Let me speak about Nerthus for a second.
The Goddess Nerthus is only known from the book Germania, written by the Roman Tacitus. She was worshiped by the Ingwina(i.e., Tribes native to part of the North Sea Coast near Jutland; modern day Denmark), named in the book as the Ruedingi, Aviones, Anglii, Varini, Eudoses, Suarini, and Nuitones. To directly quote a translation of the book,
"There is nothing noteworthy about these people individually [
IRONY!!!!! XD ...for those who don't know, the Ingwina are the cultural ancestors of modern Anglo-American culture], but they are distinguished by a common worship of Nerthus, or Mother Earth. They believe that
she interests herself in human affairs and rides among their peoples. "
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerthus#Germania
He then goes on to describe how a great Wain (an Anglic word for wagon) that carries her (presumably a statue) will travel among the people, and when she comes, there is much happiness and rejoicing, and all wars stop. She originates from a "sacred grove" that's in "an island in the Ocean", and when she's done, the Wain is taken back there. Then, the Wain, its coverings, and Nerthus herself are washed in a sacred spring by devotees who then drown. "Thus mystery begets terror and pious reluctance to ask what the sight can be that only those doomed to die may see," as Tacitus writes. (EDIT: In case anyone's wondering/worried, no, I would
not be in favor of bringing that kind of practice back.)
This "Waining", if I may be allowed to invent a verb to describe this sort of thing, does have some modern descendents, such as some flotillas in American parades carrying people of "renown", such as political leaders, or Prom Kings and Queens. Furthermore, our culture, despite being Christianized for over a thousand years, never fully lost our deep reverence for Mother Earth. She is still named and invoked in such a way that a foreign culture looking in should be forgiven for calling our primary theistic zeitgeist to be duotheistic, with both the Christian God and Mother Nature being given near equal reverence. While the late 80s and 90s tended to paint her as a kind and caring Mother figure, nowadays we tend to regard her with more fearful reverence, since we know she should NOT be taken lightly, especially when in the Wilds.
However, there's another thing that I found interesting: Tacitus felt the need to specify that the Goddess these people collectively worshiped believed that "she interests herself in human affairs." Now, based on the OP's idea of what a God is, shouldn't that just be a given? Apparently, it's not, since he felt the need to say this. Now, that doesn't mean that he didn't believe that Gods
in general would have such interests; maybe there's something different about the Roman equivalent. I honestly don't know. But it does speak to the fact that we need to approach other peoples' beliefs on the Divine
on their own terms. After all, Tacitus himself didn't do this (he never even went among any of the Tribes; he was writing based on another work, now lost, that was written by someone who actually did), so who knows what mistakes he might have been making, misconceptions he might have been inventing or perpetuating, about what these people believed?
