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| Author: Posted: Sep. 8, 2002 | This Page Viewed: 7,121,793 |
Question of the Week: 80 - 10/6/2002 Polytheist, Monotheist, Dualist or Other? Are you a die-hard Polytheist who believes that the many Gods/Goddesses are distinct and individual entities? Are you a Pagan Monotheist? Pantheist? Do you believe that “All Gods/Goddesses are One God/Goddess”? Does the term ‘Lord and Lady’ represent a specific Lord and/or Lady to you or is it a term used most often to simply denote the concept of a male and/or a female deity? Do you think that all of these terms are interchangeable? Can you see where and when the need to define what YOU mean by ‘Gods/Goddesses’ might be necessary? What do you think about ‘Choose one from column A and one from Column B’ pantheon building? |
| Reponses: There are 104 responses posted to this question. | Reverse Sort |
| Pantheist/Polytheist Mix | Oct 7th. at 6:44:46 pm EDT |
| Jay Gregor (Columbus, OH) | Age: 21 - Email |
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I believe in both a pantheistic and a polytheistic system. I am pantheistic overall, believing that All is God and God is all. However, I also believe that specific aspects of life are represented by lesser divine forces than the whole, known as gods. Thus we have gods of love, of healing, of death, of the seasons, etc. They may or may not exist on an anthropromorphic level, but they exist to me as conceptualizing the divine in all it's myriad forms. |
| My Answer | Oct 7th. at 8:48:03 pm EDT |
| Danielle (Texas) | Age: 21 - Email - Web |
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There are many gods and goddesses. Most traditional witches believe that witches all worship the same goddess and god, but this goddess and god isn't THE Goddess and God of Wicca and Neo-paganism. We don't believe that ALL gods and goddess are part of one though. And I quote from House Faringdoun Trod: "The Wiccan belief system states that there are only two divine beings, A “god” and a “goddess”. The many different gods and goddesses worshipped by our European ancestors, or anyone else on earth for that matter, are thought to be “aspects” or “manifestations” of these two beings. Thus “All Gods are one God, and All Goddessses one Goddess”. This divine reductionism is referred to as “Duotheism”, and it is not a Traditional Witch Belief. It is, in fact, a very modern belief. Furthermore, many Wiccans believe this “God” and “Goddess” to be themselves aspects of an unknowable divine unity, or a great being sometimes called "The One"... leading us essentially straight to a new version of Monotheism, well suited to ease the consciences of the usually ex--christian converts to Wicca." "Our European ancestors were Polytheists. They believed in many Gods, or in local Gods. This is true for most Traditional Witches. There are some beliefs now (and in ancient times as well) of some divinties being “greater” than others, almost to the philosophical point of transcendence, and universal power. This sometimes appears in Traditional Craft as well, but in the form of mysteries, and not everyday devotion, or new-agey monotheism." "It is so common in Wiccan circles to hear invocations to “Pan and Thor, and Lilith, and Ganesh” or any other assortment of Gods and goddesses that the coven feels like invoking. With no respect to culture or heritage, and with no authenticity or historical context, Eclectic Wicca’s belief in the Gods and Goddesses all being “one” makes these wiccans feel as though they have the right to blithely call upon any combination of deities they wish. This is unforgivably new-agey, and shows complete lack of seriousness, and cultural context." (Sorry if this last paragraph sounds a bit harsh.) Their website is: http://www.angelfire.com/wv/clanndroen/hallpage.html These are also my beliefs, thus I have answered the question of the week. |
| Polytheist, Monotheist, Dualist Or Other? | Oct 7th. at 9:18:00 pm EDT |
| Ariana SilverMoon (Florida) | Age: 32 - Email |
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I am a Polytheist personally. I view the Divine as a jewel with many facets. A rich, sparkling many, MANY faceted jewel. |
| Polytheism All The Way. | Oct 7th. at 9:34:11 pm EDT |
| TImoto (PA) | Age: 17 - Email |
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Im a polythiest. To me the idea that only two dieties is a little far-fetched. How could one goddess be in 2 places at once? (Refering to the Illiad, were Hera, Aprodite and Athene Appeared befor Paris) That does not make sense to me. Also, no god would proclaim against himself, unless he was the Judeo-Christian god, which has bi-polar disorder. |
| Undecided | Oct 7th. at 9:36:17 pm EDT |
| Stella (Pasadena, CA) | Age: 24 - Email |
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I am undecided. In truth, I think it doesn't really matter if there is one god, a god and a goddess, or many gods. If, as I believe, the supreme deities (or diety as the case may be)is on the whole loving and understanding, then he/she/it/they will forgive me if I make mistakes in my perception of him/her/it/them. If the God/dess(s) are prone to fits of anger and want to be worhiped and adored their way, then I am screwed one way or another. I am personally inclined to believe that there is one divine being with both male and female aspects (the god and the godess) who isn't bothered a bit by the fact that I choose to call it by several different names to help me better identify with it. Religion and spirituality are very personal things. Each person relates to it very differently. I think the God/dess understands that. |
| Polytheist | Oct 7th. at 9:41:53 pm EDT |
| Madelynn (Nebraska) | Age: 15 - Email |
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I'm a polytheistic Wiccan. I grew up in a Christian family and was predisposed to believing in only one God. So, when I heard that in Wicca you can worship any deity you chose, I decided to worship the Christian God because I was the most familiar with Him and I truly believed in Him, and I still do. So there is my answer. :) |
| I'M A SCREW UP! | Oct 7th. at 9:45:33 pm EDT |
| Madelynn (Nebraska) | Age: 15 - Email |
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On that one post I meant to say 'monotheistic'!!! I'm RETARDED!!! lol |
| Monotheist, BUT......... | Oct 7th. at 10:28:43 pm EDT |
| (Rev) Norm Vogel (New Jersey) | Age: 50 - Email - Web |
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Being a Witch/Wiccan, I worship a Goddess and God, and many people would consider that to be Dualistic. But, I perceive the God & Goddess to be 2 ASPECTS of the Eternal One. A Creator that has Male/Female energies ("aspects"), for the Union of Male/Female creates life! It's like the Yin/Yang Symbol, a Duality, but each contains the other, ad infinitum....... A "single" Creator that is (for want of a better term) "bi-polar". Happy Samhain! Norm |
| I Love Jewels | Oct 7th. at 10:34:43 pm EDT |
| Mandy Moon (Newfoundland) | Age: 22 - Email |
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I would like to echo my agreement with the jewel analogy below. I love jewelry. The more colourful and "sparkly" the better. I am a pantheist and polytheist. The Divine is within ALL and can take many forms. It is through these forms that we are able to connect with the Divine; they are a means of understanding what we otherwise can not explain. I may have a Lady and Lord, but only because they are the form that I can identify with. They may change over the years as my needs change and a new Lord and Lady may be better suited. This is possible because they are all facets of that sparkling, beautiful, rainbow-hued jewel that I can not touch directly, and I wouldn't want to for fear of leaving a fingerprint or a smudge and thus dulling its brilliance. |
| Atheist | Oct 7th. at 11:26:46 pm EDT |
| Chirotic (Penn State) | Age: 34 - Email |
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I don't believe in any deities at all. I've tried, I just can't. Incorporating deities into my rituals has proven neither helpful nor harmful. I just "ain't got the faith" I guess. I was raised in a fundamentalist Christian household, and so when I finally mustered the courage to admit to myself that I really didn't believe Christian mythology it was an incredible burden lifted. Trying to force myself to accept any deities is too much like that experience, its living a lie to me. Over time I eventually found the Tao te Ching, which remains my favorite holy book, and which describes life and existence in the same way I perceive it. I see life and existence as arising from the interplay between yin and yang, feminine and masculine. I turn to nature to see how these balance and how I can incorporate that balance into my life. I view everything in nature as being alive and participating in the incomprehensibly large Whole. Paganism for me provides a way to consciously and meaningfully participate in that interplay. Observing the Holidays connects me to the Earth system cycles; observing Astrology connects me to the Solar system cycles; creating rituals and spells is my way of participating, and further is my right as a member of this ongoing spectacle. I don't view any of it as supernatural, but rather I recognize that human knowledge of nature is incredibly limited and that much which seems supernatural is actually perfectly normal. The closest I come to believing in any deities is Jung's notion of "archetypes." From this point of view a deity is not a literal being but a metaphoric representation of whatever characteristics and personality traits the deity holds. So far as I can tell, calling on a deity is the same as calling on those characteristics which the deity represents, which lie dormant in a person's unconscious. Hopefully that made sense. :) |
| I'm Back | Oct 8th. at 12:46:03 am EDT |
| Perrin (Hades) | Age: 26 - Email |
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To all: I believe that there are two seperate entities that control the universe, one good and one evil, and that usually there is a balance between them. I follow the left handed path, and pay heed to Baphmisto, the black goat. There are obivously other paths, and perhaps one diety or the other decided that humanity would be more interesting if we had no clue of who to follow. I have thought about this very question for a long time, so far that is the best conclusion that I could come to, the other thoughts I have on this are a lot more disturbing, may be we are the Gods/Goddesses. I do not invoke any dieties in the spells I cast, as I think they would ignore me or respond in a way that would undermine my work. Blessed Be, Perrin {l} l l |
| Dualist | Oct 8th. at 3:32:24 am EDT |
| daniel (florida) | Age: 20 - Email |
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I'm a monotheist in the fact that I beleive the devine is both male and female. As for all the names given to the god/goddess, call them what you will, they all represent the same thing. I am somewhat of a dualist as well because I do view the god and goddess as seperate forces (for lack of a better term) but also one in the same. (If that makes any sence at all lol) In actuality I really beleive it doesn't matter how you view the devine. It's what it means to the individual that matters. (right?) If we all beleived in exactly the same ideas, how boring would that be? |
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