Soft Polytheism

There are two competing views of the gods found in contemporary Paganism. According to one view, known as soft polytheism, the great multitude of gods and goddesses are avatars of two supreme deities, the Horned God and the Great Goddess. The alternative view, hard polytheism, is that each god or goddess is not an avatar but an individual with autonomy and agency. 

Personally, I’m a hard polytheist. While I think the gods are more complex than some fellow hard polytheists give them credit for, I believe that each god has personal autonomy and should be treated as individuals.  

That being said, soft polytheism isn’t as new as some of its critics claim. There is some historical basis for soft polytheism.

Photo of Isis statue Andrew Winning/ Reuters / Corbis

The ancient Roman novel titled Metamorphoses, also known as The Golden Ass is the only ancient Roman novel in Latin to survive in its entirety. Written by Apuleius between 158 C.E. and 180 C.E., the story revolves around a character named Lucius who has an intense curiosity about magic. In the novel, Lucius performs a spell to turn himself into a bird. However, it goes horribly wrong, and he accidentally turns himself into a donkey or ass. He then goes on a long journey throughout the classical world as a donkey. 

In the last chapter of the novel, Lucius encounters the Goddess Isis. This excerpt is lengthy, but it’s important. I’ve emphasized details pertinent to the subject at hand:

Behold, Lucius, here I am, moved by your prayer, I, mother of all Nature and mistress of the elements, first-born of the ages and greatest of powers divine, queen of the dead, and queen of the immortals, all gods and goddesses in a single form; who with a gesture commands heaven’s glittering summit, the wholesome ocean breezes, the underworld’s mournful silence; whose sole divinity is worshiped in differing forms, with varying rites, under many names, by all the world. There, at Pessinus, the Phrygians, first-born of men, call me Cybele, Mother of the Gods; in Attica, a people sprung from their own soil name me Cecropian Minerva; in sea-girt Cyprus I am Paphian Venus; Dictynna-Diana to the Cretan archers; Stygian Proserpine to the three-tongued Sicilians; at Eleusis, ancient Ceres; Juno to some, to others Bellona, Hecate, Rhamnusia; while the races of both Ethiopias, first to be lit at dawn by the risen Sun’s divine rays, and the Egyptians too, deep in arcane lore, worship me with my own rites, and call me by my true name, royal Isis.

If that excerpt sounds familiar, it should. Compare it to the first sentence of the Charge of the Goddess by Doreen Valiente:

Listen to the words of the Great Mother, who was of old also called Artemis; Astarte; Diana; Melusine; Aphrodite; Cerridwen; Dana; Arianrhod; Isis; Bride; and by many other names.

Others have noticed the similarity between the two. According to historian Ronald Hutton, it’s likely that at least part of Charles Leland’s Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches drew on Metamorphoses. Hutton writes that while Valiente was fine-tuning the work of Gerald Gardner, who had incorporated the work of Charles Leland and Aleister Crowley, she kept the Leland source and wrote the more succinct Charge. The rest, as they say, is history.

With this, we can draw a connection between the 2nd-century beliefs of a specific Roman pagan cult and the Wiccan belief formulated in the mid-20th century, which many contemporary Pagans follow today.

Whether or not one agrees with the concept of soft polytheism, there should be no doubt about its ancient pagan roots.

Vive La Différence

“Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.” – Stephen Covey

The three pounds of mostly fat we call our brain evolved to interact with our physical reality. We are bodies embedded in a material world. A consequence of our physicality is a solid division between us and the outside world. My fingers typing these words are distinct and apart from the keyboard. 

However, the gods are different in that they’re spirits. Spirits are, by definition, non-corporeal beings. Because of their non-corporeal nature, they are like nothing that exists in our world. This difference makes it difficult for us to truly understand the nature of the gods.

While I consider myself a Hard Polytheist since I believe that the gods are individuals, each with their own agency, I understand that they aren’t exactly like us. As mentioned, gods are non-corporeal beings. This characteristic makes them different than any phenomenon we’ve ever seen. It also makes them difficult to understand.

Our individuality and autonomy are intimately tied to our physicality. Oh, there are changes to our bodies that come with age. Plus, we can modify our bodies with surgery and other procedures. But we’re unable to divide our bodies or merge with others. Our bodies are locked into place.

Hard Polytheists must remember that the gods are not the same as us. However, the Archetypists and Soft Polytheists need to understand that those of us who have had contact with the gods will testify that there are attributes that we share with the gods. 

Let’s avoid hubris, where we think we completely understand the nature of the gods. The gods are much more complex and mysterious than we can begin to imagine.

Worship and Change

There is so much to discuss concerning gods and other divine beings. Most of which goes beyond the scope of a blog. There are two issues concerning gods that I want to address before I move to different topics in future blog posts.

Should We Worship Gods? 

It’s common among those who self-identify as being on the Left-Hand Path (LHP) to oppose the worship of gods. This makes sense if we define “worship” as the abandonment of autonomy and groveling to another. If that was the only meaning of worship, we shouldn’t practice that with any entity, even to a god. You should never surrender your self-respect or autonomy to anyone. This includes gods.

However, many contemporary Pagans see worship not as groveling but as “extravagant respect,” as defined by Merriam-Webster. All entities, physical and spiritual, inherently deserve respect. Unfortunately, universal respect is not considered a virtue by many. A god deserves special respect if for no other reason than the greatness they possess. So, “extravagant respect” is appropriate for a god.

Being in a relationship adds something to respect. For example, I consider all senior citizens to be due great respect. However, I believe my father deserves greater respect from me because of our relationship. Applying this to the gods, if one is lucky enough to have a close relationship with a particular god, it takes respect to a higher level than other gods.

The Norse goddess Hel.

Birth and Change

Can new gods come into being? Also, can gods change? The answer to both of these questions is found in the physical world. 

Change is a part of life. Each of us must and will change as we get older. Plus, new species are originating all the time. The Hermetic Principle, “As Above, So Below,” therefore demands that new gods are born and existing gods change.

We need to remember that gods are spirits. And according to Judika Illes, new spirits are constantly coming into being. There’s every reason to think that some of these new spirits are gods. So, yes, there are new gods that didn't exist in antiquity.

Also, gods can change. Just as humans can and do change during their lifetime, gods can and do change over time. Therefore, there’s no reason to think that the gods of old are the same today as when they were worshiped 3,000 years ago.

More About Gods

I first need to state what many consider an obvious detail about gods. Gods are a class of spirits. According to occultist and author Judika Illes in her book The Encyclopedia of Spirits, spirits are non-corporeal and alive with their own needs and desires. 

Is there one Spirit or multiple spirits? We can look to life on Earth for guidance.

It’s estimated that there are nearly 9 million species of life on Earth. Even if we limit ourselves to our own species, nearly 8 billion humans are alive today. Each one of us has our own personality with our own desires and a capacity for autonomous behavior. In addition, humans aren’t the only conscious lifeforms. We now understand that many other lifeforms, such as elephants, dolphins, octopuses*, and ravens, have their own complex form of consciousness. 

Therefore, applying the Hermetic Principle “As Above, So Below” necessitates that the spirit world should have a wide variety, just as the physical world. Not only must there be numerous types of spirits, but there must also exist various levels of consciousness, some equal to or possibly greater than our own.

What makes one spirit a god while another spirit not? To paraphrase Herald from the play Henry V, how do we sort noble spirits from the common? I turn to Stephen Dillon, who, in his book The Case for Polytheism, distinguishes gods from the other spirits as entities having something he calls “remarkable greatness.”

“Remarkable greatness” is somewhat fuzzy and hard to pin down. I can best describe it as a sense of awe and wonder one experiences when in their presence. I’ve worked with different spirits, some of whom left me speechless and scared the crap out of me. But there is nothing like the presence of a god. 

Now that I've provided a basic definition of what is meant by a “god,” I can further explore their nature and our relation to them in future posts. 

*Note: according to the Ocean Conservatory website, the plural of octopus is “octopuses.”

Gods and Other Divinities

“I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply.” ― Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague De Camp, Queen of the Black Coast

A distinguishing feature of Dark Paganism is that, as a part of the larger Pagan family, it’s a polytheistic philosophy. Polytheism differs from monotheism in that it views the divine in multiplicity rather than as a singularity.

Polytheism doesn’t prohibit an underlying unity to divinity. We can look to nature for guidance. A unity in nature exists in that all biological life has DNA at its core. However, there’s also a glorious diversity of lifeforms. Like nature, while the gods share a unified divinity, there is a multitude of gods with many different attributes.

At this point, Pagans, Dark and otherwise, begin to differ. Pagans are divided into three camps about the nature of the gods. These three views are Archetypal, Soft Polytheist, and Hard Polytheist.

Some Pagans see the gods as archetypes. Some archetypists view the gods as purely psychological manifestations, while others as a phenomenon arising from the collective unconscious and universal forces of nature. For some archetypists, the various gods are Currents that flow like great rivers from a unified Source.

There are Pagans who view the multitude of gods as “masks” of a Divine Masculine (God) and Divine Feminine (Goddess). Known as Soft Polytheism, gods such as Zeus, Marduk, Ra, Odin, and so forth are simply aspects of one God. The same is thought about goddesses, where Inanna, Aphrodite, Hera, and Isis are all considered to be aspects of one Goddess.  

Finally, some Pagans are Hard Polytheists. In this view, the gods genuinely exist as autonomous persons. While their nature may not be exactly like ours, humans can have relationships with the gods.

While all three camps have strengths and weaknesses, I consider the Hard Polytheist view to be the most sound. I'll return to this topic in the future. So, watch this space. 

American Spirits

When they think of American supernatural entities, many people probably think of Neil Gaiman’s great fantasy novel American Gods. Since today is the American holiday of Independence Day, I wish to write about two actual American spiritual entities.

The goddess Libertas and the Statue of Liberty

Libertas is a Roman goddess and is the personification of liberty. She’s associated with freedom, especially the freedom of enslaved people. The Statue of Liberty was inspired by the goddess Libertas in not only name but appearance.

The Sigil of Astaroth

Astaroth is a sub-lunar being. Generally labeled a demon (Christians slander Pagan spirits or daemons by labeling them all evil), Astaroth is the patron entity of the Americas according to the Grimorium Verum. Astaroth’s name was derived from the goddess Astarte, the Phoenician name for the Sumerian goddess Inanna. Astaroth can grant knowledge of past, present, and future as well as of sciences and occult knowledge. 

Blessed Be,
Frater Tenebris