Szerszen napisał(a):Hello bil,
I am not sure if the gods are different on different lands, or just the problem is - the natural conditions are different, so you just need different thing from the same gods.
As example - far away on the north, the sun is bless so most often the sunny, hot days are "needed" - I quess, that in Mexico, you rather pray for rain and clouds.
We actually live in the SW of the USA but it's a common error.

No offense taken. But, praying for rain is something we do almost on a daily basis. Unlike northern Europe, true sunshine here is basically 'the enemy.'
Szerszen napisał(a):So, the gods from our pantheon I suppose are the same - independent of land on which you are, but... landvaettir in my opinion can be totally different. They are "the salt" of the soil, and part of it.
That's my point, though. I'm not so sure the gods are the same. Our needs are so different, and our results from
blótar are so different that it doesn't appear to me that the gods are the same. The practice is the same, to be sure; however, our relationships to the gods and to the cycle of the year are so completely different that one could say that we worship different gods. For example, right now is one of our holiest tides of the year -- the chili and corn harvest: the smells, the people, the roasting, the eating of roasted chilis and corn in tortillas, the eating of
caldito, the socialization around putting chilis into storage, green chili
enchiladas, the constant chatter about chilis, corn and
calabacitas at home, in restaurants, on the street, in the checkout lines --- and it all depends on our precious weather. In recorded and unrecorded history, these staples have been provided to us even in the slimmest of years -- all because of the relationships between families/ communities, land and rulers/
regin.
The next question should be then: were our Germanic gods already here farming or are they new comers? My point remains: I don't know -- I don't have a direct line to any god and I'm very suspicious of anyone who says that he does have such a line. I know that as heathens we all report that our lives have gone rather well with our heathen praxis and all report that they will continue with the worship of our ancestral gods and ancestors. For us here, Dunner, Wodan, and Frick play large roles in our year.
New Mexico is a land of 21 official languages, 20 sovereign nations (native American plus the USA) and a very complex set of spiritual traditions. We all share the same space, the same needs, the same goals, and we Germanic heathens are proud to show up in the mix. The landvættir -- land wights --
are native to our soil (by different names, of course, and our gods, our Germanic gods, also seem to be native to our soil. Whether that is simply an artifact of
our living here, whether the gods
are actually different gods as the result of the different needs of the community or because perhaps they are simply
gods filling specific cultural roles, I cannot say, I'm not that 'special.' And, if I went around saying that I was that 'special,' I'd be living in a very special small padded room wearing a very special small white jacket.
In any case, the
regin seem different here although I recognize them in other places of the world as well. I understand that there are relationships between
Dunner, Donar, Þór and even
Perkunas, but I am unable to pretend to know what those relationships are. I'm not able to tolerate pretense in lieu of fact. So, for me, I accept that Germanic heathenry is Germanic heathenry the world over, but I cannot say that we have anything like 'universal gods.'
Perhaps we don't have 'Gods' with names at all; perhaps what exist are simply 'god-roles' that are filled as necessary. Perhaps names like
Þór, Wodan, and
Frigg are really more like titles bestowed upon those filling the role and assuming the responsibility for various communities. For 2000 yrs. people have been brow-beaten with the idea that there is but one 'true' Jesus, Jehovah or St. Matthew, that people have forgotten that in tribal cultures religious figures change from generation depending on needs, environments, and relationships with a deity. Perhaps we have been trying to apply the modern term 'God' in the sense of 'Jehovah, the unchanging' to a title much like duke, baron, king, or baker. At any rate, when I pray to
Dunner as a New Mexican, I don't have to feel any sense of guilt that he might not actually be the same as
Þór; I just kind of see it as 'the role is filled and it works when I do this.' Anything beyond that, in my thinking, is 'pretending to know a whole lot more than I really do.'
In this sense then, gods may not actually be any different than land wights in that they may actually be tied to the land and the roles that they play. Of course, this idea doesn't change heathenry at all because 'heathenry' is how we interact with gods, land, community and family. I can still attend a
blót and still be part of the international heathen community yet continue to do my part as a heathen from New Mexico. I don't even have to adopt new age ideas, wiccan concepts or leftover Christian thinking to do so. All I need is to accept the fact that I don't have a religion and I
do adhere to the ethnic folkway of my ancestors.
Just some thoughts,
lewwe woohl un faahr mit de Gedder,
bil