Does anyone have a comprehensive list of gods/godess? and elements?
- Thread starter Forgotten
- Start date
bgruagach
eclectic Wiccan
Forgotten said:
Welcome to the forum, Forgotten!
Unfortunately you have asked for the impossible. Compiling a list of all gods and goddesses, let alone all their associations and symbolism, can easily take up a person's whole life and when they die they still would not be done.
There are a number of good dictionary-style books that give brief descriptions of many gods and goddesses such as Patrician Turner & Charles Russell Coulter's "Dictionary of Ancient Deities" but they are certainly not complete. They are a good place to start though and can help you figure out which deities you want to spend more time exploring.
This webpage gives a list of many gods and goddesses but again it is hardly a complete listing.
http://www.godchecker.com/ is another good site to explore but again it does not list all gods and goddesses.
http://www.pantheon.org/ is another website that is worth checking.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/ is another website that is invaluable as it provides a huge public-domain (free!) collection of religious and mythological texts from around the world, mostly in English. You can browse through the categories in their list on the left side of the screen for months and still not get through it all.
Regarding elements and their symbolism, you'll find that there are some common associations (at least among English-speaking people) but even then there are frequent variations or disagreements. This website gives a pretty interesting table listing elemental correspondences, but if you do more research (try doing a Google.com search for "elemental correspondences" for instance) you'll find many other variations.
Most books about introductory witchcraft and spiritual paths that incorporate witchcraft such as Wicca will include some pretty basic elemental and deity information to get you started on your search.