The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

The Otherfaith piqued my interest in another thread.  So far from what I have read it looks very interesting and is the first neo-pagan religious system (other than my own private eclectic experiments) that I have considered exploring hands-on or felt drawn to.

There is one problem if I wish to go beyond mere reading, though.  I cannot find the article, but I believe it was written by the person who discovered the new gods, and this person requires others to believe in the literal external existence of the gods to become involved.  I do not know if that was meant to apply to solitaries or not.

I am not sure what I think about it.  Can an individual who originally invented/discovered gods limit others' participation?  This is not actually the same as cultural misappropriation.

If it really offended the originator of the faith that much I suppose I will not go beyond reading and learning about it, although that is a bummer.  My different theories about deities have never prevented me from respecting them which seemed to be the fear expressed in the article.  Wish I could find it.

 
Hey! 'Founder' of the Otherfaith here.

Here is how I approach 'belief in the gods': how one believes themselves isn't so much my business, I care more about how they act. I do think that one might have an easier time grokking how the gods and spirits are sometimes discussed and revered in the Otherfaith if they see them as external beings of some sort, but that doesn't mean it is necessary. A few years ago I gave up trying to control the Otherfaith as much as I had, since it was pointless trying to do so.

You can get involved with the gods however you want though. I try to only step in with interpersonal problems between different members of the Otherfaith or when I see someone doing something that I know didn't work out great for me religiously and spiritually. Also, the Otherfaith does have certain concepts about our gods that should be roughly adhered to, otherwise the whole system may as well not exist. Here I'm referring to our ideas of the gods associations and domains. F'ex, the Clarene is a god of harvest and orchards, Ophelia of rivers and time, Laetha of fire and destruction, etc etc. So if you were to conceive of the Clarene as more of a, I dunno, god of chaos and destruction then that would fall outside of the Other People's understanding of her.

I used to be a lot more hung up on humans 'respecting' the gods but that's not something I'm overly concerned about anymore. Because the gods can make it known to an individual if they're upset or offended and don't need me butting my nose in. When it comes to the community of the Other People I care more that we respect each other; the gods can work things out between individuals and themselves.

The belief in externally existing deities and spirits definitely influences the stories I write and my own worship, and that means it influences the Otherfaith a fair bit. But I don't think one needs to believe the same way I do. If ever there are group rituals, well, they would be designed with a more so-called hard polytheist viewpoint in mind, but I also think that one can 'act as if' during ritual even if they don't believe so outside of ritual.

I hope that cleared some stuff up!

I'd not classify myself as a hard polytheist per se, but gods or god experiences proceed from forces beyond our control, I am certain.  I am somewhat afraid of one I work with despite my non-literalist-pantheist approach.

Thus I can understand discomfort with a lax approach.  I always grind my teeth when I hear someone say, "but it's just symbolic," as if symbols are powerless or can't be dangerous!

 
I don't consider myself a hard polytheist anymore. I'm just a plain ol' polytheist. I don't sweat too much about the specific beyond 'many gods'.

And much agreement about symbols! Symbols can be very powerful and seem to get brushed to the side too much. Since a lot of the really potent revelations I've had with the Otherfaith spirits were really unintentional discoveries tied to symbolism that I felt was originally just 'whatever'...yeah, I definitely learned a lesson about that