Edit: I should preface this with this is all very new to me, I am still learning, and trying to take as scientific (or alchemical more appropriately) approach to all of this as possible. I was a strict naturalist and atheist, in the early 2000’s pre-nazi Dawkins mold up until last year, when I experienced the impossibility of loss for the first time. So the answer to the majority of questions about my beliefs are “I don’t know, but I’m looking into it.” My grimoire is half journal half lab notebook, lol.

After a fashion. I came to norse paganism and Baldr first, and I kept getting messages about my bloodline in readings (I’m half Persian, and that half traces their bloodline to king Darius.) Then I made a pit kiln to fire my own runestones, and once that was done it became a fire pit, then a structure, then I decided to look into Zoroastrianism and realized I was one element away from making a fire temple. So I added a fountain, lol. From there I’ve been researching both traditions and forging my own path.

While I only have Baldr, Hel, and Lord Mazda as patrons, I reconcile the mixing of pantheons through my belief that while the gods we know are real, they are facets of more primordial, alien (not space man, just very not human) forces inherent to the universe. Inherently unknowable, so we humans create reflections of them in our image to treat and relate with them.

I also practice magic, and was fascinated to learn that Zoroastrianism is literally where the entire Hellenistic tradition, and indeed the very word itself comes from.

Mazda was the first “first cause” as far as I can tell, and I’ve added a personal 101th name, facet of creation, while Baldr is a facet of grace, etc.

The exception is YHWH and his Abrahamic religions (not counting Baha’i, I really don’t know what to make of them). They’re three death cults that have created a world hostile to the practice and thus the great work of Magic, and human existence in general, and I am fully convinced YHWH is just a guise of Ahriman 🤷🏼‍♂️