Polytheism God

 In a 2023 poll by Gallop, 12% of the respondents answered “No” to the question “Do you believe in God?” Another 14% replied, “Not sure about the existence of God.” Compared to previous polls by Gallop and other companies, the trend in atheism and agnosticism is increasing.

If one asked those same respondents what they meant by ‘God,’ they would probably give an answer like the Abrahamic God, 

The One universal yet personal Creator God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, and directly involved in human affairs while being the source of ethics and meaning.

A more sophisticated respondent might understand ‘God’ like the Deist God, which was popular among many highly influential American Founding Fathers, such as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, which was:

The One universal Creator God who is revealed through Reason and Nature and is the source of ethics and providence.

This begs the question of how I and other polytheists should answer the question, “Do you believe in God?” Obviously, if we’re limited to either the Abrahamic God or the Deist God, then we’re lumped in with atheists. However, this wouldn’t be accurate since we believe in divinity. 

Following are a few choices that would allow polytheists to answer ‘Yes’ to whether we believe in God.

Neoplatonist Model

Neoplatonism was a highly influential Hellenistic philosophy from the 1st through 5th centuries CE. While resembling the later Deist model of the 18th century, the Neoplatonist model differed in that it allowed for a hierarchy of spirits, such as gods and angels, stretching from God to the human world. The Neoplatonic model of God is,  

An impersonal Source, discerned by Reason, from which, due to God’s self-contemplation, springs a Creative principle resulting in the emergence of the Cosmos arising out of a Chaotic base.

Collective Divinity

The word ‘God’ can represent a collective meaning. There are two ways we can define this ‘God.’

In Genesis 1, a holdover from the Hebrew pre-Abrahamic pagan past, the name Elohim is used. While English translations usually translate Elohim as “God,” the word literally means ‘gods’ for it contains both masculine and feminine elements. Defined as such: 

God is the collective will and efforts of all the gods operating towards a common goal.

Or we could say ‘God’ is a class of spirits, in the same way as we use ‘Human’ for our animal species. I admit that this is my preferred definition:

God is a collective term applied to a class of apex entities of the spirit world.

Godhead

Some classic Hellenistic philosophers used ‘God’ to reference Zeus (Jupiter to the Latins), as He was the head of their pantheon. 

God is the chief god in a pantheon of gods.

Pantheism

Pantheism is often associated with the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza. 

God is the impersonal sum of all reality and is an immanent deity, still expanding and creating, which has existed since the beginning of time.

Panentheism

Panentheism is sometimes wrongly confused with pantheism.

God is both the impersonal sum of all the physical universe and transcendent to it.

Recommended Reading

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” - Dr. Seuss

As a child, my father and I would visit our local library each Saturday. We would walk in with the stack of books we finished last week and walk out with a new stack. The following weekend, we would do it all over again. As a result, I grew up with a passion for reading.

The love of reading is something that should be shared. Therefore, in this post, I will mention two books I highly recommend.

Pursuits of Wisdom: Six Ways of Life in Ancient Philosophy from Socrates to Plotinus Paperback by John M. Cooper

Cooper’s Pursuits of Wisdom is the best book I’ve ever read about the classic Hellenistic philosophers. I cannot recommend this book enough. It’s a must-have for the library of anyone interested in philosophy.

Description on Amazon:
This is a major reinterpretation of ancient philosophy that recovers the long Greek and Roman tradition of philosophy as a complete way of life--and not simply an intellectual discipline. Distinguished philosopher John Cooper traces how, for many ancient thinkers, philosophy was not just to be studied or even used to solve particular practical problems. Rather, philosophy--not just ethics but even logic and physical theory--was literally to be lived. Yet there was great disagreement about how to live philosophically: philosophy was not one but many, mutually opposed, ways of life. Examining this tradition from its establishment by Socrates in the fifth century BCE through Plotinus in the third century CE and the eclipse of pagan philosophy by Christianity, Pursuits of Wisdom examines six central philosophies of living--Socratic, Aristotelian, Stoic, Epicurean, Skeptic, and the Platonist life of late antiquity.

The book describes the shared assumptions that allowed these thinkers to conceive of their philosophies as ways of life, as well as the distinctive ideas that led them to widely different conclusions about the best human life. Clearing up many common misperceptions and simplifications, Cooper explains in detail the Socratic devotion to philosophical discussion about human nature, human life, and human good; the Aristotelian focus on the true place of humans within the total system of the natural world; the Stoic commitment to dutifully accepting Zeus’s plans; the Epicurean pursuit of pleasure through tranquil activities that exercise perception, thought, and feeling; the Skeptical eschewal of all critical reasoning in forming their beliefs; and, finally, the late Platonist emphasis on spiritual concerns and the eternal realm of Being.

Pursuits of Wisdom is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding what the great philosophers of antiquity thought was the true purpose of philosophy--and of life.

The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft by Ronald Hutton

Ronald Hutton’s Triumph of the Moon is THE definitive account of the rise of Neopaganism. This is a must-read for anyone who considers themselves a pagan or interested in the subject.

Description on Amazon:
Modern pagan witchcraft is arguably the only fully-formed religion England has given the world, and has now spread across four continents.

This second edition of The Triumph of the Moon extensively revises the first full-scale scholarly study of modern pagan witchcraft. Ronald Hutton examines the nature and development of this religion, and offers a history of attitudes to witchcraft, paganism and magic in British society since 1800. Its pages reveal village cunning folk, Victorian ritual magicians, classicists and archaeologists, leaders of woodcraft and scouting movements, Freemasons, and members of rural secret societies. We also find some of the leading figures of English literature, from the Romantic poets to W. B. Yeats, D. H. Lawrence and Robert Graves, as well as the main personalities who have represented pagan witchcraft to the public world since 1950. Thriller writers like Dennis Wheatley, and films and television programmes, get similar coverage, as does tabloid journalism. The material is by its nature often sensational, and care is taken throughout to distinguish fact from fantasy, in a manner not previously applied to most of the stories involved.

Meticulously researched, The Triumph of the Moon presents an authoritative insight into an aspect of modern cultural history which has attracted sensational publicity but has hitherto been little understood. This edition incorporates new research carried out by the author as well as research by others who have been inspired by this book over the twenty years since its first publication.

El and Yahweh

In the past, I’ve been critical of Abrahamic beliefs. Especially their monotheistic belief in a One God that’s all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful. According to Abrahamic texts (Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament), this One God is known as El and Yahweh. In Exodus 6:2-3 we read,

God spoke further to Moses and said to him, “I am Yahweh; and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as El Shaddai, but by my name, Yahweh, I did not make myself known to them.”

However, there are problems with the claim that El and Yahweh are alternate names for a singular universal God. Scholarly consensus is that evidence establishes, with confidence, that El and Yahweh were originally two distinct gods from different pantheons of the Levant region. The Abrahamic God worshiped by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is a product of centuries of complex cultural interactions and conflicts. 

 

How should we, as polytheists, see the God of the Abrahamic traditions? 

One way to view Him is as an actual god, like the syncretic Greco-Egyptian god Serapis, a fusion of Osiris and Apis. Such syncretism can occur because of the non-corporeal nature of spirits, resulting in new gods. Only the gods know whether this syncretism results in response to human needs or for some other reason.

There are problems with the idea that the Abrahamic God is real. Leaving aside the fact that He isn’t all-powerful, all-knowing, or all-loving as described in the Bible, the personality of this Abrahamic God has serious issues. The syncretism of El and Yahweh resulted in a god that exhibits signs of multiple personalities and severe narcissism. One moment, it’s all love and wanting to save humanity, while the next, it’s full of wrath and ready to destroy the world. If He exists, this would be a very unstable and dangerous god for everyone.

Another way is to view the Biblical God is as a construct rather than an actual god. The ancient Hebrew people conceived the Abrahamic ‘God’ to resolve cultural and historical challenges. It helped to forge the Hebrew people into a unified identity apart from their often-hostile neighbors. The power of this concept is evident in that it helped the Jewish people survive thousands of years of hardship.

I lean to the last option. El and Yahweh are clearly distinct gods with autonomy and their own agency. However, the One God of the Bible, the subject of worship by the big three Abrahamic religions, isn’t a true god but a construct. 

The God of Abraham doesn’t exist.

The Force

Pop culture has a significant influence on how Westerners understand the world, especially other cultures. This isn’t new. In the past, Western understanding was heavily influenced by novels and serial magazines such as the Penny dreadfuls. 

When Star Wars came out in 1977, it was a smash hit. Elements of the movie quickly became part of Western pop culture. One feature in particular became synonymous with the Star Wars franchise.

The Force.

It’s often said that the Force is the Tao of Taoism. Is that true? Let’s look at the evidence. (Note: all references that follow are about Star Wars: A New Hope. I’m not addressing the many novels, films, and television series produced afterward.)

In the movie, the character Obi-Wan Kenobi describes the Force: “It’s what gives the Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.” In addition, Obi-Wan states that the Force partially controls you, but it also “obeys your commands.” Also, we learn that the Force has the potential for both good and evil. When explaining the origin of Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan states that Vader was “seduced by the dark side of the Force.” Later, he calls Vader a “master of evil.”

Luke Skywalker learning to use the Force.

We also have an official source outside the movie. There are two references to the Force worth looking at in the book The Making of Star Wars by J.W. Rinzler.

From an early age, Lucas had been interested in the fact that all over the world religions and peoples had created different ideas of God and the spirit. “The ‘Force of others’ is what all basic religions are based on, especially the Eastern religions,” he says, “which is, essentially, that there is a force, God, whatever you want to call it. (Kindle Locations 858-863).

Also:
The Force is really a way of feeling; it’s a way of being with life. It really has nothing to do with weapons. The Force gives you the power to have extrasensory perception and to be able to see things and hear things, read minds and levitate things. It is said that certain creatures are born with a higher awareness of the Force than humans. Their brains are different; they have more midi-chlorians in their cells. (Kindle Locations 8876-8885)

(Notice that Lucas already had the idea of midi-chlorians back in 1977 when New Hope was released.)

We see that the Force isn’t the same as Tao. 

According to Taoism, living things don’t create the Tao; the Tao creates them. Nor can we control the Tao. Accepting this lack of control and going with the flow of the Tao is called wu wei in Taoism. Also, the color black (“dark”) of the Yin-Yang symbol represents the Yin aspect of the Tao, which is the feminine and quieter side. It does not represent evil.

Finally, the insight into Lucas’s thoughts strongly supports the idea that it’s not the Tao. Even though there was an Eastern influence, Lucas’s idea of the Force is a form of Universalism or Perennialism. It’s closer to Deism or maybe Plotinus’s sympatheia than Taoism. Plus, the midi-chlorians add a positive occultism to the Force, which is certainly not found in Taoism.

The lesson here is to take pop culture references to the occult, religion, and philosophy with a grain of salt.

Understanding Superstition

“I say I am stronger than fear.” - Malala Yousafzai, Activist and 2014 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

A common accusation thrown at us who practice magick and believe in occult phenomena is that we’re superstitious. There are problems, and in some cases irony, with this accusation. An etymology of the word ‘superstition’ can help.

In his book Triumph of the Moon, the historian Ronald Hutton points out that the Latin source of the word ‘superstition’ is superstitio. Hutton explains that superstitio means having an excessive fear of the supernatural. 

There’s a difference between belief, including having some fear of something, and having an excessive fear of that thing. In fact, having a belief and a fear of something may be a reasonable response. For example, recently, not far from where I live, there were massive wildfires. If my home was in the path of one, it’s reasonable to expect that I would be afraid. 

Fear isn’t bad because it tells us there’s danger and risk. A fear response helps us avoid hazardous situations and increases the odds of living to see another day. 

However, excessive fear can do the opposite. For example, excessive fear can result in panic. When we panic, our rational mind shuts down, and we make poor choices. Also, excessive fear can cause one to live in a constant state of fear that can cause both mental and physical harm. Finally, one can have an excessive fear of something that’s not, in most cases, dangerous. We see this with phobias. 

What superstition does NOT mean is simply having a belief in the supernatural or the occult. 

It’s ironic when a theist, especially a Christian who believes in the literalism of the Bible, accuses us of being superstitious because we believe in the supernatural. They do as well, the only difference being that their understanding of the supernatural isn’t the same as ours. As the saying goes, it’s the pot calling the kettle black.

What we, as magick users and Pagans, cannot do is let ourselves develop an excessive fear of the supernatural. I’ve learned of magick users who constantly perform cleansing rituals such as the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram (LRP) or worry that they might be cursed. Such fearful practices and beliefs can quickly become excessive.

Understand the supernatural and the occult. Respect its power. But do not let respect degrade into an excessive fear. Don’t be superstitious.