Introductions?

Greetings from the Texas Gulf Coast. My name is Rede Seeker and I am a Northern Traditionalist.

My practice has taken a major jolt. I had been Living Among the Landed Gentry (i.e. I had a house and land in a nice subdivision). Wyrd worked it so that I was unemployed for 2-1/2 years and lost my home of almost 9 years to foreclosure. I am now a Cliff Dweller by the Sea - a condo with a private man-made lake a short walk from a creek which connects to various waterways that eventually end up in the Gulf of Mexico. I hadn't considered how much Earthing Living Among the Landed Gentry provided - Earth had never been my strong Element.

I have a job now - one well worth waiting 2-1/2 years for. My new situation and location bring me under the protection of Unn, the Tide Maiden; Mani, the Man-in-the-Moon; and Harbarth, the Ferryman. I'm treading water where I had been struggling to get my footing. It's been a very interesting experience.

So much for me, who's next?

Hi there, I'm Tawny and hail from South Australia. As my forum name suggests, I am in fact a biologist - I'm studying in my PhD in a joint Paediatrics and Animal Science project that's concerned with perinatal programming and neurodevelopment. I tend to nerd out hard when it comes to the academic side of researching religion, and love arguing theology - something that unfortunately I don't get to do much in my work environment as that's not really of interest to most of my lab.

In terms of my own faith, I'm still trying to work out where I stand, and am working on researching the polytheistic origins of the Zoroastrian faith. Having read the Avestas and Vendidad, I've come to the conclusion that for all modern Zoroastrianism is a Monotheistic religion the ancient texts heavily suggest it was certainly polytheistic religion. While arguably Zoroaster brought in monotheism when writing the Gathas, it really doesn't look like it was practised that way. Certainly the Amesha Spentas and Yazata, treated in the modern world as angels, appear to be have been Gods in their own right. In fact, I'd argue that the monotheism really came to the forefront following modern translation of the Avestas in the past 200 years, and were heavily influenced by Christian scholars in India where these translations took place.

I'm still trying to work out where I stand in all this, as by the modern religion's standards I'm a heretic. I've been fairly strongly claimed by a Daeva, whose raison d'etre is essentially eating lies and forcing people to face unfortunate truths and their fears. He's not particularly gentle, but he's been good for me. That said, despite being a creature strongly aligned with asha - that is, truth and purity - he is Daeva. While the Daeva is synonymous with demons in the modern Zoroastrian faith, and certainly for the Avestas onwards, Daeva were initially referred to as 'foreign gods' in the Gathas, the oldest texts, and so I suspect the older Gods of the region that predated that faith have had a bit of a smear campaign against them.

I just wish there was more information about them, as it's very hard to dig up at times! Makani, my patron Daeva, has been helpful at pointing me in the right direction, and seems to be of the opinion that searching for information is important in its own right, but it's been quite frustrating too. The fact I didn't recognise the name he's currently going by to be Arabic initially (it's also a Hawaiian name) has sent me on all sorts of wild goose chases, reading a lot of books from a lot of different faiths, and bumping into gods and fae from several different pantheons.

On the plus side, this has led to me becoming fairly well read over time. Argue with me and throw texts at me! For all that it sometimes drives me crazy I'm having a lot of fun doing the detective thing!

Hi, I'm Karen. 32 years old, live in Melbourne, Australia. 1 hubby, 1 kid, 2 cats and a bird. I hang around the Norse mob as far as Gods go, and they seem to tolerate me well enough I struggle with the concept of worship, in that it was pounded into my head at a young age that worship means grovelling on the floor begging for forgiveness from a distant father-god for my very existence. I've been tapped on the shoulder by Odin, and he doesn't want grovelling (just the opposite!), but I'm left trying to work out where the lines between reverence and rudeness begin and end. Any input on that would be gratefully accepted! Also, given that I'm born and bred here in Australia, I'm also trying to work out where I fit in with the land spirits here.

Anything else you want to know, feel free to ask, and new friends are always good

I AM CONOR, DESTROYER OF EMPIRES THE WORLD OVER. 

I am a twenty year old man and adherent of Hellenismos located in the Northen Region of Texas. (No, that isn't the Panhandle region. If you thought it is I'll mail your yankee certification shortly). 

I'm pretty much a baby compared to most people on this board and that I have the pleasure of routinely interacting with, I have maybe two years of experience of worship, maybe a little less, maybe a little more, I haven't been keeping track of dates honestly. I am a member of Hellenion, a devotee of Athena, Aphrodite, and Hermes, and I maintain shrines to those three and also maintain shrines to Apollo and Dionysus. I'm less of a 'lets cultivate a relationship' guy and more of a 'here is some stuff, please don't smite my family' sort of fellow I kid of course, but I will readily admit that I am not, at this point in my life, an overly mystical person. I practice no form of modern magic, though I do engage and am cultivating my divinatory skills. I'm currently practicing orthinomancy, and Greek letter divination. 

My biggest reason for connecting with other polytheists is because I endeavor to build a real and functional temple for Athena, Aphrodite, and Hermes, and am expecting the project to take approximately 15-20 years to reach its full glory and potential. You may say "CONOR, WHY EVER WOULD YOU START TRYING TO BUILD A TEMPLE WHEN YOU ARE SO YOUNG?". Which is a valid objection I suppose. I'm doing all I can possibly do now, at this particular point in my life, simply because of the fact that I am so young and full of energy, vigor, and ambition. I don't expect this state and frame of mind to last forever, so despite my inhibitions and anxieties concerning my youth and inexperience I'm plowing ahead and allowing plenty of room for guidance from my gods and my elders. 

Uhhh, what else. 

I like men, am in a committed relationship, am studying to be a Theatre teacher, and have actually been paid to act! So. . .if you have any acting gigs, hit me up!  

Anything else? Just ask!

Oh, I am so bad at these intro things--but I know they are important so I do them!

I've been pagan for 20+ years, a polytheist for the last 15 of those, a devotee of Aphrodite for nearly as long. For over a decade I have been dual-faith, and reached a comfortable balance of mostly-private Hellenic polytheism and mostly-group-oriented heathenry, always practiced separately.

About a year ago that changed in that I added a Kemetic element to my practice (again, separate from the rest), something I had never expected. Actually it might be more accurate to say that a Kemetic element was added to my practice, as there wasn't a lot of conscious choice involved. (I have also done some "work for hire" for some of the Celtic gods and maintained a basic friendliness but thus far have not been called to deepen those relationships--again, something unexpected. I know it all sounds a little flaky, but I'm pretty down-to earth and see the line between personal and general practice quite clearly.

I consider myself semi-reconstructionist in my practice. I am mostly headblind but I do all right with what I have been given, and am honestly happy without the big woo even if there are sometimes issues of clarity.

Oh, and if you've known me before you might know me as Hearthstone (from LJ/DW) which I answer to, although these days I really mainly stick to my legal name of Hester. Which I also answer to.

I'm JuliaErgane, 62/63, I've been an Hellenist since the time Artemis found me when I was not even 10 years old. Since then, Athena and Hera have taken more interest; but, I do honour all the Gods. I have been a member of Hellenion since its founding and have been a past Epistates. SouthEast Connecticut is where I have lived for most of my life. I find that I need to be near the Atlantic -- fresh fish, lobster and scallops have to be close at hand! I've been frustrated with getting the proto-demos going. No one seems to want to put in the attendance -- even at a discussion. It's good to be here.

Ah! I should have started with this, but better late than never

My name is Hélio, I'm from Portugal and I'm a Roman polytheist with a culturally diverse personal pantheon. My oldest standing devotion is Ingui-Frey, who's been part of my religious practices for around twelve years, and I'm currently in the process of creating a Latin version of His cult. I worship other Vanir gods, plus two Kemetic deities and am also trying to figure out the local Powers of my home town (which means I may be adding Iberian gods in the future). The religious background, however, is predominantly Roman: calendar, daily and monthly structure, ritual practices, as well as most deities. Being native to a Latin culture was a factor and then I just went with the Roman flow and kept or added foreign gods to my pantheon.

Theologically, I'm a hard polytheist, which of course doesn't mean I don't believe that some gods are the same: to name three examples, Hermes and Mercury come across as the same Power, Vulcanus and Hephaestus seem different, but I'm unsure regarding Athena and Minerva. I'm also an historian, blogger, dog-friend, activist of a few causes and an occasional amateur drawer and crafter, namely with clay.

Basically, that's it.