Cultural Heritage: Yay or Nay?

[herenow]

I'm just, kind of, taking a poll about the pagans on the site who utilized their cultural heritage to find a path versus those who haven't.

So.

Did you base your pagan path off of the cultures in your family tree or not?

The path found me, it had been trying to get my attention for 50 years.
After that I researched my roots and that gave me some more information.

[Malia]

I'm just, kind of, taking a poll about the pagans on the site who utilized their cultural heritage to find a path versus those who haven't.

So.

Did you base your pagan path off of the cultures in your family tree or not?

For the most part, yes. I don't quite know the specifics, but I have Irish and British roots, which led me to looking at Celtic traditions. I also have "Scandinavian" roots, so I was looking at Nordic traditions, but no one over there has tried talking to me, so yeah, I'm on a Celtic path.

[Amethyst]

Did you base your pagan path off of the cultures in your family tree or not?

I am very into genealogy, and as far back as I can trace I am nearly all Roman Catholic Irish (with one grandfather being full blood Roman Catholic Italian). Since my entire family, past and present, is Christian, I'm not following my family tree in that way. However, at some point they can't have been Roman Catholic (it's only been around for so long, and for all I know they converted more recently). I started researching Irish deities and came across Celtic Reconstructionism (which I would love to learn, except I unforuntately don't have the time to devote to all that cultural study), and was also led to Neo-Druidry (which I had read a little about before, but only a very little). Neo-Druidry is the path I am most closely traveling right now.

I guess my ancestors' Irish deities led me to a part of Paganism that I think may really work for me. However, I don't worship specific gods, and the Irish ones can be very complicated and confusing. I will continue to research them and see where that takes me, and perhaps they will become a more integral part of my faith.

[Altair]

I had never heard that Serbian proverb (in your signature) before. Love it.

[Camylleon]

I'm just, kind of, taking a poll about the pagans on the site who utilized their cultural heritage to find a path versus those who haven't.

So.

Did you base your pagan path off of the cultures in your family tree or not?

Yes. And no.

I'm a mutt as well...and like many people in the States, my people were in like the third boat after Mayflower. I've got folk in both the Massachusetts and Virginia colonies. I've got ancestors that came over from countries that no longer exist as countries; Alsace and Prussia, for instance. Primarily European, but that's a pretty wide swath to speak of.

Thing is, my version of history and humanity...well, we're all related anyway. Just as one example, the Roman Empire included both England and Northern Africa at one point. They were in Egypt (which so few people even remember is in Africa that it's not even funny), and Israel, and...and...and...

And those Roman soldiers were from all those places. And traders...yep, lots and lots of boats and sailors and whatever else shipping goods back and forth and back and forth...

So despite my Ancestors being primarily European, who is to say there's no African in there? No Egyptian? No Jewish? There's really nothing that's outside the realm of possibility.

And that's just one Empire. That's not talking about Saxons...or Vikings...or Celts...

So...whoever calls me, I don't even really think about it anymore. So...no, I don't. But yes, I do.

[Josh Badgley]

I'm just, kind of, taking a poll about the pagans on the site who utilized their cultural heritage to find a path versus those who haven't.

So.

Did you base your pagan path off of the cultures in your family tree or not?

Yes.

I got interested in Asatru because the more I read about it, the more sense it made that I might be more comfortable following the path of my genetic ancestors. I'm not really interested in racial issues, but it seems reasonable that my ancestry might play a part in how I view the world. And for as far back as I can remember, Christianity and/or monotheistic traditions have rubbed me the wrong way. I really think that if Northern Europeans dig down deep enough into their collective psyche, they will probably find monotheism is a pretty alien idea. In fact, most cultures probably would. I actually was fascinated by Greek mythology when I was younger - it seemed to me that those were the kind of Gods a guy could worship! I went to a Greek Orthodox school and learned a great deal about Classical Mythology I am not Greek, so those particular deities didn't really do it for me, but I liked the idea of many powerful Gods and Goddesses rather than only one invisible God. I've also always liked superheroes, so maybe that's where Thor came in....

Unfortunately, being an American I never had a good sense of my "heritage". For decades I had no idea where my last name came from until I recently uncovered evidence that it can be traced back to a single Anglo-Saxon (specifically Saxon) man named Baeddi. As my mother died when I was an infant, and I have had virtually no contact with her side of the family, it's been hard to piece that genealogy together, but I've found at least some evidence her last name could be Scandinavian, specifically Norwegian. Of course I learned this after I started studying Asatru, but it's still interesting...perhaps my ancestors Gods and Godesses are calling me after all.

[cymrudraco]

I'm just, kind of, taking a poll about the pagans on the site who utilized their cultural heritage to find a path versus those who haven't.

So.

Did you base your pagan path off of the cultures in your family tree or not?

Yesnomaybe? It wasn't something I actively pursued when I was first becoming Pagan. I was always most drawn to the Kemetic Gods, and They were the ones who claimed me, so once that happened, it was hard to find a draw to go back and look into my ancestry for things. My soul is Kemetic, and I'm pretty sure it always has been, but my ancestry isn't, so my pagan path is mostly Kemetic because that's what calls to me and those are the Gods that claimed me.

But a couple of years ago, I did get a bit of a nudge from Aset to get to know my ancestry a bit more. I'm part Australian, English, Scottish, and Welsh, and apparently there's some Viking blood in there too if you go back far enough. The Welsh part of my ancestry is the side that draws me most strongly. But it's not a ... it's not a religious thing. It's not a call to start working with Welsh deities. It's much more of an ancestral thing, to know my people and my traditions, and where we come from, and how that shapes me as a person. So knowing my ancestry is part of my path, but it's not the most significant part, and doesn't really have much to do with my path. It's more about knowing who I am and where I come from.



But ancestry is complicated, because I've lived on the same bit of land for most of my life. I've got family connections here going back a few generations, and some of those are connections tied in with some indigenous families as my paternal grandparents were Christian missionaries working with indigenous kids. So I've got this weird connection in with indigenous culture, though it's not mine to claim, and I feel like I've lived here long enough that I feel I should give my respects to the native spirits who exist here. But I'm still working out the best way to do that that's both respectful but also not appropriative, as it's still a living culture. It's part of my ongoing work in figuring out the best way to do ancestral veneration that works for me.

[DancesWithHorses]

Did you base your pagan path off of the cultures in your family tree or not?

Yes, as best as possible. I'm Swiss, old peasant farming family tree with the occasional teacher thrown in (seriously kind of odd, until my parents' generation, everyone was either a farmer or a teacher). And I'm fairly certain the Catholic side of the family would really object to me not following them. The Reform side probably won't mind too much, they promoted it to some extent.

My one grandmother read us the Bible, that was her idea of "story-time." The other grandmother read us folklore and fables... you can guess which one I preferred

Currently heading towards a heathen path. It's calls to me the loudest and it is also the one that seems to have lot of overlap with things I always considered family traditions.

[RoselynLibera]

I'm just, kind of, taking a poll about the pagans on the site who utilized their cultural heritage to find a path versus those who haven't.

So.

Did you base your pagan path off of the cultures in your family tree or not?

I'm a mutt whose family got off the Mayflower. Mostly French, English and Irish way back when. I've never particularly felt Irish or had a calling to Celtic mythology, except for Brigid and the Morrigan. If anything, I preferred the stories of King Arthur! I have no Norse/Asian/African heritage either nor any calling to any of those cultures.

The first I found was Greek. I started reading mythology at the age of six and my patron deities are both Greek as well. Greek, not Roman! I discovered Egypt when I was about twelve and am fond of it, but it's not the same. Also, Native culture, I've had my interests in. So, to answer, I'm a mutt of many cultures and worship?

[SunflowerP]

I'm Swiss, old peasant farming family tree with the occasional teacher thrown in (seriously kind of odd, until my parents' generation, everyone was either a farmer or a teacher).

Huh. That's what we've got on the Swiss side of our family, so I dunno if it's that odd.

Sunflower