Hi I am pretty new to all of this and I wanted to know if you can switch between beliefs to try them out without offending anyone.
I am interested in the heathen ways/ Norse paganism and Wicca.
I don’t want to offend anyone or anger the gods, but I just don’t know which path to choose and would like to know if I can start out trying one and then the other and see which one I connect with?
I can only speak for myself, the offense does not come from the switching it comes from mixing and matching things that dont really go together.
You stated you are interested in the Norse ways and Wicca. Please, don't mix them. They don't lend themselves well to being mingled; I don't care what DJ Conway wrote.
Try to research things before you claim to be a part of a religion or spiritual mindset. It will help a lot in cutting down on offending people.
The issue is, as Nord said, mixing and matching. It is okay to begin practicing different systems separately, but you should not attempt to mix them until you know what is going on behind the scenes so to speak. The typical example I can think of is those who call upon Jesus as the Wiccan God and Mary as the Goddess. Utter nonsense on so many levels and disrespectful to the entities involved.
Similarly, calling upon the pantheon of one culture alongside that as another culture can be disrespectful and also messy in practice. For example, I have known witches who call upon Kali as their goddess and Jupiter as their God. It is completely irresponsible and they definitely got the lesson they needed.
I would also do some research into every path- Lark has written excellent posts on Wicca and I believe if you start there and follow her recommendations you shouldn't go too far wrong.
You can practice Wicca and Norse paganism at the same time. One thing most books don't tell you about Wicca is that the God and Goddess are individual beings- they have specific attributes and specific names, however, these are kept secret and handed down through covens. You can work with them. You can also set aside separate time and work with the Norse Gods individually.
But it would be messy and irresponsible, in my humble opinion, to call upon the two in the same sitting.
As a Norse pagan/heathen/conglomerate-mix-of-beliefs witch, I’d say that it’s fine to experiment with different paths. Look at people’s profiles and you will see that many have a list of past practices and beliefs. I myself started out on a very different path than the one I have today.
The Norse were know for their seafaring, which means they traveled regularly by sea. This means the Norse practiced their beliefs abroad. Any religion may be practiced anywhere unless the laws of the country forbid it but these are human constraints not spiritual ones. Some religions forbid the practice of other religions but again these are human constraints on practice not spiritual constraints. I personally feel it's okay to work with multiple deity from different pantheons however they are usually not invoked together unless I know they are willing to work together. Experience and communication with any deity is vital to the outcomes one will manifest. Develop solid relationships with deity individually prior to uniting them in a magical working, for you may discover their is no need to or that it isn't a good idea to do so prior to casting.
Thanks - that was helpful. I guess my basic question stems from the idea that some Deities might inhabit only certain areas (like mountains, river areas, or particular regions). And if their power could only be manifested where they are situated, and their personal preference is for a particular region, and that area being self-limiting, I wondered if these characteristics were present in the Norse Gods & Goddesses, and therefor they would naturally prefer and be active in only the northern-most mountains of Europe.
