I just started wondering about this and want your views on it…
Do you think that being drawn towards a different culture’s deities, food, music etc could be a sign that in a previous life you may have been a part of that cultural group?
Or is it a coincidence?
Or do you think that the attraction is based on stuff you’ve heard or learned about it on this life (be just curiosity)?
Basically, I would just would like to hear as many people’s thoughts on whether attraction to a culture/pantheon means former life was lived in that culture or you had a former life experience or is likely just a coincidence?
I’m not going to dismiss the idea. Could be a past connection to an God/dess from the past. But I’ve been Norse before, yet am not working with the pantheon at all. I called them. They came. I can call on them again. Not only is there an ancestral link, but a known past life. So, from my experiences, I wouldn’t equate the two, necessarily.
Now, Hecate has said that my working with her and her calling me to evocation was a result of several past lives, but didn’t elaborate much more on that. So, here, I would say there was a connection, but I didn’t go looking for her (or any entity). She came to me. Not a perfect match to the question.
I can say that spirits from other cultures have come to me and some I have been drawn to that I didn’t find a match with. I guess what I can say reasonably is that my past experiences with entities is more of a determining factor that the past culture.
Personally, I think it is more due to the amount of information available to us in modern times. We have more knowledge about other cultures available to us than in any other point in history. Previously, if we wanted to learn about a far away people or place, we had to trek to the library and wade through thick, academic books. Now, a couple of buttons on a computer and we have all the information we could possibly need, plus we can connect directly with people from any culture through the internet.
If you have never heard of a specific culture or people, I highly doubt you would be drawn to it. You have to know it existed first.
I generally agree. But I didn’t know about Hecate at all. I had to find out who it was. I was clueless. I hadn’t read anything about magic or pantheons growing up in my household that didn’t allow cable television.
I think in general, your answer is most correct, but have to account for what happened to me. I don’t know if this type of edge case (mine) was the intent of the thread. Likely not.
There are always exceptions, my friend. Or, as they are called in science, outliers.
I used to read Greek mythology all the time as a kid, mainly because I liked the stories of adventure, with heroes and monsters. But when I got into magick, I wasn’t at all drawn to working with the Greek deities (honestly, in most of the stories, they’re kind of dicks lol).
As you know, I had Erishkigal recently show up on her own, but while I am familiar with Sumerian mythology, again, I’ve never been particularly drawn to it (I first learned about the Sumerians from the movie Ghostbusters )
I think, for most people, being drawn to a culture outside of their own has nothing to do with past lives, and more to do with that culture’s uniqueness, when compared to the banality of their own. The grass is always greener on the other side, as the saying goes.
You see the same kind of rose tinting in the occult, with people lamenting about how it was “in the ancient days,” when belief in gods and spirits was widespread. Sure, but do you know what else was also widespread in ancient times? Disease, famine, drought, infection, dysentery, and a life expectancy in the low double digits.
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