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Author Topic: Do you believe all the Gods are one?  (Read 4443 times)

Loelia

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Do you believe all the Gods are one?
« on: May 20, 2012, 03:47:53 pm »
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=zV4UK_bUNX8C&pg=PA189&lpg=PA189&dq=Behold,+Lucius,%22&source=bl&ots=3u8lTTjLmE&sig=4BuvMMinywHNAPZOZR4a_gAroSA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1Ei5T7_FL-K80QW7ofjmBw&ved=0CG4Q6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=Behold%2C%20Lucius%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

NiDara

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Re: Do you believe all the Gods are one?
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2012, 05:03:28 pm »
Quote from: Loelia;55590
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=zV4UK_bUNX8C&pg=PA189&lpg=PA189&dq=Behold,+Lucius,%22&source=bl&ots=3u8lTTjLmE&sig=4BuvMMinywHNAPZOZR4a_gAroSA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1Ei5T7_FL-K80QW7ofjmBw&ved=0CG4Q6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=Behold%2C%20Lucius%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

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Re: Do you believe all the Gods are one?
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2012, 05:14:01 pm »
Quote from: Loelia;55590


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

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Re: Do you believe all the Gods are one?
« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2012, 05:15:54 pm »
Quote from: Loelia;55590


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.
The pace of progress in artificial intelligence (I’m not referring to narrow AI) is incredibly fast. [...] The risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five year timeframe. 10 years at most.--Elon Musk

I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence," [Bill] Gates wrote. "First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don\'t understand why some people are not concerned."

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Re: Do you believe all the Gods are one?
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2012, 06:45:04 pm »
Quote from: Loelia;55590
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.
Randall
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Selendrile

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Re: Do you believe all the Gods are one?
« Reply #5 on: May 20, 2012, 08:49:19 pm »
Quote from: Loelia;55590
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=zV4UK_bUNX8C&pg=PA189&lpg=PA189&dq=Behold,+Lucius,%22&source=bl&ots=3u8lTTjLmE&sig=4BuvMMinywHNAPZOZR4a_gAroSA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1Ei5T7_FL-K80QW7ofjmBw&ved=0CG4Q6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=Behold%2C%20Lucius%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

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Re: Do you believe all the Gods are one?
« Reply #6 on: May 20, 2012, 09:10:58 pm »
Quote from: Loelia;55590
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.
I am the Goddess of Who I can Become. I mix the magic of the sorceress with the blade of a warrior. I walk the liminal pathways to see the face of the Goddess, both terrible and kind. As She stares back at me, I tremble in awe and ecstasy.  --SatAset

Celtag

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Re: Do you believe all the Gods are one?
« Reply #7 on: May 20, 2012, 09:23:35 pm »
Quote from: Loelia;55590
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=zV4UK_bUNX8C&pg=PA189&lpg=PA189&dq=Behold,+Lucius,%22&source=bl&ots=3u8lTTjLmE&sig=4BuvMMinywHNAPZOZR4a_gAroSA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1Ei5T7_FL-K80QW7ofjmBw&ved=0CG4Q6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=Behold%2C%20Lucius%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.
« Last Edit: May 20, 2012, 09:25:06 pm by Celtag »
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bluewave193

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Do you believe all the Gods are one?
« Reply #8 on: May 20, 2012, 10:17:18 pm »
Quote from: Loelia;55590
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=zV4UK_bUNX8C&pg=PA189&lpg=PA189&dq=Behold,+Lucius,%22&source=bl&ots=3u8lTTjLmE&sig=4BuvMMinywHNAPZOZR4a_gAroSA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1Ei5T7_FL-K80QW7ofjmBw&ved=0CG4Q6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=Behold%2C%20Lucius%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

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Re: Do you believe all the Gods are one?
« Reply #9 on: May 20, 2012, 11:50:18 pm »
Quote from: Loelia;55590
,



Nope - hard polytheist here.
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.

Liadine (dragonflyeyes)

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Re: Do you believe all the Gods are one?
« Reply #10 on: May 21, 2012, 01:21:16 am »
Quote from: Loelia;55590

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


I'm a hard polytheist with the caveat that some gods may be aspects of each other, called by several names, or otherwise fluid in some way. However, I only assume so when fluidity is part of their mythology; with most deities, I assume they're an individual until proven otherwise (which hasn't happened yet).
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Rhyshadow

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Re: Do you believe all the Gods are one?
« Reply #11 on: May 21, 2012, 04:00:54 am »
Quote from: Liadine (dragonflyeyes);55702
I'm a hard polytheist with the caveat that some gods may be aspects of each other, called by several names, or otherwise fluid in some way. However, I only assume so when fluidity is part of their mythology; with most deities, I assume they're an individual until proven otherwise (which hasn't happened yet).

 
Also a hard polytheist here with caveats, and in some ways I agree with Liadine.  My position is that for some reason deities that were once the same did split to become separate individuals.  Whether it was the result of the migration of the people to new places that caused this, or the deity split first and then guided the migration is still pretty much up in the air.

Doesn't really matter which came first; Brigid, Bride and Brigantia are now different even if they did start as a single being; as many of the others could be traced back to common roots as well.

DashesAgainst

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Re: Do you believe all the Gods are one?
« Reply #12 on: May 21, 2012, 09:06:12 am »
Quote from: Loelia;55590
Do you believe all the Gods are one?

No, I'm a hard polytheist.  I do think it's possible that some deities may be known by different names across several cultures, though.
« Last Edit: May 21, 2012, 09:07:14 am by DashesAgainst »
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Re: Do you believe all the Gods are one?
« Reply #13 on: May 21, 2012, 10:07:58 am »
Quote from: SeaShine;55734
No, I'm a hard polytheist.  I do think it's possible that some deities may be known by different names across several cultures, though.


Pretty much this.

Being a hard polytheist, doesn't exclude the possibility that some deities are known under different names. Differing names do not necessarily mean different gods. But there is no hard and fast rule for this.
\'You had to repay, good or bad. There was more than one type of obligation.
That’s what people never really understood.….Things had to balance.
You couldn’t set out to be a good witch or a bad witch. It never worked out for long.
All you could try to be was a witch, as hard as you could.\'
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Re: Do you believe all the Gods are one?
« Reply #14 on: May 21, 2012, 10:29:11 am »
Quote from: Loelia;55590


 
I'm a pantheist - I believe we're all parts of the Divine, and that religion is an attempt to understand that Divine.

I'm also a polytheist.  Gods are pieces of the Divine - masks given form, for lack of a better way of putting it.  They ARE personalities, but .. well, sometimes they trade.  Or share.  Or otherwise do things that don't fit nice easy boundaries.

I kinda go on the "leave it alone, figuring it out will make you crazy" level on that one, honestly.

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