I'm a heathen (variety of pagan who bothers the Norse Gods).  They're pretty darned old.  Specifically I'm dedicated to Loki, a God associated with chaos, mischief, shapeshifting and sex-changing.

Quote from: tekla on November 19, 2008, 05:00:09 PM
I must be kind of sad there in Valhalla or the Elysian Fields, or the Quick-ie Mart or wherever old gods hang out, to be a god no one believes in anymore.

Hah.  Old Gods don't give up so easily.  You can convert Their worshippers, murder Their shamans, tear down Their temples, smear Them as demons and evil spirits, and then a thousand years later some 19th-century romantics decide to dress up and play Viking and BOOYA!  Guess Who's back?

Very true, our gods are happily defiant to such efforts to wipe them out.  Though sadly there must be some who are forgotten at this point.  I wonder what happens to them?

Depends on your point of view.  If you're a hard polytheist, like me, and view Gods and spirits as having some form of independant consciousness (though what for this could take and how it truly functions I don't pretend to guess), it should be possible for them to re-emerge and reveal themselves to new followers.  This is borne out to a certain extent by reports of contact episodes involving Gods and beings that are down to a name and a job description in extant lore, but who yet present themselves as fully-formed personalities. 

Of course, we could all just be barking mad.

Sometimes I wonder if they sort of do an evolving thing.  Like did the energy of the mother goddesses like Brigid  maybe coalesce with that of the mother Mary when people started molding their beliefs through a christian context?  I know I sort of see them as similar and that so many were Christian only in name...  Sort of a random existential ponderance though.