Aidonian's blog

 Syncretism in paganism applies to Gods of various cultures equated with eachother. While there are documented cases for it like with the Greek and Roman Gods being the most obvious ones. Throughout the mediterrenean seabasin various cultures came into contact with each other and had influenced one another in all sorths of ways, including religion. Like with Serapis, sometimes Gods merge and become a new deity. 

There are polytheists out there today mixing Gods from different pantheons into a new one. In itself its not a bad thing, but it kind of becomes problematic when you start to mix Gods from different pantheons of cultures whom had no interaction with eachother. Its hard to say its completly wrong, but to me, it doesn’t feel right. The Hellenic Gods all have a history with eachother and connected to eachother, through the culture, their stories. Their stories that are interconnected to each other. 

When I pray to Zeus, Aidoneos, Herakles, Apollon or any other Hellenic deity, there is a implied relationship and connection between them. Not just their connection through the same culture that they were once part of, but also through the stories that they share with another. 

I for one, would find it difficult to let’s say worship Saturn along with Baal, Ra, Odin, Marduk or any other American deity of African deity. Why? 

Well for me its part because i don’t feel the need to mix things up. I worship the Hellenic Gods. I do not feel the need to add other Gods to the mix. For me, the other pantheons are aspects of my Gods and how they presented themselves to other cultures. Does that mean I think of these other Gods as false? 

No, i don’t think that at all. There are no false Gods. The whole notion of false Gods is ridiculous. 

Back at the topic at hand. Romans were great at syncretism because they did it all the time with the Gods of the cultures they conquered. For them it made sense because for them it was a way to win the favor of the Gods of the other cultures. That’s why there are polytheists who worship Roman Gods along side with Celtic, Greek, Carthaginian and Kemetic Gods. It works because there is a historical case for it during the Roman empire. 

Syncretism works within polytheistic theology, but i do feel that there is a limit to how far you can go. That limit is determined by the polytheist in question. If it works for that person, so much the better.