Heathens, Pagans, Wiccans: Which Came First, the Archetypes or the God/desses?

Question

Orion's recent experience, and the answers his posts about it generated, got me thinking . . . how do you view Deity? As a Folkish hard polytheist, I tend to think that ALL the god/desses are literally real, but that they are "of their people" and only really involved with the descendants of their originating cultures---I like to say that yes, our godhs are archetypes . . . but the archetypes came LATER. :-)

What are YOUR beliefs? Is/are there:

1. One Source, many facets, expressions, or understandings.
2. A duotheistic godhead consisting of a God & Goddess, known through many "aspects.".
3. One pantheon known by different names, stories, and attributes in many different cultures.
4. As many pantheons as there are cultures, with different godh/esses for each "Folk."
5. Archetypes, psychological projections, and/or primitive beliefs which teach the *values* of early cultures, not the literal existence of deities.
6. Other (explain)

Respectful answers only please!

Answer 1

4. The gods are real, and the archetypes are based on the gods, not the other way around.

Answer 2

This is a very thought-provoking question. It is hard to describe how I believe what I believe, I just do. I feel there is one God, that same God is worshipped by Christians, Jews and Muslims alike.

However, in a more general view of religious archetypes throughout the world I would bring up the philosopher Carl Jung. His theories about religious archetypes seen throughout the world would suggest that there has to be some supernatural being because so many different cultures throughout the world believe in such similar things.

For example, the creation story. Many different faiths believe many different things, but throughout the world there are many common themes that, despite thousands of years of isolation from each other, show to be similar. Some native tribes that live deep in the jungle have just recently made contact with the rest of the world for the first time. Their faith was studied to show a creation story where a god or group of gods created the world (as the natives know it); first creating the world, then the water in the rivers, then the plants and animals, and finally man. Such stories that parallel the Monotheistic religions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam suggest an inner knowledge of a general faith.

Answer 3

Very short answer, my best guess from what I have observed is that God came first, and placed the Archetypes into our hearts. Then our artists described these heroes and wove them with their lives and culture. The archetypes are built into our very beings, they are markers to us, pointing us to the way we are to travel. Even Hollywood (and the advertiser as well) is still doing that to us today, with cut and paste stories that make us think and move, same as the ancestral story tellers once did. They are strings in our psyches that the story teller will strum. They are lights that are able to show us where to hope.

Answer 4

I'm in the "all gods are one god" camp. I believe that there is one higher power/universal energy that is beyond comprehension, beyond consciousness, and beyond gender.

I believe that the various gods and goddesses of the world's various religions and mythologies are man's attempts to interact with that higher power, to break it down into something that we can comprehend and have a relationship with. Different facets of the same diamond.

If ten people look at a cloud, odds are they will each see the cloud differently - their interpretation will be based on their cultural, societal, and personal experiences. But they are all looking at the same cloud.

Answer 5

4.

With the exception of your descendants theory. Somebody from one folk group, ethnicity, location.... can find themselves much more at home with a certain foreign pantheon, virtues, habits... than those of his/her immediate surroundings and past. There is something called spiritual ancestry, which doesn't have anything at all to do with the biological line.
And who are we to say that gods must only have believers from a certain area/ethnicity.. whatever? Gods are greater than that, not limited by the simple limitations in our heads. It's past our understanding.

Answer 6

people who declare to be a intense Priest/Priestess yet contraptions out to take great element approximately others. The authors that don't do ANY form of analyze, in basic terms writes approximately how terrible anybody else is and then makes up crap and calls it "authoritative". Fluffy Bunnies annoy me, yet no longer just about as a lot via fact the Wiccans who declare no person would be a "witch" till they bypass via a definite trad (custom for people who don't comprehend) and be formally taught with the help of them. Witches weren't "taught formally" in historic circumstances... they found what became desirable for them and exceeded it down via relatives/pals/and so on... there have been no longer any underground "witch colleges" back then, so this concept is easily ridiculous to me. Then there is the Racist communities interior my very own faith... those human beings burn me up. They use our religious symbols and bits and products of lore they found from ww2 and the nazi regime (which became completely tousled first of all) and then attempt to declare they're doing what our gods elect *Sigh* i'm undecided approximately any single team that has helped anybody the main, yet some have accomplished a lot to deliver Paganism generally to mild. Covenant of the Goddess, Circle Sanctuary, The Troth, Asatru human beings assembly, The Pagan Federation (united kingdom), Avalon Isle foundation, Earth Religions legal guidance community... there are various communities that have helped us get out into the standard public, yet with all the previous propaganda that has been lingering for the duration of those a while, i think it incredibly is going to take much extra human beings to get available. yet we do would desire to handle the assholes in our communities. in assessment to different religions who, whilst they have somebody giving them a foul call, they simply pull the "they are no longer a real....." as quickly as we come across people who're giving us a foul call, we would desire to diminish them off... publicly. in basic terms saying "he's not genuine to our faith." does not do a situation approximately how the standard public generally perspectives us. they'll bear in mind the undesirable adult males quicker than the stable ones.

Answer 7

1. One Source, many facets, expressions, or understandings.

There was one source and they were the beings of the previous race of what we humans called gods who were destroyed by what is now called the “Ice Age”. They created man and are the gods of the Old Testament. Do your research.

Answer 8

2. I did believe in #3 but it seems that each pantheon had a different amount of deities(or known ones anyway).

Answer 9

I also believe in the Mother God, Azna.

Answer 10

here's a respectful answer.paganism is a joke