PIE Religions

A Map of the area where Indo-European languages are spoken. This covers all of Europe, parts of the Middle East, and India.

One of the major reasons people are attracted to Paganism is that they see it as a way to connect with their heritage and the traditional practices of their ancestors. There are branches within Wicca who look to Greece, Rome, Egypt, Italy, Germany, Scandinavia, Russia, Ukraine, Ireland, the UK, the Middle East, and India. 

Ancient Path Coven while identifying as Wiccan, focuses on reviving the Proto-Indo-European religions (PIE). This is actually an identifier used for a group of languages from the same family, but as there was not a specific word for their religious beliefs and practices they are called PIE religions. This represents the most widely spoken language family in the world, and thus a lot of scholarly research has been undertaken to reconstruct it. It is estimated PIE was spoken as a single language from 4500 BC to 2500 BC during the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age.

Diverse peoples who spoke this shared language had very similar cosmologies and notions of divinity as well as rituals and mythology. While the specific names of deities varied by location, the core practice was the same. There was generally a horned god who represented life, vitality, the hunt, and masculine energies, and his consort the mother goddess who symbolized earth, fertility, and wisdom. 

Cernunnos is the conventional name given in Celtic studies to depictions of the horned god. Cernunnos was a Celtic god of fertility, life, animals, and wealth. It is also a common misconception that he is the god of the underworld, but he is merely capable of traversing between this world and the world of the dead and bringing humans with him.

The classic Venus statue represents one of the earliest depictions of the Mother Goddess.

Core Beliefs

There are two main interconnected principles that shape PIE religions, the ghosti-principle and the concept of the Xartus. Ghostis is a PIE word which means "one with whom one has a reciprocal obligation of hospitality...There is an interaction among people, and between people and the gods, according to the laws of hospitality. Society is bound together by an exchange of gifts, by acting as a guest on one occasion and host on another. In the same way, we are bound to the gods through the giving of gifts and the receiving of blessings." This is the rationale for giving sacrifices to the gods. This is not an impersonal contractual agreement, but a living bond that connects all things.

The Xartus is the pattern of the universe. The Proto-Indo-Europeans saw the cosmos as a large tree representing order, which was surrounded by the Sea of Chaos. The water, would rise up through a well to feed the tree. Without some disorder the tree would die, thus chaos is necessary for life. However, chaos on its own is incapable of supporting life. Together they follow the ghosti principle of mutual interaction.

Within Ancient Path Coven there are people who follow a number of different paths:

Asatru

Celtic

Egyptian

Hellenistic

Hindu

and mixed paths