I like to read. I read a great deal. Sometimes multiple things at the same time. I read books and blogs and web articles. I am always reading.
And there is this thing that is being discussed all over the place. It is basically asking whether only hardcore polytheists are 'real' pagans.
What's a hard polytheist, you ask?
Well, apparently there are people out there who feel that god/goddess (gods, goddesses) are real personified actual 'living' entities. Ones that you can talk to and will respond to you. That each and every deity in all pantheons exist as independent entities.
This is in opposition to the beliefs of someone like me who sees gods/goddesses as faces we humans give the universal energy around us as a way to make sense of the incomprehensiblness of divinity. Gods are not real persons (for myself, I mean.)
I think that everyone has a right to believe in exactly what they want to believe in and I would never poke fun at their beliefs. It is, however, difficult to discuss this topic without hurting anyone's feelings. So I'll apologize in advance and let you know that I am not telling anyone what to believe or what not to believe. My goal here is to explain my perspective on this topic.
The truth is that I do not have the capacity to understand polytheism because in my base structure, my core, I cannot prove the existence of deity. I have never been able to do so. I have never talked to any deity and I certainly have never heard any deity speak. And trust me, I have listened and I have searched with an open heart and open mind. I'd love to prove that they exist. But for me, they just don't.
And I think this lack of capacity to understand is the same issue for polytheists, that they perhaps cannot comprehend how non-theists can be spiritual or religious if they don't believe in god/gods/goddess/goddesses that are so apparent to them.
It is a fundamental difference. A big one. It's one where we typically agree to disagree, but secretly feel sorry for the other person who just doesn't understand.
But to say that a non-theist cannot therefore be pagan is ludicrous.
This idea I think stems perhaps from the re-constructionist pagans (those reconstructing the 'old ways' from historical sources) who are under the assumption that our ancestors worshiped real/actual deities in a particular way. That the ancestors believed in deities actually existed upon the earth and that therefore this is the way to worship them currently in the modern world.
I think this is in error for two reasons.
One, we have no way to know or understand how our ancestors believed or what their thoughts were. We may know some of their actions and some of their rituals, but these do not necessarily correlate with their thoughts. For example, I have an altar to the Goddess. If my altar was found 100 years from now by another pagan, they may assume I prayed to a specific goddess and left offerings on this altar for her... as that is what altars are for in their opinion. They would be in error. My altar is to invoke within me the Goddess mindset. I place upon it the things that trigger or remind me what the Goddess represents as an avatar of divinity.
And two, the only constant is change. As we grew into more and more knowledge about our natural world, it became obvious that it was not gods that caused things to happen. For example, lightning is definitely not created by Zeus or Thor. (I have this on good authority.)
And not to mention that in any number of pantheons, deities would become entangled and/or change with the politics of the time. A great example are the Egyptian deities. I just read an article the other day about Set. If you read about Set from the early dynasties, he was a Sun God, a beneficial deity much loved. Then if you read about Set in the later eras, he was the bad guy who slew Osiris to get the throne. This change possibly occurred due to the changing political clime during the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt.
Amun and Ra were also once separate entities, that at some point merged into one.
I think it is safe to say that while these 2 factions will never agree, we cannot and should not tell someone they are not a pagan unless they believe or do xyz... This is as silly an argument as asking which one of these is pagan: the priestess that calls to the watchtowers of the 4 elements or the one that only calls on the God and Goddess? What if she only calls the Goddess? What about one who does not use an athame? (I have been known as the Twizzler Witch for a reason. Yes, the candy. I was just trying to prove a point thank you very much.)
The fact is, these old religions have been gone for so long that we are all merely re-creating what we perceive to be right. And belief is a widespread and ever changing thing. None of us have the right to tell another human being what to believe and how to worship.
Pagan is an umbrella term for a reason.
We can all fit under it. I promise, she's big enough for us all.
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