe that I have lived before when I read about a historical time and I feel it intensely and feel that I KNOW it. A deja vu time for me is the late Antique/early medieval multi-culture mix in the part of Germany where I grew up - Germanic, Celtic and Roman culture came together, and the Matron stones that I love are a result of this cultural meeting. Germanic/Celtic maternal goddesses, expressed in Roman "language" (aediculus shrine with Latin inscriptions). When I visit their shrines, I get this tingling feeling again of "coming home".

I'm also totally fascinated by cultures that still have polytheistic religions, like Indonesia or Thailand.

I'd love to know where others feel this special connections to beliefs of the past. (I looked for a neo-Pagan spiritual home but never found one that fit me... would love to hear also about people who have found something that fit them!)

[Amoroso]

I'm mostly into Greco-Roman mythology. I have the Bulfinch, Graves, Hamilton, etc and the ancient works by Homer, Ovid, Sophocles, etc. I like decks that riff on these mythologies too like the Mythic and Renaissance, along with multi-pantheon decks like the Sol Invictus, Walker, Gods and Titans, and the Promethean.

[qndynes]

Is it unacceptable that I revive older threads? Please do delete my post if it is.

I hadn't noticed this part of the forum and just now popped in.

Hm, gods and goddesses. Growing up I never felt an affinity with western society myths. Not in general at least. This includes mostly greek and roman. I used to like Egyptian myths, but it was most the east for me, Japan, China, India.

Things are different now as I've delved into western magical traditions from Alexandria and onward. I've gained a new appreciation for the greek myths, especially after reading and exploring the PGM (The Greek Magical Papyri) that have highlighted the fact that perhaps I should read up on the myths of greece and rome.

There was also a time in my life, when I was beginning my journey of enchantment (don't know how else to say it), that I dived deeply into nordic myths. Curiously enough I've alway felt an affinity with the gods and the various sublunar and elemental spirits (again problematic wording but can't think of better options). It is only now as I've done more that I've come to approach the female sides of the myths.

Currently, well, I'm from the caribbean, and am part of a spiritist house. Spiritism in colonized countries is quite an amalgam of things and significations. It is part folk catholic, part lineage traditions hailing from Africa, Cuba, Portugal, Spain, et al. So it is not exactly a pagan path I'm on, but I do keep reading, and part of my solitary doings involve my perennial interest in eastern religions as well as playing with western books such as the PGM, or The Hygromanteia: The Magical Treatise of Solomon. Definitely more western elements are present in what I do now. Hekate also figures prominently in my practice.

[Joan Marie]

Is it unacceptable that I revive older threads? Please do delete my post if it is.

Reviving old threads is highly encouraged. There are so many good ones started when there wasn't much activity and they deserve an audience.

So thank you!!!

[Carlos Escobel]

To steer clear of the Greek-Roman stuff a bit... Bes, Melqart