Different faces?

[Kaii]

I have this belief that the gods' and Goddess' of every pantheon all stem back to 1 god. Every pantheon's god/goddess is just a face of the god/goddess. I've always been drawn to the moon, but I know Artemis, and Selene are just a few facets of the goddess of the moon. She is simply the moon goddess.

I want to have all these facets of each god/goddess but am unsure about how to go about charting that for my BOS. I don't want a table nor do I want to just list each god/goddess by pantheon and have to search through each to find the right face to speak to in that ritual or what ever.

Any ideas?
Any tips on how to research these without taking the rest of my life to complete?
Any websites with great information on all of these gods/goddesses?

I know I'm completely demanding! Lol

Thanks guys

[~Runa~]

The Greeks had various moon goddesses, a few of them with different functions. It's not so much that there many goddesses of the moon, with a primary moon divinity, but a whole lot of information related to that particular patheon.

You might do well first researching one area, before you take on board the entire lot as this could take you a while. It sounds like a very interesting idea. For example, if you want to start with the moon goddesses and gods, seeing how many of them there are, and look into individual names. Also look at other patheons from different cultures to help you find a clue. In many cultures there is one sun deity, either a power god or a goddess, with various lesser gods and goddesses associated with the sun.

Look up goddess of the moon, e.g. and in which pantheon first. Who do you think represents the moon, then look for how many represent the moon, and the main gods and goddesses linked to the moon. This will guide you either to the origins of that god/goddess or help you on an advanced track to finding your theory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_deity

Your research could take you back to prehistoric times.

[Agaliha]

Are you wanting to do this for lunar deities only or all deities of all pantheons?

Just curious, the Sumerians had a moon god (Nanna also known as Sin) that was very much worshipped, at times in history being the supreme deity. How would he fit into this idea that moon deities are just faces of the moon goddess?

Focusing on lunar deities is possible, but the other is too complex to even fathom. Deities are more than just one aspect. To chart/map/list all the facets of all deities would be a very long and complicated task. Plus there are so many deities out there! Focusing on one aspect (like lunar associations) or pantheon would be easier.

If you'd like to learn more about Artemis, Theoi is a good start. She's more than a moon goddess, in fact other aspects are far more important than her association with the moon. See: http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Artemis.html
It also lists her many aspects. For example, part two of the page for her goes into--
1 (http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisGoddess.html#Hunting). Artemis Goddess of Wilderness, Hunting & Animals
2 (http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisGoddess.html#Children). Artemis Goddess of Birth, Protectress of Children
3 (http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisGoddess.html#Dance). Artemis Goddess of Maiden Dance & Song
4 (http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisGoddess.html#Death). Artemis Goddess of Sudden Death & Disease
5 (http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisGoddess.html#Selene). Identification with Selene, Hekate & Britomartis
6 (http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/ArtemisGoddess.html#Foreign). Identifications with Foreign Goddesses

Etc. Her epithets also shed light on her personality.

[Kaii]

Agaliha (http://mysticwicks.com/member.php?17187-Agaliha)
I'll definately focus mostly on Lunar deities, but I'd like to have a list of the major or most know patheons deities for areas like war, Sea/water, Fire, death, destrction areas like that. So that should I need to host a ritual I have information on some deities, and I canl allow their pull to guide me to the correct deity for that ritual.

Having prehistoric information on Deities of the moon would be cool. Thank you for the idea ~Runa~.

[Agaliha]

It sounds like you want roles like Moon Goddess, Earth Goddess, War God, Sea God, Sky God, etc (archetypes basically) and merely list the deities that fit into those roles?

Wikipedia is not the best source, but they do have a handy listing of deities by associations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Deities_by_association
They list deities and have articles. You could use that as a springboard for your research.

Though the problem with this is you run the risk of boxing a deity into a restrictive and possibly inaccurate label. For example, Hermes isn't just a "trickster god," he's the god of shepherds, herds, messages, divination, a psychopomp, athletes and tons of other things. To merely give them one label seems problematic to me...which is why I thought it'd take forever to correctly and accurately list all their roles and aspects. Deities are never one sided.

Anyway, other ways to find deities that fit an archetype is to merely search Google. For example, I searched "Sun goddesses" and this is one of the site that came up: http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/sungodsgoddesses/a/070809sungods.htm
They also linked to Lunar Deities: http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/polytheisticreligions/tp/MoonGods.htm
So just searching can turn things up as well : - )

[XercesBlue]

I also think trying to fit Deities into lists of roles/correspondences is not only very difficult, but also a bit... Well, it sounds a bit like trying to reduce them to a function, which is quite different from my view, and not your aim either, I'm guessing.

As for my take on this, I'm actually still not sure if I believe if each Deity is its own individual entity, or if it is a personification of universal traits and aspects that different cultures in different eras identified in different ways, or what, but I do know that all Moon Deities are not the same. All Mother Goddesses are not the same. Some cultures have a Deity that has no equivalent in another culture. Taking the Shinto Sun Goddess Amaterasu for example, here we have a sun Deity who is female, where most other well known sun Deities, though not all, are male. She's also a Mother Goddess, but a Mother Goddess of the Japanese royal family, and not all Japanese in general. I don't know if there's something like that in another culture, but if there is another royal Mother Goddess, I haven't heard of her. And if we are going to compare her to other Sun Deities, I would think "working with" Amaterasu would be quite different from "working with" Ra. I just believe they have different "personalities." And to conclude my humble opinion which I know is mine and may not be yours, I'll just say that learning about and understanding the personality of Deity, along with their roles, if what I think is the key to successfully worshiping them and calling on them for help, not understanding them by just their roles and functions alone.