I decided to start off with polytheism, because this is one of the bigger things I’ve been trying to figure out (along with spirits – we’ll get to that in a later blog). I’ve been greatly enjoying my studies in wicca, even though originally I was a little against it. I enjoyed the pure polytheism of the neodruids and such too much. But somehow I got from there to where I am now, where I usually think of two primary deities. Almost all the books, and all the music, are about Wicca. I really don’t have much of a problem with this. It’s all beautiful, whether it’s referring to a god or goddess in general or one in particular. I’m rather eclectic. An eclectic Wiccan? At the same time I also enjoy the blanket term pagan. I think I’m a pagan eclectic wiccan. Pagan for sure. I finally took the step and changed my religion on facebook to Paganism :) But I’d never been quite sure if I wanted to commit to the term wiccan as well, though more and more I’m starting to lean towards it. Damn me and my predisposition to slap labels on everything after I shove them in boxes.
Sometimes I have a hard time letting go and just being. I’ve been getting better at it, but it’s still hard.
…..back to my point. Even within wicca, there are variant opinions on who exactly the God and Goddess are. Some are atheistic, while others are polytheistic, and some are even monotheistic. Some see The God and Goddess as being the sum of all the other deities, and those deities are simply aspects of the greater whole. After all, the Goddess is 3 in one, Maiden , Mother, and Crone, so why can’t it go farther than that?
At the moment, I’m teetering somewhere between agnosticism and that the God and Goddess are simply representative of the great number of gods out there. After all, every time you say a prayer, it’s be rather difficult to name out 1000 deities. If you need a specific one, such as Hectate, for instance, you call on her when working a certain ritual. Many might see this as calling on that particular crone aspect of the Goddess. Perhaps even , the collective being of all these deities forms the God and Goddess, making them almost separate, bnut at the same time, everything. This idea is starting to grow on me. Whichever way it is, though, it makes sense. I suppose I just need to ruminate on it more, end eventually an answer will present itself.
…and apologies if none of this made sense. Blessed be~
This post is certainly interesting, but your last paragraph is what caught me. :) I can totally wrap my head around the idea of the "sum of deities" and the idea of calling on particular aspects by name. I feel like that makes a lot of sense where cosmic, divine beings are concerned. Even in Christianity, there's a fair bit of muddiness concerning trying to understand or perceive an "vast, unknowable" God. I guess that's part of why polytheism reaches out to me.
ReplyDelete@ Becca
ReplyDeleteYeah, it was a sort of writing as the htoughts flow thing at that point, but I really love the idea. I think as soon as I'm ready for it, "sum of the deities" is what i'm going with :3