Do you believe all the Gods are one?

[Loelia]

Hi All,

This is a question that I have been struggling with recently.



After some research, I now know that the "All gods are one" or "soft polytheism" idea is not a new one; Hinduism has elements of it ( Shaktism, Mahadevi, Brahman ect), "The Golden Ass" contains the concept in the part where Isis appears to Lucius http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=z...%2C%22&f=false

What I mean is, it is not a purely Wiccan idea. I do not consider myself Wiccan but I am more inclined to soft polytheism as opposed to hard polytheism.

I would love to get a better picture of how others view deity and what your tradition is.

If there is already a thread covering this, please send me the link!

Many thanks in advance!

Blessings

[Amber Seal]

Hi All,

This is a question that I have been struggling with recently.

After some research, I now know that the "All gods are one" or "soft polytheism" idea is not a new one; Hinduism has elements of it ( Shaktism, Mahadevi, Brahman ect), "The Golden Ass" contains the concept in the part where Isis appears to Lucius http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=z...%2C%22&f=false

What I mean is, it is not a purely Wiccan idea. I do not consider myself Wiccan but I am more inclined to soft polytheism as opposed to hard polytheism.

I would love to get a better picture of how others view deity and what your tradition is.

If there is already a thread covering this, please send me the link!

Many thanks in advance!

Blessings

My path is a growing one, and my current beliefs may not be the same years from now. Regarding hard or soft polytheism, I actually fall more in line with medium polytheism. I think there is a Source, the All, God, or what have you that is in everyone and everything. You, me, plants, animals and even my desk chair. It exists in that expanse of our universe and there's a little spark of the divine in everything.

Now as for deities, this is where the medium polytheism comes in. They are a part of that greater whole, but they are still able to exist on their own, just as you or I do. For example, as to whether Ceres and Demeter are the same goddess, I think they might be. Same goes for the god Lugh, who to me might be the same as Llew, just a regional variation of the same god. I could also be entirely wrong about that, but I'll see what my perspective is later on in life.

To me, the fact of how separate gods and goddesses are from each other could have something to do with the way humans view them, or the influence on each other's cultures by way of trading, war, intermarrying and so on. Perhaps they evolve in their own manner, much as humans have evolved. Whether they gained their names and various attributes from us or they already had them when ancient priests, druids, etc. initially contacted them is difficult to tell. Who knows, they might have originally been a heroic person that had been exalted, deified and had myths built up around them.

No one can say for sure, as nobody can fully fathom a deity with our limited senses and perception, just like nature. We know a lot, but there's still much to explore.

[Abduzza]

I would love to get a better picture of how others view deity and what your tradition is.

If there is already a thread covering this, please send me the link!

Many thanks in advance!

Blessings

Excellent question Loelia. It's one that we as pagans and Wiccans need to discuss and make clear about our own paths.

In my tradition, which is Arabic Neo-Paganism, we believe that there are many gods and lesser spirits that inhabit our world and other worlds. The Nabatean kingdom and other Arabic kingdoms had plenty of interaction with the Greco-Roman world and they would often link their deities to roman and greek ones. Specifically Allat would be called Athena without anyone batting an eye.

So I hold to a hard polytheism that views our own cultural understandings of the Gods to be limited and that all of the various pantheons express the same pantheon of gods under different titles and names.

[Juniperberry]

What I mean is, it is not a purely Wiccan idea. I do not consider myself Wiccan but I am more inclined to soft polytheism as opposed to hard polytheism.

I would love to get a better picture of how others view deity and what your tradition is.


Blessings

I believe in wyrd, and that the first random neutral action created our universe and past, present, and future were/are completely determined by results building.g upon those first actions. Basically, that it wasn't intelligent design.

Secondly, I believe everything was created and evolved from these neutral events: trees, minerals, mankind, animals, viruses, spiritual entities (gods/wights). It doesn't make sense to me to have just one Creator or one each male and female deity in nature. There isn't just one source man, one source turtle, one source stone. It makes more sense that there would be a population of spirit.

[RandallS]

What I mean is, it is not a purely Wiccan idea. I do not consider myself Wiccan but I am more inclined to soft polytheism as opposed to hard polytheism.

I'm a hard polytheist. Unless there is very good reason and evidence to believe that God A and God B are one and the same being just being called by different names in different location, I assume they are different beings.

[Selendrile]

Hi All,

This is a question that I have been struggling with recently.

After some research, I now know that the "All gods are one" or "soft polytheism" idea is not a new one; Hinduism has elements of it ( Shaktism, Mahadevi, Brahman ect), "The Golden Ass" contains the concept in the part where Isis appears to Lucius http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=z...%2C%22&f=false

What I mean is, it is not a purely Wiccan idea. I do not consider myself Wiccan but I am more inclined to soft polytheism as opposed to hard polytheism.

I would love to get a better picture of how others view deity and what your tradition is.

If there is already a thread covering this, please send me the link!

Many thanks in advance!

Blessings

I am a soft polytheist. I believe in one source that is in all things and that the different gods/deities are all different aspects of that one source. But I'm not really in one decided path. I'm very much eclectic and still searching. I'm researching and learning about any path/religion I can get my hands on. For the moment, though, very much a soft polytheist.

[SatAset]

Hi All,


After some research, I now know that the "All gods are one" or "soft polytheism" idea is not a new one; Hinduism has elements of it ( Shaktism, Mahadevi, Brahman ect), "The Golden Ass" contains the concept in the part where Isis appears to Lucius

I am a hard polytheist in general; I also believe that some Kemetic Holy Powers can merge to form separate deities (these are known as syncretic deities). I'm not about to tell Odin that He's really Zeus or that Athene is really Minerva or that Aset is really Isis.

I believe that all deities are individuals, have their own identities and have their own personalities. I do not believe that they are Jungian archetypes or whatnot.

[Celtag]

Hi All,

This is a question that I have been struggling with recently.

After some research, I now know that the "All gods are one" or "soft polytheism" idea is not a new one; Hinduism has elements of it ( Shaktism, Mahadevi, Brahman ect), "The Golden Ass" contains the concept in the part where Isis appears to Lucius http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=z...%2C%22&f=false

What I mean is, it is not a purely Wiccan idea. I do not consider myself Wiccan but I am more inclined to soft polytheism as opposed to hard polytheism.

I would love to get a better picture of how others view deity and what your tradition is.

If there is already a thread covering this, please send me the link!

Many thanks in advance!

Blessings

I would consider myself to be a hard polytheist. I believe that all Gods and Goddesses to be individuals with their own personalities and abilities. I don't believe that everyone worships the same Gods, and that certain Gods call who they will. In my tradition of Celtic Polytheism it is very polytheistic and pretty much we believe in a wide variety of Gods and Goddesses. We do not say that anyone elses Gods are not real or do not exist.

[bluewave193]

Hi All,

This is a question that I have been struggling with recently.

After some research, I now know that the "All gods are one" or "soft polytheism" idea is not a new one; Hinduism has elements of it ( Shaktism, Mahadevi, Brahman ect), "The Golden Ass" contains the concept in the part where Isis appears to Lucius http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=z...%2C%22&f=false

What I mean is, it is not a purely Wiccan idea. I do not consider myself Wiccan but I am more inclined to soft polytheism as opposed to hard polytheism.

I would love to get a better picture of how others view deity and what your tradition is.

If there is already a thread covering this, please send me the link!

Many thanks in advance!

Blessings

I believe there is a common energy we connect to when we do stuff we love. Individual god/dess's may exist and certain people connect to that energy through them.

Blue

[Owl]

,

Nope - hard polytheist here.