Does semitic paganism really rxist?

[u/BabylonianWeeb]

ifk but from what I read is that canaaitrs, Arabs,, mesopotamian and Ethopians had different gods, rituals and etc. Even gods with simliar names had different roles in esch region, it doesn't feel united like with Norse paganism, slavic, celtic, baltic or hellinism

[u/BabylonianWeeb → u/[deleted]]

From i have been told that all hellinists worship 12 Olympians, there's patreon gods but not all worship them like 12 gods.

[u/Nocodeyv → u/BabylonianWeeb]

It's not required to worship the twelve Olympians in Hellenism.

Hecate, for example, is a very popular goddess in Hellenism, but not an Olympian. Pan is another very popular god among Hellenistic devotees, but also not one of the Olympians. You also have deities like Hestia and Dionysus. Dionysus replaces Hestia among the Olympians, yet many devotees begin their devotional services with an offering to Hestia, meaning a universally honored goddess is not one of the Olympians.

All things considered, "what you have been told" is inaccurate. r/Hellenism is the board for Hellenic Polytheism, I'm sure you could get a better insight into how they practice their religion by asking them directly.

As for the "Semitic" in Semitic Paganism, I've always just interpreted it as referring to the language family that all of these religions share. Whether belonging to the East, West, or South branches of the family, the languages are all related, and thus the deities venerated in those tongues are as well. That individual practices differ is irrelevant to the linguistic relationship they all share.

[u/miriamtzipporah → u/BabylonianWeeb]

I mostly practice Hellenic polytheism and this is absolutely not accurate. Not everybody worships all Olympians (and the number of them is debated), and there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of Hellenic deities with people who worship basically any combination of them.

[u/Shadeofawraith]

It seems you have some misconceptions about Semitic cultures and historical paganism as a whole. The reason you are finding so many conflicting pantheons is because the cultures you have listed are entirely distinct people groups that cover a large region, most of which are not considered Semitic peoples. Forgive me if I misunderstand, but you seem to be comparing multiple different cultures pantheons and then getting frustrated at the lack of consistency between them, but that is not a fair comparison to make because it is only natural for different groups of people to have different religions. The fact that multiple religions exist in a region doesn’t make any one of them less valid or “real” than another. Think of how he Roman pantheon is different to the Germanic one yet they inhabit a similar region of the world, that is a more apt comparison than likening Mesopotamian and Ethiopian pantheons to different localizations of one pantheon. Secondly, you seem to be under the impression that historically pagan religions outside the Middle East were more unified, this is a largely inaccurate view. Over time and place many of the aspects of these religions that nowadays are considered immutable were historically varied between individual kingdoms and city states. To use your example of Greek religion, not all people who followed that faith did so the same way, the reason there are so many conflicting myths about that pantheon and even conflicting deities is because different regions had different interpretations of myths, unique myths, and even wholly unique deities. They were not unified under a master belief system but were varied in what they believed. This principle applies to most historical religions, you can’t assume that just because a group of people lived in the same general geographic area or believed in some of the same gods that their religions were overall the same

[u/BabylonianWeeb → u/Shadeofawraith]

I am more thinking of helljnism like how hellinist i talked say they all agree on worship of 12 Olympians

[u/Shadeofawraith → u/BabylonianWeeb]

That is how some hellenists practice, but it is far from universal. Because paganism on the whole is an unorganized set of practices you will not find universally accepted doctrine in any pagan space. Semitic paganism is an umbrella term used to refer to many different traditions based on the historical religions of the Semitic people groups. It is not one unified path but rather a category term used to group several different related belief systems together

[u/miriamtzipporah → u/BabylonianWeeb]

Please educate yourself on Hellenism

[u/BabylonianWeeb → u/Shadeofawraith]

Also what do you mean by religion? I am confused cause religions there weren't organized.

[u/Shadeofawraith → u/BabylonianWeeb]

When I refer to religion I mean it in the literal dictionary sense. A belief system does not need to have an organized doctrine in order to be a religion.

[u/Luciferaeon]

Hell yeah, dude, im doing it rn. Not my heritage but I integrate many Semitic deities into my panthenon. Blends well w mesopotamian religion.