Appropriating native American beliefs is an aspect of western spirituality

[Okana]

"As I'm sure you're aware, one of the problems that's happened with Wicca going mainstream is that, due to the Wiccan theology ofI've heard of some seriously offensive stuff happening with that, including white Neopagans declaring themselves priest/esses of the Orisha when they' "All Gods are one God, All Goddesses are One Goddess", practitioners often feel they can take deities or spirits from any culture and plop them into a Wiccan ceremonial structure. ve never been to a legitimate ceremony in their lives."


Well firstly we have to acknowledge that the west has developed a genuine spiritual thirst that is  beyond the boundaries of Xtianity.  What is too bad is that they have been very successful in destroying their own indigenous tribal system and their own indigenous spirituality.  

Two of the great spiritual supports of the "all gods are one" way of thinking would be CG Jung and the non Jewish Qabalah.

CG Jung's role in the development of the archetypes has given psychology a legitimate view of looking at the world.  Given we humans are hardwired just about the  same way it is inevitable that we would experience the same things but give it different names.

The non-Jewish Qabalah as exempliefied by Crowley's book 777 gives detailed correspondences as to how to work with a plethora of gods. I do not know whether the Indian gods are in there but I know some Dahomeyan gods are there.

This the root of the problems of cultural appropriation that is bedeviling Native Americans. Is it worth discussing?

[debbieredbear]

Ihave always wondered where
 

"All Gods are one God, All Goddesses are One Goddess",

came from. Now that you mention Jung, I remember a wican friend saying something about Jungian something or other. I did't pay much attention until a few years later when another friend mentioned that the friend 1 was using White Buffalo Calf Women in her "pantheon". I was like "WHAT??" And then pointed the friend to a book by the late Vine Deloria where he said that WBCW was NOT a goddess and that friend 1 was out of line.  Friend 2 said but all gods are one god etc. I said fine but why are you telling the Lakota people that this person from their history is a goddess if they say she isn't one. Isn't that a bit arrogant? And man, the look on her face was something. Kinda like she sucked a lemon.  She said she would speak to friend 1. I have distanced myself from these friends because I do not agree with what they are doing.

[critter - a white non-ndn person]

 

"All Gods are one God, All Goddesses are One Goddess",

The statement doesn't make any sense to me, it would be the same as
saying all men are one man and all women are one woman. It's not true,
we are individuals here, with all our own personalities, quirks, and whathaveyou.

[Defend the Sacred]

I think the books of English occultist Dion Fortune also popularized that Duotheistic idea. Fortune et al may be where Gardner got it when he formed Wicca. He took a lot from Ceremonial Magic groups that were connected to Fortune and Aleister Crowley, as well as taking some of Seton's fantasies of NDNs, and combined them with ritual structures from Masonic rites.

After Gardner published his books, many created covens based on his ideas, but without any lineage or in-person training. By the 1960s there were self-starting "Wiccan" groups all over the place. Then in 1979 Starhawk and Margot Adler published, and the number of self-starters expanded exponentially. A new occult boom started with Newage publishers like Llewellyn churning out do-it-yourself books by the shopping cartload.

[ShadowDancer]

"All Gods are one God, All Goddesses are One Goddess"

I attribute this to the inability of western people to relinquish the monotheistic belief systems they were exposed to as children.  Invariably I meet people in the pagan communities who were raised as christian.  The result is they cannot grasp that each culture has a pantheon of distinct gods and goddesses.  Each has their own personalities and attributes. 

The concept they ascribe to goes even further with the union of the One God with the One Goddess to becoming the Universal One.

I try to explain to them. Nope.  Sorry.  Not how it works. 

For instance, Bríg is not Estanatlehi nor Auset nor Kali nor Astarte nor Diana nor Hekate nor Aphrodite nor Ameratsu, etc. 

Unfortunately quite a few cannot grasp the reality of the spirituality and religious systems of other cultures through the millenia. 

In order to feel comfortable with their having left the structured monotheistic christian religion they are creating their own monotheistic one by using such a phrase in describing their new beliefs.