Indo-European Spirituality is and was about tribal belonging and paternal lineage in the context of a solar-pantheon which formed a relationship between Man and Nature through divine Powers (Gods) and heroic stories.
The German scholar Max Müller once wrote:
If asked what I consider the most important discovery made during the 19th century, with respect to the ancient history of mankind, I should answer by the following short line:
Sanskrit; Dyaus Pitr = Greek; Zeus Pater = Latin; Jupiter = Old Norse; Tyr.
Think what this equation pimples! It implies not only that our own [Germanic] ancestors and the ancestors of Homer and Cicero (the Greeks and Romans) spoke the same language as the people of India -- this is a discovery, which however incredible it sounded at first, has long ceased to cause any surprise -- but it implies and proves that they all had once the same faith, and worshiped for a time the same supreme Deity under exactly the same name -- a name which meant Heavenly Father.
Source: Max Muller. The Nineteenth Century: A Monthly Review. London. Volume 18, Issue 104. October 1885. Pages 626-650.
Based on my research Tyr was not likely considered a sky-god (heavenly father), but the idea being conveyed by Muller is still basically accurate: that all these peoples mentioned share a common ethnolinguistic and religious common ancestor. I discussed the linguistic evidence for this in my blog post on the Proto-Indo-Europeans. There is also evidence of this common ancestry through the study of comparative mythology. As covered in the article Who Were the Indo-Europeans and Why Does It Matter? by Daniel McCoy:
Speaking of the divine hierarchy, Proto-Indo-European society was divided into three distinct classes or “functions”: the first function, that of the priests and rulers; the second function, that of the warriors; and the third function, that of the farmers, herders, craftsmen, etc – the “common people.”[3] While this threefold division of society may, in and of itself, be found in societies outside of the Indo-European world, “it is the treatment of this structure as a special class of concepts requiring and receiving almost endless elaboration in all spheres of cultural ideology and behaviour that makes it truly unique to the Indo-Europeans.”[4]
So a basic outline in broad terms of this tripart function describing the structure of a functional Indo-European society, looked something like this as an example using Norse mythology:
Kingly/Ruler Function:
Odin (wisdom) -- Tyr (Law)
Warrior Function:
Thor (warriors)
Daniel McCy, in his article, explains how this this basic structure is carried out today in most Western countries in various ways and modifications.
I found this below online by a Ambika Vijay at quora.com on How similar were ancient European pagan religions to early Hinduism, given that they both had a linguistic and cultural heritage going back to the original Proto-Indo-European speakers? I decided to paste it here below because many websites go offline and content is lost:
European Pagan religions and early Vedic Hinduism were offshoots of Proto-Indo-European mythology.
So they are all very similar.
Rigveda the oldest Vedic scripture is dedicated to singing hymns for the Indo-European gods.
I am listing some here :
Divine Father :
Vedic: Dyaus Pitr, Greek: Zeus pater , Illyrian : Dei-pátrous, Roman : Jupiter (Djous patēr), Scythian :Papaios for Zeus, Palaic: Tiyas papaz
Divine Twins : They also worshipped divine twins symbolized by horses
Vedic : Divó nápātā (the Asvins)
Lithuanian: Dievo sūneliai (the Asveiniai)
Latvian : the Dieva dēli,
Greek : the Diós-kouroi (Castor and Pollux)
Celtic : the Dioskouroi
The Vedic Asvins and Lithuanian Asveiniai, even share the names.
Asva in both Sanskrit and Lithuanian mean horse.
Thunder god : Thunder god is the most significant god in these cultures, Rigveda dedicates 1/3rd of the hymns to him.
Indra/Parjanya (Vedic), Indra (Avestan), Thor (Germanic ) Tarḫunna( Hittite), Taranis( Celtic), Perun( Slavic), Perkunas ( Baltic )
The Thunder god vs Serpent myth can be found in all these cultures.
Photo courtesy: Google
... Sun god :
Vedic - Surya , Roman - Sol , Norse - Sol, Lithuanian- Saule are derived from the Proto Indo European Seh2ul- / *Sh2-en-
Goddess of Dawn : The name of Vedic Goddess of dawn Usas is a cognate with Eos and Eostre
Eostre later became Easter - the Easter festival was originally a pagan festival.
Uṣas (Vedic), Eos (Greek), Aurora (Roman), Aushrine (Baltic), Auseklis (Latvian)
God of Sky :
Varuṇa (Vedic),Ouranous/ Uranus (Greek), Odinn/Wodan (Germanic).
God of meeting, marriages, journeys, roads, and the feeding of cattle :
Pūṣan (Vedic), Pan (Greek), Faun(Roman ) Vanir (Germanic).
Goddess of River :
Danu (Vedic), Danu (Irish).
River Danube is named after her.
In Vedic mythology she is the mother of the serpent Vritra (who was slayed by Indra)...
... Rituals and Preisthood :
Celtic Druid - are often equated with Vedic Brahmins.
The Druids are a class of high ranking priests in ancient Celtic culture. They practiced and trained for nearly twenty years and since most of their teachings are Oral, they didn’t survive.
... The Celtic high ceremony officiated by Druids closely resembles the Vedic yagnas officiated by Brahmins. ... Almost all Indo European ceremonies and rituals involve a “fire altar”
In my opinion as a Hindu, ancient European pagan religions were very similar. Almost everything about them is quite familiar to me. Their most visible defining feature to outsiders being offerings and sacrifices made to many Gods and Goddesses? Check; that’s just like Vedic religion. The Gods and other great spirits of ancient Europe sound very much like the Gods and other great spirits of ancient (and modern) India; different names and individual characteristics, but the same sorts of beings, right down to the initiatory, communal, intensely devotional systematic mystery cults centered around specific Gods who could provide a mystical awakening, worshiping them with incense and offerings to anthropomorphic statues and clockwise circumambulation around the temple. Some of the best preserved philosophical schools of ancient European paganism (Stoicism, Platonism, etc.) even include the view that a single Transcendent Deity manifests as all of these Gods and Goddesses. ...
... In summary, my impression as a Hindu is that the vast majority of what I read on ancient European pagan religions sounds very familiar to me from my own religious practices and worldview.
Doing this research, I couldn't help but notice that all three Indo-European functions above are missing in Pauline "New Testament Christianity." In the earliest Pauline assemblies, Paul sought to remove leadership with a "pentecostal-like" speaking in tongues and prophesying dynamic where everyone was believed to be equally literally possessed by the leader-Christ (see 1 Corinthians 11:3–16: Spirit Possession and Authority in a Non-Pauline Interpolation by Christopher Mount). There was obvious no warrior class, as the ideal was pacifism and obviously no Frey or Freya function, as the Pauline ideal was celibacy and martyrdom given the imminent end-times expectation. Pauline "New Testament Christianity" would have thus died out like the Shakers of the 1700-1800s who modeled themselves after the New Testament and have nearly died out today. So what happened was Christianity was remodeled in the image of the Indo-European functional spiritual model. For a scholarly book on how this happened, see:
The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation by James C. Russell.
Also see these articles available free online:
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